Latest news with #mineralprocessing
South China Morning Post
24-07-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
6 Chinese university students drown on mine field trip in Inner Mongolia
Six university students drowned in an industrial tank during a field trip to a mining operation owned by China's most prestigious gold producing company, according to state news agency Xinhua. One teacher was also injured in the incident, which occurred on Wednesday morning at China National Gold Group's Wunugetushan copper-molybdenum mine in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, it said. The students, from Northeastern University in Liaoning province, drowned after a grating panel gave way and they fell into a flotation tank. They were pulled from the tank in the mine's processing plant, but could not be revived, according to Xinhua. The report did not give further details about the victims or the incident. State broadcaster CCTV said the regional government would launch an investigation into the incident. The tank is used to process ore. Photo: Handout According to the official Jimu News in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the victims were in their third year and majoring in mineral processing engineering.
Washington Post
24-07-2025
- General
- Washington Post
6 students drown after falling into slurry-filled tank on field trip
Six university students drowned Wednesday after they fell into a tank while on a field trip to an ore processing plant in northern China, Chinese state media reported. The students, who were majoring in mineral processing engineering at Northeastern University in Shenyang, were on a field trip to Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, when the grid plate they were standing on collapsed as they were observing a flotation cell, according to state media. Flotation is a stage in the mining process used to concentrate the minerals. Finely ground minerals are mixed with water in a container called a flotation cell to produce a 'metallurgical pulp' that helps sort the valuable from the unneeded materials. The students fell into the flotation cell, which looks like a large container, at about 10:20 a.m. Rescuers scrambled to retrieve them, but the students were pronounced dead. A teacher was also injured in the incident. China National Gold Group, the company operating the plant, said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that 'all-out rescue efforts' were used to try to save them and that it 'extends profound mourning for those who unfortunately perished in the incident.' Northeastern University declined to comment. An engineering student from the university who had previously been to the same plant told the Southern Metropolis Daily that the tanks are some 33 feet high and are filled with thick slurry, making it unlikely they would have been able to move. The student, who was not named in the report, identified those who died as junior-year undergraduates and said that their field trip was part of an internship organized by the university. In a now-deleted company blog post this past February, China Gold said it had recently replaced grid plates and 'eradicated safety hazards' at the plant. The death of the six university students was trending on the Weibo microblog Thursday morning, with the hashtag #ChinaGoldApology garnering roughly 52 million views within a two-hour time span. 'If daily safety checks had been done thoroughly, how would they drown during a visit?' one Weibo user commented. 'Who will answer for the trauma felt by the six families? And who will bear the pain of the six kids dying?' Inner Mongolia is no stranger to tragedies in the mining industry. An open-pit coal mine caved in 2023, killing 53 people and injuring six. China's national broadcaster showed footage of massive plumes of soil and dust rising into the air during the collapse, and said that a subsequent landslide had hampered rescue efforts. Authorities in China later pinned the incident on 'a long-term existence of major hidden risks,' including poor construction and irresponsible management of mining activities, according to Chinese nationalist newspaper Global Times. Several company workers were arrested and dozens of civil servants were placed under investigation or faced penalties, it said.
