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By H. F. Maulson

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the history of the western Provinces-Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta-as regards our natural resources, a few words of explanation may be in order before taking up the consideration of the Mines Act of 1930. In 1867, The British North America Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament. That Act, which is our constitution, created a union between the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper and Lower Canada (now known as Ontario and Quebec respectively) under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Provision was made therein for embracing other parts of Canada from time to time. That portion of Canada which today comprises the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta and the lands to the north of them, was then known as Ruperts Land and the North West Territory. In the year 1670, King Charles II had granted by Letters Patent to Prince Rupert and his associates, known as ?The Governor & Company of Gentlemen Adventurers of England, Trading into Hudson's Bay?, commonly known as the Hudson's Bay Company, the lands and territories therein described, being roughly all the lands adjacent to and west of Hudson's bay; also the gold and silver to be found or discovered therein and other rights as more fully described in said Letters Patent. The land so granted was called 'Ruperts Land'.

Jan 1, 1930

By J. E. Udd, S. Bharti

"ABSTRACTMonitoring of stability conditions in underground mines permits management to assess the response of the rock mass to mining strategies. Monitoring of movements, if sufficiently early, may also permit operators either to avert potential failures or to develop alternative approaches to extraction.The Falconbridge organization has been a leader both in the uses of rock mass stability monitoring techniques and in the development of instrumentation.In this paper, the authors review the Falconbridge approaches to monitoring, and present case history examples to illustrate the application of the various instruments used.RESUMELa surveillance des conditions de stabilité dans les mines souter-raines permet aux chefs d'enterprises d'évaluer les réactions de la masse rocheuse aux méthodes d'extraction minière. Si le contrôle des mouvements du terrain est effectué assez tot, l'exploitant pourra prendre les mesures qui s'imposent, soit pour éviter les détériorations possibles ou pour mettre au point de nouvelles méthodes d'extraction.Le groupe de la Falconbridge a ére le premier a utiliser des techniques de vérification des conditions de stabilité de la masse rocheuse et a mettre au point l'appareillage requis.Ce document présente une revue des méthodes employées par la Falconbridge pour assurer la surveillance active de la stabilité de la masse rocheuse et illustre au moyen de cas concrets la manière d'utiliser les divers appareils."

Jan 1, 1987

By K. L. Azinger

Successful relationships between mining companies and local stakeholders are now an essential part of the social contract of “doing business” (Prescott, 1995). The methodology presented in this paper is designed to assist mining companies in understanding and building relationships with diverse stakeholder groups. The methodology starts by recognizing that mining projects have a natural life cycle which can be used to identify when new external affairs strategies are required. In designing an external affairs strategy, the first step is to set objectives that are compatible with the overall objectives of the mining project. The management team then identifies the main stakeholder groups and seeks to understand the priorities and inter-relationships of the individual stakeholders. The result of this stakeholder analysis is an understanding of the Degrees of Influence of each of the stakeholder groups along with a relationship map which illustrates the strong interactions between stakeholders. The company is then prepared to take a proactive approach to building relationships with the primary stakeholders. This methodology was developed by BHP to assist with the federal government environmental approval process for the development of Canada’s first diamond mine. BHP has successfully used the methodology in three different phases of the NWT Diamonds Project and is now applying the methodology to mining and development projects around the world.

Jan 1, 1998

By A. Manohar Rao

Underground mining in general and more so the coal mining is a hazardous venture as it is a struggle against nature and natural forces. The stability of roadways has a direct impact on production and productivity. The roadway stability can be strongly influenced by the direction of the drivage. The stress studies are useful to provide a frame work for understanding the influence of drivage direction on roadway conditions, and to illustrate how mapping techniques can enhance this understanding. The act of mining can concentrate and re-orient the original stresses. Whenever coal is removed, the overburden weight that it carried is transferred. Vertical stresses are similarly affected when the roof is deformed or failed. The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd., a joint Public sector undertaking of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and India is conducting coalmining operations in the Godavari Valley Coalfield and is catering to the needs of a large part of South India. With the technology update, it is looking for safe mining and to achieve higher production. As a part of this, an attempt is made to understand the stress conditions prevailing on the mine blocks by different ways and means in terms of geology, structure and tectonics of the Godavari Valley coalfield, satellite imagery studies, cleat pattern, stress measurement studies conducted in different mine blocks, and stress mapping technique.

