我国的工艺矿物学在过去十年中的重大进展主要表现在以下几方面:(1)矿物加工和冶金工艺矿物学的发展与应用;初步建立了矿物一生物浸矿机制和各类微生物冶金的制约因素,为生物选矿和冶金过程中工艺矿物学奠定了新的理论基础。(2)新的分析技术的发展及其应用使工艺矿物学开始从定性走向定量;探测和揭示了微生物在分子水平上与矿物表面相互作用和能量转换。这些研究将有助于了解微生物矿产开采静微生物选矿和冶金的控制因素的机制,为建立一个新的选冶工艺矿物学打下了深厚基础。(3)将矿物的晶体化学,矿物物理学,量子矿物学与工艺矿物学紧密结合,使这门应用学科不仅在选、冶、加工工艺等提取其中的某种有用元素,而且也促进了新兴的矿物材料和技术的发展。总之,在未来新的分析技术发展中,将被更广泛地用于研究矿物质,矿物一水界面和矿物一微生物界面,这不仅在新型的工艺矿物学发展中取得了好的成果,而且在环境矿物学,也有广泛的应用前景。
The main advances of process mineralogy in China in the last decade occur in the following areas. (1) Process mineralogy has been applied to study mineral process and metallurgy which helps understand mechanisms of microbial-mineral extraction and controlling factors in microbial metallurgy, and such establish a solid foundation for new applications of process mineralogy in mineral process and metallurgy. (2) New analytical technologies have greatly advanced process mineralogy from qualitative to quantitative analyses, for example, Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by Scanning Electronic Microscope (QEMSCAN) and Mineral Liberation Analyzer (MLA) have been developed to determine mineral compositions, morphology, particle size, textures among mineral particles and trace element distribution in a fast and precise way. This Iend a hand to probe and to understand microbial-mineral interracial interactions and related energy conversion at a molecular-level, and such established a foundation for new advances of met- allurgical process mineralogy. (3) Process mineralogy together with mineral crystal chemistry, mineral physics and quan- tum mineralogy benefit not only the extraction of valuable elements during mineral processes and metallurgy but also the advance of new mineral materials and technological applications. In summary, the future advance of new analytical techniques (e. g. , synchrotron radiation spectroscopy and microanalysis) will be more extensively used in investiga tions of minerals, mineral-water interfaces and mineral-microbial interfaces and provide better understanding in process mineralogy as well as in environmental mineralogy and molecular environmental geochemistry.