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By Tim Wolf, Barry Fink

Mine site managers reported occurrences of locking assembly bolt failures on the Enlow Fork Coal Mine's slope belt conveyor. The observations were made after a number of years of operation and raised questions as to the status of the assemblies in operation. These questions prompted a detailed review of the situation by independent consultants. Using operational history of the conveyor and confirmation of belt loads by static and dynamic methods, a locking assembly fatigue curve was created to suggest expected service life. From this work, suggestions were made to modify the pulley assemblies for extended service life.

Jan 1, 2002

By Johns D. R

The producers of mineral sands on the East Coast of Australia might be regarded as having a simple task of selling Rutile and Zircon. Such is not the case. Differing quality and grain size requirements plus the dramatic increase in the percentage of mineral sold in a processed form have meant a large increase in the number of different end products handled. The resulting sales control problems are compounded by the need to be able to deliver against a large number of separate contracts which may relate to spot or long term sales in small quantities or in bulk shipments. Methods of helping management control this situation have been devised and incorporated into a suite of computer programs. Experience with the approach has been very satisfactory. The effect of changes to shipping schedules, commitment to new or changed orders, or proposed changes to production can be evaluated as and when necessary with little bother. Confidence in decisions taken is high since the process of data collection has been designed to involve

Jan 1, 1977

By W. L. Price

Recent publication of United States Bureau of Mines figures showed that the sand and gravel (3) industry is the largest single mining industry in the United States in term of yearly tonnage produced. The yearly production of over 500,000,000 tons per year now exceed bituminous coal production. This disclosure caught unawares many observers who have not been following closely the rapid-growth of this phase of mining. Along with this steady growth in production, the sand and gravel industry has gone through an accelerated and varied program of beneficiation in a period of the last ten years.

Jan 1, 1958

By Taghi Sherizadeh, Samuel Nowak, Kutay Karadeniz, Paul Brooks, Alper Kirmaci, Mina Esmaeelpour, Dogukan Guner, Gunnar Wurst

As mines continue to deepen and become more expansive, active monitoring of larger volumes of rock mass will become more critical to calibrate numerical simulations and to ensure the safety of underground workers. Monitoring larger volumes of rock mass requires low-cost sensors which are simple in construction and installation. In this study, a novel hybrid optical fiber cable (HOFC) designed for use in distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) via grouted boreholes was employed to monitor a bulk mining operation in an underground metal mine. The HOFC was successfully used to monitor approximately 2.7 × 103 m3 of rock mass above excavations surrounding a pillar removal area in which six large pillars were removed simultaneously. A total of six measurement boreholes (maximum depth of 22 m) were used to measure strain along the optical fiber during the pillar removal operation using the HOFC, allowing for 70 individual strain measurement points, which were constructed for under one US dollar each. Monitoring of the excavation area took place over a 44-day period after pillar removal. Extensional strains were noted in the areas closest to the removed pillars, while areas of compression were noted directly above the remaining pillar in the area. The results of the case study demonstrate that a low-cost optical fiber strain sensing network can be rapidly installed in a large excavation area and can provide highly sensitive strain measurements in a manner that would be cost-prohibitive via other methods.

May 13, 2024

By J. S. Laskowski

Anisotropic minerals are important constituents of many ores. This group includes both valuable minerals (e.g., molybdenite in Cu-Mo ores) as well as gangue minerals (e.g., talc in platinumbearing sulphide ores in South Africa, graphite in Cu-Ni sulphide ores in Canada, chrysotile in Ni sulphide ores in Australia, and clay minerals in all types of ores). Aqueous suspensions of anisotropic minerals exhibit different properties than suspensions of isotropic minerals. The presence of anisotropic minerals in flotation circuits affects the flotation process.

