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By J. L. Gartshore

PRACTICALLY all of Quebec's chrysotile asbestos production derives from twelve mining and milling operations located in the "Eastern Townships" area of the province. The annual output of these twelve operations exceeds one million tons of chrysotile asbestos, valued at over one hundred million dollars, and is shipped to manufacturers spread over all six continental areas of the world. A total of approximately twenty million ton of asbestos ore yearly, or about seventy-five thousand tons a day, is mined. Individually, the operations vary in size from about two thousand tons to thirty thousand tons per day. Removal of waste rock and overburden to develop these ore tonnages varies greatly from one mine to another, but would probably average out at about a one to one ratio.

Jan 1, 1962

By J. P. Wiser

THIS paper discusses testing and quality control of milled asbestos fibre. It has been composed with the intention of: (I) Summarizing past, present and probable future methods of testing and classifying the various grades of commercial asbestos produced by the Quebec asbestos industry. (2) Acquainting those unfamiliar with the methods used for evaluating, testing and controlling the grading and the quality of Quebec chrysotile asbestos fibres with some of the physical and chemical procedures currently used for that purpose. (3) Discussing some of the complications facing the producers, such as variations in the orebody and special requirements of asbestos manufacturers. ( 4) Detailing some of the present quality control methods. SUMMARY OF PAST, PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE TESTING METHODS Past During the first years of production of commercial asbestos in the Province of Quebec, fibre testing and quality control were based principally on dry screen analysis and visual inspection. These methods were gradually expanded during the period from 18, 90 to 1932. In 1932, standardization

Jan 1, 1962

By B. R. McEwen, A. N. Samis, J. H. Gray

"The Quebrada Blanca Copper Mine is an open pit copper project located at 4200 m elevation in the Chilean Andes. The deposit is a world-class supergene enriched porphyry with a mining reserve of 89 Mt of 1.3% copper. The supergene zone will produce 6.3 Mt of ore per year for more than 15 years to produce 75 000 t of cathode copper per year.This paper will review the project geology the computer model ling of the deposit, the mine planning process and the property production scheduling. With copper production .fixed by the onsite electrowinning capacity, the planning and scheduling aspects to optimize the project NPV will be discussed. Some of the logistics, equipment. personnel and process difficulties of operating a mine at 42()() m elevation will also be described. IntroductionProject DescriptionThe Quebrada Blanca Copper Mine is an open pit copper project located in the northern part of the Chilean Andes. The project is based on the supergene enriched portion of a porphyry deposit which has a mining reserve of 89 million tonnes at 1.3070 copper. Below the enrichment blanket, the protore represents a further resource.All ore will be leached, the higher grade material will be crushed and stacked for thin layer heap leaching, and the lower grade and oxide material will be dump leached as run-of-mine material. Solvent extraction and electrowinning will be used to produce 75 000 tonnes of cathode copper per year. Power will be supplied by a 40 MW on-site diesel generating plant with the waste heat being used for process heating. The leaching operation will operate in excess of 15 years and may be followed by open pit mining and conventional ore concentration of the underlying primary sulphide mineralization.Because of the dry location water will be piped 37 km from a ground water source at the Salar de Michincha. Water requirements will be approximately 1.5 million m3/year. The operation will eventually employ approximately 550 people on a 7-day-on, 7-day-off rotation with two twelve-hour shifts per day with an on-site camp. Busing will be provided to the port city of Iquique."

Jan 1, 1994

By A McKay

The Great Artesian Basin (the Basin) is a large aquifer system underlying more than 20 per cent of continental Australia and most of Queensland. The aquifers of the Basin are an important water source for many industries, including the mining sector. The Queensland Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan (the Plan) was released in March 2006. The Plan provides a framework for the long- term holistic management of the aquifers in the Queensland Section of the Basin, in a manner that is consistent with the strategic management plan for the Basin as a whole. The paper describes the Basin and summarises trends in the demand for water in the Queensland section of the Basin. It describes the broad framework for management of the Basin by the individual Australian states, as well as the planning entitlement framework for water resource management in Queensland. The paper discusses the content of the Plan. This includes: the division of the aquifers into management areas and management units for management purposes, provision for protection of the flow of water to springs, limits on further allocating water, provision for a competitive process for access to new water and provision for water trading. Under the Queensland planning and entitlement system a resource operations plan is prepared to specify operational arrangements to implement a water resource plan. A resource operation plan for the basin is expected to be finalised before the end of 2006. The paper summarises the likely content of the plan.

