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By Priscilla Messias Pereira, Wellington Bonelar dos Santos, Alex Dalapicola Veronez, Maurício do Santos Rocha Junior, Leandro Resinentti Zanon

The pelletizing process allows inputs to be added to the mixture resulting in better control of the physical, chemical and metallurgical characteristics desired by the pellet. Anthracite is incorporated as input of the pellets as an alternative form of fuel, making the burning more homogeneous, "from the inside out", benefiting the physical resistance of the burned pellets and aiming to reduce the cost of natural gas during the stage of hardening. However, the amount of anthracite should not exceed an optimum value, which may cause an adverse effect on the physical quality of the pellets. Hence, it is very important an accurate control of the coal dosage. Based on that, the present study presents the implementation of a control using advanced control system that applies, using linear regression of historical data, the optimum relationship between anthracite and ore (respecting the physical quality of the pellets during processing in pelletizing furnaces). After the implementation of this control, it was possible to adjust the anthracite dosage automatically, measured in percentage of fixed carbon in the mixture, when the process is able, thus reducing the specific consumption of natural gas.

Oct 1, 2019

Iron production in one year exceeds that of all other metals combined in ten years. It is a huge industry that started from a modest furnace producing one - two kilograms metal per day to a gigantic reactor producing 10 000 tons per day. The major milestones of these developments are reviewed.

Jan 1, 1999

By Emily Wortman-Wunder

As the 2009 president of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., I am pleased to present the 2009 issue of Transactions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Vol. 326. A significant portion of the contribution that we as a society make is the publication of professional and technical papers that contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge and information transfer. Communication within the mining community is the key to a successful society. Through the information-transfer mechanisms of books, magazines, meetings and electronic media, the technology exchange that is fundamental to the existence of the Society is accomplished. This technology exchange continues a tradition that dates back to the 1871 meeting of 22 mining engineers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that resulted in the founding of AIME; those individuals envisioned that these transaction volumes “would form a most valuable and greatly needed addition to our professional literature.” This volume certainly satisfies that intent. In keeping with SME’s tradition of promoting technological developments while honoring the past, the 2009 Transactions represents an important milestone. It is the last Transactions to appear as a bound volume. Future volumes will appear as e-books only, with some of the Transactions-only papers appearing online prior to the ebook (exactly what form the new Transactions will take is still in development). The decision to go to an all-digital format for this longstanding publication was a difficult one, but one which we hope will better serve the mining community, especially our international members. This 2009 Transactions of SME, Vol. 326, contains a total of 73 technical papers (510 pages), including all 23 papers (136 pages) that were published in 2009 in the Technical Papers Section of Mining Engineering magazine (Vol. 61) and all 32 papers (232 pages) that were published in 2009 in Minerals & Metallurgical Processing (Vol. 26). In addition, this volume contains 18 papers (142 pages) that are being published for the first time in this issue. The papers presented in this volume were written by some of the most distinguished professionals in the industry worldwide. All 73 technical papers were peer-reviewed and approved. The process of review and publication requires much hard work by authors, reviewers and publications staff. As the 2009 president of SME and on behalf of our members, I would like to extend our gratitude to all whose efforts contributed to the publication of this volume.

Jan 1, 2009

By F. Habashi

Lead is an ancient metal, has been produced to-date from its ores exclusively by pyrometallurgical route. The process suffers from high operating cost and excessive pollution problems. Extensive research has been going on since the beginning of the twentieth century to find a non-polluting process for its production and a solution for its complex refining scheme. It has been assumed correctly that the hydrometallurgical route should be the most promising. Pilot plants have been constructed and operated for a reasonable periods, but no process has proved to be satisfactory. As a result, a number of smelters and refineries have been shut down. The present review analyses the situation and suggests that the best route to treat lead sulfide concentrates is by leaching with fluoroboric acid, HBF4, containing ferric fluoroborate, Fe(BF4)3, and electrolyzing the solution in a diaphragm cell - - a process recently invented by Italian metallurgists. In this process, any silver present in the concentrate remains in the residue together with elemental sulfur and can be recovered by known methods.

