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By H. K. Najarian

AT Josephtown, Pa., on the south hank of the Ohio River about thirty miles northwest of Pittsburgh, is the Josephtown electrothermic zinc smelter, which operates as a custom smelter receiving both domestic and foreign concentrates. Constructed in 1930, the plant was designed to produce zinc oxide and to process 124 tons per day of zinc concentrate obtained mainly from the Company's New York State mines. Zinc condensing equipment was developed in conjunction with the St. Joe electrothermic. furnace and commercial production of zinc metal started in 1936. Expansion of the plant and equipment during 1939 and 1940 brought the processing. capacity to upwards of 300 tons of concentrate per day; and the plant operated at peak capacity during the war years, earning the Army-Navy "E" award and three subsequent stars. A postwar plant expansion is now under way, designed to increase the capacity to 500 tons per day of concentrate, with an estimated daily production of 160 tons of zinc metal of various grades, about 100 tons of zinc oxide, and 425 tons of sulphuric acid as major products.

Jan 1, 1947

By Nobel Insurance Service

[Executive Director’s note: ISEE is committed to continuing its efforts to ensure that blasters be made aware of the issue of migration of carbon monoxide resulting from blasting operations. In the July/August 2001 issue of the J o u rnal we printed excerpts from “Carbon Monoxide - The Silent Hazard,” an article from the Safety Update, published by Nobel Insurance Services. We also re minded readers of the text from the 17th edition of the ISEE Blasters Handbook in its section on trench blasting as follows: “...consideration must be given to the proper venting of gases generated from the blasting. Should those gases spread laterally rather than vent directly to the surface, the gases may travel underg round and finally vent well outside of the planned area. Such events may be caused by the strata, soil conditions or root systems, or existing and/or abandoned utilities or other man-made structures. In the worst situation, gases resulting from the detonation such as CO2, CO, and/or N Ox may travel through the strata and find their way into basements of nearby homes or businesses.” While incidents are rare, a number of cases in re c e n t years have resulted from outdoor blasting operations p roducing carbon monoxide gas that has migrated t h rough the earth and accumulated in nearby enclosed spaces. T h e re are steps that a blaster can take to be proactive in preventing incidents. These steps and studies of the occurrence have been expertly presented in several papers presented at ISEE conferences and included in the ISEE Conference Proceedings, available th rough the Blasters Library. In addition, Material Safety Data Sheets provided with explosives used in surf a c e blasting should provide additional information on gases p roduced by detonation. Below, we have reprinted the IME white paper, entitled “Fumes from Blasting Operations.” The paper underscores the unique set of circumstances that combine to contribute to high concentrations of CO measurements in underground, enclosed spaces following the detonation of explosive materials and provides recommendations to blasters

Jan 1, 2004

I had the opportunity recently to visit a magazine site of a major explosives company. It was fun to see the storage areas again and it was really interesting to see one of the old magazines that probably dated back before my time. Now that’s an old one. As son Tom says, “When Dad was young the Dead Sea was just sick.” While the magazine has been upgraded with a modern lock to match today’s standards it still has the old tumbler lock that is opened with the large bronze key. Those old tumbler locks were just about standard on magazines years ago. Those bronze keys were heavy and would make a good display item today or maybe a substitute for a blackjack. I don’t think the old locks would stop the modern criminal but then in those days we were all less sophisticated. And maybe I shouldn’t say this but honesty was a bit more prevalent then. Maybe ‘cause old fashioned police brutality still prevailed.

Jan 1, 2004

I was lucky to land a job in the powder business. I was looking for some way to support my wife and first child to be when I saw an ad in the Hercules magazine, “Explosives Engineer” for technical representatives. I answered the ad in hopes that a geologist might find something else to do besides sit oil wells or “doodlebug” for oil. Both of these occupations I had tried and while the money was good the life was a bit erratic. The Army also wasn’t made for a guy who asked too many questions although my two plus years in uniform were interesting and in a few cases fun.

Jan 1, 2004

In the office, on the wall to the right of my desk is a large map of the world. Some people stick pins in maps like this to show where they’ve been. If I did that my map would be a mess and look like a pin cushion. I was so fortunate to have been able to see how people live and blast in other parts of this beautiful planet. We l l , maybe some parts weren’t so beautiful and maybe some parts that were beautiful were hell holes for those living t h e re . Every time I re t u rn to the good old US of A, I say a small prayer in thanks for having been born and raised in a land of freedom and plenty. So many places and people have not been so blessed.