Associated Press
25-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Covia Opens New Innovation Center in Concord, NC
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, June 24, 2025 /3BL/ - Covia Holdings LLC has opened a new state-of-the-art laboratory facility in Concord, North Carolina, to expand its network of innovation capabilities. The new innovation center, which includes modular lab space, meeting rooms, and office space, will serve as a hub for customer engagement and product development. According to Bruno Biasiotta, Covia President and Chief Executive Officer, 'The investment in our new innovation center reflects our commitment to being a customer-centric innovator and aligns with our core value of Growth. Unlocking growth in our markets by bringing value to our customers is central to our vision to be a leading minerals solutions provider.' The roughly 20,000 square foot center was designed by the Covia technical team, with a focus on modularity and flexibility that will support the evolving needs of the markets Covia serves. In addition to mineral processing, the center supports application development and testing across a range of industries, including coatings, polymers, engineered stone, and sports and recreation. The open lab layout allows for future expansion, with space to add workbenches and equipment as the team grows. The office area can accommodate more than 30 employees, and the collaborative meeting spaces are ideal for customer interactions and team ideation sessions. 'The Concord facility provides a focal point for our work to develop innovative products for our customers and broaden our product capabilities across our labs and plants,' Biasiotta added. 'It represents an important step in our innovation journey and gives us terrific new capabilities to help our customers succeed.' About Covia Covia responsibly provides minerals solutions for a better tomorrow. As a leading provider of diversified minerals, our products support a variety of industrial markets, including glass, ceramics, coatings, metals, foundry, polymers, construction, water filtration, and sports and recreation. The company serves its customers through abroad array of essential, high-quality products, including high-purity silica sand, nepheline syenite, feldspar, kaolin and ball clays, cristobalite, and coated relationships with a broad customer base enable Covia's market-inspired approach to innovation to enhance solutions and customer these strengths is an unwavering commitment to safety and to sustainable development, further enhancing the value that Covia delivers to all its stakeholders. For more information, visit ContactsAmanda Meehan [email protected]
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Empire Metals Limited Announces Exceptional High-Purity TiO2 Product Achieved
LONDON, UK / / June 9, 2025 / Empire Metals Limited, the AIM-quoted and OTCQB-traded resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the results from its most recent titanium dioxide ("TiO2") product development testwork programme, carried out on mineral flotation concentrates produced from the in-situ mineralised weathered cap that extends across the giant Pitfield Project ('Pitfield'), located in Western Australia. Highlights A very high-purity TiO2 product, assaying at 99.25% TiO2 has been achieved through conventional beneficiation, leaching and refining processes. The TiO2 product contains non-detectable, or extremely low levels of deleterious impurities and is expected to be suitable for high-quality titanium sponge metal or high-grade titanium dioxide pigment production. Bulk samples collected from the weathered cap (announced 17 February 2025) have been delivered to the metallurgical laboratory and these will be utilised to produce multiple, finished product samples for marketing purposes. Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "We have achieved an extraordinary outcome from our most recent product development testwork, which has delivered an exceptional high-grade, high-purity TiO2 product that should be ideal for either titanium sponge metal or high-quality TiO2 pigment production. "It is remarkable that our technical team has so rapidly produced a high-purity TiO₂ product. We believe this not only highlights the effectiveness of our processing approach but also underscores the potential value of our product. Metallurgical testing and process optimisation continues, and with the availability of the 70 tonnes of bulk sample collected in February we will now be able to significantly scale up the testwork and produce a variety of final product samples to share with prospective downstream end-users." Product Development Testwork An acid bake-water leach process using sulphuric acid was applied, with parameters similar to that tested during the initial product development test programme (announced 10 March 2025). The TiO2 product purification and product finishing stages were tested at ALS Metallurgy laboratories, located in Perth, Western Australia. All assays were conducted at ALS Metallurgy by their in-house metallurgy-specific assay lab. The most recent product development metallurgical test work was undertaken on flotation concentrates recovered from the near surface, highly weathered in-situ saprolitic zone. Diamond drill core collected from two holes, DD24TOM004 and DD24TOM005, formed the feed composite (refer Figure 1). The composite sample was passed through a wet scrubber to break up the clays and attrition the ore prior to desliming the resulting slurry over a 38µm screen. The coarse material was fed to a gravity test circuit and the finer fraction (-38µm) was processed via froth flotation. The rougher (first stage) flotation concentrate generated from multiple, repetitive flotation tests were then blended to form the feedstock for a subsequent acid leach stage (refer Figure 2). Two subsamples of flotation concentrate were leached under the following different conditions: 1. Direct acid bake followed by hot water leach 2. Dilute