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Same-batch and non-blind as well as blind pulp duplicates are often submitted as quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) control samples to a routine laboratory along with routine assays (and other control samples such as reference material samples). The current ways of interpreting the results of duplicate assays to derive QA/QC conclusions and decisions, however, has not yet been formalised in a scientific manner. The current, prevailing approach and its limitations are reviewed and a new method is proposed as a substitute tool. This new tool should allow for operational error detection on a batch per batch basis (ie batch rejection) as well as laboratory performance assessment with time on reproducibility.

Jan 1, 2008

By Karl Marquis

La Mine Mouska exploite depuis deux ans certains blocs de réserve à l?aide de la méthode long trou. Même si, à priori, la méthode long trou semble rentable, le contrôle de la dilution ainsi que le respect d?un échéancier serré s?avèrent primordiaux afin que cette méthode d?exploitation puisse être justifiable économiquement. La présentation suivante fera la comparaison économique entre cette méthode et celle de chambre-magasin.

Oct 1, 2001

By J Kelly, C Kelsey

The Autogenous Kelsey Axial Displacement (KAD) mill is essentially a short retention time centrifugal mill, designed to effectively harness extraordinarily high concentrations of input energy for efficient particle size reduction. The mill which has an operating duty band extending from primary to ultra-fine also has the unique capacity to generate fine and ultra-fine products from single stage size reductions of either coarse or fine mineral feeds, in both wet or dry operating modes. This paper covers developments following a recent optimisation programme which confirmed that mill shell speed and the velocity differential between the shell and the rotating internal disc assembly tips could be optimised in relation to specific energy for a given feed rate and feed size providing the product size remains constant. Subsequent test-work further demonstrated the versatility of the mill with duties ranging from the removal of surface contamination associated with heavy mineral concentrate particles to the production of premium ultra-fine talc, from a single stage of size reduction. Open circuit grinding of a rougher gravity concentrate to liberate gold ahead of leaching also highlighted the scope for the application of low cost KAD milling for a range of hydrometallurgical feed preparation duties, which involve fine and ultra-fine grinding.CITATION:Kelly, J and Kelsey, C, 2013. Advanced media-free fine and ultra-fine grinding - The Kelsey axial displacement mill, in Proceedings MetPlant 2013 , pp 152-161 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 15, 2013

By Walter S. Lutz, J. T. Griffith

The rainfall during the last six months of 1942 in Scranton and vicinity was 24.06 in.—only 4.35 in more than the average for this district in any equivalent period—yet that rain forced The Hudson Coal Co. to handle 38.8 tons of water for every ton of coal mined. It filled to overflowing, or to a higher level, 14 flooded mine areas holding, in total volume, 8.3 billion gallons of water in storage; brought about a pumpage of 11.4 billion gallons in the months of December 1942 and January, February and March 1943 Half of the total energy generated or purchased (44,322,980 kw-hr.) was required to keep the mines sufficiently free of water to permit the mining of coal during a period of much needed output. Fig. I shows the extent to which this flooding of exhausted and idle properties has proceeded, and is known to be proceeding further, at the upper end of the Northern field. This rainfall (24.06 in.) means 80,559,444 tons of water on approximately 46.2 sq. miles of area tributary to the pumping plants. During the high rainfall period, 72,687,661 tons went underground, being pumped at the stations in this territory. This means an inflow of 88per cent, a runoff of 12 per cent compared with 64 per cent during normal conditions in a normal region. During this period no floods, either surface or underground, had to be dealt with, although the streams and rivers were high on several occasions. In general, the rainfall for the first three months of 1943 can be described as heavy but not abnormal.9 These figures not only indicate the large volumes of water to be handled but, by their very size, they also emphasize that the mine-water problem is not to be conquered, at least from an economical standpoint, by merely buying and installing more and more pumps. Into the solving of this water problem must go much planning, adhering to the principle of keeping the highest percentage of water at the highest possible level for the longest period of time; the storage of huge volumes in sumps capable of being reduced after the flood inflow and at rates less than the inflow; plans for prevention of surface inflow; provision of the minimum of pumping capacity arranged to as nearly 100 per cent pumping load factor as is possible; intercompany joint pumping plants; the conducting of water from one plant to another and from one property to another over distances measured in miles; priorities in power to the threatening situations; and. balance of the necessities and dangers existent in one colliery over another, day by day, when quantities of water are running high. Despite these astronomical figures of water volumes, their disposal to the surface is accomplished reasonably cheaply because, although the annual cost of $575,020 is a large sum, the cost per ton is about 0.1168 cents. Credit for this goes