Jan 1, 2004

By Richard Wells

Peabody Energy is the largest pure-play publicly traded coal company in the world. We have been in business 129 years and like most of the coal mining companies in the United States, since 1969 the majority of our safety improvement efforts had been driven by compliance with the various versions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act and the supporting federal regulations. In 2004 Peabody Energy management came to the understanding that in order to achieve our goal of zero incidents, that focus must change. This paper will describe the elements of the journey we began at that point to make the transition to a behavior and systems-based approach to safety management and our efforts to win the minds and hearts of our employees. This journey is undertaken with the goal of making safety truly a way of life for all Peabody Energy employees.

Aug 1, 2013

By R. C. Dunne

As ore grades of existing and new ore deposits continue to decrease there is ever increasing pressure to decrease operating costs to maintain profitabitabitiy at existing mine sites and for new projects. The accepted solution to this dilemma in most cases is to increase treatment rate, leading to a coarser grind, at the expense of marginal decreases in recovery. The recovery loss is usually associated with losses of liberated and composite coarse material. This paper will review the practice of coarse particle flotation, including the reagent chemistry, cell hydrodynamics, froth stability, entrainment and flotation cell design, all parameters important to the recovery of coarse liberated and composite particles. This will provide a better understanding of opportunities to improve the recovery of coarse particles. Some examples will be provided.

Sep 1, 2012

By Albert Wright

VEINS of asphalt fill and seal vertical fault fissures at the surface of a large domal structure near Bejucal, Havana Province (about 19 miles south of Havana), so this structure was chosen, by Barnabas Bryan, for the drilling of a well on the theory that oil had risen from below the Cretaceous and had entered the porous sands of the Upper Cretaceous, which outcrop in three places within a radius of 12 miles. The asphalt in these fault fissures, he contended, had sealed them and thereby prevented further dissipation of the oil. Furthermore, he found, in the asphalt, specimens of sand and lime that were indications of its upward migratory character. Ralph Arnold, who discovered the Upper Cretaceous sand saturated with oil in the outcrop near Mariel, in Pinar del Rio Province, has compared the Bejucal structure with the Santa Maria field in California. The surface rock of the structure is Oligocene limestone and shales, thin, bedded and well stratified. This formation has, heretofore, been assigned to the Eocene with a thickness of 3000 ft. and locally called the Nazareno formation. Paleontologic examination of well cuttings, however, has disclosed Oligocene fossils at a depth of 1142 ft. and Upper Cretaceous fossils at a depth of 1541 ft., leaving approximately 400 ft. of very parenthetical Eocene. Whether there is any Eocene in this structure has not been determined.

Jan 3, 1925

By R. F. Hochstein, A. J. Neale, B. C. Flintoff

"Process control technology holds very significant potential benefits for many mineral and coal processing plants. The impact can be expected in terms of performance improvements (e.g. increased throughput, better quality control, higher availability), through reduced operating costs (e.g. lower reagent consumptions, manpower reductions) and in the form of intangibles (e.g. reduced vulnerability to manpower turnover, increased productivity in the user group). However, the installation of a process control system will represent considerable capital expenditure and will generate an operating cost. No management team would approve the funding for such a project without some reasonable measure(s) of the profitability of a proposed system. This paper describes a methodology for addressing the justification problem. Of particular interest is the approach to quantifying performance improvements, frequently found to be the predominant benefit of process control.INTROPUCTIONProcess control has become widely recognized as an essential component of any processing operation. It has direct impact on productivity, process efficiency and product marketability. The reported pay backs associated with successful installations underscore this observation. As a consequence, many operators who have little in the way of process automation are looking to initiate control projects, while those who currently enjoy some level of automation are looking to upgrade existing control systems (= process + instrumentation + hardware + software + operators + support). While the emphasis here would appear to be on retrofit process control projects, new plants, or those currently in the design stage, will usually find themselves in one of these categories shortly after startup 1."

Jan 1, 1990

By M. A. Roberts

Oebswana's Jwaneng Mine (south-central Botswana) is the richest diamond mine? in the world and has been contributing substantial revenue to Botswana since the mine started operating in 1982. The resource consists of 3 separate volcanic pipes/vents namely North, South and Centre pipes (2 additional small kimberlite bodies have also been intersected within the mining pit) which erupted through Transvaal strata and the overlying Karoo sediments -245 million years ago. Although earlier drilling and geophysical surveys suggest that the 3 pipes extend to depths greater than 1 km below the surface, the resource is only at an indicated level of confidence to a depth of 400m, and mining activities will start exploiting the inferred resource material below 400m in 2014.

