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By Anderson JDC

Opencast Lignite Mining requires topwall strata of seams to be fully depleted and footwall aquifers sufficiently depressurized. To prevent a spread of the cone of depression into protected wetlands some distance away, alternatives had been investigated such as closing water works, underground slurry wall barriers and recharge by infiltration. As a result of these investigations, the infiltration method has been chosen and in a first phase during the next decade it will utilize as much as 55 x 106 m3/year. Using this approach, the survival of the wet lands is assured.

Jan 1, 1988

By J Kleynhans, D Vermeulen, V Cogho

A number of rehabilitated open cast coalmines in SA are already decanting. The paper focuses on the situation at one of these mines where the following information exist: monthly decant rates and rainfall; sulfate concentrations of the decanting water; water level measurements inside the mine prior to decanting; ABA analyses; information about the rehabilitation (drainage slope, vegetation, soil used). A 2D-model was constructed for the mine and calibrated against six years of flow data. About 85 per cent of the decant outflow rate comes from direct recharge on top of the rehabilitated mine while the other 15 per cent is derived from lateral groundwater inflows. The estimated recharge value was 17 per cent of the rainfall. Measured sulfate values showed that the sulfate generation rate for the mine was in the order of 7 kg/ha/d. Conclusions from the study are:most of the water decanting from rehabilitated open cast coal mines is derived from recharge via rainfall; given a specific sulfate generation rate, then: the lower the recharge the less the decant rate but the higher the sulfate concentration of the decanting water and vice versa; future prediction of the decant rate must be stochastic according to expected percentile monthly rainfall values; and as a first assessment of the predicted sulfate concentration of decant water from rehabilitated open case mines, the 7 kg/ha/d sulfate generation rate can be used.

Jan 1, 2003

By P Hayes, D Fadhlurrahman

Molten slags, fluxes and salts play key roles in a wide range of the high temperature industrial process applications, including metals production, refining and recycling, metal manufacturing processes, electrochemical metal production cells, batteries, and efficient heat transfer media. Recognising the importance and significance of fundamental scientific knowledge of these systems, the International MOLTEN Conference series was established to provide a forum to bring together leading academic researchers and industrial engineers to present and discuss the latest scientific ideas and findings, and their application in their respective fields. This article presents an analysis of the research carried out in this field over time in terms of the number of journal articles, fields and slag systems studied and geographical origin of the research.

Jun 19, 2024

Interrelated data for five fundamental features of production processes would help promote the- development of the discipline and profession of extractive metallurgy. The features are the input materials, the products, equilibria, kinetics" and movement of materials within the reactor. Aspects of overall process performance that could be developed in these terms include quantitative comparison of reactor engineering options, process dynamics, interruptions to operations, and recycling. The ability to be able to forecast these and other aspects of process performance would be valued by most metallurgists. Although data have been reported for each of these aspects they have been more relevant to process economics than process fundamentals. The data have not often been interrelated via the fundamental features for a particular raw material-process system; nor have ~ similar data been related for different systems.

Jan 1, 1986

By M I. Pownceby, N Karimian, A Frierdich

These may be found with goethite through mechanisms including direct substitution or coprecipitation of nanocrystalline phases. Understanding P incorporation in goethite has significant implications for Australia’s iron ore industry as it lowers their commodity value. The current study tests a novel low-temperature technique to extract P impurities from synthetic goethite phases under O2-free ambient conditions by utilising Fe(II)-catalysed recrystallisation. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the Fe(II)-catalysed recrystallisation of goethite on the geochemical behaviour (mobility and speciation) of co-associated P. To achieve this, we tracked changes in labile P (aqueous and 1M NaOH extractable) concentrations over time in goethite suspensions which were reacted with Fe(II)aq for 14 days under circumneutral pH conditions and room temperature conditions. Temporal changes in Fe mineralogy were investigated via synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Iron K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy confirmed goethite as the only mineral phase in P-free treatments while goethite (~86 per cent) and feroxyhyte (~14 per cent) were the main phases in 1.0 per cent P-containing treatments after a 14- day reaction with Fe(II)aq. According to our findings, the treatment of P-goethite with Fe(II) for a duration of 7–14 days, followed by a 24-hour extraction of the reacted solids using 1M NaOH, results in the removal of approximately 79.5 per cent of the initial P content. This removal encompasses both the aqueous fraction (~4.5 per cent) and the surface adsorbed fraction (~75 per cent) from the 1 per cent P-bearing mineral phase. Notably, this approach demonstrates an improvement in P extractability, with approximately a 10 per cent increase compared to the 1 per cent P-goethite sample that was not reacted with Fe(II).

