Ce travail a pour but d'enquêter sur les modalités d'exploitation des ressources minérales pendant la Préhistoire récente, dans le bassin de la Méditerranée occidentale. L'étude débute par l'observation des instruments lithiques - outils macrolithiques - produits par les groupes humains préhistoriques, qui les ont utilisés dans les phases d'extraction. Ces outils sont analysés par la méthode morphologique et techno-fonctionnelle, par observation microscopiques, à grossissement faible et élevé. Toutes les étapes de cette activité sont abordées, permettant de traiter de la complexité qui tourne autour de l'extraction des minéraux. Les étapes de la chaîne opératoire sont analysées, depuis l'identification des sources d'approvisionnement - des hydroxydes de fer et de cuivre - à la production d'outils ; la recherche de matières premières lithiques, les techniques d'extraction, jusqu'aux premiers stades de transformation des minéraux. Le problème de l'exploitation du cuivre et des oxydes et hydroxydes de fer durant la Préhistoire, est un problème actuellement très discuté parce que cette activité a eu un effet important sur l'organisation des groupes préhistoriques. Une question posée est importante : comment les collectivités ont répondu à la question croissante de matières premières minérales ? Pouvaient-elles être utilisées par un seul groupe ? Obligeaient-elles à une série d'échanges et de relations sociales complexes ? Étaient-elles exploitées à des fins économiques ou liées au prestige social ? Nous ne négligeons pas pour autant certaines hypothèses en ce qui concerne les mines de cuivre et la première métallurgie qui se développe à la fin du Néolithique. / The purpose of this project is to investigate the modalities of exploitation of mineral resources during the recent Prehistory in the Western Mediterranean area. The study starts to the observation of lithic instruments - macrolithic tools - produced by prehistoric human groups, and used in the extraction and processing phases. Studied through the morphological and techno-functional method, with low and high power microscope approach. I investigated all the stages of this activity and the complexity around mineral extraction. The steps of the "chaîne opératoire", from the identification of the sources of supply - of iron ore and copper - to the production of tools ; the search for lithic raw materials, extraction techniques, up to the early stages of mineral processing. The problem of the exploitation of copper and iron ore in prehistory is a theme currently discussed, because this activity has had a major effect on the organization of the production of prehistoric groups. I ask how communities have responded to the growing request of mineral raw materials, which could be used by a single group, or produce a series of complex social relationships for economic or social prestige purposes. I don’t neglect certain hypotheses regard to the copper mines and the first metallurgy that develops into the late Neolithic.

[pt] A porosidade e o arranjo espacial dos poros são essenciais para a transferência de calor e para o processo de redução das pelotas de minério de ferro em fornos siderúrgicos. Portanto, a caracterização microestrutural das pelotas torna-se importante para o controle de qualidade do produto final, o aço, auxiliando no entendimento de seu comportamento nos altos-fornos. Atualmente, as técnicas mais utilizadas para a caracterização são a microscopia ótica, que oferece resultados somente bidimensionais e com isso não representa exatamente a realidade; e a Porosimetria por intrusão de mercúrio, na qual utiliza-se mercúrio, que é altamente nocivo à saúde humana, e avalia apenas poros conectados com a superfície. Além disso, são técnicas consideradas destrutivas, ou seja, não é possível fazer outras análises porque há a perda do material. Este trabalho propõe otimizar uma metodologia de caracterização tridimensional de porosidade em pelotas a partir da técnica de Microtomografia Computadorizada de Raios X (microCT) – que é uma técnica não destrutiva e fornece informações tridimensionais, porém apresenta limitações relacionadas ao tempo de análise e resolução – e análise e processamento das imagens geradas. Foi possível caracterizar em 3D a porosidade de amostras cedidas pela empresa Vale, a partir da distribuição espacial e obtenção do volume dos poros, além da discriminação de poros abertos e fechados por uma nova metodologia desenvolvida. Assim, a metodologia de aquisição foi otimizada, alcançando-se uma redução de tempo para todas as análises - foram necessárias 3 horas para a análise de uma pelota inteira. Confirmou-se que a resolução de fato causa grande impacto na caracterização de porosidade em pelotas de minério de ferro, evidenciado na grande diferença entre os percentuais de porosidades medidos nas diferentes resoluções alcançadas: 14,83 por cento para 7,6 micrometros, 23,69 por cento para 4 micrometros e 26,75 por cento para 2 micrometros. / [en] Porosity and pore space arrangement are essential for heat transfer and the reduction process of iron ore pellets in steelworks. Therefore, the pellet microstructural characterization becomes important for the quality control of the final product, steel, helping in the understanding of its behavior in the blast furnaces. Currently, the most used techniques for characterization are optical microscopy, which offers