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By Paul A. Rittenhouse

First of all, I want to thank John Dunlap for asking me to this AIME meeting in Denver. I was first introduced to Denver and The Rocky Mountains more than ten years ago and immediately decided it was one of the most attractive spots in the world. I've come back many times since and still welcome any opportunity to return, even if it means I have to prepare and give a paper on potash. When John Dunlap gave me this assignment, he told me that the program would include papers on the geology of potash, papers on new discovered potash deposits and new mines and asked me to discuss potash from the commercial point of view. He also asked me to include a supply/demand outlook for potash. However, one thing he did not mention was "how far into the future he wanted me to look" and it seems to me the time element is a crucial factor to you who are both geologists and miners as well as to me. In your case, you have to look far enough into the future to give you time to explore, find, evaluate, develop, and bring into production a commercial deposit. My mining associates and friends don't agree on how long that takes but it's probably somewhere in the range of eight to fifteen years. But, they all agree on one thing and that is that the time required is continually getting longer. Now my time problem is just the opposite. It is "relatively" easy, and I stress relatively, to identify and evaluate the importance of the various factors that impact on both the supply of and demand for a commodity such as potash if the time period is today. It gets a little tough if one has to project into tomorrow or next week or next month. And when we start talking in terms of a year, five years or ten or fifteen years, things really get sticky and the old crystal ball becomes mighty cloudy. But we economists and forecasters are not known for our temerity so let me get on with the job at hand and take a look at the world potash supply/demand outlook.

Jan 1, 1978

By H. A. Guess

INTRODUCTION. HISTORY AND PRODUCTION STATEMENTS. SOUTHEAST Missouri is the oldest of the large producing districts of the United States. The first recorded production from disseminated ores was in 1869, although for many years prior to that time lead had been mined from shallow pockets, and steady growth in production has been shown ever since, the greatest increases being during the past five years. The production by years for each of the operating companies from 1869 to 1907, inclusive, is given in Table I. In Table II. is given the production by years from 1908 to 1912, inclusive, for the district as a whole, showing the tonnage of crude ore mined, yield in concentrates, average assay of concentrates; yield in metallic lead both per ton of crude ore and in total; also approximate value of the yearly production.

Jan 12, 1913

By P. R. Perry

This publication is a compilation of tested methods for the analyses of titanium tetrachloride, titanium sponge, and various intermediate materials and products. They are presented in concise form without the detail usually found in publication of new methods because many of them are modifications of well known procedures. The Electrometallurgical Experiment Station, Boulder City, Nev., has been developing titanium production methods since 1945. Most of this development was on a modified Kroll Process but also included work on sodium reduction and electrolytic methods. During these years a large variety of samples were analyzed. Most of the analytical problems were solved using published methods or modifications of the same. At the start, there were no published procedures for analyzing titanium sponge using spectrochemical methods. A great deal of study was given to testing several of the well known techniques, and some of them, such as direct sparking of the metal, proved to be completely unsatisfactory. Solution-spark techniques were finally tried, and satisfactory procedures were developed for some of the more common impurities. These spectrochemical methods were then put into routine use for several months before their publication.2/ Some new modifications have been made, and techniques have been developed to determine other impurities found in titanium sponge and tetrachloride. All spectrochemical methods used in 1954 are included in this publication.

Jan 1, 1955

By D. Marcotte

The Rock Quality Designation (RQD) is a standard scalar measure of rock quality used in common rock mass classification systems (e.g. RMR, Q system). RQD is measured along diamond drill holes. RQD interpolation between holes is nontrivial. Despite the inherent limitations of drill hole data and the local complexities of structural geology, it is often the only information available for mining and major civil engineering projects. Therefore, maximizing the usefulness of this data is warranted. We derive a correction for directional effects that help reduce the bias and improve the accuracy of the estimations. The correction is derived with the aid of numerous simulations. It relies on simple information, the angle between the joint normals and the borehole axis (JO). A reference direction is identified as the borehole direction with smallest JO. A multiple linear regression model based on JO statistics in the various boreholes defines the correction model. The corrected RQD values are then interpolated. It is shown the method enables reducing the bias on RQD estimation by 50% and improves the accuracy of the estimates by 30%. The corrected RQD values show stronger spatial continuity than the raw values. The benefits of estimating the RQD indirectly by using joint frequency measures are also assessed.

