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By Floyd D. Varley

Outbursts, the sudden and violent out- pouring of material into mine openings, is a ground control problem increasingly encountered in the United States as deeper seams are developed. Outbursts, caused by several mechanisms, are the result of the loading of ground support systems be- yond their designed capacity to failure, manifested in a violent release of stored energy. There are several types of outbursts typical to deep underground coal mines. - Outbursts of the coal face due to the presence of pressure abutments in close proximity to the face. These outbursts are usually accompanied by liberation of large amounts of methane. - Instantaneous convergence of the ribs and floor due to overloading and failure of ribs which lengthens the beam of floor strata sometimes resulting in a chain reaction failure of the mine floor. - violent failure of the confined core of a pillar due to rapid loading beyond the yield point of the pillar.

Jan 1, 1986

By Andre Vervoort

Falls of ground, such as falls of roof and sidewall collapses, are a major cause of fatalities and injuries in South African collieries. Based on information obtained from the accident reports of the various Chief Inspectors of nines, a statistical analysis was conducted covering the period 1970 to 1988. This study shows that the volume of rock in a fatal fall of ground is often quite small. In intersections, fatal falls are on average larger than in roadways and at the face. It was also found that in 36 % of all fatal falls of ground no temporary or permanent support was installed at the site of the accident.

Jan 1, 1990

By C. R. Edwards, J. R. Smith

"INTRODUCTIONThe purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the ALSANDS PROJECT, with emphasis on the approach taken in the design of the Primary Extraction and Froth Treatment Plants.The Alsands Consortium (Table 1) is a Joint Venture of 9 companies formed in 1978, with its prime objective to obtain governmental approval and concomitant suitable commercial terms to build and operate a third oil sands mining and upgrading facility in the Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit.Alsands Energy Limited is the Consortium Manager.The Alsands Project will provide about 10 percent of Canada's forecast crude oil production by 1990, which will be 20,700 cubic metres per day (130,000 barrels/day) of synthetic crude oil plus 1,100 cubic metres per day (7,000 barrels/day) of liquid petroleum gases. To construct Alsands the time required by construction labour, field non-manual and engineering support personnel as well as those trades involved in project-related urban development will total approximately 100,000,000 manhours or 50,000 man years. During regular operations, 4,800 people will be employed by Alsands.Approximately $13 billion will be spent to design, construct and start up the plant by the scheduled 1988 completion date."

Jan 1, 1982

By John C. Stankus

Jennmar Corporation. in an effort to improve mine roof control, has conducted extensive study and research comparing tensioned point anchor resin systems versus the use of non-tensioned fully grouted rehar. Preliminary indications are showing that in thinly laminated, weak strata, tensioned point anchor resin systems are providing more effective roof control than the non-tensioned fully grouted rehar. In this paper two case studies are presented in which tensioned point anchor resin systems were utilized to stabilize and control the mine roof in two different mines. Both mines are alike in many ways, but yet very different in other aspects. However, the mines do share one main common factor. and that being the non-effectiveness of the non-tensioned fully grouted rebar in controlling the thinly lamininated strata in each respective mine.

Jan 1, 1990

By I Lipton

The existence of metalliferous mineral deposits on the deep-sea floor has been known since manganese nodules were discovered in the Arctic Kara Sea in 1868. Modern exploration to define commercially viable base and precious metal deposits began in the 1970s and gained further momentum in the last decade. High grade deposits have been delineated but investors remain cautious, many considering deep sea mining projects to be riskier than terrestrial projects. This paper compares opportunities and risks presented by terrestrial mining projects with those presented by deep sea mineral deposits (Table 1). The Solwara 1 volcanic-hosted massive Cu-Au-Ag sulphide deposit, the Atlantis II Deeps sedimentary base metal sulphide deposit, and the Mn-Ni-Cu-Co nodule deposits of the north-eastern Pacific Ocean are used as examples. These are advanced deep-sea projects with published Mineral Resource estimates, on the cusp of development. Off-shore diamond mines in Namibia are also considered. These examples provide a basis for comparing exploration and geological uncertainty, the technical risks of proposed mining systems, and the potential environmental and social impacts. CITATION: Lipton, I, 2018. A comparison of opportunity and risk in deep-sea and terrestrial mining projects, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 102–105 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