only two-dimensional results and thus does not represent exactly the reality; and mercury intrusion porosimetry that evaluates only pores connected to the surface, and uses mercury, which is highly harmful to human health. Moreover, they are techniques considered destructive as it is not possible to do other analyzes in the same samples, since they are destroyed. This work proposes to optimize a methodology of three-dimensional characterization of porosity in pellets using the technique of x-ray microtomography (microCT). This is a non - destructive technique that provides 3D information, but presents limitations related to the time of analysis and resolution. It was possible to characterize in 3D pellet samples provided by the Vale company, obtaining the porosity and the pore volume distribution. Open and closed porosity was also measured by a new developed methodology. Thus, the acquisition methodology was optimized, reaching a reduction of time for all the analyzes - it took 3 hours for the analysis of an entire ball. It was confirmed that the resolution had a great impact on the porosity characterization of iron ore pellets, evidenced by the great difference between the porosities measured at the different resolutions reached: 14.83 percent for 7.6 micrometers, 23.69 percent for 4 micrometers and 26.75 percent for 2 micrometers.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A discriminação de fases que são praticamente indistinguíveis ao microscópio ótico de luz refletida ou ao microscópio eletrônico de varredura (MEV) é um dos problemas clássicos da microscopia de minérios. Com o objetivo de resolver este problema vem sendo recentemente empregada a técnica de microscopia colocalizada, que consiste na junção de duas modalidades de microscopia, microscopia ótica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura. O objetivo da técnica é fornecer uma imagem de microscopia multimodal, tornando possível a identificação, em amostras de minerais, de fases que não seriam distinguíveis com o uso de uma única modalidade, superando assim as limitações individuais dos dois sistemas. O método de registro até então disponível na literatura para a fusão das imagens de microscopia ótica e de microscopia eletrônica de varredura é um procedimento trabalhoso e extremamente dependente da interação do operador, uma vez que envolve a calibração do sistema com uma malha padrão a cada rotina de aquisição de imagens. Por esse motivo a técnica existente não é prática. Este trabalho propõe uma metodologia para automatizar o processo de registro de imagens de microscopia ótica e de microscopia eletrônica de varredura de maneira a aperfeiçoar e simplificar o uso da técnica de microscopia colocalizada. O método proposto pode ser subdividido em dois procedimentos: obtenção da transformação e registro das imagens com uso desta transformação. A obtenção da transformação envolve, primeiramente, o pré-processamento dos pares de forma a executar um registro grosseiro entre as imagens de cada par. Em seguida, são obtidos pontos homólogos, nas imagens óticas e de MEV. Para tal, foram utilizados dois métodos, o primeiro desenvolvido com base no algoritmo SIFT e o segundo definido a partir da varredura pelo máximo valor do coeficiente de correlação. Na etapa seguinte é calculada a transformação. Foram empregadas duas abordagens distintas: a média ponderada local (LWM) e os mínimos quadrados ponderados com polinômios ortogonais (MQPPO). O LWM recebe como entradas os chamados pseudo-homólogos, pontos que são forçadamente distribuídos de forma regular na imagem de referência, e que revelam, na imagem a ser registrada, os deslocamentos locais relativos entre as imagens. Tais pseudo-homólogos podem ser obtidos tanto pelo SIFT como pelo método do coeficiente de correlação. Por outro lado, o MQPPO recebe um conjunto de pontos com a distribuição natural. A análise dos registro de imagens obtidos empregou como métrica o valor da correlação entre as imagens obtidas. Observou-se que com o uso das variantes propostas SIFT-LWM e SIFT-Correlação foram obtidos resultados ligeiramente superiores aos do método com a malha padrão e LWM. Assim, a proposta, além de reduzir drasticamente a intervenção do operador, ainda possibilitou resultados mais precisos. Por outro lado, o método baseado na transformação fornecida pelos mínimos quadrados ponderados com polinômios ortogonais mostrou resultados inferiores aos produzidos pelo método que faz uso da malha padrão. / The discrimination of phases that are practically undistinguishable to the optical microscope of reflected light or to the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is one of the classical problems in ore microscopy. With the aim of solving this problem it has been recently used the technique of co-located microscopy that consists in the junction of two microscopy modalities, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope. The aim of the technique is to provide an image of the multimodal microscopy, becoming possible the identification, in mineral samples, of phases that wouldnt be distinguished by the use of one modality only, overcoming the individual limitations of the two systems. The method of register available so far in literature to the fusion of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope images is a hard-working procedure and extremely dependent on the operator