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By C. Patrick, D. Puckett

The feasibility of monitoring the locations and vital statistics of equipment and personnel in surface and underground mining operations has increased with advancements in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This paper addresses the use of RFID technology, which is relatively new to the mining industry, to track surface equipment in mine pits, loading points and processing facilities. Specific applications are discussed, including both simplified and complex truck tracking systems and an automatic pit ticket system. This paper concludes with a discussion of the future possibilities of using RFID technology in mining, including monitoring heart and respiration rates, body temperatures and exertion levels; monitoring repetitious movements for the study of work habits; and logging air quality via personnel sensors.

Jan 1, 1999

Australia had an active uranium mining industry in the 1950s with uranium oxide being supplied under contract to the atomic energy authorities of the U.K. and U.S.A. In the 1960s, when these con- tracts concluded, domestic production ceased, apart from Rum Jungle, whose production until 1971 was stockpiled. By the 1970s, the demand for uranium from the electrical utility industry had risen sharply and the effects on Australia were notable. The Mary Kath- leen mine re-opened in 1976 but, more significantly, exploration activity suddenly expanded with the re- sult that several world-standard deposits were locat- ed. Western world requirements for uranium based on increasing energy consumption and a changing energy mix, will warrant the development of Aust- ralia's resources. By 1985 our mines could be pro- ducing 9,500 tonnes of uranium oxide yearly and by 1995 the export value from uranium could reach that from wool. In terms of benefit to the community the economic rewards are considerable but, in terms of providing energy to the world, Australia's uranium is vital.

Jan 1, 1978

By DR. DOUGLAS

Discussion of the Paper of Dr. Douglas, presented at the Toronto Meeting of the Institute, July, 1907 (Trans., xxxviii., 455 to 471). EDGAR HALL, Silverspur, Queensland, Australia (communication to the Secretary*) :-Dr. Douglas has written on this subject before, and his influence has had a powerful effect on the side of freedom among the younger generation of engineers. Moreover, it is not the first time that he has attributed the decline of the copper-smelting industry in Swansea to the secrecy maintained by the firms there engaged in smelting-operations. In this latter statement I think his conclusions are open to criticism. Whether the firms referred to have suffered by their secrecy is their own business-I. bold no brief for them ; but that the decline of the copper-industry at Swansea was inevitable seems to me to be proved conclusively by Dr. Douglas's own writings. In his paper on The Copper Situation,1 Dr. Douglas says "In comparing iron and copper mining, . . . it must be remembered that 2 tons of average iron ore from the most prolific source now available will make 1 ton of metal; whereas from 33 to 75 tons (say an average of 50 tons) of copper ore must be mined to produce 1 ton of copper." And further: "Last year's production of iron was made from approximately 50,000,000 tons of ore. Our copper mines, to yield a production of 900,000,000 pounds, must have handled approximately 22,000,000 tons of ore, or nearly half the quantity raised from our iron mines." Is not this the key to the whole situation ? In transporting the 50,000,000 tons of iron-ore, 25,000,000 tons of the metal iron were carried so much nearer to the market, but the transportation of 22,000,000 tons of copper-ore would have carried only 450,000 tons of the metal copper nearer to its ultimate destination. The small percentage of copper available in its ores makes

Sep 1, 1908

By Hans Lundberq

IINDUSTRY'S attention is now focused on the production of munitions thereby creating a demand for certain minerals which in prewar days were produced only in limited quantities. Now production of these minerals must he increased from the known deposits and new deposits must be found. Can geophysics help? "War minerals" such as tin, vanadium, tungsten, antimony, manganese, chromium, and cinnabar have no physical characteristics sufficiently different front the country rook to permit their direct location by ordinary geophysical methods. As already demonstrated in work on gold and oil, useful information may be obtained indirectly, however, outlining structural features or geological conditions favorable for the deposition of such ores or the accumulation of oil. Recently, more direct and truly qualitative methods have been brought into a useful and practical stage, and by the combined application of old and new methods a technique has been developed which, it is hoped, will be of importance in the search for these vital minerals.

