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By Randy McMeekin, Chris Twigge-Molecey, J. Peter Blake

The business objectives of a metallurgical project determine targets and constraints, such as the range of products, production capacities, in-service dates, and capital and operating cost parameters. Permitting is usually left to the project team, as are decisions regarding site location, technology, and construction approach. Success requires an orderly methodology, represented in this book by front end loading (FEL) phases: FEL1 examines several alternative approaches; FEL2 ranks and eliminates less economically or technically attractive options; and FEL3 develops the preferred option to the point of major permit completion, with defined scope, schedule, and cost to submit for approval to proceed with implementation in FEL4. Working through FEL1, FEL2, and FEL3, the project definition improves, estimates become more accurate, and project risks are reduced. The project design basis at the end of FEL3 is the control document for project implementation in FEL4.

Jan 1, 2015

By C. H. Stephenson, Z. White

This paper presents the design approach case study for incorporating a Technogrid® conveyance End-of-wind arresting system within the new South32 Hermosa headframe. Focus is placed on energy absorption requirements, structural integration, and mounting details tailored to the geometry and operational constraints of the headframe. Key considerations include arresting forces, load path continuity, and connection design to ensure reliability and maintainability. The paper also discusses coordination with other headframe systems and the iterative design process used to meet safety standards and client objectives.

Feb 22, 2026

By T. Plikas, L. Gunnewiek

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was used to evaluate the performance and optimize the design of a potroom ventilation system in an aluminium smelter facility. The ventilation system must ensure the inflow of fresh air to the workplace by natural draft and the removal of heat and hazardous emissions generated from the pot cell process. A full-scale, three dimensional CFD model of the potroom was developed to predict the air temperature distribution and contaminant concentrations throughout the potroom for the purpose of verifying that the industrial workplace hygiene standards will be met by the proposed ventilation system design. The modeling work was used to optimize the size of the floor gratings around the pot cell and roof ventilator, as well as determine damper settings in the roof ventilator. The effects of outside air temperature and external wind on the performance of the ventilation system was evaluated to ensure the design performs adequately in response to seasonal variations in climatological conditions.

Jan 1, 2006

By A. F. Saavedra, N. E. Richards, C. J. McMinn

"The aluminum industry in general and Reynolds Metals Company in particular have continued to support development work for improvement of the Hall cell design and for alternative processes for the reduction of alumina. The evolution of the Hall cell design will continue into the next century as a result of further development of mathematical models, sophisticated control systems and new materials for cell components. This paper discusses the areas in which the new generation cell advances will differ from the present day design. Additionally, Reynolds Metal s has supported work for the development of a carbo thermic process to reduce alumina. Theoretical work has indicated that this process could possibly have economic advantage over the Hall process. Several complicated furnace configurations have been proposed to provide the conditions for successfully reducing alumina. The results of small pilot scale operation and most promising furnace design are discussed. For comparison, projected capital investment costs and operation costs are discussed. IntroductionThe evolution of the Hall-Heroult process will continue into the next century. This evolution will be influenced by economics, more .restrictive environment and worker protection requirements, and technological development. These factors will also cause changes in the competitive position of alternate processes for aluminum production.Several aluminum producers have made major investments in alternate processes for aluminum production in the past three decades and there is continued support in some companies for improvements in the Hall-Heroult process and for alternate processes. The more visible development work in reduction technology, not aimed at significant process changes, is in the areas of higher amperage cells with bus bar designs to reduce harmful magnetic effects, more advanced and automated feed, voltage and electrolyte composition control, improved energy efficiency and sol id waste disposal . Efforts to bring significant change to the reduction process are being made in development of materials that can function as inert anodes and cathodes. These materials could lead to the development of reduction cells with multiple bipolar electrodes operating on oxide feed and fluoride electrolytes. Development work on new processes was reduced in the last decade by several companies because of economic and technological realities. Reynolds Metals supported work on a carbothermic process to reduce alumina and produce commercial pure aluminum. This work progressed through small pilot plant operation, and resulted in development of furnace designs and operation regimes. This paper reviews how this and other technologies could influence the reduction of alumina beyond the year 2000."

Jan 1, 1988

By Jorge Luis Cáceres Córdova

Durante los procesos mineros, el comité ejecutivo gestiona decisiones -confiables y económicamente rentables- según la información requerida. En ese sentido, el presente texto señala una metodología que integra las herramientas de gestión donde se garantice la confiabilidad de los activos de forma sostenida que prevenga pérdidas de producción, se reduzca los costos operativos, se evita riesgos a la salud y medio ambiente y se establezca una política de sustento cuantitativo a pedidos, cambios, bajas, terciarizaciones, entre otros, en base al riesgo y beneficio.

