A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 17 May 2018 / Traditionally, copper and cobalt are extracted from oxidised ores via hydrometallurgical processing route. The ore is leached in sulphuric acid in reducing conditions. This method co-extracts impurity metal values like iron and manganese, necessitating downstream solution purification, which causes significant valuable losses. Pregnant leach solution purification is performed through step-wise oxidation and acid neutralisation of the leach solution. Cobalt is the most affected component in this process due to high losses incurred during the precipitation stages. Moreover, because the lixiviant is not recycled, the method consumes ominously high quantities of sulphuric acid. As a result, the process must be accompanied by readily available and cost-effective acid-making plant. In the event of an increase in the price of sulphuric acid raw materials or a decline in the ore grade, a source of 50% of the world’s cobalt might be rendered impracticable. This work investigates the viability of using ammoniacal solution as an alternative lixiviant to sulphuric acid. Ammoniacal solution forms soluble complexes with copper and cobalt at pH and potential where iron, manganese and other impurities tend to form precipitates. Because of the preferential leaching, downstream solution purification can be circumvented, thereby reducing valuable losses. Furthermore, because there is no solution altering, multi-step solution purification required, the leach solution retains its initial pre-leaching properties, making it fully recyclable. The recyclable nature of the lixiviant thus reduces lixiviant costs. Furthermore, an advantage of leaching in ammonia is lower equipment costs because ammonia is less corrosive than acid. The feed material used in this study was an oxidised copper-cobalt ore sourced from Katanga Region in the DRC. A size fraction analysis was undertaken in order to determine the deportation of the copper and cobalt metals in the feed material. In the leaching tests conducted, the effect of particle size, temperature, concentration of the reducing agent and concentrations of ammonia and ammonium carbonate were investigated. The results showed that a +63-75μm size fraction had the highest grade of copper and cobalt and was thus used for all the experiments undertaken. The results also indicated that cobalt and copper extraction was highly influenced by temperature. It was found that working at ambient temperature results in poor extraction of the value metal species while raising the temperature to 80°C significantly improves the extraction of both value metals if premature depressurising of the leach vessel is avoided. The results also showed that there was no significant extraction advantage gained from milling finer than -63μm. Moreover, it was found that at 80°C, 2.0M ammonia solution, 0.4M ammonium carbonate, 300rpm, 0.4M reducing agent and 60 minutes pre-treatment and leach time, a peak extraction of 90% could be realised for copper. It was also noted that even better extraction efficiencies could be obtained for copper in the absence of a reducing agent. Optimum cobalt extraction of 85% was obtained at 80°C, 2.0M ammonia solution, 2.0M ammonium carbonate solution, 0.4M ammonium sulphite, 60 minutes pre-treatment time and 60 minutes leaching time. This compares well to about 40-60% recovery reported when leaching in acid. These findings point to the conclusion that ammoniacal solution is a viable alternative to sulphuric acid for hydrometallurgical processing of the copper-cobalt ore. / MT 2018

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The design of a computerized system for the estimation of uranium potential supply in the United States constitutes the primary objective of this dissertation. Once completed, this system performs for various levels of economic variables, such as prices, the estimation of potential uranium supply without requiring the appraisal by geologists, area by area, of undiscovered uranium endowment. The main components that form the system are explicit models of endowment, exploration, and production. These component models are derived from engineering and geological data, and together, they comprise the system. This system is unique in that it links physical attributes of endowment to time series of price and production. This linkage is made by simulating the activities of the U.S. uranium industry, activities (exploration, mine development, and production) that are involved in the transformation of endowment to potential supply. Uranium endowment is first generated by employing a crustal abundance model; a data file containing characteristics (tonnage, grade, depth, intra-deposit grade variation) of the discrete deposits that comprise the endowment is established by this model. An exploration model relates discoveries to exploration effect and deposit characteristics. Discovery yield for a given effort is linked to the relative "discoverability" of the deposits of the endowment as well as to the total exploration effort. An economic evaluation is performed on each discovery to determine whether or not the deposit can be developed and produced, given the stated level of the economic variables. The system then determines the magnitude of potential supply that could be forthcoming from all discoverable and exploitable deposits for the stated economic circumstances. Initially, the parameters of the system must be estimated. The approach employed for this estimation makes use of the time series information on uranium exploration and production activities. In essence, the system is used to simulate the past history of the U.S. uranium industry (period 1948-1978) and to generate industry statistics for these activities; the parameters selected are those values that cause the system to yield a time series that matches closely that which actually occurred.

M.A. / Hematized iron formation known as the Manganore iron formation is slumped into sinkhole structures in the Campbellrand Subgroup, Transvaal Supergroup, on the Maremane dome. These iron deposits are underlain by manganiferous breccias known as the Wolhaarkop Breccia. Known iron and manganese deposits of this type occur in an arc from Sishen in the north to Postmasburg in the south. The area is not being mined for manganese at the moment due to the relatively high grade of the Kalahari manganese field situated to the north of this area. The iron deposits, though, are some of the richest in the world. The aim is to establish the mode of origin for the Wolhaarkop Breccia. The Wolhaarkop Breccia is interpreted as being a residual ancient manganese wad from a karst environment in manganese rich dolostones of the Campbellrand Subgroup. This siliceous breccia contains authigenic megaquartz and angular poorly sorted clasts of chalcedony and quartz, set in a braunite-hematite matrix. Fluid inclusions in the authigenic quartz of the Wolhaarkop Breccia have been studied to establish the source of the fluid responsible for quartz precipitation in the Wolhaarkop Breccia, and indirectly, for the formation of the Wolhaarkop Breccia. Thermometric data was used to determine the maximum possible pT and depth conditions under which the quartz might have been precipitated. Fluid chemistry was determined using the bulk crush-leach method to shed some light on the fluid origin. It was established that the fluid responsible for chert recrystallization and precipitation of authigenic quartz and chalcedony had a meteoric source. Considering the results of the above-mentioned analysis, it was concluded that the iron and manganese deposits were formed during a cycle of uplift followed by subsidence. During the period of uplift, erosion in a karst environment and enrichment of iron formation in a supergene environment concentrated manganese as a manganese wad, and iron as a residual iron-oxide laterite. Meteoric water was the main fluid present during this period. Later, during a stage of subsidence, the Wolhaarkop Breccia underwent diagenesis and later lower greenschist-facies metamorphism. During a final stage of uplift the deposit was exposed to the atmosphere again, the dolostones were weathered away and the residual Manganore iron formation and Wolhaarkop Breccia were exposed to supergene alteration.