Jan 1, 1947

By J. T. Griffith, Walter S. Lutz

The rainfall during the last six months of 1942 in Scranton and vicinity was 24.06 in.—only 4.35 in more than the average for this district in any equivalent period—yet that rain forced The Hudson Coal Co. to handle 38.8 tons of water for every ton of coal mined. It filled to overflowing, or to a higher level, 14 flooded mine areas holding, in total volume, 8.3 billion gallons of water in storage; brought about a pumpage of 11.4 billion gallons in the months of December 1942 and January, February and March 1943 Half of the total energy generated or purchased (44,322,980 kw-hr.) was required to keep the mines sufficiently free of water to permit the mining of coal during a period of much needed output. Fig. I shows the extent to which this flooding of exhausted and idle properties has proceeded, and is known to be proceeding further, at the upper end of the Northern field. This rainfall (24.06 in.) means 80,559,444 tons of water on approximately 46.2 sq. miles of area tributary to the pumping plants. During the high rainfall period, 72,687,661 tons went underground, being pumped at the stations in this territory. This means an inflow of 88per cent, a runoff of 12 per cent compared with 64 per cent during normal conditions in a normal region. During this period no floods, either surface or underground, had to be dealt with, although the streams and rivers were high on several occasions. In general, the rainfall for the first three months of 1943 can be described as heavy but not abnormal.9 These figures not only indicate the large volumes of water to be handled but, by their very size, they also emphasize that the mine-water problem is not to be conquered, at least from an economical standpoint, by merely buying and installing more and more pumps. Into the solving of this water problem must go much planning, adhering to the principle of keeping the highest percentage of water at the highest possible level for the longest period of time; the storage of huge volumes in sumps capable of being reduced after the flood inflow and at rates less than the inflow; plans for prevention of surface inflow; provision of the minimum of pumping capacity arranged to as nearly 100 per cent pumping load factor as is possible; intercompany joint pumping plants; the conducting of water from one plant to another and from one property to another over distances measured in miles; priorities in power to the threatening situations; and. balance of the necessities and dangers existent in one colliery over another, day by day, when quantities of water are running high. Despite these astronomical figures of water volumes, their disposal to the surface is accomplished reasonably cheaply because, although the annual cost of $575,020 is a large sum, the cost per ton is about 0.1168 cents. Credit for this goes

Jan 1, 1947

By Liu Chunpeng

Under an inert atmosphere, the temperature enhancement of nickel bearing pyrrhotite irradiated by microwave was measured with a special metal-sheathed thermocouple and the non-isothermal rate equations were obtained. Under the controlled oxygen potential of the reacting gas in the microwave field, over 90% sulfur contained in the pyrrhotite is converted into elemental sulfur directly, the iron and the nickel are transformed into FeO,, NiO, NiFe,O, and FeSiO,. According to the experimental data the rate of the elemental sulfur produced is in diffusional control and the non-isothermal equation derived is

