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The minerals industry consumes billions of dollars in raw materials, equipment, tools, services and chemicals. The industry, though, has turned overmuch of the research and development (R&D) for these products to manufacturers and suppliers. Now the industry and its suppliers must decide how much R&D the mining industry should be responsible for and what role the suppliers should play. Promoting R&D As a result of the current environment in the mining and minerals industry, there has been a substantial decrease in R&D. Depressed prices, stagnant growth, cost cutting and rationalization are evident.

Jan 1, 2000

The information in this document has been prepared as at February 16, 2011. Certain statements contained in this document constitute ?forward-looking statements? within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward looking information under the provisions of Canadian provincial securities laws. When used in this document, the words ?anticipate?, ?expect?, ?estimate?, ?forecast?, ?will?, ?planned?, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information. Such statements include without limitation: statements regarding timing and amounts of capital expenditures and other assumptions; estimates of future reserves, resources, mineral production, optimization efforts and sales; estimates of mine life; estimates of future internal rates of return, mining costs, cash costs, minesite costs and other expenses; estimates of future capital expenditures and other cash needs, and expectations as to the funding thereof; statements and information as to the projected development of certain ore deposits, including estimates of exploration, development and production and other capital costs, and estimates of the timing of such exploration, development and production or decisions with respect to such exploration, development and production; estimates of reserves and resources, and statements and information regarding anticipated future exploration; the anticipated timing of events with respect to the Company's minesites and statements and information regarding the sufficiency of the Company's cash resources. Such statements and information reflect the Company's views as at the date of this document and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Many factors, known and unknown could cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements and information. Such risks include, but are not limited to: the volatility of prices of gold and other metals; uncertainty of mineral reserves, mineral resources, mineral grades and mineral recovery estimates; uncertainty of future production, capital expenditures, and other costs; currency fluctuations; financing of additional capital requirements; cost of exploration and development programs; mining risks; community protests; risks associated with foreign operations; governmental and environmental regulation; the volatility of the Company's stock price; and risks associated with the Company's byproduct metal derivative strategies. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that may affect the Company?s ability to achieve the expectations set forth in the forwardlooking statements contained in this document, see the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2009, as well as the Company's other filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements and information. Marc Legault, a Qualified Person and the Company?s Vice-President, Project Development, reviewed the technical information disclosed herein. For a detailed breakdown of the Company?s reserve and resource position see the February 16, 2011 press release on the Company?s website. That press release also lists the Qualified Persons for each project.

May 1, 2011

By Andrew W. Jenike

There used to be a time when bins were designed for total volume and placed in any available place of the plant. Poke holes were provided and feed was maintained by manual prodding, lancing, hammering, and by various mechanical flow-profiting devices. Little thought was given to what occurred inside the bins and why materials did not flow. Indeed, such mental effort was hard to justify while low-cost manual labor was plentiful, quality standards low, and rates of feed moderate. The past fifteen years have seen a drastic change in these conditions. We all know that labor for hard manual work is becoming unavailable at any wage, level. Standards of product uniformity are continuously rising. This uniformity is just as important in a fine ore feed to ball mills as it is in a cattle feed or in a flour mix. Rates of feed now frequently exceed 2,000 tons per hour per feeder. At that rate there is no time for, lancing or prodding. An efficient storage, plant contains a known available volume of bulk solid, and feeds it at the required time, at the prescribed rate, and without degradation of the product. A storage bin may also perform other functions such as blending of different grades, degasification of aerated, powders, isolation of different gaseous media. A contact bed of particles flowing by gravity in counter-current with a gas or liquid may be used as a continuous reactor. Gas or liquid pressures can be simply contained by, a sufficient head of flowing solid.

