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By Chas. E. Shumate

There is assembled here this morning in Chicago the heartland of America, what is undoubtedly the greatest concentration of Technical, Scientific and "CAN DO" knowledge ever assembled in America. The participation in this Conference by the representatives of so many nations is particularly impressive and is a further indication of the importance of the subject matter of this conference which you will be discussing in much detail during the next few days. Another impressive feature of this Conference is the participation of a large segment of the construction industry in whose hands fall the job of building what others design. Also strongly represented is the manufacturing industry whose capability is well known throughout the world. They have the resources to design, develop and manufacture the machines and specialized equipment needed to do any job which the world requires. You should not expect to gain any knowledge from my few remarks this morning as I am undoubtedly the least qualified individual in this room on the highly technical and scientific subjects you will be discussing during these next few days. However, I shall offer a few broad suggestions on subject matter which I trust may generate serious thought during your discussions.

Jan 1, 1997

By Ralph A. MacMillan

Electronic systems introduced for haulage equipment in recent years probably exceed what mine management is prepared to use. Haulpak trucks alone are equipped with General Electric's Statex III drive system controls, Detroit Diesel's DDEC, Cummins' Centry engine management system and the Haulpak Management System (HMS). The future holds promising developments of even more sophisticated electronics that will lead to unmanned truck operation and control. Trolley-assist will finally come into its own due to the importance of environmental issues, as well as the high potential for increased productivity with dramatically lowerfuel consumption. All of these high technology systems do not mean much unless they add value to mining operations. Some of the benefits that can be expected from these systems are reviewed. In the near future, haul truck control and monitoring systems will be fully linked by telemetry to a mine's dispatch system, as well as to its maintenance management information system. The manufacturer and distributor can also be kept in the communications loop, so that they can better serve customer needs. Portable computers will allow technicians to talk to machine systems to quickly locate a problem, look up service information, check what parts are required and electronically order them.

Jan 1, 1994

By Bryan Bet

Retaining wall systems of soldier pile ground anchors (SPGAs) have been used for many decades to stabilize landslide activity. Due to successful use of these walls to address slope instability on the California state highway system, their use has expanded to include larger, more complex landslide mitigations. The increase in size and scope of SPGA wall applications, combined with more stringent seismic design standards, have created new and unique challenges for design and construction. Constructability issues are revealing themselves in real time in Northern California, where the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently completed two large SPGA wall projects on state highways: the Peregrine Slide Project in inland Mendocino County, and the Westport Slide Complex located along coastal Highway 1. Each presented unique construction challenges that needed to be overcome quickly to make the projects successful. This article highlights some construction difficulties encountered on these projects, in greater depth, than what I covered last summer at DFI's S3: Slopes, Slides and Stabiliza- tion conference in San Francisco. Also covered are what steps were taken to overcome these difficulties, and mitigation advice for future wall designs. Specifically, ground anchor installation interference, ground anchor elongation variance, and difficulties with large diameter ground anchor drilled holes will be discussed.

Jul 1, 2022

By L. L. McDaniel

ROLLER—As one who has been privileged to read Mr. Poland's paper before its publication, I wish to express high praise for it and the record which it gives of the work done by the Research and Development Department of Revere Copper and Brass Inc. in developing a satisfactory furnace for the recovery of metallic zinc from secondary metals by distillation. I have also had the opportunity of studying the operation of the furnace when running on scrap brass at the Detroit plant of Revere, and I can therefore say from knowledge gained first-hand that the unit is efficient and economical when used in conjunction with distillation. However, when I read what Mr. Poland has to say in reference to the possibility of using the furnace for melting copper cathodes for the production of oxygen-free and tough-pitch copper shapes, I am constrained to be somewhat skeptical. No doubt the furnace can readily be modified so as to make it possible to melt cathodes, but that is only a part of what is required to produce refinery shapes. Because of its construction the atmosphere in the furnace is highly reducing and even without protective gases such as nitrogen the copper cathodes which are

