FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[osman khattak]

I hear about liquid/material which is used in mining . what is the name of that liquid/ material uses in mining.
Please help me in this regards

[lluis]

Good morning, Osman

As far as I know, the liquid is water.
Others fluids are used in some mining processes (drilling oil wells is one), but are minoritaries....

With best wishes

Lluís

[quigi]

Are you talking about mining or precious metal recovery? As mentioned above water is used as the primary solution in mining but as far as I know, its nitric acid which is used for the final separation. Then depending on which metal you're after you'll need a secondary metal to displace the precious. I know copper is used for silver extraction, but that's the end of my knowledge. There are also various lubricants/solutions you can use for coring as well.

[Mark Ost]

Mercury was once used for gold separation from the mined ore.

If you go back even further, the rock on a tunnel face, was heated by wood fires (must have been fun in tunnels) and then the rock was soaked in water causing it to fracture due to the thermal expansion and contraction. NON IMSA technique!

[osman khattak]

I hear that there is a material which have a property of swelling, when some one put in fractures during mining or put in Drill holes , after some time it expend.

with regards

[quigi]

Sounds to me like you're talking about Fracking. You're gonna need some VERY expensive equipment it this is what you're referring to.

[Tom Tucker]

I believe what Ossman is asking about is a liquid mixture which may be poured or injected into a series of previously drilled hole in the rock. After a period of time - perhaps a few hours - the liquid mixture has some sort of reaction and expands within the holes and breaks off the desired rock, just as feather wedges would if you were using mechanical tools. I know the method was used to recover a large geological specimen at a locality in West Virginia a couple of years ago.
A mining engineer would be able to give you a better description of the process, including the name of the liquid components.

[GneissWare]

Google expansive grout. For a particular product reference that may get you started, see:
https://www.amazon.com/Dexpan-Demolition-Excavating-Alternative-Jackhammer/dp/B000BRQ9A2
(link normalized by FMF)

[Ivan Blanco (PDM)]

Hi Osman. Are you maybe talking about expansive cement (some times it is called demolition cement)?. After drilling, you fill the holes up with it and after some hours/days the rock cracks, so you can recover mineral specimens without vibrations. Is that what you mean?.

[osman khattak]

yes my dear friends , I am taking about Non-explosive demolition cement (agents)

Thank you very much for help. I love you all.

with best regards

HUK

[Mike Wood]

Good morning Mr Osman,
yes I have heard about "Dexpan" too (as Gneissware suggested). Good for splitting boulders and peeling off plates of rock from the side of a tunnel (with a drill hole at a shallow angle to the side wall of the tunnel). I don't think it would be any use for actually driving a tunnel; you would need a lot of time and patience !
Best regards

[GneissWare]

As Mike said, you can't use it as a substitute for explosives. It has to have somewhere to relieve to, meaning that you can use it in the same way as feathers and wedges to break a freestanding rock or to propagate a crack.