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By O&apos, M. M. Fine, K. G. Meara

One of the principal activities of the Bureau of Mines connected with the recent war was to help to increase the supply of strategic and critical minerals. Fluorite was one of the most critical of the nonmetallic minerals because of the increased demand for it as a flux in basic open-hearth and electric steel furnaces and as a raw material for the production of artificial cryolite used in the aluminum industry. Wartime developments in the technology of hydrofluoric acid, such as the use of the anhydrous acid as a catalyst in production of high-octane gasoline and the use of organic fluorides as carriers for insecticides, also increased the demand for acid-grade fluorite.f In 1943 the consumption of acid-grade fluorite was advancing at a more rapid rate than production, and was only slightly less than production during the latter half of the year.' The outlook for the postwar market for fluorite is encouraging. Steel production is expected to remain high until the domestic demand for commodities not manufactured during the war is satisfied. The uses for hydrofluoric acid are expected to increase under the impetus of war-initiated research. In considerbtion of these and other factors some authorities predict a postwar demand for fluorite equal to about 60 to 75 per cent of the wartime production.1,2 Others believe that the postwar fluorite industry will be permanently expanded over its prewar status.3 Acknowledgment This paper is one of many reporting on various aspects of the Bureau of Mines program directed toward the more effective utilization of our mineral resources. The program has been under the general supervision of R. S. Dean, Assistant Director, since July 1942. The scope of the paper falls in the province of the Metallurgical Branch, whose activities embrace the separation of difficultly beneficiated ores, the production of pure metals from domestic deposits, the exploitation of marginal orc reserves, the recovery of secondary metals, and the improvement of present industrial metallurgical practice. The investigation was initiated at the request of Mr. J. H. Steinmesch, vice-president and general manager, Minerva Oil Co., Eldorado, Ill. His hearty cooperation and helpful suggestions, and those of Mr. 0. E. Anderson, mill superintendent,

Jan 1, 1948

By K. G. Meara, M. M. Fine, O&apos

One of the principal activities of the Bureau of Mines connected with the recent war was to help to increase the supply of strategic and critical minerals. Fluorite was one of the most critical of the nonmetallic minerals because of the increased demand for it as a flux in basic open-hearth and electric steel furnaces and as a raw material for the production of artificial cryolite used in the aluminum industry. Wartime developments in the technology of hydrofluoric acid, such as the use of the anhydrous acid as a catalyst in production of high-octane gasoline and the use of organic fluorides as carriers for insecticides, also increased the demand for acid-grade fluorite.f In 1943 the consumption of acid-grade fluorite was advancing at a more rapid rate than production, and was only slightly less than production during the latter half of the year.' The outlook for the postwar market for fluorite is encouraging. Steel production is expected to remain high until the domestic demand for commodities not manufactured during the war is satisfied. The uses for hydrofluoric acid are expected to increase under the impetus of war-initiated research. In considerbtion of these and other factors some authorities predict a postwar demand for fluorite equal to about 60 to 75 per cent of the wartime production.1,2 Others believe that the postwar fluorite industry will be permanently expanded over its prewar status.3 Acknowledgment This paper is one of many reporting on various aspects of the Bureau of Mines program directed toward the more effective utilization of our mineral resources. The program has been under the general supervision of R. S. Dean, Assistant Director, since July 1942. The scope of the paper falls in the province of the Metallurgical Branch, whose activities embrace the separation of difficultly beneficiated ores, the production of pure metals from domestic deposits, the exploitation of marginal orc reserves, the recovery of secondary metals, and the improvement of present industrial metallurgical practice. The investigation was initiated at the request of Mr. J. H. Steinmesch, vice-president and general manager, Minerva Oil Co., Eldorado, Ill. His hearty cooperation and helpful suggestions, and those of Mr. 0. E. Anderson, mill superintendent,

Jan 1, 1948

By Tassos Grammatikopoulos, Gary Pearse, Massoud Aghamirian, Charlotte Forstner, Stephen Mackie

