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By Edward (Ted) R. Lord

The application of thickened/paste tailings for surface disposal has been practiced for many years but has recently started to gain wider international acceptance. With tailings ponds coming under increasing environmental scrutiny, there is growing momentum towards mine/tailings plans that greatly reduce the size or even eliminate tailings ponds completely. This paper provides examples from the author's own experiences of the application of thickened/paste tailings for surface disposal in different countries, under different climatic conditions and in different industries. The paper will also comment on current research initiatives and future trends.

May 1, 2001

By B. H. Bergstrom, A. P. Cohen, D. W. Fuerstenau

B.H. Bergstrorn (Research Div., Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) — Fuerstenau and Cohen have concluded from our study of single particle crushing, which had suggested that the size moduli of the crushed specimens were determined by the specific energy expended independent of feed size, that the same independence with respect to feed size exists for the specific energy-product size relationship for rod mills. They present data supporting this conclusion. Our single particle crushing experiments were on single spheres of soda-lime (type of glass was not given in our study) glass for which the feed size can truly be neglected. However, the feed size cannot be neglected in any case where the effective size modulus of the feed is not too much coarser than the size modulus of the product. This can be illustrated in the second experi- ment of Fuerstenau and Cohen where the feed is considered to be the original -6 +%mesh material. However, one can also consider the product from the 7.5-min grind to be the feed for the 10, 15, 20, 25-min grinds, and the 10-min product to be the feed for the 15, 20, 25-min grinds, etc. If the specific energy-product size moduli curves are drawn for these other feeds, as shown on Fig. 3, the new curves (and some curvature is apparent) are much steeper than the -6 +%mesh feed line. The slopes of these new curves are about -1.5, —1.8 and -3.0. This observation is in accord with the observation by Bond, who states that the net specific energy input to a grinding mill is equal to the specific energy represented by the product less the specific energy represented by the feed. Bond presents, on a diagram similar to Fig. 3, a series of curves which illustrate the effect of

Jan 1, 1963

Geopolymerization is a process by which Al-Si minerals undergo dissolution and polymerization in an alkaline solution to form a monolithic material with a high mechanical strength (Davidovits, 1991, 1994). In this study, the factors affecting the geopolymerization of Na feldspar (albite) and K -feldspar (microcline) were investigated. It was found that both Na feldspar and K -feldspar are reactive in geopolymerization with the resultant geopolymers showing a high compressive strength. The leaching ability, the proper molar ratio of Si/Al in the geopolymeric gel phase and the higher average hardness of the undissolved particles remaining in the geopolymers are found to greatly affect the ultimate compressive strength of the formed geopolymers. Key words: Geopolymerization, Mineralogy, Albite, Microcline

Jan 1, 2003

By Lai KF

The Hellyer orebody is a fine grained, massive sulphide Pb-Zn-Ag- Cu-Au deposit located in western Tasmania. Initial testwork showed that the orebody would be difficult but not impossible to treat by conven- tional flotation. A staged programme-of work was commenced to demon- strate that marketable concentrates could be produced with satisfactory recoveries. Following laboratory testing of drill core to define two flowsheets, bulk samples of Hellyer totalling 20,000 tonnes were trialled at 6 tph in the Cleveland concentrator over six months. The high through- put and extended duration of the trials ensured maximum confidence in the results and that scale-up to subsequent plants would be with a mini- mum of risk. The milling trials were successful and the Cleveland concentrator was expanded in early 1987 to treat 250,000 tpa of Hellyer ore to produce 85,000 tpa of bulk concentrates. Late in 1987 construction commenced on a 1 mtpa concentrator at Hellyer to produce separate copper/silver, lead, zinc and bulk concentrates.

