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By M. Nichols

Where am I? Where are they? Where is it? These are the fundamental questions that need to be answered in managing people and resources. This paper explains how GPS positioning technologies answer those fundamental questions and provide better information management from initial exploration work through daily mine operations to reclamation work and environmental monitoring.

Jan 1, 1998

"AQUILA Mining Systems Ltd. is a Canadian company that designs and develops monitoring, control and navigation systems for the surface and underground mining industries. In 1992, AQUILA Mining Systems began the development of technology for monitoring, controlling and positioning mobile mining equipment. In 1993, AQUILA completed its first field test with GPS receivers onboard ablasthole drill, and thus demonstrated the viability and strategic relevance of this technology in surface mining. Since then, AQUILA has installed GPS-based technology on drills and shovels in several Canadian mines. This paper will review the development of these systems and discussthe benefits the mining industry could realise through their production implementation."

Jan 1, 1997

Geologist or Mining Engineer who has had sufficient experience to make examination of a large area and who can report upon economic value of any minerals found. Work will extend over a period of 2 or more years. Location, India. R-1660. Assistant Superintendent of malleable and gray iron foundry, young man. Must have thorough molding experience, especially on squeezers, knowledge of mixture control and operation of air furnaces, cupolas, and annealing ovens college graduate preferred. R-1727. Engineer thoroughly familiar with distilling, evaporating and drying machinery. Capable of taking charge of entire evaporator department, including engineering and selling. New Jersey. R-155C. Experimental Draftsman familiar with small automatic mechanisms, principally those produced in large quantities by punch-press methods, such as adding machines or typewriters. New York City. R-1566. Patent Draftsman.-At least 2 years' experience on perspective rend-ering of small automatic machinery. New York City. R-1570. Designer.-Familiar with hydraulic work and capable of going ahead with detail and design work without supervision. Pennsylvania. R-1575. Superintendent or Foreman. Knowledge of ceramics, clay products, electric porcelain, tile, factory materials, etc. New York State. Good salary to right man. R-1578. Designer. Experienced in designing mining machinery, including electric hoists. Canada (Quebec). R-1589. Construction and Operating Superintendent. Executive and thor-oughly experienced in the zinc melting industry. Will have charge of construction of plant and its operation. Salary $6000 to start; increase to $8000 later. India. R-1593.

Jan 11, 1919

Mine Transitman.-Engineer, about 30 years of age, experienced in coal mine underground surveys. Must be good draftsman and possess sufficient personality to get results from the men. Location, Illinois. No. R 419. Coal Mining Engineer: Coal mining engineer of proved ability for position of manager f high-grade bituminous coal property. Location, Canada. No. R 427. Chemist or Metallurgical Engineer.-Chemist or metallurgical engineer for special library work. Man with scientific training with the ability and education -of a young instructor in a university. Duties would consist of working out a new method of indexing scientific information, more particularly in obtaining information for use of a Committee on the Heat Treatment f Steel. Location, Washington, D. C. No. R 470. Topographical Draftsman.-Civil engineering training and topographical and surveying experience. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Knowledge of Spanish not necessary. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, oil fields, Mexico. Salary, $5 per day, living and traveling expenses. No. R 483. Mechanical Draftsman.-Engineering training, familiarity with drawings of pumps, piping, etc., need not necessarily be a designer. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, Mexico. Salary $5 per day with living and traveling expenses. No. R 484. Engineer Translator.-Engineer of Portuguese nationality who has received his technical training abroad, and has been filling engineering positions in this country, to translate material for catalogs of an engineering character. No. R 486.