interaction, once it involves the system calibration with a standard mesh in each routine of images acquisition. Due to this reason the current technique is not practical. This piece of work proposes a methodology in order to automate the process of images register in optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy in a way to improve and simplify the co-located microscopy technique. The proposed method may be divided in two procedures: acquisition of transformation and register of the images with the use of this transformation. The acquisition of transformation involves, first, the pre-processing of pairs in a way of performing a crude register among the images of each pair. Then, homologous points are achieved in the optical and in SEM images. In order to this, it has been used two methods, the first one was developed based in algorithm SIFT and the second was defined from the sweeping of the highest of coefficient correlation. In the following step it is calculated the transformation. Two different approaches were used: the local weighted mean (LWM) and the weighted least squares with orthogonal polynomials (MQPPO). The LWM receives as entrance what we call pseudo-counterparts, points that are distributed in a regular way in the reference image, and that reveal, in the image to be registered, the relative local dislocation among the images. Those pseudo-counterparts may be obtained by SIFT or by the method of correlation coefficient. On the other side, the MQPPO receives a group of points with natural distribution. The analysis of the images registration obtained employed as a metric the value of correlation among the obtained images. It was noticed that with the use of the proposed variants SIFT-LWM and SIF-Correlation were obtained slightly higher results than the ones from the method with standard mesh and LWM. Thus, the proposal, besides reducing drastically the operator intervention, still enabled more exact results. On the other side, the method based in the transformation provided by the minimum square pondered with orthogonal polynomial showed lower results than to the ones produced by the method that used standard mesh

Ce travail de thèse est consacré à la modélisation du procédé de réduction directe du minerai de fer, un procédé alternatif intéressant dans le contexte de la réduction des émissions de CO2 de la sidérurgie. Le four à cuve, réacteur central du procédé, est divisé en trois zones (réduction, transition et refroidissement). Le modèle mathématique mis au point pour simuler l’ensemble repose sur une description détaillée et fidèle des principaux phénomènes physico-chimiques et thermiques intervenant. C’est un modèle bidimensionnel, en régime permanent et multi-échelle. Le lit mobile est constitué de boulettes, elles-mêmes supposées composées de grains et de cristallites. Huit réactions chimiques hétérogènes et deux réactions chimiques homogènes sont prises en compte. Les équations de conservation locales de la masse, l'énergie et de la quantité de mouvement ont été résolues numériquement en utilisant la méthode des volumes finis. Ce modèle a été appliqué avec succès pour simuler le four à cuve de deux usines de réduction directe de capacités différentes. Les résultats obtenus renseignent sur le fonctionnement interne du four et mettent en évidence des zones aux performances inégales. Le modèle a ensuite été exploité, après l’ajout et le couplage d’un modèle du reformeur, pour des calculs paramétriques, en particulier lorsque les caractéristiques des gaz réducteurs sont modifiées. Enfin des pistes sont présentées pour optimiser une installation de réduction directe en augmentant la capacité de production et le degré de métallisation du produit / This thesis is dedicated to the modelling of the iron ore direct reduction process, an attractive alternative process for making steel in the context of the reduction in CO2 emissions. The shaft furnace, the core reactor of the process, is divided into three sections (reduction, transition and cooling). The mathematical model developed to simulate this reactor is based on a detailed and faithful description of the main physical-chemical and thermal phenomena involved. The model is a two-dimensional, steady state and multi-scale. The moving bed is comprised of pellets of grains and crystallites. Eight heterogeneous chemical reactions and two homogeneous chemical reactions were taken into account. The local mass, energy and momentum balances were solved numerically using the finite volume method. The model was successfully applied to simulate the shaft furnace of two direct reduction plants of different capacities. The results obtained provide new insights on the internal behaviour of the furnace and highlight zones of uneven performance. After the addition and coupling of a reformer model, the shaft furnace model was used for parametric calculations, in particular when considering changes in the composition of the reducing gases. Finally, new possibilities are presented for optimizing the direct reduction process, e.g. for increasing the production capacity and the degree of metallization of the produced iron

