AT4-7: The role of geometallurgy in the mining business.

Convener: Marcela R. Oyarzún Uyevic, Gerencia Corporativa de Recursos Mineros y Desarrollo. Codelco Chile. moyarzun@codelco.cl

Description: Geometallurgy is defined as the study and application of the cause-effect relationship between the geological features of an ore deposit and metallurgical behavior, with focus on the sustainable economic benefit of mining and metallurgical planning and production.

The definition and focus have several implicit interactions: the integration of the different scales of geological and mineralogical observation, the complement of geological knowledge with metallurgical knowledge and the coherent insertion of geology in planning and mining business, with economic and environmental profitability, among others.

The geological community is invited to present its initiatives and developments in the field of understanding and predicting metallurgical behavior based on its geological control factors, as a contribution of the geoscientific discipline to the mining business.

Topics of interest include, among others:

– The integration of different scales of observation, from chemical and mineralogical characterization technologies to mapping, for the study of cause-effect relationship of metallurgical variables (recovery, grindability, thickening, etc).

– The application of geological-genetic knowledge in the spatial estimation of metallurgical variables.

– The integration of geological knowledge with metallurgical knowledge and the mining context in pursuit of long- and short-term mining-metallurgical planning.