Jan 5, 1919

Oil-well driller with extensive experience in this line of work. Location, Bolivia, South America. Salary depends on experience. R.-789. Mining Engineer, with geological knowledge, who can locate suitable spots for drilling oil wells. Location, Bolivia, South America. Salary depends on man. R-788. Construction Engineer, mechanical or civil engineer with experience in installing oil plants for foreign field. Must be able to install entire equipment including tanks, piping, buildings, etc. Salary depends on experience. R-782. Geologist, competent petrographer for micropetrographic work and training of two assistant students under the direction of the Director of a Geological Institute. Engagement is for six months with option on the part of the Director for an equal period: Location, Mexico. Salary, 450 pesos Mexican gold ($225 per month). R-765. Operating Mechanical Electrical Engineer, with extensive experience in charge of the maintenance, repair, and betterment of all mechanical and electrical equipment on mining operations. Desirable that the man have had this experience in connection with phosphate mining. Applicant must be competent to direct shop repairs on motors and generators, including rewinding, the building and maintenance of transmission lines, etc. Must also have ample machine-shop experience to enable him to direct repairs of light locomotives, steam shovels, brown hoists, caterpillar tractors, and auto trucks. Duties will include the betterment and maintenance of phosphate-rock washers and rotary-work dryers. The applicant must also be competent to conduct efficiency tests on all such equipment and be enabled to interpret data collected. Splendid opportunity for the right type of man. Climate and living conditions excellent. The company will furnish house rent free, including light .and water. Location, Florida. Salary depends on experience. R-854.

Jan 7, 1919

Works Manager or General Superintendent.-Technical graduate, for position with a company whose works consist of a large machine shop and foundry. This company manufactures well-known power plant equipment. Location, Pennsylvania. Salary, $5000-$8000 per year. R-871. Motion Study Engineer with extensive experience in shop operation and motion study. Must have sufficient technical experience to recognize inefficiency and waste in plant. Salary, $175-$200 per month. Location, New Jersey. R-876. Metallurgical Engineer.-Technical graduate with at least 2 or 3 years' practical experience in the operation of zinc smelters. Duties will be to take charge, under the guidance of -the superintendent of the smelter, of the operating end of the furnaces, and the roasting kilns, as well as the mix room and ore crusher. Man desired should not be over 30 years of age and should be progressive and able to handle men. Salary, $250 per month. Location, Oklahoma. R-877. Private Secretary to Vice-president in charge of development department and laboratories of large manufacturing plant; must be technical man of good personality, and A-1 in every respect, as position is an important and responsible one. Location, Ohio. R-896. Sales. Engineer familiar with his local territory, particularly with the fanning trade. Should have had at least 2 years' experience in selling tractors; and in any event, must have had at least 5 years' experience in selling machinery. High grade, energetic, and capable; man who is not satisfied with less than $3000 per year and who can earn up to $7000. Location, Iowa. R-897.

Jan 8, 1919

Draftsman and transitman for coal-mine work in middle West. Salary $125 per month. No. 277. Surveyor and mine sampler for development company in Mexico. Applicant must be willing to interest himself in mine sufficiently to, act as assistant to the superintendent and be able to take charge in case the superintendent should be incapacitated at any time. No. 326. A copper company in Mexico desires services of engineer to act as chief chemist and flotation operator. No. 327. Instructor in mining and metallurgy, the work being chiefly in mining for college in middle West, to start Dec. 1. Salary $1200 to $1400. No. 328. A copper company in Mexico is increasing its force of underground foremen and desires the services of two men competent to act as assistant underground foremen. Chances for advancement excellent. Knowledge of Spanish is required. Salary to start $200 per month. No. 329. Young man for core-drill work for coal company. No. 330.

Jan 7, 1918

No. 275. Chemist, assayer, and precipitate smelter, also an experienced shift man; both for a cyanide plant in Peru. Salary £30 Sterling per month; two years' contract and all traveling and living expenses. No. 276. Metallurgist; experienced in reducing tungsten ores and preparing metallic tungsten and tungsten alloys. No. 277. Draftsman and transitman for coal mine work in Middle West. Salary $125 per month. No. 278. Metallurgical engineer familiar with microscopic work and experienced in making microscopic photographs; with some experience in heat treating of alloy steels. No. 279. The Trench Warfare Section of the Ordnance Department desires to get in touch with young men over draft age, or in deferred draft classification, who are physically sound, who can. become candidates for commissions; earning capacity of at least $1700 a year. Must have good character, some business experience, university training, and some technical skill. Application should be made to Captain Hudson Millar, 1800 Virginia Avenue, Washington, D. C,. Three original letters of recommendation from American citizens must be furnished. An appli-

