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By C. Ek

In bismuth metallurgy, low-copper high-sodium mattes are by-produced. Different charges containing mixtures- of crude mattes, oxidized matte, and/or copper sulfide concentrate and/or copper silicate ore have been smelted to give a rich matte and a disposable slag, then converted to obtain blister copper with high recovery and a rich slag to be recycled.

Jan 1, 1983

By I. H. Douglas

All grade control methods in use currently by the mining industry are imprecise. The methods suffer from being locally inaccurate, leading to are loss and contact dilution. An ore/waste indicator variable can be used to predict the probability of ore occurrence at a given location, Po. Then, an ore grade Zo for an ore location and a waste grade Zw for a waste location are obtained. The expected revenue is calculated at each location, based on its probability of being are or waste, the corresponding grade, and on the cost of mining and processing the ore or the waste. Finally, the decision of whether to recover the block is based on the expected revenue value for that block. The method is illustrated with an example taken from the Jerritt Canyon district in northeastern Nevada.

Jan 1, 1994

By H. Kenneth Sacks

The Bureau of Mines has developed hardware for electromagnetic (EM) detection and location of miners trapped in underground coal mines. This report describes a technique for using the developed equipment for locating uncased boreholes underground. Results of several field and laboratory experiments are described.

Jan 1, 1978

By Stevenson C. H, Lynch A. J

The reasons for choosing autogenous grinding for the new Warrego concentrator of Peko Mines N.L. are discussed and the ores to be treated in the concentrator are described. The mill was designed on the basis of pilot tests carried out at Cobar and the performance of the mill has been most satisfactory both in its metallurgical and mechanical aspects. An empirical technique has been developed to predict mill performance for change in feed rate or feed size and a mathematical model of the mill is being developed for simulation and control work. The weight and size distribution of the mill load was determined at one set of operating conditions for use in the mill model.

Jan 1, 1974

By Edo Engel

Whereas only a handful of decades ago, typical blast furnace working volumes were below 1000 m³, such furnaces are currently designated compact or even mini blast furnaces. For certain business cases, however, small furnace sizes remain an attractive option. Decades ago, this size blast furnace would have produced a maximum of 0.3 Mtpa with its 600 m³ working volume over a campaign of up to four years. The current state of technology and operational know–how will allow a similarly sized furnace to produce over 0.7 Mtpa while achieving the multiple decade campaigns that have become familiar to steel producers in full sized operations. This level of productivity, but especially the reliability and supply security associated with mature technology, allows for integration into minimills or taking a first step towards a full scale BF–BOF integrated mill. Steel producers considering such scenarios, which are typically attractive for emerging economies, are confronted with fundamental decisions, one of which is for the technological basis for the compact or mini blast furnace to be included in the plant. This article addresses some of these decisions from an operations–based perspective. A small number of case studies is included.

Aug 16, 2017

By Arvind Thekdi, Cynthia Belt2

"Waste heat from industrial operations in metals industry represents 20% to 50% of the total energy used in most manufacturing plants. Reduction and recovery of waste heat offers the most attractive and cost effective method of reducing energy intensity for an industrial plant to meet corporate energy saving goals. It is possible to reduce or recover 30% to 60% of the available waste heat by using conventional and readily available technologies. Projects to reduce or recovery waste heat may offer less than 3 years payback to as short as a few months. This paper presents information on most commonly used methods for waste heat reduction and recovery in the metals industry operations. It describes the methods and use of analysis tools that would allow a user to estimate energy savings, CO2 or GHG reduction potential, and economic benefit and includes appropriate case histories.Waste Heat SourcesSources of waste heat abound with the metals industry. While the overall quantity of energy is high, the sources are distributed throughout a plant. The largest source within the metals industry is within furnace exhaust / flue gases. This includes the high temperature gases from burners in process heating such melting, calcining, and sintering operations. It also includes lower temperature gases from heat treat, dryers, and heaters. Lower temperatures are also found after post processed hot gases. This could include heat left after heat exchangers, regenerative systems, thermal oxidizers, and emission control systems. Other hot gases include air used in direct and indirect cooling.While waste heat in form of exhaust gases is readily recognized, waste heat can also be found within liquids and solids. Waste heat within liquids includes things such as cooling water, heated wash water, and blow down water. Solids can be hot product at discharge after processing or reactions are complete. Indeed, not only is energy wasted in the hot metal that slowly air-cools, but additional energy may be used in providing air or water-cooling to increase the speed of cooling. Other waste heat sources are not as apparent and include things like hot surfaces, steam leaks, boiler blow down water, etc. Table 1 and Figure 1 show several major sources along with the temperature range and characteristics of the source."

