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By D G. Jefferies

This paper covers National Grid's role in the electricity market, the growth of competition in both generation and supply in that market, and the resulting impact on fuel usage, prices and the environment. It also considers other, external influencing factors on the electricity supply industry, as well as the growing trend towards globalization.

Jan 12, 1997

By D. L. Babbitt, Sniezek

"This paper deals with the varions methods for the rapid Joading of unit trains which are being: used by ore procossors to move their product to dock-s1de storage facilities or their ultimate customer. Some of the techniques that have been used include (1) volumetrie loading, both in motion and static, (2) batch weighing into moving cars and (3) batch weighing into cars that have been stopped. Particular emphasis shall be placed on the two systems now in use at the Adams Mine facility of Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation and at Cliffs of Canada's Sherman Mine. Typical ""turnaround"" times, loading rates, types of cars, weighing accuracies, material handling concepts and maintenance considerations shall be discussed."

Jan 1, 1969

By N Cusworth, W R. Mackenzie

"In 2007, the authors presented a framework for the conduct of resource project feasibility studies and provided guidance on minimum standards and best practice (Mackenzie and Cusworth, 2007).This paper will present the authors’ observations in relation to feasibility studies undertaken to support investments made during the unprecedented period of resource project capital investment since 2007. It will also provide comments on general trends in the mining industry’s approach to project assessment and update recommendations on best practice.CITATION:Mackenzie, W R and Cusworth, N, 2016. The use and abuse of feasibility studies – has anything changed?, in Proceedings Project Evaluation 2016, pp 133–148 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 8, 2016

By Bigu J, Grenier M. G, Knight G

Particulate control is a major concern in underground mining and the subject of continuing research world wide. In Canada the federal government's Mining Research Laboratory at EIIiot Lake, Ontario, has been using two aerosol counters to aid its investigations. Specific studies with the units include: a) evaluating total and elemental size efficiencies of dust filtration units: b) characterizing the dust particulate cloud from different mining operations: and c) determining dust transportation characteristics.

Jan 1, 1988

By Manfred Schoepf

"Construction projects using the most advanced technologies and organizational structures demand intelligent construction machinery. In this process, automation technology plays an increasingly important role. Many components used in the automatic control of machine components are being taken for granted to such an extent that operators are often even unaware of their existence. Innovations in micro-electronics, such as process computers, programmable logic controllers (PLC) or intelligent sensor systems, have by now found their way into construction machinery. Construction machines are indeed becoming ever more intelligent. Key electronic applications in foundation engineering machines can be summarized into the following main categories:- Data acquisition- Online monitoring of the equipment status- Remote data transfer- Satellite-based Navigation System for Positioning and Documentation- Process controlData acquisitionThis includes machine-specific operating data, such as engine speed or operating temperature, operating hours, display of fuel consumption, but also the acquisition of process-specific data, such as pile depth, pile inclination or slurry volume.Monitoring the equipment status onlineAn extremely important aspect is the acquisition of fault data. In conjunction with available remote data transfer systems, malfunctions can now be searched and diagnosed by specialists anywhere in the world to provide assistance to the site personnel.Remote data transfer - “Anywhere, from everywhere”All previously referred to parameters can be stored on appropriate storage media inside the machine. The customer also gets a worldwide, safe access via an internet browser to check the current status of the equipment, anytime, anywhere.All data can be saved on a secured web server for documentation and further analysis. The internet connection of the equipment through a special module (DTR Module) additionally allows the user to operate a local, password-saved WLAN hot spot at the construction site and exchange data between equipment, tablet and internet.The web based system, which is named “WEB-BGM Equipment Management” in the Bauer Group, can do much more than only communicating with one machine."

