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By Lucian L. Bogdan

"SummaryActive loaded strand anchors are often used for slope stabilization, retaining walls or tiedown anchors. Normally, strands are tensioned against the structure and wedges are locked inside the anchorages at a certain lock-off load. During the life of the structure, anchors can receive additional loading during a surcharge, seismic event or other activity on the structure.In order to have a reliable ground anchor system, the strand must not slip through the anchorage wedges during its service life. Strand slippage has been reported during lock-off, when dirty wedge plates and wedges have been used. Low lock-off loads are believed to contribute to strand slippage too. Since the initial lock-off load for a ground anchor is usually lower than the lock-load for an equivalent capacity tendon in other types of post-tensioning construction, there is a concern that strand slippage may occur if the load on the anchor increases above the initial lock-off load.Corrosion protection grout, placed after the anchor is locked off, fills the pocket and surrounds the strand and wedges. Some anchor installers believe that the grout will prevent the anchorage from developing additional capacity if the load increases above the initial lock-off load.The load-carrying capacity of an anchorage depends on several factors. Most important are: initial applied load, anchorage geometry, friction between wedge-anchorage-strand and condition of the contact surfaces.The ADSC Anchored Earth Retention Committee considers that the industry should know how wedges behave once the permanent strand anchors are stressed and grouted inside the transition pipe, between wedges and inside the grout cap."

Jan 1, 2005

By James W. Wade

THIS discussion of the future supply of lead refers only to the next ten-year period. Beyond that no prediction can be made that would be of sufficient accuracy to serve any purpose. When any commodity is by an unsatisfied demand forced to a higher price level, and the profits of those who are able to produce the commodity are greatly increased, there is awakened a new interest in the commodity on the part of both producer and consumer. The consumer attempts to reduce his costs by developing substitutes or assisting in the development of new sources of supply. Lead is now going through this stage. The lead producer is increasing development expenditure and searching for new mines. The consumer is developing substitutes as illustrated by the increasing use of zinc oxide as a pigment, and the use of dry batteries in radio sets. The search of the Ford interests for lead, by prospecting in Missouri and Idaho, is induced by the effort to develop a new source of supply. Considering the index figures of the Department of' Commerce, it is evident that lead is on a substantially higher price level. For February, 1926, the index figure of lead is 209, while the general commodity price index is only 156, 100 being taken as the base for 1913.

Jan 1, 1926

By C. C. Knox

In Kiowa County, Okla., extensive deposits of clay are closely associated with pre-Cambrian anorthosites and gabbros. Investigation by the Bureau of Mines, including 1,723 feet of auger drilling, has shown the presence of very large quantities of clay containing between 20 and 25 percent alumina. All of the material contains large amounts of impurities, and even the best clays, selected for their relatively low content of iron, titanium, and magnesium, are unsuitable for the production of alumina by the sulfuric-acid process The soda-lime process gave somewhat better results, the product being nearer specification for commercial alumina. The clays are not amenable to beneficiation by simple sedimentation processes, and the alumina content could not easily be increased to produce material suitable for any alumina process.

Jan 1, 1948

By S. Esfahani, M. Barati, Y. Kauwachi

"Heat recovery from slag has gained attention due to its high potential in lowering energy intensity of metal extraction processes. A direct method to recover the thermal energy of slag is to use countercurrent air flow that extracts the heat from falling droplets. Often, the solidified slag is aimed to be used as a substitute for Portland cement, thus high cooling rates are required to form an amorphous slag with sufficiently strong hydaulicity. Rapid cooling however involves using large gas flow rates that in turn lower the thermal efficiency of the process. This article presents a mathematical model that was developed to determine the optimum conditions in the heat recovery process and to investigate the effect of the air flow and granule diameter on the cooling rate of the droplets as well as the thermal efficiency of the heat recovery system. INTRODUCTIONMetallurgical slags are the largest by-product of high temperature materials refining and extraction processes. The total amount of metallurgical slag produced in the year 2008 has been estimated at up to 422 million tonnes containing up to 222 TWh/y (Barati and Esfahani, 2011) of thermal energy. Over the past four decades attempts have been made to recover this substantial amount of energy as heat, electricity, or fuel, while none of the proposed method has been commercialized yet.During slow cooling the slag tends to crystallize the constituents (CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, etc.) into a hard, heavy solid. In the past, over 90% (Bengt, 1983) of the molten waste was discharged onto heaps and allowed to cool slowly, then crushed and used in road construction or land filling or as coarse aggregate for concrete. However, later it was found if cooled rapidly, the slag can be used as a substitute for Portland cement. As a result, processes such as wet granulation were created in which molten slag is fragmented with water, forming amorphous (glassy) phases. Despite its effectiveness in producing a suitable material, heat would not be recovered through this process. Thus, dry granulation was introduced in 1930’s and was developed further in 1970 – 1980’s."

