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By H. A. Kee

In the mining industry, as in other business, one of the more satisfactory results of sincere but cheerful effort lies in the proper completion of undertakings and problems, which, to be successful, must continually hold the interest of all concerned in the work. In most undertakings, genuine interest and satisfaction is largely dependent on the proper appraisal of opportunities presented, and the opportunity to associate ourselves with sinking operations at McIntyre central shaft, from the surface to a depth of 4,133 feet, was genuinely appreciated. This opportunity was made possible by the previous persistent and successful leadership of Mr. J. P. Bickell, President, with the assistance of his associates, and of the general manager, Mr. R.J. Ennis, in the development of the McIntyre Porcupine mine, and I beg to state that any success in this sinking operation was very largely due to the congenial co-operation and splendid workmanship of Captain Martin C. Horne, his shift bosses, leaders, and all those who worked with us . Our slogan throughout was " Safety First for Pleasant and Efficient Workmanship," and this general policy made it possible to sink and timber 2.,123 feet during the first year without a serious accident.

Jan 1, 1928

By Eugene T. Sheridan

The Bureau of Mines annually canvasses the peat producers in the United States and publishes economic data on the industry, based upon reports from producers. This publication lists all producers that reported commercial production to the Bureau for 1959. The companies named herein represent virtually all commercial producers of peat. A few companies, however, may not have been canvassed or failed to respond, as tine survey is voluntary For producers, arid the industry has many small operations that operate intermittently. No consideration was given to the quantities of peat produced and output of the various companies listed ranged from less than 100 tons to more than 50,000 tons, Peat is included in the Bureau's annual surveys of the mineral industries because, technically, peat is a fuel. Although none is used for fuel in the United States, peat is a potential source of energy and one of our large mineral resources. The domestic peat industry produces peat chiefly for use as a soil amendment. The industry has expanded rapidly during the past decade with active operations increasing from 45 in 1947-49 4/ to 105 in 1959. Output during this period has increased 218 percent, rising from 131,782 net tons to 419,460 net tons.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. R. Muhm

Environmental due diligence investigations, also known as Phase I Environmental Audits, are increasingly important to major investors, venture partners, or prospective purchasers or sellers of mineral properties. Knowledge of environmental risks associated with a property will allow better appraisal of a property's overall desirability prior to completing the transaction. It is possible that the cost of environmental cleanup could exceed the value of the property. Topics appropriately investigated include permit status, water quality, past use of the property, hazardous materials management, storage tanks, public records pertaining to the environmental character of the property, and environmental costs.

Jan 1, 1991

By Richard A. Bideaux

With both unit costs per meter and average depth of drilling constantly increasing, there is a strong incentive to maximize the information acquired from drill holes, and then to make this information accessible to the geological staff. The larger the drilling project, the more advantageous computerization of data is over manual methods. The conversion to computer-readable form and the verification of large amounts of drill-hole data can be a substantial data processing task, but once accomplished, the benefits in increased accuracy and speed of interpretation will compensate for the time and effort spent in the work. For an exploration project progressing towards a preliminary feasibility study, about half of both the time and costs for all computer work of the entire feasibility study are devoted to drill-hole data base organization, and maintenance. Once drill-hole results are quantified and verified to be correct, they are immediately accessible and are not subject to further transcription or reinterpretation of errors. To obtain maximum benefits from computer utilization in this area, the drill-hole data base should be set up along with availability of the first data. For some companies, this may initially comprise a large number of purely speculative drill holes on a spacing of perhaps 1 or 2 km. Although few of these drill holes may encounter economic material, thought should be given, at this time, to the variables which will be logged when such material is found. In this way, it should be possible to set up a consistent format into which all future drill-hole information will readily be accommodated. This format may even be carried over into the data base requirements for an operating property.

Jan 1, 1979

By M Binks

The Fosterville Gold mine is located approximately 20km to the East of Bendigo in central Victoria. The gold at Fosterville occurs as solid solution within disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite. The Fosterville ore bodies contain various amounts of native carbon in the form of bituminous coal. This carbon (Non-Carbonate Carbon or NCC) has been the predominant mechanism for gold loss from the processing facility through”preg-robbing”.Processing of the Fosterville ore is achieved initially through crushing, grinding and flotation to extract the sulphides. The sulphide concentrate is oxidized using Bacterial Oxidation, before being leached in a conventional CIL circuit. A high portion of the native carbon (NCC) in the mine ore is naturally hydrophobic in nature, and subsequently reports to the flotation concentrate stream, and ultimately onto the CIL circuit. This NCC has a notable preg-robbing ability. Treatment of Black Shale ores, which have elevated NCC levels, has historically resulted in CIL recoveries as low as 35%, with around 60-80% of the gold loss from the leach circuit attributed to preg-robbing.Standard technologies for dealing with a carbonaceous leach feed have been trialed with limited success. The discovery of the significance of heat on leach recoveries, triggered extensive testwork on a range of leach feed and tails samples. Pilot plant testing demonstrated that “Heated Leaching” of the CIL tails was the best process with an average recovery increase of 7.5% being achieved. Following a successful pilot study, an engineering feasibility study was completed by Minerva Engineering, and the project economics determined. With strong recovery gains evident and a predicted project payback of 1-1.5 years, approval for the installation of the full scale plant was granted. Detailed design commenced in September 2008 with installation commencing in January 2009. The circuit was successfully commissioned in April 2009.Following commissioning, the Heated Leach circuit has achieved recovery gains of 4-14%, and has proven itself to be a significant contributor to the overall plant performance.

