Search Documents

By John Ratti

Building on Canadian Capabilities for Space Resource Missions: Space resource science and technology mission building blocks Canadian historical perspective Status and future pursuits It takes Canadian Teamwork to succeed in space exploration! Space resource science and technology building blocks: Orbiting / Delivery Elements Spacecraft Sensors Landed elements Roving / Mobility, Autonomy Sample acquisition and handling Sensors, GN&C Science Operations Partnerships: Government ? Industry Between Industry With Academia and Scientists

May 1, 2013

By W. F. MacIsaac

"The large low-grade Copper Mountain deposit is located in the northern portion of the Gaspé Cooper Mines property. It is approximately 1 mile north of the Needle Mountain deposit. The orebody outlined to date lies in the top 1,000 feet of the Grande Greve formation. Chalcopyrite occurs in association with pyrite and quartz in small veinlets and numerous fractures. The deposit is immediately adjacent and parallel to a quartz-feldspar dyke and may be associated with a nearby porphyry stock. Stratigraphy, alteration and structure appear to have played an important role in ore deposition."

Jan 1, 1969

By S. E. Malouf, R. Hinse

"The Mineral possibilities of the Chibougamau area were first recognized by Richardson in 1870 and Low in 1885, both of the Geological Survey of Canada. The first record of interest by the Quebec Bureau of Mines is in 1904, when J. Obalski reported on the discovery of copper and asbestos by Peter McKenzie in the previous year. Reports of 1906 and 1907 covered the McKenzie Gold Mine find and other deposits. In 1908 Prof. Dulieux described the quartz vein on Merrill Island and the mineralized zone on the near-by mainland. In 1910 the Chibougamau Railway Commission, though commenting favourably on the possibilities of the area, concluded that a railway was not then warranted.In spite of this, prospecting in the district continued. The main Campbell Chibougamau deposit, the Blake showing on Merrill Island in Dore Lake, was found in 1920, and other discoveries were made soon after. Between 1927 the work of Mawdsley, Retty, and Norman tor the Geological Survey and the Quebec Bureau of Mines stimulated further interest. In 1934 Consolidated Chibougamau Goldfields Ltd., a subsidiary of Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada Ltd., acquired the Merrill Island and Cedar Bay holdings of Chibougamau Prospectors Ltd. They embarked on an aggressive campaign, directed essentially at the gold quartz veins at Cedar Bay. Exploration there included a 522-foot shaft, 4,732 feet of drifts and crosscuts, and about 34,000 feet of surface and underground diamond drilling. Thirteen holes were also drilled on the replacement sulphide lens at Merrill Island. Operations were suspended in 1936, as the occurrence was too low grade for development at the existing metal prices and under difficult operating conditions.The completion of the Quebec Bureau of Mines highway from St. Felicien to Chibougamau in 1950 was followed by a project of detailed geological mapping by the Bureau. It also encouraged Campbell Chibou-gamau Mines to acquire the assets of Consolidated Chibougamau Gold-fields and commence a program of surface exploration. Between August 1950 and April 1951, 41,183 feet of diamond drilling was done on the Cedar Bay and Merrill Island holdings. The Blake showing off the west shore of Merrill Island developed at depth into a major orebody. A lease was obtained on adjacent ground from Merrill Island Corporation, and underground work commenced in November 1951. Development at Merrill Island to June 1st, 1955, included a four-compartment shaft to 1,225 feet, with 8 levels at 150-foot intervals, 5,317 feet of raises, 16,709 feet of drifts and crosscuts, 52,514 feet of surface and 96,593 feet of underground diamond drilling."