Jan 1, 2010

By T Angerer, N H. Maund, S Hagemann, D R. Cowan

Cliffs Natural Resources Pty Ltd - Asia Pacific Iron Ore's (formerly Portman Iron Ore Limited) K deposit (Dowd's Hill), at its Koolyanobbing operation in Western Australia, hosts enriched magnetite mineralisation below the presently mined haematite-goethite ore zone. Two distinct northwest-southeast elongated, highly magnetic anomalous bodies that dip to the north-east appear to be sourced by this deeper mineralisation. Magnetic modelling indicates significant remanent magnetisation with Qratios around 1.5, directed shallow down. The north-west anomaly is overlain by a ridge of uneconomic banded iron formation (BIF) and the present waste dump, whereas the south-east body was partly exposed during ongoing mining of overlying haematite-goethite ore. Sections of the magnetite mineralisation in this south-east anomaly were intersected previously by diamond drill holes. Review of the historic cores identified potential magnetite enrichment, with grades and mineralogy that might be amenable to beneficiation. A first-phase reverse circulation drilling program was designed to further delineate the trend and extent of the two anomalies. The following magnetite mineralisation assemblages are recognised from cores, reverse circulation (RC) drill cuttings and pit mapping of the south-east magnetic body: higher-grade magnetite-haematite ¦ goethite and magnetite ¦ pyrite and lower-grade, recrystallised magnetite-quartz (BIF), magnetite-carbonate, magnetite-talc and minor magnetite-bearing mafic schist. Disseminated specularite is locally present in theassemblages. Talc-schist and massive pyrite occur along the footwall contact. Magnetic susceptibility measured from drill chips within the magnetite-enriched zones reveals an apparent susceptibility values range of 0.2 to 1.3 SI. Preliminary results from Satmagan and Davis tube recovery analysis shows that the magnetite content in these mineralised zones correlate well with existing geophysical data and magnetic susceptibility measurements.

Jan 1, 2009

The Department of Conservation (DOC) manages public conservation land throughout New Zealand in terms of section 6 of the Conservation Act 1987. In brief, this requires DOC to manage the natural and historic resources of the land; promote the benefits of conservation to present and future generations; provide information about conservation; to foster recreation on the land; and allow for its use for tourism.   Locally the department's Tauranga Area Office manages approximately 60 000 hectares of Conservation Park (known as the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park) which includes early gold mining relics and former bush tramways associated with the logging and the mining industries. The Department has recently developed the Kaimai Heritage Plan which seeks to restore some of the relics and encourage involvement by the local communities in the restoration and interpretation of their history in the hills. It provides a unique opportunity for the Department to help bring alive for New Zealanders an important, and often overlooked, part of our history as a nation in a stunning natural setting.   The purpose of this presentation is to: +        display the endeavour and ingenuity of the early miners and loggers, the relics of those industries and the dramatic environment in which they worked; +        identify the linkages between those early industries and gold mining today; and +        promote a co-operative approach to heritage and recreation management involving all facets of the community.

Jan 1, 2006

By G. O. Crowell

This paper gives the history of the celestite deposit, now being mined by Kaiser Celestite Mining Ltd., near Sydney, Nova Scotia. Mining and milling procedures are covered, and the regional and local geology of the area are described, including the origin of the celestite.

Jan 1, 1971

By P. J. Urso

"The coal reserves of the Crow's Nest Basin in British Columbia have been known since the late 1860's. The 51.0-million-long-ton (over 15 years) sale of low-volatile coking coal to Japanese steel mills, as finalized in 1968, establishes the importance of these coal reserves in the world markets.In the early stages of the exploration program, which began in January, 1967, emphasis was placed on deter-mining the reserve of underground low-pitch coal within the No. 10 or Balmer seam of the Kootenay coal forma-tion. The finding of low-cover reserves in excess of 100,000,000 tons altered the initially planned underground program. Extensive tests were performed, establishing the excellent coking characteristics of the open-cast Balmer coal. Due recognition was given to the ultimate reclamation costs of mined lands and associated spoil areas.t was determined that, to achieve the costs desired, a high productivity was necessary, requiring large mining equipment. Operating criteria were set out, based on producing 4.2 million tons of clean coal per year. To optimize recovery, the preparation plant feed size was fixed at Yi in. x 0. The initial basic design capacity of the plant was 1,000 tph. The washing plant is composed essentially of four separate cleaning sections: a dedusting section; a multi-stage heavy media cyclone section; water cyclones; and flotation cells. Subsequent to the basic program, additional sales were made of 6.0 million long tons over the initial three-year period and the plant capacity was raised to 1,400 tph through the addition of a 400-tph coarse-coal treatment section. All wet coal products from the fine coal plant will be dried in a 70-tph (water) heat dryer. A unit-train concept of coal transportation between the mine site and the Westward Terminals at Roberts Bank has been negotiated with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Facilities at the port will include a 4,000-tph rotary car bumper, 400,000-ton clean-coal stockpiles, and a bucket reclaiming system having a total ship-loading capacity of 6,000 tph."

