Search Documents

By V. Rajaram

The oil shales of the Green River Formation in the United States have been considered as a source of liquid hydrocarbons since 1908, with the first retort constructed in Colorado in 1917. However, it was not until 1944 that the mining characteristics of oil shale were investigated in a systematic manner. During the period 1944 through 1956, the Selective Mine and the Demonstration Mine (also referred to as the Anvil Points Mine) were operated by the U. S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) near Rifle, Colorado. Significant progress was made in developing a room and pillar mining method by which oil shale could be mined safely at a very low cost per ton. Mechanical properties of oil shale were determined, safe room spans and roof support techniques were established, and drilling and blasting methods for oil shale were developed. As a follow-on to this USBM effort, a consortium of six oil companies with Mobil Oil Company as project manager carried out a research program during the period 1964-68 at the Mobil mine, located in the vicinity of the Anvil Points mine. Rock mechanics investigations were conducted as a part of this research program, and consisted of laboratory studies, in-situ stress determinations, and roof and pillar instrumentation. This paper will discuss the findings at the Anvil Points mine and Mobil mine to illustrate the stability considerations in underground oil shale mining.

Jan 1, 1983

By W. C. Dailey

The Groveland Mine. Concentrator and Pellet Plant are located in Dickinson County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The construction of the Groveland Mine in 1959 was the first United States operation for the Hanna Mining Company in mining and beneficiating low grade iron formations. (1) The plant produced concentrates at 675,000 lt/yr. (746,600 mt/yr.) which was used as sinter feed in the steel industry from 1959 to 1963. Upon completion of a pelletizing plant in April, 1963 production increased to 1.6 million lt/yr (1.77 million mt/yr) of pellets. After the plant expansion, mill capacity increased to 2.2 million 1t/yr (2.43 million mt/yr.), producing 2.0 million It/yr (2.23. million mt/yr.) of pellets assaying 63.0% iron and 7.0% silica. (1) Prior to April, 1971 the concentrator operated with a flowsheet consisting of spirals and a petroleum sultonate iron notation circuit. This was presented in a paper by R. R. Smith and E. E. Sougstad, "Flotation at the Groveland Mine" in the 50th Anniversary Volume entitled "Froth Flotation". The ore body at the Groveland Mine consists basically of two types of iron formation (34% total iron, 20% magnetic iron head), the most abundant of which is a bedded magnetite-chert-silicate rock. This is intermingled to varying degrees with non-bedded to poorly bedded hematite-clastic quartz-chert rock. (1) In developing the Groveland flowsheet, Humphrey spirals were used because of their ability to produce a coarse size concentrate at a low cost. Tests run in the lab and pilot plant on the Groveland ore showed a. spiral weight recovery in the 27 to 33% range. (2) However as the ore body was opened up, it became evident that the most abundant ore type did not liberate at the coarse size fraction needed for spirals. Plant recoveries for the first five years operating the spirals only averaged from 10 to 15% weight recovery. In 1971 the weight recovery on the spirals had dropped to a low of 5%. To increase iron recovery and at the same time increase plant capacity with the least effect on the present operations the mill flaw-sheet proceeded from a spiral-notation circuit to an all flotation circuit to a magnetic separator-flotation circuit. During this changeover the concentrate grade also had to be improved to meet market demands. To do this the following changes evolved

Jan 1, 1978

By Paul Hamilton, Brian Jones

Traditionally,relatively large gold mines in developing countries have relied on imported process plant engineering, design, pro­ject management and advisory skills. In 1995, there was a significant departure from this in Zimbabwe, when a locally based engineering company under­took and completed the construction of a one hundred and twen­ty thousand tonne per month capacity gold extraction plant for the treatment of sands/slimes residues integrated with run of mine ore. This paper describes the challenges of designing, construct­ing and commissioning a Carbon in Leach (CIL) gold extraction plant in a developing country, and discusses the various con­straints associated with it. In addition, the paper reviews the application of technology which is innovative to Zimbabwe, including the use of dewatering cyclone clusters, and two and a half tonne capacity elution/electrowinning convection units.

