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By A M. Avis

This paper presents an overview of recent developments in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process to provide the background for a more detailed analysis of environmental and social constraints that the Heavy Mineral Mining industry has encountered over the past decade. Four cases studies are reviewed to provide a context for further analysis and identification of cross cutting environmental and social issues that either resulted in the projects not proceeding, or in the Australian case study, places existing operations under significant pressure from anti-mining lobbyists. The Xolobeni project, from the Eastern Cape in South Africa, is presented as the primary case study because it is recent, topical, and accessible; and raised numerous issues related to mining in a sensitive environment. A proposal to mine an area adjacent to the Okefenokee swamps in 1997 was also met with strong opposition from various environmental groups in Georgia, USA. This case study is briefly reviewed to further understand what ultimately resulted in the project not proceeding. Opposition to mining at North Stradbroke Island is reviewed to identify current issues more applicable to a developed country. A further review of a strategic assessment undertaken at Wavecrest, Eastern Cape, South Africa is provided in support of possible solutions to the challenges identified in the case studies. Important common themes were identified, including in some cases unfortunate timing of the environmental studies, but in all cases opposition was due to ecological sensitivity, landscape quality and sense of place. In one case study limitations to the EIA process included inadequate detail in the specialist investigations and insufficient information on mitigation. In all cases public participation was a limitation. It was either insufficient; flawed through possible bias; too ‘top down’ and required engagement with mobilised, motivated lobbyists. There was also insufficient investigation of social impacts, particularly amongst rural communities directly affected by a project. Generally alternatives were inadequately considered, a recognised limitation of project level EIA. It is concluded that the EIA process should be started as early as possible (at prefeasibility), and that investigations should be expanded from a typical fatal flaw assessment to one that applies methodologies used in strategic assessment. In particular, opportunities and constraints of the natural and social environment should be assessed in the context of the mining option as well as other options, to allow for a more meaningful assessment of alternatives. Public participation must form an important part of this initial study, despite the potential risks associated with public engagement at an early stage in the project. The application of the IFC Performance Standards; and expanding the scope of the EIA into an environmental, social and health impact assessment will lead to a more rigorous procedure, and result in more defensible products which could successfully unlock the key to the resources in these sensitive areas.

Oct 5, 2011

By D. B. Rebuli

Seismic networks in deep gold mines of South Africa are often planar owing to the tabular geometry of the orebody and, therefore, the mining infrastructure. Consequently, seismic event locations are poorly constrained in the direction perpendicular to the reef plane, and symmetrical locations above and below the reef plane may fit the observed data equally well. This problem may be resolved in situations where the strata above and below the reef plane have significantly different seismic velocities, which is the case for the Ventersdorp Contact Reef at Kusasalethu mine (previously Elandskraal, the amalgamation of Deelkraal and Elandsrand). A location method using a layered location model that takes into account the velocity contrast between the layers was tested. Observed direct- and head-waves were used to determine the velocity bounds of the P-wave velocities in the two-layer model. The data-set was also used to find the best P- and S-wave velocities for the two layers by grid searching over a range of velocities and minimizing the sum of the travel-time residuals. The results from the grid search and those from the calibration of velocities using direct- and head-waves give similar P-wave velocities for each of the two layers. A second set of seismic events was then relocated with this layered model and locations closer to reef were found. This simple layered location method goes some way to reduce the reefperpendicular location errors for Kusasalethu mine in particular. Keywords mine seismology, velocity model, location methods.

Jun 1, 2013

By K S. Smith, J Woodhead, K Olson Hoal

Mineralogy is the link between ore formation and ore extraction. It is the most fundamental component of geomet programs, and the most important aspect of a life-of-project approach to mineral resource projects. Understanding orebodies is achieved by understanding the mineralogy and texture of the materials, throughout the process, because minerals hold the information required to unlock the value they contain. Geomet mineralogy programs absolutely require the appropriate expertise and at least three steps of mineral characterisation prior to using semi-automated or other methods: field examination, thorough core logging, and optical microscopy. Economic geological inputs for orebody characterisation are necessary for orebody understanding, and are exemplified by current research in the Zambian Copperbelt, where revised sequence stratigraphy and understanding of alteration, metasomatism and metamorphism can be used to predict topical issues at mine sites. Environmental inputs for sustainability characterisation are demonstrated by recent work on tailings from the Leadville, Colorado, USA area, including linking mineralogy to water quality issues. Risk assessments need to take into account the technical uncertainties around geological variability and mineral extractability, and mineralogy is the only metric that can be used to make this risk contribution.CITATION:Olson Hoal, K, Woodhead, J and Smith, K S, 2013. The importance of mineralogical input into geometallurgy programs, in Proceedings The Second AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2013 , pp 17-26 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 29, 2013