Jan 1, 2015

By G. C. Mackenzie

At the last Annual Meeting of the Institute, Dr. C. V. Corless sketched the potential mineral wealth of Canada so clearly, graphically and with-all so entertainingly that one's imagination was fired with the promise held out to future generations for the tremendous expansion of the mining industry in the Dominion. Posterity will undoubtedly witness the fruit of much of the geographical search and survey that is now carried on by our government mining departments. Year after year the work advances, slowly but surely, new areas are . explored, older areas are surveyed in detail, the information being compiled in maps and reports of incalculable value to the prospector, the engineer and the general public. The immensity of the task of exploring, geologically, the outlying portions of the country, with the ultimate view of making valuable mineral discoveries, may be visualized from a study of Dr. Corless' paper and the subsequent discussion which took place and one becomes impressed with the fact that three-quarters or more of the problem can be included under the word "transportation". For instance Dr. Corless said, "The few geological explorers who have penetrated to these remoter regions . . . . . . have as a rule been compelled to stick closely to canoe routes,"; Dr. Goodwin remarked, "This barren Laurentian granite, which is put down on the maps as covering the greater part of this area, is the best guess the geologist could make from travelling along watercourses Within the next few years . . . . . . the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario railway will undoubtedly be extended to James Bay . . . . . . In order that we may be prepared for the probable influx of prospectors when transportation facilities to tidewater are provided, I think all available information on this district should be gathered together in handy form." All three-Corless, Goodwin and Cole-emphasize the well-known fact that explorers, geologists and prospectors working in new country must stick to the watercourses and that transportation by rail, road or water has always been the all-important deciding factor in facilitating the exploration and development of remote districts. Dr. Corless did, however, suggest other means of transportation in stating, "The aeroplane will be of assistance in future study of some parts of these remote areas."

Jan 1, 1924

By Derek Ettie

"In the Hydrometallurgical processes, the presence of the so-called "crud" is a constant challenge in solvent extraction. Crud is a stable emulsion which forms along the interface between the aqueous and organic phase. The spread is influenced by the following parameters: first, wind blows the dust and impurities into the open sedimentation tanks. Second, the undissolved solids such as sand transported in the PLS causing problems in conjunction with incorrect agitator design.The crud fraction can decisively impact the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical extraction because the phase interface can constitute a large fraction and the sedimentation tanks cannot react flexibly to it. In the downstream process of the series-connected sedimentation tanks, they are thus all contaminated with crud. At the same time, the necessary mass transport is significantly impeded at the phase boundary between organic phase and aqueous phase due to the crud formation.The transfer of the organic phase into the electrolysis cell can result in a "burnout" of the cathode. The carryover of this electrolyte into the extraction can cause problems with the pH regulation. The carry-over of the organic components into the raffinate also leads to contamination of the leaching circuit. The continuous treatment of the crud with a 3-phase decanter centrifuge is extremely effective in combating this problem. This technology splits all three phases from each other and they are consequently continuously separated. All subsequent process steps exhibit a stable, uniform effectiveness. The main advantage for the customer is that fluctuations in the process are eliminated and the organic phase can be recirculated back to the extraction. The recycling of the solvent alone justifies the investment in less than 6 months as examples from South Africa and Chile show.To operate solvent recovery in daily operation fully automated online at the optimum limit, the decanter centrifuge is equipped with a concentration-dependent pond adjustment called DControl® by this means, we can guarantee our customers the maximum possible solvent recovery and minimize the solvent costs in this process step. This system is presented in detail in this paper."

Jan 1, 2014

By T Nassis, P Louw, M R. Fry, T du Toit

Business intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA) are established IT technologies that are used extensively in the business environment. This paper discusses the use of these technologies in production environments and beneficiation plants.Assmang’s Khumani mine is an iron ore operation located in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Assmang Limited is jointly owned by African Rainbow Minerals Limited and Assore Limited. This paper presents a case study of a BI solution applied to this plant, which is used by metallurgists, supervisors and all levels of operations and management to extract and analyse data to control and optimise the operation of the plant.The main advantage of adopting an established BI solution is the ease with which production personnel can extract and analyse data. The data is easily presented in familiar spreadsheets and no IT staff or specific training is required to achieve this.The solution adopted at Khumani mine uses a data mart with a multidimensional model (called an online analytical processing (OLAP) cube) acting as the main repository and source of data. The OLAP cube simplifies the access and analysis of plant data.The OLAP cube stores data in a specifically-designed way, which allows extraction and analysis to be performed quickly. It is designed to hold large amounts of data on a long-term basis, which could be for the life of the plant. It also performs automatic aggregations over many dimensions on a background process.A major benefit in adopting such a BI solution is that it allows common BA methods to be applied. This is due to both the efficient long-term storage of data and the availability of standard BA tools. BA tools are now able to perform data mining, predictive analytics, forecasting and other machine-learning algorithms. This paper presents the possible use of such advanced data analysis methods in a beneficiation plant.CITATION:Fry, M R, Nassis, T, Louw, P and du Toit, T, 2015. The use of common business intelligence and analytics tools in the operation and optimisation of iron ore process plants, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 129–138 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By J. R. Parry

