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By A. M. Gaudin

CHANGES in industrial practice, in plant design, and in research methods which are so clearly to be seen on every hand, have affected the mineral industry as well as others. In particular, ore dressing has passed through a revolution in practice brought about by the introduction of flotation and other quasi-chemical methods, until it has ceased to be solely the mechanical preparation of ores. In fact, the term "ore dressing" itself is obsolescent, and "mineral dressing" has been growing in popularity. This assures adequate recognition of the fact that mineral substances other than ores, e.g. coals, clays, and cement rock, are treated by the same general methods. As a result of these industrial changes it was felt that a complete rearrangement of the curriculum and laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would be ad-vantageous. Such a rearrangement would allow instruction and research to proceed in wider accord with industrial evolution and the needs of our times.

Jan 1, 1942

By V. C. Allen

THE Tri-State Zinc, Inc., Galena, Ill., was confronted with the problem of securing ore from a deposit because the hoisting shaft was several thousand feet from the mill. The orebody is several thousand feet long, averaging 200 ft in width and 60 ft in height and opened up by vertical shafts some 300 ft deep. Mining is by the room-and-pillar method. During the initial operation the ore was loaded by conventional electric 1/2-yd boom-and-dipper shovels and hauled to the shaft by 8-ton diesel trucks. This underground ore loading and hauling was well adapted to the conditions and productive of low costs per ton. However, with the mill situated as mentioned, a triple handling of all broken rock was necessary: l—from the stope to the shaft by truck, 2—up the shaft by skip br can into the surface hopper, and 3—by truck from the surface hopper to the crushing plant at the mill. In addition to the repeated handling, serious troubles were encountered during the winter because of freezing in the shaft hopper. Consideration was given to either moving the mill to the new orebody or to the construction of a second mill. The presence of other orebodies to be mined at a later date made the first alternative impractical while the capital outlay for a second mill, when the present plant of approximately 850 tons per day was deemed sufficiently large for the total reserves, made the second alternative also unwise. It was decided to retain the mill in the originals location and continue to move the ore to it. The idea of driving an inclined adit from the surface to the bottom of the orebody suitable for truck haulage and big enough to allow the passage of all mechanical equipment was conceived. Among the apparent advantages of such an incline were: 1— Direct haulage from the stope to the mill without rehandling. 2—Elimination of virtually all grizzlies. Trucking from underground to the mill would do away with all hoppers, chutes, gates, and skips and make the maximum rock size dependent solely on the size of the shovel dipper at the mine and the crusher opening at the mill. 3—Less secondary blasting would be needed. 4—Ease of transporting equipment and supplies underground. Shovels and trucks could be taken through the incline intact. 5—Equipment could be brought to the surface for repairs and servicing without loss of time. The same advantages of ease in moving would be present in the handling of men, steel, powder, and supplies. 6—There would be far less difficulty in increasing the amount of tonnage that could be moved by truck up an incline than would be found in attempting to increase the capacity of a shaft. 7—All the broken ore in the stopes would serve as bin capacity, as it would take the breakdown of all of the loading and hauling equipment to have the same effect as a delay in shaft hoisting. 8—All danger of men being trapped in the mine as a result of shaft fire or power stoppage would be eliminated. 9— Virtually all trouble from severe winter conditions would be eliminated by the direct haul underground to the mill. The decision was made to proceed with the driving of an inclined adit. The topography of the surface between the orebody and the mill was such that it was possible to locate the portal at a point 170 ft above the mine floor and 1800 ft horizontally from the central point of the orebody to the south and 2500 ft from the mill to the north. A grade of 10 pct was found to be optimum for continuous truck haulage when the various factors of speed, safety, and truck maintenance were all considered. The incline as driven was consequently 1700 ft long on 10 pct grade and 12 ft high by 17 ft wide in cross section. The tunnel-driving equipment was chosen so that it could be used in mining after the completion of the tunnel. Drilling was done with a jumbo with two Joy jibs mounting 3-in. drills, loading with an Allis-Chalmers diesel-powered, front-end loader of approximately 11/4-yd capacity, and hauling by Koehring Dumptor trucks of 8-ton capacity, diesel-powered. The width of the tunnel allowed the end loader and Dumptor to be placed abreast. Since the Dumptors can be driven either forward or backward with equal facility, loading was accomplished without turning around either machine throughout the loading operation. The crew in addition to the tunnel foreman was comprised of three men per shift at the start and in the later work, four men. Each crew could perform any part of the working cycle. If the drilling was completed and the round blasted in the middle of a shift, the same men would proceed with the loading and hauling. Since the mine already had been drained to the bottom levels, no water was encountered. At the halfway point the tunnel was widened for approximately 100 ft to permit trucks to pass. The total cost of the tunnel excluding the capital outlay for equipment, which was all continued in use in the subsequent mine operation, was $60,363.00 or $35.50 per ft. The tunnel was completed at the end of June, 1949 and has been in continuous use since that time. In the five months from July to November inclusive, 106,049 tons have been transported to the mill or an average of 835 tons per day. No unforeseen disadvantages have been encountered and the advantages which had been predicated before the adit's construction have been more than realized. As previously mentioned, the deposit is worked by the room-and-pillar system with occasional faces up to 125 ft high. Except in driving development drifts when diesel-powered, front-end loaders such as were used in the tunnel are employed, all shoveling is done by Yz-yd boom-dipper type shovels electrically driven. These units need a width of 25 ft and a height of 14 ft in which to operate. All hauling is by diesel trucks, mainly Koehring Dump-tors. Roads are maintained with caterpillar tractors and a road grader. The tonnage output from the