Jan 1, 2012

By Gary L. Mowrey

Visible and sometimes audible indications of excessive underground rock pressure such as pillar fracturing, squeezes on chocks, and "roof talk" are familiar to mining engineers. Such signs often precede rock failure on a larger scale and therefore may be used as a warning. Nevertheless, these subjective observations do not provide an adequate means of evaluating the existing rock pressure conditions in a mine. One method which appears to be extremely promising in determining the stability of geologic structures in general is that of monitoring their associated micro seismic activity. Mining engineers generally agree that during the process of rock deformation and failure small-scale seismic ("microseismic") vibrations are produced in the rock itself. These transient vibrations propagate through the rock structure and may be detected at a considerable distance from the failed rock by employing suitable electronic monitoring equipment. Hardy (1) has presented a detailed review of microseismic research in the mining, petroleum, and geoscience areas, and it is apparent that relatively little application of micro seismic techniques have been made in coal mines. This is especially true in North America since here most coal mines are fairly shallow and consequently are not generally subjected to excessive stresses. Furthermore, strict Federal and State mining laws limit the use of electrical equipment in coal mines complicating the use of the necessary monitoring facilities. In terms of both mine safety and economics, monitoring microseismic activity appears to be invaluable in the detection and location of over-stressed pillars and unstable roof conditions caused by development and production work. In 1970 The Pennsylvania State University Rock Mechanics Laboratory became involved in a research project, sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, to investigate the feasibility of using microseismic techniques to detect and to locate potential regions of instability around a longwall coal-mine operation [Hardy and t10wrey (2); Mowrey (3)]. In this study geophones (velocity gages) located in an array of shallow boreholes drilled from the surface above the active area of the longwall were employed to detect microseismic activity, and a mobile micro-seismic monitoring facility was used to condition and record this data for later analysis. This project is unique in that measurements were made from near-surface geophones rather than geophones installed on the mine itself. Two advantages are apparent, namely that (1) there are no electrical limitations on the monitoring system and that (2) mining operations can continue normally because there is no monitoring equipment or cables in the mine.

Jan 1, 1978

In the course of work being carried out in the Lubricants and Bearings Section of the Council lor Scientific and Industrial Research on the production of copper4ead 'bearings for 'use in aircraft, it has been found necessary to develop special metallographic methods. For proper control of the production of steel-backed copper-lead bearings it is necessary to adhere to rigidly controlled conditions, and it is essential that a method of examination be adopted which will readily detect actual defects or any variations in quality. Some defects can be observed with the naked eye, whilst others are detected by radiographic examination. This latter method is invaluable as a rapid, reliable test in the production of aircraft bearings, but it is necessary to observe the structure of the alloys under the microscope, both to be able to interpret the radiograph correctly and to determine what has occurred to the metal during and after solidification. The use of a sound metallographic technique is'particularly important in developmental work and research connected with these bearings.Polishing TechniqueCopper and lead are practically immiscible in the solid state, but whilst they are miscible only in certain limited proportions in the liquid state; consequently "alloys" of copper and lead consist of a mixture of the constituent metals. The metallographic difficulties are obvious. Copper is a relatively tough metal, although it readily scratches, whilst lead is extremely soft and easily deformed. It wouId be expected if any normal polishing technique were applied that the lead would be readily torn out of the surface being prepared, and, in addition, that the lead would tarnish very easily.Grange(2) has described a method by which these difficulties can be overcome. The method involves an etch-polish procedure using "chrome regia" as an etchant for the copper. The chrome regia was a solution of chromium trioxide and hydrochloric acid in water. This type of etchant has been adopted, but it was found necessary to make certain changes.The method now adopted in this laboratory is as follows: The specimen (which is usually mounted in bakelite) is wet ground in a series of successively finer Hydro-Durexsil emery papers down to 60.0· grit paper.The specimen is then etched in the chrome regis, etchant (the composition of this etchant will pe discussed later) for approximately five seconds.Most efficient etching is obtained by swabbing the surface of the specimen...