Jan 1, 1996

By N. E. Maccallum

Almost half a century has passed since the Siemens brothers, after tedious and costly experiments, finally began the manufacture of open-hearth steel. The furnace of that time was very small, having a hearth-capacity of from 3 to 4 tons, and we can appreciate the wonderful development that has taken place in those 50 years by the knowledge that to-day furnaces of 50 times the original capacity are in operation. As the new steel process assumed importance, and furnaces began to grow in number and in size, a question arose, to which no satisfactory answer has ever been given, and that was: aWhat is the safe and economical limit of the open-hearth furnace ?" Various stopping-places have been suggested, and 20, 30, 40, and 50 tons have each been advocated, but all such arbitrary restrictions have been passed, and 60 tons would probably represent the average furnace, although in a few instances from 70 to 80 tons are regularly tapped into one ladle. The furnaces which are the subject of the present paper have gone far beyond even these limits, and since, in my opinion, they mark another step in the progress of open-hearth steel, they will be considered fairly and frankly, in order that those to whom the matter may be of interest may be able to judge and form their own conclusions. Short accounts of the work of these furnaces have appeared from time to time in various technical journals, of which the following is a brief résumé. These furnaces are the property of the Phoenix Iron Go., of Phœnixville, Pa., and their distinctive and important feature is, that they charge to twice the capacitl of one ladle, and tap simultaneously into two ladles, with a device for controlling the flow into either. In this way the capacity of the furnace is not limited, as formerly, but heats of any size within the capacity of two ladles may be charged.

Jan 1, 1913

By R. J. Sawyer

*An earlier version of this paper was presented at the IMM meeting, "Use of Cultivated Carbon in Extraction of Gold and Other Metals," held in London in January, 1983, and was subsequently published in Trans. IMM (Sect. C: Mineral Process. Extr. Metall.) in December, 1983. Reprinted with permission of The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London. INTRODUCTION This paper describes the development of the processing route for the Alligator Ridge Mine which commenced operation in 1980. It also reviews the modifications which have been made to improve operating efficiency during the three years that the mine has been in production. Alligator Ridge is located 70 miles Northwest of Ely, Nevada. The mine is a joint venture between Amselco and Nerco with Amselco acting as operator. The deposit consists of micron sized disseminated gold imbedded in siltstone. Although definitive conclusions have yet to be drawn as to the age and origin of the deposit, it is probable that it is young by geological standards, perhaps only 5 million years old. It is likely that the gold was brought to the surface by hot springs. As the superheated solutions rose through the porous siltstone, they redeposited minerals in the rock, forming the present ore bodies.

Jan 1, 1984

By Christian Ludwig, Virginie Silberstein, Rizlan Bernier-Latmani, Simona Regenspurg

"Residues from waste incineration (bottom ashes) form large amounts of heavy metal-rich waste. Theoretically, heating and the addition of chloride to the ashes could remove these metals by formation of volatile metal chlorides. The remaining heavy metal-poor ashes could be used, for example, as cement additives. In the proposed process of our study we used bypass dust from the cement industry as chloride additives to the bottom ashes. We aim to determine experimentally the optimal conditions to remove heavy metals from ashes and to simulate this process by thermo- chemical modeling. In our experiment we investigate heavy metal flows by heating of differently composed mixtures of bottoms ash and bypass dust in dependence of different furnace temperatures (500-1200 °C). Furthermore, we investigate the reactivity (leaching characteristic) of the resulting product in order to predict if secondary residues can be landfilled in agreement to Swiss regulations for inert materials.IntroductionThe incineration of garbage is generally considered as the most environmentally friendly method for the reduction of municipal solid waste. This is because, compared to traditional storage of waste on landfills, incineration produces less greenhouse gases and destroys toxic organic compounds. The released exothermic energy can be recuperated and the residues from the combustion chamber (bottom ash) are strongly reduced in volume. However, they still form about 600 kt of waste per year in Switzerland, which needs to be landfilled. However, these residues could be potentially used as construction materials after mechanically recovering ferrous and non-ferrous metals. However, the resulting ashes (discharged dry or wet) still contain increased amount of heavy metals (exceeding state regulation) requiring them to be finally deposed on a hazardous waste site. A thermal treatment of these ashes could enable both, to separate and recuperate the remaining heavy metals and an inorganic heavy-metal poor material. The evaporation of metals depends on temperature and can be lowered by addition of chlorides, which would lower the boiling point of most metals by formation of metal chlorides (table 1)."

