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By Ali Montaser

This paper presents an experimental study conducted to facilitate the use of RFID on construction job sites. The study focuses on deployment settings to provide data acquisition with higher accuracy for indoor location sensing. It provides extension to the state-of-the-art in this field as it addresses the impact of metal media proximity to RFID tags, the reasonable duration for data capturing, number of RFID tags employed and the distance between them. Low cost passive RFID tags were used in the experiments where each tag is used as a reference point with a known location. Five hundred and forty (514) experiments were conducted in lab environment using a 3m by 3m test bed that is dynamically rearranged to generate 15 test beds and a total of 67713 data sets were collected and analyzed. The collected data were captured from nine locations for each test bed at four time intervals. Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) was used as the main attribute for signal measurement to process the captured data. Results of the data analysis performed are studied under four main categories: duration, number of tags, locations of tags and metal interference. The best duration was found to be the 15 second in the test bed with the least number of tags; as the short amount of time to capture data did not allow creation of a lot of interference among the emitted signals. Within each test bed, errors occurred most at points where the received signals were not well distributed in a 360 degree vicinity of the data capturing point. It means that the center point of each test bed resulted in lowest errors and the points located on the extremities led to the highest errors. Finally, metal objects were found to have major impact on the accuracy of the captured data; to the level where reliable values for errors could not be calculated in the test beds attached to metal objects. In summary, the results of the experimental study and related findings are expected to provide guidelines to the users of RFID technology for localization in building construction.

Aug 1, 2013

By C J. R Hart, J K. Mortensen

The distribution of mineral deposits within northwestern North America (Alaska, Yukon, and northern British Columbia) allows for an in-depth examination of the metallogenic patterns of a growing continental margin. A more complete understanding of the tectonic evolution of this part of the Pacific Rim, achieved over the last 15 to 20 years, now allows for the placement of ore systems into a well-defined plate tectonic framework. Ore deposits older than about 185 Ma represent hydrothermal systems that were active in the platform/shelf environment of ancestral North AmericaÆs miogeocline or hydrothermal systems developed in oceanic arcs and continental fragments more distal to the craton. These include important SEDEX, VMS, and pre-accretionary porphyry deposits. In contrast, most mineral deposits younger than about 185 Ma were formed within the growing Cordilleran orogen, as terranes were accreted to the continental margin during interactions between the North America and Pacific/Farallon/Kula plates. Such syn- to post-accretionary mineralised systems include many large lode gold and porphyry/skarn systems.

Jan 1, 1999

By E. C. Hoeman, W. C. Stoecker, R. C. Redfield

"INTRODUCTION Industrial sands, characterized by specific physical and chemical proportion, are,essential new materials for the manufacture of glass, sodium siliante and other products. Sands of suitable characteristics are used extensively for molds and cores in the casting of metals as a granular medium in municipal water filters, as abrasives, as traction sand to prevent the slipping of driving wheels of self-propelled vehicles on trucks and in various ceramic and other structural forms. In addition to the use of common silicon sands in concrete, cement, and mortar, special sands find use in sand-lime brick oxychloride cement, and flooring, for coating prepared roofing, and for placing ware in saggers although sand for sandpaper has been mostly displaced by other harder mineral or synthetic grains, other abrasive uses are numerous and include sandblasting stone sawing, glass burnishing and finishing."

Oct 1, 1945

By Z. Chen

This study is concerned with the behavior of bubble clusters in a well-controlled turbulent flow. We used a specially designed cell where the bubble aggregates could be formed and exposed to breakage by a rotating impeller. The effects of impeller speed and the concentration of collector on cluster behavior were studied. It was found that the size of the clusters increases with the concentration of collector used. We also found that although the clusters could easily be destroyed under the action of impeller, they could reform, especially at lower impeller speeds. It was observed that the size of the bubbles arriving into the impeller region in the absence of particles before breakage was considerably higher than the size of the clusters formed at the same impeller speed. It appears that both cluster breakage and re-formation take place simultaneously, and the extent of formation and regrowth is mainly determined by the hydrophobicity of the particles and the impeller speed.

