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By Patrick E. Cavanagh

"A pilot shaft furnace was operated for one year at Steep Rock to produce special high-grade products from coarse ore, using lignite as fuel. The furnace is 10 ft in diameter and 60 ft high. When operated to heat coarse Steep Rock ore to drive off combined water and give a 64-per-cent-Fe product, the fuel consomption was 900,000 Btu's per long ton of product. The furnace was run in this way from September 1966 to January 1967 to establish the technique of feeding and discharging the furnace and controlling the gas composition and temperature. The furnace is similar in operation to a lignite water gas producer containing a large proportion of catalytic iron oxide. Steam injection is used to control the temperature. The product was tumbled in a rotary trommel to stabilize it. The resulting fines could be fed to the conventional pellet plant at Steep Rock. The furnace was next operated to make 77-per-cent-Fe metallized coarse ore. Several major modifications in de-sign were made and the furnace was successfully operated for short periods to maintain the required conditions to remove 75 per cent of the oxygen from the ore to give a 75-per-cent-reduced product at a grade of 77 per cent iron. The furnace cooling zone was operated under positive pressure, with internai alkaline water sprays to cool the charge. The product was discharged from the open bottom of the furnace without serions reoxidation. The metallized ore was magnetically separated from the discharge. Most of the charred lignite discharged along with the ore is re-cycled. Fuel requirement was 11,000,000 Btu's per long ton of product. This metallized coarse ore is intended for blast furnace feed. A short test run was carried out to establish the conditions for making a highly reduced melting stock for steel furnaces. To achieve 90 per cent reduction and over 90 per cent Fe, the furnace must be slowed down so that the production rate is about one-half the rate when making a 75-per-cent-reduced metallized product. Fuel requirement is 15,000,000 Btu's per long ton of product. The simple shaft furnace developed is similar to the top half of a blast furnace, with some major modifications to allow discharging into the open air. This Low Temperature Blast Furnace program has been technically successful and has resulted in making data available for the design of a commercial plant. Study of the commercial feasibility of large-scale production of metallized coarse ore at Steep Rock is still continuing."

Jan 1, 1968

By J. J. Fitzpatrick

"This paper deals with the methods used by Quebec Cartier Mining Company in the evaluation and selection of new haulage equipment and in increasing the productivity of the existing fleet.Selection of new equipment is based upon the comparison, for each model under consideration, of the capital investment required and the estimated operating costs and production rate. The calculation of the production rate is based on a widely used estimating procedure. Actual operating conditions considered in the method include: payload, haul distance, road grade, rolling resistance, loading and dumping times, and operational efficiency. A digital computer is used to handle the large volume of repetitive calculations required. Where a fleet of haulage equipment includes trucks of different size and performance characteristics, the problem exists of assigning each truck type to the different working locations to minimize total cost. Linear programming can be used in the solution of this problem."

Jan 1, 1967

By Daniel Hodouin, Bruno Girard, Claude Bazin

"Mineral processing and smelting operations have the reputation of being complex processes. Process operators of these unit operations have acquired from experience and basic training a superficial understanding of the relationships between process output and manipulated variables. This understanding, which is a very valuable know-how for process control and optimization as well as for operator training, is however difficult to extract. This paper describes a time series based approach that can be used to extract this know-how, which can subsequently be used for operator training. The method is illustrated with an example taken from a smelting process.IntroductionThe emergence of Total Quality Management and Statistical Process Control philosophies in the North American industry (Brown, 1991 ), as well as the increasing popularity of the IS0- 900x standard accreditation, provide a strong incentive to review the training procedures for plant operators. The importance of employees training is acknowledged in two of the 14 points of Deming's road to quality (Deming, 1982) as well as by control engineering consultants (Hendricks et al., 1994). However guidelines for the operation of industrial processes are often transferred from an operator to another one with allowance for flexible interpretation of many operating rules. Such transfer is typical of complex industrial processes to which particulate processes of ore dressing and extractive metallurgy belong.Capturing the knowledge of experienced operators is often a difficult task. Cognition engineers are able to extract this knowledge and transfer it into rules that ultimately are implemented into expert systems. Cognition engineers are however not always available and plant supervisors may prefer to keep training as an internal liability. Another difficulty through interviewing of the process operator is its lack of willingness to transfer what he has learned by hard working to other people, whose ultimate goals are to develop computerized applications that may replace him in a near future, or reduce its importance in the production line.This paper shows that time series can be advantageously used to capture the average process understanding of plant operators and to help reviewing training procedures. The method s illustrated with data collected during normal operation of electric arc furnaces and it is shown how the approach has led to a fruitful discussion between process engineers and operators that ultimately provided savings of more that $200,000 per year per furnace. There are 9 furnaces in the studied foundry. Such savings are not the results of application of advanced control strategies nor of ""miracle press button software», but of an improve awareness by engineers and operators of the importance of properly defining the operating procedures to control a process."