May 1, 2003

By A. J. Kraemer

For a number of years the Bureau of Mines has been conducting an investigation of crude petroleum from producing fields in the United States and the Western Hemisphere and has published a series of reports on these fields. Analyses of crude-oil samples tom some oil fields of Louisiana are given in Bulletin 291.4/ Analyses of 26 representative crude oils from various producing formations of southern Louisiana are given in is report. These.samples are from 14 field's in 10 parishes in the southern part of the State, usually designated as the "Louisiana Gulf Coast area." ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due the representatives of the various companies from whom samples were obtained for their cooperation and assistance in helping to secure representative samples. The samples were analyzed under the direction of E. C. Lane at the Bartlesville station of the Bureau of Mines.

Jan 1, 1934

By Wallace N. Thomas

The present interest in large diameter grinding mills and the rapidly rising cost of the drive in proportion to the cost of the mill establishes a need to explore the drive system in detail. The drive for a seven to eight thousand horsepower mill will cost from 1350 thousand to $600 thousand which represents nearly half the total cost of the mill package, and requires as much building space as the mill proper. Some of the drive components require a longer time to manufacture and the installation time and costs are equal to those for the mill. It is apparent that the drive has become a dominant factor in the overall mill design consideration. A new plant requires a tremendous investment in both time and money. With the high degree of competition in the mining industry, low capital cost is an exceedingly important factor in the development of a project. It is just as important, however, to insure that the equipment is going to perform satisfactorily for the anticipated life of the project without adding unplanned operating, maintenance and replacement costs. This is the position in which the engineer or designer usually finds himself and is really one of his primary functions -- establishing a realistic compromise between cost and performance.

Jan 1, 1969

By Daniel Hodouin, Claude Bazin

"This paper examines the economic advantages of tuning the operation of a differential Cu-Zn flotation circuit as a function of metal prices. Three operating strategies are considered in the analysis: 1) the operation of the circuit at planned copper and zinc concentrates grade with maximum recovery of both metals; 2) the operation of the Cu circuit at maximum copper smelter return per ton of ore and of the Zn circuit at a maximum zinc smelter return per ton of ore; and 3) the operation of the circuit at maximum copper and zinc smelter return per ton of ore. The second strategy tunes the copper circuit independently from the zinc circuit, while the third strategy tunes both circuits simultaneously IntroductionMetal prices play a very important role in the mineral industry (Malhotra and Dowling, 1991). In many cases, metal prices can be the basis for the GO/NO GO decision of a mining project (Malhotra and Dowling, 1991; Apostolides, 1983; Davis, 1996). This direct impact of metal prices on company revenues is highlighted in many annual reports. The 1995 Noranda Annual Report indicates that a variation of 10% of the copper price impacts its yearly revenues by $25,000,000. Some mine operators claim to mine stopes as a function of metal prices (Liimatainen, 1996; Hartman, 1992). This impact of metal prices is also recognized by mill operators that seek strategies to tune ore processing circuits to maximize revenues from the concentrate they sell to smelters (McKee, 1991; Barker et al., 1989; Hales and Ynchausti, 1994; Cipriano et al., 1995). In many cases the problem of tuning the operation of an ore processing circuit is complicated by the fact that the ore contains two or more valuable metals which have to be recovered into separate products. The Agnico-Eagle (Robitaille and Cousin, 1995) and Barrick East Malartic (Pelletier, 1996) Cu-Au mines are examples, as well as the Cu-Pb-Zn Brunswick mine (Shannon et al., 1993) or the Cu-Zn Louvicourt (Whiteway, 1995) and Selbaie (Wright, 1995) mines."

Jan 1, 2000

By B Stewart

It has long been recognised that knowledge of the conditions existing in a mine after an incident is essential in deciding whether to deploy responders as part of the incident recovery process. Applying this knowledge in a structured manner to the assessment and the acceptability of the risks likely to be faced by those teams during response activities before authorising their deployment is an onerous task incumbent upon the person controlling the incident response. The Mine Event Management System (MEMS) provides structure and coordination in the management of mine events. It assists with the skills and knowledge for incident control teams to effectively manage any emergency or non-emergency event, be it large or small. In cases where multiple organisations are involved, the MEMS promotes effective joint operations through the use of common terminology and structure to provide seamless communication between agencies at all operational levels. The SQL-based software developed by Queensland Mines Rescue Service (QMRS) assists decision-makers to make considered options; it does not make decisions for you. When set-up, it allows the information that already exists within a mine’s Safety Health Management System that is relevant to the incident to be accessed and considered rapidly within the pressured environment of an emergency. Additionally, the incident specific questions contained within MEMS focuses the management team on gathering and assessing information relevant to the incident as it progresses. The software’s event log can be utilised as an auditable document for post incident investigation. The MEMS provides a process to properly consider the adequacy of the information available upon which decisions have to be made, to consider and acknowledge the hazards of the environments within or adjacent to which responders will need to work and to acknowledge and authorise the entry of responders into or to remain within a mine either during or post an incident occurring, once an acceptable level of risk is achieved.