"SGS Minerals Services (Lakefield, Ontario site) has conducted a number of developmental and pilot programs that examined methods for the beneficiation, extraction and recovery of lithium from a variety of spodumene containing hard rock sources. An overview of the beneficiation programs is presented separately by Aghamirian, Mohns, Grammatikopoulos, Imeson & Pearse (2011). The focus of this discussion will be the hydrometallurgical steps involved in producing a high grade lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) sample from the spodumene concentrate. SGS has applied the standard Li2CO3 hydrometallurgical flow sheet to a number of spodumene concentrates and has determined that all of these samples respond in a similar manner to the process and produce a final product having a Li2CO3 grade of >99.5%. The standard process is sufficiently robust to accommodate the observed variability in the concentrates that have been tested. Advantage of one spodumene deposit over another will thus be gained through process optimization and innovation. Optimization at the beneficiation stage and at the hydrometallurgical stage must be considered. Some aspects of the process optimization of the hydrometallurgical flow sheet will be presented.INTRODUCTION The current activity in the exploration, development, and mining of lithium based minerals is due in large part to the key role that this metal plays in the rechargeable battery industry (U.S. Geological Survey, 2011). Lithium battery technologies are widely applied in a range of portable electronic consumer products. The expanding development and production of hybrid and fully electric vehicles has contributed to the increased interest in finding and developing new lithium sources in order to meet the expected demand from the lithium battery industry. Lithium may be sourced from continental brines (sub-surface salars), hard rock minerals (pegmatite, spodumene), hectorite clay deposits, geothermal brines and oilfield brines. Currently the majority of the lithium products are produced from Li brines. The four major lithium producing countries are Chile, Australia, China, and Argentina (U.S. Geological Survey, 2009; Roskill, 2009). These countries accounted for 97.6% of the total lithium produced in 2010."

Jan 1, 2012

By W. G. Campbell

"The region discussed comprises approximately eight million acres spreading across the Arctic Circle in Yukon and North West Territories.Encouraged by four years of surface geological and geophysical work, which strongly suggested that suit-able conditions existed for the entrapment of oil and gas, a decision was reached to drill. In due course two holes were drilled; Eagle Plains No. 1 drilled to 9589 in 1957-8 and Western Minerals Chance No. 1 spudded in 1959 is being deepened this year.Thick sections of sedimentary rocks occur on both sides of the Richardson Mountains, however, most of our activities have been concentrated to date on the west side in the Eagle Plains basin. Here are found stratigraphic units ranging from Precambrian to Tertiary age. The drilling of the two exploratory wells proved the presence of these strata at depth and have confirmed the presence of promising structures. A geological cross-section across Eagle Plains presents an interpretation of these conditions.Physical and engineering aspects of exploration in the northern Yukon and North West Territories are de-pendent largely upon seasons and transportation. Reconnaissance gravity and surface geologic mapping by air presents no serious problems. However, seismic operations on the ground are greatly affected by the season, presence of permafrost and mobility of equipment.The actual drilling of the hole may well be the simple part of a wildcat undertaking once equipment and supplies are on location. Over-all planning, assembling supplies, transporting equipment and personnel seems to be the real job. Serious consideration must be given to per-ma-frost effect in the drilling pro-gram and on surface installations as well.Programming for -the various exploration activities should be under-taken well in advance of the actual doing. Considerable extra costs may be the results of crash programs. Costs are high, and the rewards uncertain. Economic evaluation is based •on the long term outlook."

Jan 1, 1960

By J. L. Johnson

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, investigated recovery of concentrates containing tin, tantalum, and niobium from the Kougarok deposit on the Seward Peninsula, AK. To date, 25 million lb of tin has been delineated in occurrences containing 0.36 to 1.32 pct Sn, and the resource potential is estimated to be as high as 25 million short tons at average grades of 0.75 pct Sn, 0.025 pct Ta, and 0,025 pct Nb. Deslimed ore was concentrated to 54 pct Sn, 0.3 pct Ta, and 0.3 pct Nb, with recoveries of 74 pct Sn and 44 pct Ta/Nb using a Humphrey's* spiral followed by a Deister shaking table. Tin values in the slimes were upgraded to a 5-pct-Sn concentrate using a Bartles-Mozley separator followed by flotation. The 5- pct-Sn was further upgraded by fuming to give a concentrate containing approximately 60 pct Sn. The recovery of the two products combined was 80 pct Sn and 46 pct Ta/Nb, A flowsheet with mill-design parameters resulted from the metallurgical testing. An economic analysis was made based on the proposed process.