Jan 1, 2006

By William H. Peterson

How is the Government's oil import control program doing? In July 1954 Mr, Eisenhower established the Cabinet Committee on Energy Supplies and Resources Policy. On July 29, 1957, the Administration imposed "voluntary" company oil import quotas on American oil importers to maintain "a healthy domestic (oil) production industry" and safeguard "national security." On March 10, 1959 the President by proclamation made the voluntary program mandatory. But study of the program in practice shows that it is not working out as expected and-that there is some doubt that its aims and other related Administration purposes are being achieved. Take the Administration's anti-inflation policy. To be sure, the President apparently recognized in his March 10th proclamation that in restricting cheap imported oil in favor of more expensive-domestic oil he was making the inflation fight that much harder, for he called for Government surveillance of domestic oil prices to prevent them from getting out of hard, And indeed while domestic crude oil prices have not risen appreciably during 1959 neither have they fallen appreciably (although there has been some price weakness in the past few weeks).

Jan 1, 1960

By D. C. Rance

"The Quintette Coal Limited property is located in the north east coal area of British Columbia. A basic agreement with the Japanese steel industry was ex ecuted on January 27, 1981 for the sale of 69.5 million tonnes of Quintette metallurgical coal over a 14.5-year period. This contract period can be extended by Jive years by mutual agree ment. Sale agreements have also been signed for the sale of 19.4 million tonnes of oxidized coal over a 15-year period. Work started on site development in the late summer of 1981, and at present, two of the four eventual pits-the McConkey and Frame-are under development. The pits are currently in a pres/ripping phase. These pits are notable for the stripping volumes that have to be removed from relatively small pit areas. in order to provide for the required detailed rapid short-range planning of these pits, engineering will be computerized, as will the truck dispatch system. The mining area lies 21.1 km from the plant site by road and the transport of raw coal LO the plant is by means of a highspeed conveyor system which has a total length of 13.4 km with a vertical drop of 740 m. The surface plant facility was designed on a modularized basis to facilitate maintenance, and is designed to enable the use ofgravity flow ofraw coal and heavy media in the plant to minimize the use of pumps. The construction of the plant and mine site facilities is on-going, and the first coal production is scheduled for early December 1983. Introduction Quintette Coal Limited is a Canadian company incorporated in the province of British Columbia in 1971. Denison Mines Limited is the manager of Quintette's activities. Equity in Quintette Coal Limited is held by several shareholders, with interests as follows: Denison Mines 'Limited, 500Jo; Charbonnages de France International S.A., 120Jo; and Japanese interest, 38%. The project will develop almost 120 million tonnes of coal for marketing during its first 20 years of production. All of the planned production tonnage has been committed to Japanese markets. Most of the coal will be metallurgical grade, and the remainder will be a high-quality thermal coal. The Mcconkey and Frame pits, which will initially provide the mine's production, will commence production in early December 1983 and will, in 1985, reach the full annual production of 5 million tonnes clean metallurgical coal and 1,380,000 tonnes of clean thermal coal."

Jan 1, 1985

By W. R. Leeder

"The Quintette coal property lies in the Rocky Mountain foothills of northeastern British Columbia (see Figure 1). Quintette and the adjacent Bullmoose property of Teck Corporation are soon to become the first commercial coal mines in the Peace River Coal Field, which is estir1ated to contain 10 billion tonnes of metallurgical coal reserves.Denison Mines Limited acquired the original Quintette coal licenses in 1969 and 1970. Exploration began soon after and the first feasibility study was conducted in 1975. Denison devoted the following six years to extensive planning and feasibility studies of the project. During this period, the provincial and federal governments also undertook studies to assess infrastructure requirements and economic viability of development in this part of the province. Many of the proposed mine sites such as Bullmoose and Quintette were at least 100 to 150 kilometres from the towns of Chetwynd and Dawson Creek, the nearest centres serviced by good highways and a railroad, and a complete network of services would have to be provided if such mines were to be developed. The overall project became known as the North East Coal Development.Concurrently with the feasibility studies, numerous technical and sales missions to Japan were made by representatives of Canadian industry and government, culminating in January 1981 with agreements for Quintette Coal Limited and Teck Corporation to supply a total of 115 million tonnes 8 million tonnes per year for 15 years of primarily metallurgical coal to the Japanese Steel Industry."

