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By C. R. Fast, G. C. Howard

The loss of fluid to the formation adjacent a fracture governs the areal extent of the fracture and the success of hydraulic fracturing as a production stimulation technique. The three flow mechanisms which control this loss are the result of the viscosity of the fracturing fluid and the permeability of the formation to the fracturing fluid, its wall building properties, and the combined effects of viscosity and compressibility of the reservoir fluid. The effects of these flow mechanisms can be evaluated in terms of a fracturing fluid coefficient, the fundamental concepts of which are developed in the paper. The fracturing fluid coefficient, which may be used in calculating the areal extent of fracturing, affords a direct measure of the effectiveness of fracturing fluids. The area of hydraulically created fractures is in-creased as the coefficient is de-creased. The fifteen-fold variation noted in this coefficient for the commercially available fracturing fluids tested resulted in a six-fold difference m the calculated areal extent of the fracture system.

Jan 1, 1961

Despite the fact that mined minerals and gemstones have allowed human beings to continuously improve their standard of living throughout the ages, mining has also been implicated in violent conflict for two principle reasons. The first is that mineral resources have been used or traded to conduct or finance violent conflict from small to large scales. The second is the substantial social, economic and environmental changes that occur in a community or a region as a result of mining activity which can either precipitate or re-awaken latent conflict. A modern complication of mining-related violent conflict is the trend for activists, international NGOs and intergovernmental organisations (e.g. the United Nations) to regard any human consequences of resource extraction in terms of Human Rights violations. Acknowledging but not labouring the Human Rights implications of mining-related violent conflict, this paper explores whether or not there is a relationship between the actual or perceived value of mineral resources and the level of violence that occurs in mining-related conflicts. Key to the investigation is a mapping exercise of mining related conflict from 2005 ? 2012: to see where mining related conflict is happening; to identify precipitant causes of mining related conflict; and, to discover what correlation ? if any ? there might be in the degree of violence and the value of the mineral(s) implicated. Findings of the analysis are presented in this conference paper.

Aug 1, 2013

By G. S. Farnham

Abstract This paper lists the interests of the Physical Metallurgy and Chemical Research laboratories of the Metallgesellschaft, which were visited by the authors, members of a group of Canadian investigators sent to Germany by the Department of Reconstruction in 1945. The Physical Metallurgy Research Laboratory The following information was obtained from Professor E. Schmid, Chief of the laboratories. It is understood that Dr. Schmid is a former Nazi and was to be removed from his post in November (1945). Aluminium Research The laboratories investigated the corrosion resistance of the high-strength aluminium-magnesium-zinc alloys. The same test procedure as used by V.L.W. was followed and Dr. Schmid co-operated closely with Dr. Brenner on this project. Intercrystalline corrosion was combatted by additions of chromium, titanium, or vanadium, and the work in this field parallels that of Dr. Brenner of V.L.W. * Dr. Schmid reports that Bollenrath and Siebert believe that corrosion difficulties with these alloys can be overcome to some extent by heat treatment. He himself was of opinion that the correct answer lay not only in correct alloying but also in correct heat treatment. The heat treatment involved either interrupted quenching or a change in quenching rate from a solution temperature of 500°C. The procedure is either a slower cooling from solution temperature or an interrupted cooling with a holding period at l50°C. Work had been done on piston alloys, the 11-13% Si, 1% Ni, 1% Cu, and 1% Mg being the favoured material. This is called Lo-Ex and is similar to Mahle 124 or KS1275.

Jan 1, 1946

By J. W. Thomson, H. J. Lloyd, R. J. Taylor

"THE HOLLINGER MINE has been producing gold and by-product silver almost continuously for forty-eight years. The value of current production is $10,000,000 annually from one million tons of ore. Its management •has, particularly over the past decade, increasingly . concerned itself with the problem of profitable operation in a time of steadily rising costs and a fixed price of gold. At one period in the life of the mine, before World War II, production resulted in yearly profit margins that were stable and relatively thick. In winning gold from a series of inconsistent vertical ore lenses, operating management was much better protected than it is today against a general rise in cost or dip in grade of ore. The tissue-like thinness of present-day margins demand more careful handling. A sharp rise in costs, if protracted, could easily rip the tissue to shreds and close down the business. The counter-measure of raising grade and gutting the mine would bring on the end perhaps more rapidly, without having contributed much to the recovery of our national re-sources, nor to community welfare. The alternative is to keep costs under control."