Jan 1, 1996

By W. R. Middagh, R. M. Garvey

"Phosphate rock is shipped by boat from Florida to Vancouver, B.C., where it is unloaded and stored in a 50,000-ton silo. It is shipped from Vancouver in 100-ton hopper cars in 80-car trains to Fort Saskatchewan. Both the ship and the hopper cars are on a back-haul with potash. The rock cars are unloaded at Fort Saskatchewan at a rate of approximately 4 cars per hour. The rock is stored in three concrete silos, 40 ft in diameter by 110 ft high, which hold 18,000 tons of recoverable rock with 2,000 tons dead space. The rock is reclaimed from the silos by gravity and fed to the phosphoric acid plant by remotely operated conveying equipment.Problems encountered in the operation include scheduling the rock shipments, contamination of the rock with potash, and handling the 80-car trains both in Vancouver and Fort Saskatchewan."

Jan 1, 1968

By J. M. Hollicky

The economical processing of wet and sour natural gas presents a problem due to the seasonal demand for natural gas. The plants must be sized to handle the peak loads but may only operate at half capacity on the average, in which case the sales value of sulphur and hydro-carbon liquid by-products cannot support the operating and capital costs of the plant. This must result in an increased price for the gas. This problem was solved by Pacific Petroleums and Westcoast Transmission in the design of their pipeline and plant facilities now operating in the Peace River area, where there are both wet and dry gas fields. By .building a plant to process sufficient wet gas to pro-vide the base load requirement, and by drawing on the dry gas fields for peak loads, an optimum economic operation was ?possible. The sulphur, L.P.G., and gasoline produced not only are able to support the operating and capital costs of the pro-cessing plant, but were instrumental in the sharp drop in retail prices of these commodities in the area. The sour gas and condensate is gathered from the fields in the area and transmitted in a two-phase gathering system to the gas processing plant at Taylor, B.C. The condenrnte is knocked out in inlet scrubbers. Hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide are removed in an amine scrubbing unit. The hydrogen sulphide is stripped from the amine and is sent to the Jefferson Lake Sulphur Company's plant which produces sulphur by the partial oxidation of the hydrogen sulphide. The natural gas, now sweet, is processed in an absorption unit to recover additional liquids, before being de-hydrated to remove water. It is then sent to Westcoast's main c8mpression station. The condensate recovered in the inlet scrubbers and the liquid re-covered in the absorption unit are fractionated to remove fuel gas, used in the plant, and to produce pro-pane, butane, and naphtha. The pro-pane and butane are scrubbed with caustic soda to remove hydrogen sulphide. The naphtha is treated with hydrogen in a unifiner unit to re-move sulphur compounds completely, and is split into a light and heavy naphtha. The heavy naphtha is .catalytically reformed to produce a high-octane blending-component. These fractions are blended with components produced from crude oil at the Dawson Creek refinery to produce a high-quality balanced gasoline with special attention being paid to volatility for ease of starting, warm up, and engine cleanliness, and octane for power and ?performance.

