#bornites

[geologyin-blog]

Natural Peacock iridescent Bornite, pyrite, and Calcite Mineral

Photo: zundicrystal

[rejamart]

design + art commission for penbur of a creature ascended

hello. i'm a broke artist looking down the barrel of homelessness. if you like my work, consider tossing me a dollar or two on venmo $rejamrejam

[zeibei]

Big Sister is Watching You.

[penebui]

new 2024 ref for my hnk oc, Chalco :3

[iamthepulta]

wait no please explain mineral processing!!!

I gasped in delight at the ask, haha. I love mineral processing.

Mineral processing is the theory of economically getting your desired element out of whatever it naturally comes in. So Li out of spodumene, or Cu out of chalcopyrite. It's usually split into hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy (liquid chemistry and melting the fuck out of it, respectively), and often taught as hard rock extraction, but you need it for Every Element, really. So you can also focus on extracting phosphates, or nitrates, or uranium! It's chemistry++~

Personally, I know the most about copper extraction and my focus is on hydrometallurgy/geometallurgy, although pyrometallurgy is near to my heart. Copper is coincidentally a really good example of how the two work because it comes as so many natural minerals. (Further explanations under the cut...)

So for copper minerals! You have a whole slew of oxides and sulfides. They occur in different part of your orebodies under different states of oxidation/sulfidation. Take Chrysocolla, Malachite, Chalcocite, and Chalcopyrite. (Cu-silicate)(an oxide), (Cu-carbonate)(an oxide), (Cu-Sulfide), and (Cu-Fe-Sulfide).

Mines usually use hydrometallurgy for oxides by sticking them in a leach heap and pouring sulfuric acid over the whole thing. The acid selectively picks up the Cu ion from silicates and carbonates, leaving the primary tetrahedra alone. The sulfides can work with this chemistry if the mineral's comfort zone is outside of the current conditions (Chalcocite does leach, but usually leaves a Cu ion in the structure as CuS) but minerals like Chalcopyrite are very poor leachers because the outer rim of ions are ripped away, leaving a somewhat-hypothetical "passive layer" of Fe/S that won't react with the acid. So if you have a mine with a lot of Chalcopyrite, you'll be leaving money on the table unless you do something.

So people use pyrometallurgy! Which is what we've been using since the Bronze Age, really. You crush the rock to micrometer grains, use the hydrophobic properties of sulfur to "float" the sulfides in water, then send all of it to the smelter and melt the shit out of it, while adding particular chemicals and minerals to enhance copper recovery while suppressing sulfides you don't want, like sphalerite and galena.

It's REALLY cool. I'm biased of course, but I absolutely love the whole cycle. xD Being in mineral processing also gets you on the backside of geopolitics because you're the only person who understands how to GET things and WHERE to get them and why it's not as simple as pulling Cu out of the ground.

Feel free to ask questions!! I love processing so much, and mining in general, even though I'm only a master's student.

((And NO STUPID QUESTIONS. The mining industry is a goddamn black box DO NOT feel bad if you don't know what stuff means or formulas, or processes. I swear I learn one new word a week. They also have fifty names for everything too because 50 names are always better than 1. 👍)

[ghcstcd]

There are two ghouls named Bismuth and Bornite who were in Secondo's pack of ghouls who stayed behind when Secondo died. Unfortunately, Dewdrop doesn't with visit them as often as she should, or wants. He swears he's not avoiding them, but there's a strange guilt she feels about her success in the band and their pack.

[beeapartments]

I finished taking rock photos, hooray! (..it's over with!)

I ended up saving 195 photos. I want to take some good pictures of my fluorescent rocks at some point, but I need to figure out how first. I'm glad now I took the pictures on a huge sheet of paper, because some of my rocks left a lot of dirt or shed a lot of fine crystals (looking at you stibnite)

..Not sure when I'll edit them, or how long it'll take, though. Here's a few of the unedited ones.

[especdreamy]

My Uni gifted me a magnifying glass. Decided to use it on some minerals from my collection

[theoldbone]

Bornite, Dolomite, State Route 9, Connecticut

[torusauza]

Hory

[birdwithinternet]

30, 45 and 49 for weird asks

30. is there dishes in your room?

Not anymore!

45. can you remember what happened yesterday?

A little bit? It was a pretty normal day, I think.

49. can you skip rocks?

I can for like, two skips. Nothing too impressive, I'm no rock-skipping expert. My uncle is, though.

Thanks for the asks! <3

[tranquilocs]

Kishiko: Nespina has no idea I’m high.

Nespina: You’re high?

Kishiko: Oh, I’m sorry.

Kishiko, leaning over to Nia: Nespina has no idea I’m high.

[everythingisliminal]

Y'all know what? Life is

luscious and raw - I refuse

to forget this time.

[rafnyh]

Photos from this week. I've been a bit busy this week, but at least I'm enjoying this semester's courses, especially Mineral Deposits and Ore Mineralogy. The pale pink mineral seen in the second picture is a Bornite! ✨️

[iamthepulta]

Here's the thing about geology as a science: 90% of what you learn in school is vocabulary. You aren't learning about things. Chemistry and physics and mathematics theoretically taught you The Tools and how to use them.

Geology is about being able to describe the world around you in shorthand. Chemists look at CuFeS2 and say "copper-iron (III) sulfide" and they'd be correct. I look at CuFeS2 and say Chalcopyrite because "copper-iron (III) sulfide" is a lot to say; but more importantly, Chalcopyrite can also be a copper-iron (II) sulfide. Bornite (Cu5FeS4) is also a "copper-iron (III) sulfide".

However, when you look at Chalcopyrite (Cpy) and Bornite (Bn) in the ground, they look very different and they behave differently too when you try to get the copper out. So geology shorthands their chemical formulas to names.

I really love this cuneiform diagram because it illustrates the fundamental need of geology: that back in 2000BC the Babylonians and Dilmuni had the same challenge creating words that described ore (desired rock coming out of the ground), copper (the element), and copper minerals (what would produce copper).

(Metallurgy in Antiquity, Forbes, 1950)

The same thing happens in structural geology and geomorphology. You can say, for example, that a "fault zone" is where the earth has fractured, but you immediately want to know how. "Normal fault" or "Thrust fault" can describe the direction of movement and relative angle into the earth. But if you say "Graben" to a geologist, they immediately know sense of shear, angle into the earth, and location you're referring to in that system.

[ghcstcd]

Bornite and Dewdrop share a bong designed to look like a milkshake for two.