Search Documents

By Claude E. Wykes

Deep Well turbine pumps receive constantly increasing application to the problem of mining water and other fluids from great depths. Many installations of medium settings are presently operating successfully and it is felt that mach greater depths are immediately within reach. Settings and lifts in excess of 2000 feet: are not at all out of reason with present knowledge experience, and materiels; however, conditions of individual applications will govern in each case and dictate methods and possibilities to the designer. Design and operating problems of deep set -turbine pumps ire discussed together with a description of various types of equipment falling within this category. Although the deep well turbine pump has been produced In the vertical turbine pump industry for many years, the connotation of the word "deep" still remains questionable. Among the manufacturers of this type of machinery, answers to the question implying the practical limitation of setting for a deep well pump will vary to an extreme. Most pump designers are in accord that this type of equipment has not yet been exploited to its fullest degree; however, the subject is admittedly fraught with unsolved problems and un¬tried solutions so that such a discussion must necessarily derive from personal opinion and, belief., even though based on substantial experience and background. For this reason, it will be stipulated that the present writing will deal with what may be termed euphemistically ?a highly controversial subject.? During the nineteenth century, a paper was published under proper authority proving beyond question that the human body could not withstand speeds exceeding 20 miles per hour. As a limitation, this looks ' pretty ridiculous to us today. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was not a single machine in operation that could be described as mullti-stage deep well centrifugal pump. As a matter of fact, very few centrifugal pumps of any type wire operating against heads in excess of 50 feet, since such applications were considered impractical. In the

Jan 1, 1960

By L. Hoffman, F. Seymour, S. Hoerger

Newmont has a large integrated operation in Northern Nevada with numerous mines, stockpiles, and processing facilities. There are over ninety defined metallurgical ore types and over sixty defined gold recovery process options. To take better advantage of the available synergies, a complete Nevada wide mine plan and process model along with a mixed Integer and Linear Programming optimization tool has been developed and implemented. This system is maintained and operated by a Nevada Planning Group. Standard in-house planning software tools and methods have been implemented at all mine sites. While increasing the effectiveness of planning in Nevada, these changes have allowed a significant reduction in overall Mine Engineering staff.

Jan 1, 1999

By W. R. Dengler, R. S. Brown

In 1974, Brunswick Mining and Smelting Corporation Limited started a 48 million dollar expansion programme at their property in Bathurst, New Brunswick. A portion of the expansion plans includes a 26 foot diameter 4,525 foot deep shaft, underground crusher and conveyor excavations and lower level access development. J. S. Redpath Limited was awarded the contract for the new shaft and associated rock work in May 1974. Brunswick Mining and Smelting Corporation Limited, a member of the Noranda Group, operate this 10,000 ton per day lead, zinc, copper plant with proven reserves in excess of 90 million tons. While most of the ore is provided by the underground operation at the Number 12 ore body, some tonnage is produced from the open pit at the Number 6 ore body. Long range plans indicate a phasing out of the open pit and an increase in production from the underground operation. Existing facilities at the underground mine could not provide additional tonnage, thus the requirement for a new shaft. (Figure 1) The new shaft will also provide access to ore below the 2,800 level which is currently the bottom level of the existing facility. The contract called for sinking a 26 foot inside diameter, nine compartment concrete shaft 4,525 feet deep (Figure 2). Station access and ramp development from existing workings would be required to the bottom of the new shaft. In addition, development work for new crushing and conveying facilities was needed simultaneous with the shaft sinking.

