SCIENCE · INVESTIGATE AND EXPLAIN

Distinguish ore grade, dilution and recovered metal

Mineral deposits concentrate material through geological processes: segregation during crystallization, transport and precipitation by hot fluids, or sedimentary concentration can produce different geometries and mineral associations. A useful resource interpretation connects those processes to observed host rocks, alteration and structure rather than assuming that every metal-bearing rock is economic ore.

Learning outcome: Vary dilution at fixed recovery, then recovery at fixed dilution. Retain both total-mass and metal ledgers. Explain why a lower feed grade can coexist with the same recovered metal and why grade alone cannot settle an environmental decision.

Starting recap

Retain resource inventories, physical force and reaction boundaries, chronological alternatives and explicit decision constraints. Conditional teaching results do not certify actual site suitability.

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Try

With 200 tonnes dilution and recovery 0.8, feed is 1200 tonnes containing 20 tonnes metal. Grade is 1.66667%; recovered pure metal is 16 tonnes, tailings total 1184 tonnes and unrecovered metal 4 tonnes. Both total mass and metal close.

Open the experiment

Predict

If barren dilution increases, must recovered metal increase when recovery fraction stays fixed?

Your prediction and reason

Experiment

Vary dilution at fixed recovery, then recovery at fixed dilution. Retain both total-mass and metal ledgers. Explain why a lower feed grade can coexist with the same recovered metal and why grade alone cannot settle an environmental decision.

Close an ore, dilution and recovered-metal budget

Worked teaching model · synthetic values · Original 1000 tonnes ore at 2% metal plus barren dilution. Recovery applies to the 20 tonnes contained metal, not total feed. Ideal product is pure recovered metal; all other feed becomes tailings. No current prices, economic reserve or extraction instructions.

Barren dilution added: 200 tonnes Metal recovery: 0.8 fraction

Reset keeps your prediction, captures and practice history.

Dilution lowers feed grade without creating or destroying contained metal.

Recovery is a separation fraction, not ore grade. Waste rock outside the mill boundary is distinct from tailings inside it. Real concentrate contains gangue, and environmental/economic feasibility requires more than this ideal mass balance.

Complete conditional quantities, with separate units
Quantity	Value	Unit
Total feed	1200	tonnes
Contained metal	20	tonnes
Diluted feed grade	1.666667	% by mass
Recovered pure metal	16	tonnes
Metal remaining in tailings	4	tonnes
Total ideal tailings	1184	tonnes

Original instructional packets and diagrams, not actual site measurements, legal limits or professional clearance.

Dilution lowers feed grade without creating or destroying contained metal.

Observation to attach to a capture

Captures preserve recipes and replay their calculated results. They are synthetic model evidence, not physical measurements.

Understand

1. Define the evidence and process

2. Connect mechanism, geometry and boundary

Grade is the mass fraction of a constituent in a defined material stream. Recovery is the fraction of its contained amount captured by a specified process. Barren dilution adds mass without adding the target metal. These quantities have different denominators and cannot be substituted for one another. Resources and economically recoverable reserves also require geological confidence and modifying factors; this lesson does not classify a real reserve.

The original feed contains 1000 tonnes of ore at 2% metal, hence 20 tonnes of target metal. Add a tonnes of barren dilution and recover fraction b of those 20 tonnes. Feed grade becomes 100×20/(1000+a) percent; the ideal pure product is 20b tonnes. Tailings are the remainder of total feed, including unrecovered metal. Real concentrates are not pure metal, so an additional concentrate-grade observation would change the product-stream calculation.

Waste rock excluded before the processing boundary is not the same stream as tailings leaving it. A higher recovery need not reduce total disturbed land or all environmental impacts. Infrastructure, water, energy, rights, waste stability and closure obligations need separate evidence; no fictional grade or recovery here establishes permission, profitability or responsible extraction.

3. Reconstruct the worked packet

4. Predict and investigate

Predict first: If barren dilution increases, must recovered metal increase when recovery fraction stays fixed?

5. Test changed evidence

Apply the evidence to a changed case

With 500 tonnes dilution and recovery 0.5, reconstruct feed grade, product and both tailings quantities.

Retain the evidence frame, calculations and assumptions before opening public feedback.

Compare a worked response

Feed is 1500 tonnes and grade 1.33333%. Product is 10 tonnes; total tailings 1490 tonnes include 10 tonnes unrecovered metal. Dilution did not change the original 20 tonnes of contained metal.

6. Retain a bounded decision

Preserve the first plan, source identity, original observations, units and competing interpretations. All numerical packets and diagrams in this category are invented teaching cases, not measured site conditions. Retain earlier actual USGS archives separately; do not merge unrelated sites into an invented actual history. Human review, unfamiliar transfer and any chosen supervised practical pathway remain separate. No mining, treatment, slope access or environmental clearance is authorized by these exercises.

Mechanism reference, checked 30 October 2026. Original prose, calculations, questions and diagrams.

Apply

Public practice checks a specific claim. It does not establish independent mastery.

With 500 tonnes dilution and recovery 0.5, reconstruct feed grade, product and both tailings quantities.

Your explanation and limitations

Continue

Completion requires a saved prediction, at least one capture and a reflection. Presence checks do not grade your reasoning.

Skipping retains experiments and awards no mastery.

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