Jan 1, 1993

By A. G. Jackson, S. J. P. Laube

"Control of thin films during the growth process is dependent on several parameters that are difficult to monitor, including flux of film material, pressure, substrate temperature, composition, and thickness. One means for easing this difficulty is to take advantage of emission spectra associated with the process and the film. For pulsed laser deposition (PLD), the ion cloud generated by the laser has characteristic emission spectra that can be used to control the flux and, hence, the film. For chemical vapor deposition, the species present can be determined using mass spectroscopy and specific peaks can be used to control the deposition. Raman spectroscopy affords the possibility of real-time control by sensing characteristic peaks associated with film composition and thickness. These spectroscopic methods offer a real-time alternative to process control that is very attractive, because of the ability to accurately control films to achieve the engineered structures and properties sought. Examples are presented to illustrate the capabilities of these methods for thin film preparation.IntroductionThe drive to reduce costs and improve efficiencies of operation sets the tone for much of research, basic or applied. Basic research is limited by the ability of sensors and associated instrumentation to measure parameters accurately and reproducibly. Applied research has the same limitations and also the added constraints of time and costs. Hence, there are strong incentives to explore means for refining existing sensors with respect to performance and cost, as well as finding new sensors and techniques for more accurately and rapidly measuring quantities of interest in experiments and in various processes."

Jan 1, 1997

By Frank S. Gardner, Morris Cohen, Dara P. Anita

There is a conspicuous lack of information in the literature on the precise role played by residual quantities of austenite in heat-treated steels. While retained austenite may be expected to have significant effects on such important properties as the impact resistance of tools and carburized parts and the dimensional stability of dies and gauges, attempts to study these problems systematically have suffered from the absence of a reliable technique for ascertaining absolute amounts of austenite. With such a technique, not only could the relation between residual austenite and service behavior be investigated, but the chemical and heat-treatment factors that control the quantity of the austenite could also be established. Thus, the retained austenite content could then be regulated in accordance with the results desired. The presence of retained austenite may be inferred by observing the changes in properties (hardness, specific volume, electrical resistance, etc.) due to its decomposition on subatmospheric cooling1 or on tempering,2 but these indirect measurements are not readily translated into percentages of austenite. Quantitative determinations have been achieved in special cases by means of dilatometric3 and magnetic4,5 measurements; but the former procedure requires that observations be conducted during the hardening and involves difficult calibrations that limit its applicability, while the magnetic procedure is very sensitive to extraneous influences and depends upon assumptions that can only be considered as approximate in an absolute sense. Furthermore, both the dilatometric and magnetic effects are volume properties, and cannot be conveniently utilized to explore variations in retained austenite from point to point in a suecimen. Some microstructures lend themselves to accurate evaluation of retained austenite contents by metallo-graphic methods,3 but such instances are not too common, and at best, the procedure is tedious. The characteristic X-ray diffraction lines of austenite permit positive identification of its presence; and in the present paper the intensities of these lines, or the corresponding densities* on photographic film, are employed to measure the amount of the retained austenite. In order to cancel the effect of uncontrollable variations in the X - ray exposure and film - development conditions, a standard reference line is Superimposed on each film by maintaining a foil of aluminum in the path of the incident X-ray beam during the entire exposure. With different samples of steel and the same foil, the ratio of the density of some one austenite line to the density of