Jan 1, 1958

By C. Fleming, J. R. Goode

ABSTRACT: Data were produced from two uranium project studies that were conducted in 2008, both involving uranium recovery from leached slurry by resin-in-pulp (RIP) with strong base resins. In both studies, excellent metallurgical results were produced. The loaded resins were eluted with strong sulphuric acid and recycled through RIP circuits in an integrated process. Resin losses by either abrasion or mechanical breakage were immeasurably low. Metallurgical results from these two campaigns are presented, along with a case study economic analysis of RIP versus the alternative processes of counter-current-decantation or filtration and solvent extraction.

Jan 1, 2011

Who is ArcelorMittal Mines Canada ?One of Canada's leading suppliers of iron ore to steel markets around the world ?Past company name = ??Quebec Cartier Mining?? ?Operator of one of North America's largest open-pit mines ?Mont Wright Mines ?Fire Lake Mine ?Largest ArcelorMittal iron ore mining subsidiary ?Annual production of 15 million tonnes of concentrate ?Major expansion program to 24 MT/Y ?Internationally competitive pellet plant ?9.0 million tonnes annually

May 1, 2011

By Earl Gebhardt

The planning and design of mining panels in the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., Lanigan Division mine Block B involved a number of investigative techniques. The techniques utilized to gain insight into the viability of mining included 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys, longhole drilling, exploration wells, photolineament, magnetic and gravity surveys, and actual room excavation.

Feb 1, 1993

By H. L. Martin

A joint federal-provincial approach in gathering basic information from industry on mine production, concentrator operations and ore reserves, initiated during 1978, is a major step toward the goal of achieving better government-industry communication through a common data base. Information from questionnaires sent out by provincial governments is shared with the federal government; correct interpretation is ensured by mine visits conducted jointly by provincial and federal representatives. Initial focus is on nonferrous metal mines. The federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) is responsible for a national analysis that is aimed at the early detection of worrisome developments-and their reasons-in the flow from resources to reserves and from reserves to supply of these metals. The heart of the national analysis is the annual construction of a "monitoring curve", showing each metal's aggregated mine production as it would decrease over time if no new reserves and production capacity were to be added from the year of analysis. For a given metal, a comparison of monitoring curves from year to year can reveal early signs of supply stagnation. In anyone year, a monitoring curve in conjunction with foreseen needs for Canadian mine output will show the production gap that would have to be filled from reserves and production capacity yet to be developed. The production gaps for copper, nickel, zinc and lead, the four leading base metals mined in Canada, are shown for the 20-year period ahead, in the context of production achieved during the past 20 years. It is shown that reserve levels commensurate with likely future production levels would require that average annual reserve additions during 1978-98 exceed the average annual additions during the preceding 20 years. Reserve levels of all four metals have declined in recent years. A review of significant discoveries in the last five years suggests that this fall in reserves is not the result of a lack of exploration successes, but of stagnation in development for various economic reasons.

Jan 1, 1979

By Loris S. Russell

THE plains of southern Alberta constitute one of the classic areas of geological investigation in Canada, for it was here in 1874, and in 1881 to 1883, that George Mercer Dawson (1, 2, 3) made the pioneer observations that are basic to all subsequent work on the interior plains of Canada. Dawson's work was extended eastward by R. G. McConnell ( 4) and northward by J. B. Tyrrell( 5) , but it remained. for D. B. Dowling to re-examine Dawson's Bow and Belly River Area and to make certain necessary revisions in the stratigraphical system of his predecessor. In 1917, Dowling published his memoir, The Southern Plains of Alberta( 6) , which remained for over ten years the last word on the stratigraphy and structure of the area described. It is generally conceded that Dowling's work made known the existence of a great artesian basin beneath the semi-arid plains of southeastern Alberta. In addition, his structural studies greatly stimulated the search for natural gas and petroleum. The most recent general publications on this area by the Geological Survey are based on the field work of M. Y. Williams, E. J. Whittaker, W. S. Dyer, and P. S. Warren, between the years 1923 and 1926. Their results were embodied in the Calgary Sheet (7) and the memoir, Geology of Southern Alberta and Southwestern Saskatchewan (8). By this time, the number of geologists working in Alberta in the development of the petroleum and natural gas industries had become large, and in 1931 the Alberta Association of Petroleum Geologist~ offered the Donaldson Bogart Dowling Memorial Symposium on Stratigraphy of Southern Alberta( 9) , a most valuable series of papers descriptive both of the ,surface stratigraphy and that observed in the well records.