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A discriminação de fases que são praticamente indistinguíveis ao microscópio ótico de luz refletida ou ao microscópio eletrônico de varredura (MEV) é um dos problemas clássicos da microscopia de minérios. Com o objetivo de resolver este problema vem sendo recentemente empregada a técnica de microscopia colocalizada, que consiste na junção de duas modalidades de microscopia, microscopia ótica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura. O objetivo da técnica é fornecer uma imagem de microscopia multimodal, tornando possível a identificação, em amostras de minerais, de fases que não seriam distinguíveis com o uso de uma única modalidade, superando assim as limitações individuais dos dois sistemas. O método de registro até então disponível na literatura para a fusão das imagens de microscopia ótica e de microscopia eletrônica de varredura é um procedimento trabalhoso e extremamente dependente da interação do operador, uma vez que envolve a calibração do sistema com uma malha padrão a cada rotina de aquisição de imagens. Por esse motivo a técnica existente não é prática. Este trabalho propõe uma metodologia para automatizar o processo de registro de imagens de microscopia ótica e de microscopia eletrônica de varredura de maneira a aperfeiçoar e simplificar o uso da técnica de microscopia colocalizada. O método proposto pode ser subdividido em dois procedimentos: obtenção da transformação e registro das imagens com uso desta transformação. A obtenção da transformação envolve, primeiramente, o pré-processamento dos pares de forma a executar um registro grosseiro entre as imagens de cada par. Em seguida, são obtidos pontos homólogos, nas imagens óticas e de MEV. Para tal, foram utilizados dois métodos, o primeiro desenvolvido com base no algoritmo SIFT e o segundo definido a partir da varredura pelo máximo valor do coeficiente de correlação. Na etapa seguinte é calculada a transformação. Foram empregadas duas abordagens distintas: a média ponderada local (LWM) e os mínimos quadrados ponderados com polinômios ortogonais (MQPPO). O LWM recebe como entradas os chamados pseudo-homólogos, pontos que são forçadamente distribuídos de forma regular na imagem de referência, e que revelam, na imagem a ser registrada, os deslocamentos locais relativos entre as imagens. Tais pseudo-homólogos podem ser obtidos tanto pelo SIFT como pelo método do coeficiente de correlação. Por outro lado, o MQPPO recebe um conjunto de pontos com a distribuição natural. A análise dos registro de imagens obtidos empregou como métrica o valor da correlação entre as imagens obtidas. Observou-se que com o uso das variantes propostas SIFT-LWM e SIFT-Correlação foram obtidos resultados ligeiramente superiores aos do método com a malha padrão e LWM. Assim, a proposta, além de reduzir drasticamente a intervenção do operador, ainda possibilitou resultados mais precisos. Por outro lado, o método baseado na transformação fornecida pelos mínimos quadrados ponderados com polinômios ortogonais mostrou resultados inferiores aos produzidos pelo método que faz uso da malha padrão. / The discrimination of phases that are practically undistinguishable to the optical microscope of reflected light or to the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is one of the classical problems in ore microscopy. With the aim of solving this problem it has been recently used the technique of co-located microscopy that consists in the junction of two microscopy modalities, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope. The aim of the technique is to provide an image of the multimodal microscopy, becoming possible the identification, in mineral samples, of phases that wouldnt be distinguished by the use of one modality only, overcoming the individual limitations of the two systems. The method of register available so far in literature to the fusion of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope images is a hard-working procedure and extremely dependent on the operator interaction, once it involves the system calibration with a standard mesh in each routine of images acquisition. Due to this reason the current technique is not practical. This piece of work proposes a methodology in order to automate the process of images register in optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy in a way to improve and simplify the co-located microscopy technique. The proposed method may be divided in two procedures: acquisition of transformation and register of the images with the use of this transformation. The acquisition of transformation involves, first, the pre-processing of pairs in a way of performing a crude register among the images of each pair. Then, homologous points are achieved in the optical and in SEM images. In order to this, it has been used two methods, the first one was developed based in algorithm SIFT and the second was defined from the sweeping of the highest of coefficient correlation. In the following step it is calculated the transformation. Two different approaches were used: the local weighted mean (LWM) and the weighted least squares with orthogonal polynomials (MQPPO). The LWM receives as entrance what we call pseudo-counterparts, points that are distributed in a regular way in the reference image, and that reveal, in the image to be registered, the relative local dislocation among the images. Those pseudo-counterparts may be obtained by SIFT or by the method of correlation coefficient. On the other side, the MQPPO receives a group of points with natural distribution. The analysis of the images registration obtained employed as a metric the value of correlation among the obtained images. It was noticed that with the use of the proposed variants SIFT-LWM and SIF-Correlation were obtained slightly higher results than the ones from the method with standard mesh and LWM. Thus, the proposal, besides reducing drastically the operator intervention, still enabled more exact results. On the other side, the method based in the transformation provided by the minimum square pondered with orthogonal polynomial showed lower results than to the ones produced by the method that used standard mesh