Aug 1, 2013

By Norman A. Parlee

Introduction The principal primary iron and steel producing capacity of the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation is at the Dominion Iron and Steel, Limited, plant at Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The main raw materials are Cape Breton coal, Wabana (Newfoundland) iron ore, and Port-au-Port (Newfoundland) limestone. This plant, which was established at the turn of the century has gradually expanded its production facilities so that today its ingot producing capacity is over 720,000 tons annually. Principal operating units of the plant at present are three batteries of 173 Koppers by-product coke ovens with conventional by-product recovery equipment, three blast furnaces .of 15 ft. 6 in., 18 ft. 3 in., and 19 ft. 3 in. hearth diameter (inside the brick), one 700-ton hot metal mixer, ten open hearth furnaces (two of 175-ton capacity, three 12 5-ton, five 60-ton), one 10-ton electric furnace, a 40-inch blooming mill, a billet mill, a rail mill, a tie plate mill, rod and bar mills, and a wire and nail mill. Extensive machine shops and an iron and brass foundry are also available for plant maintenance and repairs. This paper will describe developments during the past five years and those now in process. It will also briefly discuss research being done and indicate the direction of future development.

Jan 1, 1951

By Q. F. Wang, M. H. Lai, T. Q. Liu, G. G. Dong

Compared with the traditional pre-treatment process, biological oxidation process has many advantages including higher gold recovery, less cost, easier operation. The bio-oxidation reactor is the most important equipment for biological oxidation process. In this paper, the characteristics of biological oxidation are investigated, and the design principles are proposed based on laboratory tests. Both increasing the tank height and taking new inflation system can enhance higher dissolved oxygen. The new type of large-scale industrial bio-oxidation reactor is designed, which is 9.5 m in diameter and 10 m in height. The bio-oxidation reactor metallurgical performance has been tested by industrial-scale experiment. The slurry of flotation concentrate is divided into two parts to feed two bio-oxidation reactors. The feeding rates of two reactors are adjusted on the basis of getting the same content of S, Fe, As in overflow. The result shows that the feeding rate of the new type of 700 m3 bio-oxidation reactor is 3.72 m3 per hour, and the feed rate of the conventional 700 m3 bio-oxidation reactor was 3.23 m3 per hour. The processing capacity of the former is 15.2% higher than that of the later, which demonstrates the new type of bio-oxidation reactor has higher oxidation rate.

Jan 1, 2015

By P. Condori

Palabora Mining Copper has a unique ore body composition which unlike other copper ore bodies has three main components in significant proportions; these are copper bearing ore, magnetite and dolerite. The high content of dolerite, a hard barren material, creates a high proportion of pebbles which normally are recycled back to the mill. This action increases the mill bearing pressure and power progressively until corrective actions are taken. A logical action to solve the pebbles generation would be to incorporate a pebble crusher. This in fact was done however two fundamental issues were encountered; the high content of magnetite and existence of a cyclone classification section. Due to the high content of magnetite, metal detectors have not been able to work efficiently to separate tramp metal which causes damage to the pebble crushers. The existence of cyclones in the circuit had a detrimental effect on the final product when the pebbles crusher was online producing coarse sandy material. Due to the difficulties in treating pebbles via conventional procedures and the unique Palabora ore composition and characteristics, sorting technology was investigated at laboratory and pilot scale. It was found that a combination of optical and electromagnetic sorting could efficiently separate dolerite from the copper bearing and magnetite ores. This paper reports the findings of the laboratory and pilot scale work performed and discusses the additional benefits to the circuit.

