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By Randy N. Powell

The Pipeline gold ore body was discovered in Lander County, NV in March 1991. Construction of the new mine and mill did not start until early March 1996. The $289-million project was placed on a fast-track development schedule upon completion of permitting and corporate approval. The mine and mill were commissioned 11 months after the start of construction and the project ended up $40 million under budget. Project design and construction management were provided by Placer Dome Project Development Division (PDD). History The Cortez Joint Venture has operated in northeast Lander County since the late 1960s. The business structure is comprised of 60% Placer Dome and 40%Kennecott Exploration. Throughout the years, production has been from several small open-pit deposits— Cortez, Horse Canyon, Gold Acres and now Pipeline.

Jan 1, 1999

By S. J. Jung

The most frequent causes of accidental injury and fatality are carelessness and ignorance; and the most common accidents are haulage accidents, fall, drowning, and fire. However, in this modern day and age, severe injury has become the dire consequence of an ever-increasing number of industrial and mining accidents as well as sport-, military- , etc. Mine accidents have declined dramatically in number and severity through decades of research, technology, and preventive programs. However, preventing recurrence of disasters like those of the past remains a top priority requiring constant vigilance by management, labor, and government. The goal of the present research is to investigate and identify root causes associated with types of mining accidents (victim being caught by an equipment, bodily motion, over exertion, etc) and nature of injuries such as (sprain and strains, fracture, dislocation, amputation, etc). Further, we hope to discover the impetus of the root causes occurring more and more often in this modern day of technology and quality awareness. With the different dimensions of accidents and injuries brought into the fold, there is the need for researchers and mining operators to comprehend and better still visualize significant patterns of associations among these variables of interest. We assume that, there is a high correlation between many dimensions of nature of injuries and types of accidents. This suggested a principal component analysis to reduce the dimensions for easy and amenable interpretation.

Jan 1, 2012

By A. M. Radigan, W. G. Prast

M.S. Azun The authors' paper did not explain the facts and reasons why state companies are established and what their role is in international industrial mineral trading. Also, I do not agree with the conclusion implying that the main goal for state companies is to capitilize natural resources. Almost all state companies are founded by certain laws and their activities are arranged by state regulations. Their only aim is to operate mineral deposits for their people and to protect the rights of the people. Although some ore deposits, such as nonstrategic or small, may be exploited by privately owned companies, the state has the right to control the operation and production. Activities of state companies may or may not be widened because of the character of the deposits and the importance of the mineral market involved. For some countries, although governments may occasionally change hands, the policy of the mineral trading system is not affected by this change. There is no doubt that any government desires to make more earnings to increase GNP, when it is involved in operating and trading mines. It wants to produce and sell the finished products, instead of unprocessed ones, if possible. When it is known that some mineral deposits are relatively rare, such as Turkish boron deposits, the government can nationalize the mines to control production and affect the market. If there is an abundance of a certain mineral in the market, the government can cut production and set a floor price, such as Canadian potash. Also, when production of a specific mineral is unique, such as Turkish chromite, the price of such mineral may be set by correspondant government. One may add that if some governments with their state companies produce a certain mineral in a larger amount, they may decide to establish a cartel to protect their production and price. These are the facts followed by government-owned state companies and partially government-owned companies. The reason being charge of many deposits by the state companies is always the same: "protect" the mineral rights of the people.

Jan 2, 1984

By B. F. Dickerson

STRATEGIC METALS! Recently, this money accented cry has been heard in such diverse locales as Mining company boardrooms, Banker's offices, Stockbroker's quarters, Swindler's dens and Congressional committee rooms. (In some cases, these locales are one and the same). Is the strategic metals rush for real? Should it be? Our paper attempts to give a very generalized view of the subject for a few metals, points to a few potential, but generally overlooked sources of these metals, and offers conclusions based on our studies.

