Based on the expertise gained in the use of a 350-ton converter at the WSIWS Joint-Stock Co., blowing facilities and regimes have been modified. Low-temperature slag splashing is numerically simulated for a top-blown tuyere using tips with single and double-row nozzle arrangement. A slag-splashing tuyere fitted with a steel tip with a double-row arrangement of nozzles has been designed. Ways to improve the melting technology using modified tuyeres combining slag splashing and flame gunning operations and to improve repair of the lining using a vertical tuyere are proposed.At the WSISW Joint-Stock Co., the vessel campaign in converter-based steelmaking technology (with slag containing 8 -14% MgO) could be extended to 2500 -3000 heats (using techniques such as slag splashing, extra gunning, and repair of the refractory lining); for comparison, the vessel campaigns reported from the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MISW) were 3700 -4000 heats [2], and from the Severstal' JSC, 4500 heats [3]. Foreign manufacturers, owing to the effective use of auxiliary techniques and equipment (mechanical drive, cooling systems for the converter and tuyeres, systems for escape, treatment, and entrapment of the converter gas, transfer facilities for steel and slag), could extend the vessel campaign to 30,000 heats or even more [4 -7]. Furthermore, a common practice with foreign manufacturers is the prerefining of iron prior to the converter process, careful scrap preparation, and the use of advanced automation [8,9]. The use of dynamic systems for controlling the melting process makes it possible to maintain a high efficiency (reaching 90%) in the control of carbon content ± 0.02% and melting temperature ± 12°C even in the early stage of charging a converter. Laser-based measuring systems [10] provide information about thickness of the refractory lining throughout the course of a campaign, which makes it possible to enhance the efficiency of repair of the lining, for example, by slag blowout or gunning.Melting techniques as commonly practiced in the domestic converter technology prescribe the removal of sulfur and phosphorus (as high as possible) prior to the blow of the bath; the hot repair of the vessel lining is commonly made by applying the lining slag, or the scull, by blowing out the final slag for this purpose, or by flame gunning using a patching material based on calcined magnesite or dolomite.Introduction of a technology for blowing out the final slag (containing 8 -14% MgO) with nitrogen injected through the top-blown oxygen tuyere turned out to be a challenging problem for foreign [6,7] and domestic technologists [11,12]. A rational idea was to use a special elongated tuyere [13]. Such tuyeres were employed to good effect to blow out slag with nitrogen at a flow rate of 320 -500 m 3 /min in 375-ton converters at the MISW JSC [12]. However, later the idea was abandoned, and for slagging the lining, technologists continued to use conventional oxygen tuyeres to blow nitrogen at a flow rate of 900 -1200 m 3 /min [2]. The o...

The main prospects for the development of gold mining in the Kolyma area are associated with the development of ore deposits. In the southwestern part of the Tenkinsk District and in Susuman District, there are gold deposits (Pavlik, Natalka and Degdekan), which belong to the low-sulfide formation. There are some areas of poor oxidized and low-sulphide ores, the concentration of which by gravity and flotation methods becomes ineffective. At present, at the level of laboratory research and experimental field tests, some low-cost technologies for rapid and activated heap leaching of gold from poor oxidized and low sulfide ores have been developed, and they are capable to be implemented in the harsh conditions of Magadan Region. This paper describes laboratory tests of 2 types of ores from deposits in the northeastern part of Magadan Region, carried out to develop an effective cyanide technology for gold heap leaching. The studies were carried out in the laboratory of the Insitute of Mining of FarEastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Transbaikal State University.

Since the cost of gold has increased by an order of magnitude over the past 20 years, gold mining began to be carried out from ores that are not previously acceptable for heap leaching (HL) technology – these are refractory ores with thin and ultrafine inclusions of precious metals, ore with an increased silver content. In the Russian Federation, classical representations in the field of gold and silver HL prevail in design solutions. At the same time, the problem of silver leaching is considered in terms of the associated extraction of the main component. This approach is determined by a limited set of technological measures that have become an integral part of the classic technological regulation: ore crushing to the class –200–40 mm, sodium cyanide consumption at the level of 0,5 kg/t; pH value – 10,5; cycle duration 65 days or more; gold concentration in production solutions – fractions, mg/l; using activated carbon for sorption of noble metals. Processing ores with silver contents of 30 g/t and a more classical approach to gold HL does not allow to increase the degree of extraction. There is a need to modernize the circuit or change the parameters of the technological regulations. The object of the study was a sample of poor quartz ore provided by the customer developing one of the gold and silver deposits of the Far Eastern Federal District, the object was to increase the degree of leaching of silver from poor gold-bearing ores without changing the technological scheme and without attracting additional mining equipment. Critical analysis of literary data was carried out and the main directions of gold production from poor gold-bearing ores were identified. Chemical and mineralogical compositions of silver-containing minerals and ore rocks were investigated. Forms of association of silver with ore minerals and rocks have been established. The option of physical and chemical activation of increase of reactivity of cyanide solutions during heap leaching of silver from poor gold-bearing ores is chosen. In laboratory conditions, it was found that an increase in the concentration of sodium cyanide by 6 times or more contributes to a satisfactory extraction of gold both in agitation and percolation leaching of silver. However, in the latter case, the positive result was obtained only with the use of solutions with increased reactivity