Jan 1, 2008

By Mohamed A. Younis, Paul J. Headland, Paul H. Madsen, Vojtech Gall

INTRODUCTION A 100 ft long, 20 ft high and 18 ft wide NATM tunnel was excavated through grouted clean sands beneath a busy city street, including a variety of existing utility lines. The new tunnel associated with a hospital expansion will serve as a pedestrian tunnel connecting a parking structure with a new hospital facility. Tunnel construction started on December 15, 2005 when drilling for the grouting program started and was completed on May 26, 2006 when the tunnel final lining was completed. The tunnel was constructed by Kiewit Construction Company as a tunnel subcontractor to The Christman Company who is constructing the hospital facility for Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan. URS was the project designer. GallZeidler Consultants, LLC were the contractor’s NATM consultant. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Michigan Street Pedestrian Tunnel is a component of the Michigan Street Development located along the north side of Michigan Street NE between Coit Avenue NE and North Division Avenue in the downtown area of the Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Michigan Street Development includes a parking deck and four new towers to be constructed over the proposed parking deck. The tower planned furthest east is being developed by Spectrum Health as the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavillion. The purpose of the pedestrian tunnel is to connect the proposed Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavillion with the future Spectrum building to be located on the south side of Michigan Street NE. The southern end of the tunnel was constructed with a bulkhead until the future Spectrum building is constructed at which time interconnection will be required. The tunnel site plan and profile are shown in Figure 1, Site Plan, and Figure 2, Tunnel Profile. Several challenges were faced during the design and construction of the Michigan Street Pedestrian Tunnel. These challenges included compressed design and construction schedule, maintenance of traffic and protection of old underground utilities. The tunnel was being constructed as part of the Michigan Street Development and coordination with other concurrent construction activities was required. The tunnel was constructed within a specified window of time to allow other associated construction activities to take place without compromising the overall project schedule. The design started in June 2005 and construction was completed by June 2006.

Jan 1, 2007

By Bruno Bussière

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from mine wastes is one of the most environmental challenge currently facing the mining industry. AMD is the result of the natural oxidation of sulphides exposed to air and water. When mining wastes have the potential to produce AMD, these reactive wastes have to be managed to meet existing environmental regulations. The LTA site (property of Barrick Gold Corp.) contains sulphide tailings that have the potential to generate AMD. The closure option Barrick selected was to construct a multilayered cover with capillary barrier effects (CCBE). The main objective of this CCBE is to prevent the production of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from the tailings stack covering an area of approximately 60 ha. Since its construction in 1996, the cover has been monitored to evaluate its performance. Two of the measured parameters are volumetric water content and matrix suction. This paper presents some of the main results from the monitoring program that started seven years ago. The results show that the cover is largely able to maintain a high degree of saturation (greater than 85%) in the moisture-retaining layer. The actual performance of the CCBE on the flat surface of the 60 ha site is even better than expected at the design stage. The area that requires more specific attention with the LTA cover is the influence of slopes that can reduce the performance of the CCBE during dry periods. However, these effects seems to be local and do not significantly affect the overall performance of the CCBE to mitigate the production of AMD at the LTA site.

May 1, 2003

By Charles J. Potter

There are many sources of energy available for consumption. Some available are solar, tide and wind. However, in terms of relatively large usage, only four principal sources are used for primary energy today. They are coal, oil, natural gas and water power. Such additional items as wood and nuclear energy, although supplying quantities of energy today, do not in the aggregate amount to any real significant quantity, but nuclear energy must be considered for future use. In addition, such a thing as gas from distillation of coal and oil is not considered primary energy. The principal markets for primary energy are the electric power utilities, space heating, industrial uses and transportation. The electric utility use of energy is primarily from coal, followed by natural gas and water power. Space heating is primarily a gas market, followed by oil and then coal. Space heating by electricity is only considered in the generation of electric power. Transportation's principal source of energy is oil. Coal has practically no market left in this field.

Jan 4, 1962

By Brad Marchant, Rick Lawrence, David Kratochvil

"BioteQ has successfully developed commercial operations for ARD treatment and selective metal recovery using the patented BioSulphide and Thiopaq® biological reduction technologies. The BioSulphide-Thiopaq process was developed to provide biogenic sulphide for the selective recovery of high purity metal concentrates from acidic wastewater, which are sold to recover capital costs and off-set water treatment costs. The BioSulphide-Thiopaq process can be used on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with a lime circuit. Process advantages include: selective recovery of metals, very low metal concentrations in effluent, reduced waste sludge liability, reduced lime treatment costs and, in some cases, profitable sale of metal concentrates. Two case studies are presented to illustrate operations focused on metal recovery at the Caribou Mine, New Brunswick, Canada, and at Phelps Dodge, Arizona. A third case study is presented to highlight environmental control as well as metal recovery for treatment of ARD at the Raglan Mine in Northern Quebec. Process flowsheets, capital and operating costs are presented for the three case studies.INTRODUCTIONProtection of water quality has become one of the most important environmental challenges facing the mining industry. Although new mining projects can be designed to minimize impacts to the environment, many existing and abandoned mining operations have water quality problems. The principal cause of water contamination is acid rock drainage (ARD), which is generated when residual sulphide minerals in waste rock, tailings and other mine components and products are exposed to air and water. These reactions can produce acidity and elevated concentrations of metals in drainage and seepage that can adversely affect surface and groundwater resources. To meet regulatory criteria for water quality in the receiving environment, many mine operators must consider treatment of mine water and other effluents prior to discharge."