Jan 1, 2012

By C. A. Lorenson

THE Marmoraton mine is located a mile southeast of Marmora, a village in Hastings county, Ontario, 130 miles east from Toronto and 143 miles west of Ottawa. Highway No. 14 from Belleville intersects Highway No. 7 at Marmora and the branch line of the Canadian National railway between Trenton and Bancroft passes through the property just east of the open pit. HISTORY AND GEOLOGY The Marmora orebody appears as the whorls of a thumb print on the aeromagnetic survey map released by the Ontario Department of Min.es early in 1950, the survey of the district having been made in 1948 and 1949, under the joint auspices of the Department of Mines and the Geological Survey of Canada. The 'anomaly' appeared to have interesting possibilities, so Bethlehem representatives carried out a ground survey and began drilling the property in June, 1950. A total of 40 holes, aggregating 37,000 feet, were drilled to delineate the ore-body. The Marmora orebody is a re-placement of Precambrian limesto.ne with zones or bands of magnetite interlaid with metamorpl1ic rocks and cut by later intrusives. The ore and associated Precambrian rocks are overlain by 100 to 150 feet of flat-lying Palaeozoic limestone. It is a low-grade deposit averaging 33 per cent iron and requires concentration to raise it to 65 per cent iron grade.

Jan 1, 1958

By Robert E. Wood

Engineers have known for some time that the efficiency of filtering iron ore concentrate slurry can be significantly improved by pre-heating the slurry ahead of the filters. However, heating such large quantities of dense slurry by conventional means has proven to be inefficient and high-maintenance. Recently though, submerged combustion was considered by Altos Hornos de Mexico SA (AHMSA), an integrated steel producer in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, as a means of pre-heating their iron ore concentrate. The company toured many iron ore facilities in Brasil and Labrador, reviewing their heating processes, and concluded that submerged combustion could provide a competitive advantage through operational efficiency and lower capital cost than steam boilers. Inproheat was retained by the company to design and manufacture a SubCom slurry heating system to heat 403 m3/h of iron ore concentrate slurry from 25°C to 60°C. The 60GJ/h SubCom system consists of five natural gas combustion chambers mounted in an iron ore concentrate storage tank. The system features a heat recovery unit whereby the exhaust gases are used to preheat the incoming slurry stream, giving the system an overall thermal efficiency of 95%. As a result, the steel company expects to realise significant improvements in filtering efficiency which will enable them to increase the capacity of their pelletising plant without installing additional filters.

May 1, 2010

By V. K. Karra

A mathematical model for the performance of a vibrating screen is developed in terms of an oversize partition curve. This is a normalized curve for any assemblage of particles presented for screening when their size is normalized with respect to the 50 per cent passing size (d50 ) under the prevailing screening conditions. Based on the throughfall aperture (hT) of the wire mesh on the deck, the effects of oversize (% >hT), half-size under (% <0.5 hT), deck location and feed rate were evaluated using the existing screen sizing information. All these variables and also the near-mesh (1.25 hTx 0.75 hT) content (%) of the feed affect the d50. Performance data from different decks of a double-deck screen with various feed rates, size distributions and screen apertures were used to evaluate the near-mesh factor. Effects of wet screening and material bulk density are also incorporated in the model. This generalized model is useful for the simulation of a multiple-deck screen. It furnishes the sieve analysis information of all the deck output streams and therefore has a potential use in the over-all circuit evaluation when used in conjunction with relevant crushing and grinding performance models. An example illustrating the prediction capabilities of the model is given.

