Newfoundland and Labrador's iron ore industry is about to be seen in a whole new light thanks to a more than USD 1 million infrastructure investment announced today by the Research & Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
New state-of-the-art mineral analysis equipment, known as a Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope with automated Mineral Liberation Analyses software, will be purchased by Memorial University of Newfoundland. The improved resolution and imaging capabilities of this instrument will allow researchers to distinguish between inter grown minerals on a very fine scale. RDC's USD 996,178 investment leverages an IOC investment of USD 250,000. RDC funding is provided under the Research Tools and Equipment element of its April 2010 USD 10 million competitive call for R&D infrastructure proposals.
Ms Susan Sullivan minister of innovation, trade and rural development said that "Collaboration is the key to future success and growth of Newfoundland and Labrador's mineral industry. This province has a diversified minerals industry that provides a wide variety of commodities to the world market. The forecasted gross value of mineral shipments for 2011 is USD 4.7 billion and exploration expenditures for this year are expected to be USD 122 million. Today's funding will allow industry and our academic communities to work together ensuring our mineral resources can be developed in a sustainable manner."
Mr Glenn Janes chief executive officer of RDC said that the mineral industry is one of Newfoundland and Labrador's largest industries. He said that "Today's investment marks an important milestone in mineral research and will ensure researchers have the technical and industrial equipment they need to bolster this province's mineral research strengths and contribute to mineral industry exploration and development.”
With this new equipment, researchers can estimate and optimize the iron recovered in rock during the mining process for the province's largest mineral export, iron ore. Memorial has developed advanced methods to distinguish between the different minerals in test samples. The new equipment will employ these advanced methods to optimize iron recovery and feed throughput during the concentrating process. Providing a better understanding of ore concentrate characterization can lead to efficiencies in processing as well as increased product quality and subsequent value of the province's mineral assets.
