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By R. W. Draves

Planning and testing in advance of the mining operation are essential. This advance work can involve physical and chemical analysis of overburden cores, field test plots, green- house studies or any of a multitude of other baseline data collection activities. This paper presents the results of Central and South West's field test plots and how they relate to topsoil substitution. Besides the obvious need for testing in advance of mining, there are the inevitable regulatory requirements. Quoting from the office of Surface Mining Regulations concerning topsoil substitution: 216.22(e) TOPSOIL SUBSTITUTE AND SUPPLEMENTS -Selected overburden materials may be substituted for or used as a supplement to topsoil if the office determines that the resulting soil medium is equal to or more suitable for sustaining revegetation than is the available topsoil and the substitute material is the best available to support revegetation.

Jan 1, 1985

By A. M. Esteves

This paper offers an overview of local content policies and practice in the mining sector. Specifically, the paper aims to answer the question of how national and regional governments, industry and civil society can work together to seek an optimal outcome while pursuing their diverse objectives. The paper begins by defining local content and its scope at the subnational level. Specific recommendations for the design of local content policies to mitigate social, economic and governance risks are developed. The document then offers some recommendations regarding the role of partners in design, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of local content policies.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. Atta-Quayson

Since 2012, Ghana has been implementing local procurement regulations in the mining sector to broaden and deepen linkages between mining and other sectors of the economy. The regulations have been implemented in collaboration with the mining industry. This paper offers an in-depth analysis of how the local procurement regulations and related initiatives have been implemented so far. Primary data gathered with semi-structured interviews and secondary sources of data indicate a steady improvement in both in-country procurement and local manufacturing of inputs for the mining industry. There are, however, some challenges relating to tariff structure and support (financial and technical) for local suppliers and manufacturers to meet high standards and demands of the mining industry. This calls for a well-thought-out strategy and programme of activities to sustain and improve on progress made.

Feb 2, 2022

By S Novak

A world-class example of sustainable development in practice, the Local Resource Development Initiative (LRDI) grew from agreements between the Ambatovy nickel mine developers and the Government of Madagascar. A program of training and community development, the LRDI aims to maximise local benefits by optimising the integration of local resources during the construction period of the mine. By local resources, we mean the local labour force as well as local goods and services. Begun in 2007, the foundation of the LRDI is to integrate local resources into the mining project and where gaps are identified, design and implement training, mentoring and other programs to fill those gaps. The principal accomplishments are: the establishment of training centres that trained over 4000 people in little over one year, 96 per cent of whom hired to work at the mine; a support program for local micro, small and medium enterprises that has led to the award of 65 contracts for goods and services with training and mentoring of over 100 local businesses; and a number of special projects that have, among other results, strengthened local agricultural development and created employment for young people. The LRDI provides unique insights into key indicators and lessons learned to strengthen the social and economic sustainability of mining projects in developing countries. The paper will discuss these in terms, among others, of: the importance to project success of upstream planning to address socio-economic issues; the role of civil society and other local partners to strengthen and expand sustainability outcomes, and to spur governments to demand that major projects promote economic and social sustainability; and the integration of mine sustainability with sustained regional social and economic development.

Jan 1, 2009

By F. A. Guo

Ultrafine-grained surface layers were obtained by surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) in copper and titanium samples. The thermal properties of the deformed layers were characterized using a scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) that allows thermal conductivity to be mapped down to the submicrometer scale. A theoretical approach, based on this investigation, was used to calculate the heat flow from the probe tip to the sample and then estimate the thermal conductivities at different scanning positions. Experimental results and theoretical calculation demonstrate that SThM can be used as a powerful tool for the thermal property and microstructural analysis of ultrafine-grained microstructures.