Jan 1, 1952

By W. Rostoker, R. P. Elliott, B. W. Levinger

Phase equilibria in the Ti-Mn-Mo system have been investigated in the composition range 100 to 60 pct Ti and in the temperature range 550 to 1150°C. Three out of ten isothermal sections are presented as well as seven vertical sections, projections of the beta space and the surface of incipient melting. A STUDY of the system Ti-Mn-Mo was undertaken as part of a program to aid in the development of titanium-base phase equilibrium diagrams of potential technical importance to alloy development. The scope of the investigation included the composition range 100 to 60 wt pct Ti (all compositions refer to weight percentages) and the temperature range 550" to 1150°C. A surface of incipient melting was constructed from measurements of a large number of alloys. In the binary system Ti-Mo,' the high temperature modification of titanium generally spoken of as the p phase is stabilized to successively lower temperatures with increasing alloy content. There are no known intermediate phases, and complete miscibility exists between body-centered cubic titanium and molybdenum. The u solid solution is limited to less than 0.8 pct Mo at temperatures between 885" and 600°C. An equilibrium diagram for the binary system Ti-Mn has been published.' Manganese behaves as a p stabilizer but undergoes a eutectoid transformation at about 20 pct Mn and 550°C to a plus an intermediate phase. The structure of this phase has been found to be isomorphous with the a phase FeCr." Accordingly, the phase is assigned the formula TiMn, although its actual location on the composition scale has not been determined and may well be not exactly at the equiatomic composition. In disagreement with ref. 2, the origin of the TiMn phase has been shown' to be a peritectoid transformation at a temperature between 900" and 1000°C. A second intermediate phase occurs at the atomic proportions TiMn,. The structure of this phase was originally established by Wallbaum" as having a hexagonal lattice (C 14 type, 12 atoms per unit cell) isomorphous with MgZn,. In this work, the structure determination was confirmed and lattice parameters determined to be: a = 4.815 kX, c - 7.901 kX. Because of the extensive range of the P phase, the ternary system was suited to the determination of the phase boundaries by the parametric method of Andersen and Jette." During the course of the investigation, this method was found applicable only to the P/a+P boundaries but not to P/P+ compound boundaries. Metallographic methods were used alternatively for delineating these phase boundaries. Preparation and Treatment of Alloys Over 70 alloys were prepared for the study of this system. Ten gram alloy buttons were arc melted in a nonconsumable electrode furnace using inert atmosphere protection, and a water cooled copper crucible. The construction and operation of this type of melting unit has been described.' To insure complete solution of alloy additions, especially molybdenum, the buttons were remelted alternately on top or bottom as many as five times. This was accomplished by a suitable mechanism for "flipping" the ingots over. It was very difficult to obtain homogeneous melts in the region of less than 75 pct Ti because of the very high melting point of molybdenum and Ti-Mo master alloys and the comparatively low boiling point of manganese. Thus, the arc conditions for insuring complete solution of molybdenum were incompatible with the prevention of heavy losses of

