In mining, gangue (/ɡæŋ/)[1] is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body that are displaced during mining without being processed, and from tailings, which is rock already stripped of valuable minerals.
The separation of valuable mineral from gangue minerals is known as mineral processing, mineral dressing, or ore dressing. It is a necessary, and often significant, aspect of mining. It can be a complicated process, depending on the nature of the minerals involved.[2] For example, galena, an ore of lead, is usually found in large pieces within its gangue, so it does not normally need extensive processing to remove it; but cassiterite, the chief ore mineral of tin, is usually disseminated as very small crystals throughout its gangue, so when it is mined from hard rock, the ore-bearing rock first needs to be crushed very finely,[3] and then has to be subjected to sophisticated processes to separate the ore.
For any particular ore deposit, and at any particular point in time, the concentration of the wanted mineral(s) in the gangue material will determine whether it is commercially viable to mine that deposit. The ease with which the wanted mineral(s) can be separated from gangue minerals also plays an important part. Early mining ventures, having relatively unsophisticated methods, often could not achieve a high degree of separation, so large quantities of minerals found their way into the waste mineral dumps of mines. As the value of a mineral increases, or when new and cheaper means of processing the ore to extract the wanted mineral(s) are introduced, it may become worthwhile to rework such old dumps to retrieve the wanted minerals they still contain.
Environmental impact of gangue minerals in mine tailings
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Gangue minerals, once separated by mineral dressing processes of (most of) the valuable ore minerals and dumped in mine tailings may be a significant environmental impact. In particular, oxidation of pyrite, a common gangue mineral,[4] is one of the main sources of acid mine drainage.[5][6]
Re-use
editMinerals that were once thought of as gangue, and were dumped, may later find a commercial use. When this happens, the old dumps are often reworked to extract the wanted mineral. For example, in copper mines in the 19th century the mineral arsenopyrite was dumped until arsenic compounds became popular as insecticides later in the century.
In the 21st century, the use of gangue has been considered from an environmental point of view. For example, in 2002, about 130 million tons of gangue were produced per year from coal mining in China. This, mixed with the 60 million tons of coal mud also produced, could be used for power generation; and the coal mining gangue could be combined with coal fly ash to produce building materials. The estimated cost of such projects would be up to 4 billion yuan, but would be expected to save just over 4 million tons of standard coal per year.[7]
See also
edit- Froth flotation – Process for selectively separating of hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic
- Magnetic separation – Process of separating components of mixtures by using magnets
- Vanning – Ore dressing in which ores are washed on a shovel
- Extractive metallurgy – Ore extraction material science
- Mineral processing – Process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores
References
edit- ^ "gangue: definition of gangue in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)". www.oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on May 5, 2013. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
- ^ A number of historical examples are detailed in: Hardesty, Donald L. (2010). Mining Archaeology in the American West: A View from the Silver State. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 70–91. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- ^ Palmer, Marilyn; Neaverson, Peter (1994). Industry in the Landscape 1700–1900. New York: Routledge. p. 77. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- ^ Clout, J.M.F., Manuel, R.J. (2015) Mineralogical, chemical, and physical characteristics of iron ore. In: Iron ore, mineralogy, processing, and environmental sustainability, p. 45-84.
- ^ Blowes, D. W., Ptacek, C. J., Jambor, J. L., & Weisener, C. G. (2003). The geochemistry of acid mine drainage. In B. S. Lollar (Ed.), Environmental geochemistry (Vol. 9, pp. 149–204). Oxford: Elsevier.
- ^ Dold, Bernhard (2014). Evolution of Acid Mine Drainage Formation in Sulphidic Mine Tailings, Minerals, v. 4, p. 621-641.
- ^ Murray, Geoffrey; Cook, Ian G. (2002). Green China: Seeking Ecological Alternatives. New York: Routledge. pp. 149–150. Archived from the original on 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- An Elementary Outline Of Mechanical Processes, by G. W. Danforth. 1912; 49. Elimination Of Gangue