Search Documents

By E. Sharifi, B. Komishke, R. Heffel, D. Schwartz

"The oil sands resources in Canada are one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon deposits. Processing of oil sands uses hot water to extract bitumen. The process generates tailings slurry that must be settled for final deposition. The tailings contain fine material, with poor water release characteristics which makes water recovery challenging. Polymer flocculants are added to assist in settling and dewatering the fine tailings. The amount of polymer addition is dependent on tailings characteristics, including the particle size distribution (PSD). If the PSD of the tailings is unknown, an excess amount of polymer needs to be added in the dewatering stage to flocculate the particles. Over flocculation also has a detrimental effect on the water release characteristics. Measuring the particle size distribution using an on-line analyzer could have major benefits over common laboratory methods as it provides online and fast insight into the process enabling the operators to implement required changes to minimize the reagent consumption, while achieving optimal flocculation. Online measurement of PSD using laser diffraction has long been used in base metals beneficiation processes. A series of test work using Outotec PSI500® particle size analyzer on oil sands samples from different operations have been conducted. Tests were performed by recirculating the slurry in closed circuit to simulate real plant conditions. This paper presents a summary of the results.INTRODUCTION Canada’s oil sands are the third largest reserves of crude oil in the world, with an estimated 165.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil (Government of Alberta 2016). Oil sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen. Bitumen is a form of oil that is too heavy or thick to flow or be pumped without being diluted or heated. About 20% of bitumen reserves are close enough to surface to be mined. In mining methods, oil sand is transported from an open pit mine to the processing plant and bitumen is separated from solids and water. The separation process involves ore preparation, such as addition of hot water, steam and caustic (NaOH), followed by gravity separation and froth treatment (Masliyah et al. 2004). A general scheme of the extraction process is presented in Figure 1."

Jan 1, 2018

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

MR. McKEEVER: I think we had to start some- where. The proceeds of the beltbuckles and hard hat stickers will certainly be a beginning in a scholarship for some of our young people. And maybe, you know we might even get one of them sometime to go to the University of Oklahoma. A few years ago the luncheon speaker for tomorrow, Brooks Mitchell, got a few of the mine presidents together and we spent a full five hours of just dedicated listening to Carl Terzian. We listened basically on three subjects: how to work with the media, how to work with image, and how to identify with our political systems and those who are in them. I remember that as one of the turning points in my perspective on how our system really works. This gentleman who will be addressing you today, Mr. Terzian, will be conducting about a three-hour session tomorrow. And it's a shame that our other activities will not allow some of the golfers to probably be there. Those of you who can come to the session tomorrow morning will find it most rewarding. A little bit later on we will also have a panel session. And I see all of the panelists are here except for Bob Golten, but I understand that he is registered. We should have a full afternoon session with Charlie and his panel. When we started working on this, we naturally went back to Carl Terzian to give us some guidance. If there is anything wrong with your session, it's my fault because he knows how these should be done and he guided us along the way. One thing that I am sorry, it wasn't his fault necessarily, is that Harry Reasoner will not be with us for lunch tomorrow. Brooks Mitchell is going to make all of the PR he can out of the fact that Harry got scratched and he got in place for him. Brooks gave me one comment along that line. He said, "Do you know what you get when you cross a gorilla with a computer"? Of course I bit on that. He said. "Well, you get a Harry Reasoner." A little over a month ago I was invited out to California to Woodbury University at Carl Terzian's insistence. I happened to be sitting by one of his vice presidents. It was a formal affair. We had to wear tuxedos and everything and Mr.Green was sitting there and he said, "You know," he didn't know who I was at that time, but he said, "You know Carl really didn't want this formal affair. Said he had a couple of friends coming from the coal mining industry and they wouldn't know what to do with tuxedos." So with that Carl, we will start this little session and it's your mike. MR. TERZIAN: Thank you very much Ira. Let me begin by expressing my appreciation to the men and women of the Institute for allowing me to be here. I'm deeply concerned about my reputation, my image and don't want you to get the inference that I am responsible for Ira McKeever's image. Nobody could be responsible for that! But it is a great case in point that we all should be concerned about our images. I guess tomorrow morning from about 8:30. a.m. to about 11:30 a.m. we are going to do a? hopefully, a productive and very pleasant expertence for all of us in this growing field and great interest that people have in the area of image. I happen to be from Los Angeles. I have a national firm which has handled about 600 corporations', over the years through the areas of public relations,' community, civic involvement all built around a strengthening and safe guarding our precious, free enterprise system. And the message that I hope to give you, as you will be eating your lunch today, is really not so much about the image of individuals but as the attitudes built on what Bill Banowsky