Jan 1, 1990

By W. H. Bassett

W H. BASSETT was elected first vice-president at . the executive session of the new Board on Tues- day afternoon. Karl Eilers, H. Foster Bain, Thomas T. Read, and H. A. Maloney were respectively re-elected as treasurer, secretary, assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. The new Executive Committee will consist of W. H. Bassett, Chairman, and Richard Peters, Jr., H. C. Bellinger, E. De Golyer, Edgar Rickard. The Finance Committee will be J. V. W. Reynders, Chair- man, Henry Krumb and H. G. Moulton. George D. Barron was reappointed Chairman of the Admissions Committee, and F. Julius Fohs put in charge of the Papers and Publications Committee.

Jan 1, 1929

By Padmavathy Mahadevan, Samir Chefai, Eduard Guerra

"Electrocoagulation is a technique for treating wastewater streams from metallurgical plants whereby electrodes are corroded to generate gases (most notably oxygen at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode) and solid particulates which acts as substrates for coprecipitation of impurities. The performance of electrocoagulation reactors, in terms of their efficiency for removing a particular impurity, is highly dependent on several factors, most notably: the nature of the electrodes, the spacing between electrodes, the current density, the height of the electrodes, the solution flow rate, and application of periodic current reversal. Because these variables have complex interactions, in order to ensure reliable scale-up of laboratory results, experiments should be conducted under conditions that closely match those that would be employed at an industrial scale. To that end, this article describes the design and commissioning of a versatile laboratory scale electrocoagulation reactor that allows for the control of all the aforementioned variables along with the ability to measure the instantaneous spatial distribution of current within the reactor.IntroductionArsenic is often removed from metallurgical waste streams in stirred tank reactors by coprecipitating it with ferric ions as an arsenical ferrihydrite [ 1]. Electrocoagulation is an electrolytic technology that can accomplish the same task, but has not yet been widely adopted to treat metallurgical waste streams [2]. The electrocoagulation process involves the use of an external DC power supply to drive the dissolution of a relatively non-toxic metal into the wastewater stream, usually either iron or aluminum, which then largely precipitates as oxyhydroxide phases that adsorb undesired impurities [l]. At the anode, the metal is dissolved and oxygen is often evolved, lowering the local pH and enhancing metal ion solubility."

Jan 1, 2012

By Edward H. Robie

OF the current Adirondack iron mine development, the Benson Mines operation of the Tones and Laughlin Ore Co. (Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. wholly owned subsidiary) is the last to go into operation. Following an active construction program in 1943, the mine. concentrator and sintering plant were scheduled to enter production in the fall. This description therefore cannot include any operating data, and details of equipment and flowsheet have not as yet been released.

Jan 1, 1943

By Brian W. Wilson

A case study is presented that describes the design and implementation of a combined blast densification and deep dynamic compaction program which was undertaken to improve the foundation soils for a proposed tailings dam raise in Ontario, Canada. Based on the results of the geotechnical investigation it was determined that the foundation of the dam would be situated on tailings of both variable thickness and density, much of which would be susceptible to liquefaction under the design earthquake for the region and type of facility. Blast densification trials were completed by the owner and the results of these made available to prospective tenderers in response to a call for a fixed price contract for the design and implementation of a densification program for approximately 800,000 m3 of foundation tailings. The variation in tailings gradation and the impacts of such on the ground improvement program are discussed, as are details of both the additional blast densification field trials completed by the contractor, and the selected blast pattern and explosive charging used for production blasting. The applicability of the various ground improvement techniques to the actual conditions encountered, and the results obtained are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2010

By R. W. Ruddle

The advent of new methods of roasting, “flash roasting and fluidisation”, which are now under development, combined with the use of oxygen-enriched air, may markedly increase the SO2 content of roaster smokes. Skogmo suggests that the production of smokes containing as much as 50 per cent SO2 should be feasible. The use of flash smelting processes may well enable a similar increase in the SO2 content of smelter smokes to be made. In this event the recovery of sulphur would be greatly cheapened and the process might well be much more economic, even if allowance is made for the cost of generating the oxygen