Sep 1, 2012

By H Stedman

Integrating exploration and operational blastholes into one database significantly enhances geological modelling. Benefits include: improved coal predictions, stronger interpretation of structurally complex areas, detailed mapping of heat affected coal aureoles and additional roof accuracy for blast designs that deliver better coal protection.CITATION:Stedman, H, 2014. Integrating blastholes into exploration data to improve coal recovery and modelling, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014 , pp 237–242 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 18, 2014

By Salvador Gómez, Rodolfo Espinosa, Jaime Bravo, Leopoldo Gallas

"Compañia Fresnillo, S.A. de C.V. - Proaño Mine, is owned by Industrias Peñoles S.A. de C.V. (Peñoles). The Proaño Mine, is one of the richest silver underground mines in the World, and for this reason, production capacity has always being expanded, based on generated reserves. Reserve generation has not being an easy task as this is a vein type deposit.This paper presents the growing stages at the Concentrator, for about the last twenty years; which can be listed as follows:1.,Increase in capacity from 1,000 to 4,500 tonnes per day, at several stages; on the same infrastructure, and without production interruptions.2.,Addition of a new flotation circuit to recover a zinc concentrate with a high silver content.3.,Installation of a semi-autogenous (SAG) mill, to replace a conventional crushing circuit. 4.,Modernization. Installation of an on stream analyser, an automatic reagent dosification system, 4500 ft3 unit cells, pressure filtration, a closed circuit video system to help process monitoring, an automatic ball addition system for SAG and ball mills, and on-line particle size analysers.5.,Silver recovery from old tailings, installing a 2,350 tonne per day treatment plant.INTRODUCTIONIndustrias Peñoles, S.A. de C.V. (Peñoles)Peñoles’ mission is to add sustainable value to non-renewable natural resources. Peñoles seeks to: build long-term shareholder value; provide customers with the highest quality product services; maintain productive long-term relationship with suppliers; develop and promote the capabilities of their personnel; foster mutually beneficial relationship with the communities in which operates; protect and preserve the environment."

Jan 1, 2002

By L. Zhou, L. Yuan, D. Bahrami

Underground mine fires remain a concern for mine operators, posing a health and safety risk to mineworkers. In the last decade, the number of mine fires has decreased significantly; however, dealing with an unknown fire in underground mines can be a challenging task, which could lead to a hazardous condition for miners during an evacuation and rescue operation. A timely detection of a mine fire and monitoring its characteristics, namely size and location, are of great importance in reducing the risk of mine fire injuries. A new improved fire location algorithm has been developed and integrated into an Atmospheric Monitoring System (AMS) program by researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This paper describes the new fire location model and presents the results of verification fire tests conducted at the Safety Research Coal Mine (SRCM) facility of the Pittsburgh Mining Research Division (PMRD) using the collected AMS data. NIOSH is endeavoring to develop workplace solutions to improve detection of and reduce the risk of hazardous conditions in mines. The results demonstrate successful application of the improved fire location model and provide a useful tool for solving the problem of unknown fire location and reducing the risk of hazardous conditions.

Sep 29, 2020

By Richard H. T. Garnett

Diamonds were discovered on the coast of Namibia in 1907 but it was not until 1962 that the first gems were produced from offshore by a barge employing an airlift. Geophysical surveys and a sampling program were initiated and an understanding of the diamond distribution was gained. Several vessels, some with multiple airlifts, were used until the early 1970's. Some spectacular production results were achieved, but generally the systems failed to retrieve the gravels efficiently from beneath the overburden and off the bedrock. Various companies continued working with mixed outcomes until the mid-1980's, when new regulations were enacted by the authorities. The local Southern sea conditions dictate the present mining methods which are now applied over several hundred kilometers of the west coast. In shallow waters divers operate from small vessels, suctioning the diamondiferous gravels to surface with gravel pumps. In water depths of up to 50 m airlifts of various designs continue to be utilized with recovery plants installed on the vessels. Beyond 100 m depths a remote controlled, tracked, vehicle is used, together with a large drill mounted on swell compensator. Each system is deployed from a separate ocean-going vessel. Production of diamonds from the offshore is rising rapidly, with expectations of further increases. The coastline is likely to be the scene of new developments in marine mining techniques.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. L. Grayson

