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?Introduction to the Delphi Group ?Why is carbon important to your organization ?Key elements of a carbon management strategy ?Inventory ?Risk & opportunity scan ?Mitigation options and financial mechanisms ?Identify targets and develop policy ?Communication and improvement ?Manage for success

May 1, 2009

By Michael Roach

"There’s a bit of confusion and misinformation in the tunneling and underground construction industry regarding contractor joint ventures. If it was all so clear I would not have been "asked" to write this article. For those of us on the contractors’ side of the fence, joint venture business relationships have been a part of life for a long time. But even for contractors, there can be a bit of confusion, and it normally begins on bid day.How often have you received bid results and wondered (out loud, usually), "Who the hell are the Lake Mead Intake Constructors"? or the "Regional Connector Constructors"? Once you get past the name, you see that there is nothing behind Oz’s curtain other than a couple of contractors bidding and building work in an attempt to make a profit. So take a few minutes to read the rest of this, and I’ll do my best to dispel a few mythWhat is a joint venture?In some form or fashion, joint ventures are as old as industry itself. In the United States, some of the earliest (and largest) joint ventures involved the railroads and oil companies in the late 1800s. In the United States’ underground construction industry, joint venture names such as, Healy-Greenfield, Green and Winston, Gates & Fox and Walsh, Shea-Ball, Kenny-Paschen and S&M-Traylor bring back memories of successful joint ventures that operated over many projects.There are nearly as many definitions for joint ventures (JVs) as there are attorneys. A short and simple definition is, "an association of two or more companies engaged in a singular, for-profit business enterprise without actual partnership or incorporation." That’s it. Two or more contractors decide to partner up for one or more projects. One benefit of the JV relationship is that the partners typically do not need to file incorporation documents, or articles of organization within the state where they intend to operate. So it is a relatively easy business arrangement to pull together. Other benefits of the JV arrangement include: • Oportunities to gain new expertise and capacity.• The ability for firms to move into new geographic markets.• JV agreements are not long-term commitments.• Sharing of financial support for a project.• Sharing of financial risks within a project. between the partners.• Can complicate dispute resolutions with the owner and between partners"

Jan 1, 2014

By Willem Le Roux

Occupational health and safety is regulated by statute and common law. South Africa has, like many other countries, legislated extensively on occupational health and safety. Despite the body of legislation, the common law continues to play an important role as far as it concerns contractual, delictual and criminal liability. Two major Acts regulate occupational health and safety viz. the Occupational Health and Safety Act, No. 85 of 1993 (?OHASA?) and the Mine Health and Safety Act, No. 29 of 1996 (?MHSA?). The MHSA applies to mines and works as defined and related aspects. OHASA applies to other industries but does not apply to employers and workplaces to which the MHSA and certain matters covered by the Merchant Shipping Act, No. 57 of 1951 apply. See section 1(3) of OHASA. 2 The employer?s health and safety obligations in terms of the MHSA 2.1 Section 2(1) of the MHSA provides amongst others, as follows: ?The employer of every mine that is being worked must: (a) ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that the mine is designed, constructed and equipped: (i) to provide conditions for safe operation and a healthy working environment (ii) ... (b) ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that the mine is commissioned, operated, maintained and decommissioned in such away that employees can perform their work without endangering the health and safety of themselves or of any other person?.

Jan 1, 2011

By Edward J. McNamara

People in the real estate industry are fond of saying that the three most important features of a piece of property are, in order, location, location, and location. This is perhaps the reason that the owners of a well known high-end restaurant chain chose to spend $15 million dollars to renovate 5000 square feet of basement in a 22-story commercial building in the heart of New York City's Time Square. The goal was to create a music club with a stage area and dance floor with a mezzanine level surrounding the dance floor. In order to create the 50' x 40' dance floor and 20' x 40' stage area, 3 concrete columns were removed. New transfer girders were used to transfer the loads of these columns to new steel columns. For the mezzanine, nine columns had to be underpinned. All work continued while the restaurants, shops and offices above carried on business as usual. This paper details some of the means and methods utilized as well as the challenges faced by Underpinning & Foundation Constructors, Inc. in underpinning the columns and installing the new transfer steel.