Aug 8, 2011

By C. K. Leith

IN telling the story of Canada's minerals many interesting and spectacular details will be passed over to permit pointing out some of the significant inter- national aspects. No country now has enough of all minerals for its own use. The problems of satisfaction of both national and world demands under these conditions have become international in scope, and history supplies no obvious solutions. The minerals of Canada are coming to play a prominent part in such problems. Production and Reserves In the last decade Canada has rapidly advanced in mineral production. In 1928 the total value of mineral products from Canadian sources reached 273 millions of dollars. Canada ranks first in production of nickel, first in asbestos, second in cobalt, third in gold and silver, fourth in lead and copper, and sixth in zinc.

Jan 1, 1929

By B. Farshadi, B. Asi, M. J. Habibian

"Dare-Zereshk deposit is one of the deposits supplies ore for Taft copper Complex in Iran Yazd province. This deposit is situated underneath a village the same name. Prior to mining activities, the village and its agricultural lands should be dislocated and deserted. This paper discusses about sustainability factors in this area including: Social and environmental effects of mining, dislocation and substitution of communities, created and lost jobs, financial and economic factors, quality of life index, infrastructures and post-mining land use. Studies have been performed by coupling Geographical Information System (GIS) with decision support tools such as Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM), Through these studies revealed that considering the infrastructures developed for mine and plants, earned incomes and changing the community, mining activity in this area not only increases the social and regional sustainability but also improves it to a higher level."

Jan 1, 2011

By Cecil Harriss

Philip Environmental Services Corporation's (Philip's) innovative fluidized bed thermal desorption system recovers mercury from contaminated soil. Referred to as the Thermal Recycling System, Philip has constructed a mobile thermal desorption system that has a processing rate up to five tons per hour. The system includes a continuous-feed system, all radiant heat, inert gas atmosphere, hot gas filter, two-stage cooling, and a water treatment system. Based on treatability studies, the processed soil can meet cleanup objectives as low as two milligrams per kilogram and passes the mercury toxicity characteristic leaching procedure test.

Jan 1, 1996

By A. Michalkow

DELN ITE Mines Limited is located in Deloro township, on the west end of the south break of the Porcupine Camp. Mining operations are currently being carried out on the downward extension of a system of quartz veins in an andesite zone. This zone has been followed from surface to the present bottom level of 5,250 feet. The changing mineralogy of the vein system has involved an increase in tourmaline content from the surface downwards, so that the veins at the lower levels are composed of dark brown quartz-tourmaline. The drilling problem presented by these extremely hard veins was partially alleviated by the development and adoption of a one-inch drill bit. All blast-hole drilling is now done with the one-inch bit, without any difference in hole spacing.

Jan 1, 1962

By H. U. Ross

ROASTING is usually thought of as a process in which finely crushed or ground ore is heated with air in a suitable furnace in which the ore is rabbled or agitated in such a way as to insure complete reaction between the oxygen of the air and the oxidisable constituents of the ore. Roasting in this sense is used only to a very limited extent in the iron and steel industry. This is because, in most iron ore deposits mined today, the ore is of a type that does not require roasting. Where this process is used, it is usually because of some special circumstance, such as a peculiar economic condition, that warrants it. If roasting is looked upon in the broader sense as a gas-solid chemical reaction carried out at an elevated temperature in which both gaseous and solid products are formed, then the process is used in the iron and steel industry to a greater extent

Jan 1, 1961

By Douglas J. Robinson

A pilot scale process has been developed to separate mercury, tin, silver, and copper from dental amalgam scrap. Laboratory research led to a process which was operated in 55 gallon drum sized reactors to treat 2000 Tr oz charges of scrap per day. This paper discusses the development work, presents a flowsheet and gives an indication of the equipment necessary to carry out the process on a commercial scale.

