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By Robert S. Sanford

In April 1948, the Bureau of Mines was requested to evaluate the graphite deposit' known as the Benjamin Franklin and Just mines in Chester County, Pa. After preliminary investigation, it was recommended that the Bureau core-drill, trench, and sample the deposit and make beneficiation tests on the ore. During the first and second World Wars, flake graphite was in short supply, and a number of deposits in the United States were exploited. In 1942, the Defense Plant Corporation, through its lessee, the Benjamin Franklin Graphite Co., purchased 70.263 acres of graphite-bearing land and built a complete mining and milling plant with a capacity of 300 tons of crude ore per 24-hour day at a cost of $426,250 (Plancor No. 1254).

Jan 1, 1949

By Michael N. Maltezos

"There is certainly no argument that LED lighting systems have taken a strong foothold in the lighting marketplace over the last several years. This has even proven true in the world of transportation and transit lighting, for which new LED cobra head style luminaires are replacing traditional HID cobra head luminaires on North America’s roadwaysand linear LED light fixtures are replacing conventional linear fluorescent light fixtures in North American rail transit facilities. However, LED technology has taken a while longer to penetrate the very specific market of vehicular tunnel lighting in this continent. Though both the New York/New Jersey Holland and Lincoln Tunnels have recently been retrofitted with LED lighting, and an LED Lighting RFP is currently out for Boston’s Central Artery Tunnels, very few vehicular tunnels in North America to date have been illuminated with LED light fixtures. This is largely because cost effective LED lighting, that met our typically stringent tunnel lighting standards, was until recently simply unattainable. However, with the rapid advances in LED technology over recent years, owners and specifiers of North American tunnel lighting projects have finally begun to adopt LED lighting systems as the norm. In fact, a recent Lux Fit/Yole Development “LED in Road and Street Lighting Report” stated that “LED luminaire growth will be driven firstly by tunnel lighting, and then relayed into highway, road, residential and amenity lighting applications starting in 2014.” 1 Our highways are continually becoming more congested. As a result, Provincial and State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are constantly looking for innovative ways to improve traffic flow. One way DOTs are now helping to ease congestion is by expanding the use of tunnels and long underpasses in large interchange reconstruction projects. With less available right-of-way to work with, and the high costs of maintaining elevated bridge structures over the years, it often makes more sense to “go under” (rather than over) the traffic congestion points. With the addition of these new tunnels and long underpasses comes the issue of proper illumination within these structures, for a safe and efficient driving task. DOTs use recommended lighting practices and guidelines for highway lighting, which include specific criteria for tunnels, set by either the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) or the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). However, both IESNA and AASHTO point out that these recommended practices and guidelines are not a mandate, and DOTs are free to make their own decisions about lighting criteria. Accordingly, effectively illuminating tunnels is often times a challenge. This paper will examine the key considerations of the tunnel lighting application in generalas well as what LEDs now bring to the table and how, accordingly, traditional lighting technologies will be phased out in the future illumination of tunnels."