Jan 1, 1983

By R. A. Young

Effective October 1, 1958, President Eisenhower imposed, by Presidential Order, fixed import quotas on lead metal and lead concentrates and also on zinc metal and zinc concentrates. He did this in response to an escape clause case under the Trade Agreements Act filed by many of the large and small lead and zinc mining companies in September 1957. It is the purpose of this paper to give the experience of the lead-zinc industry under this order during its first two years and some observations on what might have come about under different conditions of U.S.A. consumption. Before considering these various experiences and observations, it seems wise to first outline briefly the basic problem which prompted such an order. Under the Tariff Act of 1930, the duty on pig lead was fixed at 2-l/8¢ per pound and slab zinc at 1-3/4e; per pound. The ores, concentrates and closely related products of these metals carried closely related duty rates. The Trade Agreements Act of 1934 and succeeding similar acts had given the, President the power to lower these and other duties. As a result-of various negotiations with foreign nations, by 1951 these duties had been lowered to their present day rates of 1-1/16 per pound on' pig lead and 7/10o, per pound on slab zinc. Related ores, concentrates and semi-fabricated forms of the metals received commensurate treatment. Under these acts, the Tariff Commission has the right to recommend to the President duty increases, specific quotas or both if find that imports have injured the affected industry. He has the right to accept or reject such recommendations, in whole or in part, in the light of the national interest,

Jan 1, 1961

For over 50 years R W Miller & Co Pty Ltd operated old coal properties abandoned by former owners as uneconomic, some of which dated back to the last century. The companyÆs ability to survive with what were relatively poor quality coal resources required a small efficient management organisation. In 1970 R W Miller was involved in negotiations with other coal companies through coal sales contracts to develop private coal areas under the provisions of the old Coal Mining Act (1906) and these efforts led to the development of Lemington colliery. At the same time development of the Ironbark colliery holding near Newcastle commenced. In 1971, R W Miller approached the New South Wales Government for a resource replacement area to prospect for coal in the Upper Hunter Valley. Authorisation No 33 was finally granted on 30 September 1975, but the company found the area was inaccessible as most of the surface was owned by the Australian Army. Later R W Miller was granted Authorisation 66 of 2167.5 hectares at Mount Thorley near Singleton on 1 November 1976. The development of this coal mining project coincided with the second OPEC oil crisis in 1978 and a short-term boom for coal resources and the unrealistic expectations generated by the boom. This paper gives a broad outline of the development of the Mount Thorley project between 1976 to 1986 including the feasibility study and the many governmental and industrial delays that resulted in a three-year time overrun in the project development period.

Jan 1, 1998

By Olav Moklebust

The R-N Process is an outgrowth of the development by the National Lead Company's Norwegian subsidiary Titania A/S, of a process for producing metallic iron and a high titanium content co-product from ilmenite. Development of the process for the treatment of iron ores was continued as a joint project of the Republic Steel Corporation and the National Lead Company in 1953. More recently in July, 1957, the R-N Corporation was created by these two companies to undertake the commercial promotion of the results of this joint project. This paper has been prepared with the permission and encouragement of these three companies. The R-N process has as its objective the making of metallic iron from iron ores or iron ore concentrates. The general principles of the process have already been disclosed in technical papers and patents. In general the process comprises the following steps: 1. Iron oxide in crushed natural iron ores or iron ore concentrates is reduced to about 95% metallic iron, without fusion in a rotary kiln in the presence of solid carbonaceous fuel,*such as, coke or char, limestone and combustible gases. 2. The kiln discharge, consisting of metallized ore, coke, lime and coke ashes, is cooled. The excess coke is regenerated and recycled to the kiln feed.