Jan 1, 1982

By I. M. Stewart

In a proposed rulemaking regulating asbestos, nonasbestos varieties of Tremolite, Anthophyllite and Actinolite would be excluded from the regulations controlling permissible exposure to asbestos fibers. This proposed rulemaking is perceived as improving the scientific basis of the regulation of asbestos because it recognizes that there are no scientific data, either mineralogical or health related, which support the regulation of nonasbestos Tremoiite, Anthophyllite and Actinolite in the same manner as asbestos fibers. However, the proposed regulation, while representing a major advance in the treatment of AT A for regulatory purposes, does not provide an adequate analytical method for distinguishing between asbestos and nonasbestos particles, nor an adequate description of the regulated minerals. This paper addresses those topics, recommending that OSHA include an appropriate mineralogical definition, and implement a discriminate counting procedure to distinguish asbestos from nonasbestos particles.

Jan 1, 1992

By Valdicleide Silva Mello

Nowadays the biodiesel use is obligate in Brazil, in order to reduce the emissions of fuel burn. However, it is important to analyze which percentage of biodiesel is necessary to keep or improve the lubricant action of fuel for diesel engine, as well which kind of biodiesel give better performance. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the parameters that keep the lubricant action of biofuels, by using the Box-Behnken design type to optimize them. In this design was evaluated the input parameters: the type of the biodiesel (soybean, sunflower and palm), the concentration (5%, 20% and 100%) and the temperature of contact (25°C, 40°C and 60°C). The analyzed output parameters were the percentage of film formation, coefficient of friction, wear scar diameter (WSD) of ball, these output parameters were obtained by HFRR tribometer and they were analyzed applying response surface methodology. With this methodology was possible to determine the simultaneous influence and the interactions between two or more independent variables investigated. The response surfaces generated for the coefficients of friction, WSD, film formation showed a higher lubricant action for higher levels of concentration of biodiesel. An increase in lubricant action was found to high and intermediate temperature.

Jul 31, 2018

By David J. Dyet

Computer applications in the past five to seven years have become a typical and necessary practice in most modern geological offices. Manual calculations, interpretations and plotting of data can be, at times, quite tedious, inefficient and lacking in ac- curacy. The introduction of geostatistical and geological software can eliminate these problems. Computer applications in the uranium industry are not new; however, they are constantly being developed. A variety of soft- ware programs are available. Generally, these programs support most geological and geostatiscal applications in uranium mines. The Rabbit Lake Operation - Eagle Point mine in Northern Saskatchewan is a high grade mine, as one such case. Computer applications at the Eagle Point mine have been a mainstay in the geology department, since the mine's collaring in 1991. This paper presents a discussion on descriptions of programs, operations and applications of computers. It also explains and de- scribes the radiometric equipment used at Eagle Point. This pa- per will demonstrate how, by using computer systems, mine site information flows reliably with the involvement of computers.

Jan 1, 1996

By John Wellington Finch

THE- impression which the public has of northern Canada is that it is a' vast wilderness of forests; river's, and. lakes, sparsely inhabited by. a few Indians and `containing a few, scattered trading posts of the Hudson Bay Co. This is far from the facts. The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway led to the discovery, in 1883, of the nickel deposits of Sudbury, Ont.; these are the largest known nickel deposits in the world and produce about 90 per cent. of the world's output of nickel. The building of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway north, from North Bay, to open up farming lands along Lake. Temiskaming, resulted in the discovery and development of the great silver deposits of the Cobalt area, Ontario. Since the discovery of these deposits in 1903 to Dec. 31, .1923, Cobalt has produced a total of ' 327,301,897 oz. of silver, valued at $212,668,434, and paid in. dividends $88,338,185. In 1923 the production of Cobalt amounted to 10,285,247 oz. of silver. Just south of Cobalt, in South Lorrain,. a. new silver district has recently been developed and mills have started production. These deposits are of such extent that 'a branch railroad is under construction from Cobalt to that area. Northwest of Cobalt is the Gowganda silver area which is also a producer of silver ore and is now attracting outside attention. This area is not connected by railroad.