Energia é um insumo estratégico na mineração, pois é fundamental na viabilidade das operações mineiras e importante na manutenção de custos operacionais baixos e competitivos. Por esse motivo, toda iniciativa que visa a busca por eficiência no consumo de energia é importante para a competitividade das mineradoras. Vários insumos energéticos são utilizados nas operações unitárias de mineração. Os exemplos mais comuns são diesel, eletricidade, gás natural, carvão e explosivos. O objetivo desse trabalho é estudar, do ponto de vista energético, as atividades realizadas no processo de desmonte de rochas, em um complexo minerador de minério de ferro, visando a melhor utilização da energia no desmonte de rocha para aperfeiçoar as operações unitárias subsequentes de processamento de minérios. Um foco maior foi dado à economia de energia nas moagens de bolas da planta de beneficiamento e concentração, provocada pelas modificações e melhorias realizadas no desmonte de rocha. A metodologia consistiu na análise de diversos desmontes de rocha variando a razão de carga de explosivos no complexo minerador alvo desse trabalho. Os produtos desses desmontes foram acompanhados até a sua entrada na planta de beneficiamento. Durante o processamento desses materiais nas moagens da planta, foram coletadas e analisadas as grandezas elétricas resultantes e comparadas com uma linha de base gerada antes do início do trabalho. Os dados foram analisados com o objetivo de visualizar a influência do aumento da razão de carga na performance energética da operação de moagem. Em paralelo, também, foram analisadas as situações operacionais e dificuldades existentes nas medições de campo e nos acompanhamentos de consumos energéticos dos processos unitários, assim como a infraestrutura necessária para que uma variável tão importante como energia elétrica possa ser monitorada de forma adequada. Por fim, foi abordada a importância, a metodologia e os resultados da redução de emissões de CO2 provenientes da economia de energia de todo o trabalho realizado em campo. Os resultados apresentados mostram que mesmo com um aumento significativo da alimentação de material compacto (maior WI) nas moagens, o consumo energético total dessa operação unitária não aumentou. Isso gerou uma potencial economia específica de energia e a consequente redução de emissões de CO2 na atmosfera, além de viabilizar o processamento de material mais compacto nas mesmas linhas de processo. Esse comportamento sugere que uma melhor energia gasta no desmonte de rocha pode impactar positivamente na produtividade e nos custos de produção do minério ao longo de sua cadeia produtiva. / Energy is a mining strategic source, critical in mining operations feasibility and important to maintain low operational costs in a competitive level. For this reason, any initiative aimed at searching for energy efficiency is important for mining companies’ competitiveness. Mining operations need several energy sources. Most common examples are diesel, electricity, natural gas, coal and explosives. This text aims to address, from an energy perspective, a study carried out in an iron ore mining complex, which had as main objective to reach a better rock blasting energy utilization to improve subsequent mining operations. A greater focus was given to energy savings in ball mills operations of a beneficiation and concentration plant, impacted by modifications and improvements made in rock blasting. Methodology consisted in monitoring several rock blasting, carried out in this mining complex, varying explosive charge ratio. Products of those rock blasting were monitored until they entered the processing plant. During ore processing in plant´s ball mills, electrical variables were collected and analyzed, comparing to a baseline generated before the beginning of this research. All data were analyzed to show influence of explosive charge ratio increase on energy performance of the milling operation. In parallel, operational issues and difficulties in field measurements of energy consumptions were described, as well as the necessary infrastructure that allows the variable electricity to be adequately monitored. Besides, the methodology and results of CO2 emissions reduction from energy savings of all fieldwork were discussed. The research data shows that even with a significant increase in compact feed (higher Work Index), total energy consumption of mill operation did not increase. This scenario generate a potential specific energy savings and consequent reduction in CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. In addition, enables more compact material to be processed in the same process lines. This behavior suggests that a better energy spent on rock blasting can positively affect productivity and ore production costs along its production chain.

