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By Gabriella Vaschetti, Pascual Perazzo

A paper presented at Perumin 35 in 2022 described the concepts and a state-of-the-art system with extruded curbs and PVC anchor wings, adopted among others at the first four stages of Las Bambas tailings dam in Peru, discussing how upstream geomembrane water barriers can mitigate the numerous issues, including environmental aspects, of tailings dams’ design and operation. This paper, beside presenting a summary of what has been carried out so far at Las Bambas, amplifies the subject, presenting the results by means of the data of the leakage monitoring system, showing that the flow monitoring data at the downstream toe are seasonally consistent, and in alignment with design predictions.

Sep 29, 2023

By Aquiles Vivar Montañez

"La construcción de losas de relleno cementado en la aplicación del método de corte y relleno descendente, es una etapa importante en el ciclo de minado - en tanto representa uno de los mayores costos de extracción por tonelada de mineral. En este contexto, es necesario establecer metodologías adecuadas para el diseño de losas basadas en técnicas empíricas y analíticas, así como para el de recuperación de pilares. Por ello, el presente texto señala la optimización de la resistencia del relleno cementado a través de la reducción del ancho de minado en los sectores de mayor potencia y la reducción del módulo de rigidez de la losa para que guarde equivalencia con la rigidez de las rocas encajonantes, que son de baja calidad geotécnica. "

Sep 1, 2015

By Nate Ober, Heath Rushing

"Mining companies want to be in a position to move quickly and seize a favorable market or to keep their key staff productively busy. One of the problems for these companies is the time required to compensate for unavoidable impacts that the mine will have on the natural environment and to gain environmental permits. All too often, circumstances that were favorable when the project was proposed have become less favorable by the time all the hurdles have been cleared.Accordingly, many mining companies are interested in ways they can inject more predictability into their timelines for gaining environmental permits, shorten those timelines, and be more certain of getting the permits they need to carry out their next project.One increasingly popular way to do this is through a relatively new kind of service — the mitigation bank.Mitigation banks purchase property or easements through property that has been impacted by agricultural, industrial or resource activity. They then turn it around from an environmental point of view. This might include restoring streams and wetlands so that fish and aquatic organisms can survive, and animals have habitat and food to flourish.Appropriate native species of plants including trees and shrubs are planted, and steps may be taken to introduce wildlife to the new habitat. In some cases, a special focus is placed on creating habitat for rare and endangered species of plants or animals.The property is inspected by regulatory authorities, coordinated through an interagency review team (IRT). If the property is determined to be effective as natural habitat, the mitigation bank is then issued credits that it can then sell to development projects that are creating an unavoidable permitted environmental impact elsewhere. A mining company, for example, would buy credits to offset the aquatic impacts due to construction of a mine, access roads and other infrastructure — as required by the Section 404 Clean Water Act permit that governs those unavoidable aquatic impacts. The mitigation bank used for offset must have an IRT-approved service area that includes the location of the impacts."

Jan 11, 2017

By Peter Rubie

"For many years, optimising the relining of hard rock grinding mills has been complicated by:?? the large number of variables;?? the low frequency of relines (slow feedback loop);?? the potential economic risk associated with some changesA technology that has its roots in the automotive manufacturing industry is being utilised to construct a statistically accurate, configurable, and dynamic simulation of the mill relining process. The effects of various mechanisation and process changes can be rapidly modelled and compared.This technology will provide mill maintenance managers and contract relining companies with the opportunity to benchmark current performance against world’s best practice. It will also provide an opportunity for concentrator plant designers and mill manufacturers to plan for maximum plant efficiency, by designing an infrastructure and equipment combination that maximises annual plant availability.This simulation tool and its associated data set, has been developed using recent grinding mill performance data from mills of varying dimensions, liner configurations, mill relining equipment, operator and tool variables.The simulation will provide an output that the various stakeholders can utilise to make optimal decisions within the given financial, physical and technological constraints of the individual concentrator plant."