Jan 1, 1937

By K. Mayhew, A. Lossin, H. Salomon-de-Friedberg

"The proportion of arsenic-bearing copper concentrates that supply the copper industry is on the increase. The current strategy of miners and smelters to blend feeds to reduce average arsenic levels is rapidly becoming unsustainable as more concentrates with even higher arsenic levels enter the marketplace. In addition, the capability of smelters to manage increasing arsenic levels to more stringent and restrictive environmental standards is limited by available process technologies.CESL Cu-As Technology is a viable technical and economic alternative to traditional smelting. It offers the advantage of simultaneous leaching and precipitation of the arsenic in a single processing step while achieving high copper extractions. The process has been piloted in six separate, fully-integrated pilot campaigns for feeds ranging from ~1% to 12% arsenic in concentration. This paper will focus on the behaviour of arsenic in CESL’s leaching/precipitation step and operational factors that influence it, and on the chemical and physical characteristics of the subsequent iron-arsenic residue that represents today’s best available technology from a long-term sustainable (capital/operating costs, metal recovery, safety, environmental) perspective.The examples provided will demonstrate copper extractions approaching 99% and arsenic deportment to residue of 99%. Instantaneous settling rates of the residue were measured at 15+ m/hr. Data from subsequent short and long-term stability testing of the residue confidently support the view that the scorodite-bearing residues from the process will be stable and provide an acceptable arsenic management practice. The technology offers increased revenue and environmental certainty for miners, smelters & refiners to support the development of metallurgically challenged copper-arsenic deposits. Furthermore, results will be presented demonstrating the technology’s ability to successfully incorporate hazardous arsenic containing smelter by-products such as dust into the process feed and simultaneously extract copper value while fixing the arsenic in a stable residue."

Jan 1, 2016

By Zainelabdin Khalid Zainelabdin Elfaki

The influence of partially replacing cement with marble waste on the workability and compressive strength of concrete bricks was investigated. Three replacement percentages, 10%, 20% and 30% weight marble waste, were used with different curing times of 7, 14 and 28 days. Two specimens were prepared for each percentage and curing time. For this study, marble powder from the Mining House Company in Saudi Arabia was used. It was observed that the replacement of cement in Concrete brick with marble waste enhanced the loading strength and the workability of the prepared concrete bricks. It was also observed that 20% replacement of cement with marble waste was the best replacement percentage compared to the other replacement percentages tested. Marble waste from manufacturing companies, either in powder, sludge or slab form, has negative impacts on the environment. In contrast, reusing marble waste has both economic benefits (i.e., selling the marble waste) and lessening the need for raw resources.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. A. H. Church

My paper entitled "Spontaneous Combustion of Coal in Mines;" read some time ago before this Branch, consisted chiefly of extracts from the British Blue Book dealing with the same subject. Fallowing my article, Mr. de Hart submitted a paper dealing with the application of existing methods of working in Alberta to the conditions obtaining in our bituminous mines. I must confess that the perusal of his paper did not enlighten me either as to what might be a method preferable to those in vogue or even to Mr. de Hart's ideas on the subject, nor did the ensuing discussion of Mr. de Hart's paper afford any great clarification of the problem. The outstanding idea, supplied by Mr. Dick, seemed to be that a retreating system could not be employed, as no operator would feel justified in risking the capital necessary to driving to the boundary when the whole might be jeopardized by a fire breaking out in the waste. That a fire would break out in the waste of any adit-level working seemed to be conceded by all, and with that I agree; that an ignited waste could not be safely sealed off by means of stoppings in a coal barrier-pillar appeared to be the contention of Mr. Dick, or perhaps he attributed this idea to the Mines Branch-anyhow, it seemed to loom over the discussion like a miasma. With this aspect I do not agree, as ? reliance is placed wholly on stoppings in the thick seams of South Staffordshire, even in fiery mines. In the thick coal at Exhall colliery, or elsewhere in Warwickshire (34 feet 4 inches) containing hard and soft coal in layers, a fire assuming serious proportions is sealed off. By the way, retreating long-wall methods are employed. In Fifeshire, sealing off fire in the Dysart mine has been accomplished successfully. The seam averages about 20 feet thick.