Jan 1, 1984

Jan 1, 1989

Nowadays, technology has improved to extract dimensional stone blocks at quarry sites and also to process these at processing plants for making slabs and tiles. In the process of quarrying and processing, performance evaluation of machinery is very important to achieve optimum output at minimum cost with improved technology. Cost analysis of improved technology includes parameters such as manpower, energy consumption, tool consumption, depreciation, maintenance and also others. The chainsaw machine with long boom and rail in marble quarries and multi-diamond wire saw machine for slab making from granite blocks at processing plants have recently been introduced in India. Thus, a study was carried out under a research project on these machines to assess their suitability. In this paper, performance evaluation and cost analysis of chainsaw and multi-diamond wire saw have been carried out with existing machines on the basis of research findings.

Dec 6, 2010

By D. R. Hanson, H. Lawson

In this study, NIOSH researchers conducted a machine learning analysis to examine whether a model could be constructed to assess the probability of dynamic failure occurrence based on geochemical and petrographic data. Random forest, cluster analysis and dimension reduction were all applied. The objective of dimensionality reduction was to explore patterns and groupings in the data and search for relations between compositional parameters. Cluster analyses were performed to determine if an algorithm could find clusters with given class memberships and to what extent misclassifications of dynamic failure status occurred. A random forest analysis performed on data from the Pennsylvania Coal Sample Databank cross-referenced with accident data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) determined that 7 parameters of the 18 examined exerted the most influence on results. Cluster analysis on data after dimensionality reduction resulted in a hierarchal clustering algorithm finding four clusters, with one relatively distinct dynamic failure cluster, and three clusters consisting mostly of control group members but with a small number of dynamic failure members.

Feb 1, 2023

By Galen H. Clevenger, MARTINUS H. CARON

Although there are exceptions, oxidized silver ores containing the higher oxides of manganese are generally refractory to hydrometallurgical methods of treatment. When these ores are of high enough grade they can be smelted; indeed, some rather low-grade ores of this type have been smelted at a profit because of their fluxing value. In the past, when these ores could not be smelted, they either were not treated or were treated at low efficiency, generally by cyanidation. The need for thorough investigation of the problem was therefore evident for some time before the writers began their research. The problem of treating manganese-silver ores seems to have been recognized first about 35 years ago by C. W. Goodale in applying pan amalgamation at Tombstone, Ariz. He attributed the low extraction of silver to the fouling of the mercury by manganese rather than to the presence of a refractory compound of manganese and·silver. Although definite knowledge as to the cause of the poor extraction of silver was lacking, a more or less effective preliminary treatment, that is, a chloridizing roast, was applied. E. M. Hamilton, in 1909, was perhaps the first to define clearly the problem as it affects the cyanidation of silver ores and to suggest possible methods of preliminary treatment. Most of the work done in the interval between the appearance of Hamilton's paper and the assumption of the investigation by the authors was in the nature of routine tests covering suggestions already made rather than of research directed to a fundamental study of the problem. No practical application has so far been made of any of these proposed processes. The investigation described in this bulletin has proved that there s a refractory compound of manganese and silver-probably a manganite- insoluble in cyanide solution and other common solvents for silver. Although this compound has not been isolated from natural ores, it has been made synthetically, and shows all the characteristics of the natural product. Furthermore the authors have shown definitely that heating in air a relatively small amount of a silver compound with a large excess of silica (in the proportions ordinarily occurring in a commercial silver ore) renders

Jan 1, 1925

By G J. Corbett, T M. Leach

Approximately 42 t of mercury were produced from Puhipuhi from the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II, with no significant gold or silver production. Sinter, eruption breccias and veins, mined for mercury at Puhipuhi and essentially barren of gold, are inferred in many geological models to represent the surficial levels of adularia-sericite style low sulfidation gold-silver systems. These systems may contain economic gold-silver mineralisation at depth. Conceptual geological models have been employed at Puhipuhi in the search for buried gold mineralisation. Homestake Mining utilised a McLaughlin model for exploration from 1982 to 1987, targeting mainly the vicinity of the sinter deposits. From 1987 to 1989 BHP sought deeper structurally controlled gold mineralisation within the basement greywackes, utilising models derived from studies of Round Mountain, USA and Hishikari, Japan. Macraes Mining Company Limited have accessed the previous work and applied a conceptual geological which invokes a north-south structural control for the emplacement of high-level felsic intrusions at depth. Dextral movement on these structures associated with oblique convergence facilitated the formation of a pull-apart basin in which lacustrine sediments overlie basement greywackes and are in tum overlain by Pliocene basalts. Continued activation of the NS structures created a series of inferred NE-trending dilational structures, which are targeted as fluid upflow centres for the surficial outflows. Upflows occur as eruption breccias (e.g., Plumduff) and outflow as silica sinters (eg Mt Mitchell, Williams) which are also partly obscured by the basalt cover. Argillic alteration and mercury mineralisation occur at elevated crustal levels (eg Puhipuhi mine). Modelling from structure and alteration zonations have targeted a fluid upflow in the vicinity of Bush Hill, which was not accessed by previous workers. This target was subsequently supported by surface geology and multi-element soil geochemistry.