Jan 1, 2000

By Chee Theng

"Mining professionals are a resilient lot. Sure, copper prices are dismal, permitting processes seem interminable and the top mining companies are shedding jobs like a Shetland sheepdog sheds hair. All the more reason to hone technical skills, reconnect with old contacts and get one’s finger on the pulse of the industry.More than 400 did just that in the balmy sunshine and among the saguaro cactus of the Tucson venue of the SME Arizona Conference.Giving the keynote speech was Patrick Merrin, vice president at Hudbay Minerals (see box), while the luncheon speaker was University Distinguished Professor Mary Poulton, director of the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources at The University of Arizona.“Attendance was great, especially given the copper price,” said Ta Li, vice president of business development at Tetra Tech and 2001 SME President. “The luncheon speaker was one of the better ones in recent years. Her talk contained a lot of fresh ideas, and practical versus theoretical concepts.”Talk about values, not economicsPraise was unanimous for Poulton, who gave a thought-provoking talk on “The New Face of Mining: The Culture Change for Compatible Mining.” Corporate social responsibility has been embraced by the metals mining industry, and it’s being done right, she said. “So why do we have more conflict? Why are there more protests? Why does permitting take longer and longer?” Poulton made a case for an approach based on compatible, rather than sustainable, mining to present a new face of mining that can be compatible with communities, cultures and the environment, and still be profitable. When the mining industry starts to talk about compatibility between what it is doing and what “me,” as the consumer, wants, what “we,” as citizens of a community, want, and what’s good for the “world,” we’re going to see the next culture change happen, she concluded."

Jan 1, 2015

By Boris J. Kochanowsky

In the mobile crushing unit system trucks are replaced by a conveyor resulting in a "continuous" almost "fully-automated" operation with all its attendant advantages. In consequence, overall operating costs are greatly reduced. Because of the new designs of large mobile crushing units that have been brought on-to the market, the use of these plants has increased significantly during the last three years. This paper describes the designs of new mobile crushing units, and emphasizes the advantages that such plants offer to the rock products and mining industries. It examines operating costs, and indicates the conditions in which the application of these plants is most profitable.

Jan 1, 1968

By M Scoble, C Hughes, M Roberts

At 14 per cent, the representation of women working in the mining industry is the lowest among primary industry categories in Canada. Despite an increase in research and industry commitment to advance and retain women in the mining industry, the gender gap in mining organisations persists.This paper is based upon a recent Canadian survey of 163 highly qualified women (HQW) working in the mining sector. For the purpose of this research, HQW were defined as women with a BachelorÆs degree or higher. This research sought to identify career progression and retention patterns of women who in theory have the educational qualifications to advance into positions of leadership in mining operations. We considered why womenÆs advancement in mining organisations has stalled; examined the career development pathways of HQW; and investigated the interactions of mining workplace culture on HQWÆs career development and retention within the Canadian mining industry. Results?indicated two distinct career pathway trends for HQW. æThe specialistÆ; a career characterised by multiple professional scientific and technical positions, and æthe corporateÆ; a career characterised by professional administrative roles and roles in mid-level management. It was found that neither æcorporatesÆ nor æspecialistsÆ systematically progressed into senior management and executive roles. These findings suggest that HQWÆs careers in mining are stalled, despite a strong indication by respondents of interest in their professional career advancement. With regards to?workplace?culture, respondents indicated that blatant forms of gender discrim-ination have been reduced in mining workplaces; however, exclusion from informal networks, implicit bias and subtler forms of workplace discrimination persist. Consistent with previous mining sector research, improving work-life balance, work flexibility and mentorship were found as key drivers for HQW to advance and remain in the industry.CITATION:Hughes, C, Scoble, M and Roberts, M, 2012. Where are the women? Highly qualified women in the mining industry, in Proceedings International Mine Management 2012, pp 23-34 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 20, 2012

By J. R. Goode

Rare earth elements (REE) and their compounds are critical ingredients in numerous necessities of modern life including: the permanent magnets used in electric motors, generators, speaker and hard drives; high performance automobile tires; catalysts; phosphors; optical glass; etc. World production of REE in 2014 was about 110,000 t with about 98,000 t/a being “Light” (LREE) and the balance “Heavy” (HREE). Unlike other mined commodities, the majority of the LREE produced in the world is a by-product and that from a single iron ore mine in China. The balance of the LREE production comes from four REE-only mines, two in China, one in Australia and one in the USA (now on Care and Maintenance basis). The LREE operations comprise very unusual flotation processes and complex hydrometallurgical plants. In contrast, most of the HREE come from a multitude of small in-situ leach operations exploiting a single, dispersed deposit in China using hydrometallurgy alone. All of the current REE operations produce an intermediate mixed REE product that must be separated to yield the high purity, individual, REE required by the market. This paper describes the processes being used to produce LREE and HREE intermediate products and the separation plants used to make the high purity REE compounds that are key ingredients in the magnets in earbuds, turbines, and automobiles; catalysts used in the production of gasoline, and so on.