Jan 1, 2016

By A G. L Pratt

Operational readiness is a commonly used term in mining and many other industry settings. However, translating this term into a coherent scope of work that is practical and meaningful is a challenge faced by many mining projects. This inhibits the allocation of resources to the work and its completion. The problem is with understanding how the terminology applies to establishing a mining operation. Resolving this problem requires clarity around what operational readiness means for a mining project’s transition to operations and who owns the tasks of completing operational readiness. The motivation for resolution of this problem is in appreciating the consequences arising from any lack of clarity in definition of this task, the timing of the work, and ownership for its completion. In broad terms, these consequences amount to an erosion of value at a critical time for both the new mine and the company and shareholders. This situation often arises where operational readiness is not adequately addressed in project’s study phases. As a result, neither time, resources nor money are adequately provided to complete the work required. In other cases, operational readiness is sometimes assimilated with the delivery of the project’s physical assets by the project’s construction team, rather than aligned with the establishment of the operating team to deliver the desired operational outputs. This paper argues that operational readiness starts in a project’s study phases and flows through into the start of operations. The definition of operational readiness is discussed as a task, and a model for its planning and completion is presented. This discussion includes assigning ownership for operational readiness planning and delivery to the General Manager of a new operation and the operations leadership team, who are central to the success of this work. After all, the reputations of this leadership team depend on the performance of the operation in its first few years. The author’s work over the last 20 years, leading operational readiness programs and the preparation of feasibility studies for mining projects, has provided the insights and evolution of ideas that are central to this paper. Operational readiness is fundamentally directed at ensuring a new mining operation gets away to a successful start and builds a solid foundation for the future of the mine/operation/province. It requires clarity of purpose, ownership and coordination by people in the operating team, and their preparation of the requisite process definition and establishment of the significant relationships required for operations. Without its successful completion, it is unlikely the new operation will meet and sustain its start-up targets. This paper discusses a practical approach to operational readiness for mining projects.

Mar 29, 2023

By K. R. Griffin, K. D. Luxbacher, E. C. Jong

The schlieren technique describes an optical analysis method designed to enhance light distortions caused by air movement. The ability to visualize air flow has significant implications for analyzing underground mine ventilation systems, including the enhancement of surveys and models. Currently, traditional schlieren methods are impractical underground. Background-oriented schlieren (BOS) provides a solution to this problem. BOS requires two primary components, a professional quality digital camera and a schlieren background. A schlieren background is composed of a varying contrast repetitive pattern, such as black and white stripes. This background allows the camera’s sensor to capture minor light diffractions, such as those caused by air flow. Although BOS shows great potential for ventilation analysis, sensitivity is an issue. This paper seeks to validate the BOS technique for imaging flow through a regulator by comparing BOS images with traditional schlieren images. This paper also outlines initial experimental efforts used for the validation.

Jan 1, 2011

By F. Montgomery Lyon

Pyritic sulfur in coal occurs as discrete mineral particles, and its liberation and physical rejection is the primary target for coal desulfurization. An acceptable solution to the pyrite removal problem from fine coal is not found in the standard methods of coal cleaning such as jigging, heavy-medium separation, tabling, and hydro-cycloning. Although fine coal is an ideal size for froth flotation, this method, as currently practiced is also unsuitable as the fine pyrite usually floats with the coal. One possible solution to this problem may be the froth flotation of pyrite from coal. This reverse flotation scheme would have the major advantage of removing both free pyrite and locked pyrite-coal combinations. With this possibility in mind, we have, as a first step, compared the flotation and adsorption. characteristics of an ore-pyrite and coal-pyrite with potassium-ethyl-xanthate as a collector 1 Related Research. The action of ethyl-xanthate on coal has been studied 2 by Horsley. He measured the contact angles of coal in distilled water and in the presence of purified ethyl-xanthate. The results indicated that the xanthate was not adsorbed by the coal. Additional contact angle data were obtained to determine the effects of cupric, ferric, and ferrous salts on the system. Then either the ferric or cupric salts were in, solution with the xanthate, there was an increase in the natural contact angles of the coal. This indicated that these heavy metal ions activated the flotation of the coal with xanthate. However, ferrous iron did not act as an activator. Horsley stated that the most attractive explanation was that the xanthate is oxidized to dixanthogen in the presence of the ferric and cupric ions.

Jan 1, 1971

By W. TRINKS

RAPID progress has been made in the automatic control of open-hearth furnaces in the past few years and many firms today\supply such control apparatus. It is somewhat surprising that so little was heard about open-hearth control up to about, 1928, and that thereafter the practice of automatically controlling open-hearth furnaces spread very rapidly. Before discussing the reasons for this it may be advisable to list the quantities that can be controlled. One of the easiest quantities to be controlled in the open-hearth furnace is pressure. The reasons for controlling it are plain. If there is excess pressure in the furnace, products of combustion leak out around .the .door and through all the cracks in the brick-work. The stability of the piers between the doors is seriously endangered, and front wall repairs become frequent. Furthermore, hot gases are lost that might be usefully employed in heating the checkerwork. If there is a slight vacuum in the furnace, cold air entering through the doors and cracks cools the interior, slowing down the reactions and making it impossible to secure the highest degree of preheat from the checkerwork.