Jan 1, 1924

By Yoshinori Shimada, Oleg Kotiaev, Hiroaki Sakamoto, Toshihiro Asakura, Naotoshi Yasuda, Norikazu Misaki, Masahiro Shinoda

"To ensure that trains run safely, the performance of railway civil engineering structures is checked by periodic inspections. General inspection method has merits and demerits, but none of them offers the combination of high accuracy and quick inspection. In an effort to resolve this problem, West Japan Railway Company, the Institute for Laser Technology and the Railway Technical Research Institute jointly developed a remote laser sensing system as an alternative to the impact acoustics method for detecting defective concrete elements in tunnel linings. The proposed remote laser sensing system has two lasers, one to apply an impact to the concrete surface and the other to measure the vibration of the concrete generated by the impact laser. The impact laser is a high-energy pulse laser that induces vibration in the concrete. The detection laser has a signal beam and a reference beam. The signal beam reflects on the concrete surface and goes into the dynamic hologram crystal. The reference beam diffracts in the dynamic hologram and enters the detection sensor with the signal beam. The vibration of the concrete surface can be measured to detect the movement of an interference pattern. A prototype of the remote laser sensing system was developed as shown in Figure1. A vibration and acoustic insulators are equipped to remove a noise generated from a maintenance car or electric generator in this system. The proposed laser remote sensing system and the detection algorithm were verified with the help of field test conducted in a tunnel on the Shinkansen. An impact test using hammering was applied to obtain the accurate response acceleration on the surface of the concrete before application of the proposed method. In this test, the result obtained from the proposed method has good agreement with that obtained from the impact test by hammering. Consequently, it is verified that the proposed method can be used as an alternative to the standard impact acoustics method."

Jan 1, 2016

By Michael J. Miller

The demand and supply of wollastonite has gone through a dynamic period in the 1990's. A 10% -15% growth rate of demand stimulated interest in evaluating new projects. However, the mid-1990's brought declining prices for commodity applications and natural barriers to entry for technical applications, making many of these potential projects uneconomic. Successful projects that were brought to market were done so by incumbent producers. This work examines the competitive structure of the wollastonite market by evaluating the strategic decisions of the industry leader, NYCO Minerals Inc., and a new market entrant, Orleans Resources, in an attempt to identify the environmental threats and opportunities of this industry. Results suggest new entrants like Orleans Resources face significant entry barriers for technical applications, while NYCO Minerals could improve its profitability by having less exposure to commodity applications.

Jan 1, 1999

The purpose of this paper is to present validation studies of the mine-fire simulator using data gathered from an actual mine fire which occurred in November 1991 at the Pattiki Mine. To develop the model of the ventilation system with the fire in this validation study, the following adjustments were made: (1) flow and gas distribution in the entire ventilation network, and (2) fire parameters matching the data recorded by the monitoring system. After close correlations between simulation and real data were achieved, additional analysis of the ventilation system with the mine fire was performed. Presented and discussed in this paper are the following stages of the fire at the Pattiki Mine: (1) early fire (before the fire was detected), (2) preparation for and fire fighting with water, (3) fire sealing, and (4) fire extinguishing. This study evaluates the suitability of the computer software package for modeling underground fires. The paper also discusses the importance of the on-line monitoring system for the validation process.

Jan 1, 1995

By AIME AIME

THE climax of the various programs and entertainments in connection with the holding of the World Engineering Congress* in Tokyo in October was the complimentary dinner given by the visiting members of the Institute to our members in Japan. At the same time President Bradley conferred an honorary membership on Baron Takuma Dan, the vice-president of the World Engineering Congress.