Valuable Components Recovery from Lead-Zinc Metallurgical Slag

Sep 13, 2010

By A. Jarosz

The surface manifestation of underground mining usually entails five distinct types of surface movements, which can affect or damage surface structures, facilities and renewable resources. These movements developing at the surface can be described by (Bell, 1975; Bhattacharya and Singh, 1984): - vertical displacement, i.e. subsidence, - horizontal displacements, - slope or tilt, i.e. the derivative of the vertical displacement with respect to the horizontal distance, - curvature, i.e. the second derivative of the vertical displacement with respect to the horizontal distance, and, - horizontal strain, i.e. the derivative of the horizontal displacement with respect to the horizontal distance.

Jan 1, 1986

By M. Bevis, E. O. Fearon, P. C. Rowlands

Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-C martensite specimens have been deformed in compression at room temperature and the habit planes of operative deformation twins determined by two-surface optical trace analysis. The full orientations of the martensite crystals were determined from divergent X-ray beam diffraction patterns. The experimental results are in excelled agreement with predicted twinning modes. In particular, the habit planes of some deformation twins in bcc martensites are consistent with a "Type XI compound'' twinning mode with Kl, Kz, 71, 77~ elements given by {5, 8, 11) {ioi}, (33) (ill) Tetragonal derivatives of this mode are operative in bct martensites. UnUSUAL deformation twinning modes have been reported by Richman' to occur in Fe-Ni-C martensites with bcc and bct structures. The twin habit planes were determined by single-surface trace analysis (pole locus method) and the remaining twinning elements were determined from the geometry of twin-twin intersections. The indices assigned to the observed habit planes are (3 101, "(089)" and "{0, 1,13)" or "{1,2,7} ", and only in the first case do the twinning elements correspond to a predicted twinning mode. This is mode 1.4 in the paper by Bevis et al. The results presented in Ref. 2 indicate that previously unpublished bcc and bct modes should be operative in preference to the (130) mode and anomalous modes reported by Richman. In view of these results and the uncertainties involved in determining habit planes from single-surface trace analysis and twinning elements from twin-twin intersections5 a two-surface trace analysis of deformation twins in Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-C martensites has been carried out. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Two alloys with compositions Fe-23 pct Ni-0.6 pct C and Fe-30.4 pct Ni were prepared from 4N pure materials by induction melting under a vacuum of 10"5 mm Hg. The alloys were homogenized at 1350'~ for 5 days. Both of these alloys are austenitic at room temperature with M, temperature - — 50"C. The aus-tenite grain size of the Fe-Ni-C alloy was approximately 300 to 400 p. The Fe-Ni alloy was remelted in a vertical tube furnace and the melt lowered slowly from the hot zone of the furnace to produce s ingle -crystal austenite specimens. Specimens approximately 10 by 5 by 5 mm were cut from the ingots and quenched to various temperatures below the Ms temperature. The specimens were elec-tropolished in a 10 pct perchloric acetic electrolyte before being deformed in compression at room temperature. Martensite plates which exhibited profuse deformation twinning were selected for analysis and the specimen polished on a second surface such that the two surfaces which contained the martensite plate enclosed an obtuse angle of approximately 145 deg. The specimens were then electropolished to reveal the traces of the deformation twins on both surfaces. The full orientations of the martensite crystals were determined using a divergent X-ray beam technique (Kossel line technique) employing an AEI SEM2 electron probe microanalyzer. Details of this technique which include a detailed description of the Kossel camera attachment to the microanalyzer used in the present experiments have been discussed elsewhere.3 Only additional details relevant to this investigation are discussed here. The specimens were mounted with one surface normal to the incident electron beam as illustrated schematically in Fig. 1. The martensite plates to be analyzed were located using the normal scanning equipment of the microanalyzer. The position of the electron beam and hence the position of the source of divergent X-rays generated within the crystal could be located to within 1 p. Exposure times of approximately 8 to 10 min were required for back-reflection Kossel patterns and it was found that useful diffraction patterns could be obtained consistently from heavily deformed martensite plates. A reference line (carbon contamination mark) produced on the two surfaces of the specimen by scanning the electron beam in a direction having a known relationship with the reference !ine in the X-ray camera enabled the full orientation of the crystals to be determined. Martensite plates with widths as small as 8 p could be oriented using this procedure. The Kossel line patterns were interpreted using the charts developed by Rowlands and ~evis~ as generally