Jan 1, 1988

By R. S. McBride

The fertilizer industry is a meeting place of mining, manufacturing and agriculture. It is an industry of dynamic change, huge tonnages, and great aggregate value. In the United States from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 tons of fertilizer are made and used per year, with a value at the works of from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000. The world uses about 50,000,000 tons yearly with an aggregate value between two-thirds and one billion dollars. This world output contains of the essential plant-food constituents, nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, approximately 8,000,000 tons. The corresponding United States quantity, as nearly as can be estimated, is 1,400,000 tons of plant food per year in the aggregate tonnage of fertilizer. With the steady increase in the practice of scientific agriculture throughout the world there has been a corresponding growth in the consumption of fertilizers. In the United States there has, indeed, been but a small upward trend in the tonnage sold, measured in millions of tons of all classes of goods which are made and marketed. The real growth has come through the increasing concentration of the essential plant foods in the mixture. Thus it is estimated that between 1920 and 1930, although there was little increase in tonnage of fertilizer, there was an increase of fully 30 per cent in the content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. Hence, the American farmer has actually been using more plant-food to

Jan 1, 1932

By Joseph B. Perry, G. M. Kirwan

MAGNESITE is found in 22 California counties, but many of the deposits are too small or too impure to be of commercial value. Several of substantial size and quality were entirely exhausted by wartime operation. At present, three properties comprise the only known workable deposits in the state. Of these, the Western mine and the Patterson mine have been known and worked for many years, and have been described in considerable detail in various publications, therefore need only brief mention here, because of their proximity to the Bald Eagle mine. The latter, recently developed, is unusual in type of ore deposit, plant design and operation, as well as products made, and very little has been written concerning it. WESTERN MINE The Western mine, 32 miles south of Livermore, Calif., was formerly operated by C. S. Maltby. It has been a consistent producer for many years.1 The ore is of amorphous variety, occurring along fracture zones in serpentine. The veins vary greatly in width, the average being perhaps 8 ft., with the maximum indicated in one early stope of 40 ft.; 2 ft. is considered the minimum for economical mining. The strike of the veins is predominantly north and south, with dip to the west varying from 40º to 75 º. Walls are well defined and as a rule firm and easily supported. Veins range in length from a few hundred feet to 1000 or more. Their maximum vertical extent is about 350 ft., but many run less. Early mining consisted of open-cut and glory-hole work on the larger outcrops. This was followed underground by a modified shrinkage system, the waste and low-grade horses being removed by hand sorting on the tramming levels and transported to surface dumps. Filled-stope mining is used now, in order to eliminate the handling of waste, which has

Jan 1, 1938

By Dennis K. Mortensen

Improvements in flotation technology are continually being made in the attempt to achieve the mineral processor's goal of maximum mineral concentrate grade and recovery at zero cost. Technology that cannot be totally proven in the laboratory must be tested under plant conditions either in a pilot plant or in the existing circuit. Problems associated with new technology can be solved effectively by the mineral processor who approaches each of the problems objectively.

Jan 1, 1989

By Rodolfo V. de la Cruz, Richard E. Goodman

Knowledge of the initial state of stress in rocks provides a key to the solution of many problems in rock mechanics. The initial state of stress is part of the basic data required for rational design of structures in rock, since its redistribution when engineering activities are conducted is a primary load on the rock portion of the engineering system. Knowledge of initial and subsequent changes in the state of stress is also relevant in the study of active faults and crustal strain. The purposes of stress measurements are not generally well served by methods which disclose only one of the stress components at a point. Recently, interest has centered on overcoring methods which though ex- pensive and difficult have the important advantage of yielding data on three or more stress components. In a previous paper, the authors introduced a new method-termed borehole deepening-based on measurement of the deformations that occur close to the bottom of a borehole when it is deepened by further drilling without overcoring.l The proposed method is at a disadvantage when compared with over- coring procedures in that the quantities to be measured are somewhat smaller and the measuring environment is more hostile. However, the borehole deepening method presents three distinct advantages in comparison with overcoring procedures: (1) Using the same borehole, both the initial and the subsequent changes in the state of stress can be obtained by borehole deepening. Stress changes with time are

