CanmetMINING (CMIN) - Lands and Minerals Sector, NRCan

MINE WATER AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

• Development of novel modified membranes for the treatment of mineral processing effluent streams
• Mining effluent treatment of selenium (METS)

PROCESSING.

• Lithium from brines
• Separation of rare-earth elements using electrodialysis-assisted solvent extraction

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

• Carbon dioxide sequestration as magnesium carbonate utilizing high serpentine-containing tailings and waste rock
• Integration of net CO2 capture and energy-efficient MgO recovery process from chrysotile tailings
• Evaluation of CO2 sequestration via treatment of acid mine drainage
• Climate change impacts on long-term performance of organic covers in mine tailings
• Multi-Omics Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Disrupted Ecosystems in Canada's North

ECOSYSTEM RISKS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENTS REVIEWS

• Development of a national water quality database to assess shifting baselines in a changing climate
• Fugitive Dust - A recommended approach for the modelling and monitoring of fugitive dust from active and abandoned mine sites
• Development of novel sensor technology for contaminants & nutrients (GRDI)
• Environmental Geochemistry Data Digitization in Support of Mine Permitting
• Genomics Research for Enhanced Tailings Reclamation & Environmental Sustainability (GReEN TReES) – Partnership with CFS
• Solubility, partitioning & toxicity of data-poor metals for the development of environmental guidelines & regulations
• Historical sediment profiles of metals & environmental DNA to evaluate mine impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
• Impact Assessment Review Process of all Canadian mining projects

The Canadian rare earth element (REE) and chromite R&D program emphasizes the need to develop, de-risk and demonstrate the technologies required to establish these industries and bring their products to market. Further, technologies will be developed and assessed hand-in-hand with environmental impacts, with a strict goal of establishing methods that minimize environmental impacts and establish appropriate methodologies to manage them.

Additional Information:

http://www.reechromite.ca/en/

The GMI is a pan-Canadian initiative to improve the mining sector’s environmental performance, and to create green technology opportunities for Canadian businesses. Through the GMI, CanmetMINING works to accelerate the research, development and deployment of green mining technologies and practices; enhance innovation and productivity in mining; improve environmental performance; and improve the competitiveness of the Canadian mining industry thereby positioning Canada's mining sector as the global leader in green mining technologies and practices.

The concept of tailings reprocessing is not new. However, due to technical, policy and regulatory complexities, successes have been limited.  The recovery of metal values from tailings is generally viewed as the primary incentive, but is unlikely to be successful unless it is combined with a concomitant reduction in environmental liabilities and the development of downstream market opportunities for tailings products.  CanmetMINING is developing an initiative called “Mining Value from Waste”, which aims at bringing together the Canadian R&D community to develop a more cohesive and sustained effort to develop demonstrable reprocessing technologies to address a variety of mine wastes. While currently principally focused on tackling the enormous existing and historic tailings liabilities, it is expected that this effort will grow and eventually transition to include processing opportunities for eliminating or vastly decreasing the generation of new tailings.

The project objective is to determine the application of high-performance synthetic fibre cables in mining, including rejection criteria and non-destructive testing methods for the cables during their service life. The project phases are:

1. proof of concept, with a focus on windability under load;
2. optimization at high speed and under load of the lifespan and integrity of the cables;
3. testing in an operating mine.

The objective of this project is to develop processes that will enable the Canadian mining industry to manage water resources more effectively by maximizing water recovery and recycling and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of water treatment discharge and management.  The project supports the Clean Innovation Engagement Strategy and the Water Management priority of the CanmetMINING 5-year research plan. 

The project is designed to investigate and identify opportunities for improving water recovery, treatment and recycling in the mining mineral extraction operations as well as to develop, assess and de-risk technologies and processes  for recovery and treatment process water streams in operations for mineral extraction.

Some of the technologies that are being investigated and evaluated include pressure driven membrane separation processes such as reverse osmosis, nano- and ultrafiltration, electro technologies such as electrodialysis and electrocoagulation, ceramic membrane based processes as well as vacuum mebrane distillation.

Benchmarking has been used in several sectors to identify best practices on different matters such as customer satisfaction levels, costs, or energy efficiency. Although tools have been developed to benchmark energy in certain industrial sectors, none are available to comprehensively assess energy performance for mines. The goal for this project is to develop such a tool in collaboration with stakeholders from the mining industry and MiTRAQ, a benchmarking software developer.

Internal benchmarking consists of assessing energy performance of a facility over time and can be used to identify changes in performance that could arise from deteriorating equipment, changes in operating procedures, or implementation of energy conservation measures. Conversely, in external benchmarking a facility compares its performance against that of a peer group with the goal of identifying best practice performance which can be used to set targets for improvement and motivate energy management efforts. The program that has been developed includes both of these types of benchmarking and is available for use by underground and surface mines.

A prototype platform has been developed and is currently (2018) in the testing phase. It is anticipated that the program will be available for dissemination to the mining industry on an international scale starting in 2019.