Jan 1, 2012

By Luara da Costa Morais

O objetivo deste trabalho compreende o estudo do grau de sensitização (DOS) do aço inoxidável dúplex (AID) UNS S31803 envelhecido a 750ºC por ensaios de DL-EPR. Para isto, corpos de prova do aço em estudo foram solubilizados a 1.175ºC e envelhecidos a 750ºC entre 10 min e 240 h visando a formação de diferentes frações de sigma. Corpos-de-prova metalográficos foram utilizados para a caracterização microestrutural, que foi realizada por meio de técnicas de estereologia quantitativa a partir de imagens de elétrons retroespalhados para a quantificação das fases intermetálicas formadas durante o envelhecimento e análises magnéticas. Os ensaios de DL-EPR foram conduzidos em solução 2M H2SO4 + 0,5M NaCl + 0,01M KSCN à 30 ± 2ºC, em amostras polidas. Observou-se que o DOS das amostras envelhecidas mostra forte dependência da microestrutura. Foram registrados duplos máximos de densidade de corrente tanto na ativação quanto na reativação, onde os ensaios potenciostáticos mostraram que estes máximos estão relacionados a dissolução da fases, ferrita e austenita. Observou-se o aumento no DOS de ambas as fases seguido de queda, provavelmente devido à redistribuição de Cr para regiões empobrecidas, decorrentes da formação de fases intermetálicas.

Aug 7, 2018

THE QUARTETTE Mine near Searchlight, NV, a mine that first operated in the 1890s, could begin processing ore again by September. Jetco Enterprises Inc. plans to work through the tailings and ore close to the surface followed by plans for an openpit mine. It is one of at least three new mining efforts in the region, the Associated Press reported. Another is north of Searchlight, with yet another across the Colorado River in Arizona, east of Bullhead City. Gold mining is rare in southern Nevada. The area generally lacks the rock type that contains gold deposits. Restrictions on federal wilderness areas and protections for the desert tortoise also play a role. Gold veins in the region are generally small and erratic in length and height, Bill Durbin, a geologist and chief of southern Nevada operations for the Nevada Division of Minerals told the Associated Press. L.R. Tad Tinnell, president of Jetco Enterprises, has long eyed the mine. From 1993 to 1995, he explored and drilled on the property, which was still owned by Searchlight Mercantile.

Sep 1, 2013

By Richard J. Wardle, Ambrose F. Howse

The industrial minerals industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is a significant contributor to the provincial economy. The variety ofcommodities produced reflects the diverse geological environment from which they come. A highlight of the past decade has been the continuing development of dimension stone quarries, with producers now active in anorthosite, gabbro, granite and sandstone. Other dimension stone prospects have been identified and are in various stages of assessment and development. Western Newfoundland hosts a large resource of limestone, dolomite and marble. It provides raw material for industries that produce Portland cement, agricultural limestone and aggregate, as well as chemical-grade limestone and dolomite products. In western Labrador, dolomitic marble is quarried for use in the production of self-fluxing iron ore pellets. The recent opening of a new gypsum quarry at Fischells Brook signalled the beginning of a new era in the commercial production ofgypsum, a commodity which the province has produced since the 1950s. Hopefully it will emulate the nearby Flat Bay Quarry (now closed) which was a long-time exporter to markets along the U.S. eastern seaboard, in addition to supplying local demands. Oil production and continuing exploration in the Newfoundland offshore has renewed interest in local barite deposits for potential use in drilling fluids. Already there has been some production from the Collier Point deposit, and at Buchans, an existing plant is being refurbished to recover barite from a large tailings pond. Emerging new industries include the development of an antimony mine in central Newfoundland, the development of silica deposits near Labrador City for silicon metal production, and reactivation of the St. Lawrence fluorspar mine. The province has many deposits with development potential such as rare metals at Strange Lake, white marble at Roddickton and salt deposits near St. George's Bay region.

Jan 1, 2001

By Julio Aníbal Morales Pereira

Sabe-se dos problemas associados com as inclusões não metálicas, os quais afetam não somente a operação de fabricação, como também a qualidade do produto final. Por esses motivos, muitos estudos têm sido realizados para melhorar o controle do tamanho, quantidade, forma, distribuição e composição das inclusões. Especificamente para as inclusões de espinélio MgO·Al2O3, ainda é preciso melhorar o entendimento dos fenômenos sobre a formação e modificação destas inclusões para um melhor controle ao longo do processo de fabricação do aço e obter maior limpidez inclusionária nos aços. Assim, neste trabalho, foram revisados tópicos reportados na literatura relacionados com: a formação, influência da composição da escória e modificação com cálcio das inclusões de espinélio.