Sep 18, 2023

By McCarthy PL

Widespread interest in reopening Victorian gold mines, regenerated by increased gold prices, has highlighted the technical problems prevailing. A combination of historical lease legislation, minimal recent mining activity, forms of mineralisation, high insurance rates and tortuous approval requirements for mining mean the potential investor assessing an old mine must address a wide range of technical problems. The requirements for establishment of ore reserves and attraction of capital for mine development are fundamental. Underground reef mining was historically generally on a small scale, and as mining on many fields ceased about the turn of the century, past geological and production records cannot be correlated to personal experience and comment. The impact of modern mining technology on future reef mining will be to reduce operating costs and significantly improve historic metallurgical recovery. Roth these are commensurate with increased capital costs. Workers compensation rates currently applicable in Victoria are many times higher than in other states, adding significantly to operating costs. Establishment of a pilot plant testing facility in central Victoria would provide an invaluable service in treating bulk samples essential for grade and recovery assessments of Victorian ores.

Jan 1, 1982

By Beeby C. j, Fernando W. J, Ming M. Q I, Guang Li Xi

Removal of moisture in steam-fluidized, mainly steam-heated, fluidized beds makes possible significant energy savings over conventional forms of large-scale drying. The systens are described and their applications to brown coal and alumina hydrate are reviewed. In application to brown coal the use of the system to permit meeting diurnal variation in power station output, and the use of triple-effect drying to minimise coal usage and to avoid the necessity of recovering in the turbines the energy in the steam from the last dryer are discussed. To facilitate the rapid adoption of the systems proposed, studies are being made of heat-transfer to dried coal, of moisture equilibrium in pressurized and vacuum systems, of tapered beds as a means of reducing carrier steam and permitting wider size variation, and of the use of carrier solids for drying lump materials.

Jan 1, 1989

By W T. Pate, A V. Potapov, J K. Lichter

Even though flotation is one of the most important unit operations of mineral processing, accurate modelling of this process for plant performance prediction has remained elusive. In the last four to five years dramatic changes have occurred in our ability to make credible model based predictions. This paper briefly traces the history of flotation modelling from simple (lumped pulp-froth) æchemical kinetic analogueÆ models for single cells to more detailed multi-phase, multi-component population balance models for banks of cells. It then focuses on recent developments in physics-based modelling tools. This includes current efforts to model the forces of attachment and detachment at the individual event level as well as multi-event levels in individual cells and circuits. Two examples of these tools are presented. The first is DEM modelling of the mechanics of motion of bubbles in froths. The second is population balance modelling of the dynamics of flotation circuits describing how they are influenced by upstream processes (such as crushing and grinding) as well as internal process variables (such as aeration, agitation and reagent addition). Applications of each of these tools are discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By R A. Anand, N N. Viswanathan, M M. Pande

Slags are the most voluminous solid by-products generated in pyrometallurgical operations, and, as such, finding an application for these oxidic materials is pertinent to maintaining resource efficiency. In particular, pyrometallurgical copper production is associated with high slag rates, typically ranging from 2.2 to 3.0 tons of slag per ton produced copper, which necessitates slag valourisation. A possible application for these iron silicate slags is as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), which effectively lowers the CO2 emissions per ton of cementitious material. Although utilising iron silicate slags as SCMs has been studied in previous work, the scientific literature has limited data on the effect of composition on the inherent reactivity in cementitious systems. More specifically, no reports on the impact of FeO/SiO2 ratio have been presented in previous publications. Therefore, the present study aimed to isolate this parameter in a synthetic FeO-SiO2-Al2O3-CaO-MgO-Cr2O3 system. Since the amorphous content is a pertinent parameter for SCMs, a high-temperature confocal laser scanning microscope (HT-CLSM) was utilised to assess the crystallisation behaviour at continuous cooling conditions. Furthermore, high-temperature rheological experiments were conducted to measure the viscosities of the slags in relation to the crystallisation behaviour. The experiments showed that depolymerising the slag by increasing the FeO/SiO2 ratio generated a less viscous slag, which showed higher tendencies for crystallisation. Furthermore, experiments assessing the inherent reactivity as an SCM showed that depolymerising the slag by increasing the FeO/SiO2 ratio as the sole independent parameter generated an initially more reactive slag. However, replacing SiO2 with FeO was found to negatively affect the reactivity as measured over seven days within the tested compositional range.