Jan 1, 1931

Newmont Mining Corp. has been producing gold from the Carlin Trend for more than 45 years. Naturally, the focus, scale and complexity of the operations have changed considerably during this time. Newmont discovered and developed the Carlin Main orebody that is located about 32 km (20 miles) north of Carlin, NV. The property was developed as a one-mine, one-gold mill treatment plant operation, which produced about 6.2 t/a (200,000 oz/year) of doré gold bars. The initial mine, mill and gold refining facilities were relatively small in comparison to today?s standards. The milling circuit used the Merrill-Crowe zinc precipitation process to recover dissolved gold and prepare a concentrated precious metal ?precipitate? to be melted into a doré bar for sale.

Jan 1, 2012

By T. K. Mukherjee, C. K. Gupta

"The importance of the processing of secondary resources such as solid industrial wastes and liquid effluents as well as byroducts for the recovery of the associated metal values hardly needs any elaboration. Such processing contributes in no small measure towards the augmentation of the availability and the supply position of resources. As an added benefit, it leads to a reduction in environmental pollution caused by the undesirable waste materials. As some typical examples of secondary resources in the Indian scenario, mention can be made of spent catalysts, metal/alloy scrap, ash, consumed batteries, flue dust, slag, sludge and slime, pickling solutions, spent acids, plating rinse solutions, spent etchants, waste water from synthetic fibre manufacture and from tanneries etc .. These wastes constitute a source of a variety of non ferrous metals. In the processing of secondary resources like these, the techniques of hydrometallurgy such as solvent extraction playa pivotal role.This paper outlines the efforts made to use solvent extraction to recover (1) base metals such as copper, zinc, nickel and cobalt from a number of secondary resources like cake, and sludge (2) refractory metals like molybdenum and vanadium from sulphidic byproducts and spent catalyst and (3) nuclear metal like uranium from phosphoric acid. In the case of base metals, process flowsheet involving the use of acidic extractants such as DEHPA and PC88A have been optimised. The problem of iron removal from the leach liquor, which influences the metal recovery process significantly, has drawn a special emphasis. In the case of refractory metals, basic extractants like Alarnine 336 has been pressed into service to produce kilogramme quantities of pure salts of molybdenum and vanadium. Finally, the paper gives a brief account of plant experience in recovering uranium from phosphoric acid, using a solvent system comosed of DEHPA and TOPO."

Jan 1, 1996

By Ross Blake

THE St. Joseph Lead Co. became interested in the Tri-State district in 1921 through acquisition of prospecting and development rights on approximately 20,000 acres of land extending northeastward from the Picher mining field, mostly in Kansas. Prospecting with churn drills was begun the same year and the first commercial ore body was found on the Jarrett tract at the then northern limit of the main Picher field. Operations at this mine began in 1923. Kansas Explorations, Inc., was organized in 1923 by the St. Joseph Lead Co. as a wholly-owned subsidiary to carry on its operations in the Tri-State District from an office at Joplin, Mo. As prospecting of the original acreage proved largely negative, attention was subsequently turned to other sections of the district. Numerous additional leases were acquired and prospected. The Company was successful in developing into operating properties the Jarrett, Isherwood, Robinson, Sullivan and Lotson tracts and, in more recent years, the Ritz, Snapp, Buckingham, Gibson and Jasper mines.