Jan 1, 1960

By J R. M Hutcheson

Advocate Mines Limited came into initial production on June 30, 1963, with an annual capacity in excess of 60,000 tons of high-quality chrysotile asbestos fihres, thus strengthening Canada's position in world production. The history of this development is traced from discovery through initial exploration, financing, orebody delineation and evaluation, pilot-plant production and product evaluation, construction of the plant, construction of deep?-sea shipping facilities, provision for a closed shipping season, and provision for the remoteness and for the lack of services, through to realization of full production capacity. The many unique aspects of the project are given special attention, particularly in the light of the first year of full-capacity operation. The marketing of the products in a highly competitive world market is reviewed, with special emphasis on product evaluation, quality control and the shipping of high-quality products to consumers throughout the world. C ANADA'S newest asbestos producer, Advocate Mines Limited, is located at the north end of the Burlington Peninsula, White Bay District, Newfound-

Jan 1, 1965

By T E. Tibbetts

This paper deals with coal sampling in general and with mechanical coal sampling in particular. The necessity of obtaining representative samples is emphasized. Other sections of the paper are devoted to the design and selection of automatic samplers, with a consideration of the three main types, and the testing, operation and maintenance of these samplers. The cost of the installation of an automated sampling system must be related to the value of the material to be sampled, to the volume of coal involved, and to the savings in labour and economy which can be achieved. Introduction T HE Committee?:; on Coal Sampling of the Coal Study Subsection, Thermal Power Section (Eastern Zone), Canadian Electrical Association, was established in November, 1963, to "study the various problem areas of coal sampling." The first undertaking of the Committee was to at-tempt to survey the problem areas of coal sampling through an evaluation of coal sampling difficulties as experienced at both the plant design and operational levels within the electric utilities represented on the Committee. The results of this enquiry indicated that satisfactory answers to almost any conceivable

Jan 1, 1965

By Louis M. Perlman

CAN PRESENT TRENDS CONTINUE? Can population growth in the world keep going at the average rates of the last few decades, till, say, the year 2000? And beyond? At the same time, can we expect steady increases in mineral consumption per head, all over the world, as the living standards of many nations converge toward the living standards of North America? If they do converge? Does the total fund of world resources extend, with foreseeable techniques, to supplying the consequent demands for metals, non-metallic minerals and energy? Do we have the requisite economic and scientific techniques available to answer these questions? Certainly, we cannot forecast over decades with any certainty. There are many, of course, who seem to believe that by the simple fitting of trends, they can tell us something about the world and resource constraints in the year 2000, twenty-three years from now. It is significant that many studies of this sort have added sustenance to the 'doom-watching' fraternity of commentators. The reason is simple. The extrapolation of exponential trends into the distant future frequently leads to the most astounding and impossible scenarios. Another feature of exponential growth is the suddenness with which certain fixed limits are approached. It took world population two hundreds years to increase by 1/2 a billion, from 1650 to 1850. Yet some U.N. estimates suggest that the net addition to human population will be over 2 billion between now and the end of the century. Thus, the present world population would increase from a little under four thousand million today to rather over six thousand million in the year 2000.

Jan 1, 1977

By J. Aiello

"Introduction Byron Creek Collieries Limited Corbin mine is located in southeastern British Columbia approximately 180 air kilometres southwest of Calgary (Fig. I), twenty four kilometres south of Highway No. 3 via a newly constructed provincial road (Fig. 2). The development of the area began July 30, 1905, when D.C. Corbin, a prominent businessman from the northwestern U.S., and his associate E.J. Roberts first visited the site of Coal Mountain on horseback. Coal was in great demand by railways and other industrial users, so the Corbin Coal and Coke Co., after acquiring 6,000 hectares of land in the area, began to develop a mine. Mr. Roberts was responsible for the construction of the 22-kilometre rail spur, the Eastern British Columbia Railway, which joined the mine to the CPR main line at the McGillivray Loop. Rail access to the mine and its developing community, Corbin, B.C., was completed in September 1908, the same year that the first underground mine began production. The Corbin Coal and Coke Co. operated six mines on Coal Mountain (Fig. 3) and production from 1908 to 1930 inclusive totalled 2,120,800 tonnes. This production was allocated to the mines as follows:"