Jan 1, 1976

By Lee S. Richardson

Silicon is usually considered to be a useful metallic alloying element. To be more truthful, it is not a metal at all, but a semiconductor, whose electrical resistance (when pure) is high and decreases with temperature. We will join the metallurgists, at least for this paper, and refer to it as a metal. In its commercially available form, silicon is metallic in appearance, brittle, with a density of 2.33, less than that of aluminum. Silicon dioxide or quartz has a high heat of formation, which not only makes the metal a useful reductant for other materials, but also makes it difficult to reduce from its ore. The melting point is 1412°C, slightly less than steel, but substantially higher than aluminum or cast iron. The alloys of silicon with iron, usually called ferrosilicons, have some unique advantages. The melting points of most alloys are substantially below those of iron or silicon (Fig. 1). The two major compounds formed (FeSi and FeSi2) help somewhat in the reduction of silicon by their energies of formation, but the influence of these phases on the mechanical properties is more important. Four major groups of alloys are made -- silicon metal (>95% silicon), 75-85% ferrosilicon, 50% ferrosilicon, and silvery pig iron (12-22% silicon). The alloys between 50 and 65% silicon and between 25 and 40% silicon are normally avoided because of structural instabilities, presumably of the two compounds, leading to disintegration of the alloys on cooling.

Jan 1, 1974

By Cong Zhang, Huaying Wang, Yixin Wei

"Water inrush is a serious geological accident in underground coal mines. This paper focuses on the method of the bow tie analysis based on fuzzy reliability to assess the risk of water inrush in coal mines. First, post failure probability and repair probability of initiating events are divided into 5 levels. Then triangular fuzzy numbers are adopted to quantify experts’ language and to acquire the reliability rate which close to the actual values by defuzzification and calculation. According to dynamic bow-tie analysis model, using the method of moments to fit the reliability time of events by Weibull distribution and offering the random sampling rule of failure and repair time for illustrating the feasibility of fuzzy reliability evaluation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed assessment approach, bow tie analysis model of water inrush in coal mines is taken as an example.Introduction Dynamic bow tie (DBT) analysis is composed of dynamic fault tree and dynamic event tree analysis, and considers the impact of the time factor upon risk assessment of a system. There are many algorithms applied to calculation of the probabilities of node accident and accident consequence of dynamic bow tie analysis: Hidden Markov Model, Bayesian Network (Khakzad et al 2013), Integral Algorithm (Amari et al 2003) and Monte Carlo Simulation (Kim et al 2016). In terms of simulated time and practicability, the Monte Carlo Simulation has an advantage over other methods. DBT requires mass data in quantitative analysis, including the failure rates and the repair rates of the basic events of the Fault Tree (FT) and the subsequent events of the Event Tree (ET) at different time points, i.e., the distribution of failure time and repair time. In practical analysis, it is hard to obtain a large amount of exact historical statistical data, which is a major problem of risk assessment. Due to the difficulty of obtaining the exact data and historical failure data of the basic events and the subsequent events, the FT and ET analysis is stuck with the study of minimal cut sets, minimal diameter sets, structural importance and qualitative analysis (Liu and Zhang 2010, Yan et al 2012, Wang et al 2009, Li and Wang 2011). This paper will use fuzzy numbers and the defuzzification method to transform the experts’ language into the failure rates and repair rates of basic events and subsequent events, solving the problem that it is difficult to obtain a large amount of historical statistical data, and will use the method of moment to conduct Weibull fitting of the reliability time to provide the random sampling criteria of event failure and repair time in Monte Carlo simulation."

Jan 1, 2017

By T. Gelpe

A digital simulator of classification and grinding circuits is used to evaluate the performances of various flowsheets. For a given flowsheet configuration, unit processes dimensions and operating conditions, the simulator calculates the steady-state values of the process variables. A supervisory algorithm is implemented in the simulator to determine the conditions which meet the required criterion on operation, tonnage and product quality. Calculation illustrations are proposed for the design of wet and dry grinding circuits. The performances of various arrangements of cement clinker and sulphide ore grinding flowsheets are evaluated and discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By G. E. Maryniak

To date, human space exploration has been almost completely dependent on the use of resources carried with astronauts and cosmonauts from the surface of the Earth. The only exception to this has been the harvesting of solar energy to power space stations like Skylab, Salyut and Mir for long-duration missions. This dependence on materials which must be transported into orbit at costs in excess of $5000 per pound is the fundamental limiting factor in space exploration and operations. It is likely that launch costs can eventually be greatly reduced by means of such innovations as true single stage to orbit vehicles, aerospace planes, or serial electromagnetic or laser launch systems. However, the Earth will always remain an expensive source of materials for space construction and for basic commodities such as propellant and life support liquids and gasses. Fortunately, abundant sources of materials exist which are already in space, outside of the Earth's deep gravity well.