By C. Laughton

Construction of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory(DUSEL) is proposed under the auspices of the US National Science Foundation(NSF). DUSEL will provide scientists and engineers with a research facility capable of supporting a broad spectrum of fundamental and applied research deep in the earth’s crust. Research partners are physicists, biologists and geoscientists. DUSEL research calls for the construction of a network of shafts, tunnels and caverns that will provide laboratory facilities at depths of up to approximately 2 kilometers. The Project is still in the planning stages but, the initial experimental program is taking shape and conceptual designs have already been developed at two hard rock mine sites. This paper discusses the overall program and key engineering tasks being developed to support the construction of deep, large-span caverns. These caverns will house a new generation of physics experiments. As currently scoped, the experiments call for the excavation of permanent caverns with spans of up to 60 meters, sited at depths in excess of a kilometer.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. L. Huiatt

Kerosine, fuel oil No. 2, vapor oil, and fuel oil No. 6 were separated into general hydrocarbon fractions by ion exchange chromatography and adsorption chromatography. The collecting properties of these fractions were evaluated by flotation of molybdenum and copper minerals from a natural chalcopyrite ore. Paraffin fractions and aromatic fractions of low polarity produced the best molybdenum recoveries. Selective flotation of molybdenite from copper sulfide minerals was not possible with any of the chromatographic fractions.

Jan 1, 1972

By Joseph A. Olmstead

Literature concerned with management and supervisory training was reviewed and analyzed from the perspective of relative effectiveness of various training methods for improving knowledge and awareness, changing attitudes, improving problem solving skills, improving interpersonal skills, and improving on-the-job performance. Conclusions were drawn relative to each method and the current state of the field of management and leadership training. A 168 item annotated bibliography is presented.

Jan 1, 1980

"The Mine Haul Road Optimization Alliance is an Australian industry-academia collaboration which has been developed to support mine haul road operators by fully integrating mine road design research solutions with industry end-user service providers to design, assess, implement and monitor the various equipment, materials and road management strategies required to optimize the safety, environmental and economic performance of a haul road. Initially, a broad overview of the university-industry collaborative landscape is presented, following which the current situation in the Australian mining sector is reviewed both nationally, and on a country-wide basis, internationally. This insight places realization of a collaboration between Curtin University Western Australian School of Mines Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering (WASM ME2) and the Haul Road Optimization Alliance (HROA) industry members into context of opportunity. Following an overview of the HROA collaborative structure, aims and objectives, it is shown how academia and industry can collaborate to deliver a more robust solution to mine haul road design, performance or management needs, especially where integrated solutions are needed. Critically in this approach, implementation and monitoring data provided by industry and service-providers alike forms the foundation on which to develop research knowledge and innovation that is more responsive to the end-user requirements, typically represented by ‘early goals’ and implementable solutions. The paper concludes with examples of how the alliance collaborations work in practice to deliver improved mine haul road designs and optimized operational performance, together with the mechanisms used to ensure industry needs are met through focused, end-user driven research and integrated solutions implementation."

Jan 1, 2016

By Allen Chung, John Twomey, Christopher J. Greet

"It is widely accepted that the type of grinding media has an impact on the grinding chemistry and subsequent flotation behaviour of the sulphide minerals being separated. There are countless laboratory investigations demonstrating that inert grinding media produces more oxidising pulp potentials, reduced levels of grinding media corrosion products and superior concentrate grades and valuable metal recoveries. However, taking these results to industrial scale has proven difficult.Work conducted at the Ernest Henry Mine, in north western Queensland, Australia, at laboratory and pilot plant scale clearly indicated that using a high chrome grinding media resulted in significant improvements in both copper and gold recoveries. However, advancing this work to plant trial represented considerable financial and technical risk to the mine.This paper provides details of the protocol developed and used during the high chrome grinding media plant trial. It describes the test regime employed to measure changes in pulp chemistry, and the statistical methodology utilised to interpret the results. The work also highlighted the need for close cooperation between the metallurgists on site and the researchers conducting the trial.To date, the trial has produced excellent results: indicating that the copper recovery has improved by about 2 percent. The successful application of high chrome grinding media to the Ernest Henry ore has increased metal value by $18.7 million USD per annum based on current spot price for copper.INTRODUCTIONTheoryThe application of electrochemically inert grinding media to mineral systems has been extensively studied (Table 1). Broadly, these studies indicate that most sulphide minerals are more noble than the grinding media used during comminution. Therefore, the sulphide minerals are cathodic with respect to the forged steel grinding media, and the following reactions apply:"

