Vol. 26 No. 2 (2023): Indonesian Mining Journal, October 2023

In this current issue, five papers are published focusing on exploration, mining technology, mineral processing, energy transition, and environmental issues.

In exploration, the application of the induced polarization method for identifying metallic mineral distribution in the Leon area is presented. The research aims to determine the presence and quantity of metallic mineral resources in the Leon area, located in Central Sulawesi. Induced Polarization is a method that detects the occurrence of electrical polarization on the surface of metallic minerals below the earth's surface and is an active geophysical method. The advantage of this method compared to other geophysical methods is its ability to detect the presence of disseminated and irregular minerals because the scattered minerals are more easily polarized due to the currents passing through them.
In the mining engineering part, the impact of blasting with an electronic detonator using segmentation and non-segmentation methods is reported. Blasting is one of the techniques that is conducted in mining activities. However, blasting vibrations can cause damage to surrounding buildings and structures belong to subject surface waves from waste energy that does not work to fracture the rocks. Nowadays, to manage controllable variables in ground vibration, blasting technology has been updated to reduce the environmental impact using electronic detonators with high accuracy of delay timing. This research aims to study the blasting impact that close to the building structures and optimize the blasting results such as ground vibration value, coefficient of determination based on multiple linear regression, and fragmentation.

The effect of temperature variations on basalt-based glaze mixtures for stoneware ceramic applications is presented in the mineral processing part. Based on material and firing temperature, the ceramics are divided into stoneware, pottery, and porcelain. Stoneware is a type of ceramic that is fired at temperatures between 1150°C and 1350°C. This ceramic type is widely used in household and manufacturing ceramics industries. Ceramic surface glazing was carried out to beautify the surface appearance and protect and increase the strength of the ceramic body. In this study, the glaze sample was made using raw materials of basalt, kaolin, and feldspar with the composition of 60%, 10%, and 30% respectively with the grain sizes under 100 mesh. This research aims to determine the optimum temperature for the best quality of basalt glaze mixtures.

In energy transition issues, the need of materials used in battery production is increasing rapidly; one of them is graphite. Graphite is the primary material for battery anodes used in electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Exploiting natural graphite in Indonesia is still in the exploration stage. The ever-increasing demand for energy storage devices poses challenges in producing battery-grade graphite. One possible approach is to recycle the graphite anode (AG) from used Lithium-ion Batteries (LIB) into battery components. By utilizing waste as a raw material, production costs are lower as well as the use of LIB becomes more sustainable. This study discusses the techno-economics of AG recycling from electric vehicle (EV) LIBs.

Finally, in environmental issue presents inquiring the flyrock to determine the minimum safe distance of coal overburden blasting against the residential areas. Fly rock is a rock fragmentation that is thrown as a result of blasting. Such fragmentation that is thrown beyond the specified safe distance can cause damage to the infrastructure, mechanical equipment, and humans. This study aims to determine the safe radius of the fly rock that resulting from blasting residential area which that has a distance 200-300 m and has potentially distressing to cause damage. Calculating of the flying rock throwing distance is carried out theoretically and actually with orientation to the distance between spaces, the distance between burdens, minimum stemming height, minimum hole depth, powder factor, average charge blast hole, and distance initial burdens.