Jan 1, 1959

The 3.5 million tones per annum Enterprise mine is the newest underground copper mine at Mount Isa in northern Australia. At a depth of up to 2000 metres, it is the hottest and deepest mine in Australia. In situ rock temperatures sometimes exceed 60¦C requiring the installation of substantial amount of refrigeration to provide safe working conditions for mine workers. The latest refrigeration project at the mine, R67, required the design and installation of the worldÆs largest bulk air cooler and AustraliaÆs largest chilled water plant. The plant is mounted on the surface of the mine and provides 25 MW of refrigeration to cool some 580 kg/sec of ambient air to 11.4¦C. This is equivalent to the production of 6300 tonnes of ice per day. The plant was designed for high availability, as any downtime would result in substantial production losses to MIM, and also had the potential to quickly result in unsafe levels of heat stress within the underground workplaces. The bulk air cooler has been designed for a capacity of 34 MW(R), the expected ultimate carrying capacity of the 7 m vertical intake shaft. Being located well inside the tropics, technical issues such as control of thermal pulldown required special consideration. Also, the bulk air cooler had to be designed to handle whatever demand for fresh air was imposed by the mine below, with over 100 per cent variations in airflow expected, and without loss of thermal efficiency. A substantial program of risk assessment and HAZOP studies was used to protect underground miners from leaks of ammonia into the air or water circuits. Fully automatic control systems result in a totally unmanned plant that is supervised remotely. To improve efficiency, the plant is controlled by the outlet air temperature from the bulk air cooler û the first in the world to be controlled in this fashion. Engineering solutions to address environmental considerations were incorporated at the design stage through features such as the use of ammonia (a greenhouse-friendly gas) as the refrigerant, zero atmospheric discharge and a wastewater collection and re-use system.

Jan 1, 2002

By Lam. E. K., J. W. Jarvi, B. P. Bharadwaj

"The Rabbit Lake Operation is located in Northern Saskatchewan on the western shore of Wollaston Lake approximately 800 km north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.The Operation is owned by a joint venture of Cameco Corporation and Uranerz Exploration and Mining Limited. Cameco is the operator.The Mill started production in June 1975 under the ownership of Gulf Minerals Canada Limited and over the past twenty years has increased the rated production capacity to over twice the original design.The Mill was originally designed to process 485,000 tonnes per year of ore with an annual production of 2.0 million kg of U308 (yellowcake). During the past ten years changes in ore sources and process modifications have led to increased milling capacity and production targets. The Mill has treated a total of 8.6 million tonnes of ore and produced over 40 million kg of U308 in the twenty year period, despite the shutdown and cutbacks in operating time since 1989.The 1995 tonnage throughput was 206,000 tonnes per year. Annual production though has risen to 3.6 million kg of yellowcake despite the departure from full-time to half-time operation in 1991 (7 up-7 down). The forecast for the coming years will see tonnage rising from 300,000 to 570,000 tonnes, production of 4.5 to 5.4 million kg of yellowcake and an anticipated return in the year 1998 to full time operation.This paper will give a brief history of the Mill and focus on the present flowsheet and recent improvements to the process."

Jan 1, 1996

By K. Wyper

"Gulf Minerals (Canada) Limited' s Rabbit Lake Uranium Operation is located in the northern portion of Saskatchewan, 198 miles southeast of Uranium City and 134 miles northwest of Lynn Lake Manitoba.This paper describes flow sheet changes to solve operating problems and briefly describes future changes to accommodate the new ""B"" Zone ore.The Rabbit Lake mill was designed to process 1600 dry tons per day of uranium ore, with an average grade of 0.370 percent u3o8. In 1981, the mill processed 2040 tons per day at a grade of 0.231 percent u3o8 . The process modifications and flow sheet changes that allowed this increase in tonnage will be discussed in relative chronological order. Mill feed was introduced on June 10, 1975, the original equipment consisted of an Ingersoll Rand hydraulic breaker mounted over a 24"" square grizzly. The - 24"" ore was fed to a 2011 X 6"" seflli autogenous grate discharge mill close circuited with 20"" cyclones, the mill discharge was screened on a tyler double deck screen with the undersize (8 rnesh) reporting to the cyclones, the screen oversize was returned by conveyor belt to the mill feed chute.The cyclone overflow (28 mesh) was thickened in a 100' diameter thickener to obtain 55 percent solids for the leach circuit.The leach circuit consisted of two slurry holding tanks and five leach tanks."

