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By X. P. Guo

In this paper the test results of flotation of the kyanite ore from a Chinese mine are described. The objective of this work is to determine effective recovery process to obtain kyanite concentrate with high quality and high recovery for a new concentrator design. The valuable minerals of the ore are kyanite, garnet and magnetite, contents of them are 14.0%, 5.9% and 1.2%, respectively. The gangue minerals are mainly biotite, feldspar and quartz, contents of them are 33.8%, 17.8% and 25.6%, respectively. The kyanite in the ore contains a little iron. In laboratory flotation tests the factors affecting the flotation such as slime, alkalinity of pulp, and flowsheet configuration are studied. The interference of biotite on kyanite flotation as well as selective flotation of garnet is examined. On the basis of above-mentioned results the flowsheet of ore treatment comprising de-sliming, mica flotation, low intensity magnetic separation of magnetite, high intensity magnetic separation of garnet and coarse biotite as well as flotation of kyanite is pre-sented for comprehensive recovery of kyanite, garnet and magnetite. The kyanite concentrate con-taining more than 59% Al2O3 is obtained with a kyanite recovery of 70.0%. The contents of Fe2O3and biotite in kyanite concentrate decreased from 2.02% and 5% to 1.30% and 1%, respectively. The disadvantage of low kyanite grade in raw ore is compensated by accessory recovery of garnet and magnetite in the ore.

Jan 1, 2014

By William P. Blake

When we consider the efforts made in Europe to promote the physical and moral well-being of the working classes, the question is suggested whether in this country, where, theoretically, every man is peculiarly the arbiter of his own destiny, we may not be too prone to expect every man to take care of himself, and neglect to make those provisions for the welfare of the employed, demanded alike by enlightened economy and humanity. In the older countries, where the disproportion between capital and labor is greater, and the working classes are more dependent, their welfare largely occupies the attention of employers. The subject is involved in the problem of the just relations of capital and labor, and we are rapidly approaching the time, if we have not already reached it, when a generous paternal interest in the welfare of the employed should be more generally manifested. It is a subject which is of special importance to mine-owners and engineers in this country, especially to those located in the coal regions. My own attention has been particularly directed to it by a visit made to the Hassard collieries, a few miles from Liège, Belgium, under the direction of M. Andrimont. This celebrated engineer has established a comfortable home for the miners near the mouth of the shaft of the mine. It has been highly successful and beneficent in its results, and may to a great degree be regarded as a model for such undertakings. It is known as ((Hotel Louise," this being the name of Madame d' Andrimont, who laid the corner-stone of the building April 4th, 1871. The structure is of brick, upon three sides of a square, and

By D. R. Knowlton

IF I were a minister, and this were a sermon, and such a passage appeared in the Bible, I would choose for my text: "From whence cometh the oil for our war?" And no preacher was ever more serious than I am. You petroleum engineers recognize that the producing branch of the industry is passing through an era of plenty and inflated potentials into an era of scarcity and unmet allowables. Not too long ago the oil operators of Kansas, California, and Texas were appearing before operators' meetings and regulatory authorities asserting that these States were capable of producing at rates far in excess of what the demand at that time would absorb. Today every oil-producing area in the United States except the Texas Gulf Coast and West Texas is producing close to or in excess of its maximum efficient rate.

Jan 1, 1943

By Marton A

The Readymix Group have a Quarry Improvement Program - 'Building in Quality (BIQ) which has many parallels to the ICI Explosives' total quality management - 'Quality Improvement Program' (QIP). Both companies have for some time recognised that the 'do it right first time' principle means less wasted effort and materials, that efficiency breeds profitability and so actively promote the quality culture. To install the principles and generate the culture requires considerable commitment and effort from the top down and invariably spreads to the suppliers and sub-contractors. Understanding the component processes involved with the quarry operation, analysis of those processes and gaining a breakdown of the cost of non conformance then allows the astute quarry operator to make the necessary changes to improve the process to realise profits. This paper outlines the steps in such a process and the profitable outcomes of the commitment to continuous improvement at the Nickol Bay Quarry.