Jan 1, 1979

By F. Awotwe-Appiah, P. Koshy, A. Y. Fosu, J. Dankwah, J. R. Dankwah

Ghana currently exports its bauxite raw without any value addition. Gradual depletion of high grade bauxite (with high alumina content) and the emergence of low grade bauxite (with high iron oxide content) calls for novel and inexpensive ways to recover alumina from these low grade ores. Bauxite users have indicated their willingness to pay 10% to 50% higher for a corresponding reduction in impurities by a similar amount. This project therefore investigates the carbothermal upgrading of the Ghana Awaso bauxite using waste polypropylene as reductant in a locally designed gas-fired furnace. Composite pellets of low grade bauxite sample (assaying 45% Al2O3) containing pulverised waste polypropylene were formed, oven dried, placed in fireclay crucible and fired for 30 minutes. The magnetic fraction after reduction was separated by a Low Intensity Magnet and weighed. It was observed that up to 97% of the iron oxides (occurring as hematite and goethite) could be separated into the magnetic fraction as magnetite leaving a nonmagnetic fraction with over 98% Al2O3 as opposed to the 45% Al2O3 in the as-received bauxite sample. This research direction provides yet another simple but effective way for simultaneously upgrading low grade bauxite and recycling waste polypropylene, whilst at the same time decreasing the amount of waste material generated as red mud after the Bayer process.

Jan 1, 2015

By D. A. Trotter, G. J. Goddard

"This paper describes a method of deciding on various design parameters for a sublevel caving layout. Layout design curves are obtained from the output of a computer optimization program. The program uses mathematical relationships derived from the theory of gravity flow of material to optimize the large number of interdependent design variables which are involved.IntroductionIn the design of an efficient sublevel caving mining system, a large number of interrelated variables need to be considered. Although many papers discuss individual variables, very little exists in the literature to show how these variables interact to achieve optimum results. This can lead to trial and error in sublevel caving design, which can prove costly, particularly because sublevel caving is a mining method which requires integration with sublevels above and below. With no pillars being left, experimental stopes cannot be isolated for study. Unfortunately, the complexity of layout design and the costs associated with trial and error have caused many planning engineers to choose more tried and tested mining methods.Sublevel caving works best to extract low-value ore surrounded by incompetent rock. All phases of the mining method can be highly mechanized, allowing low operating costs and high production rates. Good safety records are achieved, as workers are always in &apos;good&apos; ground and the method is regular, making it comparable to an industrial process."

Jan 1, 1981

By Bruce Mennie

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) operates copper and gold mining operations in a mountainous area of the Mimika regency, near Tembagapura, Papua (formerly, Irian Jaya), Indonesia. The mining and concentrating operations typically produce 240,000 metric tonnes per day of Copper and Gold ore from the combined mining of an 80,000 tonne per day (ore) block cave operation (DOZ Mine) and a 160,000 tonne per day (ore) open pit mining operation (Grasberg Open Pit). The Grasberg Open pit mine will be complete in 2016 at which time PTFI?s operations will convert to Underground. Mining operations will transition from today?s mixed surface and underground operation to full underground mining over the next 6 years. This paper reviews the history of Redpath?s relationship with PTFI, beginning with a raiseboring contract in 1981 and evolving into vertical and horizontal development contracts of up to 37,700 equivalent metres of lateral development and 4,000 metres of vertical development in 2011. An overview of the current operations (PTFI?s Grasberg Open Pit and DOZ Underground Mines) and transition period (challenges for the transition from current to future underground mines) is presented with details of development of common underground infrastructure and future mines; Big Gossan Mine, DMLZ Mine, Grasberg Block Cave Mine, and the Kucing Liar Mine.