Abstract There is a rapidly increasing demand for iron resources with the fast-paced development of the iron and steel industry. For this reason, the iron and steel industry is facing the risk of a raw material shortage. Deposits of high-phosphorus iron ores are widely spread worldwide, but the use of these deposits in industry is limited owing to the high phosphorus content, which affects the cost of the iron making process and the quality of the produced steel. For the utilization of high phosphorus oolitic iron ore, many hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes have been proposed. However, these methods have disadvantages, such as causing environmental pollution, not being cost-effective, being overly time consuming and having low iron recovery. The aims of this present work are to study the possibility of the usage of microwave treatment to remove phosphorus from high phosphorus iron ore on a laboratory scale. This objective can be obtained through a combination of microwave pretreatment and physical separation methods. The findings into the microwave treatment of high phosphorus iron ore are quite promising. The results have indicated that microwave heating increase liberation, improves magnetic properties and reduces the processing time of iron ore. The results of ultrasound treatment showed that a significant increase in iron grade and a reduction in phosphorus content of the product can be obtained. The results indicate that microwave pretreatment should be considered as a factor significantly affecting the result of ultrasonic treatment. Depending on the sample texture and degree of phosphorus liberation, more than 59 % phosphorus removal can be obtained. / Tiivistelmä Raudan ja teräksen valmistusmäärien kasvaessa on tarve jalostaa aiemmin hyödyntämättömiä rautamalmeja ja ehkäistä siten mahdollinen raaka-ainepula tulevaisuudessa. Maailmalla on runsaasti rautamalmiesiintymiä, jotka sisältävät paljon fosforia. Näitä esiintymiä käytetään suuren fosforipitoisuuden vuoksi vain rajallisesti, koska fosfori heikentää raudan valmistusprosessin kustannustehokkuutta ja tuotetun teräksen laatua. Paljon fosforia sisältävän ooliittisen rautamalmin hyödyntämiseksi on ehdotettu monia erilaisia hydro- ja pyrometallurgisia prosesseja. Näihin menetelmiin liittyy kuitenkin haittapuolia, kuten huomattava ympäristörasitus, heikko kustannustehokkuus, prosessien hitaus ja alhainen raudan talteensaanti. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia laboratorio-olosuhteissa mahdollisuutta käyttää mikroaaltokäsittelyä fosforin poistamiseen paljon fosforia sisältävästä rautamalmista. Fosforinpoistoa tutkittiin mikroaaltoesikäsittelyn ja mekaanisten erottamisprosessien avulla. Tutkimuksen perusteella mikroaaltokäsittely vaikuttaa olevan lupaava tapa poistaa fosforia paljon fosforia sisältävästä rautamalmista. Tutkimustulosten mukaan mikroaaltolämmitys parantaa erotustehokkuutta ja magneettisia ominaisuuksia sekä vähentää rautamalmin käsittelyyn kuluvaa aikaa. Ultraäänikäsittelyn tulokset osoittavat, että prosessin avulla voidaan parantaa merkittävästi rautarikasteen laatua ja pienentää rikastetuotteen fosforipitoisuutta. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että mikroaaltoesikäsittelyllä voidaan merkittävästi vaikuttaa ultraäänikäsittelyn tehokkuuteen. Malmipartikkelien tekstuurista ja fosforin erottamisasteesta riippuen tutkitulla menetelmällä voidaan poistaa jopa 59 prosenttia fosforista.