Jan 1, 1949

By Mary A. Wells, Amir Hadadzadeh, Mark A. Whitney, Stephen F. Corbin

In an effort to produce less expensive titanium sheet via roll compaction, the room temperature compaction behavior of titanium sponge granules (99.9% pure, Alfa Aesar) was studied under uniaxial die compaction. The titanium sponge granules were irregularly shaped, with a high degree of porosity, having a maximum particle size of 3mm. Manual die compaction was conducted using a Carver hand press, in a hardened tool steel die with 12.61 mm inner diameter. Uniaxial die compaction in a hardened tool steel die with 9.50 mm inner diameter was also performed using a Gleeble® 3500 thermal-mechanical simulation testing system which allowed for controlled deformation rates. Compaction behavior of the titanium sponge was studied using well-established compaction equations (Heckel, Panelli-Filho and Ge), and it was observed that compaction rate influences the room temperature compaction behavior of this material. The Heckel analysis of the titanium sponge showed that the behavior of the material could be analyzed in two compaction pressure regimes. In the low pressure regime (<100 MPa) the granules exhibited high compressibility, while; in the high pressure regime (>100 MPa) lower compressibility of the titanium sponge was observed.

Jan 1, 2015

By M. Uszko

The paper presents the conditions for determining the selection of methods for methane drainage in Polish hard coal mines. Various factors for the evaluation of methane drainage performance are used, including the methane drainage effectiveness ratio. However, as will be discussed there are limitations to the methane drainage ratio approach resulting from the characteristics of the deposits extracted in Kompania Weglowa S.A. coal mines.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. Singh

Two alloys Mg96.9Zn2.7Ho0.4 and Mg93Zn6Ho have been processed by direct extrusion at 300°C and 200/230°C to produce various microstructures containing icosahedral quasicrystalline phase with different grain sizes. The alloys were mechanically tested in tension and compression. The mechanical properties were related to the grain size and microstructures studied by transmission electron microscopy. The extruded alloys showed a mixture of nano-sized icosahedral and monoclinic Mg4Zn7 phase, as well as icosahedral phase particles a few hundred nanometers in size distributed in the matrix. Coarse icosahedral phase particles several micron in size also remained after extrusion. The alloys Mg96.9Zn2.7Ho0.4 and Mg93Zn6Ho extruded at the same temperature of 300°C produced very different grain sizes of 15 and 3 µm, respectively. The alloy Mg96.9Zn2.7Ho0.4 extruded at 200°C and Mg93Zn6Ho extruded at 230°C produced grain sizes of 0.7 µm and 1.5 µm, respectively. Both the alloys showed yield stresses of about 300 MPa in both tension and compression with elongations of about 18%. Hall-Petch parameters are calculated for the alloys.

Jan 1, 2006

By S. Bergquist

In this paper, it is investigated how different types of automation would affect the safety for workers in asphalt paving. The risk for the workers on road construction sites is consistently high in comparison to the average risk of the working population. Automation has been suggested as an alternative for improving the safety in roadside construction assuming that removing workers will inherently eliminate the risk of them being injured. In this paper, the potential for improving the safety using automation is analyzed in detail. By investigating accident statistics and understanding the type of accidents that appear, several different automated functions for increased safety are proposed and described. Based on available statistics, it is possible to estimate the safety benefit, as the reduction in fatalities, for several of the proposed functions. The highest safety benefit would be achieved by automating the road traffic driving through the work zones. This has the potential of reducing the total number of road worker fatalities with over 30 %. In addition, it would decrease the number of road traffic accidents in work zones. Automation of construction machinery and dump-trucks also has the potential to increase the safety.

Aug 1, 2013

By Gary M. Bone

The autonomous control of vehicles interacting forcibly with their environment, such as dozers and tractors, is an unsolved and challenging problem. Forces and motions are inherently coupled between the tool and the means of vehicle propulsion. Furthermore, they are often operated within uncertain and unstructured environments, such as those encountered in underground mining. There is a growing industrial interest in the development of robotic vehicles to improve productivity, efficiency and safety in mining and construction. This paper focuses on the modeling and control of autonomous robotic dozing for a material removal operation. A dozing process model has been developed based on observations of both a fullscale dozer and a scaled-down version. The model characterizes the dynamic interactions between the blade position, material accumulation on the blade, material distribution in the environment, and the motions of the dozer. The dozing control objective is to remove the loose material as rapidly as possible by driving forwards at full power while automatically raising/lowering the blade in response to sensor measurements. Two different controllers were developed to meet this objective. The first controller is based on a set of heuristic rules, and the second is an optimal controller based on the dynamic model. An instrumented scaled-down robotic dozer and dozing environment, designed to emulate the full-scale operation, are used to implement the controllers and compare their performances over multiple dozing passes. Experimental results are presented showing that the model-based controller increased the material removal rate by 33% compared to the rule-based controller. Lastly, technologies for full-scale implementation are discussed, followed by proposed future work and conclusions.