Jan 1, 2006

By Geoffrey C. Hebner

Augered, cast-in-place piles (ACIP) have become a very common foundation type in Atlanta and the Southern Piedmont Province as well as much of the United States in the past 20 years. Prior to the introduction of ACIP foundations in Atlanta, the most common deep foundation type was Raymond piles. Raymond piles are basically a driven, thin-walled step-tapered steel pile filled with concrete. Drilled piers were also relatively common and continue to be used, particularly in shallow bedrock or high column load situations. Driven piles, including pipes, H-sections, and timber piles were previously common with working loads typically in the 30 to 50-ton range. Initially, ACIP foundations had similar allowable capacities, however, over time improvements in installation techniques and equipment have resulted in an increase in allowable ACIP capacities. Correspondingly, they have become a more cost-effective and trusted foundation for geotechnical and structural engineers. Over the next several decades many other deep foundation alternatives began to lose popularity. ACIP are one of the predominant deep foundations in Atlanta and the Southern Piedmont today. Although ACIP foundations have widespread popularity in the private sector, they have not been readily accepted currently by government transportation agencies. ACIP may be used by some of the smaller municipalities, but to the author's knowledge, have not been used with regularity by larger, state agencies.

Jan 1, 2003

A new method, localized uniform conditioning (LUC), was proposed in 2006 for modelling grades of small blocks of ore when data spacing is too broad for their accurate modelling by the linear regression based techniques, such as kriging (Abzalov, 2006). It represents a modified uniform conditioning (UC) technique that calculates the grade distribution functions for the large panels. LUC uses partitioning of the panels onto the small blocks and then ranks them in increasing order of grade. Based on the block ranks, a single grade value can be deduced for each block from the UC model of the gradetonnage relationships of the corresponding panel. After being first presented in 2006, the LUC method has been implemented in ISATIS© (commercial software) and became one of the common approaches for grade estimation when data spacing is broad in comparison with the estimated block size. Several years of study on the LUC method and its application to different geological environments, have allowed identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the method, which are as follows: ? The method produces accurate grade-tonnage functions, which are in a good accordance with a volume-variance relationship principles ? An initial ranking of the selective mining unit (SMU) blocks can be made by direct kriging from the sparse data grid. Therefore, the LUC method can be particularly useful at the early stages of exploration and mining project evaluations when sparsely distributed data is often the only available information ? Accuracy of the local estimation depends on the SMU ranking techniques. When ranking performed by direct kriging of the SMU blocks their spatial distribution is approximate. When the variogram of the studied variable is characterized by a large nugget effect, the block ranks produced by kriging can significantly differ from their ?true? distribution ? Block ranking can be improved using auxiliary data, either geophysical or geochemical. This allows use of the LUC method for integrating different data sets. In particular, LUC can be used for grade control in open pits by integrating resource definition data (e.g. drill-hole assays) and blast-hole assays. The latter are used for the block ranking.

Jan 1, 2014

By Slobodan Vujic

Production of building materials such as are stones, sand, gravel etc., is characterized by a relatively low economic value and requires reasonable transport costs. That is why we are often faced, in our practical work, with the fact that within the framework of a relatively small area several open pits of building materials are, developed side by side while neither ecological, urban and spatial nor location factors have been taken into consideration. Numerous locations together with heterogeneous factors. point undoubtedly to the problem of planning the open pits locations for building mateials as a very serious and complex one. Even when certain localities are in question, it is rather a difficult task to present a real state and encompass all the, important location factors by mathematical model ling. This paper presents one of such models for solving the problem of selecting a location for building materials open pit.

Jan 1, 1992

By T de Wit, S Meyer

The location of seismic events in mines is traditionally calculated based on the arrival times of P- and S-waves for a given velocity model (homogeneous or heterogeneous). This technique is successful when the sources of seismic events are sudden and localised (eg episodes of fracturing in solid rock or dynamic slip along a plane of weakness) and thus the radiated seismic waves have clear arrivals. In massive mining operations such as block caves, strong seismic signals often originate from the movement of loose rocks on the perimeter of the fracture zone. These signals are easily recordable but do not contain easily identifiable direct P- and S-waves, making the estimation of location through traditional methods more complicated. This problem has been approached by using a ‘brightness’ location method that estimates the origin of seismic waves based on travel times of envelopes of seismic energy. This tool is extended to be applicable in a heterogeneous velocity environment that now accounts for the presence of a cave or other strong velocity perturbations. The suggested method is particularly important when caving occurs in low-stress environments (eg close to the surface).CITATION:Meyer, S and de Wit, T, 2016. Location of seismic events associated with caving using brightness method, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 225–236 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By D. B. Rebuli

