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By George Quackenbos

The principal objective of this Program is the design, fabrication and testing of an Environmental System for operation in underground mines, to assess the effect of various mining systems on the contaminant levels near the mine face and within return airways. In order to determine the effect on airborne contamination in mines resulting from the development of new mining techniques, equipment and control systems, a Comprehensive Monitoring System is required to assess such contamination levels at critical and strategic locations and relate this information with ventilation parameters. The three variables to be sensed on a continuous basis are airborne dust concentration, methane concentration and ventilation air velocity. Each Monitoring Station will consist of a self-contained unit containing a power source and sensors to monitor the three above mentioned parameters. Ruggedness, reliability, ease 'of operation and intrinsic safety are important design objectives. Data gathered by each Monitoring Station will be fed to a Central Data Acquisition System by means of a portable transfer unit.

Jan 1, 1982

By Leonidio Stegmiller

Since the petroleum crisis in 1973, charcoal1 is being considered one of the most important fuel for the Brazilian consumers, mainly for pellet's producers. In replacing fuel by charcoal mixed up with ore, obviously one of the first thing to be investigated is its influence in the product's quality. Special attention has been given to the metallurgical characteristics. This paper infocus the effect of increasing dosings of charcoal to the pellet's porosity and how other physical and metallurgical characteristics will be affected accordingly. This work was carried out using two different finesses of charcoal and dosing varied from 0.5 to 2.0%.

Jan 1, 1982

The Government of New South Wales has granted approval for Hunter Valley Aluminium Pty., Ltd" and Alcan Australia Ltd. to proceed with the building of an aluminum smelter at Lochinvar and the expansion of a smelter at Kurri Kurri. Construction of the smelters is expected to start as soon as the consortium is finalized in early 1982. The smelters are part of a plan to increase Australia's aluminum capacity fivefold to 1.5 million tons by the mid-1980's. CHILE Construction of a $61 million lithium carbonate plant in northern Chile will be started in early 1983 by Sociedad Chilena del Litio Ltdao Production is scheduled to begin in 1984 with an initial capacity of 6,350 tons of lithium carbonate produced from a brine deposit. The firm is owned 55% by Foote Mineral Company, of Exton, Pennsylvania, and 45% by Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion-CORFO.

Jan 1, 1982

By Thad J. Bydlon

Uncertainty of future energy supplies has forced industrial nations to diversify both their energy mix and their energy sources of supply. As a result, U.S. coal exports have grown substantially during the past several years. Projected long-term worldwide economic growth suggests that a well-established trend has been set for increased foreign demand for U.S. coal. As export volumes increase the need for careful planning to prevent bottlenecks and to provide for the uninterrupted flow of coal increases. It also will place increased emphasis on identifying the most economic transportation alternatives. These planning and evaluation functions are greatly facilitated if a systematic method is available for modeling the complex interactions of a coal export system. One such model, developed by the Anaconda Minerals Company, is the Coal Export model.

Jan 1, 1982

Esso Australia Ltd. operates a large natural gas producing system in the Gippsland Basin, supplying gas to the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria, the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and several industrial customers. Gas reaches the Longford processing plants from three offshore platforms via a network of large diameter pipelines, which must be protected against the formation of ice-like hydrates. When gas production commenced in 1969, methanol was used to inhibit hydrate formation in the offshore pipelines. However, later investigations showed that the methanol was causing excessive degradation of molecular sieve in the onshore gas-processing plants. (Molecular sieve is used to remove water and H2S from the gas prior to further processing to remove heavy hydrocarbons.)

Jan 1, 1982

By E. Knell

COM Energy, Inc., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, has constructed a 1.6 million hectoliter-per-year COM plant in Jacksonville, Florida. COM will be distributed to customers in the region as a substitute for fuel oil presently burned in boilers and kilns. As the market for COM grows, COM Energy, Inc. expects to build additional units both in this country and overseas. This paper addresses the overall status and technical aspects of the project, focusing on the facilities for COM production and utilization.

Jan 1, 1982

By A. E. Michon

I am Alfred E. Michon, Vice President- International for Burlington Northern Inc. I work for BN's holding company and my responsibilities include co-ordinating the activities of our eight subsidiary companies as they relate to international commerce--an increasingly important aspect of the overall business of our company. Until last April, I was President of the Fort Worth and Denver and Colorado and Southern railroads, subsidiaries of BN. Prior to that, I headed the marketing and pricing area of BN's coal transportation business. Based on my experience in the energy industry, both domestic and international, I would like to discuss the world-wide trend towards the reliance on low-sulfur coal in lieu of natural gas and oil for the generation of electricity. Since pontification on the energy scene world- wide is best left to consultants with scenario-spitting computers, let me in- stead emphasize this trend through two examples. First I will describe the regulatory and economic factors which have encouraged the replacement of natural gas by low sulfur coal as a boiler fuel in the US. BN's investments in track and equipment were instrumental in this conversion. Secondly, I will show how this same combination of factors has created a large demand for steam coal in the Far East. Again, our company's strategy is to facilitate conversion to coal overseas through timely and sufficient investments.