Oct 1, 2010

By Dan Marshall, David H. Watkinson

Abstract - Cobalt, Ontario, is renowned for the 12.6 billion grams (445 million ounces) of silver produced from the area since discovery in 1903 by workers of the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. Native silver generally occurs with cobalt arsenides and sulfosalts in near-vertical carbonate veins cutting the Huronian sedimentary rocks of the Gowganda Formation, the Archean metavolcanics and/or the Nipissing diabase. All major deposits have been found within a few hundred meters of the unconformity between the Archean and Huronian rocks in general proximity to the Nipissing diabase and volcanogenic sulfide mounds within the Archean meta-volcanics. Silver has been mobilized from one or more of the local country rocks by hyper-saline brines and deposited in or near zones of mixing where the saline brines encounter paleometeoric water transported to depth along the unconformity or local structures. Previous work has shown that chloride complexes are the dominant ligands responsible for silver transport. These hypersaline brines, represented as halite-bearing fluid inclusions at room temperature, have been trapped as primary fluid inclusions within vein minerals. Pressure-temperature conditions of vein formation have been derived from mineral equilibria, maximum lithostat and fluid-inclusion studies. These data are consistent with vein formation occurring over the temperature range 300°C to 350°C, with pressures constrained between 60 Mpa and 136 Mpa (600 bars and 1360 bars).

Jan 1, 2000

By F. Moraw

The use of redox fuel cells in which oxygen is replaced by other oxidants such as ferric ions can have significant advantages [1-3]. For example, the cathodic reaction rate (e.g., exchange current density) can be increased by several orders of magnitude compared to the oxygen reduction reaction, and platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts are not required. As a result of the higher aqueous solubility of the oxidant in a redox fuel cell compared to that of oxygen the rate of mass transfer (e.g., limiting current density) is greater by several orders of magnitude. The redox fuel cell can achieve high efficiencies and has other fuel cell advantages. The main issue with the redox fuel cell cathode is the regeneration of the oxidant where low conversion efficiencies are achieved even with platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts. In the work discussed here the Fe3+/Fe2+ redox fuel cell cathode is characterized over a range of electrolyte concentrations and operating conditions, and electrode materials. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are mainly used for electrochemical characterization and mechanistic determination of the cathode redox couple. Further characterization with selected compositions and materials is done in a redox fuel cell (hydrogen - Fe3+/Fe2+). The mechanism and the advantages and disadvantages of the fuel cell redox cathode are discussed with respect to other approaches and other redox couples.

Jan 1, 2005

By Stephen J. Roberts

Gold catalysts were prepared on co-precipitated, calcined copper oxide - zinc oxide support by an inverse deposition-precipitation method. These catalysts were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and studied for CO oxidation activity at various catalyst calcination temperatures. TPR studies of the support material exhibited a double peak and shift to lower temperatures for the reduction of Cux+ to metallic copper, as opposed to the single reduction peak for pure CuO. This phenomenon is possibly caused by an interaction with the zinc oxide. The addition of gold to the support CuOZnO led to a further shift in copper reducibility to lower temperatures. Gold present in the initial uncalcined catalyst as Au3+ was auto-reduced to Au0 under various calcination temperatures. The Au3+ reduction peak was observed to shift to lower temperatures with increasing calcination temperature. The catalytic activity was found to pass through a minimum value with respect to calcination temperature. Catalysts with both gold in entirely the 3+ or metallic oxidation state were found to exhibit high activity. Furthermore, the catalysts were found to decrease in activity with decreasing Au3+ content up to an intermediate calcination temperature, afterwhich the activity increased sharply. Possibly at higher temperatures, a stronger Au-support interaction is formed, leading to a new active site.

Oct 1, 2003

By James F. Archibald

Research has been conducted for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) to characterize thin, spray-on lining materials (TSLs), as well as combinations of TSLs and conventional spray supports, and to assess their capacity for inhibiting damage created by mining-induced rockbursts. This study has been performed to assess the capabilities of such support systems for preventing rock and support material damage that often results due to rockbursting. A variety of TSLs and other spray support media were subjected to the effects of simulated rockbursting, through use of explosive detonation trials, to evaluate their damage mitigation capacity. Results have validated that TSLs and variant layer combinations may be as effective as or better than conventional support materials for mitigating rockburst or like damage in highly stressed mine environments. In civil engineering construction, and typically in underground tunneling operations where concrete linings are applied, liner deterioration is a continuing and pervasive problem that often requires expensive and time-consuming rehabilitation effort. The ability of TSLs to provide effective concrete structural reinforcement while providing sustainable resistance against underground or restricted environmental hazards, as with fires or dynamic failure events, may permit wider use of TSLs than is currently foreseen by the mining industry. Significant benefits for use of TSL materials in concrete liner rehabilitation and for concrete material protection have been assessed.