Jan 1, 2016

This presentation addresses the sources and weighting of project risk in coarse gold deposits with relevance to experiences at the Ballarat mine and Castlemaine goldfield. With sample representation and reliability often a source of great error in the resource estimation of coarse gold deposits, it follows that this matter should be of greatest risk to a mining project - but is it? What are the costs and efforts required to best quantify the sampling error due to nuggetty effect? After all, the main problem in Victorian gold mining ventures in the current decade is not the amount of gold available, but defi ning which portion of it can be converted to Ore Reserves or more so profitable gold bars. The author postulates that greater risk to the project lies in the geological interpretation and matching resource spatial parameters to mining methods, than the degree of uncertainty related to grade due to nuggetty gold. Recent experience in the Victorian goldfi elds is that the investor market has already severely discounted Mineral Resources reported in accordance with The JORC Code - so if they don't believe in the capacity to upgrade the resource why should we? To this end, Castlemaine Goldfi elds Ltd at its Ballarat gold project does not intend to estimate its gold mineralisation for public release, instead choosing to focus on the geological interpretation and mine planning elements. So with coarse gold deposits, is your Mineral Resource reported with The JORC Code a glass half full or half empty? Our mining forefathers in Victoria had no predictive tools which could define resources to any degree and yet were successful. By over emphasis on the definition of mineral resources and particularly the sampling error, are we ignoring the basics of cost control, solid geological interpretations and maximum mining flexibility. This is an ABSTRACT ONLY. No paper was prepared for this presentation.

Aug 1, 2010

New Zealand depends on foreign investment for economic development. This also applies to the development of New Zealand's mineral resources. For this foreign investment to happen there must be some incentives to attract the investment. While prospectivity is the dominant parameter considered by investors it is not a variable that can be changed, only the perception of New Zealand's prospectivity. Other parameters likely to be considered are sovereign risk, red tape, green tape, land access, civil unrest, land claims, social risk, labour relations, infrastructure and natural disasters. Regulators and political will can vary some of these parameters. Where New Zealand fits internationally can be measured by investors' perceptions of these parameters. Following on from these perceptions New Zealand can be seen to have advantages in some areas and be disadvantaged in others. How to deal with the disadvantages to give investors confidence is not easy in the New Zealand environment where the development of mineral resources plays a small part in an economy dominated by agriculture. Added to this is the current global state of the minerals industry which offers even more of a challenge to attract foreign investment to develop New Zealand's mineral resources.

Jan 1, 2000

By W. E. Stumpf

"SynopsisSouth Africa recently announced a resurgence in its commercial nuclear power programme. The implications for the development of the necessary high-level manpower within South Africa’s tertiary educational system and its national research and development (R&D) capacity in materials science and engineering, as well as in other engineering disciplines, are placed into perspective. An organized national process of developing this manpower by moving away from the previously high-risk and costly ’large programmes’ to rather a selection of ‘small and better’ research projects and a redefinition of what constitutes ‘nuclear materials’ are proposed as parts of this strategy.IntroductionSince 2008, and more particularly in 2014/2015, South Africa has woken up to the fact that significant steps need to be taken to ensure sufficient electricity generating capacity for the future, even beyond the coal-fired stations at Medupi and Kusile currently under construction. It is, therefore, encouraging to see some active large-scale wind farms in the Eastern Cape near Jeffrey’s Bay, in the Couga area, and others in the Western Cape already in operation. In addition, many solar energy projects are also progressing from the small localized scale to larger programmes in the Northern Cape, which may contribute some capacity on a national basis. South Africa needs to tap into its renewable resources of wind and solar much more, but will these projects solve the country’s long-term industrial needs? Unfortunately not. One cannot run mines and trains on solar cells. Industry needs reliable baseload capacity, and with very limited easily accessible hydrocapacity this leaves really only coal, possibly natural gas, and nuclear power as options. South Africa’s current over-reliance of about 90% on coal–fired power, however, places it in an internationally vulnerable position, and diversification into a more equitable energy mix should be a national priority for the medium to long term. South Africa cannot significant climate change confronting the human race, as the IPCC cautioned in 2013, and will have to adjust its future energy reliance to a more balanced combination of sources."

