Mineral Processing in Developing Countries

1 Mineral Processing in Developing Countries - Advantages and Disadvantages.- 1.1 The Present Situation.- 1.2 Benefits to be Gained from Local Processing.- 1.2.1 Resource based industrialization.- 1.2.2 Reducing dependence.- 1.2.3 Development of national capacity.- 1.2.4 Transfer-price manipulation.- 1.2.5 Economic rents.- 1.2.6 Access to capital.- 1.3 Barriers to Local Processing of Minerals.- 1.3.1 Tariffs and other trade limitations.- 1.3.2 Non-economic factors.- 1.3.3 Marketing problems.- 1.3.4 Effects of technology.- 1.3.5 Economies of scale.- 1.4 Economic Analysis of Processing Projects.- 1.4.1 Capital costs.- 1.4.2 Transport costs.- 1.4.3 Environmental costs.- 1.4.4 Energy costs.- 1.4.5 Complementary inputs.- 1.4.6 Labour costs.- 1.4.7 Infrastructure.- 1.4.8 Externalities.- 1.4.9 New vs. expansion projects.- 1.4.10 Concluding remark.- 2 Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium.- 2.1 The Present Situation.- 2.1.1 Bauxite reserves.- 2.1.2 Bauxite production.- 2.1.3 Alumina production.- 2.1.4 Aluminium production.- 2.1.5 Semi-fabrication.- 2.1.6 Demand for aluminium Internal demand in developing countries World demand.- 2.2 Processing Technology.- 2.2.1 Alumina production.- Alkaline processes.- Pedersen process.- Acid leaching.- Combined acid and salt leaching processes.- 2.2.2 Aluminium production.- Carbothermal reduction.- Use of other reductants.- Purification processes.- Other electrolytic processes.- 2.3 The Cost of Processing.- 2.3.1 Alumina production.- Capital costs.- Operating costs.- Revenue.- 2.3.2 Aluminium production.- Capital costs.- Operating costs.- Revenue.- 2.4 Energy Use.- 2.5 Availability of Aluminium Technology.- 3 COPPER.- 3.1 The Present Situation.- 3.1.1 Copper reserves.- 3.1.2 Copper ore and concentrate production.- 3.1.3 Smelting and refining of copper.- 3.1.4 Semi-fabrication.- 3.1.5 Demand for copper.- 3.2 Copper Processing Technology.- 3.2.1 Pyrometallurgy.- Reverberatory furnace smelting.- Electric furnace smelting.- Flash furnaces.- Continuous smelting.- 3.2.2 Hydrometallurgy.- CLEAR process.- Sherritt-Cominco process.- Anaconda Arbiter process.- Cyprus copper process.- 3.2.3 Comparison of different processes.- 3.3 Economics of Copper Processing.- 3.3.1 Capital costs.- 3.3.2 Operating costs.- 3.3.3 Concentrate sales vs. building a smelter.- 3.4 Copper Rod Production.- 3.5 Energy Use in Copper Processing.- 4 Iron and Steel.- 4.1 The Present Situation.- 4.1.1 Iron ore reserves.- 4.1.2 Iron ore production.- 4.1.3 Agglomeration.- 4.1.4 Pig iron and steel production.- 4.1.5 Demand for steel.- Internal demand in developing countries.- World demand.- 4.2 Iron and Steel Technology.- 4.2.1 Direct reduction steel-making.- 4.2.2 Conventional steel production.- 4.3 Steel Processing Costs.- 4.3.1 Capital costs.- 4.3.2 Operating costs.- 4.3.3 Revenue.- 4.3.4 Economic factors.- 4.4 Energy Use in Iron and Steel.- 5 Economic Factors Affecting the Location of Processing in Developing Countries.- 5.1 Capital Requirements.- 5.2 Sources of Finance.- 5.3 Labour Requirements, Labour Intensity, Labour Share in Total Costs.- 5.4 Raw Materials Requirements.- 5.5 Transport Costs.- 5.6 By-products.- 5.7 Energy Requirements and Availability.- Notes.