Evaluating the effect of radio-frequency pre-treatment on granite rock samples for comminution purposes

The international mining industry needs to enhance its mineral liberation process and reduce its enormous amount of power consumption, thereby increasing its overall efficiency. Current research studies have found that the mineral liberation process can be enhanced through the use of pulsed power, ultrasound pre-treatment and microwave pre-treatment of run of mine ore. The purpose of this article is to present empirical results of treating specific granite rock samples with RF power within the VHF range. These results indicate that RF treatment of granite rock samples within the VHF range does not significantly weaken the mineral grain boundaries. These results prove that RF pre-treatment of these rock samples will not benefit the mineral liberation process. However, different results may be obtained from samples that contain mineral species that are more absorbent of electromagnetic radiation.

► A matching network for connecting rock samples to RF equipment is shown.
► Verification process of the matching network is established.
► RF treatment of granite rock samples does not weaken the mineral grain boundaries.