Jan 1, 1943

By Dara P. Antia, Morris Cohen, Frank S. Gardner

THERE is a conspicuous lack of information in the literature on the precise role played by residual quantities of austenite in heat-treated steels. While retained austenite may be expected to have significant effects on such important properties as the impact resistance of tools and carburized parts and the dimensional stability of dies and gauges, attempts to study these problems systematically have suffered from the absence of a reliable technique for ascertaining absolute amounts of austenite. With such a technique, not only could the relation between residual austenite and service behavior be investigated, but the chemical and heat-treatment factors that control the quantity of the austenite could also be established. Thus, the retained austenite content could then be regulated in accordance with the results desired. The presence of retained austenite may be inferred by observing the changes in properties (hardness, specific volume, electrical resistance, etc.) due to its decomposition on subatmospheric cooling1 or on tempering,2 but these indirect measurements are not readily translated into percentages of austenite. Quantitative determinations have been achieved in special cases by means of dilatometric3 and magnetic4,5 measurements; but the former procedure requires that observations be conducted during the hardening and involves difficult calibrations that limit its applicability, while the magnetic procedure is very sensitive to extraneous influences and depends upon assumptions that can only be considered as approximate in an absolute sense. Furthermore, both the dilatometric and magnetic effects are volume properties, and cannot be conveniently utilized to explore variations in retained austenite from point to point in a specimen. Some microstructures lend themselves to accurate evaluation of retained austenite contents by metallographic methods,3 but such instances are not too common, and at best, the procedure is tedious. The characteristic X-ray diffraction lines of austenite permit positive identification of its presence; and in the present paper the intensities of these lines, or the corresponding densities* on photographic film, are employed to measure the amount of the retained austenite. In order to cancel the effect of uncontrollable variations in the X-ray exposure and film-development conditions, a standard reference line is superimposed on each film by maintaining a foil of aluminum in the path of the incident X-ray beam during the entire exposure. With different samples of steel and the same foil, the ratio of the density of some one austenite line to the density of

Jan 1, 1943

By Morris Cohen, Dara P. Anita, Frank S. Gardner

There is a conspicuous lack of information in the literature on the precise role played by residual quantities of austenite in heat-treated steels. While retained austenite may be expected to have significant effects on such important properties as the impact resistance of tools and carburized parts and the dimensional stability of dies and gauges, attempts to study these problems systematically have suffered from the absence of a reliable technique for ascertaining absolute amounts of austenite. With such a technique, not only could the relation between residual austenite and service behavior be investigated, but the chemical and heat-treatment factors that control the quantity of the austenite could also be established. Thus, the retained austenite content could then be regulated in accordance with the results desired. The presence of retained austenite may be inferred by observing the changes in properties (hardness, specific volume, electrical resistance, etc.) due to its decomposition on subatmospheric cooling1 or on tempering,2 but these indirect measurements are not readily translated into percentages of austenite. Quantitative determinations have been achieved in special cases by means of dilatometric3 and magnetic4,5 measurements; but the former procedure requires that observations be conducted during the hardening and involves difficult calibrations that limit its applicability, while the magnetic procedure is very sensitive to extraneous influences and depends upon assumptions that can only be considered as approximate in an absolute sense. Furthermore, both the dilatometric and magnetic effects are volume properties, and cannot be conveniently utilized to explore variations in retained austenite from point to point in a suecimen. Some microstructures lend themselves to accurate evaluation of retained austenite contents by metallo-graphic methods,3 but such instances are not too common, and at best, the procedure is tedious. The characteristic X-ray diffraction lines of austenite permit positive identification of its presence; and in the present paper the intensities of these lines, or the corresponding densities* on photographic film, are employed to measure the amount of the retained austenite. In order to cancel the effect of uncontrollable variations in the X - ray exposure and film - development conditions, a standard reference line is Superimposed on each film by maintaining a foil of aluminum in the path of the incident X-ray beam during the entire exposure. With different samples of steel and the same foil, the ratio of the density of some one austenite line to the density of

Jan 1, 1943

By G. E. Vaninetti

During its modem era, the southern Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming has grown from meager origins in the early 1970s to become one of the most important coal-producing regions in the United States. In 1993, production and sales of southern Powder River Basin coal exceeded 190 Mt (209 million st), or about 20% of the US coal industry. Despite the remote location of the PRB relative to its potential markets, most coal industry observers anticipate continued strong growth to meet utility compliance plans for Phases I and II of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). This article is an overview of supply and demand issues concerning the marketing of southern PRB coal. It reviews the events leading up to the recent run on spot coal and offers a forecast of demand and prices.