Jan 1, 1950

By F. F. Poland

S. ROLLE*—As one who has been privileged to read Mr. Poland's paper before its publication, I wish to express high praise for it and the record which it gives of the work done by the Research and Development Department of Revere Copper and Brass Inc. in developing a satisfactory furnace for the recovery of metallic zinc from secondary metals by distillation. I have also had the opportunity of studying the operation of the furnace when running on scrap brass at the Detroit plant of Revere, and I can therefore say from knowledge gained first-hand that the unit is efficient and economical when used in conjunction with distillation. However, when I read what Mr. Poland has to say in reference to the possibility of using the furnace for melting copper cathodes for the production of oxygen-free and tough-pitch copper shapes, I am constrained to be somewhat skeptical. No doubt the furnace can readily be modified so as to make it possible to melt cathodes, but that is only a part of what is required to produce refinery shapes. Because of its construction the atmosphere in the furnace is highly reducing and even without protective gases such as nitrogen the copper cathodes which are

Jan 1, 1950

By John V. Beall

What progress has been made in rapid excavation of tunnels and shafts? Where do we go from here? To get some answers to these questions was the reason that 500 tunnel men-contractors, geologists, professors, lawyers, mining engineers--came to the University of Minnesota May 15-17. The attendance of 500 astonished conference organizer Professor D. H. Yardley, who had anticipated half that number. They came from Japan, South Africa, Austria, Sweden, and Australia to name a few, and an officer of the Corps of Engineers thought all his people should have been there. The Civil and Mining Engineering Departments of the University combined for the program, which was staged by M. K. Cragun for the General Extension Division. The Saga of the Oso Tunnel The present state of the art of rapid excavation is "good." There is little controversy about where we go from here and what's more, this reporter finds that the technical know-how to automate excavation in any kind of ground is extant, even if it will take some years to achieve this state. In a nut- shell though, the present status can be seen in its various ramifications in the saga of the Oso Tunnel, as told by V. L. "Vic" Stevens of Boyles Brothers Drilling Co. :

Jan 7, 1968

By Robert L. Bates

An industrial mineral, says the Glossary of Geology, is "any rock, mineral, or other naturally occurring substance of economic value, exclusive of metallic ores, mineral fuels, and gemstones; one of the nonmetallics." Probably most geologists and engineers would accept this simple and straightforward definition, at least as a general statement. On analysis, however, certain anomalies crop up. For example, what is metallic and what is nonmetallic? Bauxite and ilmenite certainly qualify as metallic ores, but both are also raw materials of important nonmetallic substances; hence they are included in this book. Another anomaly is that, by common consent, the term industrial minerals may include not only rocks and minerals but also certain manufactured products, such as cement and lime, and even mixed groups of natural and artificial products, such as abrasives and refractories. Thus the central realm of the industrial minerals is clear enough, but its boundaries tend to be indefinable. Since a definition that allowed for every irregularity in the outer fringes would be excessively unwieldy, the one quoted above may be considered satisfactory. The expression industrial minerals is commonly equated with nonmetallics, and with the somewhat more precise phrase industrial minerals and rocks as in the title of this book.

Jan 1, 1994

What do you think are the major problems that the mining industry is facing? While I don't have any intensive knowledge of the various problems that plague our industry, I know that they are all part and parcel of a more complex and fundamental question: What must we do to make mineral extraction successful, safe, and profitable? Obviously, as mining people, we must continue to expand our technical know-how and to make better use of it. In today's context, however, that is not enough. We must also improve the "public image" of the mining industry. Why? Because the key word in the term "public image" is: the public. Many people in our country and in Congress, for instance, are against strip mining-and some are even against underground mining. Pressures from the public, from voters, have affected past, present, and new legislation. And government controls can be a major problem in any industry, let alone mining. At first, people ask government to intervene, act, or resolve problems, even in management and labor contract negotiations. But later, after Washington gets involved, there are clashes between departments and personalities, and eventually there is resentment against the interference with mining operations or our daily lives.

