Advanced Mineral Technology Laboratory (AMTEL)
Solving Complex Mineralogical Challenges with Innovative Services

Advanced Mineral Technology Laboratory (AMTEL) is an analytical laboratory specializing in mineralogical services tailored to the mining industry. It focuses on providing an understanding of complex process-related challenges faced by mining companies. Its comprehensive suite of mineralogical services spans several areas: ore characterization, process selection, optimization, and innovation.

AMTEL’s core strength lies in accurately quantifying precious and other metals within ore or process products using elemental deportments (Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, etc.). Deportments aim to identify all the forms and quantify the carriers of metal or other elements (As, C, F, etc.). Such assessments provide mining companies with insights into how an ore might respond to various metallurgical processes. This invaluable information enables clients to plan and respond within processing plants by comprehending the effects mineralogy had or will have on processing.

Ore bodies in the mining world often exhibit characteristics that differ from initial exploration predictions. Mine managers frequently grapple with grade and recovery performances that fall short of their expectations.

As Alexander Chryssoulis, Director at Advanced Mineral Technology Laboratory, articulates: “Our mineral characterization services empower clients to understand potential avenues for optimizing their processing methods based on mineralogy and testwork. By understanding the mineralogy, targeted testwork can be performed.”

Tapping into its deep expertise in laser microbeam and static secondary ion techniques, AMTEL offers ppm-level sensitivity for measuring elements on the surface or the inside mineral particles. In addition to providing basic gravity-flotation-leaching metallurgical testwork services, the laboratory also conducts element deportment studies, which function both diagnostically and predictively

In the realm of gravity circuits, the challenge of capturing fine and flaky gold particles is persistent. AMTEL tackles this through a thorough characterization of visible gold, which encompasses understanding the size distribution, shapes of the gold particles, and their impact on processes like gravity flotation, locking liberation, and metal content in slimes.

It uses laser ionization mass spectrometers to examine mineral particle surfaces, a technique valuable in leaching circuits to pinpoint obstacles hindering gold dissolution (coatings, preg-robbing carbon, CN/DO consumers, etc.) The technique can also be used to quantify the presence of surface modifiers, which may influence flotation processing.

As the mining industry increasingly grapples with challenging deposits, there’s a rising demand for processing refractory gold. AMTEL’s utilization of secondary ion mass spectrometry enables the quantification of submicroscopic gold and other metals present in an ore.

AMTEL showcased its expertise by assisting a client in the detection, assessment, and capture of fine gold and Cu-mineral particles within their ore, ranging from 1 to 20 microns. In several cases, it played a pivotal role in assessing and quantifying the benefits of targeted processing improvements.

AMTEL stands as a beacon of excellence, combining mineralogy, metallurgy, and state-of-the-art analytical techniques to provide solutions both from commercial and research dimensions. By partnering with AMTEL, mining companies are poised to enhance recoveries, minimize concentrate dilution, boost efficiency, and curtail operating expenses.