Jan 1, 2012

By B. Dubreuil, J. -M. Lalancette, D. Lemieux, C. Chouinard

The extraction of gold and silver has been examined via the use of mixed halogens: chlorine and bromine. The reaction was performed in a brine of sodium chloride with a small amount of sodium bromide at 40-50°C, in an atmosphere of chlorine, at atmospheric pressure. The process takes advantage of the very high reactivity of bromine towards gold, while the higher oxidation capacity of chlorine leads to gold chloride as end product with recycling of bromine. Fast reaction rates are observed along with gold recovery at the level of 95%. Chlorine-consuming common elements are removed prior to chlorination.

Jan 1, 2011

By Paykan Safe

Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling provides a powerful tool to assist with the design of ventilation and fume control systems in smelters and other high temperature metallurgical facilities. For this paper, this tool has been used to analyze the off-gas flow patterns exiting the mouth of a Peirce-Smith converter into a water-cooled hood and drop out box. The effects of various process and physical plant design parameters on process gas and fume capture and potential build up on the converter hoods was examined, and the optimum design and operating parameters were determined.

Jan 1, 2000

By Edward L. McHugh

The study area, which comprises 28,443 acres within the Jacumba Wilderness Study Area, is in the California Desert Conservation Area, and along the U.S.-Mexico border 25 miles west of Fl Centro, CA. The U.S. Bureau of Mines evaluation of mineral resources is based on examination of mining claims, known mineral occurrences, and mineralized zones during the fall of 1983. Limestone resources were identified inside the study area; tungsten resources may he present. Metasedimentary rocks intruded by Cretaceous Quartz diorite predominate in the study area. Tungsten and some gold have been found in skarn zones along intrusive contacts; limestone deposits are in the pre-Cretaceous rocks. Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic flows, pyroclastic rocks, clay beds, and diatomite in lake deposits nave been investigated for possible non-metallic resources. Evidence of mining or prospecting was found at 26 sites in or just outside the study area. In 1983, 106 claims were held in 13 claim groups. One claimant was sporadically prospecting for gold on claims in the north part of the study area in 1983, and gravel was being mined from alluvium 1/4 mile to the east.

Jan 1, 1985

By Juhyung Lee

Numerical analyses were performed to analyze the behavior of two different type of suction piles (mono type and group type) under various soil layer conditions (uniform silty clay layer, uniform silty sand layer, and two-layer deposit consisting of clay and sand layers) and lateral loading locations (top, middle, and bottom of the suction pile). According to the results, mono suction pile shows maximum resistance when load is applied on its middle, regardless of the soil layer conditions, while group suction piles varies significantly according to the allowance on head rotation. When head rotation is allowed, the behavior of group type piles become similar to the behavior of mono suction pile. Whereas, when rotation is prevented, resistance is maximized when load is applied on the top head. Moreover, group suction piles show higher efficiency regardless of the ground condition and geological stratum. For further advances, concrete block on the top of group suction piles are suggested as an effective alternative method to prevent partial rotation and maximize ground resistance for group suction piles.

By B. Ignasiak

Laboratory studies suggest that improvements of coke strength brought about by pre-heating caking coals before carbonization accrue from inadvertent oxidation rather than from other low-temperature changes in the coal mass. Controlled oxidation of highly caking coal, followed by laboratory carbonization, produces cokes which, in terms of a laboratory scale tumble test index, are equivalent to those obtained from prime metallurgical blends. Appropriately formulated blends of exhaustively oxidized and fresh caking coal similarly yield cokes with strength indices comparable to those of cokes made from the same coal after oxidation under optimum conditions.

Jan 1, 1979

By Peter H. Toepfer

Hydraulically emplaced, classified mill sands long have been used for stope fill. Entrained water drains rapidly from this type of fill through openings between the sand grains. Slimes are removed to facilitate drainage of the water, thereby lowering dangerous hydrostatic pressures in the fill. Use of unclassified mill tailing as practiced at the Dayrock mine is a recent development and represents a fundamentally different approach to the problems of inhibiting the development of hydrostatic pressures within the stope fill. At the. Dayrock mine, mill tailing is used to form a densely packed fill of sand and slime particles relatively impervious to additional water.

