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By H. P. Jacobi

"INTRODUCTIONPine Point Mines, operated by Cominco Ltd., is located approximately 65 miles east of Hay River, N.W.T. on the south shore of Great Slave Lake.The milling operation started in the fall of 1965 with a capacity of 5,000 tpd. An addition was put into operation late in 1968 to bring the nominal capacity up to 8,000 tpd. The present milling rate is 11,000 tpd.With a feed grade of approximately 2.9% Pb and 6.0% Zn the annual concentrate production amounts to roughly 130,000 SDT of lead concentrate and 370,000 SDT of zinc concentrate for a total of 1/2 million tons of product.This tonnage is moved by railroad. Pine Point is served by the Great Slave Lake Division (G.S.L.) of the Canadian National Railways which connects to the Northern Alberta Railway System (N.A.R.) at Roma Junction, at Peace River, Alberta. The system in turn connects to the CNR and the CPR in Edmonton, Alberta. From here the concentrates move inland chiefly to Trail, B.C., with some shipment to other Canadian and U.S. smelters, and to the port facilities of Pacific Coast Terminals at New Westminster, B.C. for offshore export.This paper will focus on the problems associated with the movement of lead and zinc concentrates from Pine Point to port facilities on the west coast."

Jan 1, 1975

Strip mining offers the advantages of high productivity from both human and capital resources as well as high rates of production. Experience suggests that it will be advantageous to extend strip mining to the maximum pos- sible depth in order to minimize costs and maximize the recovery of the in situ coal reserves. Highwall and spoilheap stability pose significant problems. Deep working in strip mines is likely to produce a change from methods which are based upon the elevation of material followed by dumping, to methods involving elevation and horizontal transport. There is considerable scope for optimizing the types of machines and minimizing the amount of double handling.

Jan 1, 1975

By John F. Clarkson

White Pine Copper Company built and operated, from August, 1962 through May, 1963, a pilot plant to recover copper using a cyanide percolation leach of the sand fraction (+400 mesh) of the mill tailings (1, 2, 3). The pilot plant runs were metallurgically successful and preliminary engineering studies for a full scale operation were completed under contract by an outside engineering firm. Unfortunately, the net return projected at that time did not justify the proposed capital' investment. In the summer of 1973 the project was revived. The rise in selling price of copper over the previous ten years, compared to the projected operating cost of the leach plant, increased the calculated net return on investment with the most recent figures showing a 30% DCF. Basically, the reason for this favorable shift in profitability was that the cost for many of the reagents did not go up as fast in the previous ten years as did the selling price of copper. Using the Chemical Marketing Reporter costs, NaCN sold for 18.3¢/lb in 1963 and 20.75¢/lb in August, 1973. During this same period H2S04 went from $23.50 per ton to $35.90 per ton. In comparison, producer's prices for electrolytic copper were 31¢/lb in 1963 and 619 in 1973. Thus the price of copper went up 97% while the two reagents only increased 13% and 53%, respectively. The capital investment also escalated but, again, not to the same extent as the selling price of copper. These price differences no longer are valid' but they did provide justification for reexamining the project.

Jan 1, 1975

By Fred N. Kissell

A parachute-type stopping intended for changing the course of mine ventilation air during mine emergencies has been designed and tested. Some production uses are also visualized for metal mines. Preliminary tests in the laboratory and underground indicate that the parachute stopping is a workable concept, but further developmental research is required.

Jan 1, 1975

By Carl R. Christiansen

Excellent underground industrial sites and warehouse facilities have been constructed in Europe and at several locations in the United States. Many quarry and mine operators are considering, or should consider, the possibilities of the development of their mineral properties in such a manner as to make underground space that is suitable for a secondary industrial use. Before proceeding with mine or quarry development, the operator should answer the following questions: 1) Is there a need for underground industrial space in your geographical area? 2) Is your deposit suitable for development of space for industrial usage? 3) If the deposit is suitable, what methods of development can be used? 4) What are the comparative economics of the different methods of space development? An honest analysis of the first two questions may eliminate the need for proceeding to the third. Affirmative answers to questions 1 and 2 should be followed by the engineering and economic studies required in response to questions 3 and 4.