Jan 1, 1969

By John D. Shaw

1. Introduction 2. The Hydraulic Mine _ (i ) Development (i i ) Extraction ( i i i ) Transport 3. The Water Circuit 4. Manpower and Results 5. Modifications 6. Conclusions 1. Introduction The Kaiser Resources Ltd. hydraulic coal mine is located in south eastern British Columbia, Canada, at the western end of the Crowsnest Pass, next to the Town of Sparwood. The seam presently being mined is the number 10, known locally as the Balmer seam, which is a high quality coking coal, 50 feet in thickness and of an average inclination of 35 degrees. The mine was designed in the late sixties as a small scale trial unit, and was to use a single monitor unit, working 3 shifts per day on a 5 day per week basis. Experience has proved the method to be so successful as to warrant the expansion of the ancilliary facilities to cater for the increased production. The annual raw coal production from this single monitor unit has risen from 108,988 short tons in 1970 to 942,334 short tons in 1975, with a total mine labour force of about 160 men including the surface de-watering plant, mine supervision and mine administration.

Jan 1, 1977

By Arthur Fleischer

THE Kalunite process? for the production of metal-grade alumina from alumina-containing ores is applicable, considered from a general point of view, to any aluminous raw material that can be converted to potassium alum or equivalent normal alum. This result of modern technology has been the subject of a continuous study and development since 1929, on a laboratory and test-plant scale, with initial emphasis on the utilization of alunite as the raw material. The research and developmental program was carried out by the Kalunite Company and its successor, Kalunite, Inc., an affiliate of the Olin Corporation of East Alton, Illinois. The process is now approaching the time for a major test in its history with the completion of construction of a plant having a capacity of zoo tons of alumina per day in Salt Lake City for the conversion of Marysvale, Utah, alunite ores to alumina and potassium sulphate. The Salt Lake Alumina Plant is a Defense Plant Corporation project. PRODUCTION OF ALUMINUM The known existence of alunite deposits, especially in the Marysvale district, furnished the motive for the original inquiry into the utilization of this raw material for aluminum production. The deposits in this region were actively explored during World War I and utilized for the production of potassium sulphate, an essential fertilizer, of which a shortage of monumental proportions then existed. Up to the twentieth century for alunite is a mineral with an ancient history-it was used in Europe and in China as a source of potassium alum. It never had been used successfully in. this country as a source of oxide for reduction to metal. Although the known reserves of this ore, which undoubtedly will be greatly expanded with a commercial outlet for this ore, are recognized to be sufficient for only a part of the present-day needs of aluminum, it has a definite place in the aluminum industry. Academically it points the way for future raw materials. The aluminum industry has undergone a remarkable growth in the past few years as a result of defense and war requirements. Its expansion in many ways has been beyond belief and prediction, both in volume and location. This wartime status of the industry has accelerated the consumption of bauxite to such an extent, that a re-evaluation of the raw material reserves for the future peacetime industry and for eventual wartime reserves is seemingly of concern. The generally accepted picture of bauxite ore reserves in the United States, especially in raw material suitable for treatment by the Bayer process, focuses attention on other possible sources of raw material of metal-grade oxide. The perspective for the development of a suitable process may have changed in the interim

Jan 1, 1944

The Kanowna Belle deposit was discovered in 1990 following encouraging assays from soil sampling and RAB drilling. At the end of September 1993, diamond drilling had been completed to a vertical depth of 1,000 metres and a resource of 22 million tonnes grading 5.73 grams of gold per tonne containing a million ounces of gold had been defined. The deposit remains open at depth. Pre-production mining for the open pit began in November 1992, construction of the oxide treatment plant began in January 1993 and the first gold was poured in September 1993. Sulphide ore roasting commenced in December 1994 and the underground mine development commenced in July 1995. The Kanowna Belle project is owned by the Golden Valley Joint Venture (GVJV), an unincorporated joint venture with equal shareholdings between North Gold (W.A.) Ltd and Delta Gold N.L. North Gold are the managers of the development and operations and Delta Gold are the managers of exploration throughout the GVJV tenements.

