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By Brad H. A Brown, J Paul Tidman

To design a blast, one must give consideration to safety, economics, geometry, geology, production needs, and a variety of other requirements. To compare designs requires the time to develop alternatives, analyze, and then improve on them. A number of tools are available to assist with the first set of requirements, however they are poorly integrated. SHOTPlus is a program to improve the efficiency of blasting operations, by combining measurement and blast design tools, and offers the user the time and means to modify designs and explore alternatives.

Jan 1, 1997

? The Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) was established through an Act of Parliament in 1901 ? The MABC represents the interests of B.C.?s ? Coal and mineral mining companies ? Smelting companies ? Advanced stage development projects ? Key areas of work: ? Environment, Health and Safety ? Policy & Government Relations ? Knowledge and Information Services

May 1, 2008

By G. Paul

The mechanism of nodular crystallisation of graphite in the production of spheroidal cast Iron is not fully understood. The work reported In this paper confirms that in cast iron melts having a high Interfacial tension against the environmental atmosphere, the graphite tends to crystallise in nodules during solidification. The Influence of Interfacial tension between melt and solid graphite is similar.

By Randall M. Wheeler

Computer analyses of single hole signatures are often used to help blasting operators predict the type of ground vibration effects that may be produced from production blasts incorporating various delay intervals. Frequency analyses of single hole waveforms and subsequent multi-hole waveform simulations can allow an operator to determine the best type of delay intervals to use in order to minimize low frequency ground vibrations.

Jan 1, 1989

By Don Thompson

Canada’s oil sands are a controversial topic and virtually every newsmaker and layperson seems to have an opinion about this 179 billion barrel resource. The oil sands represent 97 per cent of Canada’s remaining oil reserves, but misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the facts are threatening development of a resource that generates significant employment and tax revenue for Canadians. Join Don Thompson, president of the Oil Sands Developers Group, as he dispels the top ten myths about Canada’s oil sands and presents an alternative perspective on an industry that can play a critical role in North America’s economic recovery.

Jan 1, 2010

By K. Zenger, J. Kaartinen, J. Huuskonen, S. Torttila, S. Lähteenmäki, J. Pietilä

"Pyhäsalmi Mine in Finland has a long history of continuous process development. The concentrator processes Cu-Zn-sulphide ore with high recoveries. An on-line flotation simulator has been developed to maintain and further improve the flotation performance. Consisting of a flotation kinetic dynamic model, and interconnected with process control software, the simulator can be used for training new control room operators in various scenarios. For daily operation, the model parameters are continuously adapted to take into account the changing process conditions. On-line simulator tracking the process can provide the process operator new information in several ways: a) values of unmeasured process variables are obtained by displaying the corresponding simulator values, b) predictions of future process states and outputs are calculated and displayed, c) information of changing process parameters can be used as an indicator of e.g. change in the processed ore type. This paper describes the adaptive simulation system and its usage at the Pyhäsalmi concentrator.IntroductionPyhäsalmi massive sulphide orebody is located in central Finland. Operation of the mine started in 1962 and it is currently producing copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and sulphur (S) concentrates. The concentrator control and optimization system has a long history of successful continuous development during the past decades (see e.g. Huuskonen & Moilanen, 2010). An on-stream analyzer has been a part of the automatic process control since 1968 (Lähteenmäki, Miettunen & Saloheimo, 1999). First control algorithms based on a flotation mathematical model were developed in 1971 (Koivistoinen & Miettunen, 1985). In 1990’s the development of a froth machine vision systems started (Kaartinen, 2009; Kaartinen, Roine & Hätönen, 2009). More recently Pyhäsalmi Mine Oy has been involved with several national development projects dealing with particle size distribution measurements (Kaartinen & Tolonen, 2008), spectral analysis of flotation slurries (Haavisto, Kaartinen & Hyötyniemi, 2008), and dynamic simulation of flotation processes. The latter topic is further elaborated in this paper."