Jan 1, 1994

By F. J. Reichhardt

Abstract -The Molopo Farms Complex is a major, layered ultramafic/mafic, early Proterozoic intrusion which is totally covered by sediments of the Karoo and Kalahari Formations and situated in southern Botswana and northeastern South Africa. The approximately 3000 m thick, generally fine- to medium-grained ultramafic and mafic cumulates are intrusive into equivalents of Transvaal Supergroup sediments and lavas. Multiphase deformation resulted in tilting and segmentation of the Complex into individual tectonic blocks. Sr isotopes document at least two chemically distinct parental liquids which interacted in a complex manner to form an approximately 1000 m thick rhythmically layered succession which straddles the ultramafic/mafic boundary. Repeated mixing resulted in a complex cryptic layering pattern and numerous sulfide-enriched layers which contain significant PGE +Au concentrations.

Jan 1, 1994

By Ian S. Ross

The emphasis in this paper is focussed on dry bulk car go or the same cargo converted to slurry form for ease of handling. It is this type of cargo which is of primary interest to the mining industry whose products it represents to a large extent. The design problems associated with the handling of liquid bulk and of unitized cargo are sufficiently different to be treated separately. This paper then will consider the port handling facilities of dry bulk commodities as part of a system consisting of (1) the movement of products to the port area, (2) the movement of products out of the port area and (3) the handling of products within the port area itself. Expanding within these three components of the total transportation system, the paper will discuss the various difficulties encountered concerning the mode of transport into the port area and the method of handling product from transport to stockpile. Secondly, and before discussing the port area itself and in order to complete the conditions under which the port must operate, the movement of products out of the port area will be covered dealing with such items as the accommodation of the ship, problem associated with the very large ships, optimum berthing arrangements and the need to consider the various costs associated with the vessel. Finally the paper will review within the port or interface area such items as stockpiles, method of recovery, inventory control and an outline of the common design difficulties encountered. In all cases the relative influence on the total transportation costs of each of these dry bulk transportation system components will be considered.

Jan 1, 1972

By Lester F. Sanford

Located in the Santa Cruz Mountains eight miles north of the City of Santa Cruz and inland from the coast, lies a typical beach sand consisting of quartz and feldspar grains of the Santa Harguerita formation of the middle tertiary age, Reserves of over twenty-five million tons of this sand form the deposit presently being harvested by Pacific Cement & Aggregates, a Division of Lone Star Cement Corporation. The deposit ranges from 350 to 700 feet above sea level and varies from two percent passing a 200 mesh screen to ten percent retained on a ¼ inch screen (see Figure '#l) In 1929 the first sand plant went into operation at this site. It was replaced by a new plant in 1937. This plant continued operation until the middle of 1965 when replaced by the modern plant described in this paper.

Jan 1, 1967

By Henry Wurtz

Jan 1, 1880

By Leping Liu, Li‑Ting Chen, Sachin Urade, Pengbo Chu

Mining industry requires constant adaptation to its practices in response to the dynamic change of the societal demand. Little information exists regarding how the US metal mining engineering education is prepared to meet with its industry needs due to the increase in critical minerals driven by the green energy transitions. This study aims to provide industrial perspectives on the current US metal mining engineering education and areas for improvement. An online survey with both closed- and open-ended questions were designed to seek opinions from the US mining industry. Findings indicated a shortage of qualified graduates from the current US metal mining engineering education system. The qualifications need to be improved include engineering sciences underlying mining methods, mining design experience, mining feasibility study, the connection between theory and practice, and understanding of the overall mining operation. The survey also identified future desired qualifications. The most desired ones in the next 5 years include an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed and sufficient experience in the field. Respondents, regardless of the nature of their affiliated mining companies, unanimously recommended that collaborations between the industry and academia should be enhanced. The analysis of the results concluded four recommendations: (1) involve more multiple stakeholders in reforming mining education programs, (2) reinforce field experiences as a key part of mining engineering education programs, (3) enhance a closer collaboration between academia and industry, and (4) integrate emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence/virtual reality) guided by pedagogical theories into new mining engineering curriculums.

Jun 26, 2023

By Oliver Bowles

DELICATE PLANTS are now put to bed for the winter under glass-wool or rock-wool blankets. Thus arise new and unexpected uses for non-metallic materials and rocks and, at the same time, certain unique uses are fading out; for instance, the Italians have taken steps to bar the use of salt for money in Ethiopia. Novel sources of supply find a place in the record of recent achievements as exemplified in the migration of the frontiers of industrial mineral exploitation beyond the land area of the earth to include the ocean. Salt, of course, has been recovered from the sea for years but the treatment of enormous quantities of sea water for bromine has lately added to the importance of the ocean as a reservoir of mineral wealth. Increased use of non-metallic minerals in the commercial and economic life of the country is reflected in the wide scope and activity of the Industrial Minerals Division of the Institute. The outstanding recent achievement of the Division is the publication of a 955-page volume on industrial minerals and rocks, comprising 48 commodity chapters each written by an authority on the subject.