Jan 1, 1975

By Quintiliani G, Giordano V

A research field of interest and a topical subject with the aim to reduce a considerable amount of coke in ironmaking is the injection into blast furnace stack of hot reducing gas combined with use of auxiliary fuels at tuyeres. In recent years evaluation studies and prelimirfary industrial experiments have been carried out on this subject in Europe and Japan. Even if these experiments seem to confirm the advantages theoretically expected, it appears as useful to cast more light on new problems concerning the improvements of this technique. In this report some aspects are analysed on fluid dynamics of blast furnace process with two gas flows: the main flow coming from the bosh and cross flow of the reducing gas injected in the lower shaft. A research on a blast furnace physical model was made with the aim to obtain information about the phenomena which occur in the full scale blast furnace. This work was carried out on cold models IN and tridimensional) in which the radial gas distribution was experimentally measured. A mathematical model based on gas diffusion was implemented aimed at simulating gas distribution inside the reactor taking into account the number of injection tuyeres. A good agreement between experimental and theoretical data allows for extending results to industrial practice in order to determine operating conditions assuring good performance of blast furnace with high amount of auxiliary fuels.

Jan 1, 1975

By Yoginder P. Chugh

The term "fatigue" in mechanics, is used to refer to reduction in the strength of a material subjected to fluctuating or alternating stresses. Stresses that vary with time are called fluctuating stresses and if during fluctuation the stresses also change sign, they are called alternating stresses. In the field of rock mechanics, the term fatigue (static fatigue) has often been misused to refer to failure of geologic materials in time domain under constant load. To avoid confusion, we use the ten cyclic fatigue here to refer to failure of rock under alternating or fluctuating stresses. Fatigue in metals has been studied for over 100 years. Fatigue properties of geologic materials have, however, received little attention in the past. This is probably because until recently very little was known in regard to the behavior of geologic materials even under static loading. Secondly, suitable equipment for conducting cyclic fatigue experiments was not available until quite recently. A few cyclic fatigue studies have been undertaken on geologic materials to relate it to percussive or rotary drilling mechanisms (e. g. Grover et a11*; Burdine2). The results of these studies were inconclusive due to limited effort. Cyclic fatigue in concrete has been studied more extensively than geologic materials (e.g. Nordby3, Gray et al 4 and Bennett et a15) and mechanisms of fatigue in concrete are better understood than in geologic materials.

Jan 1, 1975

By Frank C. Appleyard

Gypsum, the dihydrate form of calcium sulfate, has a history of usefulness to man dating back several thousand years, and a worldwide industry has been built on the mining and processing of this versatile industrial mineral. However, anhydrite, the other principal calcium sulfate mineral has very limited use, so much so that separate statistics for it are not always kept, but are usually included with those for gypsum. Although often found in close association, the two minerals have important chemical differences in that anhydrite is the anhydrous form of calcium sulfate (CaSO,) whereas gypsum is the dihydrate (CAS0;2H20). These two molecules of combined water result in significant differences in hardness, density, and solubility of the two minerals. However, of most importance is the difference in thermal properties wherein gypsum, upon the application of a modest amount of heat, can be converted to the hemihydrate of calcium sulfate (CaS0;Vi H,O) or plaster of paris, an intermediate product upon which is based over 90% of the value of all calcium sulfate end products. Anhydrite, on the other hand, is inert at these temperatures and its uses have been limited to only those few cases where calcium sulfate in the anhydrous form may have an advantage. The earliest known use of gypsum plaster dates back some 5000 years to the time of the Pharaohs of Egypt who had discovered that gypsum rock, when exposed to fire, broke down into a powder which when mixed with water would form a putty that could be "plastered" on a rough mud brick or stone wall to make a smooth finish. It was used down through the centuries in a limited way for ornamental purposes, but did not achieve wide acceptance because of its quick (25 to 30 min) setting or hardening time which made it difficult to use. The first real understanding of gypsum chemistry was developed in France about 1755, and the gradual growth of its present utilization dates from that time. In the United States, the first utilization of gypsum was to grind it to a fine material for use as a soil conditioner at about the time of the Revolutionary War, and the term "land plaster" for ground gypsum has remained in use. Another cementituous material-lime or calcium oxide-had become the usual plastering material, but by about 1870 a method for retarding the set of gypsum plaster was discovered and it has today almost completely replaced lime as a plastering material. In recent years, gypsum products sold in the United States have reached a total valuation of approximately $500 million per year as illustrated in [Table 1].