Jan 1, 1981

By R. Schipper

Two bench scale biochemical reactors (BCRs) were operated over a period of 3 months for the removal of uranium, radium, and selenium from mining influenced water (MIW). A BCR is an anaerobic reactor comprised of organic and inorganic substrate including woodchips, straw, sawdust, and limestone. Uranium and selenium are removed in a BCR by biological reduction of oxidized species (i.e., selenite, selenate) to less soluble forms (Pahler et al. 2007, Blumenstein et al. 2008, Rutkowski et al. 2013). It is believed that radium may be removed through absorption to the biomass in the BCR. The bench scale BCRs were constructed of 6 inch PVC columns with a top to bottom flow configuration. The bench influent water consisted of three different water ratios from two adit seeps. BCR hydraulic retention times of 24 to 36 hours were targeted during the study. Influent concentrations ranged from 19 ug/L to 1.86 mg/L for dissolved uranium, 12 ug/L to 270 ug/L for dissolved selenium, and 4.9 pCi/L to 24 pCi/L for radium 226. The average and maximum dissolved uranium removal was 93.6% and 98.5% respectively, the average and maximum dissolved selenium removal was 93.3% and 98.9% respectively, and the average and maximum radium 226 removal was 89.5% and 100% respectively.

Feb 23, 2014

By H. Beecher (Original by) Charmbury

Water is a most remarkable substance, essential for life of all kinds. As well as needing water to survive, man has always used it for agriculture, transportation, recreation, and many other things. When our country was young and inhabited by few people, the streams, rivers, and lakes were able to provide all the clean water needed by man and take away all the wastes created. However, with our growing population and an ever-increasing demand for goods and services, the public, industry, and government at all levels have become acutely aware of the need to manage the nation's water resources more efficiently. Abundant energy from many sources has helped this nation to become the greatest industrial nation in the world. Coal has contributed a major portion of this energy, generating electricity, running railroads, and maintaining national security during wartime. The result has been the highest standard of living in the world and a time of widespread economic prosperity. The use of water in coal mining is somewhat different from its use in most industries. With the exception of water used in cleaning plants, for underground dust control, and for fire protection, most of the water en- countered in coal mining operations serves no useful purpose. In other words, it is an undesirable element and must be removed, otherwise it will interfere with operations, cause potential water quality problems, and may even stop operations by flooding. In the past, removing water from working areas of most mines was usually a fairly simple matter. Pumps with piping were installed at sumps or low spots in the mine and the water was pumped to the surface or to drainage control facilities constructed for the operation. Ditches were often used to collect and drain the water by gravity to the outside or to main sumps for pump discharge. In either case, the water was allowed to flow into the nearest stream or river. The concept of "water is water' was generally accepted without too much concern for what was in the water since low-cost products and services, rather than clean water, were the public demand.

Jan 1, 1981

By W. Burger

For the development of deep hard rock mines fast access to the orebody is critical. In some cases the mineralized area is more than 1500 m (5000 ft) below surface. Excavation of shafts or declines is typically on the critical path of the project schedule. Saving time on those activities can significantly increase the net present value of the mining project. Mechanical excavation methods are a step-change in excavation performance and labor safety compared to drill and blast operations. In hard rock conditions roadheaders can not be used effectively, so disc cutting is the first choice. For excavation of declines tunnel boring machines (TBM) can be used in many cases. These provide in certain rock conditions considerably higher production rates compared to drill and blast excavation.

Jan 1, 2010

It is crucial to reestablish a domestic rare earths minerals production industry to help secure the Nation's clean energy future, reduce the U.S. vulnerability to material shortages related to national defense, and to maintain our global technical and economic competitiveness. Given that the Chinese dominance of the rare earths market has adversely impacted supply stability and endangers the United States and its allies' assured access to key materials, rare earths should qualify as materials either strategic or critical to national security. Further, the U.S. government should facilitate the reintroduction of a globally competitive rare earth industry in the U.S. Realization of this objective requires: ? Developing domestic processing capability so that the U.S. is not primarily dependent on China as a source of rare earth ore, and almost exclusively dependent of China for processing of the ores. ? Providing a mechanism where access to Federal lands for rare earth exploration and extraction is possible, and ? Training engineers to design and operate rare earth ore processing facilities

