Presentation at the round table “Topical issues of the development of the mineral resource complex of the Russian Federation” on May 21, 2025, the Federation Council
T. V. Bashlykova, Director of NVP Center-ESTAgeo LLC,
Member of the Committee on Precious Metals and Precious Stones of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
The two Strategies approved last year (the Strategy for the Development of the Mineral Resource Base of the Russian Federation until 2050 and the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation) have been agreed on many issues, including the key role of technological sovereignty in ensuring geological exploration, mining and processing of minerals.
The domestic MSB of solid minerals (TPI) is distinguished by both diversity and complexity, therefore, working in conditions of natural deterioration of its quality, Russian technologists have gained a wealth of experience and have scientific and methodological developments that make it possible to involve almost any TPI, even those not enriched by traditional methods, in industrial processing, including man-made formations of mineral composition. Many developments are ahead of world practice, creating conditions for achieving global leadership.
Let’s consider some of them, corresponding to 8 of the 19 priorities of scientific and technological development of the industry specified in the Development Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
1. The use of specialized software tools for interpreting geological information with the extraction of technological knowledge to substantiate the number and locations of exceptionally representative technological samples, the expediency of studying large-scale enrichment, and optimizing the subsequent stages of studying a mineral resource facility.
Figure 1 shows an algorithm for interpreting geological information using the developed software to extract technological knowledge that allows to increase the reliability of the geological and economic assessment of the MSO.
The histogram of the gold content in ordinary samples creates a cognitive image of the distribution of gold in the bowels of the MSO, indicating the rare occurrence of large-scale gold-bearing phases, which determine the need to increase the weight of attachments for technological research and testing to obtain reliable results.
Figure 2 shows the step-by-step integration of technological knowledge at all 4 stages of the geological and technological study of the MSO with a degree of accumulation sufficient to create an expert management system for ore dressing and concentrate quality at the stage of field development.
2. Expansion of SME TPI by involving in the processing of low-quality (including previously non-enriched) mineral raw materials of natural and man-made origin, primarily strategic, scarce, import-dependent types of TPI due to:
— development of hardware to enhance the sensitivity of radiometric equipment for large-scale enrichment (a low-content module has been developed and tested for low-quality ores of Mo, Sn, W and REE);
— the introduction of new technological solutions (including biological ones), which make it possible to eliminate cumbersome processing schemes and obtain products with high added value (for example, when processing manganese ores using a biotechnological method, it is possible to obtain salts, dioxide and metallic manganese bypassing the concentrate production stage, the same is true for processing rare earths, nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc , etc.);
— implementation of a new approach to testing man-made formations, which consists in transferring the gross method of testing to the initial stage of study (now the gross method is being implemented at the final stage and studying man-made objects);
— the introduction of mineralogical and technological monitoring of the physical condition of mining and metallurgical waste (spent piles of heap leaching, enrichment tailings, cakes, cinders, slimes, slags, dusts) in order to justify the period of their involvement in recycling until they lose their technological properties (after a certain period, the recycling of man-made mineral raw materials becomes unprofitable due to known hypergenic processes);
— implementation of a monitoring system for the distribution of increased concentrations of elements (including strategic and scarce ones) in processed ores and technological products, the level of extraction of valuable and associated components for each operating enterprise in order to analyze the efficiency of subsurface use and information support for decision-making;
— audit of technological and design solutions with the creation of an information situational knowledge base according to the degree of their rationality and complexity (the degree of rationality of these solutions is clearly manifested at the stage of development and has a preventive value at the stage of study).
3. Development and implementation of new scientific and methodological approaches, technologies, expert systems of subsurface use (certification of mineral raw materials by recoverable value, technological audit, quantitative assessment of the degree of rationality of integrated use of subsurface, decision support for the development of mineral resources), new scientific directions, for example, situational mineralogical analysis as the basic basis for the creation of expert (intelligent) systems (the architectures of these expert systems and information knowledge bases have been created, which can be an element of the work of a Supercomputer, launched in MGRI).
4. A systematic approach to the analytical support of geological and technological work.
Figure 3 shows the full range of analytical methods used in the process of technological assessment of the MSO.
The Strategy for the development of SMEs in the Russian Federation until 2050 states that the share of imported equipment for technological research in the exploration sector is 20%, and analytical equipment is close to 90%. To clarify, the share of imported instrumentation for analytical research, ensuring the reliability of the technological assessment of the MSO, is close to 100%, and optical systems — 100%. The issue of equipping geological and technological organizations is currently more than critical.
5. Training of personnel for research and production organizations according to the POINT system (practice-oriented education integrating science and technology), development of new academic disciplines, organization of advanced training courses for specialists in the field of studying and mastering TPI.
Our Scientific and Innovation Center has been operating for 25 years at the Department of Enrichment of the TPI of NUST MISIS, students undergo engineering training during and after their studies.
Our experience with positive and negative knowledge can be widely shared.
The existing potential, created, among other things, by technological entrepreneurship (outlined in the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation), is ready for implementation, which requires regulatory support. The implementation of the developed technological solutions and digital tools will reduce the time and cost of geological and economic assessment of TPI deposits while increasing its reliability, expand the country’s SMEs, move away from import dependence on certain types (primarily strategic and scarce) raw materials, solve a number of economic and environmental problems, and update the personnel training system.
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Figure 3