Jan 1, 1992

By Howard G. Coopersmith

Kelsey Lake kimberlites are a cluster of eight diamondiferous pipes that occur in the northern State Line kimber lite district of the Colorado-Wyo¬ming diamond province (Coopersmith 1991, 1993) (Fig. 1). This is located at the southern margin of the Wyoming Archean province. Two relatively large pipes and a few smaller bodies define the cluster (Fig. 2). The Kelsey Lake kimberlite cluster has been developed as the first diamond mine in the United States. The cluster was discovered in 1987. Full-scale production began in the spring of 1996. Mining has produced gem-quality diamonds up to 28.3 carats in size. The 30 State Line kimberlites, intruded about 390 million years ago into Proterozoic crystalline rocks, were presumed to be underlain by Archean basement of the Wyoming Province. Nearly all the kimberlite pipes contain diamond but only the Kelsey Lake pipes are economic. The Kelsey Lake kimberlites contain predominately diatreme facies kimberlite, with minor hypabyssal and crater facies rocks locally occurring. Alteration and weathering of the kimberlites is extensive. Petrologic studies indicated an underlying lithosphere that has a largely Proterozoic signature and shows evidence of deep melt and metasomatic events. Current development has concentrated on the two largest pipes. These have been bulk-sampled after geological study (1987) identified the presence of small diamonds and mineral chemistry indicating favorable diamond conditions. A 10-t/hr (11-stph) rotary pan plant was established in 1992 to process thousands of tons of bulk-sample material. Grades and gem-quality diamonds to 14.2 carats in size were recovered. Early in 1995, it was decided to move from evaluation to commercial mining. Production began in early 1996. A 195-t/hr (215-stph) rotary pan plant was built. A water supply system and tailings disposal have also been incorporated. The project straddles the Colorado/Wyoming border. Existing mining permits were amended to incorporate the increased scale and new plant facility. The permits for this project included the following: Colorado mining permit, Wyoming dozing permit, Corps of Engineers Section 404, Colorado NPDES, Wyoming NPDES, Storm water Management Plan, Air Pollution Emission Notice, various Colorado and Wyoming State Engineer and well permits, Substitute Water Sup¬ply Plan, Larimer County Special Use Review, and US Forest Service road use permits. The temporary destruction of a wetlands area was a sensitive issue. It has been addressed through the Clean Water Act Section 404 permit administered by the US Corps of Engineers. This use will be mitigated by creating new, self-sustaining wetlands in the immediate drainage system. A comprehensive and bonded reclamation plan is incorporated in the permits. Diamond mining and ore processing is environmentally benign. No chemicals are used in processing the diamonds. The plant is a water wash facility. The kimberlite ore is inert, as is the granite wall rock. The exposure of the ore body and the subsequent ore processing and waste rock and tailings containments pose no threat of release, leaching or dispersion of any detrimental elements. There is no acid-forming waste. Even a prolonged acid rain environment will not produce a harmful leachate. Slimes containment and clarification ponds will prevent unacceptable levels of suspended solids in water discharge. The isolated, restricted access and nonvisible nature of the mine and processing has led to straightforward permitting. Geology The State Line district is located in the northern

Jan 1, 1997

By Robert N. Morris

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a distinct pleasure and honor to appear before you representing the railway industry as I do, but there is a much closer personal relationship. I am a graduate Mining Engineer and worked in the coal industry for 15 years prior to becoming a railroader only 4 ½ years ago. I have been a member of AIME most of my adult working life and am currently active in the Washington, D. C. Section. While having been in the railway industry only a short time, I have become involved during the recent period of innovation and development of the new railroad technique known as unit train service. I have had the privilege of helping to work out a number of unit train movements to both electric utility companies and to a major steel concern, handling coal from mines on the Southern Railway to the consuming plants. On Southern, our unit trains are all of what I shall describe as shuttle train operations whereas within the railroad industry today several types of service are characterized as unit train service and many don't offer comparable efficiencies.