Jan 1, 1985

By G. Belzil, F. Robichaud, M. Fullam

ABSTRACT The Goldex mining and milling complex is operated by Agnico-Eagle and is located in the Abitibi greenstone region of northwestern Quebec, Canada. Commercial production started in 2008. Average gold recovery is 93.5% with approximately 68% of gold recovery coming from the gravity circuit. During the first three years of production, three gravity audits were carried out to optimize performance of the gravity circuit. This paper presents results of the audits and the development of a model linking gravity and overall gold recovery, and outlines improvements made to increase gravity performance and reduce operating costs.

Jan 1, 2013

By G. F. MacDonnell

THE Privateer mine consists of a group of mineral claims situated in the Zeballos area, on the west coast of Vancouver island, approximately 180 miles north of Victoria. Although Zeballos is a comparatively new mining camp, its transportation facilities can be considered exceptionally good. General freight and supplies are brought in by either C.P.R. or Frank Waterhouse steamers from either Victoria or Vancouver. Service by these boats varies from five to ten days and the trip from Victoria takes approximately two days. Passengers may use the C.P.R. boats, or, if speed is essential, they may fly, in which case they have the choice of two flying companies, namely, Canadian Air-ways, Limited, and Ginger Coote Airways. The average flight from Vancouver takes approximately two hours. Excellent unloading facilities are provided at the beach by a government dock for the steamers and a floating dock for aeroplanes. The mine, which is approximately five miles from the beach, is serviced by a fairly good gravel road, which has proved satisfactory for all haulage purposes. Zeballos has the reputation of having one of the heaviest rainfalls on the west coast, but as no accurate records have been kept, no comparisons can be made. H. C. Gunning, in his report, comments on the weather from 1929 to 1932, and one would judge that the practically continuous rainfall did not add to the pleasures of the field work. During the summer of 1938, the opposite condition prevailed and the area had exceptionally dry and pleasant weather. The snowfall is generally light at the lower elevations, but very heavy higher up. No extreme cold weather is encountered during the winter, which is generally short.

Jan 1, 1939

By G. B. Harris, C. W. White

A study to investigate the recovery of base metals, notably copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc and manganese from iron-free concentrated chloride solutions using ion exchange was undertaken. In such solutions, apart from nickel and, to a lesser extent manganese, these metals are present predominantly as complex anions, and therefore conventional separation techniques based on cationic resins are not applicable. The results demonstrated that zinc, copper and cobalt can all be separately recovered leaving nickel and manganese behind. Specifically, zinc is a major nuisance element in nickel and cobalt processing, and the testwork showed that it can be preferentially removed prior to copper and cobalt. Selective resins for both copper and cobalt were identified, and it was demonstrated that the strength of the chloride background matrix has a significant effect on the efficiency of separation. An additional major advantage in such systems is that stripping can mostly be effected with water. Finally, some observations are made on the hurdles that must be overcome when attempting to introduce and commercialise new technologies.

Jan 1, 2015

By E. W. Williams

THE Ontario Research Foundation has developed a process for producing low-density steel shapes by direct reduction of iron oxide powders. The process is a combination of reduction, sintering (without compaction), and carburizing, and has been described by Cavanagh (1). Iron oxide powder, in the form of mill scale or highly concentrated iron ore, carefully sized, is poured into a porous mould. A reducing agent, generally coke breeze, is placed around this mould in a heat resistant sagger which is sealed off and heated to 2,000°F. for a number of hours. The coke/ ore ratio, the particle size distribution, the temperature and time of soaking, and the size and shape of the reduced product, determine the densities and carbon contents attained. The Defence Research Board sponsored a programme of research into some of the mechanical properties of the material (which was named Controlled Density Steel) and this paper is an account of various factors which govern the tensile strength of the steel. The ?practically attainable range of density is from 1.5 to 5.5 gm./ cc. but higher densities are obtained on hot working. This paper, however, is restricted to discussion of results for moulded products.