Jan 1, 2011

By H. W. Gillett, G. M. JAMES

In its work on mineral wastes the Bureau of Mines is studying losses in the melting of nonferrous metals and alloys. The greatest of these losses is that of zinc through volatilization in brass melting, but another and considerable loss is that of aluminum and its alloys in the melting of finely divided material. In order to get some idea of the magnitude of the loss in melting aluminum scrap and to find out what methods of melting were used information was gathered in regard to present practice; also experiments were conducted to obtain some data on the relative merits of different methods. As the experiments could be made on a laboratory scale only, they were not expected to solve the problem entirely, the object in making them being rather-by indicating which methods were of greater promise-to narrow the field over which largescale tests and comparisons need be made by those commercially nterested in the problem of melting scrap aluminum.

Jan 1, 1916

By Walter J. Mead

By American tradition, if not by rational decision, publicly owned natural resources have been transferred to private industry for processing. The process of transfer requires specific determination of the price which the patentee, buyer, or lessee must pay to the government in exchange for the right to develop a resource, and selection of the patentee, buyer, or lessee from among several possible contestants. Pricing of natural resources owned by the government presents a set of problems quite different from ordinary commodity pricing. Natural resources in situ are not homogeneous commodities. Within any class of natural resources, specific leasable parcels will differ in value by reason of location and accessibility, as well as quality and quantity. Thus, there is no "going price;" every lease within a specific resource class will have a different value. To complicate further the pricing and buyer selection problems, competition may not be reliable. Natural-resource markets are characterized by oligopsony conditions. In a significant number of cases, as will be shown later, there has been only one bidder for a given lease, and in most lease sales the number of bidders is equal to or less than three. As a further complication, there is great uncertainty regarding the value of specific resources, even among the best-informed buyers, as well as within the leasing agency. In some instances, particularly with regard to oil and gas resources, there may be uncertainty about the presence of resources, as well as the quantity and quality of any resources contained in the tract offered for lease. In other cases, such as oil shale and some deep ocean minerals where new technologies are involved, the presence of the resource is clearly established. There may be a relatively high degree of knowledge about the quantity and quality of the resource, but there is great uncertainty concerning the cost of production. These problems in total make it difficult for the leasing agency to appraise accurately the resource to be leased, as well as for the potential bidder to calculate a bid price that will yield him a normal profit. The pricing goal of the federal government as the seller or lessee may be to capture the economic rent; that is, the price of a resource might equal its discounted present value. A required price substantially above this amount would either generate no bids, or, in the long run, would bankrupt the buyer. A price below this amount is a disguised subsidy to the lessee. A subsidy to mineral lessees, as to any other economic interest group, as a minimum should be justified by a clear showing of net external benefits from the economic activity. In the case of timber sales by the U.S. Forest Service, the Forest Service Handbook asserts that "the aim in national forest stumpage appraisal is to determine market value,"8 and "market value" is equated to "fair market value." Regarding minerals, there is no reference in legislation or regula-

Jan 1, 1976

By R. A. Egen

The purpose of this book is to provide an indication of what good hoisting practice is and how it might be achieved. To this end the book contains discussions of equipment and inspection and maintenance procedures developed and used by mining people in striving for safe, reliable hoisting equipment. Most of this information comes from domestic practice; the rest is foreign, notably from Canada. Most things discussed have long proved their general worth, and others promise to; a few are beginnings. However, nothing is conjectural or theoretical; the practices described herein are in use somewhere in the mining world. The stress is on equipment in use; it is not a design-guidelines manual. Nevertheless, there are some sections dealing with design material since it may be of value in a maintenance/ replacement sense. Mine hoisting installations encompass such a wide variety of equipment and conditions that it is impractical to specifically cover them all. This book mainly treats conventional systems using conventional components with some discussion of the more common unconventional (special) systems in use. There is no recognized definition for a "conventional" mine-hoisting system. Herein the term means those systems most commonly used in daily operations for transporting men, materials, and product-electrically driven drum and friction hoists, with guided conveyances running in vertical or inclined shafts. Beyond this, what "conventional" means is probably best illustrated by the topics discussed.