Jan 1, 1968

By GRANT COLLIGAN, BROCK O’KELLEY, Corby Anderson

With the world’s ever-growing push to expand technological capabilities, the need for specialized materials including rare earth elements has exploded. One source of rare earths found in the United States is bastnaesite, a rare-earth-bearing fluorocarbonate, mined at the Mountain Pass Mine in California. To increase production, it has been essential to optimize existing processes and create new ones to capture current reserves. This paper presents the results of a research program conducted to expand the understanding of the bastnaesite leaching system. With the help of prior knowledge and thermodynamic calculations, a novel single-stage hydrochloric acid leach system was created to optimize the extraction of rare earths from bastnaesite. Historically, this extraction has entailed the use of a two-stage leach system involving a high-temperature hydrochloric acid leach followed by a caustic crack. We ran a series of single-stage leach experiments by reacting locked-cycle flotation concentrate with hydrochloric acid to test common leaching parameters. The results of these single-stage tests showed significantly higher rare-earth recoveries than the reported recoveries of the historic two-stage caustic crack processes, all while decreasing the number and amount of reagents needed.

Feb 1, 2023

By Kerry Spickelmier

A traveler driving across desolate central Nevada to the Round Mountain property can easily identify with turn- of-the-century prospectors seeking a fortune, or at least an existence, from the high desert. But now a shadow passing overhead is as likely a sophisticated fighter aircraft from Stillwater Naval Air Station as a circling bird, and the famous trails west show only as historical markers along the highway. Even the approximately 400- km (250-mile) trip southeast from Reno or northwest from Las Vegas takes hours now, not days. And the camps of Round Mountain’s early prospectors have been replaced by one of the world’s largest gold heap-leaching operations. While Round Mountain’s uniqueness begins with its scale, it doesn’t end there. Consider the mine’s low cutoff grade of 0.2 g/t (0.006 oz/st) gold, made possible by a new dedicated (not reusable) leach pad. Also, the operation’s degree of automation means that ore dropped in the south crusher system is not manually handled until it is stripped from the pads. There is the bonus of a geothermal field that is tapped to heat the leach solutions in the winter. And, of course, there was that “unexpected” hitch expected in all mining operations. For Round Mountain, it meant buying a gravity plant to process the gold nuggets discovered last summer in a fault gouge.

Jan 1, 1993

By R. K. Mehta

Conventional triboelectrification based dry coal beneficiation methods require ground coal as a prerequisite feed material, energy intensive static-in-line mixer or cyclonic tribocharger configuration, and transport and/or improvement in the design of free-fall separators to improve the separation efficiency of [me pyrite/mineral matter from coal. The proposed paper illustrates the two concepts. First, the use of ceramic media in a polyurethane lined attitor in achieving simultaneous grinding and differential charging. Second, the use of an electrocentrifuge to selectively separate coal from mineral matter present in the triboelectrified mixture. It is of interest to note that some ceramic media can satisfy the requirements of both desired density and work function to achieve grinding and differential charging.

