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By Olivia Gamache

When working in remote and extreme environments, projects are faced with new challenges for engineering and project execution. This is heightened when also working in countries with a developing environmental regulatory framework, small skilled workforce available for recruitment, and minimal infrastructure such as power, roads, and water. There is an increasing realization that social and environmental aspects need to be built into project execution. Giving proper attention to these issues during project development and execution, and maximizing opportunities is an ongoing challenge.

May 1, 2013

By Peter Cunningham

General Description of Projects The objective is to streamline data transfer within our Process Control and Business Systems for the purposes of tracking actual production, reducing manual record keeping, improving process control and improving vehicle maintenance. This presentation focuses on two implementations of mobile equipment data acquisition systems which make use of industry standard data models and data transport protocols. Pilots are part of the Mines Technology Roadmap to improve our mining operations ?Enabling technologies and pilot of key systems

May 1, 2013

Mining Equipment Challenges Equipment Availability Unplanned downtime Maintenance Costs Secondary damage and catastrophic failures (T282 $750k) Emergency work is 4x the cost of planned work Inspections Troubleshooting time Incorrect repairs (parts, labor, lost production) Equipment Life Mis-operation of equipment

May 1, 2013

By Ron H. Derammelaere

Coal Slurry Test Pipeline and First Recorded Commercial Pipeline Wallace Andrews founder of New York Steam Company awarded patent for ?Method of Transportation? that involved pumping finely divided coal in slurry form built test facility at Madison Avenue and East 58th Street in New York City died in 1899 in a fire and coal pipeline work was not continued First recorded commercial coal slurry pipeline designed by Gilbert Bell in 1914 to move coal from barges on the Thames River in London to a powerhouse in 8? tubes (660 yards long)

May 1, 2013

By Les Philips

National Institute for Safety and Health?s (NIOSH, USA) Office of Mine Safety and Mine Safety and Health (OMSHR) has definitions for: -Proximity Detection as detection of personnel, vehicles and other objects near a machine using some type of sensor technology -Proximity Warning (aka Collision Warning) as detection of personnel, vehicles and other objects near a machine resulting in alarms that ?Warn the operator only ?Warn the operator and nearby personnel (two-way) -Collision Avoidance as the processing of sensor information resulting in control signals or actions that alter machine status/movement to avoid a collision by ?Computer control ?Human control

May 1, 2013

By Reinis Sipols

AGENDA ? Introduction ? Definitions and Key features ? PEA - Preliminary Economic Assessments ? PFS ? Preliminary Fesibility Studies ? FS ? Feasibility Studies ? Costs and Risks ? Cash Flow, Economic Analysis and Reporting ? Recommendations for Improved FS accuracy INTRODUCTION ? The reporting of material information on mineral deposits has been governed by NI 43-101 legislation for almost a decade. ? The investment sector depends on the independent, professional QP to provide objective observations, comments and recommendations through all levels of geological, engineering and financial evaluation until a mine construction decision has been made.

May 1, 2013

By L. D. Smith

Net Present Value Impact of Discount Rate The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method of valuations is universally used and accepted. The main criticism of the method is that it does not recognize the value of projects long life projects. This can be seen in the preceding graph where the present value of cash flows in later years are small for discount rates over about 10%. This graph covers a project that has a 25 year operating life. It is clear from the low height of the NPV bars at 10% and 15% in the last years of the project that an additional 25 years would add almost no value to total project NPV. As an example of this effect, an colleague undertook the evaluation of a pulp and paper project. The plant could be justified, but it was not possible to justify planting the trees as they took too long to grow and so had not appreciable NPV. The plant had to purchase wood to feed the plant.

May 1, 2013

By Thomas E. Shumka

ASTM E2905 describes a two-part standard for electromagnetic methods for preparation and examination of ring gear teeth in the mining sector for SAG and Ball Mill ring gear drives, including pinions? particularly on the addendum, dedendum, and root areas. This practice addresses the need to detect surface breaking flaws electronically and to have the ability to accurately size any surface breaking cracks found on cast and forged SAG and ball mill ring gear and pinion teeth faster and more effectively than other methods. Eddy-current surface arrays are seeing increasing use throughout the industry for the detection of surface breaking flaws in conducting materials. Example applications include examinations of pipelines, bridges, engines, aerospace structures, and any conducting material for surface breaking flaws including cracks. In addition, model-based methods are being used to size cracks accurately found in the addendum, dedendum, and the root of SAG and ball mill girth gear teeth. As visual interpretation of a surface breaking discontinuity on gear teeth is the normal analysis, the colors and 3D images that are provided with this technique, help with visualization and therefore are absolutely invaluable in such circumstances. This practice will help to standardize the use of this nondestructive testing approach.