Aug 16, 2017

By Johne Jesus Mol Peixoto

Utilizando um modelo físico de um reator RH em escala 1:7,5, simulou-se o processo de injeção de material dessulfurante na câmara de vácuo, buscando evidenciar a influência da vazão de gás e da diferença de densidade entre as fases sobre o tempo de residência e sobre o tamanho das gotas de escória arrastadas pelo metal, parâmetros essenciais para uma estimativa da taxa de dessulfuração. O aumento na densidade do fluido similar ao aço resultou em considerável prolongamento no tempo de residência e diminuição do diâmetro médio das gotas de óleo arrastadas. Para a solução salina (NaCl) como fluido de circulação, observou-se que a redução da vazão de gás aumenta o tempo de residência das partículas de dessulfurante. Tais resultados sugerem que existe uma vazão ótima de gás para alcançar maior eficiência de dessulfuração no RH, isto é, maior tempo de residência do material dessulfurante e arraste de gotas de escória de menor diâmetro.

Oct 30, 2017

By Leandro Augusto Justen Marzulo, Guilherme Lucio Abelha Mota, Otávio da Fonseca Martins Gomes, Gilson Alexandre Ostwald Pedro da Costa, Alexandre da Costa Sena, Felipe Schimith Batista

O presente trabalho desenvolveu uma solução, utilizando Hadoop e Map Reduce for C (MR4C), capaz de paralelizar a segmentação de fissuras em imagens de partículas minerais. Um conjunto de 221 imagens de tamanhos distintos de partículas de minério de cobre obtidas por microscopia eletrônica de varredura foi utilizado para os testes. A variação do número de nós de processamento apresentou um ganho do tempo de execução que escalou de forma quase que linear. O balanceamento de carga estática promoveu um speedup de 1,3. A solução proposta, quando comparada à implementação sequencial, considerando um cluster com 9 nós de processamento, atingiu um speedup de 19,1.

Oct 1, 2019

By W. W. Adams

Lower accident rates were the outstanding feature. of the second annual sand and gravel safety competition conducted in 1930 by the United States Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the National Sand and' Gravel Association. Both the frequency and, severity rates for accidents were greatly reduced as compared with those shown by the first year's contest, that for 1929. Three times as many plants were enrolled, and the number of man-hours of work represented was more than doubled. Seventy-six sand-and-gravel plants, situated in 20 States, participated in the Competition, as compared with 26 plants, located in 13 States, in the year before. The number of man-hours of employment, which indicated the amount of exposure to occupational hazards, was 4,915,592, an increase of more than 100 per cent over the previous year's total of 2,259,572 hours. The frequency of accidents declined from 74.4 per million hours for all plants enrolled in the first year's contest to 42.7 per million man-hours for all plants enrolled in 1930. The accident-severity rate was reduced from 9.7 days of disability per thousand man-hours of exposure in 1929 to 5.9 days of disability per thousand man-hours of exposure in 1930. The actual number of accidents reported for 1930 by 76 plants included four deaths and 206 injuries whereas the 26 plants that were enrolled in 1929 reported three fatalities and 165 injuries. Under the rules of the contest all "lost-time" injuries are reported--that is, all injuries that disable an employee for more than the remainder of the day on which the accident occurred. If the employee is physically able to resume his work on the day following the accident, the injury is not classed as a lost-time injury. The contest covered accidents and man-hours worked by all employees at the plant who were employed by the same company, and included work up to the point of delivery of the material directly to consumer or to independent agency of transportation--in other words, to point of relinquishment of control of the material by the producer.

Jan 1, 1931

By Joshua Hoffman, Rhys Baker, Tim O’Brien

Numerous agencies in the Executive Branch of the United States Federal Government have regulatory jurisdiction over the explosives industry. These agencies develop the rules by which the explosives industry must operate, and many have the authority to enforce those rules. Likewise, there are entities in the Legislature that have oversight of those agencies and develop the laws that agencies must operate under. These entities in the Legislative Branch are Congressional Committees. Each committee has their respective jurisdictional authority over various agencies and issues. There are several Congressional Committees with jurisdiction over the agencies that govern the explosives industry and they differ slightly between the House of Representatives and the Senate. This paper discusses this division of power as it relates to the explosives industry. Each branch is responsive to the public and the processes through which each promulgates regulation and legislation require public input in different forms. Options for civic involvement for engaging each of these bodies of power in their respective processes are presented. The differences between legislation and regulation are highlighted along with the processes by which each are promulgated. A proper understanding of the governmental mechanics that affect the explosives industry are critical for the industry to be able to be proactive in playing a role in these processes in a democratic way.