Jan 1, 2015

By Chung Yu Wang

STUDY of two recent papers and a recent book leads one to raise anew the question-Why are certain regions of the earth more mineralized than others?

Jan 5, 1953

By G B. Douglas

Lime-based neutralisation has long been the remediation treatment of choice for acidic mine pit waters. While suited to the attenuation of acidity, lime-based neutralisation may be difficult to implement efficiently due to variation in quality and the partial loss of neutralisation efficiency due to armouring. Large volumes of gypsum-bearing sludge may also require mechanical dewatering and transfer to final voids prior to resumption of in-pit mining or closure. Thus, operational costs may be substantially higher than primary neutralisation alone. Lime production also results in large greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions.Hydrotalcites (HT) are a class of Mg-Al layered double hydroxide minerals with the composition Mg6Al2(CO3 )(OH)16.4H2O. A range of other divalent and trivalent cations may also readily substitute for Mg (eg Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn), Al (eg Fe, La, Ce) and metalloids/oxyanions (SeO42-, AsO43 -/CrO42 -, MnO4-) for CO3 into the hydrotalcite structure. A common feature of acid mine pit waters, often overlooked in assessment of potential remediation options, is the frequent predominance of divalent and trivalent cations as a consequence of partial decomposition of both ore and gangue minerals during in-pit wall rock leaching. Thus, given the presence of substantial divalent and trivalent cations in acidic mine pit waters, an opportunity exists to exploit and in effect work harmoniously with the prevailing pit water composition to form a polymetallic hydrotalcite.The utility of hydrotalcites in the remediation of acidic mine pit waters lies in their ability to incorporate a wide range of contaminants; instantaneous formation, often in a single step; simple post-treatment solute composition; rapid settling; low sludge volume; and the potential to form ore-grade precipitates potentially amendable to reprocessing to (partially) recover remediation costs. Examples of hydrotalcite formation as a method to remediate contaminated acidic mine pit waters at laboratory-scale to full-scale will be presented.CITATION:Douglas, G B, 2015. Whither lime? In situ hydrotalcite precipitation as a method of remediation for acidic mine lakes, in Proceedings Tailings and Mine Waste Management for the 21st Century , pp 97–104 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 27, 2015

The author reviews design evaluation theory and existing optinustion tools and then describes how these have guided recent developments in Whittle Programming's strategic mine design package: Four-X. A new package - Reserve Estimator is also d

Jan 1, 1998

This paper has been developed for æThe Race for SpaceÆ conference. It ranges over various aspects, all of which are within the umbrella of marketing. The question is posed because many engineers, tunnelling and other specialisations, frequently demonstrate an unwillingness to embrace marketing. The accurate reply is probably à ænot an engineer!Æ The paper identifies some of the possible explanations for this reply. The vast majority of the themes, ideas and principles are based on more than 25 years actual experience for the author with Engineers, Tunnelling and other disciplines. This experience has been gained with leading consulting engineering practices; some of the worldÆs largest construction contractors together with other organisations employing engineers in the public, private and tertiary sectors in the UK; US; Europe; the Middle East and throughout Australia and New Zealand. Experience has been gained in design offices; head offices and construction job sites in four contrasting continents. The most significant themes developed throughout this paper are as follows:æLetÆs go and do some ærealÆ work and leave the marketing to others!ÆæMarketing is just a æsoftÆ option and neither technically based nor true management!ÆNIMBY-ism (Not In My Back Yard) so leave well alone!Engineers regularly confuse services marketing -v- product marketing à a useful cop out, or a genuine cry for help?Marketing databasesæLetÆs get rid of the term æsellingÆ and replace it with the more acceptable à and less distracting for tunnelling engineers à 'marketingÆDistinction between benefits and features à in The Race for SpaceSales Comprehension Test, Benchmarking TestJack WelshÆs æmost difficult decision for a CEOÆHarvard Business ReviewÆs (HBRÆs) formula for performanceMany engineers are losing the balance in their lives Sustainable development and engineering æQuality work doesnÆt mean quality serviceÆMajor recommendationsRecommended references