Jan 1, 1975

By Thomas P. Mucho, Thomas M. Barczak, Dennis R. Dolinar

Maintaining ground stability in the gate roads, particularly the tailgate, has always been critical to the success of longwall mining, both in terms of safety and productivity. Several new support technologies have been developed in recent years to replace conventional wood and concrete cribbing for secondary roof support. Since their performance characteristics are unique, the best practices that have been developed with conventional wood cribbing may not be applicable for these alternative support technologies. Therefore, with so many options to consider and the importance of achieving adequate ground control at minimal cost, the trial-and-error approach to longwall gate road support is no longer prudent. This paper discusses a design methodology for standing secondary tailgate supports. This design technique requires in-mine measurements of tailgate support loading and convergence to establish a tailgate ground reaction behavior based on support and strata interaction. The methodology uses the performance characteristics generated in the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Mine Roof Simulator (MRS) to match the stiffness and load characteristics of various supports to the measured ground reaction behavior. It can be used to determine the appropriate application of alternative roof support systems or to design in-mine trials so that a fair and equitable comparison of different support systems can be made. A case study of the methodology at a western Pennsylvania mine site is presented in the paper, including a comparison of four alternative support technologies to the conventional wood and concrete cribbing historically used at this particular mine.

Jan 10, 2000

The ER&S Company operates a copper sinter plant, blast furnace and converter smelting complex at Port Kembla. Eighty percent of the smelter feed is dirty copper concentrates that contain some lead and zinc. The remaining twenty percent of the smelter feed is copper bearing secondary materials, some of which contain lead, zinc and tin. A predominately lead/zinc fume is produced during the smelting and converting of this feed mix. The composition and tonnage of fume produced at Port Kembla has varied over the years as the smelter feed sources have changed. The economic processing of the fume has always been dependent on the value of the metals contained in the fume and on the fume composition. Both pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods have been used to treat the fume for the recovery of some or all of the following metals - lead, zinc, tin, copper, cadmium, silver and bismuth. A detailed description of the treatment methods that have been investigated and used to process ER&S fume is given.

Jan 1, 1984

By Primak. George J.

"In the development of a new product as well as during its introduction on the market, it is very important to give due consideration to problems involving patents, licenses and trade marks. At the very beginning of the research and development program, it is obviously essential to ascertain, through a suitable patent search, that the product in question will not infringe any patents which are still in force. Then, a possibility of achieving one's own patent or proprietary position on the product or the process of its manufacture should be carefully explored. Licensing arrangements that one may reach with respect to patents and know-how covering such new product may, in the final analysis, determine its over-all success or failure. If one can count on licensing revenues or some favourable cross-licensing arrangements with respect to a newly developed product, this may go a long way to achieving profitability and success. The selection of a good trade mark is probably one of the most important acts that one has to perform once the product is developed, as customers will identify the new product by such a trade mark. In many instances, successful marketing and widespread acceptance of a product are largely due to its appealing name or trade mark, accompanied by proper promotion and advertising. Once the trade mark has been adopted, it should be registered in the Trade Marks Office to provide the protection afforded by federal statute. If the product is to be manufactured, sold or licensed in some other countries, similar considerations should be made with regard to each such country."

Jan 1, 1973

By Robert G. Bottge

The Bureau of Mines has engaged m a program to determine the availability of land for mineral exploration and development in Alaska. Land availability, based on ownership and Federal and State laws and policies, is compared with mineral terranes and mineral deposits. This is the fifth of six regional studies, which cover the State with a comprehensive set of maps and data compilations. This study covers an area of 112.3 million acres in western Alaska. In July 1986, 41.0 million acres, 37% of the study area, were available for mineral exploration and development; 14.6 million acres, 13%, were available with restrictions; and 56.7 million acres, 50%, were unavailable. Nearly 65% of the unavailable land is classified as national parks, preserves, wildlife refuges, and wild and scenic rivers. Of the 34.0 million acres of mineral terranes that underlie the study area, 12.9 million acres, 38%, are available for exploration and development; 3.6 million acres, 11%, are available with restrictions; and 17.5 million acres, 51%, are unavailable.