Jan 3, 1975

US Tin Mission To Study Costs in Far East A move to obtain adequate supplies of tin at prices the United States is willing to pay was initiated when the interagency tin mission left for the Far East. The Mission, which includes representatives of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, State Department, Defense Minerals Procurement Agency and the Bureau of Mines will go to Indonesia and Malaya. The primary purpose of the mission, according to officials, will be to study tin production costs, not to negotiate for the purchase of tin. The mission will be prepared to enter into negotiations, if the Far Eastern producers are amenable. The United States withdrew as a large-scale buyer of tin some months ago in protest against what it considered exorbitant prices being charged in the Singapore market. Subsequent attempts to negotiate for a steady tin supply at what this country considers reasonable prices have been unavailing. The U. S. is prepared to enter into a two or three year contract with the price of tin somewhere between $1.00 to $1.12 per lb. The decision to abstain from the market has not yet put a squeeze on U. S. supplies. Substantial quantities of tin still are coming in from Malaya under an old contract.

Jan 12, 1951

By Emory J. Douglass

Mining companies are unique in that they extract mineral resources and must therefore deal with ecological disturbances and other special problems. Like most enterprises, however, their primary motive must be to make money. The problem of mining investment starts with the question of what "make money" means. This article proposes an answer consistent with what economists call the theory of the firm and then applies it to two of the common, and perhaps unrecognized, problems connected with min¬ing investment. In essence, the concepts presented here call for thinking to terms of the income change associated with a given change it outlays or operating procedures To illustrate. ABC Distributing Co. has just discovered the power of advertising. It has raised its annual advertising budget from $25,000 to $50,000, and sales have, zoomed from 250.000 to 350,000 units. The company buy, for 50e per unit and sells at $l. This move has produced $50,000 of operating income for $25.000 in additional advertising expense. This looks great, so the next year the advertising budget goes up to $100,000. Sales go to 440,000 units. With 90,000 more units at 50[c] per unit, ABC sales are up by $45.000. Its advertising costs, however, went up $50,000.

Jan 1, 1971

By Robert S. Shoemaker

Receiving the Richards Award is undoubtedly the most memorable event in my entire life. There should, however, be more names engraved on it. These are the names of men who were my teachers (but not all of the academic variety) and my friends, each of whom had a part in my ever continuing education and thus have a part of this award. There was Bill Caldwell who made me into a chemist, and Will Shorey who added a lot of ore dressing. There was Rush Spedden who put me to work in his minerals research lab, Joe Brennan who made me turn my research into plant practice, and Tom Meek who sent me all over the world on metallurgical jobs. Bob Cheatham and Abe Dor taught me to try to give the client what he needs rather than what he wants, while Ed Malouf and Casey Davis always gave their particular brand of advice at exactly the right time. And, lastly, there was Leo Abell and Frank McQuiston, both fine metallurgists and the best friends a man could have. In addition to those I have mentioned, there are literally scores of others I would like to acknowledge with my sincere appreciation.

Jan 6, 1974

By James Chapman

THE observations here presented are those, not of an expert accountant, but of one who, while he has seen considerable service in the accounting departments of large companies, has spent more time in engineering and operating. This paper is intended to cover, in a measure, mine accounting for small mines, as distinguished from the elaborate systems, requiring many persons ;n the accounting department. I shall attempt to outline a system embracing the essentials of accounting, and simple enough in form to permit one or two persons to carry it on from month to month, in sufficient detail to be able to tell quickly the grade of ore, the prices received for metals, costs per ton for mining and milling, costs per foot for development, upward or downward tendencies in costs, ore settled or in transit, cash on hand, stocks of supplies on hand, efficiency of' labor, etc. As in all accounting, there are two main divisions: that of revenue received for what is sold, and that of disbursements made for what is bought, so in mine accounting we have to consider chiefly the income derived from sales of ore or concentrates, and the expenses incurred in producing the said ore or concentrates in a marketable condition.