Seismic networks in deep gold mines of South Africa are often planar owing to the tabular geometry of the orebody and, therefore, the mining infrastructure. Consequently, seismic event locations are poorly constrained in the direction perpendicular to the reef plane, and symmetrical locations above and below the reef plane may fit the observed data equally well. This problem may be resolved in situations where the strata above and below the reef plane have significantly different seismic velocities, which is the case for the Ventersdorp Contact Reef at Kusasalethu mine (previously Elandskraal, the amalgamation of Deelkraal and Elandsrand). A location method using a layered location model that takes into account the velocity contrast between the layers was tested. Observed direct- and head-waves were used to determine the velocity bounds of the P-wave velocities in the two-layer model. The data-set was also used to find the best P- and S-wave velocities for the two layers by grid searching over a range of velocities and minimizing the sum of the travel-time residuals. The results from the grid search and those from the calibration of velocities using direct- and head-waves give similar P-wave velocities for each of the two layers. A second set of seismic events was then relocated with this layered model and locations closer to reef were found. This simple layered location method goes some way to reduce the reefperpendicular location errors for Kusasalethu mine in particular. Keywords mine seismology, velocity model, location methods.

Jun 1, 2013

By R. H. Winn

A method for the selection of the most suitable corrosion inhibitor for a particular system is given. The method involves the evaluation of surface passivity by means of copper ion displacement after the metal surface has been subjected to the corrosive atmosphere. The application of the method to the selection of suitable inhibitors for use in producing wells is described. Correlation with recognized laboratory tests has beet1 found to be good within the limitations of the test. The use of the test to evaluate inhibitor persistencc is described. INTRODUCTION Corrosion as it is associated with the industry shows wide variations in its qualitative as well as its quantitative aspects. This complicates the work of the corrosion engineer. In the past few years the efforts of the corrosion engineer have been further taxed by the large numbers of products being marketed as corrosion inhibitors by various manufacturers. These products are submitted to him together with a limited amount of data to support their use as inhibitors. The data are usually authentic and reliable yet all too often when these products are applied to an actual corrosive system the results are disappointing due to the ineffectiveness of the inhibitor and the corrosive system. The corrosion engineer must select a comparatively limited number of inhibitors for field trial from the large number available. The selection is usually made on the basis of a standardized laboratory test such as that adopted by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers or by field experience in an area; however, testing of this type is discouraging on large numbers of compounds, particularly in view of the specificity of environment. It has been an object of this work to devise a method which will allow the corrosion engineer to select the best inhibitor for a specific environment under field conditions. The test would of necessity be rapid and inexpensive. It would preferably eliminate the need for expensive and delicate instruments. STATEMENT OF THEORY The test as developed makes use of the fact that metal ions will be displaced from solution by metals having a more positive electrode potential. Thus, if an active iron surface is exposed to a solution of a copper salt, free copper will plate spontaneously on the iron surface as it is displaced from the salt solution by iron ions. If the iron surface is passified, as by coating with an insulating-type organic corrosion inhibitor, it is no longer capable of displacing the copper ions due to its own limited ionization. The result will be a change in the amount of copper plated upon exposure to a neutral copper salt solution. In practice it has been found possible to measure the magnitude of the alteration of the cell potential by determining the copper deposited on a standard iron surface under controlled conditions. This means that, as the film builds up, the resulting shift in the electrode potential tends to cause the iron surface to act more like a noble metal, resulting in a reduction in the cell potential to a point that copper will no longer plate spontaneously. Obviously, the salts of other metals such as silver, gold or platinum might be used for this operation; however, copper was selected because of the color difference of the plate, the comparatively low cost of copper salts and the ease of evaluation of the plated copper. Furthermore, its high cell potential provides a substantial driving energy. The determination of the copper is readily done colorimetrically by dissolving it in 5 per cent ammonium hydroxide solution containing 2 per cent potassium per-sulfate. The blue color of the copper ammonic complex ion so developed may be compared with standards prepared by dissolving known quantities of copper powder in the same reagent. In routine screening it is seldom desirable to determine the amount of copper plated. It is usually more important to determine the concentration of inhibitor required to prevent the plating of copper.