Jan 1, 1952

By R. Hurman Eric

The dew-point technique of activity measurements take advantage of the volatility of a component in solution. The pressure of the volatile component over a sample is determined from observations of the temperature at which condensation of the vapor occurs. The method is applicable best when the vapor pressure of the components would differ by about two to three orders of magnitude. Experimentally, this is a closed system involving the use of evacuated and sealed transparent quartz sample probes. Furthermore reliable vapor pressure data of the volatile component is essential along with a specialized high temperature furnace capable of giving reproducible results. In this context, the vertical Dew-Point Furnace (DPF) was designed and built after elaborate trails until enough proficiency was gained for reprodueible results. Over the years the DPF was modified and improved. The DPF developed was versatile and could easily be used for activity measurements in the isopiestic mode (another method of measuring activities of a volatile component in a solution). The necessary ancillary systems; namely evacuation-flushing-evacuation followed by sealing of quartz sample probes under vacuum were also perfected over the years. As and when necessary the dew-point technique was supplemented by classical equilibration-quenching method employed on the sealed quartz sample probes to reveal necessary phase equilibrium information. The following were studied utilizing the above technique: (i) Activities in CuzS-PbS and FeS-PbS binaries and CU2S-FeS- PbS ternary at 1200°C; (ii) Activities in CuzS-SnS and FeS-SnS binaries and Cu2S-FeS-SnS ternary at 1200°C; (iii) Phase equilibria and thennodynamic in Cu-Pb-S, Fe-Pb-S, Fe-Sn-S, Cu-Sn-S and Ag-Sn-S systems. Most recently the following systems have been tackled: (i) Phase equilibria and thennodynamics in the Ag-Pb-S and Sn-Pb-S systems; and (ii) Activities in Ag2S-FeS-CuzS-PbS quaternary at 1200°C.

Jan 1, 2003

By Alton B. Cook

In the Scurry Reef field, Scurry County, Tex., a study was made to determine the physical properties of the oil in all parts of the reservoir by a new method developed for this study. The method involved correlation of data from a survey 1 of the gravity of the produced oil, from measurements of gas-oil ratios on key wells selected to give representative data for the entire reservoir, and from laboratory analyses of reservoir oil samples. A field survey was made of the API gravities of the produced oil by testing oil samples from 107 key wells. Precise gas-oil-ratio tests were made on 45 key wells that were producing under comparable separator-operating conditions. Subsurface-oil samples were obtained from seven wells, selected to provide reservoir oils ranging approximately from a minimum to a maximum in saturation pressure. The physical properties of the subsurface-oil samples were determined, and correlations were made of these laboratory data with the field gas-oil-ratio test data. These correlations were then used to estimate physical properties of the oil throughout the reservoir. A logical procedure of determining the variations in physical properties of reservoir oils in most fields is to obtain and analyze subsurface-oil samples from enough key wells to provide an ample coverage of the field. Under this procedure, data from a large number of samples would be needed to provide the desired information on the Scurry Reef field, as it is one of the largest known in the United States.