May 1, 2013

Operationalizing the Ruggie Framework in a Mining Context Ruggie?s 3 Pillars: The State?s duty to Protect Policies, regulation, adjudication The Corporation?s responsibility to respect Acting with due diligence to avoid infringing Addressing adverse impacts when involved in abuses Access to Remedy ??even the most concerted efforts cannot prevent all abuse.?

May 1, 2013

By W. Dolsak

Introduction Alternative bolting injection resin Hollow bars, rebars, and cable bolts Results from an in-house product development project Sept. 2011 to Feb. 2013 Goals Introduction of a newly developed bolting silicate injection resin as alternative to cement grout based injection systems Definition of easy-to-use pumping devices and installation accessories Accomplishment of installation trials and performance evaluation

May 1, 2013

By Laura A. Sanders

Mineral scale formation is prevalent in numerous mining operations. Such scale formation can occur in the direct-contact heat exchangers ahead of an autoclave. In these heat exchangers, the incoming slurry comes into contact with steam in a stage-wise fashion, which is re-circulated from the downstream flash vessels to heat the slurry in stages ahead of the autoclave. Calcium sulfate scaling causes severe problems in mining operations where increased temperatures are involved due to rising temperatures promoting calcium sulfate scaling through a decreasing solubility. In a number of these operations, the scale formation can occur in the presence of mineral solids, where fine-grained charged particles are at concentrations in excess of 35%. Scale prevention is not difficult in standard aqueous systems; however, the presence of solids leads to significant deficiencies in the prevention of scale due to the adsorption of the polymer onto the charge solids instead of the polymer interaction with the scale. Therefore, a technical solution to prevent mineral scale build up occurring in presence of pulp slurry in mining operations is needed. Several novel antiscalant technologies were developed and evaluated which provided a substantial improvement in the scale prevention in such systems.

May 1, 2013

By M. H. ElMaghraby

This paper describes the development and validation of a strategy for vibration-based online detection of faults in a particular class of machinery commonly found in industry. This machinery is defined by two basic characteristics that preclude it from the application of standard online condition monitoring approaches. The first characteristic is that the machine is in a constant state of transient operation, thus making it difficult to differentiate between changes in transducer measurements that are due to variable duty and those that are due to machine malfunction or fault. The second characteristic is the fact that the machinery involves multiple sub systems that are subject to identical and simultaneous loading, operating environments and duty cycles. An example of such machinery is a system of multiple hydraulic pumps driving a common load. The monitoring strategy presented here employs an anomaly detection scheme together with methods of signal processing and feature extraction that exploit the parallel duty arrangements of this equipment. Preliminary data is collected from a pair or motor-gearbox assemblies used in a material haulage system in the mining industry. Testing and validation was performed on a mechatronic test bench with both healthy and faulted components. Experiments were carried out to investigate how various configurations of the system were able to detect different types of faults. The results indicate that this approach is effective and merits further investigation.

May 1, 2013

By Garth D. Kirkham

The Problem The Don deposit is a series of two sub-vertical zones that pose a number of challenges with respect to modeling and interpolation. The first challenge is that, based on data and observations, the mineralization and, more importantly, the grade is layered or banded and is stratigraphically controlled. The second challenge is that, due to the undulations of the deposit and extreme changes in dip, using a standard oriented ellipse to guide the estimation process is not appropriate and does not result in an estimate that is representative on a local scale. In order to solve this problem an adapted methodology of relative elevation modelling, has been devised to effectively model and estimate deposits faced with these challenges. Relative Elevation Designed for bedded seam and gridded surface With variable dip and vertical grade variability

May 1, 2013

?Four-wheel, skid-steer, rover developed for CSA ?U-chassis for payload accommodation ?Passive geometric suspension ?Max speed 13km/hr ?Remote workstation ?275kg payload capacity ?On-board processor, IMU, motor encoders ?5.2kW-h battery capacity