Jan 1, 1994

By K. D. Jacob

IN the decreasing order of the tonnages involved, the uses of phosphates can be grouped conveniently into three general classes, namely, fertilizer; chemicals for military, industrial, and technical purposes; and mineral feed for livestock. The quantity of phosphate used as fertilizer, principally in the form of superphosphate, has always exceeded by far that used for all other purposes, though in recent years a marked increase has occurred in its consumption for the other two general classes of uses. Prior to the present century large quantities of superphosphate, as well as a considerable portion of the production of phosphorus chemicals, score made from bone materials which were plentiful and cheap in some areas and which could be more easily processed than phosphate rock for the manufacture of chemicals. Today, however phosphate rock has almost completely displaced bone as a raw material for the manufacture of chemically processed phosphates in nearly all countries of the world.

Jan 1, 1944

By W. Joseph Schlitt

The types of copper leaching and recovery operations in the United States are reviewed, along with characteristics and trends in the industry. The contribution of the various leach operations to total mine output is discussed in order to provide a perspective on the relative importance of copper leaching as a method of production.

Jan 1, 1980

The #3 Shaft at Brunswick Mine, Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, intersects a soft graphite zone just below the 3400 Level. Ground movement within this zone causes the concrete liner of the shaft to be deflected towards the shaft?s interior, affecting the steel framework of the conveyance. In some areas, the clearance between the cage and the liner has been reduced to less than 2 cm, which is a concern. An innovative surface-mounted extensometer was designed in 2008 to monitor potential movements of the shaft?s liner. Four such novel extensometers were installed in the shaft for the surveillance of a particularly critical 3.0m by 5.5m area. This article describes the approach taken to instrument the shaft, the principle of the new extensometer, as well as the performance of the instrumentation following its installation.

May 1, 2009

By John M. Devine

Hydrogen sulphide associated with natural gas was noted as early as at Point Albino, Canada. The presence of this impurity was recognized also in other of the earlier oil and gas fields, although the occurrence was by no means common. However, in recent years, with the development of the producing zones of test Texas and the Texas Panhandle, the Production of "sour" crude has increased greatly and hydrogen sulphide has proved a generally troublesome factor--frequently a major problem--in the drilling and operation of many wells in those areas. The problems arising from the drilling and producing of oil or gas wells in hydrogen-sulphide areas, fall under two general divisions: safety problems and corrosion problems. Mention is made of a third division which is closely related to the other two, that of treating--or the development of processes for the removal of hydrogen iron the standpoint of safety and health hazards, hydrogen sulphide in the petroleum industry has been discussed in a number of publications. Likewise, the problem of hydrogen-sulphide corrosion of production equipment has been given considerable attention in the literature.

Jan 1, 1931

By L Teixeira, C J. Greet, P Karageorgos

Pyrite is ubiquitous within copper ores, and presents significant challenges to most operations in terms of its impact on copper sulfide concentrate grade and recovery.Samples of ore containing from 3 to 47 percent pyrite, with nominally the same chalcopyrite feed grade, were collected from a copper mine in eastern Australia for testing. The ores were ground under standard conditions using forged steel grinding media in the Magotteaux Mill® to determine the impact of increasing pyrite feed grade on the pulp chemistry of the system and subsequent rougher flotation response. Attempts were made to correlate the pulp chemical parameters (oxygen demand and EDTA extractable metal ions) with flotation behaviour to determine if one (or more) could be used as a metric to infer metallurgical behaviour.The observations made were then tested under different grinding environments (obtained using more electrochemically inert high chromium) grinding media to determine if they hold true.CITATION:Greet, C J, Karageorgos, P and Teixeira, L, 2015. The influence of pyrite on the pulp chemistry and copper flotation response of a chalcopyrite ore, in Proceedings MetPlant 2015, pp 175–187 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 7, 2015