Jan 3, 1918

High-type research metallurgist with approximately following qualifications: American, 30 to 45 years old. Mind-Analytical. Education-college graduate. Practical shop experience-not less than 5 years. Metallurgical experience in steel making-at least 5 years. Chemical experience-should have some chemical training. Research ability -should be the type of man who is interested in new developments or research work. No. 337. Engineer with some underground, experience who is physically able to spend a large portion of his time underground, to act as general efficiency engineer. He will have cost keeping on special work, charge of contracts, labor distribution, etc. No. 338. The services of a man experienced in flotation and familiar with the Callow apparatus are required for a short engagement in South America. No. 339. A position as surveyor and draftsman for mines in Mexico is open. Opportunity for advancement. Climate pleasant and healthful. Knowledge of Spanish required. No. 340. The Bureau of Construction and Repair, Navy Department, Washington; D. C., is in need of a few draftsmen of experience for work in connection with the development of industrial yards and shops of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Shore Establishment Division of the Bureau of Construction and Repair. Training in one of the following courses would be considered a requisite qualification:

Jan 9, 1918

By Steni Stefani, Sanjay Dave

"This paper describes an innovative method, used for the first time in India, for the construction of a 1.0metre-thick positive plastic concrete cut-off wall (CoW) at the upstream toe of the dam at the Kishanganga Hydro-Electric Project in Jammu & Kashmir- India. The extremely difficult bouldery geology with an overburden laden with very hard Panjal Volcanics (quartz, feldspar, muscovite and chlorite minerals) boulders of up to 0.8m to 1.8 metres in size with UCS of up to 265 MPa and the requirement of socketing the CoW into the underlying hard bedrock (UCS 265 MPa) for 1.50m made the choice for the excavation methodology critically difficult. After having evaluated several other existing methods – including hydromill trenchers – the Civil Contractor Hindustan Construction Company, in agreement with its Foundations Engineering Consultant (Ricerca e Sviluppo – Cantieri e Gestioni) opted for a two-stage construction method: firstly, preliminary full-depth drilling and “surgical” blasting with full-length inclinometer checking of borehole verticality to ensure the exact location of rock fracturing and fragmentation coincided with the required position and that it was vertical, notwithstanding efficient trenching into the bedrock of a nominal 1m by 1.5m section; and, secondly, excavation by using heavy duty mechanical rope grabs made locally and developed by the Consultant in collaboration with the Contractor. The details of the methodology and the salient construction data is presented and commented for the 33-metre deep CoW installed at a working platform elevation of 2364.50 m above sea level in a very remote area.BACKGROUNDThe Kishanganga Hydro Electric Project (KGHEP) is a ROR (run-of-the-river) project is located on the Kishanganga River some 140kms North-West of Srinagar, capital of Jammu & Kashmir State of India, for generating 330MW of power in a 90% dependable annual year. The key components of the project are: Concrete Face Rockfill Dam (CFRD), Chute Spillway, Plastic Concrete Cut-off Wall (CoW), Head Race Tunnel (HRT), Surge Shaft (SS), Inclined Pressure Shaft (PS), underground Power House and Transformer Hall, Tail Race Tunnel (TRT).The Power House Site is accessible throughout the year from Srinagar while the remote Dam Site, with its tortuous road climbing the Rajdan Pass at 3556m (11,667 ft) above sea level and several 20-tonne capacity Bailey bridges removed prior to snowfall, remains inaccessible for around 4 months between mid-November to mid-May due to winter and heavy snowfall - the only access is by helicopter, weather permitting. Temperature at the Dam Site drops down to minus 27degrees Celsius during winter, therefore, careful planning from the beginning was most essential for the successful delivery of the Project.This paper deals with the Cut-Off Wall construction which was performed, for the first time in India, adopting a “Drilling and Surgical Blasting” method. However, this technology is not new and diaphragm wall excavation with the aid of drilling and blasting has already been done in some of the projects globally; namely:"