Jan 1, 1955

The opening session of the Institute was held at Hazle Hall, Tuesday evening, October 27th, with a large attendance of members. President Raymond called the Institute to order, and after a few introductory remarks, introduced Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, President of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, and Honorary Member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Mr. Bell was received with great applause, and made his acknowledgments in a brief speech, of which the following is the substance: He desired to thank the Institute personally for the honor conferred upon him in his election to membership, and also for the invitation extended last year to the body of which he was President. The difficulty felt by many members of the Iron and Steel Institute, of leaving for a long journey the works of which they had charge, aggravated by special industrial troubles at the time of the invitation, had obliged them to conclude that it could not then be accepted in a fitting manner. The iron .manufacture of this country is a subject of great interest to Englishmen, who look with pride upon the achievements on this side the water of the descendants of a common ancestry. His own reception in this country had far surpassed in cordiality even the well-grounded anticipations he had formed from the assurances of the President and other friends. Notwithstanding the flattering manner in which his friend, in introducing him to the Institute, had spoken of his contributions to the science of iron metallurgy, he could not take to himself alone the significance of this welcome. He knew it was a recognition of the services rendered by the body which he had the honor to represent; and he was glad to see present a member of that body, Mr. Thomas Whitwell, who had fortunately been able to make the journey at this time, arid whom he had had the pleasure of meeting on the shores of Lake Champlain. He had been requested to say something of his impressions of the American iron industry. It was not easy to digest so soon the vast

By J. W. Gabelman

A study of spatial relations between uranium and other metal deposits and hydro thermally altered rocks in western Colorado demonstrated districtwide and regional zoning. The pattern was later found repeated elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere Cordillera. District mineralization centers are pipelike bodies of pervasively altered rock from which intensity-temperature-pressure gradients decreased outwardly. Uranium occurs in several zonal environments but usually is economic only in outermost zones. The general similarity of zones throughout the tectoni-cally and metallogenically uniform Cordillera may reflect a consistent hydrothermal process involving zoning. By determining positions of zones it should be possible to select for examination the most favorable small portions of districts or provinces. Mineralogical zoning has been discussed by Lindgren,l3 Graton,lo Emmons,' Blanchard,' Park and many others. It is commonly found to some extent in most mineralized areas. The existence of nonmetallic alteration envelopes around lode metal deposits and their relation to metallization were first emphasized by Lovering,l4 Burbank, Sales and Meyer," Sales,2o McKinstry,I7 Lovering and others15 and Schmitt. Also, large areas of nonmetallic alteration containing porphyry-type replacement metal disseminations have long been recognized and are described by Schwartz,25-28 Kerr and others" and Gilully. In some districts, e. g., Bingham Canyon, Utah, and Santa Rita, N.M., base metal lode deposits and their alteration envelopes are zoned around large altered areas which contain porphyry copper replacement disseminations; however, the spatial and genetic relations between lodes and replacement disseminations and their associated alterations do not seem to have received sufficient attention. Bodies of altered rock containing porphyry-type replacement disseminations are many times larger than the alteration envelopes containing lode deposits. The two types are rarely superimposed. They occur adjacent to or independent of one another, but they are believed to be related through the mechanism of zoning as suggested by Gabelman and Boyer. 5'6 Most of the significant lode metal deposits are distributed around central pipelike bodies of strong, pervasive, nonmetallic alteration which may or may