Jan 1, 1968

By John Birkinbine

The experience of the past five years has furnished opportunities to study and to partially explain the operation and some of the causes of the short blast of Warwick Furnace at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as described in the paper read at the Lake Superior Meeting, in August, 1880.* The many inquiries concerning the details of furnace operation which followed the publication of the paper, and the expressed desire of furnace managers to be informed as to future operations of this plant, have encouraged the preparation of the following data. To make the record continuous, and add to the value of both contributions, the present paper commences where the review of a short blast of Warwick Furnace ended, and includes the data of another short blast of two months, and a subsequent continuous campaign of nearly five years, which, by comparison, we shall designate as "the long blast." Frequent visits to the plant in the five years, during which its operation could be studied, and correspondence with the manager, Mr. Edgar S. Cook, have given a knowledge as to general features and details, and the courtesy of the officers of the Company which has given free access to the books of record permits the presentation of data which it is believed will be welcomed by furnace managers. Interest will undoubtedly be increased by the remarkable results which Mr. Cook has achieved chiefly with anthracite coal in a furnace whose details of construction will scarcely be generally admitted as embodying advanced ideas, its height being but 55 feet, with a bosh diameter of 15 feet 6 inches, its bosh-slope comparatively flat, its crucible smaller than the average, and the heat of the blast never reaching 1000' Fahrenheit. At present writing the credit of the best anthracite blast-furnace practice recorded in our Transactions is conceded to be that pursued by Mr. Fackenthal, at the Durham furnace, and Mr. Cook, at War-

Jan 1, 1886

The purpose of this paper is to look at the costs of tailings disposal, and in particular the comparative costs of different disposal methods in different situations. Costs are often the hidden design parameter. We know that they are important but sometimes feel that it is not very respectable to talk about them in public. It is better from a public relations point of view for it to appear that the decision-making process is driven by environmental factors or best practice rather than looking for the cheapest option. But this presumes that the two are mutually exclusive and this need not be so. These issues are discussed later in the paper. It is also commonplace for the scale of the mining operation to change with time, typically involving increased throughput rates and total tonnage. New ideas in tailings disposal make their appearance. The regulatory attitude can change. Having made a decision about the disposal method at the time of original feasibility study and design it is easy to suppose that the mine is æstuck with itÆ. But that also need not necessarily be so. Careful costing of options may reveal that a switch in method could be cheaper in the long run. The designer will often tend to think in terms of initial earthworks and site development costs. Aspects of power consumption, labour, and periodic campaigns to move tailings pipelines and carry out embankment raises are either overlooked or not given the same emphasis. This can distort the evaluation process. It is productive to think in terms of dollars or cents per tonne as a basis of comparison, not just the total sums. Tailings disposal can cost from as little as 10 - 20 ó/t to over $1.00/t which is a big range. There may be good and unavoidable reasons for the high figure but there would need to be to justify being so far over the industry average. At the same time, mining and processing costs, at least for gold, are around $15 - 20/t. Viewed from this perspective tailings disposal will always be a relatively small component of the annual budget.

Jan 1, 2000

By Kanchan Mondal, Gopi Bylapudi, Anand Bhagwat, A. J. S. (Sam) Spearing

Corrosion of steel roof support systems can cause potential premature failure of the support, thus adversely affecting the excavation stability and rock-related safety. An in-house corrosion test system was designed and developed to test full-length roof bolts for material performance based on tensile load capacity and strength under different corrosive conditions found underground. Initially, ASTM A615 grade 60 steel roof bolts, which are the most commonly used bolt material in the United States, were tested with and without stresses in a simulated underground coal-mining environment for approximately six months. This paper mainly discusses the test system, protocol and system shortcomings, and makes recommendations based on the observations and results.

By R. Tipman

"In 25 years, processing of tar sand progressed from two small pilot plants to two major commercial operations owned by Syncrude and Suncor. These plants mine tar sand and extract the bitumen which is then converted into a synthetic crude oil. Considerable research on extraction of bitumen from tar sand has been undertaken by these two companies as well as other major oil producing companies, private individuals, universities and the federal and provincial governments. These studies have produced a number of alternate processing schemes which have yet to be commercialized. The producing companies are focusing their efforts on achieving increased processing efficiency, which includes improved bitumen recovery, reduced unit cost, energy conservation, and equipment reliability. In this review, the Syncrude process and examples of new process developments will be briefly described. IntroductionTwenty-five years ago, tar sand processing was limited to two pilot plants owned by Cities Service Athabasca Ltd., and Great Canadian Oil Sands. Earnest Manning was Premier of Alberta and was inviting proposals for the construction of a commercial tar sands plant. The invitations called for a much larger operation than those which had been undertaken in the past. All of the previous attempts at commercial operations up to 1960's had failed, largely because of a poor technical understanding of the process requirements, lack of suitable equipment, and lack of adequate capital. The previous record was not good. The pending new large scale plant was based on improved but not proven technology and equipment, which were developed from the pilot plant studies. In addition, the surplus of conventional oil in Alberta and low world oil prices were factors reducing the need for such a plant."