Jan 1, 1969

By J. R. Ruark

This report presents results of mining operations and of research and development work done during stage I of the gas combustion retorting research program conducted by the Colorado School of Mines Research Foundation and six major oil companies at the Bureau of Mines Anvil Points Oil Shale Facilities. A brief description of the gas combustion process is given and the experimental program is discussed. Included in this discussion are (1) air-gas distributor development, (2) results of gas and shale distribution studies, and (3) effects of other process variable studies. The report concludes with a statistical evaluation of experimental results. Two appendixes present a chronological account of the experimental work and tabulations of data for all retorting runs conducted during stage I.

Jan 1, 1969

By John H. Soulé

This paper describes the location and general features of the ?Red Bed? or sandstone copper deposits in southeastern Colorado and New Mexico. Most of the areas containing this type of deposit were visited, and many deposits were examined. Some deposits were not visited because of lack of information as to their location. In the large area covered a great variety of climatic, geographic, and topographic conditions exists. Some of the deposits are in arid areas, whereas others are in heavily forested regions. Altitudes range from 3,400 to 9,200 feet, and the terrain varies from flat plains to rugged mountains. Transportation is a difficult problem in most of the districts, involving long truck hauls to a railroad and long rail hauls to a smelter.

Jan 1, 1956

By V. Labiouse, P. K. Kaiser, F. Descoeudres, F. Rojat

In this paper some failure phenomena observed in the crossing of brittle rock formations at the Lötschberg base tunnel are presented. A brittle failure criteria, recently developed by Canadian researchers, is applied through finite element calculations together with a semi-empirical failure criterion, to explain these behaviours. Good agreement is found between predicted and observed failures at the tunnel walls. This study also shows some of the limitations of this approach. Dans cet article sont présentés certains phénomènes de rupture observés durant la traversée de zones de roches fragiles lors de l’excavation du tunnel du Lötschberg. Un critère de rupture développé récemment par la recherche canadienne est utilisé à travers des calculs par éléments finis. En parallèle, les résultats sont comparés avec ceux d’un critère semi-empirique. Au niveau des parements, l’ampleur des ruptures observées est assez proche des résultats de calcul. Cette étude a également permis de mettre en avant certaines limites de l’approche choisie. In diesem Artikel werden verschiedene Brucharten dargestellt, die bei der Durchfahrung von sprödem Gestein im Rahmen des Ausbaus des Lötschberg-Basistunnels beobachtet wurden. Zur Erklärung des vorliegenden Verhaltens wurden die erst kürzlich in Kanada entwickelten Theorien zur Beschreibung von Sprödbrüchen herangezogen und bei der Berechnung mittels der Finite-Elemente-Methode und eines semi-empirischen Kriteriums angewendet. Die so vorhergesagten Versagenszonen an den Tunnelwänden stimmen mit den Beobachtungen gut überein. Die Studie hat auch dazu beigetragen, die bei der Anwendung des Lösungsansatzes angetroffenen Schwierigkeiten aufzuzeigen.

Jan 1, 2003

By H. K. Lin

Cyclic voltammetric and potential step chronoam-perometric techniques were used to study gold dissolution in cyanide solution. Three distinct anodic and one cathodic peaks appear on the voltammogram between -0.50 and 0.80 V vs SCE. The corresponding reactions were proposed to explain the peaks and the passivations. The proposed reactions were in agreement with the effect of pH, cyanide concentration and the rotating speed of the electrode on the magnitude of the peak currents. Cyclic voltammetric tests, with various vertex potentials, were also conducted to examine the proposed reactions. Steady-state currents at various potentials were obtained by potential step chronoamperometric technique and were compared with transient currents obtained by the cyclic voltammetric technique.

