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By Eduardo Côrtes de Castro

O presente trabalho aplica o modelo de análise de capacitação tecnológica desenvolvido por Figueiredo (2001) para definir um método de aumento de competências e melhoria de performance numa unidade de prestação de serviços da Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, a gerência de oficina de cilindros de laminação. A utilização deste método permitiu o aumento da capacitação técnica da unidade, através dos processos de aprendizagem subjacentes, e a melhoria de performance, medida por indicadores chave de desempenho relevantes para o resultado da empresa (qualidade, custo, atendimento e produtividade da mão de obra). São apresentados, além dos resultados, a estrutura analítica do modelo proposto e as evidências associadas às capacidades tecnológicas acumuladas e aos processos de aprendizagem.

Oct 30, 2017

By E. Marcotte

"Technology developments and improvements are imperative to maintain a viable mineral processing industry. In order to achieve optimum implementation of technology in processing plants, safety conscious and efficient work forces are required. Effective management methods are required to prevent employee injuries, equipment or environmental damage and process losses. Good leadership also provides for employees to perform their work in the safest and most efficient manners to attain optimum recoveries of the valuable minerals and produce high quality mill products. Equipment and processes must be designed, operated and maintained as required to assure safe and efficient mineral processing.INTRODUCTIONThe Canadian mining industry must contend with many challenges to attain and maintain a competitive position in today's global market. Canadian Mineral Processors play a vital role in meeting the challenges and achieving optimum mineral productivity.Ongoing technology developments and improvements continue to be imperative to maintain a viable mineral processing industry. The efficient implementation of technology developments requires a safety conscious, skillful and productive work force.In addition to technical and human resources, challenges may also include governments, labour unions or environmental advocates who at times may appear to be misguided or unrealistic. Canadian Mineral Processors must not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by these apparent obstacles but must use their demonstrated ingenuity to achieve successful solutions.It should be recognized that the majority of the Canadian work force are, in fact, a potentially talented and skillful people with ambitions to excel. As leaders of people, we must provide the methodology, incentive and direction that will allow our work forces to realize their ambitions. If the potentials of our work forces are not recognized and leadership is not properly exercised much loss will occur. That is, safe effective and efficient work will not be achieved."

Jan 1, 1993

By J. Wickens

Haile Gold Mine is located near Kershaw, South Carolina, approximately 50 miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina. Gold was first discovered at the site in 1827, and the property has been through several operating periods since. The relatively low grade and refractory nature of the deposit has been a challenge for efficient processing since the start of mining on the property. Early processing techniques included gravity separation and barrel chlorination. The last operation employed heap leaching in 1985 through 1992. After being closed and reclaimed for over 20 years, the property is poised to re-open and produce once again. In this chapter of the Mine?s legacy, flotation and ultra-fine grinding will be employed to achieve economic extraction of gold and silver from the pyrite. This paper briefly reviews some of the mine?s history, the metallurgical testing, the flowsheet and discusses design considerations. KEY WORDS: process plant, flash flotation, leaching, SMD, stirred media detritor

Feb 27, 2013

By G. L. Coleman, D. S. Hutton, W. C. Leslie

The occurrence of twins in a iron, generated during cooling through the ?-a transformation, is well established,1-8 but this phenomenon has been nearly ignored during the past 20 years. It is the purpose of this note to call attention to the prevalence of such twins and to illustrate their appearance. The work of paxton7 and Kelly8 has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that for Neumann bands (mechanical twins) in a iron the twinning plane is (112) and the twinning direction <III>. The agreement with McKeehan&apos;s earlier work4 on transformation twins indicates that both types of twins in ferrite follow the same twinning law. There is little doubt of this conclusion, but it could be strengthened by a microbeam X-ray determination of the orientation relationship between a single ferrite grain and a transformation twin within that grain, as in the technique used by Kelly8 on Neumann bands. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Transformation twins, identified by their appearance on a polished and etched section, were found in

Jan 1, 1960

Optimisation of mining projects is directly related to effective and efficient management of risks through the life cycle of mining projects. Effective and efficient management of risks must include explicitly all aspects of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) through the life cycle of mining projects. This paper presents a different scale of OHS in the context of the optimisation of mining projects. Meaning of risk through the project life cycle is explained. Complex relationships between numerous risk, safety, knowledge, culture and change variables, and project life cycles are shown. The key element developed in this paper is a multi-disciplinary knowledge base that is necessary for constructive development of risk management and OHS models through the life cycle of mining projects.