Sep 1, 2015

By J. B. Littlefield

The term "konimeter" is used generally to designate a type of dust-sampling instrument that collects the dust from a small volume of air by impingement on a glass plate prepared aced with an adhesive film. The konimeter was first developed by Sir R. N. Kotze about 20 years ago and was followed a few years later by the circular-type konimeter, by which a number of samples may be collected on a glass disk. The present discussion will be confined to the circular type, as it is used most. Various techniques have been developed for using the konimeter, and many materials, such as petrolatum, mineral oil, and glycerine jelly, have been used in preparing the adhesive film. In South Africa, Australia, and Canada, where the konimeter has been employed most widely, dust samples are treated by ignition and washing before being counted. In Canada the dust samples are collected on a disk of special heat-resistant glass prepared with a film of mineral oil; the disk is then heated to a dull cherry-red in a muffle-furnace to remove the film and organic matter, cooled, and washed with a few drops of 50-percent hydrochloric acid followed by distilled water and alcohol, and then heated again to remove residue left by evaporation of the alcohol. After this treatment, the dust samples are counted under a magnification of 150 diameters with dark field illumination.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. E. Chaney

This report summarizes the research on the Strategic and Critical Materials Program tasks conducted at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) between Mdy 1983 and April 1984. The work is divided into two areas: 1. Production Technologies - Tasks directed at developing advanced extraction technologies ? Biologically-Assisted Minerals Processing ? Metal/Gas Reactions and Thermal Plasmas ? Dehydration of Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate. 2. Conservation/Substitution Technologies - Tasks directed toward establishing the technical processing base which will permit the use of advanced materials ? Joining of Rapidly Solidified Alloys (RSA) ? Joining of Silicon Nitride-Based Ceramics ? Nondestructive Evaluation of Ceramic and RSA Joints and Materials.

Jan 1, 1984

Construction workers may be exposed to hazardous dust containing silica when working in enclosed cabs during construction activities. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that equipment operator exposure could be reduced by retrofitting air pressurization and filtration systems on existing cabs, using sweeping compounds on soiled floors, and implementing a dust control program.

Jan 1, 2009

By Samuel E. Doak

The utilization of rotary kilns, of the well-known cement type, for the preparation of iron ores for the blast furnace, has become of considerable economic importance within the past 10 years in certain localities, notably those where the native ores are lean. Such kilns may be used simply for the agglomeration of ores too fine to be charged into the blast furnace (i.e., ores whose, loss in the dust catchers is excessive, and whose fineness is detrimental to the working of the furnace), or for the desulphurization of lump and fine ores the sulphur content of which does not exceed 6 or 7 per cent. The desulphurizing action can be combined with that of agglomeration provided the kiln is sufficiently large. Other processes have been developed for the same purpose, but while I am not able to draw a comparison between them by reason of lack of sufficient data, it is safe to say that the kiln, if properly dimensioned for the character of ore to be treated, will compare favorably in its results, both as to economy and quality of product, with any other process. It is not, however, as well adapted for the treatment of flue dust as is a sintering operation, on account of the large percentage of fine coke contained therein. Any combustible entering the kiln at its feed end renders the process very much more expensive and unsatisfactory on account of the difficulty of controlling the temperature, also because of the rapidity with which long "rings" form, due to the increased heat at the cooler end of the kiln. The greatest value of the kiln at present is in the treatment of pyrites cinder; that is, the residue from pyrites ore after the extraction of the greater part of the sulphur. This cinder, while high in iron content, has too much sulphur remaining in it to be allowed to form a large part of the blast-furnace burden, without further treatment. It will range in metallic iron from 42 per cent., representing a very low-grade cinder from a domestic pyrites, to 64 per cent. of the residue from the best Spanish ore, and the corresponding silica content will vary from the maximum of about 25 per cent. to 11/2 per cent. The residual sulphur depends largely on the type of burner used in the original desulphurization. In general, the leanest original ores retain the greatest amounts of sulphur. In modern practice the percentage of sulphur in the cinder is rarely as great as six, and seldom lower than one and one-half. Average analyses for iron, silica, and sulphur of the cinders that have come under my personal observation are as follows:

Jan 1, 1916

Precision surface mining is increasingly occupying a significant role in open pit mining. Improvements in technology now allow continuous surface mining of material well above 140 MPa (20 300 psi) efficiently and cost effectively when compared to drilling and blasting/primary crushing methods. These include the elimination of the use explosives and primary crushing, the ability to precisely extract the ore from the waste, or separate ores of varying chemistry and mine thin seams and non-homogenous orebodies cost effectively. In addition, precision surface mining extends the useful life of a mine by extending the mine boundaries. It can expand production capacity in existing mines and is particularly cost effective in greenfield start-up mines. Precision mining techniques result in higher percentage recoveries. This paper reviews several of these techniques for the Terrain Leveler« surface excavation machine (SEM), and shows their impact. Vermeer's current approach to precision surface mining is utilisation of the T1255 Terrain Leveler SEM. Several units have been proven in round-the-clock, seven day operations throughout the world. Among other innovations are design simplicity, stability, maneuverability, rear-mounted tilting drum and top-down cutting. The impact of these items are discussed in more detail in the paper. After a detailed analysis of the importance of machine availability on overall mine performance, Vermeer has extended its equipment line to include a direct-drive option for its T1255 Terrain Leveler SEM. In addition, improvements in dust suppression are presented. While the T1255 Terrain Leveler SEM is of optimum size and cost in small and medium sized mines, Vermeer has recognised that larger mines require larger machines with increased capacities. Vermeer will prototype the T1655 Terrain Leveler SEM later this year. Specifications of this machine and up-to-date preliminary results are presented. A discussion of the role of each machine size and driving mechanisms are included. Finally, the next stage in Vermeer's providing solutions to the surface mining community will be described - a continuous loader. The impact on current mine planning is presented using a detailed computer program developed for studying the impact of loading techniques and higher production rates on mine plan optimisation.

Dec 6, 2010

By James M. Griffin

It was not many years ago that people would have argued that a coal session did not belong at an International Mining Convention. Historically, steam coal has always been used domestically due to its natural geographic diversity and high transportation expense. Times have changed. With the help of Opec, steam coal has gone international. As opposed to metallurgical coal, whose trade routes have a long history, whose supply sources are more limited and whose market growth is seen by most to be relatively flat, steam coal export forecasts are calling for more than a doubling by 1990 and a quadrupling by the year 2000. Suddenly, one must be familiar with coal mining on a global basis in order to predict which regions will be able to fill these markets.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. R. Hammond, I. C. Herbert

Report of discussion at October, 1970, IMM general meeting (Chairman: M. J. Cahalan, President) and contributed remarks on the paper published in Transactions/Section C (Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy), vol. 79, June, 1970, pp. C128-36 and introduced by I.C. Herbert. Contributors were von Struve G., on the application of balling discs and the use of basic additives; Young P.A., asking for details of the drying, grinding, balling, induration and specification testing equipment and processes; Davison J. on pellet swelling properties and Carter G.C. on disc operation, refractories and green ball properties.

Dec 1, 1971

By Andrukaitis. E.

The increasing use of electronic equipment by the Canadian Forces has increased the importance of electric power. A power source that is packed with energy and yet light, small and durable is the common request of military users. However, this needs to be achieved while also addressing the requirements of safety, reliability and low temperature performance. The potential use of fuel cells in a military environment has become a possibility in several areas in the 21st century. Some examples of power source requirements and the materials related R&D required to give better, higher energy power systems in the future will be discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By Cailing Zhen, Jian Pan, Deqing Zhu, Xianlin Zhou, Yanhong Luo, Guixiang Huang

The grate-kiln process has been widely applied for oxide pellet production with the quick development of steel industry in China, but ring formation takes place which adversely affects the productivity and properties of fired pellets. Rotary kiln at high temperature seems a black box, and ring formation is difficult to measure directly by current technology. It’s of great importance to monitor ring formation during firing of pellets. Therefore, a method for estimating the thickness of ring formation in rotary kilns was studied, based on working out theoretically the relationship between ring thickness and the outside surface of the kiln, according to steady-state heat transfer across a cylinder, which provides a soft-sensing technique for ring formation at high temperature, and achieves stable pellet production .

Jan 1, 2015

By Oliver Bowles

In its geologic sense the term marble is applied to rocks consisting of crystallized grains of calcite or dolomite or a mixture of the two. Although limestone has the same chemical composition as marble it differs in that the component particles of calcium or magnesium car- bonates are granular and noncrystalline. In marble the crystals may be intimately intergrown, whereas limestone is an aggregation of unrelated particles cemented together into a solid mass. In its commercial sense the term marble has a much wider applica- tion. As susceptibility to polish is one of its chief commercial assets, all calcareous rocks capable of polish are classed as marbles. Lime- stones that show little crystalline structure may, if they take a good polish, be classed as marbles. Furthermore, serpentine rocks, even if they contain little calcium or magnesium carbonate, are classed as marbles, as they are commercial substitutes of true marbles.

Jan 1, 1916

By Frances H. Clark

IN wartime, the fabrication and use of metals assumes increased importance, for a modern war of sizable proportions cannot be undertaken with- out a vast supply of this material. Light alloys of aluminum and magnesium, which were comparatively unknown in the last war, will play an important role in this one. Due to research on a vast scale in the interim of years, industry is today well equipped to fabricate metals on an enormous scale. Research for the past year has been most productive and a comprehensive survey in the space of this article would be impossible. It is hoped that the stressing of a few items here and there out of a great quantity of able work will indicate in a small way the advances made within recent times. Specific references to the literature will be omitted at the Editor's re- quest but some authors of papers that I have found of special interest are mentioned.