Jan 1, 1938

By Rafael Valencia-Dongo, Ernesto Ramírez, Julio Tapia

Enfocado en una novedosa metodología de resolución de conflictos basada en la teoría de juegos, este artículo propone estrategias para generar un equilibrio estable entre empresa, Estado y comunidad. Tras evaluar la tipología y características de la conflictividad socioambiental por acción de líderes opositores a la inversión, se desarrolla un marco de resolución de conflictos a través de lo que se denominan pactos de contrapeso, que cubren los ámbitos de comunicación, gestión sociopolítica y fidelización del trabajador minero. Estos pactos permiten cambiar la percepción, incentivos y acciones de los actores, lo que incluye la acción de terceros legítimos.

Sep 30, 2019

By Luis G. Bergh

Today, large size mechanical flotation cells of 100 to 300 m3 are used in rougher operation in different flotation industrial plants, in Chile and worldwide. However, in spite of the advances in fundamental research and the notable growing in equipment size, with more complete instrumentation systems, there are still a lack of reliable data for industrial flotation modeling and simulation to advance in better control systems design. In this work, a model of a rougher flotation circuit, based on operating variables and parameters fitted from industrial data, obtained in some previous work, is used to develop a set of logic rules in order to aid operating decisions. The simulator was first used to sensitize the effect of changing the froth depth profile on target variables, and then to find out the best profile to reject common disturbances coming into the plant. The flotation circuit simulator was redesigned to incorporate an expert system following the proposed control algorithm. Several tests were performed to evaluate the control responses to different correlated series of input variables, such as feed grade, tonnage, particle size distribution, and solid percentage. Control alternatives are discussed based on the circuit simulator. Keywords: modeling, industrial data, flotation control, mineral processing.

Sep 1, 2012

By Augustus Locke

MY conclusions apply to the engineer in California ore hunting; and, because the product has been overwhelmingly gold, that means gold-ore hunting. But, I wish to think of ore hunting, not as employment for engineers, but as engineering. I wish, moreover, to think of it as productive of ore in significant quantity. The small mine, even if good, means little. Only new districts, or large extensions of old districts can engage our attention here. The conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) The bright color of California mining history comes from the suddenness and intensity of its outburst of gold. Had the mining been averaged from the start, it would soon have become dimmed among greater industries. For fifty years, California has proceeded as an agricultural, timber and oil, but not a mining region. 1

Jan 1, 1931

By J. Pontt

Gearless mill drives (GMD) offer high performance for torque and speed control for grinding mills and have been applied successfully in modern concentrators for wet grinding with mill diameters from 34 to 40-feet. It is considered a mature technology. However, recently, some large GMD?s have presented unexpected failures in stator and rotor subsystems. The phenomena involved in such failures has shown a complex nature and surprised users and manufacturers. The manifestation of such failures has been observed as mechanical damages to certain components of ring motors. This paper presents a discussion on the electromagnetic forces that can generate stresses in the electrical ring motor that can produce failures and outages. Guidelines for further research and contributions to improved reliability of GMD?s are proposed.

Jan 1, 2012

By U König, N Norberg

Traditionally, quality control of iron sinter has relied on time-consuming wet chemistry. However, the mineralogical composition that defines the physical properties, such as strength or reducibility, is not monitored.X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis in combination with Rietveld quantification and statistical data evaluation using partial least squares regression (PLSR) has been successfully trialled to determine the mineralogical composition and process parameters such as the FeO (Fe2+) content and basicity of iron sinter within an analysis time of less than eight minutes per sample. The results were compared with wet chemistry data.PLSR does not require pure phases, crystal structures or complex modelling of peak shapes. The analysis is therefore easy to set up and ideal if only one property needs to be analysed. PLSR results show an accuracy for the FeO content of ±0.3 per cent for the samples analysed in this case study.Both the PLSR and Rietveld methods take the full XRD pattern into account and can be simultaneously applied on the same measurement. PLSR was found to be the more robust method if only FeO and basicity results are required. The Rietveld method helps to predict other parameters, such as the compression strength of the sinter, by monitoring all existing phases (eg larnite C2S or silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminium phases).CITATION:König, U and Norberg, N, 2015. Iron sinter process control using x-ray diffraction, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 53–60 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By Atta Ur Rehman, Kwame Awuah‑Offei