Jan 1, 1999

By S. O. Ogden

As most of you have probably surmised from the title of my paper, I am here today to talk with you about the use of diesel engines in the American mining industry and whether or not the free choice to use such equipment will continue to be available to mine operators. Of course, I will present to you my prepared remarks, however, these remarks may be essentially academic in light of a news release, parts of which I would like to read to you. Washington, D. C., The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare today announced proposed new regulations to reduce occupational health risks to workers in the U. S. mining industries by requiring the removal of all diesel powered equipment from American mines by December 31st "While we do not have complete and conclusive information to quantify these health risks we feel it is prudent to undertake this restriction on the use of diesel powered equipment without waiting for the completion of studies that are currently underway to identify and quantify these health risks," said a Department spokesman. HEW has been concerned about the health risks of diesel emissions in the underground coal mines for some time and have investigations underway designed to conclusively demonstrate the nature and magnitude of any health risks. However, HEW has decided to proceed with these regulations without waiting for the final results of these investigations. Further, HEW feels there is sufficient probability that diesel health risks do exist in all mining applications and consequently, the proposed regulations will apply to all surface and underground mining operations. It goes on a little further and indicates that due to the necessity of finalizing these regulations without delay, a period of fifteen days has been provided to receive comments regarding these proposed regulations.

Jan 1, 1978

By G Neely

COPING WITH COMPLEXITY In every industry, and mining is no exception, plant and processes increase in complexity over time and managers and operators need correspondingly more knowledge. The mine manager has to delegate details to operators, engineers, metallurgists, accountants, safety specialists, personnel officers and the rest. Is it reasonable then, to expect the Mines Inspector to be competent to judge the conduct of all these operations against the criterion of the regulations? Obviously not, but what are the alternatives? One is a superficial inspection where the inspector goes on a hazard hunt for broken steps and missing handrails. Another is one in which an army of specialist inspectors marches on a mine, sometimes outnumbering the staff. Each is competent to assess some part of the operation and if he or she can find an opposite number among the mine staff, they can discuss details. But what good does it achieve? The system acts to remedy present defects and to make recommendations which, if only they were followed, would prevent the same things happening again. Given that this process has been going on since the first Factory Act of about 1840, how is it that there are any more defects left to put right? The answer of course is that defects keep appearing, and new defects arise as fast as the old ones are found and corrected. Further progress can only be made by preventing defects at their source.

Jan 1, 1994

By Dwight L. Sawyer

IF it had not been for the testimony of former Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, before the Senatorial investigating committee the public would have heard little about the Federal Government's suit against California for the ownership of the tidelands. The Ickes-Pauley dispute brought to public attention that the California tideland oil deposits are the last remaining large Federal oil reserves. Ickes contends that these tideland oil deposits belong to the nation for the benefit of all the people of all the states and not solely to the State of California. Ickes also accused California oil man Ed Pauley of offering to give $330; 000 to the Democratic party fund if Ickes would drop the Federal Government's suit against the State of California for the ownership of said tidelands. The tidelands may be considered as the land bordering the coast line between mean high tide and outward under the ocean for a distance of a marine league, or about three statute miles. This strip of land along the coast of southern California contains large oil deposits which have a present and future prospective value of several billion dollars.

Jan 1, 1947

Who's Who in Mineral Engineering 1977 - SME Membership Directory of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME

Jan 7, 1977

By Florence Ntsiful, Eric Stemn

Exposure to whole-body vibration has been recognised as an occupational hazard in the mining industry, especially in the operations of earthmoving equipment. Managing whole-body vibration exposures requires periodic measurement of exposure levels to identify priority areas for implementing controls. However, due to different approaches to collecting exposure values, significant variabilities lie in the results. This systematic review is the first attempt to analyse whole-body assessment methods in the mining industry. The aim was to identify how whole-body vibration has been assessed, including the sources of variabilities to improve future research. The PRISMA methodology was adopted for the review and a total of 152 peer-reviewed journal articles were identified. However, only 24 were included in the review, following the application of some inclusion criteria. Descriptive and thematic analyses were performed on the 24 selected articles. Results indicate that whole-body vibration has been assessed as a function of either equipment characteristics, activity undertaken, operator characteristics, measurement approach or the assessment standards. Due to the multifactorial and dynamic nature of wholebody vibration exposures, the variabilities in results are due to the interrelationships between the risk factors of whole-body vibration and the differences in the sample sizes. To identify the sources of variabilities, a comprehensive assessment of all the risk factors, including equipment characteristics, road conditions, operator characteristics, and activity undertaken, is highly warranted. Finally, research gaps and directions for future research have also been discussed.

Dec 21, 2022