surveys the algae life forms present in the
Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana
The Center for Advanced Mineral Processing - CAMP
Research and DevelopmentTechnology Transfer Education
| The Center for Advanced Mineral Processing (CAMP) is a State of Montana Center of Excellence located on the campus of Montana Tech of the University of Montana in Butte, Montana. The CAMP mission is to develop and sustain a critical mass of knowledge and expertise in the mineral sciences, provide a research interface between industry, academia, and government, and promote value added economic development in the minerals sector of the Montana economy. | |
| Mineral production from Montana’s abundant natural resources represents a major share of the State’s industrial output. It is of vital importance to our economy that our mineral production processes be | Montana Tech Biologist, Dr. Grant Mitman, surveys the algae life forms present in the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana |
both economically efficient and environmentally sound. CAMP seeks to adapt scientific discoveries and engineering methods to the evolution of mineral technologies that reduce environmental impact while promoting production efficiency. Through support of education, research, and technology transfer, the Center strives to contribute to reasoned decision making that will ultimately determine the health of nation’s mineral supply, production, and regulation industries.
Technological evolution has recreated the metals industry in our lifetime. Reverberatory smelting has been replaced with flash smelting processes. Large-scale heap leaching/solvent extraction and electrowinning technology has been developed for copper. Cyanide leaching, carbon absorption, and electrowinning technology has been developed for gold. Mini-mills and iron carbide reduction techniques have been developed for steel. In-situ extraction has been developed for uranium. These and many other innovations show that technological adeptness and research skills are critical components in maintaining and developing economically efficient and environmentally sound mineral production methods.
The Center is a relatively new research innovation at Montana Tech. Based on a hybrid model that combines a minimum of internal staff with a multi-disciplinary, virtual staff of technical investigators drawn from the university faculty, the Center has experienced remarkable success. CAMP projects are focused, applied research that deal with specific problems identified by private sector partners. The Center fills a multi-tiered niche to provide low-cost pioneering research, an accessible regional research infrastructure, and an industrial style interface between the genius of the university and the efficiency of the market.
A cross section of current Center projects illustrates the multi-disciplinary nature of CAMP and the breadth of potential research.
Process Simulation
Process simulation for auditing, control, and design are revolutionizing educational and
industrial ways of doing business. The Center is developing a simulation laboratory to
provide access and capability for evaluation of commercially available software packages.
Several of the Center projects utilize these capabilities in the areas of comminution and
classification, high temperature process reactors, leaching, heap leaching and rinsing,
hydrology, environmental reactor systems, and process control strategies and
instrumentation.
In June, 1996, the Center will host a five-day mineral processing plant simulation and optimization short course.
Process Enhancement and Development
Mineral, metal, and material systems are complicated, elegant, and capital intensive
engineered systems. The development of new technologies not only requires innovation but
painstaking scientific research and a fundamental understanding of the total system. The
Center’s basic strengths in process engineering are providing an important tool for a
number of companies investigating procedures to improve existing production processes.
CAMP is investigating mineral processing and metallurgical technologies to recover, separate, and concentrate commercially valuable minerals from ores. Technology is being developed to upgrade plant from waste streams into salable chemicals. Additionally, CAMP is developing a process to control scaling in process plant waste streams.
Biosorption
The search for systems to control and eliminate the toxic character of acid rock drainage
and its potential for chronic, long-term adverse impact on ecosystems has driven mineral
science research Traditional methods for metal removal are often ineffective or expensive
when the stream contains high levels of metals. In addition, large quantities of chemicals
are consumed and the control methods can produce large quantities of metal wastes which
present their own disposal and storage problems.
Pioneering research within the Center for Advanced Mineral Processing investigated the application of a non-living biomass of fungi as a biosorbent for the extraction of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. Research results indicate that a biomass can be grown and applied in a manner that results in metal uptake capacities an order of magnitude greater than resins, minerals, activated carbons, and other biosorbents such as algae, moss, bacteria, enzymes, tree bark, plant roots, etc. CAMP is seeking a Federal funding to continue the development of this innovative and potentially important material.
The Future
Our standard of living continues to be critically dependent on low cost resources from the
earth. Recent cut backs in funding of resource related research may have a significant
impact on Montana and the United States across a broad range of activities including
commercial, environmental, and national defense.
Continuing cut backs in the mineral education and mineral research infrastructure will not lessen our societal dependence on mineral products. In the long run, we will surely increase the severity of problems we now face in securing the basic building blocks of our technology.
Mineral technologies of today are significantly more benign than the practices of yesterday. Evolution of technology through research has increased economic efficiency and resulted in more environmentally friendly processes.
The Center for Advanced Mineral Processing represents a new strategy for development of new technology in the extractive mineral industries.
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