Jan 1, 1962

By HORNICKA OSTRAVA

The Czechoslovak Scientific-Technical Institute has arranged the international conference 'Hornicka Ostrava' for four or five days at the end of October, 1969, as part of the preparation for the international 'Miners' Congress' on deep coalextraction in 1970. The keynote of the conference is 'New Techniques in coal mining,' and will be covered by five groups dealing mainly with: 1. New trends in the opening of mines, optimal parameters, projections, equipment, utilization of computers for economic analyses, etc. 2. Increase in efficiency of coal extraction in deep mines, technology, concentration, pressure control, optimization of material and coal transport. 3. Modernization of devices for increased safety and working conditions, new trends in explosives, new techniques for reducing environmental diseases. 4. Innovations in deep level coal extraction, mechanization, rationalization, automation, etc. 5. Other topics about modern techniques in mining. Address your enquiries to: Ing. Karel Kalas (Secretary of the Conference), Dum Techniky Cs YTS, Ostrava 1, Jesenkiho 7-9, Czechoslovakia.

By Craw D

Quaternary warping and uplift of antiformal schist ranges in Central Otago, New Zealand, has resulted in recycling of alluvial gold from widespread, generally weakly auriferous, Miocene fluvial gravels that unconformably overlie the schist, into aprons of fan sediments along the range margins. Basement erosion during uplift has been limited and so gold input from sparse gold-bearing quartz veins in the schist has been relatively minor. In an eluvial cycle on the slopes of the ranges, chemical remobilization of gold occurs during oxidation and erosion of the Miocene sediments. The typically fine-grained (300-400¦m) gold undergoes chemical modification and grain size enhancement of up to two orders of magnitude, and much of it is redeposited in a large number of relatively small alluvial fans along the range margins. Groundwater mobility within the fans results in minor additional gold mobility and grain size Enhancement.

Jan 1, 1995

By George F. Swindle

This paper discusses a composite of two coal reserve studies, each of which made use of a computer-based modeling system to assist in an evaluation of multi-seam deposits. The model permitted simultaneous consideration of seam thickness, seam structure, overburden thickness, over-burden ratio, and quality parameters for sulphur content, ash content, BTU values and the EPA Compliance index. The model is designed for use by a non-programmer, geologist or mining engineer. It enables the user, from a computer terminal in his office, to specify constraints (for example maximum um sulphur and maximum- ash content, minimum seam thickness and minimum BTU rating), and produces a report showing the volume, quality and location of that part of the total in place deposit satisfying all the constraints.

Jan 1, 1983

By Kinsella B

Titrimetric studies have been carried out on the activated carbons Kintal 1105, Norit 2520 and Kuraray 2GA. Titration curves of the carbons before and after acid and water washing and gold loading indicate that the acid-base properties of the carbons are affected by both the method of treatment and also by the loading of gold. It is considered that the pKa values of the functional groups on the carbon surface are in the regions of 11, 7 and 3 respectively.

Jan 1, 1984

By Edmond Chow

Shovel bucket blast fragmentation analysis is an alternate way to assess blast performance and its effects on downstream mining processes. A camera is installed on the boom of cable shovels, and the stick of hydraulic shovels. Images are captured automatically as the shovel digs, and are processed to acquire rock size information. The automatic data acquisition makes this method safe to use with minimal manual labour. It also allows for a large set of sample data to be captured from both the surface and the interior of a bench face. The system has been deployed in several mines to provide an objective assessment of blasting performance. Images are captured from their cable or hydraulic shovels. The images are grouped into sets based on the shovel location and time to match the fragmentation to specific blasts. Blast fragmentation reports are created for each blast after reviewing the results. Measuring blast fragmentation from the shovel bucket proves to be an effective alternative for blast performance assessment with unique advantages. The blast fragmentation information has been valuable to the mines, and the mines have begun adopting it into their operations.

May 1, 2011

By AIME AIME

WILLIAM ("BILL") EMBRY WRATHER, recently elected to a second term as Director of the Institute, is widely known as petroleum geologist, gentleman, and scholar. Born in Brandenburg, Ky., he was early endowed with a Southern accent which has remained with him strongly flavored by his later life in the oil-fields of Texas and the Mid-Continent region, and only thinly concealed by a Middle Western burr acquired during his student days at the University of Chicago. After graduating there with the Ph. B. in 1908, young Wrather (the adjective still fits!) joined the Gulf Production Co. Soon afterwards he married a charming Chicago girl, Alice Dolling, who, with their two daughters, has been his companion on many of his more distant trios.