Over the past several years, computerized financial models have been an important part of Newmont's strategic planning process. Two applications will be discussed in this paper: a general purpose financial model of Newmont, and a detailed operational/financial model of Magma Copper Company. Newmont?s general purpose financial model was developed using Lotus 1-2-3. It was designed to aid management in assessing the financial consequences of investment and financing decisions associated with long-term strategic planning by simulating the consolidated effect from individual transactions. Not only is the model capable of assessing the sensitivity of specific decisions to changes in the external economic environment (i. e., commodity prices, interest rates, inflation and exchange rates), it can also evaluate the effect from operating and financial decisions, including changing production levels and cost structures at individual operating units as well as simulating several types of transactions, including equity and debt issues, acquisitions and divestitures. The analysis of Magma Copper Company required the development of a detailed operating and financial model of the Company. The model was developed using IFPS in the corporation?s UNISYS (then Burroughs) B7900 mainframe computer and included separate pro forma financial statements for each of San Manuel-Pinto Valley's mines and concentrators, as well as Magma's smelting and refining operations. The outcome of this analysis was the decision to merge Magma Copper and Pinto Valley Copper Corporation, and to recapitalize the new corporation in order to provide funds for a retrofit and expansion of its Arizona smelter and expansions of its refinery and SXEW facilities.

Jan 1, 1989

By J. C. Rhodes

The demand for good white minerals for many industries including paint and plastics have made it necessary to import high grade industrial minerals from various parts of the world. Some of the calcium carbonate, barite and talc minerals are from China, Mexico, Jamaica and Haiti. These materials can be processed by custom processors. The custom processor can provide a service to the Industrial Mineral owner. The imported materials can arrive in various feed sizes from lumps (3"-6") down to 325 mesh. The materials can also be in various size shipments or container loads. The economics for importing should be investigated thoroughly. The two factors just mentioned can influence the quantity of material to be processed. These two factors can also influence the total cost for each end product.

Jan 1, 1989

By A Suokas

Boliden Tara Mines Ltd, located in County Meath Ireland, produce in excess of 2.5 million tonnes per annum of ore from the underground resource located 40 miles north west of Dublin. The zinc-lead ore is mined using long hole open stoping techniques, with ore treated on site. The operation is continually searching for new ways to improve productivities at the mine, and have employed a detailed data acquisition and reporting system on site to provide feedback around performance. One area where both Boliden Tara Mines Ltd and Orica Mining Services believed improvements could be made was in the application of bulk emulsion technology through an Orica supplied but Tara operated Maxipump Delivery System for all production and development blasting at the mine. Both parties committed to the evaluation of this technology at the mine, however the capital cost and technical and economic changes meant the project needed to be diligently investigated and any improvements documented. The first stage of this project was for Orica Mining Services personnel to visit the operation, and conduct a detailed analysis of the operationÆs performance over the past 12 months. The next step in moving forward was then to commission and utilise the customer operated emulsion system at the mine. This was then followed with the collation and analysis of data from the demonstration period to examine and document the benefits of the system. This paper is a summary of the observations made during the site inspection and the data analysed to date, and has been used in determining operational and financial improvements in the comparison between a Maxipump Emulsion Service and the current ANFO loading systems.

Jan 1, 2005

By Lynn B. Hales

Everywhere you turn today there are articles on artificial intelligence and the rapid emergence of expert systems. Expert systems form a class of software that has developed as a result of the large research effort to develop computers and software that think intelligently. By definition, an expert system is a computer program that contains the knowledge component of an expert skill, can offer intelligent advice and justify its line of reasoning. Expert systems can advise people on what actions to take and when, assist in the diagnosis of the physical condition of a human patient or piece of equipment, or even take actions without human guidance, as in process control applications. Expert systems can also explain the line of reasoning behind a particular piece of advice or query for information from the user. Expert systems can be used as advisors to newcomers in any field in which mastery is attained by many years of experience. They often can provide expertise more uniformly and rapidly than human experts. Expert systems can also provide a means of documenting expert knowledge and procedures and provide a common repository for a changing knowledge base. The expert system can represent the best expertise available, thought out in the absence of pressure situations. Each of these attributes or characteristics should be helpful in improving typical concentrator control systems.