Jan 1, 1982

By Kumara S. Rachamalla

Long-term stability, appropriate taxation and incentive policies are essential to attract and stimulate investment in the mineral sector. An outline of Ontario's $4.6 billion industry and associated tax incentives is presented. Producers are offered incentives under The Mining Tax Act, federal and provincial income tax acts for exploration and development by reducing Me after tax cost to 13-25¢ for each dollar spent. The Mining Tax Act provides generous processing incentives which have positive effects in enhancing investment and economic advantages of building processing facilities. Non-mining companies and entrepreneurial individuals can receive 25% of eligible exploration expenditures in grants/tax credits under the Ontario Mineral Exploration Program.

Jan 1, 1982

By Christian F. Baiz

Industrial minerals can have similar financing requirements to those needs of metaliferrous and coal mining projects. Although, one may see many similarities in the fundamentals of the various risks that must be evaluated in lending to any specific project, one of the outstanding differences is the understanding of the many different markets that these industrial minerals represent. There are in excess of 30 principal industrial minerals ranging in terms of annual production from the largest quantity such as sand and gravel, to possibly the smallest quantity of production of a legitimate industrial mineral which may be defined as industrial and rough gem diamond. If we assume that it is necessary to finance independent projects of ore bodies of industrial minerals for development, the financing techniques are similar to the fundamentals that we would use for financing coal projects or metaliferrous deposits. Therefore, let's begin by redefining project financing in the traditional banking or private sector area, and then in the later development of this paper, we will apply these techniques to industrial minerals in general and cite it with several specific examples.

Jan 1, 1982

By Herbert R. Babitzke

The Minerals Availability System (MAS) was formally established by the Bureau of Mines in May 1975 to provide current appraisals of the engineering and economic availability of nonfuel minerals for consideration in the formulation of both domestic and foreign minerals policy, Domes- tic mineral property reports are developed by the Bureau's four Field Operations Centers, and foreign data are obtained under contract. This site-specific information is subsequently subjected to engineering verification and economic evaluation, and the results are analyzed and published as Minerals Availability System Appraisals. The deposit-specific data are also entered into the computerized MAS data base, where a subset of this information, the Mineral Industry Location System (MILS), is available to the public in the form of computer graphics and listings. Other MAS products are also described. The Bureau's MAS personnel are frequently involved in special engineering and mineral economic projects for other Federal and State agencies. MAS personnel also work closely with the private sector, both in the area of mining and processing cost estimation, and as a source of nonproprietary mineral deposit information.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. T. Graves

Bauxite, dolomite, and magnesite are natural occurring minerals that are used extensively in the manufacture of refractory products. In addition, magnesia produced from seawater or brine finds its way into the production of refractories. All of these materials must be processed at high temperatures, 1500°C to 2200°C, to produce an intermediate raw material (refractory grain) , which can then be used in the final manufacture of refractory bricks and shapes. During the last 20 years, the major supply of refractory bauxite has been from Guyana, and at times the annual production has ranged up to 1,000,000 tons per year. More recently, China has become a major source of refractory grade bauxite by supplying over 300,000 TPY. Other sources of bauxite in lesser quantities have been Surinam, Brazil, and the U.S.A. During 1980, the estimated available world tonnage amounted to slightly more than 1,300,000 tons. The bulk of this material has been calcined in rotary kilns except for some of the Chinese production, which was treated in shaft kilns. Recent work has indicated that an excellent product can be produced in the Nichols Shaft Kiln using much less fuel than the conventional rotary kiln. Details of the Nichols Shaft Kiln will be provided later in this paper.

Jan 1, 1982

By M. H. Erten

Most of the fourteen workable coal seams in the State of Missouri have high ash and sulfur levels and need beneficiation in order to meet customer and Environmental Protection Agency requirements. If proper ash and sulfur removal methods can be designed, more Missouri coals will be mined and used within the state. One of the main objectives of this research is to investigate the possibility of removal of sulfur of Missouri coals by conventional beneficiation methods.

Jan 1, 1982

This section of Minerals and Materials analyzes the following three factors affecting the recent performance of the U.S. and world mineral industries: 1) the health of the U.S. and world economies, 2) the level of interest rates and 3) the performance of productivity in both the U.S. mineral industry and the general economy. While these indicators do not exhaust the possible critical factors, they represent an initial attempt to probe some of the considerations underlying the performance of the U.S. minerals and materials industry. The U.S. and World Economies It is essential to analyze the state of the U.S. and world economy because the demand for minerals and materials is a derived demand; that is, since minerals and materials are used in the productive process, the demand for them is a direct function of the demand for the finished products of which they are a basic input. Thus, the demand for minerals and materials is directly affected by changes in present and planned consumption and investment expenditures. The past two issues of this publication have highlighted the generally discouraging performance of the national and inter-national economies. Briefly, the world economy is in the third year of the first long recession in recent history where inflation rates have remained above 5 percent. With many countries either unable or unwilling to support domestic spending while inflation continues, there has been a growing tendency to institute trade-restrictive policies to support domestic demand. The resulting weakened demand conditions in exporting nations have had a direct effect on the mineral industry.