Jan 1, 1982

By G. Sciocchetti, G. F. Clemente, F. Scacco

INTRODUCTION Radon, thoron and their airborne daughter products may result in a significant biological hazard when they are concentrated in enclosed places such as mines, houses and caves. High concentrations of radon and its particulate daughter have long, been known to be a causative agent for lung cancer to uranium miner: (Archer 1973). More recently increasing concern has been expressed on the possible health hazards associated with long term exposures over large population groups to low levels of radon daughters (Cohen 1980, Stranden 1980). Due to its peculiar geological features, Italy has various natural environments where the content of uranium and thorium in the soil may increase underground radioactivity. The presence in Italy of many underground waters rich in radon may be considered a further important source of radon in underground mines. A preliminary survey of the radon and radon daughter air concentrations in italian underground mines was started in 1971 (Bottino 1973). Furthermore many studies (Sciocchetti 1978, Sciocchetti 1980, Clemente 1980) have been performed during the last ten year to characterize the natural radiation environment in Italy. It has been also demonstrated that 21OPb/21OPo skeletal burden in spa workers and non-uranium miners can be heavily increased by the exposure (short or/and prolonged) to high levels of radon daughter air concentration (Clemente 1980). All these studies have been of great help to put in the right prospective the radiation hazards linked to the underground working activity in non-uranium italian mines. Two main actions have been prosecuted from 1971 until today in order to evaluate in greater detail such radiation hazards and then, when needed, to obtain their reduction to levels which may be considered acceptable. The two actions may schematically described as the following: - Measurement of the radon and daughter (and thoron and daughter when needed) concentrations in most of the italian non-uranium mines. The assessment of the radiation hazards linked to both the annual average lung exposure and the 210 Pb - 210 Po annual average dose to the skeleton is then performed for each considered mine by taking into account the main parameters characteristic of the mine. - Set up of a national regulatory recommendation on the permissible limits for the radiation exposure of workers due to underground mining activity. Such recommendation have been established in 1978 and have been designed in order to implement a national radiation protection practice during the underground mining activity. In this paper a summary description of the results obtained during the execution of these two actions will be given. MATERIAL AND METHODS Measurement of Radon, Thoron and their Daughter Products The excution of the planned survey requires the availability of specific techniques and instruments for measuring the different parameters characterizing the radon, thoron and their daughter exposure in mines. A reference laboratory was set up for the development and the standardization of the measurement procedures. Measurements of radon, thoron and daughter concentrations are performed by various methods: instanteneous or grab sampling methods and continuous read out monitors. The radon concentration is usually measured by a modified version of the two filter method. Mine air is drawn into a polyethylene bag and the sample is there after injected into a two filter tube; after sampling the exit filter is counted by the alpha spectrometric technique. The measurements is completed in a total time of less than 25 minutes at a sensitivity level as low as 3.7 Bq/m3 for a tube volume of 15 1. The measurement of radon and thoron daughter concentration and of the relevant potential alpha energy concentration is performed by means of a portable spectrometric apparatus which was developed at our laboratory (Sciocchetti 1981). The device allows multiple operating modes: instantaneous or brief sampling period and automatic cycles; computer data processing is then provided. The instruments that measure continuously radon concentration over long periods of time are of two types: a continuous scintillation monitor and an automated two filter

Jan 1, 1981

By L. S. Pratt

IN 1910 the author was engaged in a qualitative study of the radio-activity of several chemical substances and a few minerals. In the course of the work he studied the mineral allanite (obtained from granite ledges at Topsham, Maine), and found it to be appreciably radio-active. Recently the fact was brought to his attention that the radio-activity of allanite is not well known, although Hon. R. J. Strutt in 1905 published a list of radio-active minerals with their analyses, including allanite from Amherst County, Virginia. In the work done, a standard ,type of electroscope was used, and the readings were made with a telescope, fitted with a scale, by means of which the rate of discharge could be readily determined. The natural "leak" of the instrument was carefully determined, and all results corrected accordingly. The method of study was as follows: The material to be tested was finely powdered, and spread over the bottom of a small, inactive pan. The electroscope was then charged, and the pan placed in position. The door of the instrument was closed, and the rate. of discharge carefully determined. All results were reduced to common form to permit of comparison. It is to be noted that the materials tested were not used in strictly comparable quantities, such as if 1 g. of. each had been used, but about the same quantity of powder was used (in the cases of the solid substances), so that the results are qualitatively accurate.