Jan 1, 2000

By Michael W. Oakland

Deer Island is the site of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) wastewater treatment plant which, when completed in 1999, will serve 43 cities and towns in central eastern Massachusetts. Deer Island is located in the Boston Harbor, as shown on Figure 1. The existing wastewater treatment plant on Deer Island is being upgraded to include secondary treatment to comply with Federal require­ments. The new treatment facilities will process an average of 455 million gallons of sewage per day; total capacity will be about one billion gallons per day. The new treatment facilities will cover virtually the entire island. [ ]

Jan 1, 1994

At its Port Kembla Plant, Australian Fertilizers Ltd. manufactures Superphosphate and other Phosphatic Fertilizers.Phosphate Rock is received from Nauru and Ocean Island. It contains water insoluble tri-calcium phosphate, Ca3(PO4), to an average of about 86%.It is crushed to pass a 20-mesh x 26-gauge woven wire screen, and is then treated with Sulphuric Acid to give the product Superphosphate with a water solubie prosphate content of 20.5%, estimated as P205. Sulphuric Acid is made by the chamber process. Three sets of chambers are installed, on,e five-chamber set of timber frame work construction and the other two of more recent date, each with four chambers of steel frame work construction. A fourth chamber set is now being built.Sulphuric Acid is delivered for use. at about 70% H2S04, the strength depending upon the rock used.Mixing - The crushed rock and sulphuric acid are mixed in weighed and measured proportions respectiyely in one-ton batches in revolving cast fron pans, mechanically stirred. The mixture, while still slurry, is run into a closed horizontal concrete cylinder (den) where, with the completion of the chemical reaction, it rapidly sets as Superphosphate.Approximately fifty batches are required to fill a den. When full, the den is opened ana the mass cut out by a revolving cutter. The product is elevated and conveyed to any required position in the Superphosphate storage shed, where it dries and matures.Despatch - As required, the Superphosphate is excavated by a two ton grab and conveyed from the matured "dump" to bagging units where it is disintegrated, screened and bagged at twelve bags to the ton. The filled !Jags are closed by machine and delivered to railway trucks immediately.Mixed Fertilizers - Sulphate of Ammonia, Sulphate and Muriate, of Potash, and Blood and Bone are mixed with Superphosphate and thoroughly incorporated to give different mixtures to meet special plant requirements.

Jan 1, 1938

By K. Oraee

Mining of copper ore and the related industries play an important role in Iran?s economy. Copper ore production in Iran accounts for 75% of the total production in the Middle East. All activities related to copper, that is, exploration, production, refinement etc are owned and managed by state owned companies. Decisions have been made to privatize all these activities. To assess the success of this privatization process, different components of the industry must be subject to economic analysis. In this paper, the cost estimation of all operations has been carried out. The total potential and attainable revenues have also been estimated using historical data available from the industry. Risk is a major factor in all mining activities and the copper industry of Iran has been subject to risk factors arising from many internal and external variables. These variables have been recognized and their effects evaluated. The effect of risk on the economic feasibility of the operations in the industry has also been analyzed.

Jan 1, 2011

By D. F. Strong, P. P. O'Neill

"The Isle aux Morts Prospect is the first polymetallic, sulphide mineralization reported from the Port aux Basques Complex of southwest Newfoundland. Zn-Pb-Cu-Ba-Ag mineralization hosted by quartz-muscovite semipelite, occurs at the contact between a quartz of eldspathic unit and pelitic unit with intercalated amphibolite are minerals comprise sphalerite-galenachalcopyrite, in order of decreasing abundance. The principal gangue minerals are quartz, muscovite, feldspar and barite. Three morphologic types of mineralization are present: massive with more than 50% sulphide, flanked on one or both sides by disseminated and/or banded types. The massive type of mineralization exhibits a :durchbewegung"" fabric of rounded silicate fragments in a sulphide matrix, characteristic of intensely deformed and metamorphosed sulphide bodies. Sulphide minerals have been mobilized and recrystallized and share the same metamorphic and deformational history as the host rocks. Quartz muscovite schist which hosts disseminated mineralization, displays a K2O enrichment and Na2O depletion, that is typical of alteration associated with sulphide bodies in volcano sedimentary sequences. Isotopic ratios of sulphur are comparable to those of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits.Despite penetrative deformation and metamorphic recrystallization, features of the local geology and the mineralization suggest that the Isle aux Morts Prospect is volcanogenic in origin. IntroductionFollowing the release of a government lake sediment survey (Butler and Davenport, 1980), which indicated anomalous concentrations of metals in southwest Newfoundland, geologists with Utah Mines Ltd. discovered the Isle aux Morts Prospect, a Zn-Pb-Cu-Ba-Ag showing, located approximately 15 km northeast of Port aux Basques (Figs. I and 2). The mineralization occurs in quartz-muscovite schist and is the first significant basemetal discovery in the Port aux Basques Complex."

