Assessing the Similarity of Cyanide-Free Gold Leaching Processes: A Case-Based Reasoning Application

TY - JOUR

T1 - Assessing the Similarity of Cyanide-Free Gold Leaching Processes: A Case-Based Reasoning Application

AU - Leikola, Maria

AU - Sauer, Christian Severin

AU - Rintala, Lotta

AU - Aromaa, Jari

AU - Lundström, Mari

PY - 2018/10/2

Y1 - 2018/10/2

N2 - Hydrometallurgical researchers, and other professionals alike, invest significant amounts of time reading scientific articles, technical notes, and other scientific documents, while looking for the most relevant information for their particular research interest. In an attempt to save the researcher’s time, this study presents an information retrieval tool using case-based reasoning. The tool was built for comparing scientific articles concerning cyanide-free leaching of gold ores/concentrates/tailings. Altogether, 50 cases of experiments were gathered in a case base. 15 different attributes related to the treatment of the raw material and the leaching conditions were selected to compare the cases. The attributes were as follows: Pretreatment, Overall method, Complexant source, Oxidant source, Complexant concentration, Oxidant concentration, Temperature, pH, Redox-potential, Pressure, Materials of construction, Extraction, Extraction rate, Reagent consumption, and Solid-liquid ratio. The resulting retrieval tool (LeachSim) was able to rank the scientific articles according to their similarity with the user’s research interest. Such a tool could eventually aid the user in finding the most relevant information, but not replace thorough understanding and human expertise.

AB - Hydrometallurgical researchers, and other professionals alike, invest significant amounts of time reading scientific articles, technical notes, and other scientific documents, while looking for the most relevant information for their particular research interest. In an attempt to save the researcher’s time, this study presents an information retrieval tool using case-based reasoning. The tool was built for comparing scientific articles concerning cyanide-free leaching of gold ores/concentrates/tailings. Altogether, 50 cases of experiments were gathered in a case base. 15 different attributes related to the treatment of the raw material and the leaching conditions were selected to compare the cases. The attributes were as follows: Pretreatment, Overall method, Complexant source, Oxidant source, Complexant concentration, Oxidant concentration, Temperature, pH, Redox-potential, Pressure, Materials of construction, Extraction, Extraction rate, Reagent consumption, and Solid-liquid ratio. The resulting retrieval tool (LeachSim) was able to rank the scientific articles according to their similarity with the user’s research interest. Such a tool could eventually aid the user in finding the most relevant information, but not replace thorough understanding and human expertise.

KW - hydrometallurgy

KW - information retrieval

KW - case-based reasoning

KW - knowledge modelling

KW - cyanide-free gold

U2 - 10.3390/min8100434

DO - 10.3390/min8100434

M3 - Article

VL - 8

JO - Minerals

JF - Minerals

SN - 2075-163X

IS - 10

M1 - 434

ER -