Jan 1, 2003

By Wayne A. Ericson, Kirk S. Davis, Cornelis Winkler

BCI has developed a chemical process known as Ecophos® for the multi-industrial Pine Level Project in DeSoto County, Florida. Approximately 85 percent of the phosphogypsum at Pine Level will be converted to a very clean gypsum. The remaining 15 percent, including impurities plus some quartz tailings sand, constitutes what is termed redigestion solids. BCI has developed an alternative to the practice of disposing phosphogypsum in large above-ground impoundments. The proposed disposal method consists of mixing the redigestion solids with clays and reacting the mixture (leached tailings) with lime prior to disposal into the mine excavations as a reclamation soil material. Leachate water quality testing using lysimeter equipment indicates that the pore water associated with neutralized leached tailings meets maximum contaminant levels set for the drinking water standards of radium and selected primary metals.

Jan 1, 1992

By M J. Nugus, F Clark, E J. Hill, J T. Carswell, J S. Cleverley, N H. S Oliver

High-nugget gold orebodies are difficult to model in 3D because samples from diamond drill core are generally too small to provide reliable estimates of the gold content of the larger body of rock, and therefore interpolation of gold assay values between drill holes is also unreliable. As a result, gold resources are generally underestimated in areas of high nugget. In practice, proxies for gold mineralisation, such as presence of alteration, specific structures or high vein density, have been used by geologists to predict rocks which are favourable for mineralisation. However, there has been no automated method for combining the predictive capabilities of several proxies, except by human judgement.We have been developing a method to combine several different types of geological features or geochemical analyses into a single measure using conditional probability. Conditional probability provides a meaningful numerical measure for the favourability of rocks for containing high-grade gold mineralisation. This measure can be interpolated in the exploration space, providing a sound basis for a 3D model of the orebody. We have developed this technique using data from the Sunrise Dam Gold Mine, which is a high-nugget orebody hosted in a structurally complex Archaean greenstone belt and which has historically proved to be a very challenging orebody to model.CITATION:Hill, E J, Nugus, M J, Clark, F, Oliver, N H S, Cleverley, J S and Carswell, J T, 2013. Predictive three-dimensional modelling of nuggety gold orebodies, Sunrise Dam, Western Australia, in Proceedings World Gold 2013 , pp 463-468 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 26, 2013

By Steve Kral

Led by a surge in coal production and prices in recent years, Colorado’s mining industry is taking part in the same revival as others states and the world. Not too many years ago, the state’s industry was languishing in the same doldrums as the rest of the mining world. Ironic for a state whose history was based on mining. Now, however, Colorado’s mining can boast increased production in all commodities produced, along with prices that allowed companies to expand, increase work forces and post improved shareholder value. So there was a lot of optimism at the Colorado Mining Association’s (CMA) 107th National Western Mining Conference in February. The conference, held in Denver, attracted more than 500 attendees and 39 exhibitors. The theme was Colorado Mines the World.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. E. Wrather