Jan 1, 1988

By Kewal K. Kohli, Stefanie Self

"Three cases of surface subsidence investigated over abandoned coal mines after flooding in one case and dcwatering in two cases are presented in this paper. Mining was conducted by the room and- pillar method at all the mines leaving stable pillars. This paper will discuss the background chain of events and the likely causes of the pillar failure resulting in surface subsidence.CASE NO.1BackgroundThe Pittsburgh scam was mined in 1960 by the room-and- pillar method, leaving pillars (Figure I) through Mine A. located in Monongalia County. West Virginia.The mining height in U1is area was 1.83 m (6 ft) with an average mining depth of 140 m (460 ft). The mining recovery was 62% and the safety factor of the pillars was calculated at 1.15 using the Bieniawski ( 1984) fom1ula. For stable pillar design. a 1.5 safety factor is recommended. A 1.15 safety factor is considered marginal. Pumping continued after the mine was shut down in 1960 to prevent water seeping into an adjoining mine owned by the same company. The pumping ceased on December 12. 2003, and the mine was allowed to flood. The water level rose about 17 m (55 ft) by August 3 1, 2004, based on observations in a nearby borehole. On September 3, 2004 surface subsidence occurred above this area causing damage 10 a residence (Figure 2).Summary of InvestigationThe floor of the Pittsburgh coal scam played a strong role in the pillar failure. In this area, the immediate floor of the Pittsburgh seam consists of about two feet of fireclay. Extensive damage to the surface house was an indication that a major collapse below the surface had occurred. The pillars supporting the overlying strata were evaluated to find the cause of their failure. The pillars in the Pittsburgh seam (sec Figure I) had a marginal safety factor of 1.15 before flooding and were stable for 26 years. Once the mine was flooded the water level in the Pittsburgh seam rose by 17 m (55 ft). Shortly thereafter the fireclay in the floor weakened, resulting in several pillars punching into the floor unevenly making the immediate roof unstable. The overburden strata supported by these pillars also subsided do"" n into the mine, causing damage to several house on the surface."

Jan 1, 2010

By J. Buckle

"Recognition of the diamond potential of the Wawa subprovince was initially determined from regional data using a kimberlite model. The world’s largest stable Precambrian craton, the Superior Province, is considered to be favourable for the emplacement of diamondiferous kimberlite. The Wawa area is located near the intersection of intra-craton structures visible in the regional magnetic data.The Enigma project is located north of the town of Wawa in northern Ontario. From field evidence and background research, it became obvious that in the Wawa area there were at least two potentially diamond-hosting events, Archean lamprophyric volcaniclastics and Proterozoic kimberlites. The host lamprophyric rock does not contain the classical KIM signatures. However, to complicate the Enigma, stream sediment samples within 200 m of the diamond-bearing lamprophyre produced a typical suite of kimberlite indicator minerals.The micro- and macro-diamond content of the Wawa lamprophyric volcaniclastic rocks is typically 0.2 ct/t to 1 ct/t, although it can be higher locally. The economic diamond potential of these Archean dykes, sills and irregular lamprophyre bodies is still under-explored (Kaminsky, 2002, unpubl.). Oasis Diamond Exploration is currently exploring the area using geophysical, geochemical, and geological data."

