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By Jerome P. Downey

Treatment of tungsten ore at Anschutz Mining Company's Chicote Grande (Bolivia) operation results in a relatively high grade arsenopyrite byproduct stream. Laboratory and miniplant testwork have been performed at Colorado School of Mines Research Institute to examine the technical feasibility of recovering a marketable arsenic product fr an this source. Process selection was constrained by the remote location of the millsite, which demands an uncomplicated, low maintenance operation. As a result of the research effort, a two-stage roasting/condensing process was developed, featuring the use of an indirect heating method. Arsenic was efficiently extracted and the arsenic trioxide (As203) product consistently exceeded the industrial purity specification of 99.5%. Key process parameters have been secured for extrapolation of the process to pilot or small commercial scale.

Jan 1, 1985

By Calvin Bjorne, John Keeley

In the face of a highly competitive iron ore market, the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. developed a process now being practiced at the company's Republic mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. By this process, a specular hematite crude ore is being beneficiated to produce a high iron-low silica concentrate with a suitable size structure for the production of a high quality pellet. This process involves crushing, primary grinding and primary flotation, followed by regrinding, heating and refloating the primary flotation concentrate. The ores consist predominantly of specular hematite with relatively minor amounts of magnetite and martite in a recrystallized chert gangue. A wide variety of silicates have been identified, particularly in association with intrusives of various description. The more abundant of these are sericite, talc, grunerite and chlorite with some carbonates, primarily calcite.

Jan 6, 1964

HAVING produced one ton of concentrate that contains the copper that can profitably be saved or recovered from anywhere between 3 and 60 tons of mine ore, the ore-dressing engineer passes the result of his handiwork over to the metallurgist for smelting. Essentially, the concentrate is a damp mass of finely ground material consisting of copper sulphide minerals; pyrite, the sulphide of iron; and gangue, usually silica and silicates of aluminum. The purpose of smelting is to produce metallic copper and a slag containing the iron and siliceous constituents by pyrometallurgy-the kind of metallurgy that employs fire and heat to produce the chemical reactions through which it attains its object. Though blast furnaces have been used to smelt Porphyry-mine concentrates, notably at Braden, more than 90 per cent of [ ]

Jan 1, 1933

By J Wei, X Lan, F Wang

This paper presents a quantitative assessment model for the assessment of environmental load in gold production, which is based on environmental ecology, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and artificial neural network. In LCA evaluation indexes include resource consumption, energy consumption, gas waste, liquid waste, solid waste and so on. Each item represents an aspect in gold production while their combination reflects the relationship between gold production and environment. In this paper an utility function of evolution index on environmental load is given by linear or non-linear transformation, which changes evaluation indexes with different dimension into an equivalent value in range of [-1, 1]. This paper also provides a new approach to make decision on the weight for quantitative assessment with the help of a three-layered artificial neural network. The proposed approach in this paper has been successfully used to a real synthetic assessment for the environmental load in gold production, which include seven kinds of different operational technologies in China. The applications prove that the new approach is successful and reliable. It provides a new tool for the assessment of environmental load of the gold production.