Jan 1, 2008

By John M. Lovejoy

CURRENT production of petroleum on such a vast scale presents many interesting problems- the solutions of which are important not only to those directly interested in the business, but to the nation as a whole. The industry is relatively young. Until the discovers of the Lucas gusher at Spindletop in 1901 petroleum production had not exceeded 60,000,000 bbl. per year compared with 1,100,000,000 bbl. in 1936. In 36 years then, the modern oil business, production, transportation, refining, and marketing has developed. I will first present a brief history. of oil production as a background for consideration of the present situation.

Jan 1, 1937

By John P. Fillion

This paper will present an overview of conveyor haulage systems. Technical and economic feasibility will be examined as conveyor haulage is applied to large western surface coal mines. Theoretical analysis and actual cases will be presented from NERCO Coal Corp. experiences in bringing this application to their Western mines.

Jan 1, 1989

By Jacek B. Stypulkowski

This paper discusses the challenges faced by the design team of the under-river crossings of electric transmission feeders in New York City, a densely populated urban area. The under-river crossing of a 345 kV feeder was initially designed as Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), but was redesigned as a utility tunnel because of site con¬straints on both sides of the river. Multiple studies addressed location, available tech-nologies and costs. Multiple soil investigation phases addressed design aspects of HDD, as well as tunneling. Contractual issues varied from a design build alternative with Geotechnical Data Report (GDR) to design tender approach with GDR & Geotechnical Baseline Report (GBR).

By George F. Weaton

During the past eight years there has been a dramatic change in the iron ore industry of Minnesota, in that its status has changed from that of a seller's market to a higly competitive buyer's market. Minnesota's natural ores must now be beneficiated and up-graded considerably to be marketed in order to compete with the higher grade foreign ores as well as with the locally produced and highly desirable taconite pellets. With the passage of the "Taconite Amendment' in the November, 1964 election, the taconite industry commenced to expand in Minnesota, which, although initiated in that state, was benefiting many other states and some foreign countries to a much greater extent than Minnesota. These other areas were actually appropriating markets that had been established and retained by Minnesota for many years. Since the approval by the state voters of this amendment, there has been a great increase in the development of taconite properties on the Mesabi Range.

Jan 1, 1966

By Eugene A. Thiers, William V. Morris

INTRODUCTION Direct reduction processes reduce the various commercial forms of iron oxide (pellets, concentrate, fines, etc.) to metallic iron at temperatures lower than that of molten iron. Thus, this technology includes practically, all iron reduction processes other than blast furnaces and electric pig iron furnaces (whose output in terms of world production is negligible). The product of these processes which is known as direct reduced iron (DRI), or sponge iron, is primarily used as a source of metallic iron in steel-making operations. Interest in DRI, which has been significant since the early 1960s, increased significantly in recent years with the rapid growth of DRI installed capacity throughout the world. The importance of the subject for the Circum-Pacific region stems directly from the influence that DRI has on iron ore consumption and on future steel development for this region. Although there is widespread agreement that electric furnaces will continue to increase their share of global steel output, and especially so in the countries of the Pacific Steel community, some doubts exist about future scrap supplies being adequate to support growth at past rates. The authors believe that such doubts are soundly based. As this paper points out, the total supply of all metallics used in electric furnaces may not be adequate to support the extrapolated rapid growth in electric furnace steel production. This paper seeks to provide perspective on the global and Circum-Pacific prospects for DRI in light of recent energy price developments and the current recession. In this regard, the demand for DRI within the context of recent evolutionary patterns in steel-making, the outlook of DRI supply in terms of prevailing production costs, and the prospects of new technology are discussed. THE DEMAND FOR DRI Although several reports published in the last 10 years predict high rates of growth in DRI, the subject remains a controversial one. Significant growth has indeed occurred, but not to the extent anticipated in the studies summarized in Table 1. The substantial difference between previous expectations and present reality can be ascribed primarily to: (1) lower growth in steel production than formerly anticipated; (2) numerous cancellations of DRI facilities that were previously announced; and (3) a fundamental and probably irreversible change in the economics of DRI production. Note that DRI capacity at the end of 1980 was about 16 million tonnes, a significantly lower figure than any of the projections above. In addition, DRI production was only about half of capacity, reflecting the abnormally low rates of capacity utilization in this industry. [ ] Before examining the current outlook in steel, it is pertinent to note that the market for DRI is usually different in the industrialized countries of the West from that in developing countries. In the former, the available infrastructure and industry's diversification extends DRI's potential markets to numerous steelmaking, foundry, and other industrial applications, although competition from scrap and other forms of metallic iron is constant. Scrap is generally available in these countries and, therefore, DRI competes with it in electric furnace steelmaking, basic oxygen steelmaking (as a coolant), cupola foundry operations, or as an additive in the metallic charge for open hearth and blast furnaces. On the other hand, DRI in developing countries is often allocated exclusively to domestic electric furnace steelmaking or, when capacity exceeds domestic captive requirements, to export. Notwithstanding quality considerations, DRI is being and is likely to continue to be used predominantly as a source of metallics in iron and steel-making. Other uses of DRI, such as in copper cementation represent a marginal market in terms of overall tonnage and can be ignored at this point. Therefore, DRI demand is-determined by the overall availability of metallic scrap in its various forms--a function of steel production and its probable evolution. The Global Steel Outlook Given the present recession, an objective appraisal of the long-term outlook for steel is particularly difficult. On the one hand, historical trends and, especially, the inertial forces associated with such a basic industry as steel must be recognized; such trends suggest that the current stagnation with