Jan 1, 1953

By Gilles Recher, Jörg Riechers, Albert Lueghamer

"INTRODUCTIONIn view of a global trend towards urbanization, more and more trunk sewers and combined sewer overflow tunnels (CSO) with medium to large diameters and the corresponding link sewers are currently built and under design. Shielded tunnel boring machines using segmental lining as tunnel support represent an efficient solution for construction of new wastewater and supply tunnels. Especially in the field of sewers, the durability of concrete structures both exposed to any groundwater present on its exterior and to aggressive waste water as well as gases on its interior is a key requirement. Despite thorough research on segmental lining and mechanized tunneling machinery, conventional thermoplastic liners show comparatively minimal progress in terms of practical advancements. This is in contrast with the development of the latest segment embedded high density polyethylene (HDPE) system. Based on experiences achieved, this paper discusses the latest development of an integral protective lining system in respect of material characteristics and its adaptability to both project and customers’ demands. Reviewed performances, as the bondage behavior of the embedded HDPE system at axial stress loads due to acting thrust cylinders during ring build as well as the ability to drain pressurized water behind the embedded membrane, tested at full scale segments, are also presented. The paper is round off by presenting first details of sewer projects endeavoring to utilize this cutting-edge solution for an integral concrete protection, which will be commenced beginning of 2016.CASE HISTORIES ENCOURAGE ADVANCEMENTS Past experience has shown that unprotected concrete surfaces as well as chemical based linings such as coatings, sprayed linings and cured in-place-systems cannot reach the desired life times. Also the fact that in deep tunnel sewer system hardly maintenance is possible, a durable and maintenance free system is required which only can be reached by applying mechanical anchored HDPE (CPL)."

Jan 1, 2016

By G. R. Brough

"Today it is more important than ever to get the maximum possible return on capital invested in the processing industry. To this end the plant is often operated continuously and the choice of equipment is, consequently, extremely important.Screening spans a wide range of particle sizes and there are many different types of screening elements. The following types are common:1. Cloths and elements of rubber.2. Wire mesh screens with round wires.3. Wire mesh screens with profiled wires.4. Perforated steel plates.5. Elements of plastic.6. Gratings of steel beams.7. Gratings of iron rods.We would like to deal with two of these types namely rubber and briefly on plastics.We first introduced rubber screens to the Canadian Mining Industry in November, 1963. This stemmed from a conversation with the superintendant of one of Canada's largest screening plants containing 48 vibrating screens, with an average wire cloth life of 10 to 12 days. We contacted the manufacturer of rubber screen cloths who had supplied rubber screens to a mine in Northern Sweden for a 50,000 ton per day plant in 1951."

Jan 1, 1983

By H. Guo

There are a number of methods available for the determination of the fracture toughness of rock. Some of the most recognised methods include the hollow pressured cylinder, the short-rod, the chevron - edge-notched round bar in bending and the disc-shaped compact specimen. Most of these tests are difficult and expensive to conduct. In this paper the simple Brazilian testing of discs for tensile strength has been used to determine their fracture toughness. Tests were conducted on six different rock types and the values of the fracture toughness obtained for each type are in close agreement with the results of the well recognised the chevron edged types. Details of the tests, and analytical validation of the technique, are presented

Jan 1, 1992

By H. Sevim

An innovative approach in designing the haulage systems for underground coal mines is discussed in this paper. The haulage systems are formed by serially connected components. Therefore an economic and efficient design of the entire system is necessary. The computer model that uses a heuristic algorithm solves this design problem globally in a single run. It is a probabilistic model because it considers the probabilistic aspects of face operations. It is versatile because it can accommodate any type of mining and belt conveyor network configuration. The hoisting section can be used to design drum or friction hoisting systems for single or multiple level operations. These systems can have two skips in balance or a skip and a counterweight in balance. The model also has the option to internally determine the capacity of bunker(s) and shaft-bottom bin. The objective is to minimize the expected cost per ton of coal hauled from the coal faces to the surface. At the end of the paper is an example that illustrated the capabilities of the model.

Jan 1, 1987

By Richard F. Roethe

Surface coal mining productivity in the U.S. and Illinois has shown a general declining trend since 1969. The U.S. Department of Energy conducted an analysis in 1980 of the causes of declining productivity in different states. This paper presents a detailed analysis of changes in overall productivity and productivity in different functions such as overburden preparation, overburden stripping, reclamation, coal handling, etc. during the period 1970-1982. Statistical analysys techniques including multiple regression were utilized in the study.