Aug 1, 2013

By Gordon Nelson

The Homestake gold mine is one of the largest and oldest continuously operating gold mines in orth Ame rica. To date this mine has produced in excess of 128.000.000 tons of ore containing almost 34 million ounces of gold . Gold mine ralization is restricted to the Homestake Formation. This unit is a metamorphosed iron-formation which is enclosed by pellitic metasedime nts below (Poorman Formation) and a pellitic to qua rt zitic unit (Elli son Formation) above. The e ntire Precambrian sequence. in the Lead area. has been subjected to a multi-stage defo rmation episode which ha c reated an extremely complex structural setting for the Homestake orebodies. Metamorphic grade inc reases from greenschi st ro amphibolite in a northeast d irecti on acros the mine area. Present thickness of the Home take fo rmation va ric from O to »400 fee t. The amount of thicke ning and th inning which is attributable to tectonic deformation or original sedimenta ry di fferences is not known. Orebodies constitute onl y a small pe rcentage of the Homestake Formation and do not occur along a pa rticul ar stratigraphic pos ition within the unit. Gold i assoc iated with inc reased py rrhotite and a rsenopyrite concentrations within the iron formation. Inc reased \ cin qua rt z development and chl oritic alteration usuall y accompany this minerali zation. Local remobilizati on of mine ralization due to metamorphi sm has occurred. Homestake mine ralization has been shown to be of sy ngeneti c origin . Because no feeder zones have yet been recognized a di stal source for the mine ralization is inferred .

Jan 1, 1986

By Martin Irving

Adding Value to Canadian Diamonds - A Changing Diamond Industry - Diamond Mining - Diamond Manufacturing - Diamond Jewellery Markets - NWT Diamonds Changing Diamond Industry - De Beers ? privatization - Oppenheimers (45%), Anglo-American (45%), Botswana (10%) ? going retail - LVMH joint venture - New Players ? jurisdictions - Canada ? companies - BHP-Billiton - Aber Diamonds

May 1, 2002

By A. A. Brant

"Improving geological and geophysical evaluation should serve to reduce the early-stage risk assessment and there-by contribute to exploration expenditure stimulation. The limitations of present-day methods are reviewed, particularly as to anomaly causes, depth penetration and quantitative physical interpretative abilities. Some of the problems now under study are discussed. Future developments expected include the treatment of quantitized geologic and geophysical data, as well as continuing attempts toward computerized interpretation."