Jan 1, 1987

By P Corbett, P Sheffield

Centennial Coal operates the Springvale longwall mining operation which extracts coal beneath the Newnes Plateau in the Western Coalfields of New South Wales. Springvale, and the neighbouring Angus Place mine, have a history of difficult geotechnical conditions where combinations of a relatively high stress regime and weak, laminated roof and extensive geological faulting has led to numerous roof failures throughout the mine’s life. Following development, the mines underground roadways can experience high levels of roof movement which may lead to roof falls. Multipoint wire extensometers are extensively used throughout the mine for roadway condition monitoring, and to reactively drive remedial strata support through trigger action response plans (TARPs).As a result of the use of high-density extensometer monitoring over a long period, the mines have an extensive archive of legacy data. Data processing has evolved over time in order to accommodate the increasing data volume, including direct data entry from the recently introduced hard-wired real-time monitoring instruments. It is likely that telemetric real-time instruments will be introduced in the future, which will cause another step change in data management requirements. This paper discusses the transition to and evolution of relational database management systems for extensometer and associated data.This paper also presents case studies of the use of a new software tool for reprocessing legacy data to enable time-scaled visualisation of monitoring data in the context of longwall and development face positions and installed strata support. The software can be used proactively in the identification of geotechnical risk factors and their interaction with the mining process to allow a more robust geotechnical hazard process. It interfaces directly with the widely used ExtoChart database software and can be presented with scale drawings of geological and geotechnical data to allow correlation of monitoring data results with risk factors.CITATION:Corbett, P and Sheffield, P, 2015. The use of high-intensity monitoring data to better characterise geotechnical properties of a non-homogeneous rock mass, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 145–158 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

By H. E. Lake

VERY EARLY in the initial stages of underground development work at Eldorado's Beaverlodge operation, the decision was made to use mill tailings as a backfill product. Mining and milling commenced in June, 1953, using locally available sand as backfill, while test work and installation of a plant was carried out to prepare ?and deliver the tailings to the mining areas. The first use of tailings was made in February, 1954, a sandslime separation being carried out with hydraulic cyclones. To date (January. 1956), approximately l 40,000 tons of fill have been used in the stoping areas, providing very effective support in a 50 deg. Vein system of cut-and-fill mining. The recoverable portion of the mill tailings amounts to 40 to 45 per cent, which has resulted in a product giving a percolation rate of 6 to 10 inches per hour. Owing to the fact that Eldorado has milled from 15 to 2 5 per cent more ore than it has mined, through the purchase of custom ore, the degree of control on the sand-slime separation has not been as critical as it might normally be when the filling operation must depend only on the tailings from ore mined. A description of the conditions involved and of the plant as finally installed is given below. It might be mentioned here that, with the impending increase in milling capacity from 700 tons to 2,000 tons p.er day, the present plant will be considerably altered within the ensuing year to handle the increased tonnage and distribution.

Jan 1, 1956

By Deventer Johanna van

Ore bodies around the world are declining in grade, whilst increasing in complexity. The level of impurities relative to the valuable metal is steadily increasing, posing new challenges to existing operations. Ion exchange is widely used in the hydrometallurgical industry for both primary recovery of metals and the removal of impurities. The superior selectivity of ion exchange resins makes them exceptionally suitable for the removal of target impurities to very low levels, thereby saving operating costs, increasing the value of the final product and significantly improving revenue. The ion exchange process in these applications is very simple, using standard ion exchange equipment and acid regeneration. The process can be fully automated, requiring minimal operator interference and supervision Examples of impurities that are successfully removed via ion exchange include iron, antimony and bismuth from copper electrolyte. In the copper electrolysis process, antimony, bismuth and arsenic tend to form slimes which are dispersed in the electrolyte. These slimes contaminate the cathode and/or decrease the quality of the copper deposition. A special chelating resin was developed to remove antimony and bismuth, while at the same time ensuring minimal chloride leakage to the sulphate matrix. The work is described in more detail in this paper. Ion exchange is also used to remove copper, zinc and nickel from cobalt electrolyte. This paper addresses a few of these examples in more detail.