Jan 3, 1916

By Robert F. Shurtz, William J. Verner

Three basic questions must be answered by an engineer performing an economic analysis of a mineral property: (1) How much can the company afford to pay for the property; (2) At what rate should the property be mined; (3) What will be the return on the investment. These questions often defy reasonable analysis, because at the point in time at which they must be answered little may be known about the grade of ore and the reserve tonnage. The purpose of this report is twofold. First, to derive a method of determining purchase price, rate of production and return on investment which is valid under varying conditions of ore grade and tonnage reserve; and, second, to apply this method to the Margay deposit in an attempt to evaluate it as a business enterprise. This is an actual economic analysis of an existing nickel-copper deposit fictitiously named the Margay. It was carried out for a mining corporation and proved to be the determining factor in the subsequent purchase and development of the property. All data referring to costs, quality and quantity of ore, etc., are accurate and truly represented. Prices used are obsolete but the method is not dependent on those variables. Basic assumptions for the analysis are given in Table I, page 71.

Jan 11, 1966

By S. W. Parr, F. B. Hobart

Studies relating to the behavior of coal toward oxygen may have for their purpose the determination of the fundamental factors that underlie spontaneous combustion, weathering and deterioration, and the general topic of storage, as well as those properties that have to do with the underlying principles of carbonization. There is also involved the possibility of developing information relating to the constitution of coal, or at least the chemical properties inherent in the type substances of which the coal is composed. It is the purpose here to record certain results bearing on this latter idea of the chemical properties that characterize the main constituents of bituminous coal. The avidity of freshly mined coal for oxygen has long been known. What happens to the coal or to the oxygen is not so clear. Is the oxygen absorbed or chemically combined, and what are the conditions as to time, temperature, texture, or components that are most involved in the phenomenon? If we subject a weighed quantity of coal maintained at a constant temperature to a current of oxygen, we may obtain three factors of interest—the weight increase of the coal, the weight of the water, and the weight of the carbon dioxide formed in the reactions involved at that

Jan 1, 1925

By Stephen C. Tadolini, Thomas M. Barczak

Roof support systems, longwall shields in particular, have persistently grown in size and capacity for the past 25 years. Why is this? Is it a good thing or is it unnecessary? What are the consequences of this “bigger-the-better” design philosophy? Rarely do we see a “one size fits all” approach to roof support except when it comes to longwall shields, where the historical trend for new procurements is to simply purchase the highest capacity support you can buy. Does high capacity ensure failures will not occur? The answer is no! The highest capacity tailgate supports are typically the ones that fail the most often. What does this tell us? It tells us that there are fundamental aspects of support design and ground control that we still do not understand or recognize when designing a support system. This paper provides an interesting evaluation of these issues and proposes a different approach to support design that attempts to match the support performance characteristics to the ground behavior. Along the way, some of the old premises of support design will be discarded, and new “controversial” ideas developed. Thinking outside the box never hurt any industry. Mining has made it a common practice.

By Paul Dewison

For nine years, from mid-1987 to mid-1996, the copper market enjoyed what appeared to be an endless boom in which prices were much higher relative to production costs than for most other base metals. After the boom ended abruptly mid-1997 with the Sumitomo affair, copper was burdened by an overhang of new projects that promised to swamp demand in what, with the Asian financial and economic crisis of 1997, had become a considerably worse consumption environment. Now, demand prospects do not look so bad. If, as we suspect, we will be dealing with a more rational market in the future, it becomes all the more important to forecast accurately the prospects for consumption. In this paper, we present a new methodology for copper demand forecasting. The methodology forms the backbone of the demand-side analysis for the multi-client study entitled "Long Tenn Outlook for Copper", co-authored by Metalica Ltd. and Bloomsbury Minerals Economics (BME). Key components of the methodology are as follows. (1) Relate demand to economic structure. (2) Focus on products rather than refined consumption. (3) Apply a consistent products/applications analysis to all countries and time series. (4) Incorporate scrap market dynamics within the analytical framework.