Jan 1, 1987

By David Hoadley, Kenneth R. Maser, Ashok B. Boghani, James E. Billar, D. Randolph Berry, Mackenzie Burnett, Robert H. Trent

A. 3 Program Description The computer program developed to simulate events in the case of fire in the mine is described in this section The description is divided into three parts. 1. Program Capabilities This part summarizes what inputs can be changed, what outputs can be obtained and demonstrates program flexibility through suggested uses.

Jan 1, 1976

By Richard J. Mainiero

The U.S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation with Jim Walter Resources, Inc. (JWR), Brookwood, AL, evaluated the use of sheathed explosive charges in breaking up large stones that can jam the feeder¬breaker or pan conveyor on longwalls and halt operations. Use of the sheathed charge reduced the downtime of the longwall panel to 15 to 30 min as compared with the 1 to 2 h required to drill and shoot the stone. Firing the sheathed charge at the face caused no significant damage to Iongwall equipment. Use of the sheathed charge also represented an improvement in safety by eliminating the exposure of miners to the inherent hazards of the face for extended periods of time. Another benefit, which is difficult to quantify, is the elimination of the temptation to shoot mudcaps or adobes, which is illegal in U.S. underground coal mines.

Jan 1, 1990

By M. Dhainaut

This paper presents computations of the electric field inside a furnace. We first look at the effect of contact between two coke particles from an electrical point of view. We give values for the amount of contact resistance in the total resistance of the system formed by the two coke particles. We show that the effect of contact resistance decreases rapidly with increasing contact area. We then look at the complete electric field inside a full scale furnace. The aim is to evaluate the amount of current that short-cuts the metal bath for different vertical positions of the electrodes. We show that electrodes high above the metal bath are undesirable since they offer a larger surface of conductive charge materials where current can flow through. On the other hand, deeper electrodes force the current to go the whole way down to the metal bath. Ohmic heating along this path ensures a high temperature of coke and slag that are beneficial for metal recovery.

Jan 1, 2004

By R. A. May, P. J. Brooks, W. M. Smith

"Neill and Gunter Limited (NGL) has prepared a preliminary design and a cost estimate for a ferric chloride leach plant to recover copper, lead, zinc, and silver from a typical complex sulphide ore. This plant design is specifically intended to treat unconcentrated ground ore (flotation feed), but can be readily adapted to treat bulk concentrates. Samples of ground ore and bulk concentrate were obtained from Heath Steele Mines, Miramichi, New Brunswick, laboratory testing, and preliminary process flow sheet preparation was carried out by the Research and Productivity Council in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Approximately thirty drawings have been produced, including process and equipment flowsheets, process piping and instrumentation drawings, and preliminary general arrangements. Preliminary capital and operating cost estimates were prepared for a plant that would treat 1000 t/d of crushed and ground ore to produce about 30 000 tpy of zinc. Capital and operating cost estimates were also projected for plants up to 4000 t/d of processed ore. Recoveries of 99% for zinc, 98% for lead, and 96% for copper were achieved in laboratory tests on unconcentrated ore. These recoveries were higher than the overall recoveries obtained from bulk concentrate, yielding approximately 10% more revenue.A 1000 tonne per day plant was determined to have a low return on investment, however, depending on the size and type of mining operations employed and the FCL plant throughput. DCF-ROI projections of 20% to over 30% were calculated for 100% equity financed “green field” mine, mill and FCL plant operations of 2000 t/d and higher"

Jan 1, 1997

By Erin Leyson, Daniel Henrique

Este artículo se centra en el desarrollo de un modelo innovador denominado "Plataforma de Desarrollo Regional" (PDR), el cual es aplicado en la región minera de Cerro de Pasco - Perú, y es impulsado por Nexa y Palladium como parte de la cartera de proyectos nombrada “Legado Positivo Pasco”. Este modelo busca fortalecer el ecosistema de desarrollo local, y disminuir su dependencia económica en la minería. Con este fin, diversas estrategias son implementadas, estas incluyen encadenamientos productivos, acceso a financiamiento, promoción de emprendimiento e innovación, y atracción de inversiones de otras empresas para invertir en la producción local.