Jan 1, 1924

By Karl Marquis

La Mine Mouska exploite depuis deux ans certains blocs de réserve à l?aide de la méthode long trou. Même si, à priori, la méthode long trou semble rentable, le contrôle de la dilution ainsi que le respect d?un échéancier serré s?avèrent primordiaux afin que cette méthode d?exploitation puisse être justifiable économiquement. La présentation suivante fera la comparaison économique entre cette méthode et celle de chambre-magasin.

Oct 1, 2001

By R. D. Browns

In his Budget Speech on March 31, 1 977, the Honourable Donald S. Macdonald expressed concern about the financing of investments through new equity issues. He mentioned the need to render more attractive participation in the equity market by investors in all in come brackets. One of the measures introduced in the budget to accomplish this goal is the proposal to increase the dividend gross-up and tax credit in respect of most dividends received by an individual from Canadian companies. The following comments and tables serve to illustrate the impact of this particular proposal.

Jan 1, 1977

By Peter Chmara

The measurement of dust concentration in Ontario mines since 1926 has been accomplished by konimetry, based on South African experience and methods. The introduction of a voluntary program of semi-annual surveys of air conditions at all operations throughout Ontario mines created a need for an instrument that would assess konimeter spots rapidly and accurately. The development of the Electronic Scanner, it is felt, answers this need. A program whereby all konimeter spot samples taken at Ontario mines will be counted at the MAP AO field offices in North Bay is described.

Jan 1, 1969

By R. C. McMurchy

"The Powell mine is in western Quebec about 2 miles northwest of the adjoining towns of Noranda and Rouyn. It is the original discovery of the area, its gold-bearing quartz vein having been discovered in 1922. Considerable work was done on this vein by several companies and discontinued because the grade, when gold was $20 an ounce, was too low for profitable extraction. Between 1922 and 1924 an inclined shaft was sunk to 225 feet and drifts were driven 240 feet on the 100-foot level.In 1929, due to the discovery and development of the Horne mine at Noranda, interest was revived in the property. Sulphide deposits of the disseminated and vein types were explored on the Powell claims. On the B copper 'showing', a vertical shaft, now known as the 'old copper shaft', was sunk to ·a depth of 167 feet and 300 feet of lateral work was carried out on the 150-foot level. As no orebody was discovered this work was discontinued.In 1933 the present company, Powell Rouyn Gold Mines, Limited, was formed and the gold-bearing quartz veins were again tested by drilling and trenching. In 1936, the price of gold having risen to $35 an ounce, operations were resumed. Since then the inclined shaft (No. 1) has been deepened to 500 feet, a second shaft (No. 2, vertical) on the main quartz vein has been sunk to 2,630 feet, and ll; shallow vertical shaft (No. 3) on the same vein but in the south claim has been sunk to 500 feet.Lateral work now approximates 9 miles, and to November 15th, 1946, 1,685,674 tons of ore, which averaged 0.129 oz. gold per ton and 73.6 per cent. Si02, had been extracted."

Jan 1, 1954

By T. R. Skerry, H. P. Hudson, T. E. Warren

"ALTHOUGH coal is generally the cheapest fuel on the basis of heating value it has been at a disadvantage in competition with other fuels because means have not been available for efficient •Conversion of its thermal energy to mechanical work. Taking the •railway application •as an example, the cost of Diesel oil is about three times that of its thermal equivalent in coal, but the overall efficiency of a Diesel locomotive is about five times that of a coal-fired steam locomotive. Accordingly, the Canadian railways are replacing all coal-fired steam Locomotives, as they are retired from service, with Diesel units. This conversion in itself represents a major loss to the coal industry because the value of railway fuel is approximately 130 million dollars per year, and there are other applications in the medium power range where oil is displacing coal. There is, therefore, a strong incentive to attempt development of an efficient coal-burning engine.Coal has never been a promising fuel for reciprocating internal combustion engines because of the time required for its combustion in pulverized form . This is not less than one-tenth of a second so that the speed of such an engine would have to be very slow. There are also serious difficulties of a mechanical nature arising from the necessity for intermittent combustion and the use of close-fitting pistons."