Jan 1, 1957

By D. B. Hyma

"The Raglan Ni/Cu property is located on the Ungava Peninsula in Northern Quebec, Canada, at a latitude of61°42' and a longitude of73°40', approximately 40 km southwest of Douglas Harbor. Geological reserves are estimated at 18 million tonnes, grading 3. 1 % nickel, 0.9% copper and smaller amounts of cobalt and platinum group metals.Extensive project development has defined the concentration process, concentrator sizing, tailings and environmental management required for this project.The grinding circuit selected is a fully autogenous primary grind, with pebble crushing and a pebble mill for secondary grinding to produce a product of 80% -70 microns for flotation.The flotation circuit is a simple circuit utilizing roughing, a regrind of rougher concentrate to 80% -20 microns, two stages of column cleaning with a cleaner scavenger bank on the column tails.Concentrate handling options were thoroughly reviewed because of the pyrophoric nature of the concentrate, remote site location and long distance to downstream processing. The preferred option, currently.is to dry the concentrate at Raglan to less than l % moisture and then pneumatically handle the powder.A detailed analysis of tailings placement options, suggests filtered tailings placement to be the preferable route for the Raglan site.INTRODUCTIONThe Raglan Project, as proposed by Falconbridge Limited, will develop extensive nickel-copper deposits in the Ungava Peninsula, Quebec, Canada. The project schedule and construction conditions in the project area are demanding. The Raglan mineral deposits have been the subject of numerous studies and evaluations over the last thirty years and the Phase I 1991 pre-feasibility document includes exploration information obtained in the 1989 and 1990 drilling seasons. This review concluded that an 800,000 tonnes of ore per year mining and concentrating complex located at Katinniq could produce 20,000 tonnes per year of nickel at competitive costs."

Jan 1, 1993

By Brian Putland

Single stage semi-autogenous / autogenous (S/AG) milling has become a common design for a variety of ore types with the advantages of being comparatively low capital cost and flexible for future expansion. The single stage SAG/AG milling option is ideal for starter projects with significant exploration and expansion potential. Currently a number of the largest SAG mills designed are installed in single stage configuration. This paper discusses the challenges associated with the process design of single stage SAG/AG milling circuits, the design flexibility required to ensure a robust circuit and the operating techniques adopted at successful installations.

Jan 1, 2012

By J. S. Laskowski

Anisotropic minerals are important constituents of many ores. This group includes both valuable minerals (e.g., molybdenite in Cu-Mo ores) as well as gangue minerals (e.g., talc in platinumbearing sulphide ores in South Africa, graphite in Cu-Ni sulphide ores in Canada, chrysotile in Ni sulphide ores in Australia, and clay minerals in all types of ores). Aqueous suspensions of anisotropic minerals exhibit different properties than suspensions of isotropic minerals. The presence of anisotropic minerals in flotation circuits affects the flotation process.

Jan 1, 2012

By Helmut Lerchs

An open-pit mining operation can be viewed as a process by which the open surface of a mine is continuously deformed. The planning of a mining program involves the design of the final shape of this open surface. The approach developed in this paper is based on the following assumptions: 1. the type of material its mine value and its extraction cost is given for each point; 2. restrictions on the geometry of the pit are specified (surface boundaries and maximum allowable wall slopes); 3. The objective is to maximize total profit-total mine value of material extracted minus total extraction cost. Two numeric methods are proposed: A simple dynamic programming algorithm for the two-dimensional pit (or a single vertical section of a mine), and. a more elaborate graph algorithm for the general three-dimensional pit. ASURFACE mining program is a complex operation that may extend over many years, and Involve huge capital expenditures and risk. Before undertaking such an operation, it must be known what ore there is to be mined