Jan 1, 1944

By Bob Thomas, Syd Peng, Quanzhong Gu, Gene Wilson, Gerald L. Finfinger

Identifying the properties of overlying rocks in underground mining operations is important to ensure the appropriate roof support design is used to maintain stability of the mine entries. Recently J. H. Fletcher & Co. developed a monitoring and control system for roof bolters for the underground mining industry. The system records the drilling parameters used during roof bolt drilling and the information can provide insight into the physical properties of the roof strata. The parameters include thrust, rotational speed, torque and velocity and the measurements are collected every 0.1 second during the operation. The drilling parameters were analyzed to determine the application of identifying the strength of rocks being drilled from the measurements. The data was converted into the specific energy of drilling which is a measure of the amount of energy required for removing a given unit of rock during a drilling operation. The laboratory studies completed to date indicate a fairly high correlation between the specific energy of drilling and the unconfined compressive strength of :he rocks that were drilled. Additionally, the drilling parameters were shown to be effective for identifying the presence of fractures or bed separations between rock layers. The thrust, torque and specific energy of drilling were all good indicators for identifying the fractures or separations. Regardless of the drilling parameters used during the drilling experiments, the location of the fractures were identified. In order to determine the application of the drilling parameters for identifying roof rock properties, two series of experiments were conducted. The first series of experiments used three "manufactured" roof layers that had various rock samples embedded in concrete blocks. The rock samples included three types of sandstone, marble, and argillite. Another concrete block was poured with foam inserts to simulate large bedding separations (2 to 8-in). Two other manufactured blocks were constructed using high-strength concrete with cardboard layers embedded to simulate smaller fractures or bedding separations. The size of the cardboard layers varied from 1/8- to 1-in thick. One of the blocks had the cardboard layers embedded at an inclined angle to determine the effect of the orientation on the drilling parameters. A series of experiments was conducted with the rotational speed and the penetration rate held constant and the thrust and torque allowed to vary. The information collected from the experiments is used to determine the application of the drilling parameter measurements for identifying rock properties, fractures and bedding separations.

By W. F. Mattes

The manufacture of steel rails in the United States upon a large scale may be roughly dated from the years 1875-76, and the same years witnessed an active movement among the railroads toward the adoption of heavier and improved patterns. In this movement each road was a law unto itself, and the "personal equations " of some scores of engineers were so freely injected into the calculations that patterns were multiplied in the most absurd and mischievous manner, until at length the burden upon the mills became wellnigh unendurable, and called forth a vigorous protest in Mr. Holley's paper,* read before the Institute in February, 1881. There were then regularly manufactured in the various mills of the United States, no less than 119 different patterns of steel rails, subject to current order, of which 64 per cent. were embraced under five weights per yard. Commenting upon these and other figures there given, Mr. Holley stated as the primary object of his paper, " to show that,, while this multiplication of rail-patterns is an annoyance and an expense to rail-makers, it is a source of immense loss to railway companies." Since 1876 the increase in gross annual tonnage upon our leading lines has been very great, and has been accompanied by an increase of wheel-loads and running-speeds. As the average weight of the rails of 1876 was by no means excessive, the growing deman Is of traffic have slowly driven the roads toward stiffer sections, inaugurating a movement that now promises to become epidemic. In 1876 a 67-pound rail was a first-class equipment; to-day everything under 75 pounds is light, and many 80's are coming into use. European practice has long been heavier than ours; in part because the higher cost of sleepers has led to an average of 3-feet spacing, instead of two-feet as with us. The old 84-pound double-header, and Sandberg's 80- and 89-pound rails, respectively 51/4 inches and 591/2 inches high, are reported common on English roads; and he is strongly advocating the general adoption of the 100-pounder shown in Fig. 7, with what success I have not learned, except that the Belgian government has ordered a lot. Mr. Sandberg points out the undesirability of frequent changes of pattern, and the recent rapid growth in traffic-requirements; prognosticates a continuance of this

Jan 1, 1887

By J. P. Allen

Cobalt, nickel, and manganese can be recovered quickly, cleanly, and selectively from cobalt-rich manganese crust by leaching in dilute acid solutions in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Common selective precipitation methods can then be used to recover these metals from the leach liquor. The leaching reaction produces only oxygen as a byproduct, and the waste residue from leaching was tested and found to be non-hazardous under existing EPA specifications. The leaching process is effective in either fresh water or seawater. This research is a part of the Bureau of Mines program to identify the mineral resources of the Exclusive Economic Zone and devise methods for recovering their valuable components.