The project involves the development of a novel hybrid filtration process for the treatment of process and discharge water streams generated from in-situ processing of oil sands at high temperatures. The purpose of this system is to de-oil and treat oil sands produced water streams at high temperature (90C) and produce clean water suitable for reuse, recycle or disposal. The  work puts a great deal of focus on the development of a ceramic and polymeric membrane process for the removal of salts, scaling compounds, suspended colloidal particles and residual oil as well as low molecular weight dissolved organic compounds from oil sands produced water streams. 

The work also involves the study of membrane fouling mechanisms and methods of its mitigations such as membrane surface modification and membrane cleaning and regeneration protocols that would help the development of better and novel membranes for oil sands water treatment applications.  

The project is led by CanmetMINING in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada, NRCan's CanmetENERGY, University of Ottawa and a number of oil sands companies that have provided produced water samples for the test work.

• Carbon sequestration – seismic
• Advanced sedimentary rock characterization for CCUS and nuclear waste storage
• Reducing regulator barriers for alternative energy in mining vehicles
• Diesel Engine Emission Evaluation and Approval Plan
• Static and Dynamic Assessment of Rockbolts
• Hydrogen in Mining 1) H2 Roadmap 2) Guideline H2 End Use 3) CSR Gap Analysis

Lately laser 3D profiler has been identified as the best technology for measuring rock size distribution over a conveyor belt and they are now distributed by two European companies.   CanmetMINING has extended  their application for measuring the ore size distribution before primary crushing in order  1) to provide an accurate evaluation of the reduction ratio at the primary crushing stage and allow the development of a rock hardness sensor, 2) to quantify the quality of the blast before any crushing size reduction, and 3) to address the fine measurement issue associated to conveyor belt system. The prototype was tested with success in a rock quarry environment and was improved based on identified issues, such as the necessity to evaluate on-line the variability of the free fall speed of the rock.

A laboratory scale version of the 3D laser scanner was build in parallel for measuring the entire volume of rock pieces and computing for the first time a rock size distribution based on a direct volume measurement of the rock pieces. The laboratory 3D rock size sensor will also allow characterizing the form of the rock pieces in large sample, and studying the impact of the form factor on grinding mill efficiency. 

Both technologies are included in the same patent application, which was filed on February 15, 2108.
• Methods for measuring properties of rock pieces, PCT Patent No. 1702530.5, which relates to and claims the priority benefit of United Kingdom Patent Application No. 1702530.5 filed on February 16, 2017.

Grinding is an energy intensive process.  More than 45% of the energy costs in a mine occur in the grinding circuit.  Thus, if the grind size could be increased, this would represent significant savings in energy costs (less energy used), lower contaminants to environment (lower surface area results in lower contaminants leached) and CAPEX and APEX (increased concentrator capacity).  Thus, with the benefits mentioned above, lower grade ore may be treated economically.
Metal recovery varies as a function of grind size.  Typically, flotation works well for particles in the range of 20 to 150 µm.  Outside this range, the metal recovery decreases.  Factors that influence coarse particle recovery are particle hydrophobicity (stronger collectors result in higher hydrophobicity and increased floatability), mixing environment in flotation cell (high turbulence tends to detach particles from bubbles), frothers (stronger frothers are required to support the recovered coarse particles) etc…
An alternate technique to conventional flotation that can be used for coarse particle flotation is the Hydrofloat apparatus.  This is an aerated fluidized-bed reactor; it combines the effect of flotation with gravity separation.  More than 50 units have been installed worldwide.
Ideally, higher hydrophobicity and less turbulent environment in float cells are needed to increase coarse particle flotation.  In this proposal, these concepts will be tested through Flash Flotation and the Hydrofloat apparatus.  Ores from 2 to 3 concentrators will be tested.  For example, nickel ores, copper-molybdenum ores etc.

Since 2011, the Nickel Institute and other metal commodity associations have been collaborating very closely with several research institutes, including CanmetMINING, in order to develop an alternative methodology for assessing the chronic environmental classification for metals. The methodology currently established in the UN GHS (Global Harmonised System for classification) is based on degradability of organic chemicals and as such, is not applicable to metals and inorganic substances. Methodology that has been developed in this project is an extension of an OECD protocol and can be used by regulators and industry to ensure a scientifically correct hazard classification for metals and inorganic compounds.

Many active and abandoned mining areas across Canada are vulnerable to weather extremes from a changing climate. Models suggest that the generation of dust may become more severe, leading to greater impacts on the surrounding environment. Potential effects of dust on air quality are a challenge for waste management at most modern mine sites. This project aims to develop tools to monitor and manage dust and improve our ability to mitigate the cumulative impacts of climate change on metal mines across Canada.

Historical contamination of soils and sediments in environments surrounding mining activity pose a potential environmental threat in a changing climate. Remediation efforts have been conducted, many involving liming to increase the pH of soils and sediments and oxidation of waterways to limit the mobility of metals. While these remediation efforts have had significant positive impacts on the environment the underlying metal contamination still remains and under a changing climate there is a potential risk for remobilization. This study is investigating the effects of sediment drying (due to long-term droughts) and subsequent flooding on the mobility, bioavailability and toxicity of sediment-bound metals. This research will also investigate the various biogeochemical factors involved in remobilizing metals and how these factors are affected by climate change.