Jan 1, 1941

By K. L. Ludeke, A. D. Day

For many reasons, it appears that deep rooted, perennial shrubs offer potential for improved stabilization and provide maintenance free vegetative cover to harsh sites where perennial grasses have not been successful. The major objective was to select various shrub species of arid plants for initial soil stabilization of disturbed mining areas. The very fact that a drought-adapted shrub has a massive root system that can use moisture from a greater volume of mineral waste soil materials suggests that arid environment disturbed soils may be vegetatively stabilized using desirable forage shrubs. A secondary effort is underway to assemble information and plant materials of promising species from many arid regions of the world for reclamation of mined lands. Surprisingly, many of the better plants for arid sites are quite high in protein content. With proper management, breeding, and selection, they may prove to be very desirable livestock feed when mined lands are used in range land areas. Advancements in arid land solid waste stabilization hold favorable promise for many industries that mine and mill in arid regions for effective reclamation of disturbed areas. Particularly exciting is the possibility of establishment of high density maintenance free vegetative cover of climax vegetation that reclaims the disturbed area back to its original land use. Due to high shrub productivity, stabilization potential, nutritional quality, and reclamation success, greater use should be made of shrubs in disturbed land reclamation associated with mining and milling operations in harsh aril environments.

Jan 1, 1986

By L. M. Falcon

Cassiterite is considered to be the only economically significant tin mineral in the earth's crust, and in its purest form has a tin content of 78,6 per cent. South Africa has limited deposits of the mineral, and by its exploitation contributes about 2 per cent of the world's production. This paper gives a brief history of tin mining in South Africa, which dates back almost 3000 years. Over the intervening years, many tin-mining operations have flourished and as quickly disappeared. At present there are only three tin mines in operation, and a description is given of the methods of mining, concentrating, and smelting that are used. The properties and uses of tin are listed, together with relevant statistics.

Jan 1, 1985

By L. G. Huntley

THE only oil produced in Colombia during the past year has been that from the Tropical Oil Co. concession, operated by the International Petroleum Co. This has been about the same in amount as that of 1923, or approximately half a-million barrels gross, which has been used to supply the domestic requirements of the republic and for the company's own use, in about equal proportions. The Tropical Oil Co.'s field at Infantas has 17 producing wells, for the most part shut in. The company claims an average initial production of about 1000 bbl. each for these wells, which would represent a total potential production of 10,000 bbl. However, the area already outlined by this work is considerable, as drilling has apparently been carried on with the idea in mind of blocking out the field, rather than developing the greatest possible production. Therefore, whether or not the pipeline of the Andian National Corpn. is being built to take care of the amount of crude production admitted by the Tropical Oil Co., or a greater prospective amount, it is certain that this production could be quickly increased if desired.

Jan 3, 1925

By Donald W. Scott

THE year just ended was the 50th anniversary of that first flight at Kittyhawk, N. C., in 1903. In this 50-year period the aviation industry made startling developments from flight distances of 120 ft-at snail's pace-to speeds of over 1300 mph and flights that circle the globe. And 1953 also was the 50th anniversary of the Utah Copper Co., the Father of our mass production porphyry copper ventures. How do developments in the mining industry stack up with the aviation industry? The mineral industry can be as proud of developments over the past 50 years as the aviation industry. Only for the developments of the mineral industry could aviation and other allied industries advance as they have. The year 1953 made its contribution to this progress, with the normal number of process and equipment developments and an abnormally high amount of activity in new plant capacity, particularly copper. Tonnages are on the increase and operating troubles are becoming more and more problems in materials handling and control. We're approaching molecular dissemination of ores with hydro and pyro methods coming to the front to take over where flotation leaves off.

Jan 2, 1954

By C. E. White

The depletion of higher grade mineral reserves will accelerate the trend toward production from progressively larger and lower grade deposits. The discovery of adequate reserves of leaner ores will require the development of improved exploration techniques with a greater depth range. The principal challenges to the Canadian mining industry are to find the mineral resources required to meet fast growing world demand and to develop mining methods and equipment to ensure production costs which will strengthen our position in export markets in the face of in-creasing world competition. The challenges cannot be met without intensive efforts to attract more technical men to the industry and to improve their training.

Jan 1, 1967

By C. S. Barrett, C. T. Haller

TWINNING in magnesium is known to occur profusely under certain conditions, and when it occurs in polycrystalline materials it brings about a partial or even a complete change in the preferred orientation. The amount of research on this subject, however, has not been in proportion to its importance as a mechanism of deformation and reorientation. Much of the research has been limited to twinning in single crystals. The present study' concerns polycrystalline sheet, and is an investigation of the twinning produced by plastic deformation as a function of the following variables: I. Direction and type of deformation. 2. Amount of deformation. 3. Speed of deformation. 4. Temperature of deformation. 5. Composition and temper of the sheet. 6. Twins previously produced. 7. Twins previously produced, then annealed. By proper control of these variables it is shown that, on a laboratory scale, samples can be produced that are free from preferred orientations. MATERIALS AND METHODS The materials used were samples of commercial magnesium-alloy sheets with nominal compositions given in Table I. [ ] X-ray diffraction was used in most of this work to detect the twins and to estimate the amount of twinning. Since twinning on {102} planes causes a reorientation of the crystal lattice by 86°, it is very easy to study with X-ray diffraction patterns, particularly if one notices the diffraction ring from the basal plane the 002 reflection. By properly directing the X-ray beam, it is possible to produce 002 reflections from twinned material at, say, the 6 and 12 o'clock positions on the 002 ring, with the untwinned material reflecting to 3 and 9 o'clock positions; and by judging the relative intensity of the arcs on the diffraction ring at these positions, it is possible to judge the amount of twinned material relative to the untwinned. This X-ray method of estimating the amount of twinning is generally superior to metallographic observation, for it was found