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of similitude theory in predicting the draft of a rubber tire loader’s bucket during initial penetration. The work uses 1:16 and 1:8 scale models of an 18-t capacity load haul dump, scaled with the Buckingham Pi Theorem, to evaluate the prediction of draft and penetration under different operating and different dynamic conditions. The authors hypothesize that the observed relationships between draft and longitudinal penetration and the operating and dynamic conditions will hold true for an upscaled model. Similarly, the authors hypothesized that the results of experiments conducted with the smaller scaled model should predict the draft on an upscaled model. The results show that the relationships between draft and longitudinal penetration and operating and dynamic parameters are similar for both scaled models. Similarly, the draft on the upscaled model, predicted by using the experimental results of the small model, is similar to the measured draft on the upscaled model. The mean difference between the two is 1.71 N with 95% confidence interval of [-3.51, 6.93], which is very good given the average draft is approximately 330 N. Thus, the work indicates that both hypotheses are true for draft. However, the work shows that scaling muck pile particle sizes using the Buckingham Pi Theorem is not adequate to ensure good predictions of penetration. This work provides insights that will help design engineers to acquire useful data on scaled models and use it for various analyses on heavy machinery.

Oct 6, 2021

By Gailen T. Vandel

El presente texto describe la historia, geología, exploración, actividades de explotación como parte de la construcción de la planta de beneficio en la Bahía de San Nicolás, Marcona. Dicho proyecto contempla una ampliación del la planta de chancado y almacenamiento de la mina, así como la faja transportadora de bajada a San Nicolás y red de carreteras. Asimismo se incluye la planta eléctrica Diessel y transmisión, el muelle y zona abycente, la expansión de esta planta para el tratamiento del chancado, la planta de la peletización y la planta térmica. Con la implementación de estos elementos a la planta de Marcona, se convertirá a la región en uno de los centros industriales de mayor importancia en Sudamérica.

Jul 20, 1961

By R. M. Cunningham

Asarco operates one of the largest individual copper electrolytic refineries in the world at Amarillo, Texas. The feed for this refinery is a mixture of anodes produced at Asarco smelters and copper purchased t?om a number of primary and secondary sources. The variation in feed makes it imperative that the refinery practices state-of-the-art quality control to minimize the effects'of unwanted impurities in the electrolytic refining process. In late 1993, a plant designed to sigru6cantly reduce the antimony and bismuth levels in the electrolyte was commissioned. The purification plant uses ion exchange technology in conjunction with a novel strippiing system developed by Zeneca Specialties (U.K.). The strippiing system permits the recycling of the eluant and thus avoids the extremely high costs of stripping with conventional reagents. In addition, the environmental impact of treating the eluant for recovery of antimony and bismuth is minimized. This paper outlines the development of the technology and, in particular, describes the operational practices and improvements at Amarillo since the commissioning of the plant.

Jan 1, 1997

By Nathan C. Rockwood

BASIC mineral commodities may be divided into two general classifications in their market or price characteristics. In one class are commodities sold on a world-wide basis, as gold, silver, nickel, asbestos and petroleum, and in the second are those produced and sold locally. Of course, no precise line of demarcation exists between the two; coal, for instance, belongs more or less in both. If there are enough producers of any commodity to prevent control of production by any one person or group, a free market then exists and the price in a buyer's market is determined by the most favored producer-meaning the producer, with the lowest production cost or the lowest cost of transportation, or both, to the particular market, or place of use. With minerals in the first classification, their high intrinsic value far outweighs the transportation cost and a uniform market price is accepted as an essential element in the economy of distribution. But with common minerals of small. intrinsic value and relatively high transportation costs, economists are reluctant to admit that a uniform price may also be an essential element in distribution.

Jan 1, 1940

By Oliver Bowles

The use of fire as a source of heat was the first step from primitive existence toward modern civilization, and heat has performed functions of inestimable importance throughout the ensuing ages. The first commercial steam engine invented in 1698 demonstrated that heat was an important source of power, and heat has since become the motivating force for railroad trains and steamboats as well as for machines in multitudes of factories. Aside from its function of supplying power, heat is an agent of vast importance in chemical reactions and engineering processes. Because of the high temperature of steam under pressure, losses by radiation from boilers and pipes become excessive unless the radiating surfaces are covered with insulating materials. Insulation is important also for hot-water pipes and many other types of equipment from which heat may radiate. Radiation losses from heated surfaces increase rapidly

Jan 1, 1943