Jan 1, 2003

By S. A. Spachner

An analysis of the powder patterns of the omega transition phase in three binary titanium alloys containing 8 pct Cr, 13 pet Mo, and 15 pet V, respectively, showed that all could be indexed on an orthorhombic unit cell. The unit-cell dimensions were all quite similar. There is evidence for the occurrence of more than one transition phase in Ti-Cr and Ti-V alloys. FOLLOWING the discovery of a new brittle phase in certain titanium-chromium alloys by Frost, Parris, Hirsch, Doig, and Schwartz,' named ? by these investigators, much interest has developed concerning the identification of alloy systems in which this phase exists, kinetics of the transformation in such systems, and the crystal structure of the ? phases appearing. Omega has been found in alloys of titanium-manganese, titanium-molybdenum, titanium-iron,' and titanium-vanadium.' In the present work, a study was made of the powder patterns of the ? phase occurring in alloys of Ti-8Cr, Ti-13Mo and Ti-15V in an effort to obtain a basis of comparison for ? phases appearing in these different alloys. Comparison of Alloys for ?-Phases Two hundred mesh powders of Ti-8Cr, Ti-13Mo and Ti-15V were prepared. A portion of powder sufficient for three x-ray powder specimens was placed in a Vycor tube, evacuated to less than 0.1 µ pressure, filled with argon, and sealed. The tubes were then heated to 900°C, held at this temperature for 30 min, and water-quenched. Following this transformation to the ß phase, the specimens were quenched in lead or solder pots, held at the desired temperature for varying lengths of time and water-quenched. The heat-treatments used and the phases identified are listed in Table I. The intermediate water quench was used in lieu of direct downquenching from 900°C to the bath temperature desired to circumvent the possibility of transformation of the powder specimen from ß to (ß + a) while it was being moved from the homog-enization furnace to the lead bath. To check the possibility that upquenching to the bath temperature might bring into play a different mechanism than downquenching to this temperature, resistivity measurements were compared on Ti-8Cr rod specimens which were transformed isothermally at 400°C by downquenching from the solution-treatment temperature and those which were transformed at 400" C by upquenching ß specimens from room temperature. The results are shown in Fig. 1. No difference in transformation mechanism was noted. It soon became apparent that sufficiently detailed Debye-Scherrer photograms of the ? phase in the alloys which were to be used could not be obtained by the use of copper radiation. Although satisfactory photograms of ß and ß + a phases were obtained with this radiation, the ? phase appeared to exhibit mild fluorescence, making interplanar spacing computation virtually impossible. Molybdenum radiation appeared to offer promise in cutting down this fluorescent effect, the mass absorption of titanium for molybdenum radiation being 23.7 in contrast to 204 for copper radiation. The reduction in the accuracy in determining the location of the photo-gram lines caused by the shorter wave length of molybdenum characteristic radiation did not appear to be a significant factor. Utilizing a camera of 57.3 mm radius, best results were obtained for exposure times ranging between 30 and 40 hr. Tube potential

Jan 1, 1959

By Peter Hornby, Maurice Craig, Franklin G. Horowitz, Don Bone

We have developed a high-performance, flexible scheme for interpolating multi-dimensional data. The technique can reproduce exactly the results obtained, for example, from Ordinary Kriging and related techniques in 3D, or from Thin-Plate Splines (Briggs' minimum-cuwature algorithm) in 2D. Moreover, com- pared to traditional implementations of these algorithms, our method enjoys large computational-cost savings. The new approach produces an interpolation that obeys a Partial Differential Equation (PDE). The PDE may arise from physically based arguments, but its form can vary widely. It might be specified only implicitly (as through a Model Variogram), or be nonlinear (although a performance penalty could then apply). While a formal equivalence between Kriging and Splines has been known for some time (Matheron, 1980), the present derivation, from radial basis functions, further illuminates this connection. Thus, for example, we can make explicit the PDEs that underlie some of the Model Variograms most often used in Geostatistics. Besides its practical utility, the work thereby ac- quires a theoretical interest.

Jan 1, 1996

By William B. Plank

THERE are 19 pct fewer undergraduate and graduate mineral engineering students enrolled in the ECPD accredited schools of the United States this year than there were a year ago. The figures are: 8727 this year and 10,674 last year. The entire engineering group in both countries numbers 171,070, as compared with 184,547 last year and 252,250 in 1947-48, the peak year. This is a decrease of 7.3 pct since last year, less than half as much as the decrease in the mineral engineering group. These figures on engineering enrollment for the current year, 195.1-52, in colleges of the United States and Canada were prepared jointly by the U. S. Office of Education and the American Society for Engineering Education. The seriousness of the situation is shown. by the reported demand for 60,000 to 90,000 engineers this year for civilian and defense industries and only 35,800 will graduate next June. Many of the 1952 graduates are subject to Selective Service, having been granted deferments while in college, and ac- [ ]