Jan 1, 1955

By N. H. Emmons

THE work of a consulting engineer or manager, when controlling mining-operations, requires that he have all the information concerning the mine in as concise a form as possible, and as the ore-reserves and their depletion and enlargement are the vital points to be studied, it is well to have them kept up to date and in some convenient form. The present paper describes a method adopted by me, which shows in a very clear manner the ore-reserves in a mine. The case illustrated is that of a vein near enough to the vertical for the vertical elevation of the mine to be the main working-map. A flat ore-body would be represented on a similar plat, but instead of the horizontal thickness of the vein being shown in the circles, the vertical thickness would be inserted. Fig. 1 represents an ideal longitudinal elevation of a mine, plotted in the ordinary way, using 100-ft. blocks and section-lines. In a mine where the block-numbers are posted by the engineer underground, the system of keeping the ore-tonnages extracted from the different blocks is easily maintained, and the actual tonnages of ore extracted can be kept so that the surveyor can have a check on his estimate from time to time. The ore-reserve sheet, Fig. 2, should be the same size as the map it is to accompany. Each square is used for the description of the ore-reserve in the block it corresponds to on the elevation. Where the section-lines cross the levels a circle is drawn, in which are written the widths of ore at that point, these widths being used in the calculations of each block cornering in the circle. It has been found convenient to show the figures in black in the lower half of the circle when the actual widths of ore are known, and when it is necessary to make up the figures of probable ore, as at the time of making

Jun 1, 1912

By R. W. Smith

IN the manufacture of portland cement, the basic and fundamental essential is a limestone uniformly rich in calcium carbonate and carrying less than 3 per cent magnesium carbonate. In searching for such a deposit, also having in mind quantity of rock, accessibility and quarrying facilities, the Pacific Coast Cement Co. discovered and developed its present quarry at View Cove on the east coast of Dall Island, Alaska. Dall Island is about 100 miles west of Ketchikan and 650 miles north from Seattle. It is 70 miles in length and 5 to 10 miles in width. The climatic conditions are much more favorable than would be expected. The temperature ranges from zero to 70 degrees. The precipitation is considerably more than at Seattle, although there was less snow during the last season than at Seattle. The island is rugged and mountainous; the vegetation is moss and grass and a large portion is timbered with spruce, hemlock and cedar. Some of this timber has market value. The limestone quarry is about 30 miles north of the extreme southern end of the island. The company acquired 240 acres which contain limestone of remarkable uniformity, the percentage of calcium carbonate being about 95. It is estimated that there is ample recover- able rock on the holdings to supply the cement plant at its maximum capacity for well over 100 years.

Jan 1, 1929

By C. B. Daellenbach, T. D. Tiemann

The prevention of quartz flotation by chelation of activating ions with the tetrasodium salt of EDTA in oleic acid flotation was investigated using a small vacuum flotation cell. It was found that flotation of quartz could be entirely suppressed in the presence of activating ions during complete flotation of hematite. It was further shown that the concentration of activating ions liberated from Wisconsin Gogebic taconite is sufficient to float quartz in an oleic acid system. Large tonnages of low grade siliceous iron ores occur on the iron ranges of the Lake Superior district. Although the lower grade nonmagnetic types are currently not of economic importance, they constitute a large future potential source of iron and steel, and hence have been the subject for extensive research on their beneficiation. TACONITES Of particular interest to the Dept. of Minerals and Metals Engineering at the University of Wisconsin have been the low grade nonmagnetic taconites of the Wisconsin Gogebic Range. These occur as five members of the iron formation and have been described in detail elsewhere.' Essentially they consist of an intimate mixture of hematite, goethite and quartz, with minor amounts of siderite, magnetite, iron containing silicates, and manganese minerals. A typical mean analysis based on the Bureau of Mines analyses' is: SiO2-52.50%, Fe2O3-43.40%, (Fe-30.38%), A12O3-1.15%, P2O5-0.07%, Mn2O3-0.29%, CaO-0.07%, (S-0.03%), Loss on ignition-2.00%. The quartz in these ores is of a microcrystalline variety,2 and so intimately associated with the iron oxide minerals that extremely fine grinding, in the order of minus 325 mesh, is required for liberation. During grinding and subsequent flotation, the concentration of quartz activating ions in the pulp becomes sufficiently high to activate quartz which floats along with the iron minerals in the presence of oleic acid. cook3 and co-workers concluded that oxidized iron ores released appreciable quantities of quartz-activating ions in water pulps. This is shown to be true in the present investigation. As a matter of fact, application of this phenomenon, as well as the intentional addition of activating calcium ions, is made use of in the an ionic flotation of silica from the iron oxide minerals.4,5 In view of the above, it becomes almost impossible to effect a sharp separation of quartz in the oleic acid flotation of the iron oxide minerals from these taconites, even with satisfactory liberation. This fact led to the current investigation to find a means of linking the activating ions with a chelating agent. The aim was to establish basic data for the quartz-water-oleic acid system which might not only be applicable to iron ores, but also to the flotation of other siliceous ores as well. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Vacuum Flotation Cell: The vacuum flotation used in this investigation is similar to that used by previous investigators.6,7,8 The cell consisted of a 100 ml graduated cylinder with the lip removed. Vacuum from a water aspirator was applied to the cell through a trap; suitable tubing, and a rubber stopper inserted in the top of the cell. Constant absolute pressure was maintained by means of a manometer connected to the trap with a tee. Flotation: The required amount of activating ion solution was pipetted into a beaker. This was then diluted to 99.0 ml with water having a pH below that desired for the test, or so adjusted with HC1. After addition of 1.0 ml of oleic acid solution (2.0 mg oleic acid per ml), the pH was readjusted to the desired value with NaOH, and the entire solution transferred to the cell containing 1.5 gm of quartz. After vigorously agitating the cell and its contents for 2 min, the vacuum was applied to the cell and the estimated degree of flotation observed for a 3-min period. Activating ions studied included Ca++, Mg++, Al+++, and Fe+ + + added as chloride solutions. In addition,