Jun 19, 2024

By M A. Harrington-Baker, J M. Trudnowski

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) have the ability to immobilise dissolved metals by precipitating them as sulfides, provided that a favourable biochemical environment is created. Such an environment includes the presence of sulfate, anaerobic conditions and the availability of organic carbon. If such conditions are engineered within a reactive barrier or field-bioreactor, most metals can be effectively removed. To demonstrate this concept, three passive SRB field-bioreactors were constructed in 1998 at an abandoned mine site in the vicinity of Butte, Montana, USA to treat acid mine drainage with characteristic elevated concentration of metals and low pH. Performance of the field-bioreactors, using aqueous samples, was monitored over 32 months until the project was terminated, field-bioreactors were decommissioned and solid matrix sampling of the reactive matter was performed. The most important analytical results are presented in this paper together with conclusions regarding the appropriateness of the field-bioreactors construction features. Only Zn, Cu, and Cd were being removed as sulfides due to SRB activities. Changes in concentrations of other metals (Fe, Mn, Al, As), which do not necessarily precipitate as sulfide, seemed to be affected by SRB only in an indirect manner by responding to increased pH caused by SRB activity. An innovative cellular containment system used for placing organic matter worked very well in preventing settling of the organic matter and ensuring uniform flow of AMD throughout the entire cross-section of the organic carbon with no preferential flow paths This demonstration was funded by the US EPA and was jointly administered by the EPA and the US DOE under DOE contract number DE-AC22-96EW96405. The project was implemented by MSE Technology Applications, Inc, Butte, Montana, USA.

Jan 1, 2003

The patterns of occupational health pro- grammes in mining and metallurgy are discussed in relation to the impact of chemical and phy- sical hazards on the health of workers in these fields. Mining and metallurgy are quite unique in that their history and practice embrace virtually the total spectrum of occupational health problems and hazards as understood today. A panoramic concept of the possibilities would comprise the following fields: 1. The Pneumoconioses or Dust Diseases. 2. Physical stress due to exertion, and exposure to heat and humidity in deep mines. 3. The toxic effects of various metals in the mining of ore. The most obvious are lead, mercury, arsenic and manganese. 4. Diseases associated with mining. These include leptospirosis, ankylostomiasis and mycotic infections of the skin. 5. The Beat Diseases of coal miners working in narrow seams. 6. Illumination problems and miners nystagmus. 7. Geographical and climatic problems

Jan 1, 1975

By P Collins, C Sheriff

The Sand Queen gold mine is a typical Archaean narrow, high-grade gold quartz lode deposit within a shear hosted system. Initial mining during 1904 - 1948 produced 181 659 ounces of gold from 248 564 tonnes of ore milled at an average production grade of 22.7 g/t Au, which equates to a minimum of 750 ounces per vertical metre. The current mining operation is using the old Sand Queen main shaft to access the Sand George deposit, which is a narrow quartz lode system discovered in the same shear structure along strike to the south of the Sand Queen mine workings. Current underground resources contain 360 200 tonnes at a grade of 11.8 g/t Au for 136 500 ounces. Mining is scheduled to produce 20 000 ounces of gold annually. Re-opening of the Sand Queen mine and underground development of the Sand George lodes has revived several grade control issues relevant to a narrow, ænuggettyÆ gold lode mining environment. These include the dependence of assay grade of individual samples upon a number of factors, including how and where a sample is collected, how and where it is analysed, and how grade data is used to estimate an æaverageÆ grade. Ideally, the only way to achieve an acceptable estimate of ætrue gradeÆ is to mine and mill a large parcel of ore (eg >100 tonnes) from each lode or ore type. In a mining operation producing relatively small tonnages from a number of separate ænuggettyÆ gold lodes, availability of resources and operational constraints may preclude intensive sampling for predictive grade control. At the Sand Queen mine, one of the key issues has been to establish a reliable system for estimation of gold grade with which to reconcile milling data. Extensive use has been made of detailed geological data to understand the grade distribution within individual lodes and between lodes, so as not to rely solely on assay results.