By M. J. Nicol, T. Moyo

Ammoniacal solutions are an effective lixiviant for the oxidative dissolution of some mineral sulphides. A detailed study of the anodic dissolution of chalcopyrite in ammonium sulphate-ammonium hydroxide solutions has been carried out using cyclic voltammetry, chrono-amperometry and rest potential measurements. The role of the copper(II)/copper(I) redox couple in the oxidation process has been evaluated. Rest potentials have been found not to be affected by oxygen but to increase with an increase in initial copper(II) concentration. Pseudo-steady-state anodic current densities measured in the absence of copper(II) ions at the rest potentials obtained in the presence of copper(II) ions increase with increasing concentration of copper(II) ions, confirming the positive effect of copper(II) ions on the rate of dissolution of the mineral. Cyclic voltametric and chrono-amperometric data show that in the absence of initial copper(II) ions, the rate of dissolution in the presence of dissolved oxygen is significantly lower. These results confirm that the effective oxidant for the mineral under the conditions of the study is copper(II) and not dissolved oxygen. Coulometric measurements have been used to establish the stoichiometry of the anodic reaction at different potentials.

Jan 1, 2014

By Jean Scott, G. A. Collins, G. W. Hodgson

WHILE it is well known that trace metals in crude •oils and distillates have been a matter of deep concern to refining engineers because of the damage done .by the metals to cracking catalysts and refractories (8, 5), the trace metals in crude oils may be of great benefit in correlation studies and in origin studies. During the geological processes in which the oil is formed from •animal and vegetable life, the hydrocarbons are subjected to a host of inter-related reactions, both physical and chemical. It has been well demonstrated that the lighter materials, certainly the short-chain paraffin hydrocarbons, are degradation products of the heavier molecules, and it might be concluded that for correlation studies it would be advisable to direct attention as much as possible not to the degradation products of the large molecules but to the large molecules themselves. Be this as it may, the methods at •hand to conduct the study are not particularly precise and, in the past, attention has centred on the simpler small molecules, as evidenced by the great mass of work involving distillation and chromatography with painstaking separation of the simpler 'front-end' hydrocarbons.

Jan 1, 1954

By Peter L. Swanson

A microcrack process zone is frequently suggested to accompany macrofractures in rock and play an important role in the resistance to fracture propagation. Attenuation of surface waves propagating through mode I fractures in wedge-loaded double-cantilever beam specimens of Westerly granite has been recorded in an attempt to characterize the structure of the fracture process zone. The ultrasonic measurements do not support the generally accepted model of a macroscopic fracture that incrementally propagates with the accompaniment of a cloud of microcracks. Instead, fractures in Westerly granite appear to form as gradually separating surfaces within a zone having a width of a few millimeters and a length of several tens of millimeters. A fracture process zone of this size would necessitate the use of meter-sized specimens in order for linear elastic fracture mechanics to be applicable.

Jan 1, 1984

By M. A. Mallinger

A series of laboratory tests was conducted to determine the limits of practicability in regulating the weights of various cement slurries. It was found that slurry weights of 12 to 19 lb per gallon could be obtained by adding bentonite to decrease the weight and barytes ore to increase the weight. It was also found that barytes ore was not usable in all cements. LIGHTWEIGHT CEMENT SLURRIES INTRODUCTION During the drilling and completion of oil wells the magnitude of the hydraulic pressures exerted on certain formations is critical. In many cases considerable care must be exercised to prevent drilling mud weights from becoming too high, and in those wells where loss of circulation is a problem, the use of normal weight cement slurries will generally result in lost returns during casing cementing operations. While mud weights can easily be controlled, it is necessary to exercise care in the selection of weight reducing additives for cement slurries in order that slurry weights may be reduced sufficiently to prevent the loss of a large portion of the cement to the thief formations without seriously affecting the setting properties of the cement. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS An extensive search revealed that a large number of materials .that might have been otherwise practicable as a weight reducing additive were not acceptable for use with oil we cements because the imposition of pressure on the slurries caused the additive being tested to be compressed or to absorb water from the slurries, resulting in negligible decrease in the slurry weight. This search for lightweight additives disclosed that bentonite, a material very commonly used for reducing the weight of drilling muds and cements, produced the best results without undue harmful effects on the properties of oil well cements. It was found that there was a limit to the amount of benton-

Jan 1, 1950