By Roy H. Grau

Increased awareness of a healthy work environment is common to all industries and the stone industry is no exception. The presence of operating diesel equipment, welding, stone production blasting, and silica dust in a working environment all contribute to air quality issues in underground stone mines. Particularly recognized is the exposure of workers to diesel particulate matter (DPM). Recent regulations call for a DPM standard of 160TC ug/m3 (TC = Total Carbon). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has conducted research to improve the ventilation of these mines and consequently reduce the exposure of workers to harmful airborne contaminants. The results have shown that the ventilation of underground stone mines can be significantly enhanced using improved ventilation controls and techniques. Large-opening stone mines present specialized ventilation challenges because their entries are much larger than in other types of mines. Most stone mines have entries about 40 feet wide and up to 30 feet high, with bench areas that may extend even higher. These large entries present the positive opportunity to move large air quantities at relatively low mine fan pressures resulting in lower fan horsepower and reduced operating costs. However, the difficulty in ventilating large-opening mines is that even with large air volumes, the air velocity is often less than 100 feet/minute. Higher ventilation velocities more quickly dilute and remove contaminants from the face areas. Higher ventilation airflow velocities can be achieved by effective ventilation planning and proper choice of ventilation fans.

Jan 1, 2009

By M. Z. Naghadehi, F. F. Nasategay, J. Sattarvand, R. Battulwar, E. E. Gohari

After the recent increase in catastrophic failures of tailings dams such as the Burmadinho, Brazil failure in 2019, the mining industry has actively engaged in the stabilisation of tailings dams. Most of the tailings storage facility (TSF) guidelines suggest a laborious action that can be facilitated through imaging by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Although UAVs are not unknown to most mining operations, automated rill detection through aerial image processing is a new concept. This study utilises images from sites in the U.S. and employs semantic segmentation with a UNet architecture to detect location and size of these rills. The developed model can be used as a tool for monitoring surface erosion of TSFs.

Sep 1, 2021

By Augustus Locke

I WISH to urge on this Committee the task of evaluating mining geology. -My motive is as follows: It, is a. duty of the Institute from time to5 time, to establish the social perspective of the professions grouped within it, not simply to promote their use, but to determine with engineering definiteness their true powers and functions. This becomes the delegated duty, therefore, of this committee in respect to geology. Be- cause my own subject is mining, I shall confine my remarks to mining geology. But I believe that the evaluation should be made to include all of that geology termed economic. The perspective for such evaluation is shown in the nature of the public support given to geology. The federal Geological Survey, the leading organization on the economic side, is actuated by the zeal of a small group of devoted professionals who consider its work valuable, ' It proceeds, however, on a starvation ration of appropriations, and that implies that neither the corporations, the voters nor the vote getters consider it important. Altogether, in' the public consciousness, geology is negligible. That, at the same moment, .the profession should act with full confidence, while everyone else should act' with opposite motives, is not fitting. For us, as a committee, to remain incurious regarding such a disparity of beliefs is quite impossible.

Jan 1, 1931

By Samuel Filgueiras Rodrigues, Sebastião Raimundo de Jesus Belém leitão Filho, Gedeon Silva Reis, Eden Santos Silva

Nesse trabalho estudou-se o retardo na cinética de amaciamento estático do aço inoxidável austenitico ASTM F-1586 (ISO 5832-9) usado na confecção de implantes ortopédicos, por meio de ensaios de torção a quente isotérmico em duplo passe. Inicialmente as amostras foram aquecidas por indução até a temperatura de 1250 oC e mantidas por 300 s para solubilização, em seguida resfriadas até a temperatura de deformação (Tdef), que variou de 1000 a 1200 oC, com passes de deformações de ε1 = ε2 = 0,30, taxa de deformação de 1,0 s-1 e tempo entre passes (tp) variando entre 0,1 – 1800 s, simulando um processo de forjamento a quente industrial de um dispositivo ortopédico. Os resultados da simulação física do processamento termomecânico indicaram que 60 % do amaciamento dá-se por recuperação estática (SRV), com moderado valor de energia de falha de empilhamento (γEFE ~ 69 mJ/m2) do aço e tempo de encubação pra iniciar a recristalização estática (SRX) maior que 10 s abaixo de 1100 oC com formação de patamares nas curvas de amaciamento Xs vs tp, indicando atraso na cinética de recristalização estática (SRX) resultante do efeito dos precipitados da fase Z (NbCrN) induzidos por deformação nos contornos dos grãos austeniticos.