Jan 1, 2011

By R. H. King

The US coal industry has been using continuous room-and-pillar mining (CRPM) machines for more than 30 years for longwall development. This equipment has also been used for production mining in areas that are not appropriate for longwall mining. From 1977 to 1987, the portion of annual US production mined by continuous miner (CM) sections grew slightly from 65% to 70%. Over this time, mine operators and manufacturers have made some advances to attain the full production potential of this method. This is evidenced by the fact that average tons per eight hour shift for continuous miners in the US grew from 180 t (200 st) in 1977 to 431 t (475 st) in 1987. The authors (1990) reported that the increase in productivity was due to several factors: • a drop in prices; • a more mature workforce; • union stability and incentive programs; •procedural improvements; and •technological advances. The authors estimated that about one-third of the increased production came from the first three and other unaccounted for factors and one-third each for the last two. Even though improvements were considerable, continuous miner capacity is much higher than 431 t/shift (475 st per shift). For example, the machinery is capable of mining more than 9 t (10 st) per machine for the 6.5 available hours per shift or 3.5 kt (3900 st). However, this has never been attained on development. The averages of most mines are less than 900 t/shift

Jan 1, 1991

By D. O. Miller

The effective staffing of personnel in a new concentrator facility is a key factor in the success of the operation. By selectively recruiting quality individuals, a company is in a strong position to build a positive work ethic which will become an integral part of it's culture. And culture, which is a set of standards that all employees work to uphold, is that intangible as- set that often determines whether or not a company will survive during difficult economic times. Recruiting and placement of personnel in a concentrator facility requires an emphasis on planning. Management must carefully analyze the following elements when designing a hiring plan: 1. Number of positions 2. Hiring schedule (timetable) 3. Critical positions 4. Lead-time for trainee posit ions 5. Characteristics of the ideal workforce This presentation will focus on a proven system that is efficient (and yet simple) for achieving a new concentrator facility's manpower requirements. IDENTIFYING THE STAFFING NEEDS As previously stated, the key to staffing is planning. Management will find that a basic manpower chart will provide the hiring schedule to meet deadlines. In fact, this system begins with a manpower chart (Figure 1). The chart basically works in reverse of the hiring requirements: the last scheduled hire is the first job on the list. This approach ensures that the company will not find itself compressed against the facility start-up date. A cardinal rule in recruiting a workforce is to allow sufficient time to orient and train employees to the procedures and culture of the system. Problems in selection of personnel begin when the hiring program is short-circuited for timing reasons. The quality of employee selected invariably suffers accordingly. The second section is the key to the success of the manpower program. This is the latest date by which a formal recruiting effort must begin in order for the hire date to be met. Leadtimes are usually as follows: 1. 90 days for company transfer positions 2. 60 days for experienced new hire positions 3. 30 days for trainee positions

Jan 1, 1986

By David B. Ashley

Risks in underground construction are often viewed as technical in nature; "running ground, " "squeezing ground" and "chimneys" are terms that appear in construction managers' nightmares, and occasionally in their underground projects. Financial consequences of these and other project risks are reviewed. Special attention is paid to sources of cost overruns. From this study a structure evolves for setting priorities for risk management actions; these actions can also be tested for impact and potential effectiveness. Finally, case study reviews of six underground projects indicate the "state of the practice" for financial risk management.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. D. Doll