Jan 1, 2003

The recovery of Copper by solvent extraction was arguably the most significant hydrometallurgical development of the 1960&apos;s. However, only dilute solutions at relatively high ph. could be treated effectively. ICVAcorga introduced in the 1970&apos;s the much stronger salicylaldoxime based reagents, which resulted in a dramatic change in plant configurations. So for example plants which normally use 3 extraction stages and 3 stripping stages could be reduced to 2 + 2 staging or 2 + 1 staging, even for high copper tenors at low ph. Leach liquors up to 40 g A copper are being treated at some locations so that almost any copper bearing liquor can now be purified by solvent extraction. Following a considerable amount of research and development effort ICI/Acorga have made further significant advances in the application of copper solvent extraction. The first of these is in computerised flowsheeting. In conjunction with ICI&apos;s Process Technology Department, Acorga have developed the Minchem Computer program, which uses laboratory generated equilibrium data to facilitate optimisation of metallurgical operating parameters. The program can operate in two modes, prediction and assessment so that given suitable extract and strip isotherms plant performance can be predicted for a given set of conditions. Alternatively existing plant performance can be assessed rapidly and accurately, thus providing a valuable quality control tool. Pilot plant work can now be restricted to evaluation of the physical aspects of the SX circuits, and to looking for the unexpected. Secondly using the patented 5-Nonyl Salicylaldoxime in precise admixture with a number of carefully selected strip modifiers, the Acorga M-range has resulted. Reagent selection from these new extractants can now be based on how the reagent can alleviate the remaining problems such as hydrolytic stability, transfer of iron, and organic losses by entrainment which may be related to particular features of the operating plant. Thus the Acorga M-range has enhanced and significantly extended the use of solvent extraction for copper, whilst refinements in the processing of metallurgical data has considerably simplified circuit design and analysis of results.

Jan 1, 1989

By D. B. Taliaferro, David M. Logan

which an operator may obtain detailed information regarding all projects in the State. It is the purpose of this report to present data such as volume of oil produced monthly, volume of water injected monthly, spacing of wells, number of injection wells and oil wells, and other such pertinent information regarding every project in the State whether active or abandoned and whether a success or a failure. It is believed that with these data it is possible to analyze water-flooding operations in this area more completely than has been possible in the past. As the title indicates, the report is essentially a history, and ordinarily no opinion is given as to the cause for the success or failure of individual projects. Increasing the production of oil is exceedingly important at this time, and one method by which it may be done most readily is by providing additional energy for the movement of oil in many of the older fields. In many oil fields the predominant force that drives oil through the porus reservoir rocks to wells is the gas dissolved in or otherwise associated with the oil under pressure. As the pressure in the reservoir declines in consequence of the removal of fluid, gas comes out of solution in the form of minute bubbles; as the pressure is reduced further, the expansion of these bubbles forces part of the oil toward the areas of lowest pressure and into the producing wells. The physical properties of the oil and the gas governing their flow through reservoir rocks to wells differ, and much of the gas slips past the oil leaving large quantities of oil in the reservoir when the pressure has been exhausted. Often the natural productive life of fields is prolonged by reducing the pressure in oil wells below atmospheric with vacuum pumps; but the ad- ditional energy made available in this manner is limited to less than 1 atmos- phere of pressure, and even after the extended application of "vacuum" to a petroleum reservoir large quantities of oil are left unrecovered in the porous rocks and sands.

Nov 1, 1943

By K. J. Kutz, F. A. Nice

Drilling of the second shaft at Texas Gulf Sulphur Co.&apos;s Cane Creek potash operation southwest of Moab, Utah, is perhaps the largest undertaking ever made by private industry in the field of rotary shaft drilling. The new shaft, known as No. 2, is located within the plant area, about 400 ft northeast of the No. 1 shaft. This location within the pillar of the first shaft allowed utilization of a great deal of in- formation gained prior to and during sinking of the original No. 1 shaft, a conventionally sunk 22-ft diam shaft 2789 ft deep. The No. 2 shaft will be used for auxiliary transportation of men and supplies, and is steel lined with a 48-in. ID casing. The top 825 ft of the shaft is in predominantly red sandstone with interbedded shales. From 825 ft to 2800 ft, which is the top of the salt beds, the rock is mostly limestone with interbeds of anhydrite and shale.