Sep 29, 2023

By John. A. Lombardi

Membrane technology for mining applications has gone beyond producing high-quality water from well- and sea-water by pushing forward with process water treatments to recover and concentrate metals, reagents and clean, discharge-quality waters. Therefore, the main objective of this work is is presenting state-of-the-art process alternatives using membrane technology to face four treatment issues common in the copper, gold and in general all the mining industry regarding process waters and streams that offer treatment challenges to the metallurgical and process engineers.

Sep 14, 2009

By Božidar Šarler, Umut Hanoglu

A rolling simulation system has been developed to calculate the macroscopic rate of deformation, stress, strain, and temperature fields by using a novel meshless method. The model is based on two-dimensional traveling slice assumption. The slices are aligned towards the rolling direction. The initial size of the billet, bloom or slab and the geometry of the grooves at each rolling stand, the distances between the rolling stands, and continuous or reverse rolling can be arbitrarily considered. The purpose of this paper is to complement these development by predicting and visualizing also the grain size of steel over the strand cross-section for each position in the rolling mill. The grain size models have been in one-way coupled to the macroscopic calculations. First the critical strain for dynamic recrystallization is being checked. If the calculated strain is higher than that, considering also the time for meta-dynamic recrystallization, dynamic or meta-dynamic grain size calculations are carried out. If the strain is too low then only the static recrystallization is considered together with its required time. Finally, austenite grain size and ferrite grain size are calculated respectively as the steel cools down. The listed physical models are based on collection of empirical relations found in literature. The user of the system is free to choose or create the model he wants with his own parameters. The simulation system has been coded as a user friendly computer application for an industrial use based on C# and .NET framework and runs on regular PCs. The computational time for a rolling simulation is usually less than one hour and can thus be straightforwardly used for optimization of the rolling mill design in a reasonable time.

Oct 1, 2019

By J. C. Franklin

The Spokane Mining Research Center of the Federal Bureau of Mines is placing major emphasis on chemical stabilization as part of the ground support program. Development of polymeric material suitable for bonding rock fractures around the mine opening is one phase of the program. Some of the problems that must be considered are viscosity, applicability, adhesion, cure times, strength, toxicity, and flammability. Epoxies and polyesters were investigated, but shrinkage in polyesters caused redirected effort toward epoxies. Test results with the latter showed that bonded fractures in mine-roof strata were stronger than the virgin rock. Further tests showed that polymeric materials have good potential for bonding, and in conjunction with polymer roof bolts, are expected to result in an economic and useful new support concept.

Jan 1, 1974

By Philip C. Good

Preliminary studies showed that direct hydrolysis of H2SiF6 to SiO2 and HF at elevated temperatures was subject to many mechanical difficulties, and that corrosion of construction materials was a serious problem. Elimination of SiO2 from the HF product was generally poor. An alternative procedure, hydrolysis of lime-neutralized H2SiF6 by steam at 950° to 1,100° C, yielded a product very low in SiO2. Condensates containing up to 300 g/1 HF were prepared.