Following lip on a USBM-sponsored research project, the authors have utilized the knowledge-base structure and system concepts from the Sun Sparcstation-based worker scheduling system of the Mine Management Support System to develop a PC-based application. The new software adopts the nested-window concept to facilitate data collection and modification on personnel, their availability on a shift, and work priorities for a shift as well as to allocate manpower optimally on a work shift and delineate supervisory training responsibilities. The various components of the software are described in detail, along with enhancements made to the original system.

Jan 1, 1996

By Nelson Severinghaus

Following the end of hostilities of World War 11, a resurgence of industrial and home building has given impetus to the use of many products of the stone industry. Shortage and high prices of some building materials such as lumber have aided wider acceptance of materials such as concrete products which have been relatively plentiful and which have not risen so rapidly in price. Ingredients for many of these substituting materials come from the stone industries, often from by-products of stone operations. Most of the tonnage of the stone industry in the State of Georgia comes from granite and marble. There are extensive dimension stone operations in granite in the Elberton and in the Lithonia areas. Building and monumental marble from the Tate area has been used throughout the country. Cutting operations in both types of stone have their by-products in faulty blocks and in spalls. In the State there are three large crushed-stone plants utilizing granite, One near Camak, One near Lithonia and one at Stockbridge. All have had excess fines Or in in the past but this excess is largely disappearing with development of new uses. At times this "waste" has amounted to as much as 20 pct of the stone quarried. Handling Of this large tonnage from point of screening out to storage piles presented a costly problem and large areas were taken up by the piles. Crushed 'tone is generally sold with a a narrow margin Of price over cost, so any elimination of disposal cost or increase of income by marketing of by-products is highly desirable. By-products of Granite Dimension Stone It sometimes becomes difficult to differentiate between main product and byproduct. In the cutting of granite dimension stone in the Lithonia district of Georgia, a considerable quantity of remnants of Uneven shape and size is produced. The larger of these pieces have long found use as building rubble, particularly for retaining walls and building foundations (Fig I), They are broken down to one man size by plug drilling and wedging and by hammer. In recent times, demand for this former by-product has grown so that quarries have been opened for the production of rubble as a main product. Local masons have attained skill in using these irregular shapes to form economical and attractive walls. Areas such as Elberton, Georgia, which do not have a large building market nearby, tend to accumulate piles of large pieces of reject stone. When a road job or other local construction offers a quantity market for crushed stone, a portable crusher works this material down to crushed aggregate. Spalls and finer chips from granite stone-cutting operations have generally found their way into crushers and thence to the many uses for crushed aggregate. One company near Lithonia started marketing the smaller by-product crushed sizes for chicken grit about ten years ago. This use has grown to nation-wide distribution and the tonnage is now so great that they have opened a large quarry with