Jan 1, 1983

By R. W. Raymond

I DESIRE to call the attention of the Institute briefly, and by no means in the way of an exhaustive description, to the interesting developments recently made on the east bank of the Hudson River, in the mining of spathic iron ores. The mines to which I refer are those of the Hudson River Spathic Iron Ore Company, situated at Oakhill on Hudson, Columbia County, N. Y., five or six miles from the city of Hudson, and opposite the town of Catskill. The ore occurs in beds, constituting apparently members of the stratified series of rocks on that side of the river, coursing nearly north and south, parallel with the river, and dipping east. The principal out- crops are presented in a range of low hills, about one mile from the river, along the crest, on the western face of which the stratum of spathic ore is more or less exposed. The length of the line in this range, along which, at various openings the ore has been discovered in profitable quantity, is about two miles. To the northward, the hills are somewhat higher, and the stratification may possibly be disturbed, though the rapid examination of the locality which I made in November last did not, include any determination of this

Jan 1, 1876

By R. W. Raymond

I DESIRE to call the attention of the Institute briefly, and by no means in the way of an exhaustive description, to the interesting developments recently made on the east bank of the Hudson River, in the mining of spathic iron ores. The mines to which I refer are those of the Hudson River Spathic Iron Ore Company, situated at Oakhill on Hudson, Columbia County, N. Y., five or six miles from the city of Hudson, and opposite the town of Catskill. The ore occurs in beds, constituting apparently members of the stratified series of rocks on that side of the river, coursing nearly north and south, parallel with the river, and dipping east. The principal outcrops are presented in a range of low hills, about one mile from the river, along the crest, on the western face of which the stratum of spathic ore is more or less exposed. The length of the line in this range, along which, at various openings the ore has been discovered in profitable quantity, is about two miles. To the northward, the hills are somewhat higher, and the stratification may possibly be disturbed, though the rapid examination of the locality which I made in November last did not, include any determination of this

By Harvey L. Pastan

The purpose of the investigation and analysis described in this report is to assess the data flow requirements that are required for remote supervisory control of a continuous mining system. Since these control concepts as applied to continuous underground mining are still in a formative stage at the present time during the first half of 1975, assumptions had to be made based upon engineering judgment as to what embodiment of mining machinery and control methodology seemed most feasible for achieving such a system. Based upon these assumptions and estimates of the control system's accuracy and response requirements, it was then possible to estimate the communication requirements for the assumed system configuration. 2. Approach The team members responsible for this study visited numerous coal mines to observe room and pillar mining operations in both high and low coal. The objective was to observe the methods of operating a variety of continuous mining machinery and haulage equipment with a view toward defining the problems to be overcome in the application of automation to the coal extraction process. Descriptive information concerning the mining equipment was obtained through contacts with the manufacturers. Conferences with Bureau of Mines personnel, equipment manufacturers and developers, and mine operators were held to explore the current thinking and developments being pursued toward automation and increasing both production and productivity.

Jan 1, 1975

By K. Ilankoon, I. M. Saman, S. J. Neethling

In heap leaching the transport of the acid from the drippers to the surface of the ore particles is a major factor in the overall performance of a heap. This flow behaviour is complex as the flow is unsaturated and occurs along a tortuous set of inter-particle channels and connections. The particle properties such as size, shape and porosity are very important when modelling the liquid holdup and flow within heaps, since the dominant mechanisms at work are quite different. This paper investigates the effect of these particle properties experimentally on heap flow behaviour using a 1-D column leaching system consisting of non-porous glass beads with a system of actual ore particles. The similarities and differences between the two systems on flow behaviour are described using an inter-particle flow model. In addition, the applicability of positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) for laboratory column leaching will be detailed to calculate hydrodynamic dispersion in packed beds compared to more conventional residence time distribution (RTD) tests and also to obtain the time averaged rivulet flow paths through the particles of the bed for the better understanding of heap hydrodynamics.

Jan 1, 2014

By Roger J. Berdusco

Kaiser Resources Ltd. owns and operates a 5-million-tonper- year open-pit and hydraulic coal mine near Sparwood in southeastern British Columbia. Since 1969, Kaiser has maintained a field-scale reclamation program dedicated to the reclamation of disturbances associated with past and present mining and exploration activities . Since that time, over 1400 acres have been treated using modified forestry and agricultural techniques with encouraging results.

Jan 1, 1978