Jan 1, 2011

By J. Schmidl

In non-ferrous metallurgy the service life of refractory materials typically ranges from several weeks up to three years or more and is strongly dependent on operating conditions. To support our customers with the most viable refractory solution for their needs RHI Magnesita follows a structured approach of thermo-chemical calculations, experimental evaluation from lab scale up to industrial field tests and post-mortem analysis of used refractory materials. This paper will give an overview of the RHI Magnesita refractory selection process and the most recent developments of the experimental setup for the so called HF-IF test. This is a dynamic corrosion test that allows to determine fundamental properties of different refractory material types under process conditions subjected with respective customers process materials. The HF-IF experimental procedure is an excellent tool to simulate refractory wear in industrial processes, diminishing risks associated with plant trials and support decision making to choose the optimal refractory solution for the customer.

By Kurt Wiener

A major process control system is in some ways like a complex organism. The extremities, (that is, field instruments) are exposed to many hazards and suffer malfunctions of relatively minor and repetitive nature. Here I equate a stuck valve or dead transmitter with a skin abrasion or cut. The maintenance and repair of the extremities can be done by technicians with basic but thorough knowledge of relatively few problems and their solutions. Here I equate with administering Band-Aids and aspirin. On the other extreme, when the master control device (such as a computer) fails, one does not attempt home remedies. A "brain" specialist is called in. It is, however, crucial that the patient be able to clearly describe his symptoms. Getting down to the case at hand, a complex system consisting of field instruments, instrument racks, interface equipment, and perhaps a computer, may require maintenance at all levels. At the field equipment end where physical damage, corrosive atmospheres, reconfiguration, and routine calibration checks are common, the customer has the opportunity to develop a competent staff of maintenance people. The relatively high maintenance activity assures competence through repetition.

Jan 1, 1980

By D. Malhotra

Climax byproduct-plant tailing assayed 0.019 percent WO3. Pilot-plant and laboratory tests were performed to investigate the possibility of recovering additional tungsten values from the byproduct-plant tailing. The paper discusses the methodology used in the study and the results of this investigation.

Jan 1, 1985

By M Flanagan, T Sua, B Wright, T Carroll, B Van Dijken

"BHP Billiton (BHPB) West Australian Iron Ore (WAIO) conducts an extensive geometallurgy (geomet) program for its iron ore deposits in the Pilbara. The geomet program provides accurate information to infrastructure engineers, resource geologists, mine planning engineers and the technical marketing team on the performance characteristics of iron ores. Performance metrics include production planning, such as lump/fine splits, processing capability such as the level of ultra-fine iron ore and ironmaking blast furnace properties including tumble index (TI) and reduction disintegration index (RDI). Prior to the introduction of the current geomet program in WAIO, basic geometallurgical information was provided at the deposit level, such as deposit lump percentage and head grade chemistry. As the business value of geometallurgy was realised during the growth period of WAIO, the geomet process was reviewed and formalised into five steps: geomet drill planning laboratory measurement data management algorithm development block estimation.The geomet laboratory process produces simulated iron ore products from drill core, which are then subjected to physical geometallurgy test work. With the large amount of geometallurgy data collected, extensive databases are utilised to collate and organise the data to improve its usability within the business. Algorithms are created from the data to predict important geomet variables and a block estimation method is used to estimate geometallurgical properties into resource models. The predicted geometallurgy data is regularly reviewed at the different steps against plant and shipping data to allow refinement of the geometallurgy algorithms. It is also recognised that geomet data can be used to optimise the operations in existing processing hubs for improved production rate. In addition, future geomet programs will focus on generating data from all available drill core programs, not just dedicated geomet drill holes, and will incorporate new types of data, such as hyper-spectral information, for improved geometallurgical estimation.CITATION:Wright, B, Carroll, T, Flanagan, M, Sua, T and Van Dijken, B, 2013. BHP Billiton West Australian iron ore geometallurgy - past, present and future, in Proceedings The Second AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2013, pp 105-110 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Sep 29, 2013

By Robert R. Brandom

The Boss-Bixby deposit is one of several iron deposits that occur in the Precambrian igneous rocks of southeastern Missouri. It differs, however, from all of those deposits by its significant contents of copper, cobalt, and titanium, and its close relationship with a basic igneous intrusion. Ore microscopic study of selected drill core samples has shown that the hypogene ore minerals are magnetite, hematite, chalcopyrite, bornite, covellite, ilmenite, rutile, sphalerite, cobaltian pyrite, carrollite, scheelite, and wolframite. Subsequent partial oxidation has formed martite, pseudobrookite, and anatase. Textural evidence indicates that two stages of iron and iron-titanium oxide formation were followed by the deposition of the copper-iron sulfide minerals and carrollite.