Jan 1, 1975

By R. V. Ramani, T. V. Falkie, T. E. Wilson

In order to increase the efficiency of underground coal operations, it is necessary to understand not only the operating system in detail, but the interrelationships between system components and the operating environment. With such an understanding comes more exact application of simulation and other operations-research techniques to plan and operate mining systems. One aspect of the coal-winning system in need of better definition, namely, the performance of continuous miners, is dealt with in this paper. Detailed discussion of this research will be found in a report by the authors. Mining Rate The performance of continuous miners-that is, the rate at which miners can deliver coal from an underground face to the outby transportation system-is dependent upon the geometric and geological conditions of mining, the characteristics of the mining machinery, and the skill of the machine operators. In order to predict mining performance, it is necessary first to identify these factors, secondly to devise a data-collection technique, and lastly, to select a method of data analysis for drawing meaningful conclusions. Factors Affecting Mining Rate: The factors that affect the mining rate can be conveniently grouped in the following four categories: Geological Factors-The natural conditions such as seam thickness, hardness, and cleavage. Geometrical Factors-The height and width of the entries and the angle of drivage with respect to the main entries. Machine Factors-The mechanical characteristics and physical dimensions of the machine, condition of the machine, condition of the bits, and related items. Other Factors-Operator efficiency, size consist of cutter product, etc. A classification such as given here is not rigid; some of the factors can be included in more than one of the categories and some can be combined as ratios. Data Collection The empirical nature of this investigation required measurements of variables under operating conditions in underground coal mines. A majority of the variables measured were continuous over a specific range of values; for example, the "width ratio" varied in practice from 0.25 to 1.00. "Dummy" values were assigned to certain operational variables in order that the variables would have numerical expression, i.e.: [ ] Data Analysis The method of analysis was to test a large model containing potentially significant variables and then reduce the model to one containing only the essential significant variables. The procedure of "scanning" a large proposed model and subsequently condensing the model consisted of two cycles of the same series of computational procedures. Correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were the three statistical procedures that were used to derive the rate-generating equation. Correlation and Regression Analysis: Multiple linear correlation coefficients between all of the variables were calculated using the Pearson product moment formula along with the statistical significance of the correlation

Jan 1, 1975

By R. S. Shoemaker, F. W. McQuiston

CAMPBELL RED LAKE MINES Balmertown, Ontario 1974 Operating Data MINE LOCATION: Balmertown, in Red Lake mining area of Ontario TYPE OF MINE: Underground mine developed by vertical shaft to 4300 feet. Mining active above 3000 ft depth. ORE DESCRIPTION: Gold and minor silver.. Sulfur content about 1.3%. Ar senopyrite , pyrite, pyrrhotite, and stibnite. CAPACITY IN TONS124 HRS: 825 ASSAY: 0.66 oz Au per ton heads MILL PROCESS: Amalgamation, flotation, roasting of concentrate and separate treatment of calcines and flotation tails by cyanide. PLANT BUILDING: Mine mill and service facilities all housed in insulated and heated buildings POWER: Total consumption, mine and mill - 100 Kwh/T WASTE DISPOSAL: Impoundment of tailings. Arsenic to sealed underground storage EMPLOYEES: Total of 300 men on payroll. Housing in Balmertown and nearby communities.

Jan 1, 1975

By H. B. Carroll

The performance of commercially available portable instrumentation for detecting nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide was evaluated. Length-of-stain detector tubes from several manufacturers were included in the study. The instruments were evaluated in atmospheres with 50-and 80-percent relative humidities at 75° F and containing test gas concentrations of 0.1, 0.25, 0.50, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 times the threshold limit values. The results from the gas analyzers were correlated with the known contaminant concentration by calculating and plotting an estimated line of regression, confidence limits, and correlation coefficient for each detector system. An increase in the relative humidity from 50 to 80 percent at /5° F changed the instrument response to the contaminants. The uncertainties in detection precision reported are for the observer-instrument system. The main difference or inconsistency in toxic gas concentrations determined with length-of-stain tubes resulted from the observer's interpretation of the results rather than from a predominant difference in the tubes.

Jan 1, 1975

By N. A. Sareyed-Dim

Nickel ores may be classified into two major categories : sulphide ores, and oxidized lateritic ores, these latter containing nearly 80% of the known reserves of the metal (1). Two types of lateritic ores are recognized; ores high in iron but low in magnesia and silica are known as "limonitic", while ores low in iron but containing high percentages of magnesia and silica are called "silicate" (see Table I). Sulphide ores can be beneficiated readily by conventional ore dressing techniques and the technology for nickel recovery from such ores has been well tested in a number of commercial processes (1-4). Unfortunately, no economically viable process for the concentration of nickel from low-grade deposits has yet been developed, and so only the high grade ores are able to be worked profitably. Silicate ores have been treated pyrometallurgically for the production of ferronickel (2) (3) (5); limonitic ores have been processed hydrometallurgically to produce nickel metal (2) (3) (6) (7).