Jan 1, 1970

By N. A. McPherson, P. C. Stevens, A. J. Rigby

"There has been a consistent move in recent years to continuously cast small billets while utilizing ceramic stream protection between tundish and mould. The need to have ceramic stream protection has developed from a need to improve billet surface quality by submerged pouring. The need to protect the ladle to tundish stream in conjunction with tundish to mould protection is explained.The continuous casting of thin slabs is at the development state and will require a great deal of ceramic development to ensure the economic viability of the project. An insight is given to the main problems.IntroductionDuring the early development period o f the continuous casting of steel in the late 1940s and 1950s, much of the work was carried out on small cross section products. For example, the continuous casting of 50 mm square billets was carried out on a production scale in the United Kingdom at Barrow. Slab casting was initiated on a production basis on 100 mm thick stainless steel slabs at Atlas Steel, Weiland, Ontario. In the case of slab casting the thickness increased gradually until it was similar to Slabbing Mill feedstock , i.e. in the range 200 mm to 250 mm , although stainless steel continued to be lower at around 185 mm thick.For billets , a significant proportion of steel is now cast at around 100 mm square which creates specific difficulties when casting with a submerged pour - mould powder practice. The move back to smaller cross sections is further emphasized by the current interest in "" Near Net Shape Casting"" . If this move continues, then significant development will be required to create the refractories used between tundish and mould in the continuous casting process.Two specific areas which will receive attention are; (I) the casting of small cross section billet s; and (2) the casting of thin slab."

Jan 1, 1990

EUGENE MCAULIFFE, St. Louis, Mo. (written discussion*).-When we undertook the development of the Kathleen mine, near DuQuoin, certain features greatly influenced the construction and underground development. The country is very flat, so that the usual gravity yard movement of empty and loaded coal cars would entail a very heavy fill at the empty-car end of the tracks, with some form of car-pulling arrange-ment to move the loads where it was practically impossible to provide. a gravity movement. So the yard was made level, except for 1000 ft. (304 m.) under the two tipples, where the cars are moved by gravity and controlled under the main-shaft tipple by four Fairmont car retarders. Both tipples are spread sufficiently to admit of introducing a narrow-gage track and locomotive. One 18-ton locomotive is at present employed in moving empties clown to a point above the main-shaft tipple and the loads off the track scales clown into the storage yard; ultimately a 25-ton loco-motive will be employed on the loaded side of the tipple. This form of car movement and control will admit of handling empty and loaded cars

Jan 11, 1919

By W. Persson

The first installation at a copper smelter of a Semtech OPC System for continuous, on-line production control of copper converting in PS converters took place in 1994. At present OPC systems are installed at 19 PS converters. The technology presents to the operator real-time information on the progress of the process he is controlling in the form of optical process parameters, thus facilitating dynamic process control. The optical process parameters are based on time- and wavelength resolved registrations of the light emitted by the off-gas flames and identification of correlation between these parameters and characteristic metallurgical process data. The present paper provides a description of the technology as seen by the furnace operators and a summary of operating experiences made during five years of full-scale, operation at various smelters, reviews influences from the technology on smelter operational practises and comments on recent developments as regards new applications of the technology.

Jan 1, 1999

By AIME AIME

THE Seventh International Petroleum Exposition and Congress to be held in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 4 to 11, inclusive, in true western spirit promises to be bigger and better than ever. The Exposition has become an established institution. It gives opportunity to petroleum engineers, technologists, and operators to see each year at one place what the tool makers and machinery manufacturers have to offer which is new or better. It has truly become a place "where men, methods and machinery meet." It is also a convenient focus for technical meetings of various kinds devoted to petroleum and natural gas problems. 'The Petroleum Division of the A. I. M. E. has for several years held its chief fall meeting at Tulsa just preceding the opening of the Es- position. This year our meeting will be on Oct. 2 and 3 and it will be held as usual at Hotel Mayo. The Mid- Continent Oil and Gas Association will, as usual, hold a meeting during the Exposition and this year the Petroleum Division of the A. S. M. E. will hold a three- day session, Oct. 6-8, in the auditorium on the Esposition grounds. In all, six technical sessions are planned by this Society, and aside from reports of committees some 20 technical papers are to be presented. Members of the Institute should attend its own meeting and stay over for as many days as possible for the other meeting at which they will hear and see much of helpful interest.