Jan 1, 1990

By J Law, S Jahanshahi, R Holmes

Iron ore is AustraliaÆs largest commodity export and is vitally important to AustraliaÆs current and future prosperity. However, while major expansions are currently in progress to satisfy demand, the industry is also undergoing major transformations. Reserves of traditional high-grade Brockman ores that have underpinned the Australian iron ore industry since its inception are slowly being depleted and alternative ore types such as Marra Mamba bedded iron deposits, Yandi and Pannawonica channel iron deposits and magnetite deposits are now being developed. However, the impurity levels in some of these alternative ores are higher and they require blending and/or upgrading as well as an advanced knowledge of their downstream processing characteristics to facilitate cost-effective utilisation by overseas customers. The research challenge is to use advanced techniques for mineral exploration, ore characterisation, mineral beneficiation, agglomeration and sustainable processing to identify and develop innovative and breakthrough options for locating, unlocking and enhancing the value of AustraliaÆs iron ore resources. Furthermore, to sustain the steel industry and hence secure the demand for iron ore, there is a growing need to enhance the environmental and business performance of the industry through reductions in wastes and emissions. Therefore, cost-effective breakthrough and enabling technologies that massively cut waste generation, CO2 emissions and water consumption are also being developed. These include the use of renewable fuels and reductants, waste heat recovery and conversion of by-product slag into a saleable substitute for Portland cement. A number of examples of recent developments in the above areas are provided in this paper.CITATION:Holmes, R, Jahanshahi, S and Law, J, 2013. Research and innovation for the iron ore to carbon steel value chain, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2013 , pp 3-6 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 12, 2013

By J P. Ashby

Compared with elsewhere in the world, New Zealand quarries have tended to be mostly small. The reasons for this are a combination of the relatively high transport costs, low population density and a pioneering, self-employed attitude. The small size of the operations is reflected in low productivity, a tendency to repair and rebuild equipment rather than replace it, designed flexibility in the processing plant, minimal reserves investigation or development planning and a versatile and innovative work force who are generally not professionally trained. The Resource Management Act and the Health, Safety and Employment Act as well as a customer driven demand for higher quality and consistent products will have even greater influence upon future direction of the Industry. The trend will be towards fewer quarries operated by companies and professional managers that can adapt to the new demands.

Jan 1, 1993

By Cyril Stanley Smith

On the 6th of February 1684, Dr. Martin Lister mentioned at a meeting of the Royal Society1 that "brass is magnetical," and promised to give an account of that assertion at some other time. He repeated his promise but never fulfilled it, and it was left for William Arderon2 to show, in 1758, that brass could be made magnetic by hammering and that it would retain polarity after magnetizing. Twenty-seven years later Caval103,4 examined the matter in great detail. Working with cast calamine brass, he showed that it could be made magnetic by hammering and nonmagnetic by subsequent annealing at a red heat. He found that annealing at a very high temperature caused the samples to lose their magnetic quality permanently, even after subsequent cold-working, but that remelting and cold- working restored it. He encountered some samples of brass that could not be rendered - magnetic by any treatment. Experiments in which these were remelted with iron additions gave negative results, and Cavallo concluded that iron impurity was not the cause of the magnetism. He worked with 50-grain (3-gram) samples melted under the blowpipe, hence cooled very quickly. Bennet5 made whole crucible charges from copper and zinc, and found _ the resulting brass ingots to be magnetic only when iron had been added and then only after cold-working. All these observations applied to material in the cast condi- tion, in which coring would produce a continuous spectrum of composition and cooling would result in varying degrees of precipitation. This knowledge of the subject seems to have been forgotten in the nineteenth century. The older brass was made by the calamine process and frequently contained iron in amounts of 0.5 per cent or more, absorbed from the impure ore with which the copper and charcoal were heated in making the brass. When metallic zinc became available in commercial quantities, calamine brass gradually disappeared, and with it the knowledge of its curious magnetic properties. Only when sensitive apparatus replaced the compass needle of the earlier investigators could the effects be detected in relatively pure metal. The effect of cold-working in inducing ferromagnetism was rediscovered by Bitter8 in 1930 in a sample of impure copper, and this was confirmed by Lowance and Constant: Honda and Shimizu, l0,11 and others. In the same year, Tammann and Oelsen12 showed that copper-rich copper-iron alloys after certain heat-treatments could be rendered ferromagnetic or made more strongly ferromagnetic by cold-rolling. Kussman and Seeman13 showed that the change of susceptibility of relatively pure copper on cold-working was associated with the iron content, and concluded that actual precipitation of iron was caused by cold-working, which is a satisfactory theory until one considers the improbably high rate of diffusion that this would involve. When studying precipitation phenomena in