May 1, 2013

By The SME Sustainable Development Committee

The evolution of sustainable development in mining is recognized as a key contributor to sustainable development (SD), which is defined as the ability of current generations to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland, 1987). This includes, in equal parts, social, economic and environmental impacts ? triple bottom line (Munashinge and Shearer, 1995). Alternately, sustainability has been defined in relation to social, natural, human, physical and financial capital. Our way of life relies significantly on the materials provided by mining, while mining activity affects the triple bottom-line or the five capitals. The mining community and its professionals have come to realize the importance of engaging all stakeholders in the discussion on sustainability. SME, as the leading professional mining organization, has been involved in these discussions. The society has various initiatives in sustainable development for members and stakeholders. The objective of this article is to: provide historical context for current trends in mining and SD and share SME sustainability initiatives ? their goals and rationales ? with the broader mining community. This article is timely because the past year saw two landmark forums on sustainable development: Rio+20 ? the 20th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and MMSD +10, the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project 10 years on. Furthermore, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Milos Declaration on the minerals professional?s responsibilities in achieving sustainable development, forums in which SME was involved.

May 1, 2013

By Michel Carreau

Presentation topic Introduction to Renewable Power in Remote Mining Industry Trend What are the Challenges and How to address them Acceptability (Management Buy-in) ? RP not core business to mining company Significant upfront costs Project Risks - Technological and Delivery Wind and solar power variability Operating hybrid power (Operator Buy-in) Conclusion Introduction ? RP at Remote Mining Sites Mining Project Cost Energy represents 25% of mining project CAPEX Energy represents 25% of OPEX Diesel, HFO, ? cost : 30+ cents/kWh RP - Proven technology - Excellent track record ?Wind (20 years), Solar PV (10+ years)? Hundreds of GW installed ?Reliable, High availability, very small OPEX. ?Wind/Solar cost : 15 to 22 cents/kWh (with good resource) ?Potential 10% to 20% Reduction in net cost of energy ?Price certainty for 20 to 25 years

May 1, 2013

By Karl R. Zipf

A tube bundle system (TBS) is a mechanical system for continuously drawing gas samples through tubes from multiple monitoring points located in an underground coal mine. The gas samples are drawn via vacuum pump to the surface and are typically analyzed for oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Results of the gas analyses are displayed and recorded for further analysis. Trends in the composition of the mine atmosphere, such as increasing methane or carbon monoxide concentration, can be detected early, permitting rapid intervention that prevents problems, such as a potentially explosive atmosphere behind seals, fie or spontaneous combustion. TBS is a well-developed technology and has been used in coal mines around the world for more than 50 years. most longwall coal mines in australia deploy a TBS, usually with 30 to 40 monitoring points as part of their atmospheric monitoring. The primary uses of a TBS are detecting spontaneous combustion and maintaining sealed areas inert. The TBS might also provide mine atmosphere gas composition data after a catastrophe occurs in an underground mine, if the sampling tubes are not damaged. TBSs are not an alternative to statutory gas and ventilation airflowmonitoring by electronic sensors or people; rather, they are an option to consider in an overall mine atmosphere monitoring strategy. This paper describes the hardware, software and operation of a TBS and presents one example of typical data from a longwall coal mine.

May 1, 2013

By Mauro Chiesa

A. New Dictionary, Since 2007/8 Traditional concept of ?cycle? is dead A dearth of projects AND good metal prices suggests otherwise In a depletion-business, good times for any greenfields in 2-3 yrs! ?Balance? sheet means quality assets = quality capital So, de-risk the assets, and ration the capital ?Replacement costs > historical costs ?Discounted assets depleting; replacement costs need self-financing (FCF) ?Public-sector slows permits, avoids assets and wants more of FCF ?Capital ?markets? are now ?market fragments? ..and? ??Shareholder? has changed from ?growth? to ?income + performance? ?Higher search costs, higher capital costs and higher cost of capital

May 1, 2013

By Patrick Fantin

Mining ? The Past Safety Not a priority; Health Not a priority; Energy Manual Labour; Horsepower? Literally. Financially Robust For the Owner?s; Mining ? The Future Safety Zero Harm Health Understanding and elimination of Industrial Disease Energy Efficient use of energy through technology. Full value of renewable energy. Financially Robust Continually build shareholder value through optimum CAPEX/OPEX.

May 1, 2013

By Luke Evans

What are Best Practices? What are Bad Practices? Who Uses Best Practices? Why Bother? Acceptability Guidelines Published Best Practices Published Bad Practices Additional Best Practices Some Best Practices for Low Grade Deposits Interpretation Guidelines Big Bear Gold Deposit Example Conclusions Questions

May 1, 2013