The overproduction of crude oil in 1927 has received such widespread publicity, both within and without the industry, and the several factors which have brought about this situation are so thoroughly agreed upon by everyone, that it is unlikely the writer will in this brief review be able to contribute anything new. The entire story of low prices and demoralization revolves around two flush districts, Seminole and West Texas— the actual. performance of Seminole and the potential threat of West, Texas. The sustained production of California has been a contributing factor to this situation also. It seems reasonably certain that Seminole and West Texas will together dominate the industry during 1928, with Seminole probably destined to drop into second place, as additional pipe lines are completed into West Texas to care for its rapidly expanding production. It now appears inevitable that the production of 1928 will equal or exceed that of the past year, depending solely upon the rapidity wit,h which it is possible to market West Texas crude, and the degree of restraint which operators are willing to impose upon themselves in holding proved reserves of oil underground. Adversity has cultivated the growth of a promising spirit of cooperation which has accomplished practical results both at Seminole and in West Texas. Cooperation among oil producers has long been ardently hoped for, but prior to the past year it has never been effective on an important scale. The interests both of the industry and the public at large can best be conserved by cooperation in controlling production, and the widespread acceptance of this idea has paved the way for a more rational policy in the immediate future Production BY Major Districts The domestic production of the United States during 1927 amounted to 894,43.5,000 bbl. (Bureau of Mines), an increase over 1926 of approximately 128,000,000 bbl. California succeeded in maintaining its position of the past four years at 230,000,000 hbl. In 1923 with the Los Angeles

Jan 1, 1928

By W. R. Ingalls

THE paramount subject of interest and concern at the present time is the readjustment in economic conditions following the cataclysmic disturbance produced by the war and the misconceptions leading to an orgy of extravagance that prevailed during two years following the armistice he, time is too short for me to undertake to review the nature and extent of the upheavals occurring between August, 1914, and October, 1920. Bulky volumes will be written about them. . But I shall have to refer to some of the results in order to outline a prognosis. It is the future, not the past;' that is of most interest to us. Let me be so bold as to say, without further preface, that I am not optimistic as to the near future. .We shall, indeed, have revivals in trade, but they will be delusive if their nature be not 'understood. We shall build hopes and expectations upon political maneuvers and events, only to find in the end that they were folly. In the meanwhile fundamental economic influences will continue to exert their steady and irresistible pressure. The new administratiow at Washington has no magic wand with which to kindle the fires in our idle steel furnaces, or create a million new houses for the people; nor can the premiers of Europe put into motion the spindles of the cotton and woolen mills, or by any incantations compel the people of the Orient to buy goods. The people of the Orient, and of, Europe, and of the two Americas are in the grip of the same economic forces. The readjustment has proceeded further in some parts of the world than in others. In the United States I do not think we, have gone more than over the threshold. I shall tell you why 1 think thus, but in telling you I shall be limited, in view of the immensity of the subject, to a series of bald statements, without much elucidation.

Jan 1, 1921

By G. J. Hearn

between particles in the classifying region is then

Apr 1, 1995

By S. Agarwal, S. Frimpong

The creation and maintenance of a healthy working environment in surface mining operations require sustained efforts in pursuing advanced research initiatives toward the development and deployment of powered haulage technologies. This paper contains progress summary on a frontier research in truck dynamic control, vision and collision avoidance. This research is required to provide solutions to challenging problems regarding operator visibility in truck haulage in a surface mining environment. The paper focuses on truck control kinematics and dynamics, truck-haul road interactions, intelligent truck sensing, intelligent truck collision avoidance system, integrated system for situational awareness, augmented visualization and operator interface, and field testing and error variance modeling of developed technologies. A sensor suite of four subsystems, including front-side stereo-camera, front-side Doppler radar, close range sonar proximity sensors, and rear-side camera system have been recommended for developing a 360° truck operator vision to allow safe operations. This research initiative is significant because it will provide a strong basis for developing technologies to improve truck haulage safety in surface mines and construction sites.