Jan 1, 1942

By Cyril Stanley Smith

On the 6th of February 1684, Dr. Martin Lister mentioned at a meeting of the Royal Society1 that "brass is magnetical," and promised to give an account of that assertion at some other time. He repeated his promise but never fulfilled it, and it was left for William Arderon2 to show, in 1758, that brass could be made magnetic by hammering and that it would retain polarity after magnetizing. Twenty-seven years later Caval103,4 examined the matter in great detail. Working with cast calamine brass, he showed that it could be made magnetic by hammering and nonmagnetic by subsequent annealing at a red heat. He found that annealing at a very high temperature caused the samples to lose their magnetic quality permanently, even after subsequent cold-working, but that remelting and cold- working restored it. He encountered some samples of brass that could not be rendered - magnetic by any treatment. Experiments in which these were remelted with iron additions gave negative results, and Cavallo concluded that iron impurity was not the cause of the magnetism. He worked with 50-grain (3-gram) samples melted under the blowpipe, hence cooled very quickly. Bennet5 made whole crucible charges from copper and zinc, and found _ the resulting brass ingots to be magnetic only when iron had been added and then only after cold-working. All these observations applied to material in the cast condi- tion, in which coring would produce a continuous spectrum of composition and cooling would result in varying degrees of precipitation. This knowledge of the subject seems to have been forgotten in the nineteenth century. The older brass was made by the calamine process and frequently contained iron in amounts of 0.5 per cent or more, absorbed from the impure ore with which the copper and charcoal were heated in making the brass. When metallic zinc became available in commercial quantities, calamine brass gradually disappeared, and with it the knowledge of its curious magnetic properties. Only when sensitive apparatus replaced the compass needle of the earlier investigators could the effects be detected in relatively pure metal. The effect of cold-working in inducing ferromagnetism was rediscovered by Bitter8 in 1930 in a sample of impure copper, and this was confirmed by Lowance and Constant: Honda and Shimizu, l0,11 and others. In the same year, Tammann and Oelsen12 showed that copper-rich copper-iron alloys after certain heat-treatments could be rendered ferromagnetic or made more strongly ferromagnetic by cold-rolling. Kussman and Seeman13 showed that the change of susceptibility of relatively pure copper on cold-working was associated with the iron content, and concluded that actual precipitation of iron was caused by cold-working, which is a satisfactory theory until one considers the improbably high rate of diffusion that this would involve. When studying precipitation phenomena in

Jan 1, 1942

At the present time, cyanide is the most widely used reagent to extract gold from its ores and concentrates. However, its use in mining has become the focus of intense attack by various groups throughout the world; as a consequence, a renewed effort has been launched to find suitable alternative lixiviants to recover gold. Chlorination was the most popular process to extract gold, before it was rendered obsolete with the advent of the cyanidation process at the turn of the last century, not least because it required the use of potentially hazardous and costly chlorine to oxidize/complex the gold. The PLASTOL® process, originally designed to recover the platinum group metals (PGM?s) from their ores and concentrates, provides an alternative to cyanide for gold ores. The process generates oxidizing conditions in the autoclave capable of forming the AuIII ion, and gold chloro-complexes result from the addition of small quantities (~5-10 g/L) of sodium chloride to the autoclave. The principles of the PLASTOL® process are briefly described, and several applications of the process to gold concentrates are presented. Various options available to recover gold from PLASTOL® leach solutions are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2003