Jan 1, 1940

By Patricio Barrios

The Rio Tinto Metal (RTMetal) copper smelter, located 5 Km from Huelva, Spain, began operations in 1970. Since then a series of expansions and modifications have allowed a progressive increase in copper production. Environmental considerations having become increasingly important, environmental protection has come to represent an important aspect of the investments in production. As a result, modifications have been carried out in the two existing acid plants: -Modification of the RTM I gas cleaning section to closed circuit. -Substitution of cascade filters and acid lines. -Modification of the RTM I plant to double absorption. The Expansion and Environmental Improvement Project, completed end 1995, will allow 270,000 t Cu and 800,000 t H2SO4 to be produced yearly, at the same time achieving a decrease in specific and overall emissions. RTMetal's goal is to be an efficient smelter, with the avowed intention of respecting the environment and adopting the best available technologies.

Jan 1, 1996

By S. Frimpong, E. Siami-Irdemoosa, S. R. Dindarloo

"Electric and hydraulic shovels are the dominant loading machinery in surface mining operations. Despite their critical role in production and their high capital and operating costs, no reliable and comprehensive quantitative performance metric is available. In this paper, a stochastic shovel effectiveness (SSE) measure is proposed for the purpose of quantifying the performance effectiveness of these shovels. The SSE is based on the widely used method of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) in the manufacturing industry. The OEE measures the performance effectiveness of equipment by multiplying its mechanical availability, utilization and production quality. In manufacturing processes, quality rate is the ratio of the total number of products minus the number of defective products – equivalent to the number of acceptable products – to the total number of products. The SSE similarly uses the mechanical-availability and utilization terms, but instead of quality rate it uses a new parameter named bucket rate.The variability or randomness of the input data, that is, availability, utilization and bucket rate, are further incorporated into the SSE, and a final stochastic SSE distribution is derived in the form of a probability density function. One hydraulic and one electric shovel in a surface mining operation were selected to test the validity of the proposed method. The SSE scores for the two shovels, operating continuously for one year, were derived and compared. As with the OEE, the three-parameter SSE method yielded more representative results for overall performance measurement than a single-parameter approach. Using Monte Carlo simulation, a three-parameter Weibull and a normal distribution were derived for quantifying the overall effectiveness of hydraulic and electric shovels, respectively. As a decision aid, the proposed methodology promises to render a more informative tool than traditional metrics for mine equipment maintenance and management."

Jan 1, 2015

By W. L. Falconer

"IntroductionThe very recent emphasis on the importance of the northern portions of the Alberta basin as a prospective oil province has led the oil companies northward into new and undeveloped territory. Northern Alberta is a land of continuous forest, covering a plains-type topography. The plains are only occasionally broken by sharp, broad river valleys. Tributary streams head up quickly and very soon lose themselves in large undrained areas. It is these pseudo-swamps that cause most of the troubles and headaches of the oil explorer.The rivers have served as the main transportation arteries since people first ventured into this area. The bush is being pushed back, but the advance is slow and there is very little more than trappers' trails beyond a few miles from the Northern Alberta Railway lines and the recently built Grimshaw or McKenzie Highway. Indeed, bush and muskeg flank many miles of the railways and roads within as close a distance as fifty miles of Edmonton. Northern Alberta is pioneer country in the truest sense of the word, and our greatest problems derive from this fact. In all pioneer areas, the first requirement is the development of access roads, and before active oil exploraton can get down to the job at hand these roads and trails must be an accomplished fact. There are two factors in Northern Alberta which offer discouragement to the oil explorer: the first and greatest stumbling block is presented by the numerous muskegs, large and small; the second is the fact that road building uses up so much of reservation time. Of course, the second is aggravated by, and a direct result of, the first. So we come back to the main problem facing the development of the north - the muskegs."

Jan 1, 1950

By Rejean Gagnon, Fernand Rochefort

"Haulage costs, in most operations, represent a large portion of total cost. Quebec Cartier Mining Company came to the conclusion t hat an electric trolley assist providing more horsepower than available from dieselgenerator sets presented the best oppor tunity for improvement. Accordingly, a testing and development program was carried out which resulted in the design, installat ion and application of a practical system. This paper describes the development of the system, the equipment used as well as the actual operation. A projection is also made to indicate further improvement in productivity. A comparison is made of truck operating data before and after activation of the trolley assist system in order to determine its economic impact."

Jan 1, 1972