Tatyana Sakhabutdinova - the UMNIK Winner Develops Reagents for Extracting Metals from Hard-to-Enrich Ores
Tatyana Sakhabutdinova, a Ph.D. student at INRTU School of Subsurface Resource Management, won 500 thousand rubles in the UMNIK program of the Innovation Support Foundation. The grant will be used for the development of reagent collectors for sulphide ore enrichment. Under the project, Tatyana will use by-products of chemical enterprises to reduce the environmental impact and ensure comprehensive processing of minerals.
The UMNIK program seeks to support scientific and technical, commercially oriented projects. The contest is open to innovators aged 18-30. The winners implement the grants within one year. The expected results - obtaining patents, participation in the Student Startup Competition, etc.
This year financial support was granted to the authors of 250 applications from 41 regions of Russia. Three scientists from the Irkutsk Region were chosen as the winners by the experts. The grant will be awarded to ISU master's student Pyotr Ershov, who works on the prevention of hydrological risks, and junior researcher Elena Milenkaya, engaged in the production of high-concentration hydrogen peroxide.
As part of her project, Tatiana Sakhabutdinova, INRTU's first-year Ph.D. student, will present, in addition to the already patented set of chemical compounds, reagents based on elemental chalcogens, chalcogen-containing substances, and organochlorine electrophiles.
The substances are synthesized by SB RAS A.E. Favorsky Institute of Chemistry, and testing will be carried out in the Flotation and Chemistry of Reagents laboratory (Priority 2030 program). Associate professors of the Department of Mineral Processing and Environmental Protection named after S.B. Leonov Alexander Burdonov and Vyacheslav Barakhtenko will also participate in the project.
The INRTU members will analyze the production and market of flotation reagents, test samples of SB RAS Institute of Chemistry for stable interaction with minerals, and technologically evaluate the effectiveness of new compounds.
"In terms of import substitution we have set a goal - to create a new base of reagents from chemical production waste. Simultaneously with the improvement of the environmental situation in the Irkutsk Region we will increase the flotation activity and selectivity of substances to maximize the processing of valuable minerals and ores.
Today, the companies operate sites with raw materials that are difficult to enrich. That is why increasing productivity and output is the key task for mining and processing plants," says Tatyana Sakhabutdinova.
Small-scale chemical enterprises can be the key users of the developed technology. One of such production facilities will be established at the planned Federal Chemical Center (Rosatom State Corporation) in Usolye-Sibirskiy.
Photo by Arseny Chekmarev