Jan 9, 1968

By J. C. Irvine

Meramec Mining Co., a joint venture of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and St. Joe Minerals Corp., mines and pelletizes iron ore at the Pea Ridge mine. The Pea Ridge property is located near Sullivan, Miss., about 113 km (70 miles) southwest of St. Louis. The ore body was delineated in the mid-1950&apos;s by St. Joe during a lead exploration program. The first test holes drilled on the Pea Ridge magnetic anomaly revealed the presence of a large magnetite deposit; further drilling in 1956 and 1957 confirmed that the ore body was mineable. Meramec Mining Co. was incorporated in 1957 and shaft sinking began late in the year. Production began in April 1964. The ore body is overlain by about 400 m (1300 ft) of flat-bedded sediments. It is tabular, about 800 m (2600 ft) long and up to 180 m (1600 ft) thick. It dips about 80° and is of unknown depth. The ore is mainly high-grade magnetite with small zones of specular hematite. The wall rock is a Precambrian rhyolite porphyry.

Jan 9, 1976

By T. Wasson

Midland and Isabella counties have been the centers of activities for the year 1932. The major part of the 6,967,000 bbl. produced during the year was obtained from the old Mt. Pleasant field and the Eastern Extension field. The total production to the end of 1932 for Michigan, from all fields since discovery, is 20,679,600 bbl. Production in the Eastern Extension field was obtained from Dundee limestone of Devonian age, at a depth of about 3600 ft. As a result of the year&apos;s activity in this area, the limits of the Eastern Extension have been defined. No new fields have been discovered. A number of prospective areas have been drilled and condemned by dry holes. Probably the most outstanding development of the year was the discovery of oil on the Yost farm, in sec. 35 of Greendale Township, Midland County, by the Pure Oil Co., in the early part of December. Production is from the Dundee limestone similar to that in the Eastern Extension but is 4 miles south of that area. The first well has averaged about 500 bbl. per day since completion. It is near the center of a solid block held by the Pure Oil Co., so that rapid development due to competitive drilling is not expected. During the early part of the year the Midland-Isabella area was under proration, but on May 17 proration restrictions were discontinued and remained so until the end of the year. While the Eastern Extension saw the principal activity, some work was done in other fields of Midland and Isabella counties, but very little new production was added. The Vernon field on the north showed a slight increase in production over 1931. The Leaton field decreased. The well in Porter Township, Midland County, is still kept in the production ranks but very little drilling was done in that area. The old Saginaw field, Saginaw County, still remains the only spot in the state where commercial production is obtained from the Berea sand. It showed a slight decline over 1931 with no new producers for the year. The Muskegon field on the west side of the state showed a considerable decline over 1931, but owing to the rejuvenation of some wells by the use of acid this drop was not as great as might have been expected. Only two new producers were drilled in that area.

Jan 1, 1933

By Thomas Schultheis, William Heron, Paul Watson, Colin Warren

This paper describes the geology and geotechnics associated with construction of the Thames Tunnel, part of the UK’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The 2.5km long twin tunnels run beneath the river Thames at depths of up to 40m and are currently under construction. They pass through varying geology comprising alluvium, terrace gravels and chalk with flints and are currently being bored using Herrenknecht mixshield slurry tunnel boring machines (TBM’s). This paper outlines the lithology and engineering properties of each geological formation and describes the geotechnical processes, potential hazards and difficulties experienced in the works. A summary is given into the extent of the investigative work in terms of route selection, tunnel design, TBM optimisation and further details are provided on the geotechnical aspects associated with the construction of the tunnel approach structures and the tunnels.

Jan 1, 2003

By K. D. Weverstad, J. E. Cleveland, J. C. Franklin, J. W. Black

A mined-out stope being backfilled with classified mill tailings was continuously monitored, both upstream and downstream, to determine the radon concentration associated with the mill tailings. The radon monitoring was done before, during, and after the backfill operation. Data taken during weekends when no mining activities were influencing the radon concentration showed a 90 percent reduction in radon discharge from the stope after being backfilled. Water used to mix with the classified sands showed an increase in the heavy metals concentration immediately after seeping from the inplace sand. However, the water used in backfilling is less than ½ of 1 percent of total mine water discharged. The change in contamination is not measurable at the pumping station.