Jan 1, 1999

By David H. Browne

Nickel has always been a fruitful mother of problems. Previous to the year 1906 nickel was regarded as an element replacing iron in copper-mattes, and it was believed that the same laws which governed the elimination of iron could be applied to nickel. This conception has lately undergone a complete change, and nickel in all its stages is now regarded as an element replacing copper; in other words, copper-nickel is considered not as two elements, but as one metal. When we commenced our investigations on Monel metal we made a great many experiment* on the conversion of mattes, both high copper and high nickel. We studied closely the composition of the mattes and the changes produced by the blow. We found in all cases certain agreements which me believe are due to some law. Briefly stated, our conclusions are as follows : 1. Nickel is not an element replacing iron in matte. 2. Nickel-copper alloys act in the matte-blow like one metal. 3. Nickel-copper alloys follow, during the matte-blow, exactly the same laws that govern the behavior of copper alone. This brings up the question: What are the laws governing the production of metallic copper, and what are the relations of copper to sulphur and iron during the Bessemer blow?

Jan 1, 1911

By M J. Nugus

A substantial cost is invested into the data collection phase of any exploration or development program; notwithstanding, it is impractical to expect a database of information can be collated to ensure a perfect geological interpretation. The question then becomes, is there a possible alternative interpretation and what is the likely impact of the variations? Modelling in 2005, of the Cosmo lode at Sunrise Dam Gold Mine, Western Australia led to consideration of the philosophical implications associated with resource management. It was concluded that several plausible geological models could be constructed from the known geological database. To varying degrees, this predicament is common to all geological reconstructions, as several alternative geological models can be generated at almost any stage that will impact on the resultant resource estimation and mine plan. The significance of that variation and the associated risk of multiple geological models (MGMs) requires due consideration. What is being suggested is that using plausible multiple geological models advances the holistic understanding of a mineral deposit within the bounds of the data collected, providing fluidity for updating geological knowledge and building inherent variability into the design and planning departments where variations of the geological models may materially impact on the resource performance.

Jan 1, 2006

By Verma UK

Mining for sand was active in South Delhi during the last four decades disregarding all norms of safety. The aim of the paper is to highlight what is proposed to be done for mining in Delhi. Apart from the damage to the landscape, the earlier operations gave rise to visual pollution to the scenic Delhi area and there is immediate need of land restoration and landscaping. Future mining should be planned so that the resultant land surface completely merges with the topography and gradually assimilates with the green belt. Restoration of old workings, land reclamation and details of plantation in old pit areas are included. The project also provides a demon- stration site to show the impact of eco-development leading to new legisla- tive measures, as it is in the Capital of India itself and therefore more accessible than any other area. What has been suggested for mining is not the latest and the most modern equipments from the Western point of view but the right equipment to meet the specific requirement of the country. Financial projections are included alongwith technical details of the project to show the benefits to the society. It is concluded that eco-development is essential for the mining in the Twenty- First Century.

Jan 1, 1986

I know the theme of the Congress is "The 21st Century - Mining for Mankind" but I hope you will understand why my address touches upon some near-term issues as well. With the world oil market the way it is at present, "the long term" seems to be next week and no one is even sure what will happen tomorrow! So I am going to take a little licence with the theme of the Congress and talk about some fundamental issues that have much to do with the current uncertainties. The ways in which these issues are resolved and the role governments elect to play in the next few years will determine both the shape of the petroleum industry in the 1990s and beyond and the success with which we can confront a growing and inevitable future dependence on OPEC oil resources. But just in case you are not familiar with what has been happening in the petroleum industry recently and why the future seems more uncertain than ever, let me show you the gyrations in oil prices over the past 13 years, and remember that it is only another 13 years or so years to the 21st Century.

Jan 1, 1986