Jan 1, 1952

By Edward C. John, Wilbur H. Smith

At the Bingham Canyon pit operated by Kennecott's Utah Copper Division, the demand for geology has recently grown and diversified so rapidly that it has necessitated a revolution in geologic mapping techniques. The most significant changes in method have been in the preparation of the base map and in the computer application of collected data. Formerly maps were prepared by surveying with a transit or plane table. Now, however, a photogrammetric map with a scale of l in. to 200 ft is prepared semiannually and updated continuously to keep pace with the removal of more than 350,000 tons of material a day. Larger-scale bases of areas with specific problems such as un- stable slopes are prepared with aerial and terrestrial photography and photo-mosaics. Note sheets designed for computer application speed the processing of data. The multiplying applications of geology at the Bingham mine now include studies of the effect of structure, rock type, and alteration on slope stability, the relationship of sulfide mineral distribution to concentrating results, the effect of rock and mineral types on waste dump leaching, and the requirements of a reliable internal source of silica flux for smelting, as well as many others.

Jan 9, 1969

By Yahia M. Al-Smadi

Effect of lateral loading against existing sheet pile wall and distribution of gravity loading due to various number of construction loading scenarios were studied. The objective of this effort was to determine the loading case that permits the contractor to utilize a 400 ton crane at the specified location with the existing limitation imposed on site. Staged analysis was determined as the methodology that will more accurately predict the exiting and additional stress due to the impose crane loading. A reliable and robust analysis (ANSYS) software was used to complete both 2D and 3D finite element model and analysis. Analysis model parameters such as material properties, non-linear behavior of the soil, and meshing are presented and discussed. At the conclusion specific range of crane operation and pick weights operating on existing concrete mat supported on top of an existing tunnel was reviewed and deemed acceptable.

Jan 1, 2010

By B. Mishra

The application of various bydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical and electrochemical processes in the extraction, purification and production of radioactive metals as well as the use of various materials, eg. metals and alloys, ceramics, polymers, etc. in the process, construction and handling equipment in the nuclear industry has generated a large stockpile of radioactively contaminated waste material and scrap metal which can not be directly discarded, recycled or considered for long-term storage due to its volume and potential hazards, without the separation of radionuclides. This paper reviews the emerging methods that have been 'investigated and suggested for dealing with some of these wastes' and scrap material. The separation technologies studied for the recovery of radioactive components from the pyrometallurgical and electrochemical processing wastes have been discussed in details with results from some of the recent theoretical and physical modeling work as well as the data obtained? from the actual waste treatment. Specific processes shall be described in terms of its advantages and limitations. These emerging separation technologies are being considered by the US Department of Energy as alternatives for dealing with the issues of environmental management [EMI' and decontamination and decommissioning [D&D].

Jan 1, 1996

With the iron ore industry in Australia producing hundreds of millions of tonnes of ore per annum, the associated costs of these operations extend into the billions. It is no surprise in the current economic climate that more and more companies are looking into different ways of optimizing their costs to keep their sites operational. One way of improving operations is the use of electronic initiating systems like i-kon and Uni tronic detonators. These systems have been used around the world to improve current practices and optimize drill and blast costs. However, these systems have yet to make an impact upon the iron ore sector in Australia. Some of the potential improvements include:pattern expansion and a subsequent reduction in drilling and explosive costs;improved fragmentation and hence increased dig rates, thereby driving $/tonne down;embracing the 'mine-to-mill' concept by reducing the downstream costs of crushing and milling;improving the overall condition of pit walls and floors, leading to a safer working environment in which optimal haulage performance can be achieved; and improvements in vibration management around heritage sites and critical infrastructure, thereby saving the cost of relocation works. This paper introduces some of these concepts and the process of making the changes leading to potential savings from the improvements, using various examples as proof of the concepts.