Jan 5, 1916

By L. A. Kaufman

"AbstractThe Bureau of Mines, Ottawa, in conjunction with Eldorado Mining and Refining (1944), Limited, has developed an automatic concentrator for uranium ores.A brief review of radioactivity is given which shows the present limitations for obtaining •good results by electronic concentration. The ores after being mined, or at any other stage of a concentrating process, can be analysed for the uranium dissemination and from these results the possibility of an economical concentration can be estimated.The electronic and mechanical parts of the equipment are described. Difficulties in the operation's, and means by which they have •been and are •being overcome, are discussed. The capacity of the units, the results obtained, the man-power required, and other pertinent data are presented. Simple control analysis on the percent U3O8 has been developed.Research is continuing along lines to develop a more completely automatic unit using a scintillation detector, and applying a few new ideas and some devices that have been developed in colour sorting.IntroductionIt is well known how important the Geiger counter is in the field of exploration for uranium. It was in late 1946 that Dr. C. Lapointe, of the Bureau of Mines, Ottawa, first started work on an automatic picking unit to concentrate uranium ores. He used the principle that if a number of pieces of unknown ore, some of which contained uranium, were individually brought up close to a Geiger-Müller tube, then the pieces containing uranium could •be easily picked out due to their activity. Since then a good deal of work has been done by the Bureau of Mines in conjunction with Eldorado Mining and • Refining (1944), Limited, to develop an electronic concentrator."

Jan 1, 1950

By C. J. Dungey

INTRODUCTION The County of Cornwall is situated in the South Western extremity of England, see Fig. 1, and has for hundreds of years been an historical centre of mining activity. In the last century many thousands of Cornish miners emigrated to Canada, U.S.A., Australia and numerous other countries throughout the world to form the nucleii of mining industries in those lands. At present there are four active underground mines within the county, all mining tin, together with a relatively large china clay industry. All the operations are directly or indirectly associated with the three main granite intrusions, namely the Land's End Granite, the Carnmenellis Granite and the Bodmin Moor Granite. The report which follows relates to two mines, owned by the South Crafty Group of Companies, namely the South Crofty Mine itself and its smaller subsidiary, Wheal Pendarves. Both these mines are adjacent to the Carn Brea Granite ridge, see Fig. 2, which is an off-shoot of the main Carnmenellis Granite mass. The Carn Brea Granite has provided one of the most intensive areas of copper and tin mineralisation anywhere in the world. Many of the mines worked during the last two centuries and the early part of this century were situated close to the metamorphic aureole surrounding the granite intrusion. Both South Crofty and Wheal Pendarves have their shafts collared in the overlying slate, locally known as killas, but the major part of their workings are in the granite beneath. The ore bodies, or lodes, of both mines are generally steeply dipping and approximately one to four metres in width. They have been, and continue to be, worked by either back or under-hand stoping with the major level interval being approximately 37 metres. A feature of both stoping systems is that they require no back filling and in many cases the completed working areas have remained open for many years due to the competent wall rock conditions. The stoping operation necessitates having box-holes or draw points at regular intervals along the strike length at 4 to 7 metres centres; thus a stope some 50 metres long may typically have ten box-holes or draw points through which air can percolate into the empty stopes above. The granite country rock contains traces of uranium minerals, namely pitchblende or uraninite, and it is the decay of this uranium mineral which leads to the formation of the mobile radon gas which, together with its short lived daughters, may create a hazard. The presence of uranium minerals has long been known, but the quantities being so minute, it was not appreciated until some ten to fifteen years ago that these might present a hazard. The Mines and Quarries Inspectorate approached Management approximately ten years ago with a view to taking samples in areas of the mine that they felt might contain the highest concentrations of radon. Samples were thus taken in several areas of both mines, normally well away from working areas and where there was no through ventilation. The results of these initial tests were published by the National Radiological Protection Board in a paper entitled "Radon and Its Daughters in Various British Mines". The results of the initial surveys made it apparent that improved ventilation was the most important factor in reducing radon daughter concentrations within the mine atmosphere, with increased flow rates having three beneficial functions, viz. (1) To dilute radon daughter concentrations. (2) To prevent radon and its daughters reaching a state of equilibrium. It is not uncommon for radon and its daughters to have a disequilibrium factor of 1,000 in some uranium mines.