Jan 1, 1930

By Matthew Janes

The installation of piles and casings is becoming increasingly difficult as restrictions on vibration become common in major urban areas. The use of high frequency, resonant excitation of a pile or casing permits ease of installation of sections to great depths with near imperceptible vibrations as close as 1 pile diameter. The new Resonant Driver is able to excite a pile at its resonant frequency (up to 150 Hz or 9000 VPM) to produce elevated levels of acceleration, force and displacement in the pile. The combination of extremely high acceleration and controlled levels of displacement allow the pile to slice through varied soil with almost no vibration translated into the ground. In direct comparisons between conventional vibrators and impact hammers the Resonant Driver produces less than 1/50th the vibration. The Resonant Driver results in ground vibration of between 1/20 and 1/40 of common limit levels (1 cm/s or 0.5 in/sec) as close as 1 pile diameter. At a distance of 5 m (16 ft) from the pile or casing vibration levels approach imperceptible levels. The Resonant Driver uses a proprietary algorithm to tune the drive vibration to the changing natural frequency of the pile as it is driven into the ground. By maintaining resonance the energy in the pile is built up like in a flywheel on an engine or a child on a swing. This build up of energy aids in driving and significantly reduces waste. Recent experience using the Resonant Driver is proving the technology can drive a variety of steel pile and casing sections through varied soils. Continued use of the Resonant Driver will create a data base of various pile and casing sections, soil types and achieved capacities.

Jan 1, 2008

By George Sachs

THE process of recrystallization has not as yet been explained satis-factorily. Some definite conclusions could be drawn from recent investi-gations, such as, for example, that recrystallization is a process of nucleus formation and crystal growth 1and that the orientations of the nuclei correspond to some fragments of the original crystals, which have been considerably distorted during deformation.2 There are, however, a number of metals and alloys crystallizing in the face-centered cubic system, which form a particularly simple orientation if recrystallized as a sheet.3 Such a sheet is almost a single crystal with the cubic axes parallel to the rolling, transverse, and normal directions of the sheet. This preferred cubic or (100) orientation of the recrystallized sheet has been considered to be very different from the rolling structure of the same metals,4 but there are two reasons why this last supposition remains open to controversial discussion. The first reason is academic: In practically all cases except the one mentioned above, close correlations and similarities between rolling and annealing orientations have been observed; for instance, in iron and steel sheet.6 Secondly, no deformed metal actually forms a-simple orientation. In any thoroughly investigated case a number of different orientations and considerable scattering or deviations from the ideal orientations have been found., It is generally true that investigations on single crystals have shown that a definite orientation is approached in stretching or in compression of an originally undisturbed crystal.7 In the special cases, however, where the initial orientation was close to an important crystallographic direction that differed from the final "ideal" orientation, the resulting orientation changed very little by deformation, staying somewhere in the vicinity of the initial orientation." Such deviations

Jan 1, 1940

By Z Chang, S A. Mrozek, S Windle

"An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation. It is important to understand skarn-porphyry transitions in order to use exposed skarns to look for associated and potentially larger porphyries. For such purposes, a good start is to understand the transition between porphyry and skarn in known deposits. In this contribution, we report the transition at Antamina, Peru, where skarns occur in and around a Miocene complex comprised of more than seven porphyritic intrusions. There are three types of skarn-porphyry relationships. The earliest intrusive phase, P1A, contains both endoskarn and porphyry-style quartz veins with secondary biotite halos. The porphyry quartz veins and endoskarns formed at the same time. Locally, the intrusion contains only endoskarn without porphyry quartz veins and is surrounded by exoskarns in carbonate wall rocks. In the third scenario, later porphyry (P2) intruding into P1A porphyry and skarns related to P1A contains abundant granular quartz veins and secondary biotite alteration but does not have significant endoskarn. The granular quartz veins also extend into earlier P1A skarns. The scarcity of endoskarn associated with P2 is related to the supply of Ca. The earliest P1A intrusion intruded into carbonates that supplied abundant Ca, therefore both endoskarns and exoskarns formed. In contrast, where the wall rocks of the later P2 intrusion are P1A or skarn related to P1A, there was little free Ca, therefore only porphyry-style quartz veins formed.CITATION:Chang, Z, Mrozek, S A, Meinert, L D and Windle, S, 2015. Skarn-porphyry transition – an example from the Antamina skarn, Peru, in Proceedings PACRIM 2015 Congress, pp 409–414 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 18, 2015