Jan 1, 2015

By Louis D. Huntoon

The Porcupine gold area, located on the Hudson Bay slope of northern Ontario, has produced over $100,000,000 in gold and has paid more than $28,000,000 in dividends, since the first real production in 1912. The character of the ore has been studied by the geologists of the Bureau of Mines of Ontario, the geological staffs of the operating mines, and engineers commissioned to examine properties there. What information the Government has is free to everybody; the geological staffs of the several properties also give to the visiting engineer what information regarding ore deposition they possess, and the author wishes to express his indebtedness to the geologists of the Ontario Bureau of Mines and the staffs of the operating mines for their free discussion of geological questions. This paper is based on the examination of several properties, various petrographic reports, not only on specimens from Porcupine but from elsewhere in northern Ontario, and interviews with Government and mine staff geologists. The petrographic work has been done by Prof. R. J. Colony, of Columbia University. Geological History The geological history of the district may be summarized as follows: The outpouring of great floods of lava accompanied by beds of tuff, flow following flow; the contacts of different flows can be seen in various parts of the camp. This period mas followed by an uplift and the production of the Temiskaming sediments by erosion. Later, dynamic action turned the sediments and underlying lavas on edge; this was followed by the intrusion of igneous rocks—in the Porcupine area the quartz porphyry, which is of such great importance in connection with the gold deposits. Doctor Burrows says: "The intrusions of quartz porphyry have in some way influenced the deposition or location of the gold but it is not likely the porphyry has been the source of the gold-bearing solutions." This statement of Doctor Burrows I indorse. The formation of non-gold bearing quartz veins followed the intrusion of the porphyry. These veins occur along or near the contact of

Jan 1, 1923

By Louis D. Huntoon

The Porcupine gold area, located on the Hudson Bay slope of northern Ontario, has produced over $100,000,000 in gold and has paid more than $28,000,000 in dividends, since the first real production in 1912. The character of the ore has been studied by the geologists of the Bureau of Mines of Ontario, the geological staffs of the operating mines, and engineers commissioned to examine properties there. What information the Government has is free to everybody; the geological staffs of the several properties also give to the visiting engineer what information regarding ore deposition they possess, and the author wishes to express his indebtedness to the geologists of the Ontario Bureau of Mines and the staffs of the operating mines for their free discussion of geological questions. This paper is based on the examination of several properties, various petrographic reports, not only on specimens from Porcupine but from elsewhere in northern Ontario, and interviews with Government and mine staff geologists. The petrographic work has been done by Prof. R. J. Colony, of Columbia University. Geological History The geological history of the district may be summarized as follows: The outpouring of great floods of lava accompanied by beds of tuff, flow following flow; the contacts of different flows can be seen in various parts of the camp. This period mas followed by an uplift and the production of the Temiskaming sediments by erosion. Later, dynamic action turned the sediments and underlying lavas on edge; this was followed by the intrusion of igneous rocks—in the Porcupine area the quartz porphyry, which is of such great importance in connection with the gold deposits. Doctor Burrows says: "The intrusions of quartz porphyry have in some way influenced the deposition or location of the gold but it is not likely the porphyry has been the source of the gold-bearing solutions." This statement of Doctor Burrows I indorse. The formation of non-gold bearing quartz veins followed the intrusion of the porphyry. These veins occur along or near the contact of

Jan 1, 1923

By William H. Tavenner

1. The 1952 Annual Report of the West Virginia Department of Mines lists nine beds that arc being mined in Logan County, of which the Cedar Grove and Chilton are the most important. The Cedar Grove group, No. 2 Gas, and Alma beds have the largest remaining reserves, in the order given. 2. Known measured and indicated reserves in all beds, based on a minimum thickness of 14 inches and 1,800 short tons per acre-foot of coal in place, are estimated at 5,411 million tons as of January 1, 1954. Of this total, 3,939 million tons is in beds 28 inches and more thick. Areas in each bed were omitted from the estimate because available data relative to the bed characteristics were too meager for making an estimate that conforms with the definitions of measured and indicated coal adopted for this study. Should future drilling or development prove reserves in these areas, such reserves should be added to the total estimate reserves.

Jan 1, 1956

By John F. Wiss

A series of controlled experiments was conducted at four surface coal mines to study the effects of certain blast parameters upon the ground and air vibration. Preliminary scale-model blasts were conducted at a quarry to provide basic data. It was found that the amplitudes of the ground and air vibration were controlled by the maximum explosive weight per delay. Either cube root or square root scaling could be used for the seismic amplitudes, and cube root scaling could be used for the overpressure amplitudes. Both amplitudes were not significantly affected by the total charge weight per blast, the attitude of the boreholes, or the charge length or diameter. The overpressure amplitudes were affected by the charge depth, the use of cover over surface detonating cord, and the use of adequate stemming. The length of the delay intervals and the spacing of holes were important in determining the potential for reinforcement of the amplitudes in certain directions from the blasts. In downwind directions from the blast, the attenuation of the overpressure with distance decreases. Surface terrain t did not significantly affect the overpressure amplitudes within the range investigated. The type of overburden affects the generation of both amplitudes and the propagation of the seismic amplitudes. Spectral analysis of the ground and air vibration is reported. A bibliography of pertinent literature is included as an appendix. A scaled distance of 300 ft/lb1/3 should produce a peak particle velocity of less than 1 ips and an overpressure of less than 128 dB linear peak. For square root scaling, a scaled distance of 75 ft/lbl/2 should limit the ground vibration to less than 1 ips.