Jan 1, 1996

By K. Terhaar, K. Prisbrey

The objective was to determine operating protocols for a lead and silver column flotation cleaner, being considered for installation at Sunshine Mining & Refining Co.’s Kellogg mill in Northern Idaho. In this column, tetrahedrite and galena were floated, and pyrite and other gangue minerals, including siderite and silica, were depressed. The procedure was to develop a dynamic simulation using a linear transfer function approach. The transfer function related cause and effect variables such as the influence of collector and depressant dosages on recovery and grades. Bench-scale flotation tests followed by pilot column testing provided the data used to develop a linear transfer function. The transfer function was derived using a spreadsheet. This model was applied to simulate how the flotation column could be made to respond to disturbances in feedgrade. The results were that xanthate, zinc sulfate, and sodium cyanide were found to be suitable controls for grade and recovery. Simulations showed the best sequence of manipulations of these reagents, and these sequences were useful for future operator training. The conclusion was that linear transfer functions were able to simulate lead and silver recovery, develop scenarios for operator training, and provide a foundation for future on-line control.

Jan 1, 1999

By Edward A. Nowatzki

The purpose of this paper is to present an example of the application of a theoretically derived mathematical model for track-soil interaction to the evaluation of the mobility of large-scale mining equipment used in open pit operations. The model described by Karafiath and Nowatzki (1978) and presented in detail by Karafiath (1978) was used to predict the performance characteristics of four different bucket wheel excavators (BWEs) on rwo types of copper mill tailings at various moisture conditions. The BWEs considered In the analyses are two-and three-tracked continuous excavators. Most have boom-mounted rotating buckets and swinging side- or rear-discharge conveyors. The analyses were performed at the request of Dames and Moore for the Kennecott Corporation's proposed remining of selected tailings deposits at the McGill, Nevada, concentrator. The objectives of the analyses were to determine whether BWEs would have sufficient mobility In the tailings deposit to achieve satisfactory production rates, and TO compare the predicted performance of the various BWEs evaluated. Good qualitative agreement was obtained between the results of the theoretical analyses performed for the McGil1 operation and the actual performance of BWEs in two South African gold mine tailings impoundments.

Jan 1, 1980

By Ronald M. Fedrick

The microtunneling project for the State of Hawaii's Natural Energy Laboratory (NELH) facility in Kona, Hawaii, was awarded to Nova Group Inc., Napa, California. Nova has developed both microtunnel and deep pile cofferdam experience. Both of which would be required for this project. The project was designed by Makai Ocean Engineering of Honolulu as a continuation of the Ocean Thermal Energy Project (OTEC). The world's first OTEC plant has been successfully operational at NELH since 1982 netting approx 50 kw of usable electric power from a gross generation of 210 kw. A second plant designed to draw 39°F cold water from 3,000 ft below sea level and produce a gross output of 1 mw with a net 500 kw of usable power required 2 - 54 in. finished diameter pipelines. An ongoing problem with earlier offshore pipelines has been the damage to the near-shore pipes within the surf zone. The necessity for a deeper connection between the land based pipe and submerged sea pipeline was obvious. Earlier pipelines had been drilled and shot through the shoreline. This process was only practical at shallow depths. Makai Ocean Engineering and the NELH scientists looked at different methods to get the pipeline through the shoreline at a depth of 80 ft below sea level. Initially, the direction drilling method was proposed as the most potentially practical method. A contract was awarded and various attempts were made to complete a successful

Jan 1, 1995

By William R. Nash

The scope of work for the fast track construction of the Weeks Island Replacement Facility, Weeks Island, Louisiana included the design and construction of two salt mines. Mine #1 - An interim underground mining level consisting of a 975 m (3200 ft) incline and 3520 m of 5.5 m x 7.3 m (11560 ft of 18 ft x 24 ft) drill and blast excavation; raise boring; core drilling; roadheader excavation; complete bulk material handling facilities utilizing an existing production shaft. Mine #2 - Simultaneous with the interim mine construction a new one million ton per year underground salt mine was constructed consisting of: two 5.5 m diameter x 381 m (18 ft diameter x 1250 ft) deep shafts; 76450 cu m (100,000 cu yd) of drill and blast bottom excavation; surface and undergound bulk material handling systems (conveyors, skip loaders, shaft equipment, hoisting); ground freezing for water control for both the production and service shafts; the design of the first underground doublewall slipform installation of a dynamic bitumen shaft lining system; the emergency grouting of both the existing production shaft and the interim mining level in the salt dome; 227 mt x 64 m (250 ton x 210 ft) high structural steel production headframe; 2.2 MW (3000 hp) double drum mine hoist; service shaft headframe; and service buildings.