Jan 1, 1990

By Walter R. Hibbard, George H. Eichelman, William P. Saunders

INTEREST in the various products of the austenite eutectoid transformation in iron-carbon alloys, particularly as produced by the isothermal sub-critical techniques introduced by Davenport and Bain,1 has resulted in the application of similar heat treatments to other eutectoid transformations. Studies2.3.4 of the beta copper-aluminum alloy eutectoid transformation revealed microstructures very similar to those found in iron-carbon alloys. Investigations5,6 of the kappa phase in the copper-silicon alloy system have established the eutectoid type transformation of this phase into terminal alpha and intermediate gamma phases. This transformation has been reported' as forming a eutectoid type structure in a very sluggish manner by a long time isothermal treatment. The purpose of the present investigation is to study the products of the kappa eutectoid transformation as affected by transformation temperatures by means of microscopic and hardness methods. PREPARATION OF ALLOYS The copper-silicon alloy equilibrium diagram is shown in Fig I. The kappa field converges to a minimum silicon solubility at the eutectoid composition and all other completely kappa alloys are hypereutectoid. Thus, kappa decomposition involves first the proeutectoid precipitation of gamma, followed by the eutectoid transformation of a lower silicon content kappa (5.2 pct). Smith5 has indicated that alloys containing between 5.4 and 5.7 pct silicon could be hot rolled, but that the latter composition was desirable in order to permit a wider kappa temperature range. The alloy was prepared by adding Baker's commercially pure silicon to an ingot of copper-silicon alloy containing 2.34 pct silicon remaining from the investigation of Brick, Martin and Angier.7 Following the casting techniques of Krynitsky, Saunders and Stern,8 the ingot was melted under a heavy layer of dried charcoal in a clay-graphite crucible in a gas-fired pot furnace. Small lumps of silicon were held under the melt surface with a graphite rod. After the silicon had dissolved, the alloy was chill-cast and then remelted without a cover, stirred thoroughly, skimmed and poured into a preheated cast iron mold. The cast microstructure is shown in Fig 2. The casting, 10 X 4 X ¾ in., was annealed at 750°C for 21 brand furnace cooled. About 1/16 in. was milled from all surfaces. The plate was cut in half longitudinally and the bottom half analyzed by A.S.T.M. methods.9 The composition by weight was as follows: copper 94.24 pct, silicon 5.56 pct, iron 0.11 pct.

Jan 1, 1948

The Karangahake gold-silver deposit is located 11 km west of Waihi in the southern part of the Hauraki Goldfield. Historically it was the second largest bullion producer in the goldfield with a past production (1882 - 1944) of 126.712 tonnes of gold-silver bullion (Au:Ag ratio of 1:3.3) from 1 142 315 tonnes of ore grading 27.4 g/tonne gold equivalents.

Jan 1, 1987

By Charles M. Hauptman

The Karst asbestos deposit, discovered seventy years ago, is 32 miles south of Bozeman in southwestern Montana. The deposit is about one-half mile west of the Gallatin River which flows in a deep V-shaped valley flanked on either side by rugged mountains. The Madison range is west of the river and the Gallatin range lies to the east. A busy all-weather highway, U.S. No. 191, follows the river and is the major north-south route between Bozeman and the Gallatin valley to the north and Idaho and the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park to the south. The asbestos deposit is a large body of serpentinized peridotite in which anthophy11ite.occurs, both as distinct veins and as a disseminated mineral in the peridotite mass. The known exposures of the asbestos-bearing rock occur on a steen south slope at an "elevation of about 7000 feet, an elevation 'which is about 1200 feet above the Gallatin River. Over the years, a number of small companies have attempted to exploit the Karst asbestos deposit without continuing success. The present operator, Galaxy Mining Corporation, has attempted a systematic approach to the problem by utilizing geologic and engineering surveys to determine the economic and technical feasibility of a mine and plant to produce a finished asbestos pro-duct. The results of this work indicate a high probability of success for the project. However the company now faces that dilel1lJllB so common to the non-metallic mineral business; that is, whether to continue a research program of further mineralogical and technological studies in conjunction with detailed market surveys or to rely on the work done to date and embark on a pilot progril1n

Jan 1, 1971