Jan 1, 1965

By Arthur Grounds

Historical In the course of a paper which is necessarily limited in length, such as the present one, it is obviously impossible to describe in detail the history, development, and present position of coal preparation in Western Europe. Great Britain has been blessed with large deposits of excellent coal of nearly every type, ranging from the high-grade anthracites of South Wales, which are characterised by their very low ash and volatile con-tents, to the superb coking coals of South Wales and Durham -probably the finest in the world -with their low ash and sulphur contents, the latter constituent often well be-low l per cent. Gas coals abound in Lancashire and Yorkshire, while coals from the East Midlands, Northumberland, and Scotland are excellent for steam-raising and other industrial purposes. The excellent quality of these various coals has, in years gone by, ensured ready .sales abroad and it is not surprising, therefore; that methods of coal preparation were largely developed on the Continent in an endeavour to upgrade the inferior fuels found there, so that the prepared product could compete with British coals on the European market.

Jan 1, 1951

"ALTHOUGH Canadian metallurgists have long been active in research, the scope of the work was somewhat limited until the be-ginning -of World War II. The rapid industrial development of Canada during the past ten years has been accompanied by .a similar upsurge in research. However, the wide geographical distribution of the research centres has made it difficult for the individual research workers to meet together and to exchange ideas or even to learn what projects .are being investigated or the nature and extent of the facilities available for work of this kind.The purpose of the present symposium is to assemble data relating to projects under investigation and the facilities employed at the various metallurgical research laboratories in Canada, thus providing some measure of correlation so that workers in different locations may learn what kind of work •is being .done at other points throughout the country.In reporting the symposium it has not been possible to reproduce the papers in full, but excerpts have been selected that give the essentia1 data."

Jan 1, 1952

By Newell G. Alford

COAL companies are definitely becoming conscious of the need for better organization. Mechanized mining and the intricate preparation of coal have brought with them the demand for better trained and more highly skilled mining personnel. Refinement in coal mine management is increasing the demand for young graduate engineers to start in the lower grades of the reorganization and prepare themselves to meet rapidly increasing coal mining responsibilities. The interest is wide in scope and extends from self-helps, extension work, and management study at the mines to stimulation of interest in coal mining amongst undergraduate mining students, leading to their permanent employment after graduation. Data by the United States Bureau of Mines show the total annual value of coal production (bituminous and anthracite in the U.S.) through the past 22 years as being more than 38 per cent of the combined value of all ocher mineral industry products. Natural-gas production has gained rapidly on coal since 1916; petroleum exceeded coal beginning with 1934 (see Figure 1). For this 22-year period, the Committee on Student Interest in Coal Mining, in the A.I.M.E., made a survey of the mining schools in Canada and the United States to show the approximate absorption of young graduate mining engineers by the coal industry. In 1938, 232 mining engineers were graduated as compared with 42 in 1918 (a war year) and 180 in 1923. From 1923 to 1929 the graduates declined to another low of 90, but from there on there was a rapid annual increase in the graduating output, reaching a total of 232 in 1938 and continuing upward to a maximum of over 325 graduating this present month.

Jan 1, 1940

By R. N. Chakravorty

Early detection of spontaneous combustion is of utmost importance in underground coal mining to prevent major disruptions of production and to ensure a safer working environment. This paper presents the work done in developing a suitable system for the early detection of heating in a hydraulic coal mine. Laboratory studies on the products of oxidation for Balmer 10 seam coal showed that a significant amount of carbon monoxide is produced during the early stages of heating and that detection methods based on the analysis of other gases, such as hydrogen, ethane or ethylene, are not a better alternative for this coal. The four-point carbon monoxide monitoring system recently installed at the hydraulic mine is discussed in this paper. It is believed that by studying the trend of carbon monoxide concentration in the mine air, it will be possible to detect heating at an early stage. Field tests carried out so far have indicated that infra-red technology will prove to be a powerful tool in the hydraulic mine, particularly for locating hidden oxidation or fire in cracks, fissures, underground workings and coal outcrop areas before it spreads extensively. The project is jointly sponsored by EMR, CANMET, Mining Research Laboratories and Kaiser Resources Ltd.

Jan 1, 1978