Process mineralogy of non-metallic mineral deposits

Kurt Aasly is currently an associate professor at the Department of Geoscience and Petroleum at NTNU. He was previously an exploration geologist for gold and base metals in the arctic, before completing his PhD from NTNU, related to quartz for Si production. Kurt continued to work with quartz within Elkem before re-joining NTNU. His fields of research and teaching is within process mineralogy and geometallurgy, mainly related to industrial minerals and iron oxides but also involved in seafloor massive sulphides and lately, aggregates for concrete. He is currently responsible for developing a new electron microscopy lab at the department, including EPMA and automated mineralogy.

Process mineralogy is typically related to detailed examinations of metallic ores and the relationship between mineralogical properties and mineral processing. However, process mineralogical techniques are widely used within other mineral sectors as well, such as on industrial minerals, although the main objectives of such investigations can be different. Examples of analyses of quartz qualities for the production silicon (Si) will be provided.  More recently, aggregates for concrete are also subjected to process mineralogy-like investigations in order to reveal the content and behaviour of pyrrhotite in aggregates and its detrimental effect on aggregate quality. Challenges are related to the limitations of sulphur content in aggregates, its relationship to sulphide mineralogy and the efficient analyses of these.