Jan 1, 1945

By Howard R. Hughes

In drilling for water and oil to reasonable depths through the generally soft yielding clay and sand formation of the Coastal Plain of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the rotating method of drilling was adopted, principally on account of the easy and quick penetration, and the low cost of the drilling plant. In favorable ground, free of heavy gravel and rock strata, as much as 1,600 ft. has been drilled in less than 36 hr., although such performances were of course rare. Hydraulic rotary drilling, or, as it is now called, rotary drilling, was used in the above States as early as 1880. The plant consisted of an ordinary derrick, a 25-h.p. boiler, a small hoist, a steam pump, and a water swivel with hose attachment, and an ordinary flat diamond-pointed bit. The successful drilling in of a phenomenal oil well by this process on Spindletop, near Beaumont, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1901, and the ascertained impracticability of drilling subsequent wells in the same locality by other methods (owing principally to heavy quicksand under pressure from below), brought rotary drilling into great prominence, practically to the exclusion of any other process throughout the Coastal Plain, and later on elsewhere. The method, as its name implies, involves the rotation of a pipe by means of machinery placed on the derrick floor. A drill bit attached to the lower end cuts a clearance for the drill pipe, with much the same motion and effect as an auger. Water forced through the drill pipe by means of a pump, and escaping through the bit, removes the cuttings and returns to the surface outside the drill pipe. In this manner the hole is kept open, permitting the drill stem to rotate freely. The pressure of the column of muddy water holds up the walls of the hole until it has been cased. Practically all the wells of the Gulf coast region, numbering nearly 10,000, have been drilled with this system. During the last five years its use has been extended to many other States and countries.

Jan 1, 1915

By Howard Hughes

IN drilling for water and oil to reasonable depths through the generally soft yielding clay and sand formation of the Coastal Plain of Texas, . Louisiana, and Mississippi, the rotating method of drilling was adopted, principally on account of the easy and quick penetration, and the low cost of the drilling plant. In favorable ground, free of heavy gravel and rock strata, as much as 1,000 ft. has been drilled in less than 36 hr., although such performances were of course rare. Hydraulic rotary drilling, or, as it is now called, rotary drilling, was used in the above States as early as 1880. The plant consisted of an ordinary derrick, a 25-h.p. boiler, a small hoist, a steam pump, and a water swivel with hose attachment, and an ordinary flat diamond-pointed bit. The successful drilling in of a phenomenal oil well by this process on Spindletop, near Beaumont, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1901, and the ascertained impracticability of drilling subsequent wells in the same locality by other methods (owing principally to heavy quicksand under pressure from below), brought rotary drilling into great prominence, practically to the exclusion of any other process throughout the Coastal Plain, and later on elsewhere. The method, as its name implies, involves the rotation of a pipe by means of machinery placed on the derrick floor. A drill bit attached to the lower end cuts a clearance for the drill pipe, with much the same motion and effect as an auger. Water forced through the drill pipe by means of a pump, and escaping through the bit, removes the cuttings and returns to the surface outside the drill pipe. In this manner the hole is kept open, permitting the drill stem to rotate freely. The pressure of the column of muddy water holds up the walls of the hole until it has been cased. Practically all the wells of the Gulf coast region, numbering nearly 10,000, have been drilled with this system. During the last five years its use has been extended to many other States and countries.