Jan 1, 1982

By Howard S. Bryant

The year 1928 has recently.passed from the picture and it is at this time that the various divisions of the oil industry are giving thought to plans for the present year. The outstanding characteristic of the industry in 1928 was the successful curtailment of oil production to the market&apos;s needs. It has been thought advisable to look ahead and endeavor to anticipate the oil demand for the coming year, and thus determine the volume of oil that can be safely produced without causing major additions to surface stocks. The year has been one of smaller additions to stocks than in 1927, a record demand for oil products, and a further developed spirit of cooperation among oil producers, as well as various other achievements. It is well to pause and take stock of ourselves. Present Status of Crude Oil Supply and Demand The total daily new supply of oil is at this time1 about 2,960,000 bbl. per day, made up of 2,585,000 bbl. domestic crude production, 125,000 bbl. casinghead gasoline, and 250,000 bbl. of imports. With the present low consumption, due to the falling off in the winter season demand, it is estimated that about 150,000 bbl. a day are now being run to storage, and that the first three months in 1929 will see large-sized additions to storage. Consumption plus exports of oil have increased at a regular rate from year to year, and although oil production in 1928 passed the 1,000,000,-000 bbl. mark for the second time in the history of the United States, with a production of 25,000,000 bbl. more than in 1927, only 30,000,000 bbl. were added to storage during 1928. This is compared to an addition of 65,500,000 bbl. in 1927.

Jan 1, 1929

By Jacques Nantel

Mechanization has been at the core of productivity improvements since the industrial revolution. During the past 20 years, mining has derived spectacular progress from mechanization. In the future, however, mechanization alone will not be enough. In the next few decades, automation will bring about new generations of highly productive and safe machines, with low operating costs. Increased use of new and better technology is generally accepted as the prime factor capable of closing the productivity gap. The productivity gap is the difference between inflation and metal prices. The three S-curves in Fig. I represent the evolution of technology in general, and mining in particular. TI represents incremental changes. the dominant sort of technology changes in the mining industry: - Better drills, electric hydraulic drills vs. pneumatic drills, the drilling rate is twice as fast. - Better steel and bits, to accommodate the higher performance drills. - Improved chemical explosives. - Bigger trucks in open pits.

Jan 1, 1993

By E. Peters

As in other fields of Extractive Metallurgy, Hydrometallurgy is preoccupied with separation processes and with oxidation-reduction processes. The physical chemistry of each type of process can be described in terms of thermodynamic equilibria and in terms of reaction kinetics. Reaction kinetics are much more important at the low temperatures limiting hydrometallurgical processes than in com- parable pyrometallurgical operations and the number of cases in which the kinetics can be described by simple liquid-phase mass-transfer models are sharply limited. It is convenient to subdivide the applicable rate phenomena into processes in which (a) interface reactions control the rate,(b) mass transfer processes control the rate, (c) solid state process affect the rate, (d) thermodynamically predicted phase changes or molecular reactions fail to take place, (d) metastable substances or supersaturated phases persist, and (elchomogeneous reactions in solution affect the chemistry and the kinetics. Examples are drawn from the unit steps of leaching, cementation, hydrogen reduction, and electrowinning.

Jan 1, 1973

By Rudolph G. Wuerker

With stepped-up work in rock mechanics, more and more data on strength and elastic properties of rocks has become available. Results of measurements of tensile strength, in addition to determinations of compressive strength, allow us to deter- mine, even if only in an approximate way, the third property influencing failure of a brittle material: shear strength. It is fairly generally agreed upon in rock mechanics, in drilling and blasting research, that Mohr&apos;s theory provides an acceptable method for explaining the failure of a brittle material. Mohr states that a material may fail either 1) through plastic slip when shearing stress Y in the planes of slips has reached a limiting value (which in general depends on the normal stress, X, acting normal to the surface), or 2) when the largest normal tensile stress has reached a limiting value. The mode of failure depends upon which of the two stresses is the smaller.

Jan 10, 1959

By P J. Minehan

The investigation of the potential of the Webb/Baynes block of the Buller coalfield for anode carbon manufacture has generated much information on the physical beneficiation characteristics of the Buller coals in general. A further 36 drill holes of the block in question and several other samples have been analysed by sink/float analysis, either at a single density or over a range of densities. In addition, many samples have been beneficiated on a laboratory shaking table or by flotation. The ash content can be reduced by a variable factor. The reduction factor of between two and four by sink/float analysts is understandably less for tabling where separation is not perfect. All Buller coals behave similarly, there being greater ash reduction factors for higher ash coals.