Jan 1, 1982

The mercury, gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc values of soils over altered and mineralised rock were determined to establish the potential use of mercury as an indicator element in geochemical prospecting. The results are presented to show that mercury can be used successfully in prospecting for precious metal mineralization in the Thames-Waihi area.

Jan 1, 1979

By J. J. Arps

This paper reviews the methods currently in use for estimating primary oil reserves and discusses the principles on which these methods are based. Particular emphasis is placed on how these methods change with the type of information available during the life cycle of an oil property. This paper contains various novel estimating methods and shortcuts heretofore unpublished. INTRODUCTION Estimating oil reserves is one of the most important phases of the work of a petroleum engineer since the solutions to the problems he deals with usually depend on a comparison of the estimated cost in terms of dollars, with the anticipated result in terms of barrels of oil. His recommendations to management regarding the best course of action are therefore normally based on the most favorable balance between these two. Specific engineering problems which require such a knowledge of recoverable oil reserves and a projection of future rates are: [a.] the exploitation and development of an oil reservoir; [b.] the construction of gasoline plants, pipelines and refineries; [c.] the division of ownership in unitized projects; [d.] the price to be paid in case of a sale or purchase of an oil property, and the magnitude of the loan which it will support; [e.] the proper depreciation rate for the investment in oil properties; and [f.] evaluation of the results of an exploration program. This discussion will be confined to the various methods and tools which are currently in use for estimating oil reserves to be obtained during the primary phase of an oil-producing reservoir and for a projection of the future production rates. Reserves which may be obtained by secondary recovery methods or fluid injection programs and gas and gas condensate reserves will not be discussed in this paper. Unfortunately, reliable oil reserve figures are most urgently needed during the early stages when only a minimum amount of information is available. Management's interest in the oil recovery from a property—aside from its use for accounting purposes—usually declines when the property approaches its economic limit, just at the time when the reliability of the estimates is at its best. To illustrate this general idea a chart is presented (Fig. 1) showing the three periods in the life of an imaginary oil property. Time is shown on the horizontal axis, while the cumulative production and estimated ultimate recovery are plotted vertically. No particular units are used and this schematical chart is not to scale. During the first period, before any wells are drilled on a property, any estimates will of necessity be of a very general nature, based on experience from similar pools or wells in the same area, and usually expressed in barrels per acre. This will

Jan 1, 1957

By Wilfred M. Kenan

The relationship of various genetic classifications of graphite, their properties and general applications are reviewed. The classifications being amorphous, flake, high crystalline (vein) primary synthetic graphite and secondary graphite. The properties discussed are size, carbon, sulfur, ash content, general chemical analysis and degree of graphitization of each type. The major sources for natural and synthetic graphite powders are discussed in addition to factors which govern the cost as well as the supply. The economics of graphite are basically determined by the consumer and the end application. Graphite is a strategic mineral and is on the government stockpile list.