May 1, 2006

By H. Langlois

"Included in the Mines Gaspe mining complex located at Murdochville, Quebec, is a copper smelter which comprises a reverberator furnace, two Peirce-Smith converters, an anode furance, and a sulphuric acid plant.The 50% smelter capacity available is supple mentedby custom concentrates for treatment. As these concentrates can be varied and extremely complex many modifications and improvements have been brought about to optimize and make the process more flexible since its inauguration in 1955.IntroductionThe copper smelter of the Mines Gaspe mining complex is located in Murdochville, a small municipality in the heart of the Gaspe peninsula, 90 km northwest of the town of Gaspe .This metallurgical installation has a daily smelting capacity of 650 tonnes of concentrate and an output of 250 tonnes of copper and 900 tonnes of sulphuric acid. Its main components are: a reverberatory furnace, two Peirce-Smith converters, one rotary anode furnace and one acid plant. The gases, which are produced by the converters, are treated at the acid plant then combined with gases from the reverberatory furnace before being vented through a 152 metre high stack .From the beginning of its operation until the present day (1991), the smelter has treated 7 million tonnes of concentrate and 100 thousand tonnes of scrap for a production of 1.8 million tonnes of copper and 2.2 million tonnes of sulphuric acid."

Jan 1, 1993

By Elhachmi Es-Sadiqi

"For over 40 years, CANMET has focused its research on value-added products and energy efficiency in the metals industry. The Efficient Metal Production Program is currently managed by Dr. Elhachmi Es-Sadiqi, and the Canadian steel industry is its main client — both directly and through international organizations such as the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the International Lead and Zinc Research Organization. AISI membership includes Canadian steel companies IPSCO, Dofasco, Stelco, Algoma Steel and Sidbec Dosco.Canada’s steel industry makes important contributions to the economy. The industry comprises 14 companies and employs 33 600 people in locations such as Sydney, Nova Scotia; Tracy, Quebec; Selkirk, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. With annual production at about 16 million tonnes, sales in 1995 totalled $11 billion, $3.8 billion of which was exported.Canada’s steel industry supplies the transportation, oil and gas, appliance, packaging and construction industries. It is at the forefront of new technology use and has a substantial support network to provide raw materials, equipment and service. Three main segments of the industry include flat-rolled products (e.g., plate and sheet steels), long products (e.g., concrete reinforcing bar and structural steel), and specialty and alloy steels (e.g., stainless steel and tool steels, in both long and flat products)."

Jan 1, 1998

By Hooman Askari-Nasab

Open pit mine plans define the complex strategy of displacement of ore and waste over the mine life. The objective of the mine plan is to maximize the future cash flows within the technical and physical constraints. Various mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulations have been used for production scheduling of open pit mines. In the MILP formulation the slope constraints guarantee that all the overlying blocks are mined prior to mining a given block. Traditionally, the slope constraints have been modeled with cone templates representing the required wall slopes of the open pit mine. The overall pit slopes constructed by these templates are a function of the width and height of the geological block model. Therefore, the overall slopes are fixed in one bearing. This paper presents a general MILP model for open pit mine scheduling with variable slopes constraints. The methodology utilizes a directed graph to capture the precedence of extraction of blocks and pit slopes in different bearings. Depth-first-search algorithm was used to traverse the graph for constructing the slope constraints in the MILP problem. TOMLAB/CPLEX was used as the implementation platform to efficiently integrate the mathematical solver package CPLEX with MATLAB. A case study on intermediate scheduling of an iron ore mine over twelve periods was carried out to validate the models.

Oct 1, 2009