Jan 1, 1930

By Vestre J, Kure K, Bergqvist I

Existing practical laboratory tests for comparative strength determination of commercial explosives consist of the lead block test, the ballistic mortar test, the bubble test etc. These tests are carried out in material with quite different properties compared to rock. The theoretical performance potentials of commercial explosives are traditionally described by weight-strength (WS). Some explosive producers use the Langefors formula for weight-strength calculation, where also the gas volume is considered. Neither the theoretical nor the practical methods for determination of explosive performance such as the above, give good enough prediction of fragmentation and heave in rock blasting. For these reasons a project was started for the purpose of finding a small scale test method which predicts how different explosive parameters affect fragmentation and heave. Small scale tests were carried out by using 50 cm cubical blocks, mainly of concrete, but a few also of rock. All blocks were blasted in a steel cylinder with a diameter of 1.2 meters. The velocity of detonation was monitored, and the velocity of fragments was derived from their time of arrival at the steel wall, which was registered by accelerometers. After blasting all fragments were screened. The charge diameter was 22 mm and the amount of explosive 78 grammes, resulting in a specific charge of 0.62 kg/m3. Explosive properties such as energy, gas, VOD and density were systematically changed.The results presented in this paper show how fragmentation and heave systematically change when the explosive properties like energy, gas, VOD and density are systematically changed. The results from the small scale tests are compared to full scale tests carried out in tunnel blasting, and during summer 1990 also in bench blasting.

Jan 1, 1990

By Susan M. Moore

Many challenges are faced by workers in lower-seam (42 inches or less) mines. The lower-seam heights confine mine workers to their knees as they perform their daily tasks such as installing roof bolts, delivering supplies, repairing belt, or cutting coal. Miners working in these lower seams often consider kneepads to be their only line of defense against knee injuries. However, healthy knees do not start and stop with kneepads. Other interventions such as changing postures, proper hygiene, and work station design may also be used to reduce mine workers? risks for developing knee injuries. Incorporating these and many other interventions into a mine worker?s ?way of life? is an important step to ensuring a long, healthy career and retirement. Keeping knees healthy is also a key aspect to reducing costs in low-seam mines as the industry battles rising health care costs, and training/recruitment of replacement workers is time-consuming and costly. Educating the workforce about the possible interventions to reduce knee injury risk is a primary objective for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health?s (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL). Therefore, NIOSH researchers, along with industry and academia, developed a training package to educate the mining community about some possible interventions beyond kneepads that may be used to help decrease knee injury rates. Increased awareness and simple changes are the first steps to reducing knee injuries.

May 1, 2008

By Sahendra Ram, Ashok Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, AMIT KUMAR SINGH, Dheeraj Kumar, Arun Kumar Singh, Rajendra Singh

This article offers an examination of a retreat mining method conducted at the Pinoura Mine in India from 2010 to 2017. The method is atypical for coal mines of India’s coalfields. The method executes depillaring in a single pass and does not require the formation of galleries and support installation in splits, thus, reducing the cycle time. A variety of observations are discussed throughout this work and emphasis is placed on field measurements and depillaring under weak roof (RMR = 40–45). This paper discusses design techniques, specifically the estimation of the snook (remnant pillar) size, and important practical observations after the fact. The execution of this method was eventually conducted in eleven panels.

Aug 4, 2020

By Yuzhe Zhang, Xiaodi Huang, Xinli Wang, Bowen Li, Matthew Andriese, Xin Yan, Jiann-Yang Hwang, Zhiwei Peng

Using a TM0n0 cavity system as the main reactor, an integrated process was developed to find the best condition for waste tire rubber to absorb microwaves. The penetration depth was the main character for determining the best condition. The penetration depth is defined as the distance from the surface into the materials at which the traveling wave power drops to from its value at the surface. The waste tire powder was irradiated by two different microwave frequencies, including 915 and 2466 MHz. The study was conducted with same powder size and atmospheric condition. The effects of temperature and microwave frequency were analyzed based on the experimental data. The main trends are higher the temperature, the absorption will be better and the higher the frequency, the better the absorption will be.

Mar 1, 2017

The Bureau of Mines has been active in promoting the purchase of coal for Government use under specifications that define the requirements in terms of heating value of the coal, expressed in British thermal units, and the composition as shown by proximate analyses. To these, when required, are added the ash-softening temperature, the free-swelling index, and the Hardgrove grindability index. Under most of these specification contracts the bidders guarantee the quality of the coal, and that guaranteed by the successful bidder becomes the standard of his contract. The deliveries are sampled in accordance with instructions2 issued by the Bureau of Mines; the samples are analyzed in the Bureau laboratory to determine whether the coal is of the quality guaranteed by the contractor; if it is not, a price adjustment is made, Analyses of the delivered coal and tipple samples (samples collected at mine tipples as coal is being loaded into railroad cars or trucks) provide valuable data for use in evaluating future bids. In addition, the continuous sampling of coal as delivered is a check on the practical results obtained in burning the coal.