Jan 1, 2008

The history of the discovery. and successful development of the offshore Gippsland Basin oil and gas fields has been well docu- mented in contemporarary and more recent industry and profes- sional literature. The various articles, papers and books record fairly balanced views and comments as to the nature and results of the explora- tion effort, and factual data concerning the subsequent develop- ment of the fields and facilities concerned with petroleum production in the Bass Strait and Gippsland environment. Recommended reading for those interested in the scientific and technical aspects of the Gippsland Basin developments and the search for petroleum in the Bass and Alway Basins includes the available library contained in the publications of The Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy The Commonwealth Mining Congres since 1960 The Australian Petroleum Exploration Association The Geological Society of Australia The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Various Commonwealth and Victorian Government instrumentalities Trade Journals

Jan 1, 1988

By B Putland, I Lovatt, D Schwann, A Cervillin

The Mount Carlton project in Queensland's North East sits on a high-sulphidation epithermal style deposit rich in gold, copper and silver. Mt Carlton is an open pit mining operation with ore processed using a primary crusher, single stage SAG mill and flotation to produce a concentrate for sale. Orway Mineral Consultants (OMC) was involved in the original design of the comminution circuit and the project was commissioned in late 2012, with first concentrate shipped in March 2013. When Evolution sought to optimise the project in 2015, OMC was invited to assist by undertaking a circuit review to identify opportunities for the optimisation. During 2016, the Mt Carlton site team implemented the optimisation strategies developed in conjunction with OMC. These included reconfiguring the SAG mill discharge arrangement, reducing the average ball diameter and allowing the mill to operate at higher speed and under more autogenous conditions. Cyclone operation was changed to constant pressure and the vortex finder size was decreased. The combined strategies improved energy efficiency and allowed higher SAG mill power utilisation. The additional power has been used to increase throughput by 2.4 per cent while achieving a 27µm reduction in product size (P80) to gain downstream recovery improvements. The reduction in grind size has been achieved with only 6.8 per cent increase in specific energy consumption because of a 6.5 per cent increase in grinding efficiency. The circuit product size is also notably more consistent due to the improvements made to the cyclones, providing benefit to the downstream flotation circuit. A significant decrease in ball consumption was also gained, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in operating cost.This paper will discuss the circuit design, start up and will detail the changes made during the optimisation and why these were successful.CITATION:Putland, B, Lovatt, I, Cervillin, A and Schwann, D, 2018. Mount Carlton comminution circuit design, start-up and optimisation, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 517–528 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By C A. Thomas, J C. Eardley, G V. Franks

As valuable minerals are more disseminated, there is a need for low-grade ores to be finely ground to liberate these valuable minerals. However, this has a negative impact on ultrafine mineral recovery as conventional separations processes such as gravity separation are no longer effective. Instead, fine particles can be recovered by froth flotation. Various novel reagents have been introduced along with development in flotation cell designs such as Jameson cell and column cells to improve performance and recovery of ultrafine valuables. This study, on the other hand, aims to recover the fines using a combination of commercially available reagents to selectively flocculate the valuables, so they are large enough to be recovered via conventional froth flotation cells. This technique if successful can be implemented in many existing industries that continue to use mechanical flotation cells that require particle sizes to be 50–150 μm for effective recovery (Ralston, 1992; Batterham and Moodie, 2005). Selective flocculation is not widely implemented in industries mainly due to the inability to float the aggregates ones they are formed and gangue entrapment within the aggregates which consequently affects the grade of concentrate recovered (Forbes, 2011). The major goal is to aggregate the minerals and float the aggregates unlike the more common industrial technique such as reverse flotation of hematite, where the aggregates itself is not recovered via flotation.

Aug 24, 2022

By V Salamakha, K Tang, G Si, J Oh, X Wu, Z Yu

The development of machine learning (ML) algorithms has led to promising advances in lithology classification from geophysical logs, which is indispensable in various underground engineering applications. Due to the resolution and availability of logging data, ML models can recognise lithology change in a definitive form at a fine scale (0.01 m). While the results from previous models indicated promising performance in the classification, the robust capability of generalising lithology prediction to unseen data may not be true for those models due to: (1) data bias caused by borehole selections, and (2) logging data mismatches among boreholes. To this end, this paper aims to investigate the generalisability of ML models and seek potential improvements. Four ML models were selected to be trained on single reference boreholes to test the other (as unseen) in the same region, which includes Support Vector Classifier (SVC), Random Forest (RF), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Residual Neural Network (ResNet10). The data set involves 11 boreholes from a coalmine in north-western Bowen Basin (Queensland, Australia): density, gamma ray, neutron, and sonic logs are selected as inputs. Additionally, a data adaptation method is applied for better generalisability. The results show that there is an accuracy trade-off between the same borehole and unseen boreholes across the models. It also indicates a 16–43 per cent reduction in model performance when generalising the predictions (in marco-F1 score), while the adapted data sets can contribute to a around 12 per cent improvement. This study provides a fundamental understanding of the model generalisability when using a single borehole, essential for further correlating boreholes for regional lithology classification; the adaptation method can improve the generalised accuracy, and reduces the labour to label lithology, which facilitates the identification of gas storage mechanisms, geological/geophysical modelling, and stratigraphic analysis.