Jan 1, 1983

By Joseph Hodgson

IN 1880, mining operations were commenced at the Copper Queen mine. The famous Queen orebody, which extended to the surface, was first quarried from a large open cut in the outcrop. The orebody was followed down to the 300 level with the Queen incline, and stoped. This, we believe, marks the introduction of square setting in the Bisbee district, which is still the method most generally used. Orebodies The orebodies in the Copper Queen mine occur in the limestones, and the main portion of the ore has been mined from the Abrigo, Martin, and. Escabrosa limestones. While the orebodies outcrop in the extreme western end of the mine, the general dip is to the east and south, at an angle of about 20°, although this dip is not by any means regular, being, in fact, very irregular locally. The ore is remarkable for its variableness in character, some of it being very soft, requiring a large amount of timber, and other portions consisting of extremely hard sulphides. The orebodies, in general, While remarkable for their continuity, are very irregular, both as to shape and size. The mine having been in operation so many years, and mining having been prosecuted over such a large area, the operations have caused the shrinkage of the overburden, and there is a constant movement, which is shown y large cracks and interstices in the surface rocks, which largely contribute to the very high deadwork or maintenance cost of the mine. It is surprising that for year 1913 it cost almost $400,000 just for the one item of repairs and deadwork in this property.

Jan 8, 1914

By Ronald R. McNaughton

The most recent group of papers on the general subject of lead smelting were published in AIME Transactions, vol. 121, in 1936. The lecture deals with changes which have taken place in the Past 30 years in this industry. The subject matter covers the essential steps of charge preparation, sintering, blast furnacing, dross treatment, refining, and slag fuming together with the subsidiary or associated activities of analytical procedures, dust and fume collection, maintenance, and hygiene. IN 1936 the AIME published Transactions, vol. 121, entitled "Metallurgy of Lead and Zinc". In the preface to this volume the chairman of the Committee on the Reduction and Refining of Lead and Zinc, Carle R. Hay ward, said in part: ... since the World War few papers of major significance have appeared on the production and refining of lead and zinc, although many improvements in technique have been made, which have attracted little attention because they were merely developments of existing practice. Other changes of a more radical nature have also been made, but... they have been given little publicity. It seems appropriate, therefore, at this time that the AIME should sponsor a volume on lead and zinc metallurgy... . That the publication of this compilation was timely is attested by the rapidity with which the surplus stock was depleted. It has now become a collector&apos;s item. Although a comprehensive monograph on the occurrence, extraction, refining, and uses of zinc was published by the American Chemical Society in 1959,&apos; one could almost repeat Professor Hayward&apos;s words to describe the present situation in the literature of lead reduction and refining. So it is my intention today to discuss briefly some of the changes and improvements which have taken place in the metallurgy of lead in the interval since the publication of vol. 121. The lead blast furnace, which made its appearance in America about 1870, is still dominant in the reduction field. However there are other reduction methods in use today in special situations. In those rare circumstances where the material to be treated is very high grade, consideration might be given to the Bolidens electric furnace method2 or the Lurgi self-fluxing process3 or possibly to the rotary ore hearth. Each of these latter three processes makes use of the roast-reduction reactions with the result that fuel require-

Jan 1, 1969

By John C. Smock

THE question of the proper valuation of mines of iron ore was suggested to me by the difficulties experienced in getting answers for the United States Census Office, while I was engaged in the work of collecting the statistics of mines in New Jersey and New York The answers to the questions relating to values of real estate of mine properties varied so greatly that it was necessary to revise them according to some general principles of valuation. Generally the returns of mine proprietors Seemed to be too low. There were, however, examples of what would be termed excessive valuation. The Subject appeared to be of practical importance, and led to the paper here presented. The following table of selected mine statistics is given, prefacing the discussion of the principles of valuation. It is in part made up of census returns and partly of data obtained directly from mine owners and managers. The mines which were Selected for the Several groups and mining districts include nearly all of those from Which the more full and carefully filled returns were received, and are also representative of their respective districts. Hence the averages obtained from them become good types of these groups or districts. The mines of New Jersey appear in Six groups, each containing from three to eleven mines, or, in all, thirty-four mines. The magnetic iron ores of New York are in four well-marked groups, and there are twenty-six mines in them. Then follow the red hematite mines of St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties; and, lastly, the brown hematite groups of Dutchess and Columbia counties, and those of the adjacent parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The whole number of mines represented by the table is eighty-eight, of which twenty-eight are hematite mines. The first column gives the value of the real estate; the second that of the plant; the third is the sum of these two, or the capital invested. Then follow the number of men employed, the amount of wages paid during the census year, and the value of materials used in mining and preparing the ores for market.* The seventh column gives the total expendi- * The value of materials is somewhat uncertain in many cases, as royalties are included under this head. Likewise, under wages, the cost of explosives and light is often included. Hence it is impossible to draw the line sharply between these items of expenditure.

Jan 1, 1882