Geologian tutkimuskeskus (GTK)
Established in 1886, GTK is an internationally oriented geoscience research agency operating under the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy. GTK’s core activities include economic geology, exploration, geophysics, information technology and evaluation and processing of natural resources, with a strong research effort in the analysis of geological processes and mineral systems, as well as in the development of exploration and beneficiation technologies. GTK runs the only mineral processing pilot plant in Europe.
GTK’s vision is to evolve into a European centre of excellence for natural resources and their sustainable use, and to consolidate its role as the national geo information centre. The mining sector forms the most important customer group to which GTK provides confidential expertise in economic geology, exploration, mineral processing and sustainable mining in Finland and worldwide.
GTK has been a lead partner in setting up a Finnish national minerals strategy and an active partner in the Finnish Green Mining Programme. In addition, GTK has been involved in various EU-funded projects, such as ProMine (2009-2013) and EURARE (2013-2017).
Expertise
GTK’s expertise focus on:
Mineral potential including studies on reserves and discovery potential of minerals, and their life cycle and total environment impact, studies in ores and ore-forming processes, and tectonic and metallogenic models.
Mineral processing including process mineralogy, development of eco-efficient mineral processing methods, environmental technologies for mineral processing. The mineral processing laboratory is equipped to develop mineral processing methods along the beneficiation chain from mineralogical analysis, testwork performance for flowsheet optimization from bench scale to pilot scale. The materials processes include a variety of ores, such as sulfide ores of copper, lead, zinc, nickel, gold and PGM, iron, phosphate and rare earth ores etc. and also mining tailings and processing residues.
Mining environmental research including methods to minimize emissions from mine sites, risk assessment and modelling at mine sites.
Facilities & services
GTK Mineral Processing and Materials Research provides a cutting-edge chain of research services to operators in the field of mining, metals and environmental industries. It is part of Finland’s national research infrastructure and well equipped with lasted instrumentation for the analysis and study of geological materials, such as SEM, EPMA, MLA, XRD and EDS analysis, to provide services in electron optics and microanalysis, radiogenic isotopes, stable isotopes, mineralogical studies, gem materials and gold nuggets, and selective fragmentation of geological samples and composite materials etc.
GTK Mintec located in the town of Outokumpu offers a unique platform for the development and testing of energy saving, low environmental impact crushing, grinding, and concentration processes. It consists of mineral processing laboratory and pilot plant and is equipped to develop mineral processing methods along the beneficiation chain from mineralogical analysis to dealing with process waste. The testing of promising methods can readily be ramped up from bench scale to pilot scale. The facilities contain the equipments in comminution and classification, flotation, hydrometallurgy, low and high intensity magnetic separation, gravity concentration and dense medium separation (DMS), and dewatering from lab scale to pilot scale. The pilot plant is equiped with a high standard process automatic control system and enables the testing of continuous beneficiation processes at the capacity range of 0.5 to 5 tons per hour and sample amount from 10 to 30 tons.
Course module 3
GTK Mintec provides the course module 3 in the project PROCHAINE. Based on the first course and second course the course module 3 is to provide the learners a practical opportunity to learn how to use the knowledge and data obtained and the technical flowsheet developed by lab-scale bench and continuous line (minipilot) testing to the pilot plant trial. The course consists of introduction of upscale knowledge and experience, pilot plant operation, training on dada analysis (mass balance, simulation, upscaling) and report writing and industrial plant visiting etc.