Jan 1, 1982

Despite modest improvements in the performance of domestic interest rates and gross national product,1 fixed investment in domestic producers' durable equipment continued to weaken during the second quarter of 1982 and declined at a 12.8 percent annual rate compared with the first quarter.2 Large declines occurred during the second quarter in expenditures on many of the major mineral-consuming industries such as aircraft, computers, agricultural and construction machinery and mining and oil field equipment. These data appear to be consistent with the low level of business investment plans for 1982 reported in the DOC's Bureau of Economic Analysis survey of expenditures on new plant and equipment.3 Domestic and foreign industrial production and mineral industry production activities continued to decline in the most recent period because of weak demand conditions (Tables 1 and 2). The U.S. mining production index declined 7.7 percent between April and June as compared with 1.2 percent for total U.S. industrial production (Table 1).

Jan 1, 1982

By Dave G. Osborne

With the growing exportation of coal from North America to the Pacific Rim countries and Europe, has come an increasing awareness of the need to determine economically optimized amounts of incombustibles (ash and moisture contents) for the shipped product. Despite the fact that demand bas caused a steady improvement in selling price, particularly for thermal coals, growing production and transportation costs have compelled producers to keep a sharp eye open for ways and means of minimizing the latter since this probably represents the greatest single potential for making savings. Consequently the Coal Industry has become acutely aware of the economic ramifications of eliminating moisture in particular, thereby producing further saving in the cost of transportation of product from the mine to the consumer. There is, however, a lower limit to which dewatering or drying can be taken and this relates to dustiness which is a function of the characteristics of the coal and the methods used for handling and storage during trans-shipment. Overdrying can lead to serious dust losses and difficulties in handling particularly if the coal contains a large proportion of fines. The ways and means for achieving this "happy medium" of optimization in moisture removal are seemingly undergoing gradual modification largely assisted by the following factors. a) Improvement in effectiveness of coal dewatering and drying equipment. b) Improvement in operational availability and utilization of the equipment. c) The development of surfactants, polymer flocculants and other agents which in many cases can be almost tailor made to suit specific applications.

Jan 1, 1982

By Terry W. Engelhart

"A computer-based approach to online supervisory control and operations management of bulk materials handling terminals". This paper describes an integrated computer facility supporting the functions and responsibilities of shift operations, scheduling, maintenance and management using real-time interactive techniques. The functions and responsibilities as related to coal export terminals are specifically addressed, although these functions would be equally applicable to other terminal configurations and other commodities. A discussion of the resulting benefits are presented: - throughput efficiency - long-term planning and scheduling, using simulation - operations monitoring and protection - demurrage/despatch optimization - preventative maintenance - operational productivity

Jan 1, 1982

By Colin D. Jardine

Rapidly increasing energy costs and more rigid customer quality requirements necessitate improved control of pelletizing processes. With the introduction of dedicated microprocessor-based controllers, sophisticated control strategies are now possible. A recent application of this technology at Carol Project has resulted in fuel savings, improved pellet quality, and standardization of operating procedures. This was accomplished with no production loss by the use of a "building block" approach to design and equipment selection. Details of this approach and the results obtained are described.

Jan 1, 1982

With IIT research institute as a cosponsor, this seventh mineral waste Utilization Symposium was funded by the Bureau of Mines through its Division of Mineral Resources Technology. Environmental scientists and engineers from five countries (Canada, Netherlands, Austria, England, Guatemala) besides the United States participated in the symposium, which was held Oct. 20-21, 1980, at the Chicago campus of IIT Research Institute. Of the 25 papers presented on the reclamation and recycling of mining and mineral wastes, municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and scrap metal, 21 are summarized herein.

Jan 1, 1982

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Jan 1, 1982

By Walter R. Hibbard

Precipitation in the northeastern United States, Florida, California and in many industrialized areas of the world is now more acidic (lower pH) than can be accounted for by natural causes. At the same time, the acidity of many lakes and streams in the northeastern United States has been measured and found to be similar to that of actual rain. These facts have led to conclusions that the two conditions are related. Coal burning utilities, 700 to 1000 miles upwind, have been accused of being the cause, leading to proposals for strict emission controls on the alleged offenders. The costs of these controls would place an estimated $10 to $15 billion capital burden on utility customers in about 15 states plus $2 to $6 billion annual operating costs. There appears to be no direct well-established scientific evidence that the accused are guilty but that the indictment is based largely on circumstantia1 evidence. This study examines the evidence, describes the situation and proposes what must be done to reduce the acid precipitation in an orderly cost beneficial manner. It is interesting to observe that studies by the different adversaries on the acid precipitation issue come to different conclusions largely because they do not read the same literature, but selectively develop evidence to support their own points of view, This study will try to review the issues impartially and reach a position of scholarly balance.

Jan 1, 1982