Sep 1, 2024

According to the analysis of 126 mine gushing records and the relevant water supply and hydrogeologic condition, the gush can be classified into eight types;cave type,collapse -column. type, subterranean stream type, fault zone type, contact zone type, upper plate type, bottom heaving type and surface water invasion type. The formulae for counting the peak discharge of gushing point are further put forward in this paper.

Jan 1, 1988

By Richards RG

The Australian glass sand industry produces some 2.8 million tonnes per annum of silica sand, of which about 2.0 million tonnes are exported and the rest is for the domestic market. Approximate production rates for each Australian state are listed.The variety of processing methods used in the currently exploited deposits reflects the size, location, and characteristics of the various deposits and the requirement of the end market/s. The industry uses to a large extent equipment developed for the separation of mineral sands, particularly as it applies to low grade heavy mineral deposits, where low cost, high capacity and metallurgically efficient equipment has proved eminently suitable for the production of the low value glass sands.The requirements of the domestic market, as well as those of the present and potential export markets are discussed covering quality requirements, distribution channels and other factors critical to success.

Jan 1, 1990

By B C Tanda, E A. Oraby, J J. Eksteen

"Base metal and precious metal deposits are well known for their significant geometallurgical variation throughout the volume of the proven resource. At the metallurgical level, the plant normally processes an upper oxidised layer, a transition zone and a sulfide zone, often leading to different processing techniques for the different zones. A novel processing approach is presented whereby alkaline leaching with glycine is used to leach base and precious metals, using a copper-gold ore deposit as a case study. Glycine is a cheap, non-toxic, non-volatile, highly water-soluble crystalline solid produced industrially in bulk quantities. As a chelating ligand it forms a number of stable glycinate complexes with Ni, Co, Cu, platinum group metals (PGMs), Au, Ag, Zn, Pb, Hg and Cd, with broad stability regions over an extended temperature-pH-Eh range, allowing dissolution of these metals in the neutral and alkaline regions (pH 7–13). It has been shown that this lixiviant system can leach the metals from their oxide, oxy-halide, basic sulfate, carbonate, native and various sulfide forms, including refractory sulfides such as chalcopyrite. Extraction of the metals from their soluble glycinates is easily achieved using a range of solvent extraction and precipitation processes, and the glycine remains stable in aqueous solution for recycle and reuse. Minerals bearing metals in Groups 1 to 8 of the periodic table are normally unaltered. This technology therefore provides a highly selective leaching environment for the extraction of numerous scarce metals of economic interest, with minimal interaction with gangue minerals, whilst using environmentally benign reagents. Problematic leach residues such as jarosites, elemental sulfur and silica gels are averted through this processing approach. This technology allows hydrometallurgical processing that is much less domain-sensitive in the geometallurgical sense, and utilises essentially the same key reagents for the whole deposit.CITATION:Eksteen, J J, Oraby, E A and Tanda, B C, 2016. Developing Robust Hydrometallurgical Processes to Recover Metals from Deposits with Large Geometallurgical Variation, in Proceedings The Third AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2016, pp 15–20 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Jun 15, 2016

By Davies S. G, Jayaweera A

The oxidation of nickel sulphide and copper sulphide concentrates, and coal, has been studied under non-ignition and ignition conditions using Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Thermogravimetry (TG). The non-ignition reaction was favoured by slow heating rates < 10°C min-1), low masses < 10 mg) and an air atmosphere. Under these conditions, the typical stepwise oxidations of the various sulphide minerals present in the concentrate were observed as resolved exothermic peaks in the DTA curves and weight losses in the TG curves. Above a heating rate of 10°C min-1 , sample masses in excess of 10 mg and an oxygen atmosphere, an ignition reaction was induced, as indicated by a major high energy exotherm in the DTA curve and a major rapid weight loss in the TG curve. The ignition temperatures of the minerals under ignition conditions, found for 15 mg samples heated at 20°C min-1, were 434°C for the nickel sulphide concentrate, 372°C for the copper sulphide concentrate, and 230°C for the coal. By plotting a curve for mass against ignition temperature at constant heating rate and extrapolationto zero mass, a value of 470°C was obtained for the mass independent ignition temperature of the nickel sulphide concentrate. Ignition temperatures and extents of reaction at various temperatures were obtained using the TG technique in a novel manner which produced heating rates of 4500°C min-1. Under ignition conditions, the oxidations approximate to flash smelting conditions.

Jan 1, 1985