Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Chem. Eng.
Sec. Microfluidic Engineering and Process Intensification
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fceng.2024.1445900
This article is part of the Research Topic Editors’ Showcase: Microfluidic Engineering and Process Intensification View all 3 articles

Industry Relevant Microfluidic Platforms for Mineral Leaching Experiments

Provisionally accepted
Daisy Yang Daisy Yang Craig Priest Craig Priest *
  • University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip devices offer exquisite temporal and spatial control over chemical and physical processes that are important in mineral exploration and mining. These include mineral-water interfacial reactions, dissolution, and adsorption/desorption in pores, fractures, or other micro/nanostructures. Microfluidic mineral studies offer advantages of small sample and reagent volumes, high throughout, and short analytical cycles that may enable in-field mining decisions. However, not many microfluidic studies have targeted these mining sector challenges for mineral leaching. In this review, special attention is given to microscale experimental platforms for predicting extraction and leaching of industrially-relevant samples (real ore samples). Advantages and challenges of these platforms are given. The review concludes that there are significant opportunities for microfluidics in mineral analysis, screening, process intensification, and process control in the resource and minerals sector.

    Keywords: Microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip, Process Intensification, High throughput screening, mineral processing, extraction, Leaching

    Received: 08 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang and Priest. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Craig Priest, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.