acid pre-leach followed by direct acid bake and hot water leach. For both tests iron filings were added to the hot water wash phase to reduce the iron in the ferric (Fe3+) state to the ferrous (Fe2+) state, thus removing the iron from the solution. In this acid leach stage the titanium is recovered from the mineral concentrates into the liquor as titanyl sulphate (TiSO4) and the residue solids and liquor are then separated after the water leach step, using filtration, with the liquor moving forward for purification and product finishing testwork. The next step in the purification process is the hydrolysis stage, which involves the heating of the liquor, thus breaking down the titanyl sulphate and resulting in the production of hydrated TiO2 and the recovery of H2SO4. This step was carried out in two stages without seed TiO2 material, an improvement from previous work. The solution was heated to 106 degrees C and held at temperature whilst being stirred for 2 hours. The resulting slurry was then centrifuged to separate the liquor from the precipitated solids. Finally, as part of the product finishing stage, the hydrated TiO2 was separated from the liquor using a centrifuge, and the solids were then calcined to remove water and produce a high-purity TiO2 compound (see figure 3). The final chemical analysis of the TiO2 product indicates a very high purity of 99.25% TiO2 by mass with non-detectable or extremely low amounts of deleterious impurities (see table 1). Table 1. Finished Product Analysis Product Analysis (XRF) % by mass TiO2 99.25 Al 0.16 Ca 0.01 Fe 0.09 La <0.01 Nd 0.01 Pb 0.004 P 0.23 Si 0.03 Th <0.001 U <0.001 V 0.01 The Pitfield Titanium Project Located within the Mid-West region of Western Australia, near the northern wheatbelt town of Three Springs, the Pitfield titanium project lies 313km north of Perth and 156km southeast of Geraldton, the Mid West region's capital and major port. Western Australia is ranked as one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world according to the Fraser Institute's Investment Attractiveness Index published in 2023, and has mining-friendly policies, stable government, transparency, and advanced technology expertise. Pitfield has existing connections to port (both road & rail), HV power substations, and is nearby to natural gas pipelines as well as a green energy hydrogen fuel hub, which is under planning and development (refer Figure 4). Figure 4. Pitfield Project Location showing theMid-West Region Infrastructure and Services. Competent Person Statement The scientific and technical information in this report that relates to process metallurgy is based on information reviewed by Ms Narelle Marriott, an employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Ms Marriott is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012. Ms. Marriott consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears. The technical information in this report that relates to the geology and exploration of the Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Mr. Faragher is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012. Mr Faragher consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, as incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement. **ENDS** For further information please visit or contact: Empire Metals Ltd Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel / Arabella Burwell Tel: 020 4583 1440 S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nomad & Broker) Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl Tel: 020 3470 0470 Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker) Damon Heath Tel: 020 7186 9950 St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) Susie Geliher / Charlotte Page Tel: 020 7236 1177 About Empire Metals Limited Empire Metals is an AIM-listed and OTCQB-traded exploration and resource development company (LON:EEE)(OTCQB:EPMLF) with a primary focus on developing Pitfield, an emerging giant titanium project in Western Australia. The high-grade titanium discovery at Pitfield is of unprecedented scale, with airborne surveys identifying a massive, coincident gravity and magnetics anomaly extending over 40km by 8km by 5km deep. Drill results have indicated excellent continuity in grades and consistency of the in-situ mineralised beds and confirm that the sandstone beds hold the higher-grade titanium dioxide (TiO₂) values within the interbedded succession of sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates. The Company is focused on two key prospects (Cosgrove and Thomas), which have been identified as having thick, high-grade, near-surface, in-situ bedded TiO₂ mineralisation, each being over 7km in strike length. An Exploration Target* for Pitfield was declared in 2024, covering the Thomas and Cosgrove mineral prospects, and was estimated to contain between 26.4 to 32.2 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.5 to 5.5% TiO2. Included within the total Exploration Target* is a subset that covers the in-situ weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical depth of 30m to 40m and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO2. The Exploration Target* covers an area less than 20% of the overall mineral system at Pitfield which demonstrates the potential for significant further upside. Empire is now accelerating the economic development of Pitfield, with a vision to produce a high-value titanium metal or pigment quality product at Pitfield, to realise the full value potential of this exceptional deposit. The Company also has two further exploration projects in Australia; the Eclipse Project and the Walton Project in Western Australia, in addition to three precious metals projects located in a historically high-grade gold producing region of Austria. *The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. See RNS dated 12 June 2024 for full details. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@ or visit SOURCE: Empire Metals Limited View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