Jan 1, 1984

By Husamuddin Ahmadzai

A survey of regulations and state of the art control technologies is presented relating to the smelting of primary aluminium, copper and recycling of residues. Some costs associated with the alternatives and trends for the coming decade in this. sector are identified.

Jan 1, 1992

By George Sears

UNTIL a comparatively few years ago, interest in tantalum was limited almost wholly to its scientific investigation, but its extreme resistance to the action of even the strong mineral acids, its great avidity for the common gases, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and its capacity for transforming alternating to direct current are winning for it a place in our industrial life. Tantalum is not attacked by any single acid except hydrofluoric, nor is it affected by solutions of alkalies. Aqua regia, which readily dissolves both platinum and gold, has no action on it. This resistance to the common corrosive agents is an outstanding property of tantalum and accounts for many of the applications to which it has been put. When heated, tantalum reacts readily with oxygen and nitrogen and absorbs large volumes of hydrogen, 740 volumes being taken up at a dull red heat. This capacity for absorbing gases is being utilized to an increasing extent in the manufacture of vacuum tubes, in which tantalum is used for the metal parts, especially for grid wire. It is said to be a superior metal for this purpose, particularly in power and sending tubes, because of its low secondary emission. The use of tantalum in the manufacture of electrodes, dishes, spatulas and other laboratory apparatus appears to be fairly steady. There has been some development in its use for dental instruments, surgical tools, pen points, hypodermic needles and acidproof pumps. Recently it has been used in the manufacture of spinnerets for the rayon industry, of nozzles for the manufacture of artificial casings for sausages and of lining for plant equipment.

Jan 1, 1930

ENGINEERING department problems of unravel- ling filing systems of reference data, detail drawings, magazine tear sheets, technical records, manufacturers' catalogs-and coordinating them with the information classification systems employed by the company library and other information services -are being solved in many cases by adopting a basic classification system such as that used by Sweet's Catalog Service and applying its classification and indexing methods to file or bookshelf. By this procedure the engineering department does away with the confusion, duplication, and conflict that exist between personal, department, and company library files. It establishes a pattern for regulating and distributing the potential information that piles up daily in the engineering department basket marked "Incoming."

Jan 5, 1954

By P. O. Ripley

Into this tumultuous twentieth century, every second, two new babies are born. This is 5,412 per hour, and 130,000 per day. Relentlessly, consistently, alarmingly, they add to the more than three billion human beings who already inhabit the earth. Every tick of tier clock brings with it a problem child, the problem of another mouth to feed, another body to clothe, another human being for whom to provide. On the other hand, medical science has achieved a postponement of death, considerably past the period of a few years ago. Thus, life expectancy has been increased and world population has increased accordingly. Darwin (4) writing in 1962, suggests "It is curious how long the world is taking to perceive that we are living in what is a fantastically abnormal period of history, and one which must inevitably end soon, The first warning note of a possible population explosion was given by Malthus in 1799". He suggested that population increases geometrical while production increases only arithmetically and that soon we would not be able to feed the rapidly increasing population.

Jan 1, 1966

By Fumitaka Tsukihashi

Increasing amounts of steel scrap are being used as resources for steelmaking. Therefore, there has been a growing interest in the removal of harmful tramp elements such as antimony, zinc, tin, arsenic, bismuth, lead and copper from the molten steel. The problem that should be solved is the economic removal treatment of residual tramp elements in the steelmaking processes and the production of high quality steel by reducing the effect of the contaminated tramp elements and satisfying the environmental regulations. In this paper, the available thermodynamic data of the residual tramp elements in the molten steel arc summarized and the possibility of the removal of residual tramp elements from the molten steel is thermodynamically estimated.