Jan 1, 1948

By Nelson Severinghaus

Following the end of hostilities of World War 11, a resurgence of industrial and home building has given impetus to the use of many products of the stone industry. Shortage and high prices of some building materials such as lumber have aided wider acceptance of materials such as concrete products which have been relatively plentiful and which have not risen so rapidly in price. Ingredients for many of these substituting materials come from the stone industries, often from by-products of stone operations. Most of the tonnage of the stone industry in the State of Georgia comes from granite and marble. There are extensive dimension stone operations in granite in the Elberton and in the Lithonia areas. Building and monumental marble from the Tate area has been used throughout the country. Cutting operations in both types of stone have their by-products in faulty blocks and in spalls. In the State there are three large crushed-stone plants utilizing granite, One near Camak, One near Lithonia and one at Stockbridge. All have had excess fines Or in in the past but this excess is largely disappearing with development of new uses. At times this "waste" has amounted to as much as 20 pct of the stone quarried. Handling Of this large tonnage from point of screening out to storage piles presented a costly problem and large areas were taken up by the piles. Crushed 'tone is generally sold with a a narrow margin Of price over cost, so any elimination of disposal cost or increase of income by marketing of by-products is highly desirable. By-products of Granite Dimension Stone It sometimes becomes difficult to differentiate between main product and byproduct. In the cutting of granite dimension stone in the Lithonia district of Georgia, a considerable quantity of remnants of Uneven shape and size is produced. The larger of these pieces have long found use as building rubble, particularly for retaining walls and building foundations (Fig I), They are broken down to one man size by plug drilling and wedging and by hammer. In recent times, demand for this former by-product has grown so that quarries have been opened for the production of rubble as a main product. Local masons have attained skill in using these irregular shapes to form economical and attractive walls. Areas such as Elberton, Georgia, which do not have a large building market nearby, tend to accumulate piles of large pieces of reject stone. When a road job or other local construction offers a quantity market for crushed stone, a portable crusher works this material down to crushed aggregate. Spalls and finer chips from granite stone-cutting operations have generally found their way into crushers and thence to the many uses for crushed aggregate. One company near Lithonia started marketing the smaller by-product crushed sizes for chicken grit about ten years ago. This use has grown to nation-wide distribution and the tonnage is now so great that they have opened a large quarry with

Jan 1, 1948

By Jianhua Xin, Min Chen, Jin Xu, Hui Li, Nan Wang, Ming Chen

The kinetics study of blast furnace dust (BFD) recycling with flash reduction process at high temperature has been carried out using a high temperature drop tube furnace in laboratory scale. A combination characterization methods of chemical titration and SEM-EDS were used to track the reduction kinetics. The experiments using CO and CO2 mixtures with range of CO/CO2 (1:0, 1:1) at different temperature (1623–1723 K) and at different reduction time (1560– 2340 ms) were conducted. It was found that the reduction degree increases with the increase of temperature and reduction time as well as CO concentration. The carbon contained in the original BFD has weak in fluence on the reduction potential in the form of gasification. The unreacted core model was adopted based on the observation of the cross section and the measurement of iron element content, the effective diffusion coef ficient and reaction rate constant were determined and the rate controlling step was also analyzed.

Mar 1, 2018

By T. D. Barkand

A recent coal mine elevator accident resulted in serious injuries to four passengers. The miners struck the ceiling of the elevator car as it collided into the overhead structure at an estimated speed four times faster than normal. In response to mine hoisting accidents, safety authorities have required additional protective devices on new and existing mine hoists and elevators. This paper examines supplemental safety circuits and new devices designed to provide ascending car overspeed protection on mine hoists and elevators. These devices provide needed protection that eliminates the hazard or significantly reduces the potential of a mine hoisting accident.

Jan 1, 1995

By V. S. Papezik

Pyrophyllite, a hydrous aluminium silicate, is used mainly in the ceramic industry and to a lesser extent as a filler in the manufacture of paper, rubber, insecticides and baby powders. Commercial deposits of pyrophyllite in North America are restricted to the "Avalon Zone" , a belt of late Precambrian volcanic and sedimentary rocks that extends along the eastern flank of the Appalachian orogenic belt f rom Georgia to Newfoundland. The only commercial Canadian pyrophyllite deposit lies near Foxtrap on the A valon Peninsula of Newfoundland. Here, steeply dipping lenses of altered pyrophyllite rock occur in a north-trending rhyolite belt near the contact with a granitoid pluton. The altered rock is massive, light greenishyellow and contains varying proportions of pyrophyllite, sericite and quartz with lesser amounts of diaspore and traces of barite and rutile. A lteration was produced by acid solutions, either derived from or activated by the intruding pluton, at temperatures of 250° to 270°C and pressures not exceeding 2 kbr. The largest of the Foxtrap pyrophyllite lenses, discovered in 1897, was mined intermittently f rom 1903 until the early 1950s. The present owner of the mine, Newfoundland Minerals Limited, acquired the property in 1959 and ships between 27, 000 and 36,000 tonnes annually to th e company plant in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, for use in ceramic tile.