Jan 1, 2017

By S Hapugoda, J R. Manuel, X Cao, B D. McDonald, N A. Ware, L Lu

Roy Hill is a large iron ore mining, processing, railing and port operation in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Since delivering its first shipments to customers in December 2015, Roy Hill has quickly achieved a 60 Mtpa production rate of lump and fines products. The process plant, principally consisting of wet scrubbing, screening and de-sanding unit processes, was expanded from early 2020 to include operation of a Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation (WHIMS) Plant. The WHIMS Plant treats tailings to recover approximately 4 Mtpa of ultra-fine (nominally -150 μm) high-grade hematitic concentrate which, after dewatering, is blended into the fines product. Unlike typical hematite concentrates, which consist largely of dense particles with smooth surfaces, the WHIMS concentrate is characterised by very finely microporous hematitic/goethitic particles, reflecting the overall characteristics of the Roy Hill deposit. Detailed test work has been conducted in collaboration with CSIRO to characterise the WHIMS concentrate in terms of its physical and mineralogical properties, and to determine its influence on the granulation and sintering performance of Roy Hill fines – from fundamental/lab-scale and sinterpot perspectives. The results demonstrate that blending of the high-grade hematitic Roy Hill WHIMS concentrate into the fines product can maintain overall sinter quality and positively influence granulation and sinter melt formation, as well as Fe grade.

Nov 8, 2021

By C. Robinson

The Diavik Diamond Mine is located in one of the most remote and forbidding places in the world, 220 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle and on the bed of a vast northern lake, Lac de Gras. A single road, built out of ice and crossing frozen lakes, connects the mine with other operations and Yellowknife, the capital of the Canada's Northwest Territories. Diamonds were first discovered in the Lac de Gras region in the early 1990s, and construction of the Diavik Diamond Mine was completed in 2003. Diavik currently mines three kimberlite pipes. Open pit mining has now concluded and all three pipes are mined using underground mining methods. In early 2010, Diavik began mining and processing initial ore from its new underground mine; underground mining operations are expected to continue beyond 2020. The initial mine ventilation system was an exhausting (pull) system with fresh air supplied by a fresh air raise and a main ramp. Return air was exhausted via two raises and a secondary ramp. The system had a total flow capacity approximating 401-411 m3/s. With planned increased production and with changes in mining method, it has been proposed to change the mine ventilation system to a positive (forcing) ventilation system in order to meet projected increases in flow requirements of 566-708 m3/s. Extensive engineering work was developed in order to successfully achieve the changes in system configuration. In the proposed configuration, the main ramp is in an exhaust configuration and exhaust raises are converted to fresh air raise. A number of system implementation options were investigated and phased plans for system execution have been developed. The proposed changes to the ventilation system are substantial and involve extensive construction work. Work was commenced in 2011, each planned phase has been successfully completed to date, and system changes continue today in order to achieve complete system flow reversal and increased flow distribution. This paper details the design of the modified ventilation system and commissioning work which will allow the mine to meet its future production targets.

Aug 1, 2013

By J. A. Luckmann

"SynopsisThe purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative approach to risk management in surface mining operations, namely, positive risk. Traditionally, risk management focused on mitigating losses (negative). Positive risk, on the contrary, reverses the approach and focuses on exploiting a project’s inherent benefits (positive).The inability to accurately determine project objectives during the project planning phase and the failure to achieve those objectives during the execution phase is a major problem for any project management in the mining environment.The advance of computer aided design models for mine planning enables mining engineers to examine various options within a very short time. Employing positive risk management combined with drivers-based risk management when evaluating these options provides an ideal opportunity to investigate areas for improving the mining project’s profits. Furthermore, harnessing positive risk returns during the planning phase contributes immensely to the successful achievement of project objectives.Mining has inherent business risks, which can appear overwhelming when considering the risks associated with a mining project schedule, cost, and safety or resources, etc. The question is – how to manage risks in a surface mining environment, and what process methodologies, work methods, processes, and standards should be used when considering the surface mining risks. Applying the principles of positive risk management to manage surface mining risks is not only relevant, but definitely beneficial to mining projects and to the mining industry as a whole.It would be beneficial for risk managers and risk professionals to understand the roles of positive risk ‘drivers’, also known as ‘propitious attractors’. Identifying, analysing, estimating, and understanding the propitious attractors, their behaviour and their influence on project risk events helps considerably during the planning and execution phases. The theoretical and practical knowledge of both sides of the risk – the downside risk (negative risk) and upside risk (positive risk) – can add substantial value to any organization when downside risk is adequately mitigated and upside risk is beneficially exploited."