Jan 1, 1987

By C. M. Marquardt

The materials handling systems in the large concentrating plants have required the employment of a considerable number of workmen, many of whom had very little to do except to act as watchmen to avoid bad spills at belt junctions and to operate tripper cars, shuttle belts, etc. Much time also was spent in watching bins to make sure they were properly filled. Approximately four and one-half years ago the author, Yin coopera¬tion with the engineering and supervisory personnel of The Anaconda Company at Anaconda, Montana, began to give this problem serious consideration. Prior to this the author had developed, at the request of The Anaconda Company, a transistorized resistance-sensitive probe relay system for detecting the level of ore in bins. With this system cables or chains were suspended from insulators above the bins and were of suitable length to determine the elevation of the ore in the bins.

Jan 1, 1962

By T. F. Tomb

on' January 6, ,1992, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) for diesel particulate (DP). The ANPRM identified five areas where the Agency was seeking additional information to assist in the rule making process. These areas were exposure 'limits, risk assessment, consideration of other information, sampling and monitoring methods, and feasibility. The period for submitting information relative to the ANPRM closed July 10, 1992. Prior to issuance of the ANPRM, the agency was involved in conducting studies to evaluate sampling and control technologies and to gather information with respect to occupational exposures to diesel particulate in underground mining operations employing diesel-powered equipment. Since issuance of the notice, additional studies have been conducted to provide supplementary information in these specific areas. Results of these additional studies indicate that average DP levels in coal mines not using aftertreatment range from 0.9 to 2.1 mg/m3. Aftertreatment devices can reduce these levels by approximately 50 to 90 percent. Studies conducted in metal and nonmetal mines showed average DP levels ranging from 0.3 to 1.6 mg/m3.

Jan 1, 1994

By Z. Kowalski

Landfilling of waste causes the degradation of natural environment, not only due to land occupation, but also due to pollution of air, water and soil. The flotation waste from zinc-lead industry also poses such problem. There is a need to find the way to utilise substantial amount of these wastes and backfilling seems to be a good solution. Recently, in Poland only sand was used for backfilling. However, it will be more beneficial to substitute the sand with the industrial solid waste, especially flotation waste. The tests were performed in the laboratory to examine the use of flotation waste as a main ingredient for backfilling. The use of flotation waste is possible only when it is combined with other waste with specific bonding properties, especially regarding the prevention of leakage. The outcome of tests shows that flotation waste combined with cement and fly ashes can be used as a backfilling material. This paper presents the preparation of flotation waste for using it for backfilling.

Jan 1, 2006

By Alfred F. Savage

The Oglebay Norton Company has traditionally been a supplier of metallurgical grade fluorspar gravel to the American steel industry and, in the early sixties, fluorspar pellets were entered into the market. The gravel has been imported from Mexico, the pellets were produced by the Minerva Company in southern Illinois. While the acceptance of the pellets by the industry was satisfactory, overall marketing considerations caused the Minerva Company to discontinue the pelletizing operations. Thus it was that Oglebay Norton came to the decision to revive earlier plans to produce fluorspar agglomerates. A survey of the market and related factors led into two basic conclusions: 1) Because of steel plant safety considerations, flat, pillow- shaped briquets were preferable to easily rolling, marble-like pellets. 2) Briquets competitive with gravel could be produced by cutting imported, low-duty, acid grade spar to metallurgical grade by limestone and binders. A plant was built in Brownsville, Texas, and started operations in early 1970.

Jan 1, 1975