Jan 3, 1915

By J. Brett, L. Seigle, L. Castleman, T. Montelbano

Impurity-induced low-temperature recrystallization of cold-worked tungsten was inuestigated with emphasis on the influence of nickel on the reaction. Palladium, nickel, aluminum, manganese, platinum, and iron greatly lower the recrystallization temperature of doped tungsten, which zs normally very high, but the recrystallization temperature of electron-be am zone-refined tungsten wzre is slightly raised by conlacl with nickel. Recrystallization can be induced at low temperature by the presence of solid nickel on the surface of doped tungsten wire, but apparently not by exposure to nickel vapors alone. Approximately 200 ppm of Ni dijjused into 10-mil wires at 1200 from a deposit of nickel on the surface produced total recrystallization, whereas more than 600 ppm of Ni could be absorbed frotn a vapor source without altering the fibrous structure of cold-worked tungsten. Once initiated, nickel-induced recrystallization required a continued source of' nickel for propagation of the recrystallization front. The solubility of nickel in fibrous 10-mil W wire was approximalely 500 ppm at 1150' C, and the activation energy for penetration of the recrystallization front was 52 kcal per mole. In many applications the usefulness of tungsten depends on critical control of its structure. Cold-worked tungsten with the fibrous structure developed by suitable thermo-mechanical treatment has a low, but technologically significant, ductility. It has long been known1 that traces of nickel, and perhaps other metals, are profoundly deleterious in doped tungsten, because they induce recrystallization at low temperature, which produces a brittle, equiaxed grain structure. This effect appears to be an exception to the general observation that recrystallization is impeded and the recrystallization temperature raised by the presence of impurities.2"9 Previous studies7-'' of the annealing and recrystallization of tungsten wire have divided the phenomenon into prior recovery stages, primary recrystallization and secondary recrystallization. The present investigation is concerned principally with primary recrystallization which is defined here as the replacement of the fibrous structure of deformed tungsten by equiaxed grains. The objective of this study was to explore the nickel-induced recrystallization reaction in tungsten and attempt to elucidate its mechanism. As well, an effort to define which other elements give rise to low-temperature-induced recrystallization was carried out. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The procedure adopted for these experiments was essentially to bring nickel and other elements into diffusive contact with cold-worked tungsten wires. The process of recrystallization was followed as a function of time and temperature by light and electron microscopic observations. First the influence of nickel on the recrystallization temperature of arc-melted, zone-refined, and variously doped tungsten wire was determined by electroplating a deposit of nickel on the surface of the wire and annealing at a variety of temperatures for 3 hr. The chemical analyses of the tungsten wires used in this investigation are given in Table I. The surface of the tungsten wire was etched with Murakami's slution' and approximately 0.005 in, of Ni was deposited from a Watts-type low pH bath14 for the conditions of these experiments. Variations in plating thickness from about 0.001 to 0.005 in. had no discernible influence on the resulting structures. The wires were then annealed in an atmosphere of dry hydrogen to establish the recrystallization temperature. Concurrently, un-plated specimens were annealed to establish the recrystallization characteristics of nickel-free wire. The criterion of recrystallization was that the fibrous structure be completely replaced by equiaxed grains after a 3-hr treatment of temperature. This provided more reproducible results than use of the first recrystallized grain or a fixed proportion of re-crystallized structure as the critical observation. The structures encountered in longitudinal and transverse sections were examined by both light and electron microscopy at magnifications up to X32,000 using parlo-dion-carbon replicas shadowed with platinum for the latter method. Second, the influence of a variety of metals on the recrystallization temperature of 0.010 in. D alumina-silica doped tungsten wire, AW136-64, was determined. The elements were applied by electroplating whenever possible. Alternatively, they were vapor-plated on the tungsten wire and a greater thickness built up by coating with a dispersion of metal powder in nitrocellulose lacquer. Elements not amenable to either of these procedures were merely slurry coated on the tungsten. The recrystallization temperature was determined as above. Third, the nickel-induced recrystallization process in doped wire was studied more closely by electroplating 8 mils of Ni on 65-mil alumina-silica doped tungsten wire, AW153-NS10, and exposing the wire to temperatures of llOO°, 1200°, or 1300°C for various times in a hydrogen atmosphere. A circular recrystallization front, 'Onsisting of equiaxed grains, developed at the periphery Of the coated tungsten wire, and the advance of this front into the fibrous interior was studied. These experiments employed relatively coarse 0.065 in. D wire because the 0.010 in. D wire recrystallized too quickly to permit observation of the pene-