Apr 16, 2024

Jan 1, 1971

By A. V. Kozub, D. O. Sharkovsky, R. I. Ismagilov

"Due to complex mineral composition and fine ingrained nature concentration of iron ores deposited in Mikhailovskoye mine field requires application of wet magnetic separation to produce 65–66% Fetotal and 8.2–8.6 %SiO2, concentrate with 90–94% of material being –0.044micron grain size. Higher specific consumption of ROM, increase of production costs with concurrent reduction of output - those are inevitable side effects of desired concentrate grade improvement. Large-scale complex analysis and surveys have been carried out aimed at concentrate grade improvement with concurrent output increase. Classification of feed in hydraulic cyclones (hereinafter referred to as hydrocyclones) has been the bottleneck for improvement of processing throughput and concentrate output. Hydrocyclone classification efficiency is 50-60% and further improvement is practically impossible. Actual circulating load may achieve as much as 500-600% while the optimal rate is 200-250%. Application of wet fine screening has been considered to improve iron ore concentrate grade. Objective of this work is to design processing flow diagram for unoxidized ferruginous quartzites with implementation of wet fine screening. Large-scale tests have been run in Crushing and Concentrating Plant with application of wet fine screening stage. These tests included application of wet fine screening in 2 and 3 stages of classification to separate desired grain sized material; replacement of hydrocyclone classification with fine screening; application of fine screening as additional stages to concentration process and screening of final concentrate. Testing Methods. EXPERIMENTS AS WELL AS THEORETICAL RESEARCH HAVE BEEN APPLIED FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS WORK; INCLUDING MAGNETIC, GRAIN-SIZE AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CONCENTRATION PRODUCTS. MODERN ANALYTICAL DATABASE HAS BEEN APPLIED TO STUDY WET FINE SCREENING FEATURES, MINERAL AND PHYSICAL COMPOSITION OF CONCENTRATION PRODUCTS. Work Results: - analysis of wet fine screening application for iron ore concentration. - technological solutions enabling to improve slurry classification of fine ingrained low magnetic iron ore have been developed. - effective process flow diagram including fine screening has been designed based on the feasible and reasonable arrangement solutions."

Jan 1, 2018

By M. N. Short

It is almost self-evident that the student of geology depends for his education in geology only in small measure upon his own observation. His chief sources of information are lectures and personal instruction from teachers, and the geological literature. Of these, the literature is by far the most important. The total geological knowledge available to the geologist of today is substantially that which is on the printed page, and no more than that. There are many geologists of outstanding rank who during the course of a busy and useful professional career have accumulated valuable geological knowledge. This, however, is never available to the profession, owing to the disinclination of these geologists to write or to the refusal of their employers to allow the results of their work to be published. With the passing of these geologists, their accumulated knowledge is irretrievably lost. In many mining districts the operating companies are not averse to the publication of geological information gathered by their engineering and geological staffs, but for various reasons this information is not published. However, when a public survey geologist goes into the district this information is placed at his disposal and eventually is published. But for the intervention of a disinterested public scientist, this information would have been buried in company files. In the last analysis, the teachers themselves depend largely upon the printed page for the knowledge they pass on to the student. Without geological literature, then, the instruction of geological students would be almost impossible. There is no .question that, as a whole, geologists who are on the public payroll have to their credit far more contributions to literature than have either teachers or professional geologists, whether the latter be independent or in the employ of private corporations. The very fact that geologists are upon the public payroll places them under obligation to make available to the public the results of their endeavors. They must either prepare these results for publication or they must furnish data or otherwise aid their colleagues to publish their results. The success or failure of a public geological survey depends entirely on the

Jan 1, 1935

By M. N. Short

It is almost self-evident that the student of geology depends for his education in geology only in small measure upon his own observation. His chief sources of information are lectures and personal instruction from teachers, and the geological literature. Of these, the literature is by far the most important. The total geological knowledge available to the geologist of today is substantially that which is on the printed page, and no more than that. There are many geologists of outstanding rank who during the course of a busy and useful professional career have accumulated valuable geological knowledge. This, however, is never available to the profession, owing to the disinclination of these geologists to write or to the refusal of their employers to allow the results of their work to be published. With the passing of these geologists, their accumulated knowledge is irretrievably lost. In many mining districts the operating companies are not averse to the publication of geological information gathered by their engineering and geological staffs, but for various reasons this information is not published. However, when a public survey geologist goes into the district this information is placed at his disposal and eventually is published. But for the intervention of a disinterested public scientist, this information would have been buried in company files. In the last analysis, the teachers themselves depend largely upon the printed page for the knowledge they pass on to the student. Without geological literature, then, the instruction of geological students would be almost impossible. There is no .question that, as a whole, geologists who are on the public payroll have to their credit far more contributions to literature than have either teachers or professional geologists, whether the latter be independent or in the employ of private corporations. The very fact that geologists are upon the public payroll places them under obligation to make available to the public the results of their endeavors. They must either prepare these results for publication or they must furnish data or otherwise aid their colleagues to publish their results. The success or failure of a public geological survey depends entirely on the