By S. E. Szasz, E. J. Moore, B. F. Whitney

An accurate value of formation water resistivity R, is essential in calculating formation porosity and fluid saturation from electrical well logs. In the cases where R, has not been measured directly, it must be obtained from other data, e.g., the SP curve. This paper deals with another approach: how to calculate R, from the chemical analysis of the formation water. INTRODUCTION It is known that the resistivity of aqueous solutions of pure salts depends on their concentration and on the temperature; the concentrations are given in MPL (mg of solute per liter of solution), or sometimes in ppm (mg of solute per kg of solution): MPL = ppm X specific gravity. Values for different pure salts are available in the literature, but not for solutions of mixtures which are of practical interest. The major component of the dissolved material in almost all formation waters being sodium chloride, it is customary to express the resistivity of formation waters in terms of equivalent sodium chloride concentration, i.e., the concentration of a solution of pure NaCl which has the same resistivity at a given temperature as that of the formation water under consideration. Thus, the problem of calculating R, from the chemical anaylsis can also be stated as how to convert the other constituents of the solute into equivalent NaCl concentration. Salts dissolved in water are at least partly dissociated into ions, and do not conserve their identity. If known amounts of several salts are dissolved in water, the solution does not necessarily contain the same salts in the original proportion, but perhaps some other combination of the ions, along with free ions in solution. This is why the chemical analysis of formation waters is often given in terms of ions, as if all dissolved salts were completely dissociated. Our problem then boils down to how to convert the concentrations of the various ions to equivalent concentrations of Na' and C1-. Dunlap and Hawthorne' have proposed to convert the concentration of all other ions to equivalent Na' and C1-concentrations by means of constant multipliers; e.g., 0.95 for Ca"; 2.0 for Mg"; 0.27 for HCO 3-; 0.5 for SO, -, etc. Their factors were based on measurements made at 68F on 26 formation water samples from the Texas Gulf Coast, ranging in concentration from 1,500 to 75,000 ppm. The Dunlap method is widely used in electric log interpretation, and is often extrapolated beyond its original concentration range. A comparison of R, values calculated by this method and values actually measured on formation water samples has shown large discrepancies, especially at higher concentrations. Therefore, two new methods were developed at Sinclair Oil Corp.'s Tulsa Research Center to calculate equivalent sodium chloride concentration from the chemical analysis of formation water samples. FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS The resistivity of a solution, or its reciprocal the conductivity, at a given temperature is determined by the charge, concentration and mobility of the ions actually present. Monovalent ions such as Na' or C1- always carry the same charge. Compounds of polyvalent ions, however. may show incomplete dissociation, e.g., NaSO; + Na' instead of SO,-- + 2Na'. This happens especially in more concentrated solutions. Only very dilute solutions are completely dissociated, as assumed in the chemical analysis report. At higher concentration, the degree of dissociation depends not only on the nature and concentration of the particular salt under consideration but also on the nature and concentrations of the other solutes. Mobility of the ions depends on the viscosity of the solution. It also depends on the degree of hydration of the ions, which in turn is a function of the nature and the charge of the ions and also of the amount of free water available per ion, i.e., the total ionic concentration. The net effect is that the conductivity increases slower than proportional to the concentration, even if a solution contains only one salt such as NaC1, and is different for different salts (Fig. 1). Conductivity can even decline with a further increase in concentration, e.g., if additional salt is little dissociated but ties up some of the free water and/or causes an increase in viscosity. In solutions containing more than one salt, the contribution of one salt to the total conductivity depends not only on the fractional concentration of this same salt, but also on the concentration of all other solutes. A perfect method would give the conductivity or resistivity of a solution as a function of the concentrations of all solutes present. This is so complicated as to be impractical, and a simpler method must be found which is of acceptable accuracy. The Dunlap method, on the other hand. is too simple because it askmes that at any concentration the contrih-

