feasibility study
A detailed report that works out whether a mine can actually be built and make money, covering engineering, costs and environmental factors.
Technically: A feasibility study is a comprehensive technical and economic assessment of a mineral project at a level of detail sufficient to support a production decision and project financing. It applies modifying factors to resource estimates to produce reserve figures, and is expected to achieve a defined level of accuracy in capital and operating cost estimates. It sits above a pre-feasibility study in the hierarchy of studies and is distinguished from a preliminary economic assessment, which is permitted to include inferred resources and carries a lower standard of engineering rigour.
Markets
ferroalloy
An iron-based mixture that contains large amounts of another element — like manganese or chromium — and is added to steel during steelmaking to give the steel special properties.
Technically: A ferroalloy is a binary or more complex alloy of iron with one or more alloying elements — including manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, niobium, or others — produced in submerged-arc or electric-arc furnaces by smelting ore or oxide feeds in the presence of a reductant, typically coke. Ferroalloys are used almost exclusively as addition agents in steelmaking and cast-iron production, delivering the alloying element in a form that is easier to handle, store, and introduce to a melt than the pure metal alone. The distinction from master alloys is one of base metal and industry: ferroalloys are iron-based and directed at steel production, while master alloys are typically based on aluminium, copper, or nickel and used in non-ferrous foundry and casting operations.
Processing
flotation
A way of separating useful minerals from waste rock by mixing crushed ore with water and chemicals, then blowing in air bubbles. The mineral particles stick to the bubbles and float to the surface, while the waste sinks.
Technically: Froth flotation exploits differences in the surface chemistry of mineral particles: reagents called collectors make target mineral surfaces water-repellent, so air bubbles attach to them and carry them into a froth layer that overflows the cell, while hydrophilic gangue particles settle. The process is selective rather than universal—reagent choice and pH must be matched to the specific mineralogy—and the recovered froth product is called a concentrate. Flotation is sometimes confused with gravity separation, which instead exploits density differences and uses no reagents.
Processing