Jan 1, 1984

By Holly J

The period following World War II has seen many changes in stoping techniques at The Great Boulder Gold Mine. The new methods resulted in improved unit production figures, and have given some relief from the rising worldwide cost spiral in the post war years.Significant production figures are shown graphically in...

Jan 1, 1956

By Wei Victor Liu, Omer Faruk Ugurlu, Chengkai Fan, Bei Jiang

The accurate prediction of truck productivity plays a pivotal role in improving the efficiency and profitability of open-pit mining operations. However, predicting truck productivity is challenging owing to the complex nature of the working conditions of the mine site. This paper proposes a deep neural network model to overcome the challenge of predicting truck productivity in open-pit mines. The prediction model was built using eight variables and was optimized by considering different train-test split ratios, numbers of hidden layers and neurons, and activation functions. The proposed model's performance was evaluated using various metrics and was compared with other commonly used machine learning algorithms. According to the results, the proposed model outperformed traditional machine learning algorithms by achieving higher accuracy and lower error rates, with the best-performing model having four hidden layers with 70 neurons per layer and a scaled exponential linear unit activation function, resulting in a coefficient of determination value of 0.89. This demonstrates the potential of deep neural network models for predicting truck productivity in open-pit mine sites. Moreover, a single variable sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of input variables on truck productivity. The results show that haul distance is the most influential variable for the prediction of truck productivity.

Feb 12, 2024

By Anu Martikainen

Utilization of belt air in underground coal mines has been discussed extensively during the last decade. The Final Report of the Technical Study Panel on the Utilization of Belt Air and the Composition and Fire Retardant Properties of Belt Materials in Underground Coal Mining formed by the Miner Act of 2006 recommends research on leakage, use of booster fans, and escapeway safety. This paper discusses the role of ventilation modeling in evaluating primary escapeway pressurization in a three-entry development system to improve emergency escape in a coal mine using belt air. The intake entry of the NIOSH Bruceton Experimental Mine was pressurized using a 1.1 m (42 in) diameter, 37 kW (50 hp) fan. The work details air movement in the simulated three-entry system and the resulting leakage patterns. Three mine ventilation software packages were compared to analyze their performance in predicting the airflows and leakage conditions with different fan settings. NIOSH researchers found that the measurement results correlated well with the results of modeling.

Jan 1, 2010

By Alexander N. Winchell

"THE MICHIGAN COPPER DISTRICT.Location. The copper mines of Michigan are all in the north¬ern part of that state on the Keweenaw Peninsula, which extends from the (Michigan) mainland for about seventy miles northeast¬erly toward the middle of Lake Superior. The mines occur in a belt or zone occupying the central portion of the peninsula from end to end.. The most productive mines for many years past have been those located not far from the city of Houghton in' the central part of the zone, in a section extending about ten miles southwest of Houghton and fifteen miles northeast. The most important mines in order of.location, from the northeast to south¬west, are the following: Mohawk, Ahmeek, Allouez, North Kearsarge, Wolverine, South Kearsarge, Centennial, Calumet. and Hecla, Osceola, Franklin, Quincy, Hancock, Isle Royale, Superior, Baltic, Trimountain, and Champion. The first three named are in Keweenaw county and all of the others are in Houghton county. Still farther to the southwest are the Lake, Mass, Adventure, Michigan, Victoria, and White Pine mines. These are in Ontonagon county.History. The exploitation of these copper mines extends back into prehistoric times. There is little evidence that the American Indians carried on mining operations in this region in the period shortly before the advent of white men, but there is abundant evidence that the ancestors of the Indians, •or some earlier inhabitants of the region, carried on primitive mining operations. For example, Mr. S. O. Knapp, Agent of the Minne¬sota Mining Company, in the winter of 1847-48, made the first discovery of prehistoric mining. This event is described as fol ,lows by Foster and Whitney : Location: As shown on the accompanying map, the Mar-quette district extends from the region of Marquette on Lake Superior westward for about forty miles. The main basin of the district is only about three to six miles wide, but outlying areas which are commonly regarded as belonging to the same mining unit, make the north and south dimension of the district about twenty miles. The most productive portion of the area is in the vicinity of Negaunee and Ishpeming, .about ten miles from Mar¬quette, but important mines are found also all along the range as far west as Michigamme and also to the south in the fold known as the Republic Trough. Comparatively recent developments indicate that important ore bodies have been developed in the outlying Swanzy district about eighteen Miles nearly due south of Marquette.The Marquette Iron District.History: The first discovery of iron ore in the Lake Supe¬rior region was probably that made in 1844 near the site of Ne-gaunee by the government surveying party in charge of William A. Burt, sent out under the direction of Douglass Houghton. This surveying party was using a solar compass, invented by Mr. Burt, and noticed variations in the direction of the magnetic needle at various times and places, but. on the 19th of September, while running the east line of Township 47 North, Range 27 West, the needle varied from its normal position until it stood nearly at right angles thereto."