Jan 1, 1967

By B. G. Agnew

In evaluating fracture treatments, the need to answer such questions as "What zone or zones were actually treated?" and "What was the vertical extent of the treatment" is necessary, since determining effectiveness of the fracture treatwrent depends on knowledge of the reservoir portions stimulated and the vertical extent of the fracture system or systems. Injection of hot or cold fluids during fracturing operations will transfer heat to the surrounding formations and fracture faces mainly by heat conduction. Once injection ceases, temperature anomalies will develop opposite the zone fractured because the rate of temperature decay is less than that opposite zones heated or cooled by flow inside the wellbore or along the cement sheath. Thus, temperature surveys can he used to determine where fractures were generated outside the wellbore and to reasonahly estimate the vertical extent of the fractrires. This technique has been used successfully to evaluate over 344 fracture treatments at depths ranging from 1,500 to 15,700 ft. Examples of actual temperature surveys are presented to show how this method of fracture treatment evaluation can be used effectively and beneficially. INTRODUCTION Stimulation of producing or injection wells by fracturing is commonplace in the industry today. In evaluating these treatments, two basic questions which arise are "What zone or zones were actually stimulated?" and "What was the vertical extent of the treatment?". Knowledge of the reservoir portions stimulated and vertical extent of the fracture system or systems is vital to effect efficient and economical well completions and to assure maximum recovery from reservoirs. Not all fracture treatments are successful and many times the desired or anticipated results are not achieved. When this occurs, it is in most cases the engineer's job to determine why. The answer to this problem forms the primary basis for deciding whether to spend more money for development drilling and/or completion attempts or to forego additional expenditures to improve the particular zone. Also, knowledge of the reservoir portion actually stimulated is invaluable in planning future workovers. This is especially true in wells producing from reservoirs containing multiple porosity stringers or zones. For various reasons, all zones within a reservoir may not be perforated on initial completion with the thought of developing remaining zones through future workover operations. Because particular zones are perforated and fracturing fluid pumped down the wellbore, it cannot be assumed that all perforated zones are stimulated, and in turn drained. Occasionally, unperforated zones which are planned for future development are actually stimulated on initial completion. eliminating the need for future recompletion attempts or all zones perforated initially are not stimulated, thus requiring additional completion work to insure that these zones are adequately drained. In most cases, it is costly. if not impossible, to determine with assurance why a fracture treatment is unsuccessful after the job has been completed and the results tested. Further, unpredictable upper and lower fracture barriers. as well as possible borehole communications (cement channels), do not permit it to be taken for granted that the formation opposite the perforations is the only zone receiving the fracture treatment. Thus. evaluation of fracture treatments is necessary for efficient and prudent well completion practices and should be done simultaneously with the fracture job. Several methods have been used to locate fractured zones, all of which are based on detection of radioactive tracer materials added to either the fracturing fluid or the propping agent. These methods have been helpful in increasing knowledge of fracturing operations; however, they are seriously limited because of cost and inability to detect accurately radioactive tracer material more than a few inches away from the borehole. To develop a better diagnostic tool to pinpoint which zone or zones had actually been fractured, temperature surveys were run after fracturing with heated and cooled fluids. Significant temperature anomalies were found to exist opposite zones suspected of receiving the fracture treatment. From the analysis and examples to be shown, it can be seen that temperature surveys run in a stabilized wellbore several hours after a fracture treatment using hot or cold fluid will yield temperature anomalies which show the actual reservoir portion stimulated, the vertical extent of the fracture system or systems and a qualitative indication of the portion of fracture-fluid volume entering a given depth interval. The experience and illustrations used in this paper are based on evaluation of over 344 fracture treatments during the past three years using this diagnostic tool at depths ranging from 1.500 to 15,700 ft and fracture volumes ranging from 2.000 to 110.000 gal. Based on analyses of these temperature surveys, analyses of fracture gradients and evaluation of several open-hole packer impressions in the West Texas area,' vertical fracturing is the predominant mechanism and horizontal fractures occurred frequently, if at all.

Jan 1, 1967

Jan 1, 1966

By L. F. Elkins

Water coming into wells with bottom water present in the Fosterton field, when their oil recovery was only 0.1 to 1.5 per cent of oil in place below the lowest perforation, confirms lack of shale barriers to vertical flow which also are not apparent in cores and electric logy. Low contrast of vertical and horizontal permeability, high mobility ratio betweerz oil and water zone and pos.rible rate effects due to gravity Combine to prevent easy analysis of water invasion pattern and efficiency by analogy or intuition. Theoretical analysis of performance including these factors using a new direct nurnerical .solution of potential distribution in a network led to unanticapted indications that water would under-run the entire oil reservoir with low volumetric coverage if supplied through natural influx or peripheral water injecfion below the oil-water contact. An unusual pattern of water injection is to he adopted in this recently unitized pool to provide more uniform water flooding in that two-thirds of the oil reservoir not underlain by bottom wafer. INTRODUCTION The Fosterton field, Southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, was discovered in Jan., 1952. It produces at a depth of 3,100 ft from a pinch-out of the Roseray sand at the Lower Cretaceous-Jurassic unconformity. The field, covering 2,500 acres, contains 54 wells on 40-acre spacing. Development was essentially complete in June, 1954, but significant production did not start until May, 1955, when a pipeline outlet became available. Within one year rapid in- creases in gas-oil ratio and early encroachment of water created operating problems in the down-structure eastern half of the field and raised serious questions about reservoir performance and ultimate recovery. This paper describes the unusual behavior of water encroachment—on both well and reservoir bases—and the analyses made to interpret it. The field was unitized July 1, 1958, for water flooding. A somewhat unconventional