Jan 1, 1947

By Richard A. Allwes

This Bureau of Mines report presents a procedure for the design of an arch canopy for use in rehabilitating a high-roof-fall area. Only dy-namic line loading of an unbackfilled arch canopy at its crown is considered, and the procedure does not account for an asymmetrical loading condition. The evaluation of whether an arch canopy is suitable for a particular installation depends on many variables, including in-mine conditions and the engineering properties of the structure. However, a general evaluation can be based on a comparison of the arch's maximum crown deflection and a prescribed allowable crown deflection. The design procedure is based on the concept that when an arch canopy is sub-jected to impact loading at its crown and deflects from its unloaded state to maximum crown deflection, the structure absorbs strain energy, both elastic and plastic. As a result, this strain energy can be calculated from a static load-displacement diagram for the structure. The significance of this design procedure is that it gives mine personnel an analytical tool to select an arch canopy to meet the dimensional and functional requirements of a mine entry and a prescribed allowable crown deflection.

Jan 1, 1987

By C. V. Deutsch, O. Babak, J. G. Manchuk

High levels of geological heterogeneity occurring over relatively short distances pose a challenge to the unconventional open-pit techniques used in oil sands mining. There is strong motivation to mine selectively and minimize dilution and loss; however, the large equipment and high mining rate used to meet production targets tend to reduce selectivity. A numerical model is developed to account for geological complexity, mining equipment, regulatory criteria, and other operational parameters. This framework is used for more accurate forecasts, optimization of equipment, and other operational decisions. An example demonstrates the approach in light of Alberta Energy Regulator criteria.

Jan 1, 2014

By Ernst M. Cohn

The demonstrations of the "Silent Sentry" by Union Carbide Corp. in 1957 and of a special tractor-plow by Allis-Chalmers in 1959 ushered in the technology era of fuel cells. The idea for direct conversion of chemical to electrical energy, first published in 1801 by Davy in England and Ritter in Germany, has been kept alive by a few people through 150 years: Grove built the first hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell in 1839; Mond and Langer made electrolyte contributions around 1890 that are still used today; Baur worked on coal-based cells from 1900; Bacon started his work in the '30's, which resulted in the first multi-kilowatt unit in the '50's; Davtyan studied molten-salt electrolytes in the '40's, followed by Ketelaar in the '50's; and Justi developed highly active electrodes in the '50's, to name only some of the pioneers. Despite the tremendous increase in research and development of fuel cells, these direct energy converters are still in their infancy. They will find their functional application in space, where power density must be maximized and product water utilized. These early systems will provide valuable experience in system engineering and reliability.

Jan 9, 1964

By T. Ono, B. Altansukh, S. Kawamura, K. Haga, A. Shibayama, Y. Takasaki

In recent years, the grade of silica in zinc concentrate has increased due to the degradation of zinc content and the increase in impurity content in natural ores. It implies that the development of silica removal technology from zinc concentrate is necessary to solve problems in the smelting process caused by the high content of silica in zinc concentrate. In this paper, the authors investigated the silica removal processes from silica-rich zinc concentrate by mineral processing approaches such as re-grinding and flotation. This study focused on the pulverisation process as a pretreatment for the investigation of individual minerals' liberation from the silica-rich zinc concentrates using different kinds of pulverisers. Flotation experiments were performed to separate silica and zinc concentrate from the pulverizsd feed sample using a pH regulator (NaOH), activator (CuSO4), collecting agent (PAX), and foaming agent (DOW froth 250). Results showed that the liberation rate of silica (SiO2) was reached 75% from 13% by pulverisation in an attritor with a 2 mm ball in diameter, while silica accumulated in a fraction over 20 mm in size. Flotation experiments indicated that silica removal efficiency was achieved by 44% from + 20 mm fraction obtained from pulverisation whereas the grade of silica in froth reached 1.85 mass% from 4.5 mass%. Results indicate that silica could selectively separate from silica-rich zinc concentrate, and 99.8 % zinc recovery is achieved under the studied conditions. Keywords: Zinc concentrate, silica, pulverisation, liberation, sieving, flotation