Jan 1, 1935

By Russell Spry, Paul Schutz

The property of Pioneer Gold Mines of B.C. Limited is in the Lillooet mining district of British Columbia. It is on Cadwalleder Creek, 54 miles distant by motor road from Shalalth, a station on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. Interests identified with the present company installed a small amalgamation plant on the property in 1924, consisting of a jaw crusher, Bryan mill and amalgamation plates, in which 75 per cent extraction was made on mill feed averaging 1.0 oz. gold per ton, the tailing being stacked for future treatment. That plant was operated until 1928, when the present company was formed and a 100-ton continuous counter current decantation cyanide plant was built. A second unit, having a nominal capacity of 200 tons daily, was added in 1932 and put into operation during September of that year. When handling ore comparatively free from slow-settling material, the combined capacity of the two units is 400 tons, the original plant now handling about 140 tons maximum. Production to date, from Pioneer, has been about $6,500,000, the present monthly production being better than $250,000 from about 370 tons ore daily, the recovery being 97 per cent. During the fiscal year ending March 31, 1934, a total of 112,936 tons ore and old amalgamation tailing was milled, the mill feed averaging 0.7670 oz. gold and the recovery amounting to 0.7422 oz. gold per ton, or 96.77 per cent. Milling costs, including refining and mint charges, during this period, amounted to $1.45 per ton of ore. Since the building of the first unit of the cyanide plant in 1928, direct cyanidation has been employed, no attempt being made to remove coarse gold from the circuit, other than that cleaned up from the grinding mills during relining and from the classifiers, as occasions permit. In the hope of still further increasing recovery, researches are going forward at this time with the view to removing some of the sulfides after primary grinding, the expectation being that selective treatment of this more refractory portion of the ore may hold economic possibilities.

Jan 1, 1935

By David Stone

The Beal Mountain Mine near Anaconda, MT is an interesting case history of a mine that has continued operations despite several large pit wall failures over a period of about 10 years. The largest event involved some 3.9 million tons of rock that has moved steadily at a rate of about 0.05 ft/day since 1992. This paper documents the geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring programs implemented at Beal to provide the company with a comfortable baseline that supported ongoing operations. The success and failure of a variety of stabilization measures will be discussed, along with typical instrumentation responses for several significant events. The success of Beal Mountain serves as a good model for mines faced with serious geotechnical challenges.

May 1, 2001

By Robert P. Larkin

The necessity for mineral extraction and its impact on man and the natural environment is a subject of increasing concern to Americans. Rising living standards and new demands for energy require increased mineral extraction, whereas the "new environmentalism" and concern over social well-being warn of the dangers to both the environment and the social system. This dilemma can only be solved by a complete understanding and analysis of all the factors relevant to human welfare which include environmental considerations, economic implications, and the social and psychological dimensions. A decision-making framework is therefore necessary which will encompass all relevant views of the problem.

Jan 1, 1975

By R. C. Berry

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has become a routine requirement for mining operations on federal lands. A similar document is being required in developing countries. Baseline studies are needed prior to writing an EIS and these studies involve surface water, groundwater, air quality, and wildlife/ native plant evaluations. The required baseline hydrology and geochemical studies are often the most expensive and lengthy evaluations. This paper summarizes the hydrology and geochemical baseline studies required for .An EIS and presents suggested methods to expedite these studies and to shorten the time and the cost to complete the studies and the EIS.

Jan 1, 1999

By Denise A. Herzog

The U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted a study of cyanide leach technology used in Alaska's mineral industry from 1987 through 1990. Literature and cost data were obtained for mines in the contiguous United States, Canada, and Alaska that use cyanide to recover gold and silver. The data was compiled in an effort to evaluate the economics and conditions associated with cyanide use in Alaska. This report discusses heap leaching methodology and evaluates a "typical" heap leach operation in Nevada and compares the results of the Nevada operation to an analogous hypothetical mine in Interior Alaska. Five daily tonnage rates were analyzed for both the Nevada and the Alaska operations to evaluate the spectrum of economic possibilities. The discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFROR) for each production rate was then evaluated in terms of recoverable metal value (RMV). The Nevada RMV for each production rate was then compared with its Alaskan counterpart, and the results averaged. The Alaskan production costs are an average of 1.71 times greater than costs associated with mining in Nevada at a 0% DCFROR. At 15% DCFROR, costs in Alaska are 2.01 times greater than those in Nevada. Costs are higher in Alaska because of the shorter leaching season, increased labor and transportation costs, and heavier precipitation and vegetation.