Jan 1, 1946

By M Manefield, G Bournival, S Ata

Asteroids contain an abundance of valuable resources such as: nickel, cobalt, gold, platinum and rhodium. Whilst the consumption of mineral resources on Earth continues to deplete, meteoroids have the potential to become a significant source of minerals. Even though the minerals content of asteroids may be relatively high, the valuable minerals are more likely to be only a small portion of the total ore present in the main body. The ores must, therefore, be processed to extract the metals of interest from the waste. Existing terrestrial technologies rely on manipulating the physical and chemical properties of minerals. The application of these techniques to asteroids processing, however, is not straightforward due to the presence of different conditions such as zero gravity and lack of water in space. This paper discusses potential separation and extraction techniques that can be used for processing of asteroids.CITATION:Ata, S, Bournival, G and Manefield, M, 2015. Resource recovery in space, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 275–280 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

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

MAGMA COPPER COMPANY San Manuel Division The San Manuel Division of Magma Copper Company is located about 40 miles north of Tucson. Tons of ore milled in 1973 .were approximately 19 million at a rate of 63,000 tons per day. From this, about 42,600 tons of copper concentrate was produced as saying approximately 1.070 MoS2 and 28.5% Cu. As with many copper ores, the San Manuel ore contains a small amount of gold, but in this particular case, much of the gold follows the molybdenite. Separation of the molybdenite from the bulk sulfide concentrate by flotation produces a moly concentrate containing 9170 MoS2, just under 1.070 Cu, and 0.44 oz Au per ton. Cyanidation of this material for gold recovery is the only practice of its kind known to the authors of this Monograph. After thickening, the final moly concentrate is filtered for subsequent repulping with cyanide and lime. Gold dissolution takes place in three agitators in series with the pulp from the agitators being filtered in two stages in disc filters. Between filtration stages, the cake is repulped with barren solution. Filtrate from both filters is the pregnant solution. The Merrill-Crowe recovery unit is comprised of two solution tanks and the usual clarifying filter, vacuum tower, zinc dust feeder and Merrill precipitate press. Because of the presence of finely divided sooty chalcocite in the molybdenum concentrate, the cyanide consumption of 55 pounds per ton is extremely high. A compensating factor, however, is the low copper, moly concentrate produced. Precipitation of the gold from the highly copper-contaminated solution requires 0.56 pounds of zinc dust and 0.28 pounds of lead acetate per ton, high figures when compared to normal cyanidation practice. The Merrill- Crowe precipitate assays approximately 28.5% Cu, 8% Zn, 156 oz Au and 197 oz Ag per ton. The San Manuel cyanidation plant is an outstanding and innovative development.

Jan 1, 1975

By L. C. Skinner

THE Coal Hydrogenation Demonstration Plant at Louisiana, Missouri, was completed early in the year 1949. It has operated more or less continuously since completion except for the time required for making necessary inspections, repairs, and alterations between runs. Operations have included a short vapor-phase run on North Dakota lignite-tar distillate oil in 1949, followed in 1950 by four comparatively short exploratory liquid-phase runs and one vapor-phase run on Rock Springs [ ]

Jan 1, 1953

By C. A. Wert, K. C. Hsieh

Mineral particles in coal have enormous variation in size. Some are large enough to be seen by eye, others can be seen with the optical microscope and still others are so small that they can be resolved only by electron microscopy. We paid particular attention to particles of clays and sulfides less than 1 pm in size. This paper describes typical minerals and reports on the application of the techniques of electron microscopy to coal.

Jan 1, 1984

By G. K. Rogers

Portals, which are the surface entrances to underground excavations, are frequently overlooked and often difficult areas In terms of ground control. Failures commonly occur In the typically high angle approach cuts and Initial subsurface portion of the portal. In order to permit rigorous design of all types of portal structures, failures are Identified and subsequently classified. Based on the failure classification and suggested analysis methodology, optimum ground and support loading can be determined.