Jan 1, 2009

By Nigel Saunders, Zhanli Guo

"Quench sensitivity of heat-treatable aluminium alloys is closely related to the precipitation process taking place during quenching. Faster cooling results in less precipitation of coarse phases during cooling, leaving more solutes in the solution before ageing. An alloy in such state would be of greater hardening potential as larger amounts of hardening phases may precipitate out during ageing. Hence, to understand the quench sensitivity of an alloy, it is essential to understand its precipitation process. Precipitation is a diffusion-controlled process and the diffusion is made complicated by the so-called quenched-in vacancies. These vacancies form during solution treatment, become “excess” when temperature goes down, and annihilate during the following cooling and ageing treatments, making diffusion now a function of both temperature and time. This paper first investigates the formation and annihilation of quenched-in vacancies and their effect on diffusion. The diffusion affected by quenched-in vacancies is considered in the kinetic models to realise the calculation of TTT/CCT diagrams for aluminium alloys. The calculated CCT diagrams have been used to explain the observed quench sensitivity and age hardening behaviour of various commercial alloys. The transformation from GP zones to other hardening phases during ageing is also discussed.INTRODUCTION The heat treatment of aluminium alloys mainly consists of three stages: a solution treatment at an elevated temperature, quenching from this solution treatment temperature to room temperature, followed by an ageing treatment to allow the precipitation of strengthening phases(Davis, 1993).The following statements generally describes how quench sensitivity is observed in heat-treatable Al-alloys: faster cooling results in,(i) less precipitation of coarse phases formed at high temperature during cooling, (ii) more solutes kept in solution before ageing, and (iii) larger amounts of hardening phases being formed, i.e. a greater hardening potential. Thus, the quench sensitivity of an alloy is closely related to its precipitation kinetics."

Jan 1, 2018

By Eldon C. Pattee

Variations of a very reliable geochemical field test for beryllium developed by Patten and Ward, have been adapted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines to facilitate rapid testing of reconnaissance samples and to aid in rapid examination of known occurrences. Although several qualitative tests for detecting beryllium have been described in the literature,1,2,3, the Patten-Ward4 morin geochemical field method has the advantages of being rapid and being quantitative for minute amounts of beryllium. In addition to the morin field method, Patten, in cooperation with Griffitts, have developed a contact- print method for determining beryllium in hand specimens.5 The semiquantitative method can be used for rapid screening of samples in exploration or reconnaissance work. The use of beads for fusing samples provides a more rapid test, but gives less accurate results than the method developed by Patten and Ward. The semiquantitative method, however, requires less equipment and combines three stock solutions into one reagent for easy application. Estimates of samples in the range from 3 to 1000 ppm varied from about 0.25 to 5 times the actual beryllium content.

Jan 5, 1965

By I. O. Flores, A. Anani, H. Li

Current technological advancement has increased the exploitation of deeper ore bodies using underground methods. In certain cases, the mineral deposit starts near the surface and continues deep within the earth's crust. Such deposits are best mined with both underground and surface methods. Two main techniques are used to determine the optimal transition depth from surface to underground - a disintegrated approach and an integrated approach. Both methods have limitations in their use to determine the optimal transition depth. The objective of this research is to investigate the conditions in which an integrated approach to the transition depth problem is superior to a disintegrated approach. Three binary integer linear programming models are developed for this purpose: a surface and underground model for the disintegrated instance and an integrated model. A case study is performed to validate the models, with a comparative sensitivity analysis to obtain operational insights.

Sep 1, 2021

Study on Iron Ore Sintering with High Proportion of Specularite Concentrates Specularite iron ores have poor hydrophilicity and ballability as well as bad high-temperature reactivity, which restricts the large-scale application in the sinter and pellet production. In order to make the best use of the specularite concentrates, a novel process of Composite Agglomeration Process (CAP) is applied in this research. By the CAP, the percentage of specularite concentrates in the sinter mixture is increased to no less than 40 per cent as well as the coke breeze dosage is reduced by 0.3 per cent~0.6 per cent. Moreover, all the sintering indexes are obviously improved compared with the traditional sintering process. Researches on the metallurgical performances shows the finished composite agglomerates are high-quality burdens for blast furnaces. This investigation can provide an effective route to utilize the inferior specularite concentrates in the sintering.

