Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as Represented by the Minister of Natural Resources

Institut National D'optique/national Optics Institute

Magella Bilodeau

Daniel Lefebvre

Nicolas Reynier

Sebastien Roy

Andre Demers

André Demers

Disclosed is an apparatus that is an attrition mill for grinding or comminuting ores, mine wastes, and radioactive wastes some of which may comprise metals, which may include uranium and/or cesium and/or mercury and/or thorium and/or rare earth elements. Also disclosed are processes that employ the apparatus for combined grinding and optionally leaching metals from ores and wastes. Some such methods comprise an optional step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with a solid inorganic base with water addition or with an aqueous inorganic base, follow by a step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with an aqueous inorganic acid with or without leaching salt addition, to solubilize the metals present in the ore or the waste. The disclosed apparatus and methods, in some embodiments, enable efficient grinding and attrition of ores substrates and mine wastes even without need for grinding media.

Combined grinding and leaching apparatus for ores and wastes and methods of use thereof

Provided herein is a method for measuring the size distribution and/or hardness of free falling rock pieces. The method comprises projecting at least one laser line on the falling rock pieces by a laser device; capturing images of the falling rock pieces at an angle from the at least one laser line by at least one camera; and obtaining size distribution data of the falling rock pieces based on data obtained from a topographical map generated from the captured images. Certain embodiments further comprise: obtaining at least one of the volume and area of individual rock pieces from the topographical map; conducting a data analysis on at least one of the volume and area measurements of the rock pieces to reduce at least one of sampling and measurement errors; determining the size distribution of the falling rock pieces based on the data analysis and, optionally, evaluating a rock hardness index for the rock. Further provided is a method comprising: producing two topographical maps of the pieces from captured images; and obtaining the volume of pieces from the topographical map by adding half-volumes from each of the topographical maps.

Methods for measuring properties of rock pieces

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Gatineau, Canada

Magella Bilodeau