MSHA has promulgated a rule to limit the exposure of underground metal/nonmetal miners to diesel particulate matter (DPM). In May 2008, the final personal exposure limit will be lowered to 160 µg/m3 total carbon. To comply with this rule, mine operators are implementing a variety of control technologies. In this study two types of control technologies (ventilation and cabs) which are being implemented in limestone mines were investigated. Two stone mines in this study use large diameter propeller fans for main mine ventilation and direct the air to the faces using auxiliary fans, stoppings, and long pillars while bypassing the old mine workings. NIOSH measured for sub-micrometer elemental carbon (EC) using SKC DPM cassettes (analyzed using NIOSH 5040) and a near real time instrument. With the present ventilation and the number and type of vehicles used, the concentration of EC from DPM at the working areas was at or below 400 µg/m3 for both mines and about 166 µg/m3 and 251 µg/m3 at the returns. The real time data showed that the ventilation was reaching the working areas and effectively diluting the DPM. Environmental cabs were also used to reduce DPM exposures in three underground limestone mines. Using NIOSH method 5040 and near real time EC instrumentation, NIOSH sampled inside and outside of a loader cab at one of these limestone mines to determine the effectiveness of the cab. The cab was found to be over 90% effective in removing DPM as long as the cab system was properly maintained, and doors and windows were closed.

Jan 1, 2009

By L. Cui

X. Huang (1997) recently suggested a poroelastic model for simulating the hydraulic fracturing breakdown pressure. His paper began with a discussion questioning Haimson and Fairhurst's (H&F) model. He claimed that the H&F model failed to lead to the Hubbert and Willis (H&W) model as[ a --> 0.] Huang also tried to explain why the H&F model could only work for special types of rock conditions. He pointed out that one possible reason could be that the Terzaghi's effective-stress concept had been adopted. The H&F model (Haimson and Fairhurst, 1969) was derived under the conditions that the borehole wall is fully penetrated (pp = pi) and a drained state is realized (steady pore-pressure field). Cui et al. (1997a) demonstrated that, under drained conditions, the total stresses in the penetrating poroelastic model (identical to the H&F model) degenerate into their counterparts in the elastic model (identical to the H&W model) as [a -- 0.] However, the effective-stress conditions are different for both of these models, because different pore-pressure conditions at the borehole wall were adopted. In the H&W model, p = po was assumed, i.e., the pore pressure field is not disturbed; but pp = pi was assumed in the H&F model. Assuming that Terzaghi's effective-stress controls tensile failure (that was the hypothesis adopted in both the H&F and the H&W models), only the following two special drained poroelastic cases may degenerate into the H&W model for very small a: • when the pore pressure at the borehole wall remains at the same level as the virgin pore pressure for a penetrating model and when the borehole wall is simply impermeable (i.e., the nonpenetrating model, Cui et al., 1997b). Therefore, simply setting a = 0 in the H&F model generally does not lead to the same problem described by the H&W model. On the other hand, when the porepressure boundary conditions do not correspond to the ones in the H&W model, a degeneration of the poroelastic model to the H&W model as [a – 0] should be questionable. The pore pressure at the borehole wall is generally dependent on the injection-fluid pressure and the penetrating conditions at the borehole wall, such as the existence of a filter-cake. For an impermeable wall, pp is independent of Pi, and it is basically an unknown [(how¬ever, pp -- po as t --oo).] For a fully permeable wall, pp is the same as Pi. Between these two extremes, pp should be a function of p; and the permeable condition of the borehole wall, which may be dependent of the leak-off coefficient cf. (the range of cf is from 0 to 1). Theoretically, for a rock with low permeability, a penetrating borehole wall is still possible. For saturated porous materials with very low values of a, poroelasticity shows that a pore pressure will be built up due to the stress concentration subjected to a nonhydrostatic in situ stress field (Cheng et al., 1993). This phenomenon is known as the Skempton effect. The variation of the pore pressure may be evaluated by [AP = 3 B(A rr + 06ee + A (Y,,)] (1) where B is the Skempton pore pressure coefficient. This pore pressure variation dissipates as time increases (it is totally gone as the drained state is approached). The rate of the dissipation mainly rely on the permeability of the formation. The dissipation is very slow for tight formations because their permeability is very low, and it is fast for rocks of high permeability. According to our analyses, the time period for this process could be from seconds (for sandstone's) to a couple of days (for stales). One possible reason that the H&C model did not agree well with the experimental results for rocks with low permeability might be that the time interval between the application of the loading and the fluid injection had not been long enough for the dissipation of the Skempton effect. The effective-stress law basically defines how much pore pressure contributes to the total stress. The difference between Terzaghi's effective stress and Biot's effective stress is that 100% of the pore pressure contributes to the total stress in Terzaghi's definition, while only a certain portion of the pore pressure ((ap) goes to the total stress in Biot's definition. Therefore, when the pore pressure at the boretole wall (pp) is determined according to Biot's effective-stress law, app in the total tangential stress is attributed to the pore pressure. In other words, Terzaghi's effective tangential stress is expressed