By R. L. Caldwell, E. E. Glenn, L. J. Norton, A. J. D. Straus, S. V. Holcomb, J. Zemanek

A new and unique logging tool, called the Borehole Televiewer (BHTV), has been developed to inspect boreholes and to evaluate formations. Even though geologists and engineers have had only about 3 years' experience with the BHTV, the thinking of many of them has been radically influenced by the fascinating and revealing "log-picture" recorded with the tool. The BHTV fills a need for a logging tool that can produce a direct and descriptive record of the physical properties of the borehole environment. Although primarily developed to evaluate fractured reservoirs, the BHTV has been used successfully to solve a variety of problems related to formation evaluation and borehole inspection. Geologists and petroleum engineers have been confounded for many years by the problems of locating and evaluating fractures. Interpretation of the usual resistivity, acoustic or radioactivity logs, as well as the analysis of cores, for evaluation of fractured reservoirs is extremely difficult and often not definitive. This is understandable since analysis of cores from fractured formations has reported variously: (a) low porosity, (b) no effective permeability, (c) lack of any matrix oil saturation and (d) oil stains on fracture planes as the only indications of potential production.14 In recent years acoustic amplitude logs have been introduced and used with varying degrees of success to locate fractures.8'9'11"13 Conventional amplitude logs at best give only qualitative answers where quantitative ones are desired. The logs reveal nothing of the orientation of the fractures. In addition to these logs, various types of cameras, television, and rubber impression packers have been used for borehole inspection. (See Appendix.) The BHTV logging tool supplies both the quantitative and the orientation answers about fractures. The borehole can be filled with any homogeneous, gas-free liquid such as fresh water, saturated brine, crude oil or drilling muds. This tool takes an "acoustic picture" of the borehole wall. The resulting log is a representation of the borehole wall as if it were split vertically and laid flat. The log is oriented with respect to magnetic north. Any physical changes in the borehole wall are seen as changes in picture intensity. In this way, fractures, deformation or pits are reflected on the log. Tool Description The fundamental parts of the BHTV are shown in Fig. 1. A piezoelectric transducer probes the borehole wall with bursts of acoustic energy. A flux-gate magnetometer senses the earth's magnetic field and provides the means for determining the orientation of the log. A motor rotates the transducer and mag-

Jan 1, 1970

By Frank Hirthammer

Productivity, customer relations, and effectiveness of work depend to an ever-increasing extent on a functioning logistics system tailored to the needs of the user. Of course, it is not possible to cover and explain all aspects of the logistical requirements of even a small part of an industry, in a single article. The article speaks specifically about the particularities and differences in the logistical requirements in the explosives sector. Starting with questions of safety, handling and quality up to the legal basis, there are special requirements regarding the logistics in the explosives sector. The results of innovative logistics solutions are presented using three examples from daily work practice.

