Re: Equipment
in response to
by
posted on
Sep 23, 2008 08:09AM
(Edit this Message from the "Fast Facts" Section)
Attics, I think this may answer your question.
After molybdenum is mined, it goes through several more steps before being refined into Technical Molybdenum Oxide. Before the moly can be roasted, it must first be milled, dipped into a floatation cell and leached.
First the large chunks of ore are crushed into gravel. Next, the material is ground down into powder. Molybdenum is floated into aerated tanks to produce a molybdenum sulphide concentrate. Acid leaching may be required to dissolve copper and lead impurities remaining in the material.
And then the molybdenum sulphide is roasted in multi-level hearth furnaces at temperatures up to 650 degrees centigrade to become ‘roasted molybdenite concentrate.’ The roasting process gets rids of the sulphur. Large rakes are used to move around the concentrate to stir up the ‘exothermic’ process, against a current of heated air and gases blowing up from the bottom of the hearth. Literally, the sulphur burns itself off the molybdenite. The material starts at the top, falling down level after level, burning more sulphur off at each of about one dozen levels, until the roasted final product arrives at the bottom. The gases are scrubbed separately and converted to sulfuric acid.
From what I know there has not been any serious discussions over having a roaster at the chu, not saying there has not been any. But with the very close proximity to TCM's roaster at Endako, (75kms) to me it would be more cost effective to ship the concentrate to Endako. But don't forget all roasting does is remove the sulphur out of the concentrate. Some moly deposits have varying amounts of sulphur in their moly. I would think that question will be answered in the upcoming metallurgy report.
BBOB