By B. L. Sackett

The converting of lead matte is not a general practice at lead smelters, therefore a description of the methods used and developments made during the past 20 years in converting both lead and copper matte at the Tooele plant of the International Smelting Co. in Utah may be of interest. The Tooele converting plant consists of five electrically operated stands in which are used 96 by 150-in. horizontal, barrel-type converters each of about 10 tons capacity. The main converter building is served by a 60-ton electric traveling crane and the casting shed by a 30-ton crane. Copper matte is tapped from near-by reverberatory furnaces into launders that deliver into 8-ton ladles on the converter floor. Lead matte is brought from the blast furnaces, about li mile away, in 5-ton ladles mounted on trucks, hauled by electric locomotives. As the Tooele copper plant has never been a producer of much copper, and has been Irregular in its operation, the original converting plant with its small converters has been adcquate, although decidedly out of step with large, modern plants. Tonnage figures in this paper are for comparison with each other only, as they are not at all in line with prevailing tonnages at larger plants today. The reasons for the changes made in converting practice at Tooele, as well as the improvements in the results obtained as these changes were perfected, are given in the following pages. Lead-matte Converting, 1914 to 1927 In 1914, Oscar M. Kuchs wrote a paper for the Transactions,' describing in detail the lead-matte converting methods at Tooele up to that time. The method perfected only a few months before Mr. Kuchs' paper was written consisted, briefly, of blowing the lead matte alone, without the addition of siliceous fluxing ores, to a point where the lead and zinc were largely eliminated by volatilization. During this period

Jan 1, 1934

By Margaret Armstrong, Chris Roth

One advantage of kriging is that it provides both an estimate of the block or point grade, and an indication of the local precision via the kriging variance. If one assumes that the estimation errors are normally distributed, then confidence intervals for the grades can be calculated. But in mining, grades are rarely normally distributed; in general, they are skew. This is particularly true for precious metals. In this paper we study confidence intervals for variables with non-normal distributions. Using a non linear geostatistical technique, the grades are transformed into their normally distributed equivalents. Confidence intervals are obtained for these normal variables, and back transformed to give the corresponding confidence intervals for the grades, for either points or blocks. This approach is applied to gold data from the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa.