Jan 1, 1981

By D. W. McDonald

Coal mining and railway transportation are so closely en-twined and so dependent one upon the other that the failure of one would mean the total collapse of the other. With this indisputable fact in mind, there is no doubt that the operator of each is deeply interested in the other's success. Railway transportation began at the mouth of a coal mine. The first railway car was the English coal-wagon, a crude box on four wooden trowlets, running on wooden rails and holding 1,600 pounds. This was operated by gravity or horse-power in England to convey coal from the mines to the rivers. The first coal-cars used on Nova Scotia railways were of 4 tons capacity with side doors and "V" shaped centres. Then followed flat-bottom, 4-ton cars that operated on tipples, the car bei.ng held in tipple by a chain passing over the top and fastened on either side. Next came the 6-ton car with drop-bottoms, then the 10, 15, 30-ton cars, and now the modern 50 and 100-ton steel cars, equipped with automatic couplers, brakes, and rachet dumping device. Contrast the first coal-car with a modern luxurious pull-man or a I 00-ton coal and ore car, and you have a record of progress in railway transportation. The development of the steam locomotive was no doubt the greatest factor in this progress, but let us not forget that the foundation of all industrial development was and is coal. and that development in mining and railway transportation should keep abreast.

Jan 1, 1924

By F Hancock

A rainfall simulator was developed to assist with hydrogeomorphic research into the stability of engineered landforms associated with rehabilitated uranium mines in the Top End of Australia. It can be used in rough terrain with slope gradients up to 30o. The rainfall simulator is modular, utilises upward jetting nozzles, has a multiple head arrangement and is capable of delivering rainfall intensities between 60 and 300 mmh-1 over areas up to 1000 m2 and could be easily modified for larger areas. Rainfall uniformity is commonly in excess of 80 per cent and the kinetic energy approaches that of natural rainfall (The modular design utilises an equilateral triangular array of rainfall stands, constructed from galvanised steel water pipes and flexible plastic hoses. Total construction costs are low. The water supply reservoir is mobile and easily constructed. An example of its use at Ranger Uranium Mine, investigating the effect of cover on rainsplash and rainwash dominated processes shows that vegetation cover is likely to reduce the erosion rate by these processes by at least four times below that experienced on bare areas.

Jan 1, 1997

By E. C. Roper

THE Britannia Mining & Smelting Company, Limited, have been operating their property at Britannia Beach, B.C., continuously for nearly forty years and have mined over 33,000,000 tons of ore from orebodies within a belt of highly sheared rocks, five miles long by 2,000 feet wide. The property is in the Coast Range mountains, about twenty miles due north of Vancouver. The mountains rise abruptly from sea level to elevations of 4, 500 feet within a horizontal distance of 7,000 feet. The topography has enabled the orebodies to be developed by adit tunnels. The active mining levels are connected to the adits by incline and vertical service shafts. The main service adits are the 2200, 2700, and 4100 levels (see Figure 1). The mine surface shops, three bunk-houses, and over one hundred dwellings form the townsite camp at the portal of the 2200 level adit. A small camp of one bunk-house and a few dwellings is situated at the 2700 level portal. The beach surface shops and camp, adjacent to the 4100 level adit, service the mill, foundry, and other beach installations as well as the mining from the 4100 level. The ore mined from the various orebodies is delivered to the 4100 main haulage level through a system of rock raises and intermediate tramming levels and is hauled on the 4100 level to the mill.

Jan 1, 1945