Mineral Processing Circular Economy

Supervising and mentoring activities:
1) Co-advisor of Ruth Salazar’s Master thesis in Mineral Process Engineering, “Pyrite Activation and Depression: Microflotation and Physicochemical studies.” University of Antofagasta, Chile. May 2023 to present.

2) Mentoring of Yordana Flores’s Master thesis in Mineral Process Engineering, “Analysis of polymetallic flotation circuits.” University of Antofagasta, Chile. May 2023 to present.

3) Co-advisor of Alejandra Cespedes’s Master thesis in Mineral Process Engineering “Design of desulfurization process using coarse flotation”. University of Antofagasta, Chile. May 2023 to present.

4) Mentoring of Katiuska Huapaya's PhD thesis in Applied Sciences, Mention Aquatic Systems. "Use of Microalgae and their Functional Groups for the Generation of Biological Flocculants that Allow the Clarification of Recirculated Waters in Mineral Processes." University of Antofagasta, Chile. June 2023 to present.

5) Mentoring of Undergraduate thesis by Andrés Canales to qualify for the title of Bachelor of Biotechnology “From clinical studies to immunomodulatory solutions: Characterization and evaluation of exopolysaccharides from extremophilic microalgae in cell lines.” University of Antofagasta, Chile. 2023.

6) Mentoring of Yannira Castillo's Master's Thesis in Mineral Process Engineering “Microalgae biopolymers as bioflocculants of clay minerals for use in recirculated water from mining processes.” University of Antofagasta, Chile. 2023.

BOOK CHAPTER:

Yesica. L. Botero, Luiza Teixeira Alves and Luis A. Cisternas. Gestion del drenaje ácido de minas en relaves in Luis A. Cisternas, Edelmira Glavez, Mariella Rivas and José Valderrama. Economía circular en procesos mineros. Ril editores. Santiago, Chile. 2021. (pages 93-120).

RESEARCH VISITOR:

1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering. Wuhan University of Thecnology, Wuhan, China. 2023-2024
Project: Potash and non-metalic ore flotation.
Activities: Postdoctoral researcher

2. Mineral Processing and Recycling Group, Circular Raw Materials. Aalto University, Finland.Hub. 2019-2020
Project: Fundament studies to increase the circularity of mineral processes that contain pyrite.
Activities :
Studies to understand the physicochemical behavior of minerals are being conducted to increase the circularity of mineral processes. A novel frother based on cellulose is being analyzed. The studies include a micro flotation test, FT-IR, and particle-bubble attachment timers for pure and artificial minerals, including pyrite and chalcocite.

PUBLICATIONS IN SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS:

1. XXXI IMPC, International Mineral Processing Congress, Washington, DC, United States, 2024.
Oral: “Assessment of depression methods of activated pyrite.” Yesica. L. Botero, Ruth Salazar and Luis Cisternas,
2. Water Congress, Santiago, Chile, 2024.
Oral: “Use of bio-based flocculants for clay removal in recirculated mining water”. Katiuska Huapaya, Jeferson Grisales, Paloma Lara, Álvaro Ledezma, Yesica. L. Botero, Luis Cisternas, Ricardo Jeldres, Mariella Rivas.
3. FoMPEM 2023, Huainan, Anhui province, China, 2023.
Oral: ““Management of solid waste from mining processes: AMD prevention and Metal valorization”. Yesica. L. Botero, Isabelle Demers, Luis A. Cisternas and Mostafa Benzaazoua.
4. Flotation ’23 (MEI), Cape Town, South Africa, 2023.
Oral: “On the sustainable design of polymetallic flotation circuits”. Yesica. L. Botero, Luis A. Cisternas, Yordana Flores.
5. Flotation ’23 (MEI), Cape Town, South Africa, 2023.
Oral: “Using the desulfurization process by flotation for acid mine drainage prevention of a porphyry copper waste rock”. Yesica. L. Botero, Alejandra Céspedes, Isabelle Demers and Luis A. Cisternas.
6. Sustainablemining 2023, Santiago, Chile, 2023.
Oral: “Management of solid waste from mining processes: AMD prevention and Metal valorization”. Yesica. L. Botero, Isabelle Demers and Luis A. Cisternas.
7. 6th International Symposium on Process Mineralogy (Process Mineralogy ‘22), Sitges, Spain, 2022.
Oral: “Application of characterization techniques for the prevention of AMD for waste rock from a Chilean porphyry copper mine”. Yesica. L. Botero, Isabelle Demers, Mostafa Benzaazoua and Luis A. Cisternas.
8. Integration, Optimisation & Design of Mineral Processing Circuits (IntegratedMinPro ‘22), UK, 2022.
Oral: “Design and integration for environmentally benign processes: analysis of flotation circuits”. Yesica. L. Botero, Isabelle Demers and Luis A. Cisternas.
9. Flotation ‘21 (MEI), UK, 2021.
Oral: “Study of thionocarbamate and amyl xanthate collector's adsorption on covellite and pyrite surface: experiments and DFT simulations”. Yesica. L. Botero, Andrés Canales-Mahuziera, Mostafa Benzaazoua and Luis A. Cisternas.
10. 17Th International conference on Mineral Processing and Geometallurgy (PROCEMIN-GEOMET), Chile, 2021.
Oral: “Physical-chemical study of thiocarbamate and xanthate influence on covellite flotation”. Yesica. L. Botero, Rodrigo Serna-Guerrero, Alejandro López-Valdivieso, M. Benzaazoua and Luis A. Cisternas.
11. International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC), Cape Town, South Africa, 2020.
Oral: “Flotation flowsheet for eliminating pyrite in tailings: a cleaner production solution”. Yesica. L. Botero, Luis A. Cisternas and Alejandro López-Valdivieso.
12. International Symposium on Sustainable Mining and Mineral Processing Technology, Wuhan, China, 2019.
Poster: “Integrated design of polymetallic flotation circuit: Application to cleaner production”. Yesica. L. Botero, Lorena Cortés, Luis A. Cisternas and Alejandro López-Valdivieso.
13. 7th International Computational Modelling Symposium (Computational Modelling '19), National Maritime Museum, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK. 2019.
Oral: “Design of polymetallic flotation circuit based on optimization”. Luis A. Cisternas and Yesica. L. Botero.
14. International Conference on Foundation of mineral processing and extractive metallurgy (FoMPEM) 2019, Chile.
Poster: “Selective separation of copper and iron sulfides to obtain tailings with low pyrite content”. Yesica L. Botero, Luis A. Cisternas, Alejandro López-Valdivieso.