Jan 1, 1920

By Steve Kral

For the past several years, copper producers have faced a tough business climate. Nagging low prices forced many them to reduce their production and make other drastic cutbacks just to breakeven. And sometimes even that did not work. But, like other downturns in the industry, this latest dismal copper market allowed technology to make further inroads into mining and processing operations. Now that the copper market appears to be making a turn for the better, those years spent investing in technology by equipment manufacturers and forward-thinking mining companies should begin paying off.

Jan 1, 2004

By I. J. Demer, M. L. Holzworth, J. C. Kremer, P. A. Beck

For alloys which are in practice heat treated to obtain increased strength, such as steels, duralumin, copper-beryllium, and others, the treatment usually involves heating to a relatively high temperature. At such temperatures the grain size of the product is largely determined by grain growth. Even in metals and alloys annealed merely to relieve work hardening, recrystal-lization is generally followed by a certain amount of grain growth. Thus, effective grain size control, which is often of great practical importance in manufacturing processes, depends on the grain growth behavior of the material used. Despite its importance, grain growth has been the subject of few investigations of a fundamental nature. The term "grain growth" has been used to designate a group of related, but distinctly different, phenomena. The two most important and best known of this group are illustrated by the following example. Curve a in Fig I shows the increase of the average grain size of a copper-beryllium alloy, containing 2 pct Be and 0.15 pct Co, with increasing annealing temperature. The time of annealing was 2 hr. The grain size was quite uniform in all specimens. The results of a similar experiment with an alloy containing 2 pct Be and 0.31 pct Co are shown by curve b It is seen that for any annealing temperature below T, the grain size was smaller than. in the previous case. Grain growth became slower with the higher Co content. This "inhibiting" effect of the higher Co addition was associated with the appearance in the microstructure of fine, light blue particles of the CoBe phase. Up to temperature T, the structure of the inhibited alloy (curve b) was just as uniform as the structures represented by curve a. However, after annealing at T or at higher temperatures, the inhibited alloy showed some extremely large grains (much larger than the grain sizes developed by the uninhibited alloy with low Co content) mixed with the small grains according to curve b. The presence of these mixed or "duplex" structures is indicated in Fig I by the vertical lines branching off curve b. The type of grain growth occurring in uninhibited Cu-Be alloys (curve a) has been most frequently and best investigated in brass. This type has been designated as "normal grain growth,'' while the grain growth phenomena occurring in inhibited materials were, at times, referred to as "abnormal grain growth." However, since the latter term has been applied occasionally to the phenomenon of critical recrystallization, which also results in large grains although by an entirely different mechanism, in the present paper a different nomenclature has been adopted in order to avoid confusion. Typical of the grain growth in uninhibited metals and alloys is the continuous

Jan 1, 1949