Jan 1, 2003

By C J. Greet, S Jacques

In most instances, the application of high-chrome grinding media results in an increase in the recovery of the valuable mineral(s). The authors have published data from a number of plant-based case studies, which indicate that it is not unreasonable to expect a recovery increase in the vicinity of 1.5 to 2.0 per cent for a copper ore. It is of interest to understand where the increase in recovery is coming from. That is, is the additional copper recovery the result of improved fine particle flotation or is it due to an improvement across all size fractions?This paper aims to answer this question. Laboratory flotation tests were completed using forged steel and a high-chrome alloy on a volcanogenic massive sulfide copper ore. The unsized data indicated that the application of high-chrome grinding media to this ore resulted in an improvement in both copper recovery and copper concentrate grade. A detailed kinetic analysis of both the copper sulfide and gangue minerals was completed that clearly shows that the change to a more inert grinding media produced significant increases in the flotation rate constants (both fast and slow) across all size fractions. It is also possible to observe that the change in pulp chemistry has resulted in a decrease in the flotation kinetics of the -20 micron pyrite, while the coarse pyrite recoveries have increased, presumably because of an increase in the flotation of the chalcopyrite/pyrite composite particles.CITATION:Greet, C J, Jacques, S and Kinal, J, 2014. Recovery-by-size kinetic analysis to determine where metallurgical improvements occur when converting to high-chrome grinding media, in Proceedings 12th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2014 , pp 217–224 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 1, 2014

By Gruenewaldt von

Paper presented at the IAGOD international symposium on mineralization related to mafic and ultramafic rocks held in Orleans, France, 1-3 September 1993. The principles of shear-driven aggregation of particulate matter suspended in fluids, a common industrial method of concentration and separation, were applied to a convecting magma to estimate the time required to sparge or strip the PGE and Cr content and concentrate it into the boundary layers. It was calculated that an ore-grade (e.g. 6 ppm PGE) boundary layer about 1 m thick would require 100 000 years at most to form from a body of magma 500 m deep with a PGE content of 20 ppb. Since concentration would be most vigorous when the magma was warmest, at least half of this concentration would take place in the first 10 000 years. The effect of dispersive pressure in the boundary layer would generate a concentration high of refractories just below the top of each boundary layer and another just above the bottom. If the magma was a double-diffusive system, it might evolve by the downward cascade of enriched boundary-layer material into the hotter, lower magma layers, where depending on saturation levels chromites would equilibrate and sulphides undergo partial or total resorption, enriching PGE levels in any remaining sulphides. This cascade process would in time greatly enrich the lower regions in PGE-bearing sulphides and chromites

Apr 1, 1994

While coal was undoubtedly seen by the early travellers within the state, the first mention of it was in the late 1820's when hunters put some stones from a creek bed under the logs of a large camp fire, and awoke later to find the stones on fire. The stream was later named Coal Branch; the location was at the eastern side of the present Bibbs County.1 In the Louisville Daily Journal of Feb. 11, 1831, the following short editorial note appeared: "Tuscaloosa Coal.-A small quantity of this article has reached Mobile, and has been tried in the office of the Patriot; it is said to be an excellent article. We invite such of our friends as desire economy in fuel, love a cheerful and constant fire, or would eschew a smoky room, to call and examine." On a geological map published in 1832, the "Carboniferous group" is shown and a spot near Tuscaloosa indicated as showing bituminous coal,2 and this is again alluded to in Morton's Synopsis, 1834. A brief description of the coal fields in the state in 1834 said that in winter coal was brought down the. Black Warrior River to Mobile and sold there at the same price as Liverpool coal, $1.00 to $1.50 per barrel, ($10 to $15 per ton) and that the writer was using it in his laboratory.3 At that time it was in local use by smiths and an iron foundry was using it in Shelby County.4 In 1836 some coal was mined in the Birmingham district, chiefly in the northern portion of the Coosa basin, where it was loaded on barges and taken down the Coosa Rivers.5 "William Whitman dug coal out of Wolf Creek (Walker County) in 1837," and in the same county, in 1839, the first coal shaft in the state, was sunk. This was near the mouth of Lost Creek and was known as Frierson's Shaft. It was operated by a hand windlass, using two tubs.1

Jan 1, 1942