Jan 1, 1985

By L Dyer, G. J. Wilkie, P. Walters, B Tadesse, L. Keeney

Grade Engineering® is a term trademarked by the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) and includes five key levers for upgrading ores and rejecting waste prior to expensive downstream comminution and mineral processing. These five levers include natural deportment, induced deportment, bulk sorting, particle sorting and gravity separation. Over the past ten years, CRC ORE has progressed a range of technologies that exploit these levers from laboratory proof of concept through to large scale demonstration and validation. This paper details the work carried out by CRC ORE and Curtin University for assessing the amenability of an ore for its natural deportment and particle sorting attributes in an Integrated Screening and Particle Sorting (ISPS) Grade Engineering® process. ISPS is seen as a preferred method for Grade Engineering® as compared to individually operated unit operations as the benefits of each can be complementary. Furthermore, it is suggested that integrating the two levers has two important impacts: 1. Firstly, there is a risk that isolated particle sorting test results will be misinterpreted as being representative of the full sample without considering the mass balance impact of high-grade material that might have been lost in the fines fraction. This fine fraction will not be detected through the particle sorter. 2. Secondly, and potentially of more valuable impact, is that the opportunity may exist to upgrade the feed first through determining if there is a concentration of high grade to the fine (or coarse) fraction which can be separated through screening. Undertaking screening in the preparation stage of the particle sorting process will enable analysis and separation of the fine or coarse fractions of a rock mass. The result of this study provides the mining industry with an independent framework for undertaking an Order of Magnitude (ISPS) Grade Engineering® assessment on a range of constituent ore types. Keywords: Grade engineering, particle sorting, grade by size fractionation

Jan 1, 2020

By D. S. Preece, S. Silling, A. Bhuiyan, C. M. Lownds

GEM (Geologic Element Motion) is a Discrete Element Method (DEM) capability for blast-induced heave simulation with a very fast computational algorithm that can efficiently treat many different element shapes by utilizing alternating arcs and lines. GEM calculates rock motion from a knowledge of the gas pressure moving the elements. This requires an expression for the pressure vs volume, or the adiabat, of the explosion product gases. This work uses an analytical expression for the adiabat derived from the explosive’s properties. The effect of the explosive detonation pressure in crushing an annulus of rock, and setting up a shock wave, is termed Brisance. GEM incorporates a working hypothesis for the deleterious effect of Brisance on subsequent rock motion.

Jan 1, 2024

By J Paradis, K Dudgeon, M Topping

At Newmont’s Jundee Operation, exploration and resource geologists collaborated to produce an open pit resource model. Using a variety of modelling and estimation techniques but no new data, an uneconomic underground target was converted into a potentially economic open pit evaluation. During an industry downturn, it is more important than ever to efficiently share expertise, ideas and resources to problem solve and produce meaningful project outcomes. The two departments brought together different methods and ideas, and the process showed that certain methods worked better than others in different situations, thus the appropriate method was applied to each part of the evaluation. The results were used to create new procedures and improved lithology modelling and resource model estimations. Adaptability of the geology departments and collaboration such as this are key to ongoing improvements and future mine life at Jundee.CITATION:Dudgeon, K, Paradis, J and Topping, M, 2014. Cook open pit model – the hurdles: how we leapt, lunged, stumbled and overcame them, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014 , pp 169–174 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 18, 2014

By AIME AIME

THOUGH the Annual Meeting of the Institute-officially numbered 158 on the records was delayed a bit at the start by low steam pressure on the locomotives bringing members to New York, the crowd that finally arrived more than lived up to expectations, and the technical program had few difficulties because of absent authors or lack of competent discussers. The transportation difficulties were occasioned by the fact that Monday, Feb. 15, was the third coldest day in the 72 year history of the New York Weather Bureau, the official temperature being 8 below zero. The New York Central's premier train, the 20th Century, due at 9:30 a.m., arrived about 6:30 p.m., and the Commodore, another crack train from Chicago, was about equally late.