Jan 1, 1997

By P Crittenden

Thiess Pty LtdÆs Australian Mining business unit used 7.6 PJ of energy in the 2007/2008 financial year. This represented more than 85 per cent of Thiess Pty LtdÆs total energy use and therefore meant that the Australian Mining business unit is required to conduct energy efficiency assessments and report publicly on the outcomes by December 2008 under the Federal GovernmentÆs Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) Act. Thiess Pty Ltd has a policy commitment to sustainable development throughout its operations. This includes minimisation of its carbon footprint and the Australian Mining business unit has a strong focus on efficiency in all of its operations. It approached the energy efficiency assessment as an opportunity to further improve and build on its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction focus in the business. As a mine contractor, Thiess faced a number of challenges in designing an assessment process that would be both effective and efficient to deliver. For example, unlike most other companies involved in the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program, the energy use associated with the Australian Mining business unit is not fixed to any single geographic location in Australia. Mining vehicles are moved from site to site according to the specific requirements of mine owners and the timing associated with the commencement and completion of contracts. Thiess departed from a traditional æsite by siteÆ based assessment and designed a ærepresentative assessmentÆ approach that involved detailed investigation of data across all sites and a focused assessment on a single site.Data and analysis was an essential part of the assessment and indicators at company, mine and site level were essential in identifying opportunities and tracking progress. Forty-six potential energy saving opportunities were identified and four of these are currently being implemented. The projects being implemented are: payload management, automating mobile lighting equipment, plant idle time management, and turbo idle downtime. The potential savings from the four major projects that have been identified are approximately 150 800 GJ/annum, equivalent to 10 600 tonnes of CO2-e/annum with a simple payback period of less than two years. Beyond the fuel savings however, there are a number of other benefits from the assessment, including operational efficiency, reduced maintenance costs and even a potential reduction in the number of vehicles required to complete the work. The EEO assessment has significantly increased the importance and urgency of energy efficiency and facilitated the sharing of good practice across all Thiess operations. Not only have four projects been adopted for immediate implementation but a further pipeline of projects is available for future possible implementation. This case study describes: how Thiess conducted its assessment including the use of energy data and indicators, the opportunities identified that are currently being implemented, and the lessons learnt and how other organisations can use these to improve their approach to energy efficiency assessments. This case study is a more comprehensive version of a case study developed for the Commonwealth Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. The assessment results reported in this case study are drawn from the Thiess Energy Efficiency Opportunities Report 2008.

Jan 1, 2009

By J. H. Soulé

"The Copper King copper-gold-silver deposit was discovered about 1880. Various individuals and companies have been interested in the deposit and considerable work has been done, although production, if any, has been small. The deposit is located in the western part of Laramie County Wyo., and is favorably nituated with respect to rail and truck transportation and high-tension power facilities.Mild summers and cold winters characterize the climate. Precipitation averages between 16 and 17 inches annually, with considerable snowfall in the winter. Permanent streams are small and most available water in being stored for use by Cheyenne, Wyo. Range grasses comprise the bulk of the vegetation, with small treed and shrubs common in the most rugged areas.The deposits lie upon land owned by Wyoming, now leased by a group of Wyoming and Colorado businessman constituting the Copper King Mining Co.Primary copper-gold mineralization seems largely confined to an equigranular, relatively fine grained gneiss that is part of a pre-Cambrian complex of metamorphic rocks ranging from schists to pegmatites. The copper minerals are oxidized to a depth of from 100 to 150 feet, with the occasional occurrence of secondary minerals at greater depths. The copper minerals chalcopyrite, malachite, chalcocite, bornite, cuprite(?), and some native copper were observed in Le deposit.In addition to the 4,030 feet of diamond-core drilling in 11 holes done on the deposit by private companies, the Bureau of Mines drilled 3 holes for a total of 2,630 feet. The sample results of this drilling plus available data from previous drilling and sampling are appended to this report."

Jun 1, 1955

By Benjamín Cebrián, David Flores, María Rocha Gil

This document shows the evolution of drilling and blast digitization process, savings and trends in a mine, using new technologies that creates business opportunities and general improvement of D&B process.

Feb 1, 2020

By Donald E. Redmon

This Bureau of Mines report reviews injury experience in the nonmetallic mineral industries (except stone and coal) for 1968-69. For each of the years, 23 tables summarize disabling work injuries by department, source of injury, extent of disability, part of body injured, and nature of injury. Correlative information on employment, worktime, and operating activity is also presented.

Jan 1, 1973