Jan 1, 1978

By John C. Machisak

Injury data and experience, with related employment statistics, at coal mines in the United States for 1959 are presented in this publication under the following general sections: (A) General injury experience: Tables 1 to 6: Current data on number of injuries degree of injury, frequency and severity rates, average severity, and related employment and production data by work location. (B) Selected injury experience: Tables 7 to 38: Current data on principal agencies of injuries, distribution of injuries by part of body injured, days of disability, extent of hand and machine loading, experience by employment and production groups, and various other operating factors and physical conditions related to the occurrence of injuries at the Nation's coal mines.

Jan 1, 1961

By Mokhinabonu Mardonova, Yosoon Choi

Open-source technology to support Industry 4.0 has become the target of academic research in many sectors. This study reviews the trends of open-source technology, its forms, and some industrial applications. As a case study of the use of open-source hardware and software in the mining industry, this study proposed a low-cost environmental monitoring system for nonmetallic underground mines to support mine safety and occupational health. The system was developed using open-source hardware, Arduino and 3D printer, to design the monitoring device, and open-source software, MIT App Inventor, to develop an Android application for smartphones to enable remote communication with the system. Field experiments were conducted at an underground tunnel and a nonmetallic underground mining site to assess the performance of the system in mobile and static modes, respectively. Although a few limitations related to the precision of the low-cost dust and gas sensors exist, the findings of the experiments show that the mining industry can benefit from open-source technology deployment when considering cost factors.

By Hamid Maleki

A geotechnical monitoring program has been implemented at Energy West Mining Company for enhancing site-specific evaluation of longwall stress conditions. This program consists of underground measurements at five locations in two neighboring mining districts located in the Hiawatha and Blind Canyon Coal Seams under moderate to deep cover. Within the last five years, additional measurements, including data on recorded seismic events and face conditions, have been incorporated into the data collection program together with detailed geologic mapping of longwall gateroads. In conjunction with the measurement program, the authors have completed detailed boundary-element stress analyses of the mine plans. Models have been calibrated using the data from in-mine instrumentations and then routinely used for evaluation of mine plans at depths approaching 2,600-ft. The work has improved our understanding of load transfer, seismicity and yield pillar performance. It has identified areas of potential increased stress levels at certain longwall face positions and provided guidance to measures that could be considered to mitigate the potential for these increased stress levels.

Jan 1, 2009

By B. J. Moore

This publication contains analyses and related source data for 191 natural gas samples from 22 states and 1 foreign country. Of the total samples, 182 were collected during calendar year 1987. The remainder were collected earlier, but releases granting permission to publish were not received before 1987. All samples were obtained and analyzed as part of Bureau of Mines investigations of the occurrences of helium in natural gases of countries with free market economies. This survey has been conducted since 1917. The analyses published herein were made by mass spectrometer and chromatograph.

Jan 1, 1988

By Thierry Bernard

For many years now electronic initiation has brought the time parameter to the centre of blast designs forever. Although this parameter existed before the era of electronic detonators, Blasting engineers or blasters could not directly handle it; technology imposed it. Only discrete values were available. Today, the fact that we can choose any detonation time for an explosive charge questions the viability of most of the rules applied for blast design. Thus, the very famous charge per delay method, that enables a level of vibration to be forecast at a given distance (“Chapot’s law”), is no longer necessarily valid when using electronic initiation. Therefore, it must be approached in a totally different manner. The KUZ-RAM formula, that allows fragmentation to be forecast, is also subject to the same distortion. The aim of this article is to show how the calculation laws used for blast design are influenced by the time parameter (sequence) and how we can efficiently make the most of this, in particular for vibrations. Copyright ©

Jan 1, 2005

By E. Dernedde

Industrial plants located in the province of Quebec, Canada, are subjected to large variations of the ambient air temperature, Building ventilation systems of these plants must have some flexibility in order to meet industrial hygiene standards (TLV for chemical substances, heat stress and cold stress) at any time of the year, The building ventilation of a bath treatment plant of an aluminium smelter in Quebec was examined under summer and winter conditions, Part of the plant has periodic emissions of hydrogen fluoride gas and heat from hot anode butts, CFD modeling was used to optimise the building ventilation of the bath treatment plant, The present study proposes a modified building ventilation system, which improves the internal environment, complies with industrial hygiene standards and also reduces heating costs by 20 % during winter.