Jan 1, 1964

By J. E. Tiffany, Z. C. Gaugler

An active list of permissible explosives was published in December 1943 as part of the Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 3736 under the title "Active List of Permissible Explosives and Blasting Devices Approved Previous to June 30, 1943." This list included 180 brand names. Changes in the list that have been authorized to December 31, 1945, placed 10 additional brands of permissible explosives on the active permis- sible list as a result of tests and changes in brand names.. Twelve permis- sible explosives were transferred from the active. to the inactive list. The present list contains 178 brand names. The brand names of the permissible explosives placed on the active list are as follows: American 3-A By test. Apcol No. 1-B Do. Black Diamond No. 11-B DO. Black Diamond No. 55 DO. Coalite G-1 DO. Coelite K-1 Do. Do. Coalite L-1 Coalite IS-1 Columbia B-2 DO. By change in name. By test. Monobel AA The permissible explosives transferred from the active to the inactive list are as follows: Anthracite B, L. F. Big Red No. 8 Independent No. 1, L. F. Independent No. 2, L. F. Independent No. 3, L. F. Independent No. 4, L. F. Independent No. 5, L. F. Independent No. 9, L. F. Independent No. 9-C, L. F. Independent No. 10, L. F. Independent No. 11, L. F. King No. 9

Jul 1, 1946

By V. G. Hill

The term bauxite was first used by O.P.A.P. Dufrenoy in 1845 for an ore which was discovered by Pierre Berthier in 1821 near the village of Les Beaux de Provence near Arles in southern France. His data suggested that this mineral was an alumina hydrate with two molecules of water. However, it was subsequently shown by thermal analysis that the mineral was a fortuitous mixture of the mono-hydrate and the tri-hydrate. Diaspore had been previously discovered in 1801 and gibbsite in 1822. The term was however retained as a rock name. The name of the village was changed to Les Baux around 1885; Sainte Claire Deville suggested that the mineral name should reflect this, and it was changed to bauxite (Bracewell, 1962, Rkgnier, 1988). Mining of bauxite began around 1860 in the Auriol region in the Bouches du Rhine area in the south of France. This ore was transported toMarseilles by carts and was processed in the Salindres plant, which at that time was the only plant producing alumina using the Deville process and aluminum by the chemical process. During that period white bauxite (low iron content) was particularly sought after for the production of aluminum sulfate, refractory bricks, and quick setting cement. Export of bauxite from France began in 1880 and was initially delivered to Chemische Fabrik, Goldschmischen near Breslau, and to Guilini's Ludwigshafen plant in Germany in 1885. These companies produced alum and aluminum sulfate (RCg- nier, 1988). The next bauxite mining operation was in Antrim County in Northern Ireland in 1873. This was first used for the manufacture of alumina refractory bricks and quick setting cement (Bracewell, 1962). It is important to emphasize that initially almost all of the bauxite which was produced came from France and was mainly used for non-metallurgical purposes. At that time even the production of alumina was mainly for use as a mordant in textile dying. However, with the development of the Hall-Héroult process, the alumina which was available was increasingly used for smelting to aluminum. In spite of this the demand for non-metallurgical bauxite continued to increase and a set of applications were developed. These include refractories, abrasives (including the recently developed proppants), high alumina cements, aluminum chemicals, activated bauxite, and alumina. It became increasingly evident that the high alumina-low alkali raw materials have special advantages. The question however was one of cost benefit. Chin (1989) has pointed out that the non-metallurgical operations have been traditionally grafted on a bauxite/alumina/aluminum industry tree. In this context the non-metallurgical alumina produced was, with few exceptions, regarded as either coproduct or byproduct i.e.: Bauxite Trunk Sector Alumina Trunk Sector Aluminum Trunk Sector