Jan 1, 2020

By G. A. Apell

"SUMMARYThe quality of Moose Creek coal is considered superior to that of any now being produced in the Matanuska field of Alaska. In rank it is classed as roar coking high-volatile B bituminous coal.At present the Moose -Creek mines are accessible from the Glenn highway by 6 miles of well-maintained gravel road. The nearest railroad loading point is Moose Creek siding; 7 miles by road from the Buffalo mine. Palmer, 12 miles south of Buffalo mine, is the nearest town. Anchorage is 50 miles south of Palmer by road and-railroad.Core drilling and trenching by the Bureau of Mines revealed 2,375,500 short tons of coal in the Buffalo series on the Buffalo Coal Co. leasehold. Of this, 514,200 tons is considered measured coal and 489,900 tons indicated coal. Existence of deeper beds over the same length increased the tonnage of coal of all categories to 3,279,300 tons. The property has an assumed life, of 16 to 22 years, depending on the number of beds mined, based on an output of 500 tons of coal a day and 100-percent recovery. Coal from some of the beds car be marketed without washing however, a washery is necessary if all beds are mined. Beds in the Buffalo series not mined in the ""first mining"" will be irrecoverable at any later date.The Bureau of Mines completed exploration of approximately one-third of the local coal-bearing areas during 1943. Knowledge gained from this work makes it possible to investigate the rest of the area by drilling an estimated additional 5,000 foot of hole."

Dec 1, 1944

By David B. Costain

Three dimensional surface approximations are important means of evaluating physical and environmental factors that affect surface coal mining and reclamation. Computer approximated surfaces are projected as an array of square grid cells where individual cells define each parameter value respective to locations on the grid. Grid surfaces or grid cells within a surface can be compared or modified through application of standard mathematical functions. Surface approximations can be used to define the quantity and quality of marketable coal and to evaluate thickness and quality of overburden. Surface approximations also can be used to evaluate overburden swell factors wherein changes in post-mine topographic relief are related to expansion of unconsolidated materials in the backfill. Application of computer approximated surface to analysis of approximate original contour (AOC) standards allows an assessment of the quantity and geographical displacement of overburden and the distribution and numerical level of slope.

Jan 1, 1984

Getting it right is a very profitable outcome. Shareholders would ideally like to see their directors get it right all the time on the major economic decisions. But it is very difficult for mining directors to get it right all the time in such an uncertain environment. Primary decision-makers of companies with significant stakes in the mining industry should get it right much more frequently. The legal measures of evidence (beyond reasonable doubt and on the balance of probabilities) can be used to determine whether grade estimates (a key revenue variable) are realistic. The application of this approach can be far reaching. More frequently correct decision-making would result in more effective allocation of limited resources (capital and labour). In turn, this would result in higher financial returns and a more extensive mining industry.

Jan 1, 1994

By Allen Rogers

TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for nothing at all except a sheepskin. That to me is the effect of the New York State law for registration of engineers and the same may be said of any of the state licensing laws. Of course, if one has to practice in more than one state, he must pay a more or less equal amount for every state he works in; and yet there has been little effective protest against these laws. It would seem that the spirit which animated the Boston Tea Party is non-existent amongst engineers. Undoubtedly a good many consider, through their failure to understand the law, that the matter does not affect them. In New York State it is provided that "any person practicing or offering to practice profes-sional engineering or land surveying . . . shall be licensed as hereinafter provided." To quote further from the law: "A person practices professional engi-neering . . . who holds himself out as able to do, or who does, the work that an engineer does . . . " The cunning of the wording of this article can only be appreciated by considering that anyone calling himself an engineer falls within the definition; its liberal inter-pretation (I have not quoted the whole of it) would embrace many who do not consider themselves engi-neers. The state authorities may not construe it to include such individuals; indeed, they may possibly consider it inexpedient to extend it to include engineers of subordinate grade, but the possibility is always there and, even though an engineer be of the grade of assis-tant, he may at any time be called upon to substitute for his principal in responsible charge of the work. It is therefore clear that anyone calling himself engineer and practicing engineering must, for his own protection, apply for registration or run the risk of violating the law. Now, what is the sense of all this? We have done very well without such restrictions on the means of gaining our livelihood. If one only stops to think, there is hardly a minute of his modern existence when he is not dependent for his safety on the engineering by engineers of yesterday or today. How often is one in jeopardy through failure of engineering works, work done under the supervision of those same engineers? If all of us had to wait for our ends by such means, our average life would probably be some thousands of years. Where, then, is the point to the object declared in all these laws that the need for licensing is "to safeguard life, health and property?" Bosh!