Jan 1, 1943

By Neal I. Rosenberg

There is an old education maxim that a good teacher "first tells 'em what he's gonna tell 'em, then he tells 'em, and finally he tells 'em what he told 'em. I'm sure this says something about me as a teacher, and therefore as a student as well, but I'm going to begin by violating that maxim. The first thing I'm going to do is tell you what I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you that my company has found the solution to frozen coal problems. I'm not going to tell you that there is a miraculous new formula, and your frozen coal worries are over. Actually, it is really questionable whether there is a single step or process which will provide the answer. On the other hand, I do believe that at Union Electric we have made significant improvements in our ability to deal with frozen coal over the last couple of years, and I propose to describe some of the things we have done, what conclusions we have drawn so far, and the direction in which we are now headed. It would be well here to give a brief picture of the Union Electric system and the frozen coal problems we face. Union Electric is an investor owned electric utility with headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. Total generating capability is on the order of 6800 megawatts, which snakes us 24th or 25th largest in the United States. Power generation is by steam (both coal and oil fired), hydro, pumped hydro, and combustion turbine units. Although that is a diverse power supply, by far the largest source is our four coal fired steam plants. One receives coal exclusively by barge, the other three by rail. It is at these last three plants that the frozen coal difficulties arise.

Jan 1, 1980

By Catharine L. VanOmmeren

Emulsion quality characteristics such as shelf life, handling, and sensitivity are critical to the end-user. It is therefore important that the consumer be prepared to ask his supplier specific questions. To do so, he needs to have a basic understanding of what an emulsion is and how emulsion properties can affect safety, performance, and environmental impact. The criteria to be covered include: energy, velocity, sensitivity, minimum priming, shelf life, pumpability, effect of AN quality, over-the-road handling, and formulation The consumer will learn how each of these properties can directly affect him. The information will enable him to set minimum standards in product selection, blending, and application.

Jan 1, 1989

By Huimin Lu, Zegao Sun, Zhijiang Gao

The traditional Ti6Al4V alloys were obtained by the smelting reduction of V-Ti bearing beach placer by rotary hearth furnace and aluminothermic reaction in laboratory. First, it gets he lp from combined rotary hearth furnace and grinding magnetic separation process to prepare titanium slag containing vanadium. In this study, a neural network model was used. The comparisons between experiment results and neural network simulation results show that genetic algorithm (GA)-based on back propagation (BP) method can predict the degree of reduction and separation of iron and slag with higher prediction accuracy. Then by aluminothermic reaction process, the optimized process parameters for Ti-V-Al alloys were searched. Al can deoxidize metal V and Ti from the metal oxides of artificial rutile containing vanadium. Finally, traditional Ti6Al4V alloy can be obtained by remelt and adjust the constituents.

Jan 1, 2016

By M. Opler

Presently, only a few large copper refineries are able to produce Grade A cathodes from copper scrap. Today's technology needs large plants for smelting, converting or refining the main impurities and casting the anodes for electrolytic refining. A new ECUPREX® PROCESS, by-passes all pyrometallurgical operations and produces directly copper cathodes starting from copper scrap with high lead and tin contamination. Copper scrap from chopped cables, copper cements and electronic scrap are suitable feed for ECUPREX® PROCESS. This process uses a non-conventional electrolyte and produces a surprisingly high quality, smooth cathode assaying only few ppms of total metallic impurities. Bench-scale work followed by a successful mini-pilot plant run, has led to the construction of an operating pilot plant equipped with a 1,000 Ampere cell. The results of the operations of this pilot plant are presented and described in this paper.

Jan 1, 1995

By J. B. Rubenstein

This work demonstrates the feasibility of using confocal surface profilometry to measure and characterize wear of graphite anode surfaces. This method was tested using anode samples that were electrolyzed for 24 hours in a laboratory-scale magnesium cell with a high oxide molten salt electrolyte. The oxide produced accelerated wear on anodes designed for low oxide electrolytes. Contour maps, which are effective at displaying non-uniform wear, and total graphite consumption values were generated from the collected surface coordinates. Along with both qualitative and quantitative analysis capabilities, this measurement system was shown to have a fine resolution and a low detection limit.

Jan 1, 2004