Jan 1, 1971

By W. G. Deeks

CANADIANS are world leaders in marketing metal and mineral products. Noranda Sales Corporation Ltd. is an international metal and mineral product marketing company operating from Toronto and London, England, where it operates a wholly owned sales subsidiary and is a 50% partner in Rudolf Wolff and Company Ltd., a charter member and the largest metal broker on the London Metal Exchange. Noranda Sales employs 97 people, of whom 52 are university trained and professionally competent in international resource product marketing. We market for 19 companies or divisions in the Noranda Group and 39 companies for whom we act as agent, consultant and purchaser of resource production. Our business in 1976 was 1.5 billion dollars carried out in 45 countries and covering 24 products and materials. Today, ownership of most of the mining industry in Canada has transferred back to Canadians, and this is said with the knowledge that a significant part of the Canadian industry has been Canadian owned and managed from its very early days. Noranda Mines Limited is such an example. It was born in 1922 as the result of a copper-gold showing at Noranda, Quebec, discovered by Ed Horne, a prospector, financed with a grubstake by a syndicate mainly composed of New York businessmen. Shortly after the discovery, when the shares of the company had risen, the syndicate was sold to Canadian interests and, since that time, Noranda has been dominantly Canadian owned and certainly Canadian managed. Today, over 90% of Noranda's shareholders are Canadian, who hold an equivalent percentage of the stock.

Jan 1, 1977

By C. Harry Benedict

This paper, describing the leaching practice at the Calumet and Hecla mills, Lake Linden, Mich., is one of a series on milling methods and costs being published by the United States Bureau of Mines. GENERAL DESCRIPTION The reclamation plant is located along the shores of Torch Lake at a slightly lower level than the concentrator itself. The entire location of the original concentrator, in connection with the present reclamation plant, has been ideal, lore particularly as the leaching and flotation departments are common to both units. After 15 years of operation and with the reclamation sands just a little more than half exhausted it would appear that the remaining life of the deposit could be worked by the present plan, without decided changes or renewals of plant or equipment.

Jan 1, 1930

By Peter G. Cooper

"During 1987, the feasibility of modernising the ER&S smelter at Port Kembla, NSW, Australia was studied. The selection of appropriate technologies to carry the smelter into the 21st century considered issues such as capital cost, existing infrastructure, feed mix, capacity, product quality, flexibility and potential for further development. Both hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical process schemes were considered. Some novel combinations were assessed but ultimately rejected. Final technology selections included proven smelting and anode furnace processes, pyrometallurgical slag cleaning and modifications to existing equipment. This process scheme balanced risk against development potential within the constraints imposed by the existing plant.BackgroundThe Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company of Australia (ER&S) has operated a custom copper smelter at Port Kembla since 1908. Existing technology includes a sinter plant/blast furnace, three small Peirce Smith converters, two reverberatory anode furnaces and a conventional tankhouse. These process units were all installed prior to 1960 and have proven to be flexible enough to process the wide variety of domestic feed materials purchased by ER&S.However, by the early 1980s, threats to domestic concentrate supplies highlighted the need for major changes to reduce operating costs to world competitive levels. Various studies in the ensuing years failed to identify an economically attractive solution. Furthermore, pressures were increasing to improve the environmental performance of the smelter.During 1986 the options for redevelopment were again considered and by the end of 1987 technologies for the retrofit had been selected and a full feasibility study was completed."

Jan 1, 1988

By D. Death

The Tapping Camera Prototype (TCP) is an instrument being developed to record and analyse video of the molten metal stream entering a tapping crucible as it is tapped from an aluminium reduction cell. The development aims to provide potroom floor operators with continuous real time vision of the tapping process and provide an alert in the event of excessive bath contamination in the extracted metal stream. Longer term the system may provide sufficient data to enable control of the tapping process. The TCP mounts a wireless camera and periscope to view the molten metal stream via a peephole in the tapping crucible. Real time video is recorded to either digital video tape or computer disk for subsequent video analysis to quantify the bath material drawn into the tapping crucible with the molten aluminium. The images transmitted by the camera are available on a handheld LCD video screen. This work is an initiative of the CSIRO?s Light Metals Flagship.

Jan 1, 2006