By A. W. Laughlin

Analytical costs are a major part of exploration programs in developing nations which may lack adequate laboratories. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), a variant of atomic emission spectroscopy, can reduce exploration analytical costs and can provide the analytical results in <1 minute. CPI is now marketing battery-powered, backpack mounted analyzers, using LIBS to analyze for many elements of interest to the explorationist. LIBS is well suited to the analysis of elements in industrial minerals. Limits of detection in ppm for some of these are: Li-1, Be-2, Na-100, B-33, Sr-10, Ba-300, Cs-1, K-500, Fe-500, Mg-500, and Ti-500.

Jan 1, 1999

By David J. Forrester

Light metals, most commonly aluminum, magnesium and titanium, and alloys containing them, are used in many industrial applications where lightness, hardness, ductility and resistance to corrosion are needed. However, these metals and their alloys can be potential ignition sources in underground coal mines. There have been documented cases in the past where coal mine explosions have been attributed to firedamp/coal dust ignitions involving light metals or their alloys. When light metals and their alloys are brought into contact with oxygen bearing material, such as iron oxide (rust) in the presence of heat, then a "thermite" reaction can occur. This source of heat can be generated from frictional contact or from merely a glancing blow. This paper outlines the hazards associated with light alloys, how to address the hazard and regulatory aspects.

May 1, 2001

By Don Painter, Nico Sutmoller, Lori M. K. Kahikina, Brian Dorwart

This paper will address the feasibility of using low-density cellular concrete (LDCC) for an annular fill application where project conditions required pumping the LDCC material for distances of up to 16,000 feet. These conditions occurred during construction of the Kaneohe-Kailua Sewer Tunnel in Oahu, Hawaii, between 2014 and 2018. Located on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, this 13-foot-diameter rock tunnel extends for approximately three miles from the Kaneohe Pre-Treatment Facility to the Kailua Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. The tunnel was built to convey wastewater and provide temporary storage for peak wet weather flows entering the collection system, thereby reducing the potential for uncontrolled discharges. LDCC was chosen for this project partly due to its environmental benefits, which were essential for an application contiguous to the inland marine and coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean. In order to ensure optimal performance characteristics—compressive strength (with a requirement of 300 psi at 56 days), flowability, and light weight—were achieved, extensive testing of various LDCC products and mix designs was completed. The testing measured the initial set time of the LDCC as well as the compressive strength needed to reduce the quantity of grout lifts required for the project.

Jun 13, 2021

By Mark E. Gershon

The development of long term plans and schedules for strip mines now faces many companies, especially those developing large properties in the West. The rule of mining the lowest strip ratios first, while delaying equipment acquisitions and recouping investment the fastest, creates the situation where stripping ratios are too high in the latter years of mining operations. A program concept taking life of mine return on investment into account is developed in this paper to optimize mine scheduling and equipment acquisition. In addition, quality considerations (heat content, ash, sulfur, washability) can be considered by including the appropriate blending constraints to meet contract requirements.

Jan 1, 1983

By T. R. A. Davey

Previous publications on the application of EIETSIM include the modelling of an electrolytic zinc plant and a copper flash smelter. In the present case METSIM has been used to model the desilverising of lead by the reagent zinc, whereby a silver-zinc intermetallic compound is formed, and floats out of the lead. This compound has a variable composition, depending upon the ratio of dissolved zinc/silver in the lead bath. Its solubility in lead decreases with falling temperature. A number of variations and modifications of the Davey Desilverising Procedure are modelled, and applied to a wide range of silver contents in lead bullions at several plants. METSIM uses both feed- back and feed-forward controls to simulate plant conditions, and a logic control to distinguish between different phases in the Zn-Ag system. Use is made of extensive (previously unpublished) fundamental data on the ternary Pb-Ag-Zn system, and of plant data, to establish certain operating parameters.

Jan 1, 1993