Jan 1, 1988

By Charles S. Barrett, Robert F. Mehl, Shueling Woo

WHEN one solid phase is generated from another, fixed and rational orientation relationships are observed to subsist between the parent and the new crystal. The principle has been proposed' that the relationships obtaining between the same two phases are identical whatever the type of phase change involved, or whichever of the phases may act as parent. Many types of phase changes have been studied: allotropic transformations in pure metals, precipitation from solid solutions, eutectoid decompositions, peritectic reactions, the formation of oxide layers, and others.2 Phase layers generated by diffusion of one metal into another constitute an additional type of reaction. This report provides new data on the orientation relationships occurring between , phase layers formed by diffusion, in the Cu-Zn system, § and furnishes further evidence in support of the principle. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Cu-Zn system is especially suitable for these studies since the high vapor pressure of Zn provides an opportunity readily to create one phase poorer in Zn upon a parent phase richer in Zn by removing Zn by vaporization, or to reverse this process by adding Zn from Zn vapor; e.g., the beta phase can be found as a layer upon gamma by dezincing, or gamma can be found on beta by addition of Zn from Zn vapor. Since orientation relationships are to be sought, requiring crystals large enough for orientation determinations, it is convenient to prepare single crystals or large grains of the parent phase. The samples were prepared from oxygen-free high-conductivity copper and Horse Head zinc by melting under a borax flux in a graphite crucible. Large crystals of beta brass were grown by the strain-anneal method, in plates sectioned from the cast ingots, by the following procedure. Rockwell-hardness indents were made at I cm. intervals-and with various loads, then the plates were annealed for .4 days at 700°C. in Nichrome boxes packed with beta-brass chips and graphite. Surface layers were removed by grinding and etching to a depth of about 1.0 mm., and individual grains were cut out. Crystals of alpha and gamma brass were prepared by freezing, by lowering a graphite crucible at speeds less than one inch per hour through a furnace held at a constant temperature above the melting point. Single crystals were cut out with a jeweler's saw, ground, polished and etched. Care was taken to remove cold worked layers from the finished crystals

Jan 1, 1944

By R L. Keller

Hong Kong has some of the most restrictive practices regarding blasting than any place in the world. Regulations regarding vibration limitations are 1 in/sec for structures and 0.5 in/sec (or even less) for most utilities; with no recognition of frequency response or adjustment. The Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Office has one of the most conservative approaches and protective guidelines for pre-blast assessment of slopes subjected to blast vibration (SEE paper '96). The protective measures to control flyrock generally required by the Mines Division are additionally very stringent. It is not uncommon for the costs associated with protective measures or methods which must be employed to exceed the cost of the drilling and blasting itself - or to waiver blasting application unfeasible altogether. From these restrictions it can easily be imagined how blasting in this urban environment would be most challenging.

Jan 1, 1997

By Anthony D. Songer, James E. Diekmann, Jarrett E. Carlson

Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems are currently recognized as a necessary tool for the management of projects. Currently, CAD is used for TBM and conveyor setups, concrete lift design and overall constructability reviews. Typically, such CAD models exist only in 2 dimensions. The advent of more powerful computers, enhanced CAD programs and after market animation packages provides tremendous potential to the Tunneling industry. In particular, effective application of these technologies enhances cost, time and quality in field operations.

Jan 1, 1997

The Government signalled its intention in the Economic Statement on 17 December 1987 to improve the fairness of the taxation system and to facilitate the process of economic adjustment by: removing tax concessions that benefit some taxpayers at the expense of other taxpayers,ensuring that those who can afford it shoulder their fair share of the tax burden,securing a revenue base which will provide sufficient resources to maintain effective social services,reducing artificial protection and concessions that discriminate against some sectors, and encouraging confidence through an economic environment with a medium-term orientation. The Government has clearly stated to all sectors that tax preferences will be phased out and businesses need to look inwardly to their investment policies if they are to survive in an open economy. This paper will address the effect of these Government objectives on the taxation structure for all forms of mineral exploration in New Zealand. The present tax structure will firstly be analysed, in particular setting out the tax advantages available to the industry. The effect of changes to the tax system within the recent past which relate to mineral exploration will then be examined. Finally the paper will address the question of possible future changes, particularly in the light of Government's intention to move towards a tax system which does not provide an advantage for any one sector of the economy.

Jan 1, 1988

THE wave of nationalism co-mingled with communism which is sweeping from the Philippines across the Asiatic continent into the Middle East has climaxed in a tragedy in Iran which is shaking the foundations of the United Nations. Iran, who a few short years ago stood before the UN as a supplicant for protection against the occupation of the province of Azerbaijan by the Soviet, today defies its jurisdiction in the oil dispute with Great Britain.

Jan 11, 1951