Jan 1, 2002

By E. F. Schnitzer

During 1996 and 1997, Oregon experienced flooding on a scale not seen in many years. Some gravel pits located near rivers experienced erosion. In several cases, breaches occurred between the gravel pit and the river. Initial evaluation of several sites that experienced these breaches showed that impacts to the river system were complex and varied significantly from site to site. The impacts to the adjacent river system may be viewed as positive and negative. Several flood-plain-mining sites in Oregon located in areas of historic river flow reverted to active riverbeds. In many cases, state and federal fisheries biologists and university researchers saw the resulting increase in channel complexity and habitat as favorable. The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries —Mined Land Reclamation Program (DOGAMI-MLR) is studying the effects to the off-channel areas that resulted from the 1996 floods. More data is needed to make sound flood-plain decisions regarding mining.

Jan 1, 1999

By H. E. Cline, E. F. Koch, J. L. Walter

It has been postulated and, in a few instances shown, that some kind of dislocation structure will be present at semicoherent interfaces to accommodate small lattice mismatches. In the present study of the NiAl-Cr eutectic, regular arrays of interface dislocations are observed at the boundary between the chromium-rich rods and the NiAl-rich matrix. The networks were examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected area diffraction. The rods and the matrix have a crystallographic relationship in which all directions and planes of the two phases are parallel. The dislocation networks are cmposed of a<100> dislocations lying on the intersections of the cylinders with (100) planes. Dislocations forming hexagonal rather than square arrays are also observed at certain areas of the network. The morphology of the network is consistent with the interpretation of mismatch being accommodated by interface dislocations in the cylindrical geometry. The measured spacing between dislocations was used to calculate an apparent lattice mismatch between the phases (˜0.35 PCt)interface network energy (-140 ergs per sq cm), and network strengthening (-10,000 psi). It has been proposed by Frank and Van der Merwe1 that dislocations should be present at the boundary between two semicoherent crystallographically related phases. The role of the interface dislocations would be to reduce the internal stresses, caused by the mismatch in atomic spacing across the interface. Such dislocations have been observed at the interface between expitaxially grown films and Substrates.2-4 Interfacial dislocations have also been observed at precipitate-matrix interfaces.&apos;-&apos; Directionally solidified eutectics have been shown to have semicoherent phases1&apos; and would, therefore, be expected to have interfacial dislocations as found by Weatherly at a lamellar fault in A1-A12Cu.11 The NiAl-Cr eutectic appeared to be a promising system to examine because both phases are cubic, the lattice mismatch is small, and the phases are crys-tallographically related. Furthermore, the eutectic is easily thinned for transmission microscopy. Indeed, interfacial dislocations were observed and this report describes the nature of the dislocation networks in the boundary between the NiAl-rich ma-trix-phase and the fine chromium-rich rods.21 I) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Ingots, 3/4 in. in diam and 6 in. long were made by melting in vacuum and casting under argon using 99.9 pct pure material. The composition, in at. pct, was 33 pct Ni, 33 pct Al, and 34 pct Cr. The ingots were then placed in A1203 crucibles on a water-cooled base, melted by means of induction, and withdrawn from the hot zone at the rate of 1 in per hr under argon.* * T his material was first directionally solidified in this laboratory by E. R. Stover Slices were taken perpendicular to the growth direction of the directionally solidified ingot for metallography and for transmission electron microscopy. The electron transmission samples were thinned mechanically, then thinned electrolytically in A-2 electrolyte* *A-2 electrolyte: 62 ml perchloric acid, 700 ml ethanol, 100 ml butylcellosolve, 137 ml distilled H20. until a hole appeared in the foil. 11) EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS A) Optical Microscopy. The microstructure, viewed on a plane perpendicular to the growth direction, is shown in Fig. 1. The structure consists of cells or colonies of parallel chromium-rich rods in the NiAl matrix. The cells occur when there are impurities present12 or, in a ternary eutectic, if the composition is slightly off the eutectic composition. The axis of the chromium-rich rods is parallel to the growth direction except near the cell boundaries. Here the rods may assume angles to the growth direction; however, examination shows that the crystallographic relationship between the rod and the matrix remains the same. Fig. 1 includes cell boundaries where the rods formed at a large angle to the growth direction. The variation of rod position across the cells made it possible to Fig. 1-Structure on plane perpendicular to growth direction. Rods near cell walls are at large angle to growth direction. Magnification 315 times.

Jan 1, 1970