Exploring the Connection Between Elemental Sulphur and Sulphide Minerals During Stage A Conditions – Design of Experiments

Exploring the Connection Between Elemental Sulphur and Sulphide Minerals During Stage A Conditions – Design of Experiments

H. Kim, O. Kökkılıç, F. Rosenblum, K.E. Waters*

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Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University 3610 University, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 0C5

Abstract

Under certain conditions, sulphide minerals are susceptible to a phenomenon called SelfHeating (SH), where a material heats up without an external heat source. Self-heating is an exothermic oxidation reaction that occurs in three distinct temperature Stages, namely Stage A (room temperature to 100 °C), Stage B (100 °C – 350 °C), and Stage C (above 350 °C). New studies have shown that sulphide self-heating reactions are heavily influenced by the interaction between elemental sulphur and pyrrhotite ore during Stage A conditions The aim of this study was to employ a Design of Experiments (DOE) method to investigate how differing Stage A conditioning parameters influence the interaction between elemental sulphur and pyrrhotite ore, and their effect on Self-Heating Capacity (SHC). The 5 main factors used to explore the differing Stage A conditions were elemental sulphur content, time, oxygen content, moisture content, and temperature.

Key words: Self-Heating, Pyrrhotite, Design of experiments