Jan 1, 1967

By Michael Moser, Brighty Dutta, David Dreisinger

"Molybdenum is widely used in the industries as an alloying element in the manufacture of steels and super alloys. The widespread use of the element encourages a growing need to develop extraction processes for recovery from both primary and secondary sources. The Solvay Group has developed a solvent extraction reagent named CYANEX®600 for the recovery of molybdenum from acidic solutions originating from both low grade (e.g. copper solvent extraction raffinates, smelter dusts and slags) and high grade (molybdenite) molybdenum sources. CYANEX®600 is a purified form of CYANEX®272 with the active component bis(2,4,4- trimethylpentyl)phosphinic acid. The extraction behavior of CYANEX®600 towards molybdenum in sulphuric acid medium was evaluated. The uptake of molybdenum increased with the increase in concentration of CYANEX®600. The approximate stoichiometry of the extracted complex was: Mo: CYANEX®600 = 1:2. Efficient back-extraction could be achieved with 0.1 M disodium EDTA and 0.1 M (NH4)2CO3, thus providing the option of recyclability of the extractant. The detailed back-extraction studies are currently under progress to find out the possible option for complete transfer of Mo(VI) to the aqueous phase so that high purity Mo salts could be precipitated from the molybdate solutions.INTRODUCTION Molybdenum (Mo) is one of the world’s valuable metals and is highly sought after by researchers due to its versatile mechanical, thermal, chemical properties. Swedish scientist Carl Wilhelm Scheele demonstrated molybdenite to be a mineral sulfide in 1778. Peter Hjelm successfully isolated dark metal powder from the mineral sulphide and named it as ‘Molybdenum’ in 1782 (Gupta, 1992). Molybdenum is a refractory metal of silver gray appearance and is an important alloying element used in the manufacture of steels and super alloys. Molybdenum compounds are widely used in formulation of catalysts (Gupta, 1992). Molybdenum occurs in nature only in chemical combination with other elements. Several molybdenum bearing minerals have been identified, but the only one of commercial significance is molybdenite (MoS2). As molybdenum is a strategic metal for the industrial sector, its widespread use acts as a factor for depletion of the natural resources. Hence, there is growing need to develop extraction procedures for its recovery from both primary and secondary sources. United States, China, Chile, Canada, Peru, and Mexico are listed as the main producers by the U.S. Geological Survey, 2016 (U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2016)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Angela L. Paveley

Economic viability of base metal mining is complicated by a volatile market that can cause fluctuations in the growth and stability of the mining industry. Nickel is mined primarily for use in manufacturing industrial stainless steel and plating materials. It is essential that nickel production be sufficient to respond to current and future market demand. A Post-Pillar cut and fill mining complex is currently producing nickel sulfide in Northern Manitoba. From 2006 this area has shown a steady increase in the annual production, rising from 11 million pounds to 25 million pounds in 2010, and accounting for 33% of the total production for the Manitoba Operations. It is expected that fine-tuning the mining process can safely enhance ore recovery, improve production consistency, and increase economic viability of the deposit. The Post-Pillar Optimization study was initiated by the local technical and operational departments at the mine and analyzed from July 2010 to March 2011. The purpose of this study was to determine if portions of non-recoverable pillars can be slashed without jeopardizing pillar strength. This ideal case would optimize ore recovery and reduce variability in the ore mining rate. Numerical modeling and geo-mechanical material properties analyses, completed by the rock mechanics group, define the maximum drift width at 32 feet and the minimum pillar width at 18 feet. Thus, it was suggested that up to 3 feet could be slashed from two sides of the standard 24 foot pillars without damaging ground integrity. The field data collected indicates that additional ore could be recovered without compromising the safety of the workplace and the integrity of the complex. Consequently, technical and operational groups work jointly to achieve pillar optimization. Approximately 500,000 pounds of nickel was extracted from the complex via pillar optimization from July 2010 to March 2011. Economic analyses show the pillar optimization method developed for the mining complex is a proven, value-added opportunity. The mining complex remains a safe workplace and has retained ground integrity.

Nov 1, 2011

By D. G. Tisdale, W. Curlook, J. M. Toguri

"In this study, the vapour phase reduction of titanium tetrachloride conforms to the traditional Kroll chemistry, but employs argon as an inert carrier gas and requires a higher reaction temperature of 1150°C to 1250°C. A vapour phase reaction is advantageous because titanium is the only condensed phase present, and the metal can be collected free of magnesium or magnesium chloride, in marked contrast to the titanium sponge produced by the conventional Kroll process. The yield of metallic titanium from the reaction was determined as magnesium additions ranged from 36% to 168% of the stoichiometric requirement. Yields of over 99% were obtained when an excess of magnesium was present. Although the collection efficiency was low, metallic titanium was collected at the reaction site, where all other species were present as vapours. Magnesium and chlorine concentrations in the collected titanium were less than 0.3%.IntroductionA proposed method (Curlook, 1987) for titanium production has been investigated as an alternative to the conventional Kroll process (Kroll, 1940). The advantages of the new process include a simplified means of recovering the product metal, and a potential for lower overall energy consumption and greater product purity. A higher reaction temperature for the reduction of titanium tetrachloride results in a vapour phase reaction, rather than the conventional liquid phase reaction. This is the major conceptual difference between the proposed and the established (Kroll) processes.This study focussed on optimization of the process chemistry and briefly examined the issue of product deposition and collection. The reduction of titanium tetrachloride with magnesium, to produce metallic titanium and gaseous magnesium chloride:"