Jan 1, 1969

By M Scoble, J Szymans

During the past year, the Canadian Centre for Automation and Robotics in Mining (CCARM), McGill University, Montreal, has been involved with INCO Ltd.'s Manitoba Division in investigating the extent and mechanisms of blasthole deviation. Drilling accuracy can well be regarded as perhaps the single greatest "controllable" factor influencing dilution in INCO's open sloping operations. As INCO and other underground mines seek to minimize dilution, while attempting to maximize productivity, issues of drilling accuracy become increasingly significant. It is important therefore, that means exist by which true blasthole trajectories can be determined, so that if needed, modifications to hole loading instructions or redrilling of holes can be ordered, thus avoiding poor blast results.

Jan 1, 1991

Erosion of unprotected batters, spoil banks, slopes, and stockpiled material creates a multitude of environmental problems. Winds blowing across these denuded surfaces can generate dust clouds capable of depositing un- desirable particulate material a considerable distance from the source. Water eroding these areas continually exposes new surfaces which may be oxidized. Iron pyrites can be dissolved in the flowing water, resulting in the addition of pollutants to streams and water sources. Silting of water sources can also occur as a result of this erosion. Valuable topsoil can be blown or washed away. In addition, the after-effects of erosion leave a visual pollution which is more difficult and expensive to correct than to prevent.

Jan 1, 1976

This paper presents a summary of tools and methods used for geotechnical assessments and monitoring systems at block caving mines. A critical review of these tools is given based on the authorÆs experience in block caving operations. The reviewed tools include cavability prediction, fragmentation evaluation, geotechnical monitoring systems, numerical stress analysis and others. Some of these tools have been developed under certain circumstances in particular mines and experience shows that their applications under different geological and mining conditions have often been difficult. Examples from block cave mines are also utilised in this paper to illustrate the importance of the further development of these tools, whilst possible improvements on these tools are also suggested.

Jan 1, 2000

By L. S. Leal Filho, L. A. F. Barros, S. M. Assis

Zeta potential determinations and microflotation tests (with starch, sodium oleate and flotigan EDA-B) versus pH, pCa and pMg were performed with apatite and typical silicate minerals that occur in Brazilian phosphate ores: schorlomite, diopside, quartz and micas. Unlike quartz and micas, schorlomite and diopside were depressed by cornstarch during anionic flotation with sodium oleate (pH 1 9). The selectivity of the separation apatite/quartz and apatite/micas by flotation with sodium oleate was adversely affected by the presence of calcium (pCa) and magnesium (pMg) in flotation pulp. Solubility/cation exchange capacity of micas is an important source of dissolved calcium and magnesium in the system.

Jan 1, 2002

By L. Torres, C. S. R. Rondestvedt, M. Bustos

In February 2010, Teck’s newest Concentrator at Mina Carmen de Andacollo (CDA), Andacollo, Chile was commissioned. The Concentrator is a single line configuration, comprising of one 36 ft diameter x 20 ft long SAG mill driven by an 18,000 hp gearless drive. The SAG mill feeds two ball mills each 25 ft in diameter x 40.5 ft long, each driven by a total of 19,000 hp through dual pinion drives. A series of four phases will be reviewed from operational readiness, mechanical completion, commissioning, and ramp-up. Also, now after 6 months of operation, this paper will review the significant steps taken during ramp-up enabling the announcement of commercial production, in October 2010.

Jan 1, 2012

By Colin Fink

TANTALUM and columbium occur together in tantalite and columbite ores, which may be considered as ferrotantalate (FeTa206), with part of the iron and tantalum replaced by manganese and columbium respectively, the general formula, therefore, becoming (Fe, Mn)O.(Ta, Cb)205. The ratio of tantalum to columbium is not fixed; the amount of tantalum may vary from one-third to three times that of columbium. Minerals having a high content of tantalum are called tantalite, while those possessing larger amounts of columbium are classified as columbite ores. These minerals are found in pegmatites and often occur in veins associated with cassiterite and wolframite, and may contain small amounts of tin, tungsten, titanium and silica.1

Jan 1, 1931