Jan 4, 1923

By Charles L. Ross

A successful placer mine is being operated by the E. T. Fisher Co. on Rock Creek in the South Pass mining district at Atlantic City, Wyo. About 2,800 cubic yards of gravel is dug daily by a gasoline-driven dragline shovel with a 1 1/4-yard bucket and washed in a movable plant with a gold-dredge trommel and standard-dredge sluice boxes; the total cost is about 12 cents per cubic yard. The gold-bearing gravel occupies a narrow valley between two low ranges, of hills. The ground is covered by brush and willows, which are cleared of in the fall by burning after the leaves have dried. The elevation at the mine is 7,600 feet above sea level.

Jan 1, 1935

By V. B. Telles, J. A. S. Tenorio, J. O. Alves, D. C. R. Espinosa

"The world production of crude steel in 2009 reached 1.2 billion tons. For each ton of steel produced, 150 kg of steelmaking slag and 20 kg of steelmaking dust are generated. These are wastes with considerable production and limited applications, therefore this work studied the recovery of these wastes into useful sub-products. The slag was used as raw material in the production of rock wool (a thermo-acoustic insulator) and the dust was inserted in the iron ore sintering process. Results showed that produced materials have exceptional proprieties, therefore the recovery of these wastes can contribute to decrease extraction of non-renewable resources, reduce the costs and impact of disposals, and aggregate value to the slag and dust.1. IntroductionSteel production using Eletric Arc Furnace (EAF) has grown over 119 million tones in the last years. In 2008 30.7% of all steel produced, was obtained through EAF. In United States of America (USA) the percentage of this process in the production of steel was about 58% in 2008, while in 2000 this percentage was only 47% [1]."

Jan 1, 2011

The mining industry, both here and internationally, is continually developing increasingly sophisticated software to compute mineral resource estimates, but these processes cannot compensate for a flawed geological interpretation of the geology of the economic commodity(s) concentrations. Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) is becoming increasingly common in association with the sampling and assaying practices within the industry. However, it is rare in the case of a geological interpretation associated with mineral resource estimation. Why? In the context of this paper, QA/QC relates to the use of statistical and graphical tools to show that the geological economic commodity concentrations have been appropriately domained. Domaining is essential to improve the chance of getting a mineral resource estimate right. Commodity value and acceptable concentration variation within a mineral resource can be ingredients that make mineral resource estimation difficult to get right. But it is possible to get it right a very high proportion of the time. It is more likely to occur when inappropriate data consolidation is minimised. In any case, inappropriate data consolidation is significantly reduced when the geological interpretation is strongly consistent with the data and it is demonstrable. To achieve quality global estimates of geological domain concentrations, it is essential that the geology of the prospect is understood sufficiently that the deposit is appropriately domained. Appropriate domaining occurs when sample populations are separated in such a way that only data in harmony with each other within the population contributes to the domainÆs concentration estimate. The paper will use four brief case studies to illustrate how QA/QC can be used to display data and validate the underpinning geological interpretation through its associated domaining to get it right when it comes to a mineral resource estimation.

Jan 1, 2007