Jan 1, 1991

By L S. Shekhawat, M P. Roy, R K. Paswan, P K. Singh, A Joshi

Blasting in the mining industry is being transformed, and can no longer be treated as an art or a practice purely dependent upon experiences of individuals. Examples of key drivers that have demanded consistent and more accurate blast results are initiatives to control pit-wall damage to help mine steeper pit slope angles, to control damage to underground opening operating in close vicinity of the open pit mine. Such situation exists at Rampura Agucha open pit lead zinc mine, which is producing 5.7 Mt/a of ore and has started its underground part, which is slated to produce initially 2–2.4 Mt/a and 4.5 Mt/a in the near future. The open pit mine is currently working at 326 m depth and is designed to reach 421 m deep. It has been planned to operate the underground mine maintaining 50 m parting from the planned ultimate level of the open pit mine.Presently, open pit and underground mines are being operated simultaneously. The present average depth of underground working lies between 370 and 410 m below the surface level. Sometimes explosives up to 95 978 kg are being detonated in a blast round in open pit mine. These blasts are often apprehended as a danger to the safety and stability of underground openings. It was decided to document the impact of open pit blasting in the openings of underground workings, so that preventive measures may be taken for the safety and long-term stability of the underground mine. The impact of 86 open pit blasts has been documented in the underground openings and 258 blast vibration data has been recorded. The vibrations were recorded simultaneously in the roof, side walls and at floor levels. The highest levels of vibrations were recorded in the roof and the lowest levels at the corresponding floor levels. The pillars experienced lower level of vibrations than the roof. Blast designs were optimised at open pit mine to control vibration in view of long-term safety and stability of the underground openings. The vibrations generated due to detonation of explosives with shock tubes and electronic delay detonators have been recorded in underground openings for comparative assessment. Ground vibration recorded at roof, pillar and floor were analysed separately and threshold value of the vibration for the safety of underground workings has been determined based on the rock mass rating of the roof rock.CITATION:Singh, P K, Roy, M P, Paswan, R K, Shekhawat, L S and Joshi, A, 2015. Protection of underground mine structures due to adjoining open pit mine blasting, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 279–288 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By L. C. Armstrong

Twice in the past two years and in two widely separated localities-one near Williamsville, Mo., and the other in the Allard Lake district of Quebec- the Contract Drilling Division of the Longyear Company has experienced perplexing difficulties in drilling granitoid igneous rocks. The rocks in both places are characterized by appreciable amounts of feldspar intimately intergrown with quartz particles of microscopic dimensions. The disappointingly slow rate of advance and the exceptionally high bortz loss, obtaining during the life of these two projects, are ascribed largely to the resistance to abrasion of these two minerals when arranged in this intergrown pattern. Whether all intergrowth-bearing igneous rocks would offer extraordinary resistance to bit progress cannot be stated with assurance on the strength of these experiences alone. More data on diamond drilling this sort of material in a number of localities are needed before any generalizations can be made safely.

Jan 1, 1949

By D. W. R. Haysom

"I AM CONSCIOUS of the honour you pay me by having invited me to address you on the subject of the Rehabilitation of the Sydney Steel Corporation. The true architect of the revival and rehabilitation is Robert Burns Cameron. Because of the numerous myths which have grown up around what seems to be the miracle of the revival of the Sydney Steelworks, I propose to go back to the time when they came under the full control of the Province, on the 1st of January, 1968. Late in 1967, the decision was taken by Premier G. I. Smith to keep the Steel Plant running for at least another year, in an endeavour to see whether the enormous losses being sustained by Dosco could be reduced to a level which would permit their continuing operation. When that decision was taken, Dosco was to continue management until the 30th of April, 1968, and in the intervening period, the Provincial Government would seek management of the right calibre to ensure that an objective view of the Steelworks operations could be secured. By a combination of circumstances which can only be described as most felicitous, the man selected for the task was R. B. Cameron. He very quickly determined that to permit Dosco to continue management of the Steelworks until April 30 could only result in heavy losses to the Province and a consequent deterioration in the already critical financial position and a declining morale of the worke"

Jan 1, 1972