Jan 1, 1975

A regular feature of the December issue is to be abstracts of graduate theses in the mineral industry field presented during that year. The following abstracts were submitted for this first article in the series.

Jan 1, 1975

By Mark I. Copeland

The Bureau of Mines discovered that silicon and nickel additions can prevent the formation of copper alloys of Sn, Sb, and As on the surface of steel during reheating to hot-working temperatures. When molten, these copper alloys cause surface hot shortness during hot working. Wrought steels were reheated isothermally and by simulated industrial practice; the resulting surfaces were metallographically evaluated. The steels contained, In weight-percent, 0.20 C, 0.45 Mn, and up to 1.00 Si, 1.00 Cu, and 0.15 Ni, and up to 0.30 Sn, Sb, or As. The larger the Cu, Sn, Sb and As content of the steels, the greater the amount of silicon necessary to prevent copper alloy formation. A content of 0.10 Ni considerably decreased the amount of silicon necessary for copper steels containing tin and antimony, but not for those containing arsenic. Theories for the beneficial effect of silicon and nickel additions are presented.

Jan 1, 1975

By Spencer S. Shannon

This chapter is concerned with the uses, geology, exploration, evaluation, preparation for markets, and future of 90thorium and 39yttrium, along with 14 rare-earth elements. The rare-earth metals or lanthanides were divided into three categories by Berzelius. The cerium subgroup is comprised of 57lanthanum, 58cerium, 59praseodymium, 60neodymium, and 62samarium. 61Promethium does not occur naturally. The terbium subgroup includes 63europium, 64gadolinium, and 65terbium. The remaining lanthanides are placed in the yttrium subgroup. Strictly speaking, yttrium is not a rare earth. Because the properties of yttrium resemble those of heavy rare earths, its name has been used as a designating adjective. The yttrium subgroup includes 66dysprosium, 67holmium, 68erbium, 69thulium, 70ytterbium, and 67lutetium. Rare-earth elements, especially those of the same subgroup, tend to occur together rather than in discrete minerals.

Jan 1, 1975

By John R. Gaines

I am not a member of AIME, and this is my first annual meeting. As a lifelong member of the non-ferrous metals industry I have enjoyed listening today to speakers point with pride and view with alarm the public relations activity or lack thereof in the halls of government, as well as at the grass roots. There is much to be alarmed about, to be sure, but also some accomplish¬ments to be viewed with pride. Other speakers have given a broad overview of our industry's relations with their several publics. I will be specific about two incidents in which The Anaconda Company faced the loss of confidence of a large portion of its publics: the nationalization of our properties in Chile in 1971 and the closing of our under¬ground mines in Butte, which was announced last October. If I have a minute left over, I will speak about our concern for the loss of confidence in business institutions which has been re¬vealed in recent public opinion polls.

Jan 1, 1975

By R. B. Hoy, Stanley J. LeFond, K. Reckling

World production of natural diamonds prob¬ably exceeds 50,000,000 carats a year. The Republic of Zaire is the leading producer, with an output which is primarily industrial rather than gem grade. The USSR ranks second, and the Republic of South Africa third. Diamonds are also mined in South-West Africa, Angola, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and other African coun¬tries. In the western hemisphere, Brazil and Venezuela are the principal producers (Fig. 1). A very small output of diamonds is mined today in India, which was the first source of commercial production. In the U.S., efforts at commercial diamond mining have been con¬fined to a small area near Murfreesboro, Ark. The first diamond was found in a kimberlite pipe there in 1906. Small-scale trial mining has not, however, proved economical. Since diamonds were first discovered over 2000 years ago, only about 130 tons have been mined. In order to obtain 1 g (5 carats) of diamonds, it is necessary to remove and process approximately 25 tons of rock. Recovering this small percentage involves a combination of highly developed techniques in mining, quarrying, and earth-moving, and extremely sophisticated recovery processes. End Uses Diamonds are used for two unrelated end uses; gem diamonds are jewels of great beauty while industrial diamonds are essential ma¬terials of modern industry. Although imitation stones are substituted for the gem diamond, none of these matches its properties sufficiently well to offer real competition. Synthetic indus¬trial diamonds are now of a quality that per¬mits wide substitution in the fine-grained sizes. Gem Diamonds A diamond is a natural prism. It has the ability to bounce light rays (reflection), to bend them (refraction), and to break them into all colors of the rainbow (dispersion). This ability to "modify" light gives the diamond three characteristics for providing beauty. First is brilliance, the reflection of light back to the eye. Second is fire, dispersion of light into the colors of the spectrum. Third is scintillation, the "twinkling" that occurs when the diamond is moved (Bauer, 1969). The skill of the diamond cutter is required to unlock the brilliant, fiery beauty of a gem dia¬mond (Fisher, 1966). Diamond-cutting skills have gradually developed over the centuries. The first cutters, in India, learned how to grind one rough diamond against another to remove their "skins" and to give them various shapes. This revealed some fire and beauty, but little compared to that of the diamonds that are cut today. About 1475, a Flemish cutter named Van Gerquem discovered that diamond dust on an iron wheel would polish facets on a diamond to provide more brilliance and fire. Cutters continued to experiment with facets, and shortly before 1700 a Venetian cutter named Peruzzi developed the 58-facet brilliant cut. With the development of the science of optics, cutters have learned more about the behavior of light within the diamond. Early in the 20th century, they learned how to angle Peruzzi's