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of the present work is to classify co-registered pixels of stacks of polarized light images of iron ore into their respective crystalline grains or pores, thus producing grain segmented images that can be analyzed by their size, shape and orientation distributions, as well as their porosity and the size and morphology of the pores. Polished sections of samples of hematite-rich ore are digitally imaged in a rotating polarizer microscope at varying planepolarization angles. An image stack is produced for every field of view, where each image corresponds to a polarizer position. Any point in the sample is registered to the same pixel coordinates at all images in the stack. The resulting set of intensities for each pixel is directly related to the orientation of the crystal sampled at the corresponding position. Multivariate analysis of the sets of intensities leads to the classification of the pixels into their respective crystalline grains. Individual hematite grains of iron ore, as well as their pores, are segmented. The results are compared to those obtained by visual point counting methods. / O objetivo do presente trabalho é classificar pixels co-registrados de pilhas de imagens de luz polarizada de minério de ferro nos seus respectivos grãos cristalinos ou poros, produzindo assim imagens segmentadas por grãos que podem ser analisados quanto às suas distribuições de tamanho, forma e orientação, bem como sua porosidade, tamanho e forma dos poros. Seções polidas de amostras de minério de ferro rico em hematita foram imageadas difratalmente em um microscópio com polarizador giratório em ângulos variados de polarização. Uma pilha de imagens foi produzida para cada campo na qual cada imagem corresponde a uma orientação do polarizador. Cada ponto na amostra foi registrado nas mesmas coordenadas em todas as imagens da pilha. O conjunto resultante de intensidades de cada pixel está diretamente relacionado com a orientação do cristal amostrado na posição correspondente. A análise multivariada dos conjuntos de intensidades leva à classificação dos pixels nos seus respectivos grãos cristalinos. Grãos individuais de hematita do minério de ferro, bem como os seus poros foram segmentados. Os resultados foram comparados com aqueles obtidos pelo método de contagem dos pontos, ou seja, por inspeção visual.

In a particle based geometallurgical model, the behavior of the particles can be used for forecast the products and quantify the performance of the different ore types within a deposit. The particle tracking is an algorithm developed by Lamberg and Vianna 2007 whose aim is to balance the liberation data in a mineral processing circuit composed by several processing units. Currently, this tool is being developed for the HSC Chemistry software by Outotec.The objective of this study is to understand and evaluate the particle tracking algorithm in a geometallurgical test for iron ore. To achieve this objective, the liberation data is balanced in a Davis tube test circuit. A total of 13 samples from Leveäniemi iron ore were process in a Davis tube circuit.The magnetite is the main mineral in the Leveäniemi iron ore samples. Its high recovery in the Davis tube circuit along with the V, Ti and Mn suggest that these elements are present in the magnetite lattice. These penalty elements in the iron concentrates cannot be avoided at the stage of mineral concentrations.The washing effect of the Davis tubes controlled by the rotational and longitudinal agitation of the tube perturb the particles agglomeration between the pole tips of the electromagnet. A higher agitation frequency and amplitude will wash away most of the gangue minerals and also fine grained magnetite.In this work, the particle tracking is depicted and implemented in a magnetic separation circuit for high liberated material. The liberation data was balanced in a way that the particle classes can be followed through circuit and their recoveries can be calculated. Nevertheless, the algorithm requires further validation and analysis of its limitations in terms of resolution and reproducibility.