Jan 1, 1968

By W. W. Adams, V. E. Wrenn

"Production of explosives in the United States during the calendar year 1936, as represented by reports of sales by manufacturing companies, totaled 391,604,500 pounds, an increase of 27 percent over the amount produced during 1935. This quantity included 81,698,375 pounds of black blasting powder (granular and pellet), 262,047,106 pounds of high explosives other than permissibles, and 47,859,019 pounds of permissible 5/ explosives.The manufacturers' reports to the Bureau of Mines classify the sales of explosives according to five main classes of work in connection with which the explosives were used.Coal mines used 87 percent of the total amount of black blasting powder sold, bituminous-coal mines 79 percent, and anthracite mines 8 percent; coal mines also consumed 98 percent of all permissible explosives and 9 percent of the high explosives other than permissibles. The coal-mining industry consumed 16 percent more explosives in 1936 than in the preceding year, the increase at bituminous mines being 21 percent and that at anthracite mines 4 percent.Metal mines used 29 percent of the high explosives other than permissibles and less than 1 percent of the black blasting powder and permissible explosives. The total quantity of the three classes of explosives used in metal mining in 1936 was 36 percent more than the quantity so used in 1935."

Jul 1, 1937

By John A. Haggman

Philippines is a country that is richly endowed in mineral wealth. In 1988, Climax Arimco Mining Corp. (CAMC) geologists found the Dinkidi porphyry gold-copper deposit in Nueva Vizcaya province. It is the most significant mineral discovery in that country in recent times. To date, the company has defined indicated resources of 124 Mt (136 million st) of 1-g/t (0.029-oz/st) gold and 0.4% copper. This includes a high-grade core of 7.9 Mt (8.7 million st) of 6-g/t (0.175-oz/st) gold equivalent. Total contained metal is 124.4 t (4 million oz) of gold and 499 kt (1.1 billion lb) of copper. Dinkidi's discovery resulted from initial geologic reconnaissance and recognition of the intrusive complex that is exposed at surface and anomalous in its topographic expression. This was followed by systematic exploration. This includes extensive gradient array induced polarization (IP), ground magnetics, geochemical sampling and diamond drilling. This later defined a further 16 satellite porphyry targets in the Didipio region. Climax was been granted a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement contract with the Philippine government. It allows 100% foreign ownership of mining projects. After four years of negotiations, Climax was the first company to have such an application granted. Some 120 applications from numerous international mining companies are waiting for approval following implementation of new Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Exploration history Didipio is located 200 km (125 miles) north of Manila at an elevation of about 700 m (2,300 ft) in the remote Sierra Madre mountains. This region remains mostly unexplored. The property is accessed by 25 km (15 miles) of logging track from the town of Cabarroguis, Quirino. The area experiences an average rainfall of about 3,000 mm (118 in.) a year. Most of it falls during the July-to-November typhoon season. Didipio was first recognized as a gold province in the 1970s when native Ifugao and Ilongot hunters discovered alluvial gold in the region. The region had been prospected over the years by local companies. They were mostly prospecting for alluvial gold. However, in 1988, Climax Mining geologists identified the potential of an obscure razorback ridge protruding from the alluvial valley floor. This ridge, later named Dinkidi by Climax, was the site of several small- scale tunnels. Locals had mined narrow quartz stockwork veining and sluiced soft argillic alteration zones, using irrigation canals and sluice boxes to catch free gold.

Jan 1, 1997

By D. Yuan, L. Yan, M. J. Collins, P. Kalanchey, I. M. Masters

ABSTRACT Pressure oxidation tests have been conducted by Sherritt for a refractory gold-silver project in China. The feed contained 39 g/t Au and 970 g/t Ag; the major gold-bearing minerals were pyrite and arsenopyrite. Because the feed contained a significant amount of silver, which can be refractory to cyanide leaching after pressure oxidation due to the formation of argentojarosite, the test program included investigation of methods to enhance silver recovery. The “lime boil” process proved successful and was incorporated into the flowsheet. Gold extraction from the lime boil product solids was 95–98%; silver extraction was up to 94%.

Jan 1, 2013

By C. W. Smith

Research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a well-point dewatering system in conjunction with a french drain to intercept waste impoundment leakage while reducing the volume of waste water requiring treatment. A well-point dewatering system composed of 585 production wells was installed around the perimeter of a leaking impoundment that previously used only a french-drain system for leakage control. The placement of the well-point system was designed to intercept and remove the leakage from the groundwater before the contaminant reached the french drain. Groundwater monitoring at this site revealed that after a period of approximately 40 days the well-point dewatering system had stabilized and effectively prevented the further spread of contamination to the french drain.

Jan 1, 2010