Jan 1, 2019

By S. R. Noble, F. R. Harris, E. T. C. Spooner

"The Logtung deposit discovered in 1976, is an example of large tonnage (162 million tonnes), low grade (0.13% WO3 and 0.052% MoS;) W(scheelite)-Mo mineralization related to multiple felsic intrusions. Because mineralization is predominantly fracture-controlled (> 95 %) rather than disseminated, Log tung is not a skarn deposit. Metamorphism of the Logtung country rocks (interbedded calcareous shale and graphitic quartizite) to a series of competent reaction skarns (quartz-diopside-garnet calc-silicate, biotite quartzite and wollastonite-vesuvianite calc-silicate) clearly precedes W-Mo mineralization. Hence mineralization was related to permeability created by hydraulic fracturing and not replacement processes.Logtung shows a theme of several phases of mineralization (4) related to multiple intrusions (>2) which is similar to that of the Climax and Urad-Henderson Mo systems. The earliest quartzmolybdoscheelite vein system, which consists of a typical ""porphyrystyle"" crackle-breccia of thin (0.5 mm to 4 mm) quartz-garnetdiopside- molybdoscheelite veins, is related to a high Si02 (approx. 76%), seriate-porphyritic monzogranite stock (approx. 2 km by 0.5 to 1 km) of Cretaceous age (118 ±2 Ma [2u]; Stewart, 1983). Later quartz-pyrite scheelite (fluorite-KINa-feldspars-molybdenite) veins, with prominent green, hornblende-bearing alteration selvages, and quartz-molybdenite (-pyrite-jluorite-scheelite) veins are related to a quartz-feldspar-spessartine-rich garnet porphyritic felsic dike complex approximately 500 m across. Both intrusive phases have anomalously high Wand Mo concentrations of about 100 ppm and 50 ppm respectively, which Stewart (1983) attributes to a primary enrichment. The final stage of mineralization consists of a prominent 4.5 km by 1 km zone of 1 em to 1 m wide polymetallic sheeted veins centred on the felsic dike complex. The system is zoned from quartz scheelite-molybdenite-pyrite-blue-green beryl-jluoritebismuthinite veins in the core to Pb-Zn-Ag veins with abundant arsenopyrite and minor Sn (approx. 0.1%) in the northeast. The focus of recurrent intrusive and hydrothermal activity was located above a flank or nose of the monzogranite stock.The distribution of WO3 and MoS2 grades within the approximately 750 m (across) by 300m (evaluation depth) mineralized zone is a result of the variable superimposition of the four separate vein systems each with different W:Mo ratios. Well-defined Wand Mo ore, shells such as those at Climax, Henderson and Mt. Emmons did not develop at Logtung. The upper surface of the mineralized zone, as shown by the 0.03% MoS2 contour defines an elongate dome with an apical region approximately coincident with the felsic dike complex. Hydrothermal alteration occurs as well-defined vein selvages, and not as pervasive zones.The Logtung deposit shows many similarities to porphyry Mo deposits in the western Cordillera and may be identified as a porphyry W(scheelite)-Mo deposit, with a W:·Mo ratio of 3.3:1. The principal reasons are: (1) mineralization is spatially associated with porphyritic granitic intrusions and (2) much of the scheelite and molybdenite occurs in typical ""porphyry-style"" vein stockworks"

Jan 1, 1995

By Joanna LaForte

"IntroductionIn respect to The Human Dimension by M. Phyllis Bray, this author's impression is that research on long distance commuting (LDC) is long overdue. This type of mining is not new to many workers, especially those from areas such as the Maritimes, who have had to look for work away from their families for at least a decade. Perhaps to the industry the over-all set-up is new, but to workers who have faced mine shut-downs in their areas finding a job was the main objective and if the security of long-term employment was evident, then the families might join them later. This was the situation with which the writer' s family was faced.LDC LifestyleBeing the wife of an underground miner, the author has personally experienced this lifestyle for almost 10 years, and has never experienced accommodation in a company town. The first five years of marriage were spent in a small rural municipality within 50 miles of the worksite, but the town had industry separate from mining and was not affected by the mine shut-down.Since her LDC lifestyle began her family has been pretty much city-based, out-of-province commuters with two children and a third to arrive some years later. She therefore lived a fairly normal married life with a husband home daily. The author has experienced life with a husband who worked away for five-day stretches and then drove long distances to be home weekends or the portion of time left over from driving and fatigue. She has done the 3D-days in/l4-days out routine, and for approximately the past four years has been existing on a two-weeks in/two-weeks out ritual .The author does not agree that the ""bottom line is that mining families go where the jobs are"" . The miners go where the jobs are and the families fend for themselves with the assistance of the pay cheque making it home each pay period.Perhaps because there are many personal frustrations with this type of lifestyle, perceptions may be inaccurate. Having only dealt with underground operations, there may be gross differences between the pressures and demands of other forms of mining."

