CSA Global Technical Director, Dr Pim van Geffen will present at the 29th International Applied Geochemistry 2022 Symposium: Facing the challenges of today using applied geochemistry on “The Role of Geochemistry and Geometallurgy in Sustainable Resource Development” between Sunday October 23 to Friday 28 October, 2022 in Vina del Mar, Chile.
Abstract
The effects of accelerated human-induced global warming are driving up the desire for a low-carbon energy transition with concomitant growth in metal demand. At the same time, the minerals sector is under ever greater scrutiny to deliver resources in the most responsible and least impactful way possible. This requires the industry to improve on its track record throughout the entire mining value chain by optimizing its systems and processes holistically with new approaches. Historically, the fields of mineral exploration, mining, and processing were generally understood by geologists and metallurgists and knowledge would be shared among small teams involved in resource development and production. More recently, science and engineering have become more specialized and diversified, leading to siloing in organizations and dissociation of exploration geosciences from mining operations and environmental impacts. This knowledge gap has grown to the point that a bridging discipline known as geometallurgy is now required to reconnect the disparate functions through designated teams of specialists. Mineral processing is primarily affected by mineralogy, which dictates grade, hardness, material handling, metal deportment, and recovery parameters. Likewise, chemistry and mineralogy control the metal-leaching and acid-drainage potentials of waste rock and tailings. However, detailed mineralogical data are usually only acquired in small volumes of metallurgical and environmental testwork, or in the early stages of exploration. High quality multi-element geochemical data are more commonly available for thousands of drill-hole intervals, providing the closest approximation of an orebody’s mineral composition. If understood and analysed well, such geochemical data can play a critical role in material characterization for all downstream processes, including mining, milling, metallurgy, waste and tailings management, and closure planning.
Authors: Pim van Geffen, David Kaeter, Samer Hmoud, Neal Reynolds
Dr van Geffen will present on Thursday October 27 in the Gran Estella Room.
Dr Pim van Geffen
Technical Director
Pim is a professional geoscientist with more than 15 years’ experience in mineral exploration and mining across the globe. He is a leader in the fields of geochemistry and geometallurgy in the Americas and is passionate about innovation and improved business practice in the sector. Across exploration to operations, closure and remediation, Pim focuses on rock-property data integration and process optimization throughout the mining value chain. He sees tremendous potential value in unlocking hidden information through geoscientific data gathered and not used to its full potential to characterize ore and waste, minimize operational risk, and maximize return. Pim has been a significant contributor across the industry; having delivered a plethora of public short courses and conference talks on geochemical data analysis and its geomet applications. He has provided in-house training to mining companies and academic institutions on ioGAS software, portable X-ray fluorescence analysis and infrared reflectance spectroscopy, and has served as a guest lecturer at the University of British Columbia and Queen’s University.