Jan 1, 1975

By Michael B. Jones, Wayne R. Bruce, Cyrus W. Field

For more than a decade the Pacific Northwest has been a frontier of successful porphyry copper-molybdenum exploration. This vast region (about 2100 miles long, 350-500 miles wide) occupies a geologically complex mobile tectonic belt. It parallels the Western Cordillera from northern California-Nevada to southern Alaska-Yukon Territory, and west from the northern Rocky Mountain-Tintina Trenches to the Pacific margin. Right lateral displacement has occurred along major transcurrent faults that are sub parallel to the region and the transform Fairweather-Queen Charlotte fault zone separates the North American continental plate from the Pacific oceanic plate. Porphyry-type deposits are widespread, but producing mines are restricted to south and central British Columbia. Size and grade are variable (25 to +300 mt; 0.18 to 0.65% Cu with 0.014 to 0.049% MoS2; 0.14 to 0.28% MoS,) and secondary enrichment is normally unimportant. Metallization is genetically and spatially related to late quartz-feldspar porphyries that are within, marginal, or satellitic to composite batholithic intrusions. Radiometric ages of the plutons range from Miocene to Triassic-Jurassic (18 to 217 m.y. [million year] ). Country rocks are typically eugeosynclinal metasedimentary and metavolcanic assemblages of Permian to Jurassic age. Several of the older (pre-Late Cretaceous) deposits formed in submarine island arc environments and they may be genetically related to occurrences of volcanogenic sulfides in the greenstone country rocks. Deposition of bornite-chalcopyrite-molybdenite ores is controlled by contacts, breccias, and fault-fracture zones. Associated hydrothermal gangue minerals include biotite, orthoclase, sericite, kaolinite, quartz, anhydrite, and tourmaline. Isotopic data suggest a deep source for ore, gangue, and plutonic host rocks. Significant exploration features include porphyries, dike swarms, breccias, potassic alteration, barren quartz cores, gossans, and fringing halos of pyrite and propylitic alteration.

Jan 1, 1975

By Frederick A. Mumpton

For more than 200 years zeolites have been familiar minerals to geologists and mining engineers as minor, but ubiquitous constituents in vugs and fractures of most basalt and traprock formations. More than 35 different species have been recognized including several, such as chabazite, erionite, mordenite, and faujasite, whose adsorption properties rival those of many synthetic molecular sieves. Igneous occurrences of this type have never been mined on a commercial scale; they are generally small and low grade, and they commonly contain as many as four zeolite minerals, along with small quantities of calcite, quartz, and other silicate minerals. Their economic beneficiation to monomineralic zeolite products has also not been achieved and, for the most part, industrial applications of zeolites have relied primarily on synthetic molecular sieves that were crystallized from hydrous aluminosilicate gels. During the middle 1950s, when Union Carbide Corp. and other groups were developing processes and markets for their fledgling synthetic zeolite businesses, natural zeolites

Jan 1, 1975

By L. H. Banning

The Bureau of Mines conducted pioneering batch and laboratory cyclic tests that simulated plant operation in developing a procedure for acidulating phosphate rock with fluosilicic acid. Both high-grade deslimed phosphate rock and low-grade phosphate rock samples were treated. The most promising results were obtained by acidulating des limed high-grade material. In a series of seven cyclic tests, 85.4 percent of the P20S was recovered in solutions. The average P2O5 content of the phosphoric acid-monocalcium phosphate solutions of the first step was 156 grams per liter, and the average fluorine content was 4.7 grams per liter. Residues had an average fluorine content of 30.7 percent and contained 83.9 percent of the total fluorine in the charge materials. Some fluorine was lost by volatilization.

Jan 1, 1975