Jan 1, 1988

By G McCullough, J Els, J Bassan

Integrated Remote Operations Centres (IROCs) have a crucial role in optimising a mine’s carbon emissions, especially as industry faces an imperative to achieve net-zero emissions on an accelerated timeline. To meet this time pressure, operations must adopt a comprehensive approach to energy-related carbon management and history has proven that modern technologies cannot be simply bolted into existing operations. An IROC is the most dependable solution to enable a swift transition from strategy to operational tactics that support carbon optimisation. Achieving net-zero emissions requires addressing significant energy management challenges such as fleet electrification, integration of renewable energy sources and large-scale energy storage. These challenges demand a profound change in planning, managing and executing work at large operations. The key to overcoming these challenges is an integrated approach incorporating collaborative decision-making across the value chain and more sophisticated planning approaches. Additionally, closer integration with downstream processing offers opportunities for carbon optimisation across the value chain. This includes the ability to supply tailored products that meet more varied feed-requirements of customers transitioning to less carbon-intensive processes and developing collaborative decision-making across the entire steelmaking value chain (by incorporating steelmakers, transport, coal/natural-gas/hydrogen supply, energy supply and iron-ore supply). However, this requires significant improvement in collaborative maturity and integrated decision-making capability. Finally, the imperative to reduce carbon emission demands the introduction of a range of new technologies into existing operations. The new technologies will increase the operational complexity of the mines and IROCs will need to evolve capabilities to manage the increase complexity and support the effective operationalisation and integration of these new mining technologies. This paper outlines the new capabilities required and the role of IROCs in effective integration across the demand value chain. The focus is on building on the mining industries’ existing IROC experience and augmenting with processes, technologies and lessons from other industries.

Sep 18, 2023

By John F. O'Leary

The paper review the process the minerals industry and the materials revolution. For a long time, Latin América attemps at industrialization have been attempts in part, by need to important some of the many raw materials that industrial nations must have. However, the industrial sistem may be in for some of the many raw materials that drastic changes would increase the mineral self sufficiency of countries that are industrialized. In this way, the materials revolution would be a boom to Latin America, it would reduce some of the serious obstacles to the goals which all Americans seem to share.

Nov 20, 1969

By Georg Petersen

El presente texto señala el aporte de Alexander Von Humboldt en la minería a través de "Observaciones mineralógicas sobre algunos basaltos en el Rhin" (1790) y sus posteriores exploraciones geográficas al Perú. Asimismo, impulsó vigorosamente la producción aurífera en Prusia y en 1793 fundó una Escuela de Minas, elaborando su plan de estudios. . De otro lado estableció una especie de seguro contra accidentes y enfermedad para los mineros. Entre sus principales exploraciones está su viaje entre Ayabaca y Lima que se divide en 5 etapas: Ayabaca- Huancabamba; Huancabamba Desembucadura del Río Chamaya; Desembocadura del Río Chamaya - Tomependa; Tomependa - Cajamarca; y Cajamarca-Lima.

May 1, 1959

By J. K. Conibear

Since the 1948 introduction of hydraulic fill at the Sudbury Ontario Mines of the International Nickel Company of Canada, 32,000,000 tons of water-borne sandfill and 420,000 tons of portland cement addition have been placed in underground workings. Fill method mining, currently conducted at six of the ten operating mines, accounts for 28 percent of the total mines underground production. Both classified mill tailings and screened alluvial pit sand are used as fill for cut-and-fill primary mining, undercut-and-fill pillar recovery, and backfilling of blasthole and shrinkage stopes. Cemented fill, consisting of a lean mixture of portland cement, is used in areas where a stabilized fill is required to reduce dilution and aid in the recovery of adjacent pillar ore.

Jan 1, 1970

By Lewis Robert M.

The importance of phosphate in feeding the people of the world has been recognized by mining companies as they continue their search for new ore deposits and ways of improving phosphate production. An extensive phosphate-recovery research project involving investigation of beneficiation variables by batch testing, flotation pilot-plant processing of the major portion of the ore, gravity separation of the coarse fraction, and recovery of byproduct heavy minerals of a North Carolina phosphate deposit has been completed. Data obtained through batch tests enabled the development of an economical flowsheet which proved successful for the efficient recovery of a good quality phosphate concentrate in a pilot plant.

Jan 1, 1975