Jan 1, 2015

By S. Z. R. Pinkney

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a medical technique that produces three dimensional images of the body, commonly to aid diagnosis and treatment of tumours. PET has been developed by the University of Birmingham in order to track particles in an opaque system which is known as Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT). The object to be tracked is irradiated. As the radionuclide decays positrons are produced; when these collide with electrons a pair of concurrent parallel back-to-back gamma waves are emitted and detected, from which the position of the object can be calculated. Stirred media mills are used for particle size reduction. The mill is usually operated at high solids loading with grinding media and has a polyurethane or polyurethane-lined steel pot and is thus opaque. For this study grinding media has been directly irradiated and tracked using the PET camera during the grind. The stirred media mill can be divided into cells of equal volume known as voxels. The fraction of the total time the irradiated media spend in each voxel can be shown in an occupancy diagram. The mean velocity and kinetic energy of the media for each voxel are calculated and also plotted. In occupancy and kinetic energy plots colour indicates the value of the voxel, in dimensionless time and Joules respectively. The arrow in velocity plots shows direction and length of arrow indicates magnitude of the mean velocity for the voxel. From these diagrams and further data analysis a detailed understanding of the flow patterns, media behaviour and high energy areas of the mill can be developed. Variables considered were the tip speed of the impeller and density of the grinding media. It was found that the grinder has three distinct regions: above, at and below the impeller with each region having its own flow patterns and velocity and kinetic energy profiles. These are different for each variable and so are used to characterise the grind. Tip speed and density of the grinding media were shown to both affect the velocity of the media and the proportion of time spent in the each region of the grinder.

Aug 1, 2013

By W. P. Roux

With depletion of higher grade iron ore reserves, and the need to process finer, lower grade material; there is a need to better understand the recovery efficiency of jigging process. The use of Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) was examined as a technique, to study the motion of particles inside a laboratory batch jig. PEPT is a noninvasive method that can provide three dimensional kinetic data of a particle during jigging. Particles with different densities and sizes were traced under the same jigging parameters, to obtain a data set that can be used for the development and verification of jigging models. From the results, detailed information on the stratification rate of a particle was obtained, with adequate resolution to see particle movement through an individual pulse. Detailed data of this nature is critical for the validation of CFD and DEM models. Keywords: positron emission particle tracking, jigging, jig models

Sep 1, 2012

By W. P. Roux

Owing to decreasing high-grade ore reserves, there is a need for better understanding of the jigging process to improve the recovery efficiency of finer, lower grade material. The use of positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) was examined as a technique to study the motion of iron ore particles inside a laboratory batch jig. PEPT is a non-invasive method that can provide three-dimensional kinetic data on a particle in laboratory-scale processing units and has been successfully used to study mills, hydrocyclones, and flotation. Experiments were conducted to determine whether PEPT would be a viable technique to study iron ore jigging and what valuable information could be obtained. The results indicated that detailed information on the stratification rate of a particle could be obtained, with adequate resolution to track the particle?s movement through an individual jig pulse.