Jan 1, 1999

By J. B. Rasmussen

As part of a purchase of a fleet of Caterpillar 785 trucks, Round Mountain Gold Corp., Cashman Equipment Co. and Caterpillar Inc. entered into a four-year contract for the major maintenance of the fleet of trucks. This contract includes fixed costs and guaranteed availability. The results have been excellent, and the fleet of trucks performs well. History The Smoky Valley Common Operation is a unique mine. Through a mixture of diligence and foresight, it has become the largest open-pit, heap leaching gold mine in the world. This was no small feat considering the remote area surrounding the mine. Round Mountain is located in north-central Nye County, NV. To the east of the town and mine lies the Central Toquima mountain range. To the west is the Toiyabe mountain range. Between them is the Big Smoky Valley, a flat expanse of sagebrush, salt grass and fine dirt.

Jan 1, 1991

By Steven K. Duke, Jay Arabshahi

An economic, real-time probe drill monitoring system was developed for Metropolitan Water District’s Arrowhead Tunnels project to quantitatively evaluate ground conditions ahead of a TBM. This system digitally records hydraulic feed, rotation, and percussion pressures and calculates drill advance rates during drilling. These data are computer synthesized to develop a digital representation of the ground ahead, and the resulting “picture” of the ground is distributed to the project team to assist with tunnel construction decisions (i.e., targeting grout holes, optimizing mine-cycle lengths, and avoiding becoming stuck). The analysis and interpretation procedure has now been calibrated and refined using over 5,000 m (3 miles) of geologic face mapping data.

Jan 1, 2007

By Gunder Homstvedt

The paper presents a new method for boring of blind inclined shafts. The machine, called BorPak, developed by The Robbins Company, operates similar to a mini TBM. It is a remote operated, self propelled drilling machine mounted on a crawler for high mobility and launched out of a starting tube for quick collaring. A short history of the operation of the prototype in Scandinavia and Canada is included in the paper. The BorPak is capable of boring raises at angles from 30° to 900 from horizontal in sizes ranging from 1.2m-2m diameter without the use of drill pipe. The BorPak represents an innovative tool for improved performance, reduced costs and creating a safer working environment.

Jan 1, 1993

By W. M. Ma, Daniel W. H. Su, K. Centofanti, Yi Luo, W. L. Zhong, Syd S. Peng

NTRODUCTION Surface subsidence monitoring is the most effective means for investigating the nature of, and developing the techniques for pre¬dicting the surface movement and deformation process. However, because of imperfection in survey equipment and field practices, the surface movement data collected from field survey are not error-free. Also due to lack of proper numerical techniques for computing surface deformation from the measured surface move¬ment data, a relatively large portion of the subsidence data col¬lected could not provide information other than surface movement. In a paper by Luo and Peng (1992), the sources and magnitude of errors in the measured surface movements using an electronic total station in subsidence survey are discussed. If the errors in the measured surface movement components are left untreated before calculation for deformation indices (i.e., slope, strain and curva¬ture), the errors will be carried over to the deformation indices and enlarged if improper numerical procedures are used in the calcu¬lation. It should be noticed that in protecting structures affected by ground subsidence, accurate surface deformation indices are much more important than surface movement. In order to improve the accuracy of the collected surface movement data and the calcu¬lated deformation indices, a number of numerical procedures are also proposed in the same paper. The proposed techniques include: a data smoothing technique for data pre-processing; and a number of numerical methods and/or procedures for calculating surface deformation indices from the measured surface movement data. DATA SMOOTHING Because of various factors, the measured surface movement data always contain errors, small or large. In order to better utilize the collected data, a data smoothing method is proposed to correct the errors in the measured movement data. The method uses the same concept as the influence function method (e.g., Knothe, 1957) on which many existing subsidence prediction methods are based. The data smoothing method makes necessary corrections on the measured movement for the point of interest according to not only the measured movement at this point but also those at the surrounding points. The contribution of a surrounding point in making the correction for the point of interest is inversely propor¬tional, in exponential form, to the distance between them. The new magnitude of a movement component at the point of interest (Zi*) is calculated by