Abstract Most of the iron in the world is produced using a blast furnace process, which has iron ore (iron oxides) and coke as its raw materials. When pellets are used in a blast furnace, the iron burden material is charged in the form of pellets and fine, iron-rich by-products are charged typically in the form of cold-bonded briquettes at the top of the blast furnace. Coke is the primary fuel and reductant in the blast furnace. Coke reacts with the oxygen of the blast air and forms carbon monoxide in the up-flowing gas, which reduces the descending iron oxide burden. In addition, carbon and hydrogen bearing reductants are injected from the tuyeres in the lower part of the furnace. Hydrogen partially replaces the carbon monoxide as a reducing agent and changes the composition of the reducing gas. The high temperature properties of the burden have a significant effect on the flow of reducing gas and formation of the cohesive zone which markedly affect the furnace efficiency. The raw materials are commonly stored outdoors and therefore include moisture in varying amounts. In addition, the briquette contains chemically bound water. The rate of injected reductants, the high temperature properties and the water content of the raw materials have significant effects on blast furnace performance. They cause various phenomena in the blast furnace which set limitations on the process. The limiting phenomena related to the use of pellets in the blast furnace were studied in this doctoral thesis with the aim of obtaining additional knowledge about the limiting phenomena. The results show that hydrogen increases the reduction rate of iron oxides at temperatures below 850 °C. High water vapour concentration causes a rapid conversion through a catalysed water-gas shift reaction at above 300 °C in a gas mixture similar to the one in the upper part of the blast furnace. The reduction rate of the cold-bonded briquette is higher than pellets due to a self-reducing effect. The phase transformations occurring in the briquette during reduction follow the path of phase equilibria. The softening of the pellet is caused by the formation of melt which initiates wüstite dissolution in the surrounding slag phase. / Tiivistelmä Suurin osa maailmassa valmistettavasta raudasta tuotetaan masuuniprosessilla, jonka pääraaka-aineita ovat rautarikaste eli raudan oksidit ja koksi. Masuunissa, jossa käytetään pellettiä, rautarikaste panostetaan pelletin muodossa ja hienojakeiset rautapitoiset sivutuotteet tyypillisesti kylmäsidottuna brikettinä masuunin huipulta. Koksi on masuunin pääasiallinen polttoaine ja pelkistin, joka masuunin sisään puhallettavan ilman hapen kanssa reagoidessaan muodostaa ylöspäin virtaavaan kaasuun hiilimonoksidia, joka pelkistää masuunin kuilussa vajoavat rautaoksidit. Lisäksi yleensä käytetään hiiltä ja vetyä sisältäviä pelkistysaineita, jotka injektoidaan masuuniin alaosan hormeilta. Vety korvaa osittain hiilimonoksidia rautaoksidien pelkistimenä ja muuttaa pelkistävän kaasun koostumusta. Panosmateriaalien korkealämpötilaominaisuudet vaikuttavat suuresti kuilun kaasuvirtauksiin ja koheesiovyöhykkeen muodostumiseen masuunissa, mitkä vaikuttavat merkittävästi masuunin tehokkuuteen. Suurista määristä johtuen raaka-aineet varastoidaan usein ulkona, joten ne sisältävät kosteutta vaihtelevissa määrin. Lisäksi briketti sisältää kemiallisesti sitoutunutta vettä. Injektoitavien pelkistysaineiden käyttömäärällä, raaka-aineiden korkealämpötilaominaisuuksilla ja vesipitoisuudella on merkittäviä vaikutuksia masuunin toimintaan. Ne aikaansaavat masuunissa erilaisia ilmiöitä, jotka asettavat prosessille rajoituksia. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkittiin näitä masuunille rajoituksia asettavia ilmiöitä ja pyrittiin lisäämään tietämystä niistä. Tulokset osoittavat, että vety nopeuttaa rautaoksidien pelkistymistä alle 850 °C lämpötilassa. Suuri vesihöyrymäärä johtaa nopeaan konversioon masuunin yläkuilun aluetta vastaavassa kaasuseoksessa yli 300 °C lämpötilassa katalysoidun vesikaasun siirtoreaktion kautta. Kylmäsidottu briketti pelkistyy pellettiä nopeammin itsepelkistymisen vaikutuksesta. Briketin pelkistyessään läpikäymät faasitransformaatiot seuraavat faasien tasapainotiloja. Pelletin pehmenemisen aiheuttaa sulan muodostuminen, joka laukaisee wüstiitin liukenemisen sitä ympäröivään sulaan kuonafaasiin.