Jan 1, 1996

By R. F. Hehemann, R. H. Goodenow

Thermal arrest, hot-stage microscopy, and transtnission electron microscopy techniques have been employed to study the transformations in low-carbon iron and Fe-9 pct Ni alloys. In continuous cooling experiments, each alloy transforms at an essentially constant temperature for cooling rates below the critical rate required for martensite formation. However, high-tenzperature transformation in pure iron takes place by a different mechanism than that in the 9 pct Ni alloys. Pure iron exhibits an equi-a a structure with a low and random dislocation density while the 9 pct Ni alloy exhibits a cell or lathlike substructure analogous to that of low-carbon martensite. This same substructure characterizes upper bainite in higher-carbon inaterials. UNTIL relatively recently, diffusionless transformations have been considered to take place by the same mechanism and have been termed mar-tensitic transformations.l-3 The most characteristic feature2 of this mode of transformation is the shape change produced by a shear deformation and growth of the product phase frequently occurs at an extremely high velocity approaching that of an elastic wave.4'5 A different mechanism of diffusionless transformation was recognized first in Cu-Ga and other copper-base alloys.6,7 From the absence of surface tilting in these alloys, it has been concluded that transformation is not accomplished by the cooperative shear displacements that occur in mar-tensitic reactions. Transformation presumably takes place by the rapid movement of an incoherent interface which is capable of propagating across parent grain boundaries. Although the transformation is diffusionless in the macroscopic sense, advancement of these interfaces is accomplished by an atom by atom rearrangement. Transformations of this type therefore require thermal activation and are generally operative only at high temperature. Although requiring short-range diffusion at the interface, propagation still occurs so rapidly that the reaction cannot be suppressed with normal cooling rates.7 The resulting microstructures exhibit large, irregular-shaped regions of the product phase, which are essentially free of crystallographic features. Consequently, these reactions have been termed massive transformations. Transformation by the massive mechanism has been reported to occur in ferrous systems involving pure iron and binary alloys of iron with nickel, chromium, and silicon by Gilbert and owen.' The Fe-Ni system is of special interest in that the massive transformation was observed in alloys with less than 15 pct Ni while alloys having more than about 28 pct Ni transformed by the conventional mar-tensitic mechanism. By employing cooling rates substantially higher than those used by Gilbert and Owen, Swanson and Parr have been able to suppress the massive transformation in alloys with 0 to 10 pct Ni9 and produce martensite as revealed by surface relief. The massive transformation in the alloys having less than 15 pct Ni was identified by the lack of surface relief and an irregular rather than clearly acicular microstructure.' Speich and Swann, using thin-foil electron microscopy, identified three distinctly different structures10 in quenched binary Fe-Ni alloys. From 0 to 4 pct Ni the structure consisted of blocky grains of a with a low and random dislocation density. Alloys with 4 to 25 pct Ni exhibited a cell structure with a high dislocation density; and at greater than 25 pct Ni the structure consisted of internally twinned plates. The structural change at approximately 4 pct Ni suggests that alloys with low nickel content transform by a different mechanism than those with intermediate nickel contents and the transition from the cellular to the internally twinned structures at approximately 25 pct Ni is analogous to the transition from needles to internally twinned plates that occurs over a narrow range of carbon contents in Fe-C martensites.11,12 Conventional bainitic and martensitic modes of austenite decomposition operate in ternary Fe-C-Ni alloys having less than 10 pct Ni. This investigation was conducted in order to explore the conditions under which the massive, bainitic, and martensitic transformations occur and the relationships between these modes of decomposition.

Jan 1, 1965

By Tom C. Palangio

Commercially available online particle size analyzers (OPSA) are in their third decade of development (Palangio, T.C., 1985), (Franklin, J. A., Maerz, N.H., 1987), (Maerz, N.H., Franklin, J.A., and Coursen, D.L., 1987). The installed base of operating analyzer numbers is in the hundreds. This paper takes a look at five critically important relationships that users have discovered through the use of OPSA systems. The two key attributes of these systems are: 1) consistency and, 2) historical context compared with traditional practices.

Jan 1, 2016

By Paul Klopstock

(Butte Meeting, August, 1913.) THE Kennedy mining district is situated about 55 miles in a southerly direction from Winnemucca, and about the same distance south-east from Battle Mountain : two towns situated oil t the main line of the Southern Pacific railroad. History. Prospectors were first attracted to the district by the reported discovery of gold by Chinamen in Cinnabar creek in the early 90's. The prospectors came from the rich placer workings in and about American canyon ; but the new diggings were not found sufficiently rich to justify their being, worked as placer properties, and the prospectors started work in a number of places, looking for the veins which had fed the canyon. In 1893, Charles E. Kennedy, a prospector who had been attracted by the reported discoveries in the vicinity, left Hawthorne and came to the present site of the town of Kennedy. Within a short time he discovered the vein known as the Imperial, and proceeded, with the aid of some friends, to develop it. The vein was readily traced for a distance of about a mile, and about $10,000 worth of high-grade ore was shipped to the Utah smelters. At about the same time the Lawler Brothers, who had been prospecting in the district for some time, located the ?Gold Note group," which showed some extremely rich ore. Within a very short time they extracted from 'the Gold Note vein 150 tons of ore, which was shipped to the Utah smelters, and netted about $105 per ton above all expenses. Their good fortune attracted attention to the camp, and within .a short time a town was laid out, with a population of about 500 people. It was named in honor of Kennedy, who had made the first discovery of pay ore in the district.

Jan 6, 1913