Jan 1, 1994

By Markus Papst, Denise Millier, Daniel Beckers, Axel Preusse

"At an open-pit lignite extraction mine in Germany, groundwater has to be pumped over a large area, which leads to subsidence at the surface. As long as the geology of the area of influence is homogeneous, the subsidence is uniform and has marginal influence on buildings.Since the geology of many regions is characterized by faults, there are different rates of subsidence along those faults, which can lead to considerable consequences. Those different rates of subsidence on both sides of a geological fault are associated with the structure of the geology and soil mechanical properties. Horizons with various thicknesses and types of soil are affected differently by the groundwater pumping because of the offset of the faults, and thus react dissimilarly to dewatering.The smaller the grain of the geological horizon, the stronger the chance of shrinking, which leads to a stronger effect at the surface; therefore, dewatering impacts on clayey soil are different to those on sand and gravel. Regions consisting of meadows with turf inclusions are endangered as well; compared to the surrounding geology, those areas react in an entirely different way to water removal, which leads to immense differences in subsidence.The differences in area and respective subsidence impacts, as well as if it is possible to localize those areas, is an issue which needs to be analyzed. Furthermore, detailed mapping can help in the development of future forecasts about those subsidence differences and can also help with monitoring geological faults. In the context of subsurface spatial planning, this mapping has to be kept under review medium- to long-term.INTRODUCTIONThe utilization of underground mining is of increasing significance and of high interest, both for the common good and for future generations. For decades, humanity has been extracting resources from the subsurface, and salt, coal, lignite and water - just to mention a few resources - have been extracted from underground (Sailer, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2016

By L. Munsamy, B. J. Madden

OpenRisk, an open cast risk rating system, takes into account relative differences in the importance of hazards, as experienced on each mine as a result of different combinations of geotechnical factors and mining conditions. The system is based on critical geotechnical and operational parameters that have been identified by mining personnel and rock engineers. The primary advantage of this risk rating system is that all the strip mines would use an identical system, which enables the user to compare their risk to the risk at neighbouring mines and/or other open cast mines. The system can be adjusted to meet local, mine specific requirements. This system has been made practical and easy to use. Therefore, this tool can be used by personnel from other disciplines not directly related to rock engineering. OpenRisk system has been in operation at nine Anglo Coal and other open cast mines. It adequately detects areas of high risk and generates adequate remedial solutions to reduce the risks. Awareness of the personnel has been higher at the sites that use OpenRisk. The proactive approach of OpenRisk ensures that all personnel are aware of risks in the pits and how to deal with potential risky areas.

Jan 1, 2006