Jan 1, 1992

By Robert M. Dreyer

Thirty years ago it was possible to locate a quarry site for crushed rock for concrete aggregate by finding the nearest solid rock bluff accessible by road, But times have changed and the location of a quarry site to furnish crushed rock for concrete aggregate now has become rather complicated, Although both sand and gravel can be used for aggregate, this discussion will be confined to crushed rock in the regions around a metropolitan area. Let us assume that a consultant has been retained to advise on the desirability, and the possibility, of opening a new quarry within a given area. The problems are geological and ecological. Since the geological problems are simpler, they will be discussed first. Generally, the first step is to make a market study of competitive aggregate sources within the projected area. Assuming that the quality of aggregate to be sold by competitors as well as their mining costs will, within narrow limits, be the same, the problem becomes essentially a study of haulage costs from established quarries into the projected new area. Since haulage cannot be effected along straight lines and since each quarry operator may have different unit haulage costs, a map showing lines of increasing cost intersecting points on roads available for truck haulage radiating from competitive quarries can be rather complicated. Such a map, more-over, changes each time a new haulage contract is negotiated by a

Jan 1, 1971

By M. Karmis

According to international projections and future energy scenarios, coal will continue to be a prominent fuel for the next 25 years. In fact, in many regions around the world, coal is expected to dominate the electricity sector until the year 2030. At the same time, with instability and volatility of oil prices, coal is also positioned as an alternative feed stock for conversion into liquid fuels. Energy economists maintain that coal liquefaction is viable at crude oil prices of $35 or more per barrel. Depending on technology and coal composition, 1 ton of coal can produce 1 to 4 barrels of oil. Increased coal production and the expanded utilization of coal also raise environmental concerns regarding greenhouse gases and the problem of handling CO2. Carbon sequestration research, currently conducted in many parts of the world, has demonstrated considerable potential for C-storage in unminable coal seams. Such geologic storage, when possible, can also be integrated into an enhanced coal bed methane recovery process Can coal fuel power plants and industrial facilities, provide diesel and other liquids and, at the same, also be used as a medium for permanently storing CO2? This presentation will provide a global perspective on these questions and stress on the need to reconsider, or even redefine, coal as the fuel for the future.

Jan 1, 2006

By Mark J. Dowiak, Daniel Threlfall

The disposal of hazardous chemical wastes will be one of the major environmental issues of the 1980s. About 45 Mt of hazardous wastes are produced yearly. One major aspect of the problem is the siting, design, and construction of' environmentally acceptable disposal facilities to accommodate this huge volume of material. Surface mines have been considered attractive for development as disposal sites for several reasons. • Surface mines offer an open pit that can conveniently serve as a repository for wastes. This could represent a significant economic, savings when compared with sites on undisturbed lands that might require extensive excavation or embankment construction. • Surface mines often have an abundance of mine spoil available that could potentially serve as construction material. This could result in a significant economic advantage over other sites that might require extensive amounts of construction material to be excavated or hauled in. • Operation of a commercial disposal facility in a surface mine can reduce or totally alleviate reclamation costs. • For an abandoned surface mine, conversion into a disposal facility could represent a positive form of land use and may provide a means for reclaiming lands that would otherwise remain unreclaimed. Despite these positive reasons, there are many technical factors associated with surface raining that can make the prospect of disposal site development an uncertain one. Before discussing factors associated with mining that can present siting, design, or construction problems, some understanding of the basic components of a chemical waste disposal facility is necessary.

Jan 2, 1981