Jan 1, 2007

By E. H. McCleary

The Alamo Mine The Alamo mine is located about seventeen miles northwest of Walsenburg, Colorado, on the Loma Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad, in the foothills of the Black Mountains of Huerfano County. Prospecting Mr. W. B. Lewis of New York City, president of the Oakdale Coal Company and also president of the Alamo Coal Company first became interested in this property in 1920. After all natural features of the surface had been carefully examined by Mr. Lewis, he was convinced that the property was underlaid with coal seams. Plans for prospect drilling were made at once and this drilling was started late in 1921. In all, eight drill holes were put down to the Trinidad sandstone which underlies the coal measures in this field. These drill holes in general, showed very satisfactory results. Two workable coal seams were penetrated by most of these drill holes, the upper seam being six and one half feet thick and the lower seam having a thickness of ten and one-half feet. The two seams are separated by forty feet of sandstone and shale. Analyses of the seams proved each to be of a very high grade bituminous coal possessing hardness much above other bituminous coals, and having very bright lustrous appearance. Tests of more than a year's duration proved the coal to store excellently in closed bins and also in open bins where coal is exposed to elements. The drill hole data further showed the coal seams to pitch more than fifty per cent or about twenty-six and one-half degrees. The pitch direction being approximately South 65 degrees East. The drill holes further proved the coal seams did not outcrop at any point on the property, and no evidence of coal outcrop has been found in near vicinity. A splitting and pinching out of seams was found to occur some two hundred to three hundred feet of theoretical outcrop at very Western boundary of property. The most Easterly or No. 6 drill hole has a depth of eight hundred fifty feet to floor of lower coal seam. The Trinidad sandstone was found to be immediately under the lower coal seam, and the Pierre shales lying under this sandstone. Plans for Development and Sinking Having obtained sufficient data, plans for development of the property were carefully made sometime in advance of the actual opening of the mine. Every condition was carefully studied and the maximum production of clean and well prepared coal at as low a cost as possible during the entire life of mine was kept uppermost in the minds of all. The life of mine is estimated at approximately fifty years. It was decided to open up the lower and thicker seam first, and due to the pitch and other conditions a slope opening was decided upon for its extraction. The pitch of the coal having been found to be from fifty to sixty per cent or twenty-six to thirty degrees, the plan of driving the slope directly down the pitch of seam was eliminated and a plan that would give a more economical grade was decided upon. To obtain a lesser grade, a point several hundred feet west of-and at a less elevation than the theoretical outcrop of coal seam was selected for the slope opening. (Fig. 18.) To have driven directly down the pitch of coal seam would also have given the slope an uneven grade as the pitch of coal seam varied as it approached the crop. From this point of opening, the slope was to be driven on a thirty-one per cent, or' about seventeen degree pitch to intersect coal seam in No. 6 drill hole, a distance through the Pierre shales and Trinidad sandstone of two thousand five hundred fifty feet, the slope to be driven practically due East

Jan 1, 1925

By Ovsei Volberg

Motion capture involves recording the position and global orientation of joint sensors of a real object, in most cases a real person performing some human activities. This information is usually recorded at uniformly spaced instances of time, or as it is often called frame-by-frame. Then the recorded motion data sets are processed and mapped into a skeleton hierarchy of a virtual, computer simulated human figure to control the motion of the virtual human in the computer simulation. In the first part of the paper we review several new techniques developed to facilitate the manipulation, noise reduction, storage and reuse of captured data, which have a potential to reduce the overall cost of motion simulation and improve its realism. In the second part of the paper we consider the real life problem of reducing a worker?s risk from being hit by underground mining machinery in a confined space. We formulate a set of requirements to motion editing for this particular task and analyze the limitation of existing techniques

Jan 1, 2000

By R. Roufail

"Energy consumption in stirred mills has been studied, in the last couple of decades, on a macro scale. Effective operation and meeting particle size required for downstream operations used to be the main objectives behind energy utilization of stirred mills. In this paper, three energy terms are defined to assist in understanding the breakage mechanism for various types of minerals versus mill operation. The types of minerals studied had diverse physical and mechanical properties that are summarized as specific gravity, hardness and crystal structure. The minerals utilized in this study were quartz and galena. The effect of quartz and galena mix has been addressed as well as Lead-Zinc ore sample from SAG mill discharge. The energy input to the mill is function of the agitator speed, therefore three agitator speeds were evaluated, 1000, 1500 and 2000 RPM, respectively. The energy terms studied are specific energy (kWhr/ton). Effective energy is the ratio between net energy and total energy consumed by the mill. Last type of energy is the specific breakage energy, which is the net energy consumed by the mill per one-micron breakage. Results showed that specific energy and specific breakage rate are functions of mineral type, while effective energy is only function of mill input power (agitator speed).INTRODUCTIONGrinding is the largest energy consuming component of a mineral processing operation and typically consumes about 50% of the total energy used at a mining operation (Botin, 2009). Over the last two decades, stirred mills have been extensively utilized in mineral processing operations due to increased mineralogical complexity of ore bodies. Stirred mills grind particles to less than 10 µm by applying a high power intensity. The technology has been the focus of several research studies to investigate mill energy and grinding mechanisms. Becker, et. al. (2001) studied the relationship between different types of energy including input energy, specific energy, volume/mass specific energies, to stress intensity and final product particle size. Other studies such as by Kwade (1999), Kwade and Schwedes (2002), Blecher et al (1996), Partyka and Yan (2007), Stender et al (2004), focused on mill design and/or stress intensity distribution. Peukert (2004) studied the effect of mechanical properties of the grinding media and ground material on the comminution process."

Jan 1, 2016