Jan 1, 1952

By S. Kapusniak

Specialist Machine Developments (SMD) is a design and manufacturing company involved in the design of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV?s), ploughs, trenchers and mining machines for use in submerged environments. Established in 1971, the company has made over 500 vehicles for subsea use. These range in size from small remotely operated swimming vehicles with a weight of less than a tonne to heavy duty seabed crawling machines with a weight of up to 310 tonnes (in air). Primarily, these machines have been designed for offshore vessel-based applications, but the machines are equally suited to other submerged mining applications onshore. Many onshore deposits can technically and theoretically be mined using currently available submerged mining ROV technology. Similar equipment to that in use subsea could easily be fast-tracked into use to extend the life of opencast mines facing severe hydrological problems. It could also easily be used to mine vertical ore-bodies where the stripping ratio has become uneconomical due to increasing depth. In some cases mining ROVs could even be suitable for use as the primary extraction method for a new mine. Exploration and extraction techniques used in oil and gas gradually developed and moved from land to offshore in the middle of the last century. Are we about to witness a similar shift with other minerals? This paper describes the design concepts of submerged mining equipment, targetted subsea mineral deposits, the suitability of submerged mining ROVs for onshore deposits, limits to their application and parallel research and development activities which will help to accelerate the use of such equipment in the emerging submerged mining sector.

Aug 1, 2013

By Yongjun Peng, Yufan Mu, Rolf A. Lauten

"Chalcopyrite, a major source of copper, is commonly found associated with iron sulfides, particularly pyrite. The separation of chalcopyrite and pyrite by flotation is difficult due to the galvanic interactions between pyrite and chalcopyrite during grinding and flotation. Galvanic interactions may cause oxidation and dissolution of chalcopyrite, copper activation of pyrite and the formation of hydrophilic iron hydroxide coating. The overall effect may change the floatability of the components and lead to the misplacement of pyrite into chalcopyrite concentrate. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of lignosulfonate-based biopolymers on the depression of pyrite in the flotation of chalcopyrite with xanthate as collector and the mechanism responsible for the selective depression of pyrite. The flotation results showed that biopolymers depressed the flotation of both copper-activated pyrite and chalcopyrite in single mineral flotation although to different extents. In the flotation of mixed mineral systems, biopolymers significantly depressed pyrite flotation but had a less influence on chalcopyrite flotation. The selective depression of pyrite by biopolymers was due to the preferential adsorption of biopolymers on copper-activated pyrite surface. Galvanic interactions between pyrite and chalcopyrite surfaces promoted copper activation on pyrite. Presence of cuprous ions on pyrite surface favored biopolymer adsorption by the formation of a complex between the cuprous ions and biopolymer molecules. The same galvanic interactions also facilitated chalcopyrite oxidation leading to the formation of hydrophobic polysulfide that enhanced the hydrophobicity on chalcopyrite surface. The biopolymer structure controlled the depression effect. The results showed that the biodegradable biopolymers are promising depressants for pyrite.INTRODUCTIONCopper sulfide minerals, such as chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), bornite (Cu5FeS4), chalcocite (Cu2S) and covellite (CuS), are the major mineral source for copper. They are often found finely interlocked with iron sulfides, especially pyrite (FeS2) (Owusu, Brito e Abreu, Skinner, Addai-Mensah, & Zanin, 2014). Pyrite, as the most abundant sulfide mineral, is perceived as gangue in most cases and should be removed from the associated sulfides to minimize its contamination of the copper concentrate (Owusu, Addai-Mensah, Fornasiero, & Zanin, 2013; Wang & Forssberg, 1991). The commonly used strategy to remove pyrite is flotation (Wang & Forssberg, 1991)."

Jan 1, 2016