Jan 1, 2005

By P Paredes, T Leaño, D Gajardo, C Tramón, S Peñaloza

The definition of an ore handling system and its consequent layout design is of crucial importance in cave mining projects. It not only represents the main driver in the production capacity and reliability of the mining system, it is also a fundamental variable in the footprint’s development time and cost.In recent decades, load-haul-dump (LHD) tramming distance optimisation through the allocation of several orepasses inside the footprint has been the most common practice in ore handling system layout definition at Codelco’s operations. Today, the improvement of existing technology, such as higher-capacity LHDs and jaw-gyratory crushers, and intensive preconditioning techniques to improve fragmentation allow the conceptualisation of simple and highly productive ore handling system layouts for wide caving areas that avoid the complexity and high cost of developing numerous orepasses inside the footprint.The initial macroblocks of the Chuquicamata underground mine project (PMCHS) consider an ore handling system layout in which LHDs dump into orepasses located inside the footprint area. The ore is then transferred into crusher chambers located below the production level, where it is crushed by jaw crushers and then conveyed to surface. In an effort to reduce development time and costs, a new ore handling system layout for the PMCHS experimental macroblocks was engineered using improved technologies and techniques in a simpler mining system. This paper compares the new ore handling system layout for the project’s experimental macroblocks with the traditional LHD-orepass layout in terms of production capacity, reliability, development time and cost.CITATION:Paredes, P, Gajardo, D, Leaño, T, Peñaloza, S and Tramón, C, 2016. Simplifying the ore handling system through the use of current technology at Chuquicamata underground mine project, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 571–584 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By Pablo Velasco

After becoming an oil exporter in 1972, Ecuador experienced a remarkable economic upswing until 1978. However, in 1979 and 1980, a combination of only slight improvements in agricultural output and stagnating petroleum output lowered rates of real gross domestic product (GDP) expansion to 5.3% and 4.3%, respectively. In current prices, the GDP in 1980 was estimated at $11.3 billion.2 The slowdown in growth is attributable in large part to the low level of petroleum exploration in the 1972-79 period. Ecuador's production of petroleum declined 4.5% in 1980 compared with that of 1979. The consortium of Corporación Eatetal Petrolera Ecuatoriana (CEPS), the State oil company, and Texaco, Inc., operating in Ecuador's eastern jungle region was responsible for nearly all of 1980 production, The volume of total crude petroleum exports from Ecuador dropped from 44.7 million barrels in 1979 to 40 million barrels in 1980, although crude petroleum export revenues rose from $1,032 million in 1979 to $1,294 million in 1980- The latter figure represented 54% of Ecuador's 1980 merchandise exports. Crude oil exports accounted far about 46% of the value of 1979 merchandise exports. The total nonfuel mineral exports in 1980 were valued at less than $1 million.

Jan 1, 1982

D. J. DEMOREST,* Washington, D. C. (written discussion ?).-This paper is a real contribution to technical science; it will make it' easier to think accurately about the inner workings of a blast furnace. I was rather surprised to read that the authors regarded as a new discovery the idea that a molten mixture of CaO, A1203, and Si02 is a molten solution of the compounds of these oxides rather than of the oxides in each other. Surely no. chemist with an active respect for the known facts of chemical affinity could believe that these oxides could be melted together without forming compounds, and that these compounds would then dissolve in one another. This work does, however, help to establish what it was supposed must be true. I think it is worth while, in the light of the work of the Geophysics Laboratory, this work of the Bureau of Mines, and that of previous investigators, to visualize what happens as a charge passes down through a blast furnace, thinking especially of the slag-forming materials. These are chiefly kaolin (Al203.2SiO2.2H2O), quartz, and limestone. These substances do not undergo much change until the limestone decomposes at about the middle of the furnace, whereupon the chemical affinities of CaO and SiO2 must begin to he active; especially if there is any amorphous Si02 present. This forms CaSiO3, and the SiO2, CaSi02 and Al2-032SiO2 then come together to form the binary and ternary eutectics so well located by the work of the Geophysics Laboratory. No matter how much lime has been charged into the furnace, the formation of this eutectic will start it about the same height in the furnace and the gangue will start to get pasty at the same height. If the charge is such that the

Jan 4, 1918

The BHP Billiton Cannington Mine uses paste as the principal method of backfill. The paste consists of mine tailings and cement. The pastefill process at Cannington includes a surface plant where the thickened total tailings stream is filtered using two vacuum disc filters operating in parallel. The filter cake is mixed with Portland cement in a spiral mixer to produce a paste at a specified yield stress and cement content. The initial system design only required paste to be delivered under gravity. In July 2001, Cannington Mine expanded to 1.8 million tonnes per annum. In order to achieve this, production commenced on five new levels underground, 350 metres horizontally from the paste plant. Due to the high viscosity of paste, this distance was too far to transport by gravity. Traditionally, paste has been transported only short distances (50 m) using positive displacement pumps, with very limited success. At Cannington, a conveyor was installed which was designed to achieve zero spillage into the environment. This paper discusses the innovative design strategies used to attain zero harm on the environment whilst conveying a material, which is difficult to transport.

Jan 1, 2002