Nov 18, 2019

By A. T. Yu

There are compelling reasons for us to look to our Country's Western coal. Despite its inherent low BTU content, Western coal's low sulphur content provides a near-ideal answer to satisfy our in- dependent goals of clean air and self-sufficiency in energy. Vast reserves, thick seams and amenability to low-cost strip mining serve as a powerful economic basis for its viability as a primary and dependable source of energy for the coming decades. A major consideration, the solution of which may not be quite obvious, is transportation cost. These abundant deposits are remote from the utilities of the heavily populated eastern regions of the United States (Figure 1). A Western coal mine in Montana is likely 1500 miles or more from an eastern power plant. The comparable distance to an eastern coal mine may be only 200 miles. Thus, the question is: How can the haulage cost of our Western coal be substantially reduced to an acceptable level? If resolved, western reserves of coal will be one of the key solutions to satisfying our Nation's energy needs.

Jan 1, 1975

By Marline J. Veesaert

Urban quarries offer one of the greatest opportunities for profit in non-metallic mining with limited financial risk IF properly evaluated, planned and developed to meet market needs. Location, with respect to market, is the prime consideration. Geologic considerations and quality of rock are nearly as important. Cost factors and return on investment (ROI) are the principal financial considerations. Risk of capital is determined by weighing all factors that should be considered and how well judgements are based on information acquired. It is a simple, true axiom of business that an investment must be founded on amount of capital required with its expected return plus profit, expertise required to operate and time involved. Urban quarries generally offer excellent stone product market opportunities. Costs of land with mineral containment and processing operations are much greater than in rural areas. Environmental problems have become increasingly severe. Competition from other quarries in the market area is usually directly proportional to the profit attractiveness. Risk of capital (initial, developmental and operational) can be evaluated and reduced only by thorough analysis of the entire situation. Time and money expended on planning and preliminary investigations probably represent the most productive investment of available company resources.

Jan 1, 1977

By D. Tahija

"Carbonic acid prepared on-site from carbon dioxide gas is widely used in water treatment and increasingly in some industrial applications. It has not seen extensive use in mineral processing but is an attractive alternative to sulphuric acid for pH control, with the need to counteract high pH levels caused by cemented backfill of particular interest. The fundamental chemistry of carbonate solutions as applied to flotation and flocculation circuits is described as well as plant-scale application. A project to introduce use of carbon dioxide for pH control at the Hecla Greens Creek lead-zinc-silver-gold operation is planned to begin operation in the first half of 2015. INTRODUCTION Flotation pH Control and Backfill Most sulphide flotation circuits are run at pH values ranging from slightly acid to strongly basic, with slightly basic pH the most common. Lead sulphide circuits are typically run at values from 7.5 to 9, with zinc circuits running at higher values of 9.5 to 10.5. This has been the case with ores that produce a natural pH in the circumneutral range, so that the pH needs to be raised. Although lime [Ca(OH)2] is the cheapest reagent in use to raise pH, soda ash (Na2CO3) or caustic soda (NaOH) are also employed where sodium ions in solution are preferred to dissolved calcium, or, in the case of soda ash, the presence of carbonate is desired. The use of soda ash for pH control in lead circuits has been widely recommended for many decades (1). The situation is necessarily different at operations where cemented backfill is used in underground mines (2). Backfill, whether emplaced as rammed paste or pumped slurry, is composed of mill tailings mixed with around 10% Portland or similar cement. When later mining occurs near or adjacent to previously backfilled areas, a considerable amount of old backfill is inevitably mixed with new ore and shipped to the mill. Depending on orebody geometry, mining methods etc., the amount of backfill in mill feed can easily approach 20%, with periods of higher content not unheard of. The presence of so much backfill, with its high cement content, produces results largely indistinguishable from adding a large amount of lime to run-of-mine feed: mill pH in the grinding circuits can range above 11 and high concentrations of calcium ions are present. The need to raise pH disappears; the problem becomes to lower it."

Jan 1, 2015

By I. Girón

El siguiente estudio revela la importancia del cultivo del selenio, propiedades, combinaciones y distintos usos en la industria y sistema de comunicación telefónica. Asi también describr el proceso de purificación y obtención de este compuesto mineral en Cerro de Pasco Corporation, destacando al Perú como uno de los países productores a nivel mundial, pese a su reducida proporción.

Jun 20, 1954