Jan 1, 1997

By Saeid Akhavan

Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) is a severe plastic deformation process for achieving ultrafine grains in metallic sheets without changing the sample dimensions. In this study, ARB process was carried out on 5083 aluminum alloy sheets up to 6 cycles. In this process, the surfaces of the strips to be joined are roughened and cleaned and then stacked. After stacking, the specimen is roll-bonded by rolling using a 50% reduction. The rolled specimen is cut into two halves, and the above-mentioned procedure is repeated for several times. Microstructural characterizations were analyzed by transmition electron microscopy (TEM). Tension and Vickers hardness tests were performed on produced sheets for evaluating their mechanical properties. In order to clarify the failure mode, fracture surfaces after tensile tests were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that at the early stages of ARB process, grains were subdivided by deformation induced boundaries. After several ARB cycles, lamellar structure elongated in the rolling direction contains lamellar boundaries was formed. With increasing the strain, mean spacing of lamellar boundaries decreased. Finally, continuous recrystallization resulted in a microstructure covered with small recrystallized grains with an average diameter below 100 nm at the end of four cycle. The tensile strength and hardness of the 6 cycle ARB processed 5083 aluminum alloy sheet increased about two and three times of the initial values, respectively. Results indicated conformity between mechanical evolutions and microstructural changes during ARB process. Fracture surfaces observations showed that failure mode in ARB processed aluminum is shear ductile rupture with elongated small dimples.

Oct 1, 2011

By J. Ji, A. Shi, B. Grcic

Floating copper minerals selectively against iron minerals such as pyrite has been challenging for most copper and copper/gold deposits, and many operations continuously strive to maximise copper recovery whilst meeting target concentrate grades. Maximising grade is achieved by selectively floating copper minerals and rejecting pyrite. This challenge is to minimise copper and gold losses in the roughers if this approach is used. A flotation testing program was conducted by Bureau Veritas Minerals on a high-level pyrite bearing copper/gold ore sample to establish the potential to reject pyrite in the rougher stage, but also maximise copper and gold recoveries, and ultimately final product grades. The test program included feed characterization, rougher and open-circuit cleaner flotation as well as locked cycle flotation tests. The main variables tested for achieving selective flotation of copper and gold were collector type and pH control, through lime addition. Grind sizes used in the rougher and cleaner tests had been established from previous test work. The collectors tested were SIPX, Aerophine® 3418A, Aerophine® 3421, Aerophine® 3422, Reagent S-11192 Promoter, Reagent S-11193 Promoter and FloMin C4150. The two best performing collectors were then tested in open-circuit cleaner tests, with the optimum conditions examined further in locked cycle tests. INTRODUCTION Bureau Veritas Minerals Metallurgical Division was retained by Eldorado Gold Corporation to perform a metallurgical testing program on a high-level pyrite bearing copper/gold ore sample from a gold- copper porphyry deposit to optimize flotation reagent scheme to improve gold and copper recoveries and copper content in the concentrate. The test program included feed characterization, rougher and open-circuit cleaner flotation as well as locked cycle flotation tests. Initially, various collectors were screened in kinetic rougher tests, and over a pH range of 8.5 (i.e the natural ore pH) up to 11.5, using a primary grind size of 80% passing 120 µm. The collectors tested were SIPX (sodium isopropyl xanthate), Aerophine® 3418A, Aerophine® 3421, Aerophine® 3422, Reagent S-11192 Promoter, Reagent S-11193 Promoter and FloMin C4150. The enrichment ratio, which is the ratio of copper to sulfur in the concentrate to that in the feed, was used as proxy for rating selectivity (i.e. degree of pyrite rejection or depression).