Sep 13, 2010

By Russel Delmar

Construction of Ontario Power Generation?s 12.8-m diameter, 10.4-km long water diversion tunnel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is underway. The tunnel is being excavated by means of a 14.44-m diameter open gripper Tunnel Boring Machine. The tunnel lining is constructed as a two-pass system with the initial lining consisting of rock bolts, mesh, steel channels or ribs, and shotcrete, and the final lining consisting of pre-stressed cast-in-place concrete with a waterproof membrane. This paper describes salient design and construction aspects as follows: ? Regional and Site Geology ? Tunnel Layout and Design ? TBM Tunnelling and Cast-in-place Concrete Lining Construction

Jan 1, 2008

By A. Lucian Walker

SILVER is not only of paramount importance to millions of people as a medium of savings and to other millions as a medium of exchange, but it is also valuable and useful in industry. Mexico continues to be the largest producer of this metal, followed by the United States, Canada, and Peru. The largest consumers are China and India, which normally absorb about two-thirds of the world's mine production, hoarding it as savings. The imports by these countries exert a powerful influence upon the price, yet neither country is on the silver standard. China having abandoned it in 1935 and India in 1893, when the rupee was definitely linked to the pound sterling. Other nations such as Persia, Ethiopia, Mexico, and many of the South American countries either have been on the silver standard or have used silver as their chief circulating medium, and most large nations use it for subsidiary coins, this use accounting for 20 to 30 million ounces annually. The arts and industries have consumed 35 to 40 million ounces each year.

Jan 1, 1937

By Robert B. Hopler

The history of the first twenty years of the high explosives industry in the United States begins as an illustration of the free enterprise system at its best and ends with the industry virtually taken over by a single company: a company which strongly opposed the new explosive material at the beginning of the period. In the world of the late Twentieth Century we could almost compare this history to the opposition of the mainframe computer manufacturers to the introduction of the personal computer, and their later entry into, and attempted dominance of, that market. With computers in the twentieth century the attempt to dominate the market has not been particularly successful: with dynamite in the nineteenth century it was.

Jan 1, 1994

By Robert L. Haffner

When mining operations of The Eagle-Picher Co. began in the Illinois-Wisconsin zinc mining field in 1949, all underground loading of broken ore and waste was by caterpillar-tracked machines. Beginning in 1956 rubber-tired end-loaders were brought in; ultimately they completely supplanted the tracked units. End-loaders proved to have the mobility needed for the mining conditions and additional merit in auxiliary capacities. Eagle-Picher operates five mines in this area; two are entered by shafts and three by inclined adits. Several ore zones, some of which are attenuated over a considerable distance, are worked from the same entry. Consequently underground haulage roads connecting or following these orebodies have attained great length. In addition, working places are often widely separated because of the character of the mining operations which include pillar recovery and extending haulage connections into old workings. At one mine, the haulage distance is 5000 ft on either side of the shaft, at another the maximum one-way distance is 8400 ft, and at another the present road system of 6800 ft is expected to reach 10,000 to 12,000 ft.

Jan 6, 1962

By W. M. Peirce, E. A. Anderson

A FEW metals have been known since the dawn of history. Many have been prepared in quantity only within the present century. Zinc falls into an intermediate category, although there is some evidence of its existence in elemental form in Greece as early as the third or fourth century B.C. Nevertheless, the first important use of zinc antedates the earliest records of civilization. This first use was in the alloy, brass, which is roughly one third zinc. This continues to the present time as one of the major uses of the metal. The first production of brass, in light of present knowledge, was perhaps one of the 'most romantic and fortuitous of technical discoveries. Copper, the major constituent of brass, had been given to man by Nature in the native state; that is, as lumps of fairly pure copper. The art of melting and working it had been learned. But zinc does not occur as the metal in Nature and even if some early metallurgist happened to heat zinc ore with a reducing agent, the reduced metallic zinc passed off as vapor and was lost. Doubtless some early coppersmith, melting copper in accidental contact with zinc ore, reduced the zinc, and the vapor was absorbed by the molten copper. Its color, hardness, and other properties were thus wonder- fully changed. And so the earliest metallic form of zinc, as nearly as we can deduce, existed in the alloy brass. Probably knowledge of the kind of rock with which to heat copper to change it to brass, the best

Jan 1, 1953