Jan 1, 1991

By Juan P. Camus, Sergio G. Jarpa

INTRODUCTION Chuquicamata mine is a large copper open pit located in the north of Chile. It has been in production for more than 80 years and now is in the later stages of its life with declining grades and increasing haul distances. As any old mine with long established organizations and procedures, it has faced one of the most difficult managerial problems: to conduct changes. Since 1994, the new management team has been devoted to a modernization pro- gram focused mainly in restructuring business operations. downsizing the labor force and introducing a mine planning pro- cess consistent with the company's goal. The explicit identification of the latter issue has been made because of the management’s conviction about the importance of it in the profitability of the business. The mine planning process at Chuquicamata mine has evolved from an old manual technique towards a modern computarized system, however the fundamental aspects and the procedures involved in this process have been the same. For in- stance, the cutoff grades policy has not changed during the last said 20 years, regardless of the changes to grade distribution, commodity prices, plant capacities, etc. To review and rethink this process, the strategy was to work with a small group of inside engineers and the management in order to interact with several mining consulting firms. The idea was to open a discussion about the fundamental principles used in the mine planning activities and, at the same time, to explore new ideas to improve the operating practices that have been followed for a long time. Thus, the goal of this paper is to present the mine planning approach that was the result of this work and the improvements that were obtained. THE CHUQUICAMATA MINE The Chuquicamata division is one of the five operations of Codelco and is currently devoted to operating the Chuquicamata mine; a copper open pit, concentrator, smelting and refining complex. It also operates Mina Sur which consists of an open pit mine, a leaching-solvent extraction and electrowinning process. There is also a dump leaching and a Sx-Ew plant for treating the low grade suifide ore (under the cutoff grade) from the Chuquicamata mine. Prior to reviewing the mine planning process, capacities for the Chuquicamata sulfide line were 640 000 tpd of run of mine material, 160 000 tpd of ore and 4 200 tpd of concentrate. This meant a total annual movement of around 230 Mt in the mine and a treatment of 57 Mt in the concentrator with a stripping ratio of approximately 3: 1. The old exploitation strategy consisted of an "open scheme", which means that all benches must have a berm with enough space to allow the traffic of large haulage trucks. This fact implied working with a great flexibility, but the consequences were flat slope angles. One of the reasons for using this operating practice in short term planning was that the grade consistency from the pit has always been a controversial variable. Schedules were designed to meet grade targets accurately and they were modified immediately when deviations become apparent. This reality led to working with a great deal of independent pushbacks and it required flexibility in the traffic system. The cutoff grade policy has been the same for a long time and the figure was 0.5 %CUT either for sulfide or oxide ore. This was the reason why a balance was produced between the mine and the concentrator. The mine is operated principally with benches of 26 m but in the upper part of the pit there are benches of 24 and 30 m. The main production equipment is shovels of 28 and 34 yd3 along with trucks of 200 and 240 st. Regarding the crushing facilities, there are two main systems located inside the pit and an old one in the periphery, close to a stockpile and near the concentrator. In the north part of the pit there is a crusher for waste material and in the north-east area is located the ore crusher facility. Both restrict a significant area of the pit and the mine sequence is considering to move the ore crusher again to the south-east sector where it used to be located. Relating to the waste crusher, the idea is to move it up to a bench near the surface in order to use the same conveyor belt and, at the same time, liberate an important sector. THE MINE PLANNING PROCESS The objective of the mine planning process is to develop a mine plan for the life of the deposit, in harmony and consistent with the company's goal. It includes the origin and destiny of tonnages and grades from the mine(s), along with the necessary resources to carry out this plan such as: fleet requirement, consumable goods, manpower, etc. From the financial point of view, it means to establish the cash flow for each time period of the mine life. That is. the revenue, capital investment and operating cost associated with each period of the plan. The fundamental principles involved in the mine planning pro- cess have been a controversial issue for a long time. One of the reasons for these divergent views could be produced by the difficulty of modeling a complete extraction policy for a geological re- source. This particular problem has to deal with several decision variables that are time dependent. So far, there is no mathematical formulation for managing such a problem, and the approach to solve it is based on a circular analysis combined with certain heuristic tools. So, a global model rather than a formula, requires a clear understanding of mine operations as well as economic theory and its application to a non-renewable resource. In order to manage this complex problem, the mine planning process can be conveniently split off in three stages which are conceptual, feasibility and operational planning. The characteristics of each stage are basically the timeliness in which they are developed and the kind and number of variables involved. Thus, conceptual planning is devoted to the definition of key variables like: the size of the operation, mining method, extraction se-

Jan 1, 1996