Jan 1, 2019

By V. S. Sastri, M. Elboujdaïni

"Corrosion rates of silicon brasses, highzinc yellow brass, low-zinc yellow brass, leadedtin bronze and silicon bronzes in both permanent-mold and sand-cast conditions were determined in soft water of pH 3, 5 and 8, and hard water of pH 8 at 70°C by electrochemical polarization technique. The alloys in permanent- mold condition showed greater corrosion resistance than sand-cast condition. Corrosion rates obtained from weight loss measurements showed no observable trend of a difference between permanent-mold and sand-cast alloys.The corrosion rates decreased with increasing pH of the medium. Silicon bronze and silicon brass showed high corrosion resistance while leaded-tin bronze showed the least resistance. Addition of small amounts of aluminum improved the corrosion resistance of silicon bronzes and silicon brasses. Alloys in permanent- mold condition showed greater resistance to dezincification than sand-cast alloys when average pit depth parameter is considered."

Jan 1, 1997

By WENDY MARTIN

The Eastern Townships and Asbestos Hill areas are the current asbestos-producing districts of Quebec. Mining in the two areas began in the /are 1870s and 1972 respectively. Production from the Eastern Townships is derived from rhe Serpentine Zone of ulrramafic rocks, specifically from basal serpentinized peridotite members of what are now considered to be allochrhonous ophiolitic material that was abducted onto the Early Ordovician continental margin. From south west to northeast, the rhree allochthonous asbestos-producing sections of the Serpentine Zone are designated the Asbestos Ophiolite Complex, the Thetford Mines Ophiolite Complex and the Pennington Dyke; the Pennington Dyke is considered to represent a segment of serpentinized Alpine peridotire that was fragmenred from a larger, more complete ophiolire complex. The Asbesros Hill deposir on the Ungava Peninsula lies in what apparenrly is an inrrusive sill found wirhin rhe Chukorar Group, the uppermosr group of Precambrian-aged Cape SmithWakeham Bay Belr of volcanic-sedimentary rocks.

Jan 1, 1984

By I. C. Christopher

Introduction The geology of the Cochen-our Willans gold mine has been described in reports by the late Dr. H. C. Horwood (1) in 1940 and by Dr. J. P. Nowlan (2) in 1947. Information from these and other (unpublished) reports has been incorporated in the present paper, together with some recent ideas regarding structural features which are at present being used to locate ore shoots. Location and History The mining claims of Cochenour Willans Gold Mines, Limited, occupy 705 acres in Dome township, on the east shore of Red lake opposite McKenzie island. Adjoining properties are those of McKenzie Red Lake Gold Mines on the west, Boymar Gold Mines on the north, Marcus Gold Mines on the east, and Martin-McNeely Gold Mines on the south. The claims of the original group were staked by W. M. Cochenour, Dan Willans, and H. G. Young, and the Cochenour Willans Syndicate was formed in 1928. Work was carried out by the Syndicate and several other companies during the next eight years with inconclusive results, due to the irregular occurrence of the ore. In 1936, Cochenour Willans Gold Mines, Limited, was incorporated and production was finally started late in 1939.

Jan 1, 1951

By B. R. Rakishev

Balanced development of mining works at all the benches of a working zone by use of the excavator-automobile complex is achieved by transition to the technology of the bench excavating with cross panels by the two-sub-bench scheme with the changing levels of the working platforms (is patented in Kazakhstan). In deep quarries realization of this technology will allow to reduce the current volumes of the stripping ore excavation by 10?15 % and more, to increase the opened reserves of minerals by 20?50 % to decrease volume of mining-capital works for construction of stripping excavations by 2?4 times and to provide efficient use of powerful excavator-automobile complexes.

Aug 1, 2013