Jan 1, 2014

By I. Govender, M. C. Richter, N. Mangadoddy

"We present an analysis of trajectory and time averaged data of near gravitational material (NGM) representative coal tracer particles within a magnetite medium passing through a 100mm diameter hydrocyclone imaged with PEPT (positron emission particle tracking) at iThemba labs, Cape Town. The tracking of neutrally buoyant tracers as well as the other NGM allows an empirical study of the approximate dynamical behaviours of both the dense medium as well as the range (size and density) of particles around the separator’s cut size within a partially imaged volume of the cyclone body lying within the field of view of the detector. The study was commissioned as part of a CFD validation study using empirical data from a real-world lab-appropriate system in order to shed light on the inner workings of hydrocyclones and their separation mechanisms. We employ various optimisation and noise reduction techniques within the analysis and follow a detailed investigation of the velocity fields derived from the raw spatial positions with an emphasis on the velocity profile within the forced and free vortex zones. Challenges encountered with this high velocity particle tracking experiment within a highly attenuating environment are also discussed. Various important velocity distributions are shown and compared to theoretical predictions. The power law decay profile of the free vortex and radial velocity scaling with regards to the Froude number are reproduced in line with the static particle approach. INTRODUCTION Cyclones have long been a vital industrial tool for the separation of different classes of particles. These cyclonic separators (with either gas or liquid medium) operate by forcing the solids-bearing fluid at high pressure into a cylindrical vessel causing high tangential velocity fluid rotation as well as, in the case of an “open” (with exit channels open to the atmosphere) cyclone, a central vortex air column spanning from underflow to overflow exit. The fluid is forced to exit the cyclone at two locations, the spigot and the vortex finder, generating the underflow and overflow respectively. The body of the cyclone usually terminates in a conical shape to focus the underflow stream. This geometry and large incident fluid velocity force high density materials toward the wall of the vessel where they are most likely to move along and down the inside wall away from the inlet to exit via the underflow while lower density materials traverse the cyclone body closer to the central vortex and are buffeted by the upward-moving column towards the overflow exit. This separation mechanism is selective of density and size in an interplay between the centrifugal force due to the rotation of the fluid and a drag force acting on the particles."

Jan 1, 2018

By E. B. Spice

"IntroductionExperience at Eldorado has been gained with a variety of mill feeds. That is, the actual mode of occurrence of the pitchblende varies to such an extent that gravity concentration has at times been decidedly unattractive and at others highly successful. Because of this, the type of ore necessary for economic recovery of pitchblende have become well known. Also, those types which do not lend themselves to gravity concentration have become familiar. In general, it may be said that when the pitchblende occurs free, to a large extent, from sulphides or arsenides of high specific gravity, and when the bulk of the pitchblende is localized rather than disseminated, excellent recoveries, high ratios of concentration, and good grades of concentrates , will result from proper gravity concentration. On the other hand, if the ore contains pitchblende intimately or otherwise mixed with large quantities of arsenides or sulphides, or if the pitchblende is finely disseminated, gravity concentration alone will yield high recoveries only at the expense of very low-grade concentrates and low ratios of concentration.According to Taggart, the ease with which gravity separation may be effected is determined by the value of the following ratio: []It is stated that when the ratio is above 1.75, gravity separation can be expected to be easy. Thus with pure U308 (S.G. over 9) and gangue consisting chiefly of siliceous material, the process can he expected to be entirely successful even when carried on at very fine sizes. Unfortunately, the term pitchblende covers a great diversity of material. Although some of the mineral occurs pure enough to have a specific gravity of about 7, the average is much lower than this and is probably well under 5. Some of the pitchblende particles have a specific gravity so low that gravity concentration fails completely. It may also be said that no degree of grinding will produce free pitchblende of sufficient density from such particles. This, then, represents the most important limitation to the application of gravity separation to pitchblende ores."

Jan 1, 1950

By Wilhelm Knickmeyer, Johannes Henneke

PREFACE For about 1 year Bergbau-Forschung GmbH, central research institute of the German Coal Mining Industry, undertakes full size tests for waterjet assisted tunnel¬boring in German coal mines (Fig. 1). These tests are performed with a tunnelborer of 2.6 m diam in an upper [ ]

Jan 1, 1979

By Rejane Tubino Geyer

The volume of electric arc furnace (EAF) plus oxygen (BOF) slag produced yearly in the world is about 84 million ton. Because of this, the study of recycling processes as a way to solve the storage problem of these slags rise in importance. There are, however, some inconvenients on using this byproduct: lime, which takes part of the process of steel production, remains as a non-reactive raw product in the slag. Since lime reacts in presence of humidity, forming expansive compounds, slag use is strongly limited. There are some utilizations for the electric arc furnace and oxygen slag in the Civil Construction Industry, mainly as base, subbase and asphalt covering in highways. However, independently of the type of recycling, a period of "cure" of about six months is necessary. Because of this slow cure process this byproduct may turn non-competitive in some regions if compared, for example, with the natural aggregate. The objective of this work is to present the flowsheet of the slags production as a residue both at the electric and oxygen steel plants and, through a bibliographic review, to analize the possibilities and limiting factors for the use of steelmaking slags in the Civil Construction Industry.

Jan 1, 1996