By M Noy, P Hawkes

Improvements in the drill and blast process can impact on loader performance in a number of ways. The main effects being improved loading cycle times, less non-productive cycles such as oversize removal, clean-up and face raking and better bucket fill factors. The impact of improved loading cycle times on the overall cost and productivity of the load and haul cycle is very much dependent on the loader truck match and the management of the haul fleet. Previous work has shown that a 20 per cent improvement in dig cycle times may only lead to three per cent or less improvement in the overall productivity of the load and haul process. However, improving the mass loaded per pass by five per cent will lead to a five per cent improvement in productivity for any given haul fleet situation, assuming sufficient truck capacity. Work by Orica Explosives at Lab ChrysotileÆs Thetford Mine, Quebec, Canada showed a relationship between muckpile fragmentation and truck payload. With this in mind, work was carried out to determine the effect differing muckpile fragmentation distributions can have on excavator bucket fill factors. This work was performed in the laboratory to a 1:100 scale. Nine different distributions were used. These were characterised by the Rosin Rammler parameters, xc the characteristic size, and n, the uniformity index. The values of xc and n used were modelled on those previously measured at a Sydney quarry. For the range of distributions measured, it was found that the fill factors were lowest at a low characteristic size and a high uniformity index and highest at a high characteristic size and a low uniformity index. In other words the best fill factors were achieved with a more dispersed muckpile distribution with a larger characteristic size. The difference in fill factors was 16 per cent indicating that controlling the drill and blast process to produce a specific muckpile distribution can have a significant impact on the overall cost-efficiency and productivity of the load and haul process. Field measurement by Orica Explosives at a quarry in Canada supports this conclusion showing improvements of up to seven per cent in average bucket load by either increasing the characteristic size or decreasing the uniformity index of the muckpile.

Jan 1, 1999

By Robert H. Merrill, David W. Wisecarver, Raymond M. Stateham

The US. Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with US. Borax and Chemical Corp. and Kennecott Copper Corp., has investigated the use of the microseismic method to evaluate the stability of large, open-pit slope walls. The method is based on the phenomenon that stressed rock normally emits subaudible rock noises, and the number of rock noises per unit time (noise rate) and the magnitude of the rock noises (amplitude) increase as the stresses in the rock approach the failure stress of the rock. Therefore, the detection and recording of those rock noises serve as a semiquantitative method of predicting the incipient failure of rock. This report briefly describes the three different types of micro-seismic apparatus, the procedures, and the results of microseismic investigations in the slope walls of the Boron mine near Boron, CaL, and the Kimbley, Liberty, and Tripp-Veteran open-pit mines near Ely, Nev. Microseismic monitoring within a frequency band of SO to 5000 Hz indicates noise rates in stable, inactive mining areas are between 0 and 10 noises per hour; the rates in stable, active mining areas are between 10 and 50 noises per hour; and the rate in unstable areas is as high as 2500 noises per hour. High microseismic noise rates in the Liberty pit correlate with the time of nearby earthquakes, indicating that the earthquakes affected the slope wall. The results provide evidence that the microseismic technique is applicable to large pit walls, and that the wide-band, wide-range microseismic equipment appears to be suitable for open-pit investigations. The microseismic method is based on the phenomenon that stressed rock normally emits subaudible rock noises, and the number of rock noises per unit time (noise rate) and the magnitude of the rock noises (amplitude) increase as the stresses in the rock approach the failure stress of the rock. Therefore, the detection and recording of those rock noises serve as a semiquantitative method of predicting the incipient failure of rock. The method has been used for many years to detect incipient failure in roofs or pillars in underground mines. In 1963 the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) started an investigation of the microseismic method in large, open-pit slope walls. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the method in open-pit slopes where the rock may be fractured and broken and where the size of the rock mass under investigation is much larger than normally encountered underground. In addition, both the stresses in the rock and the strength of rock near pits are lower than usually found underground. Consequently, there was some doubt concerning the feasibility of the method for open pits, and the economics of such an investigation may have been prohibitive especially if large walls had to be monitored with closely spaced geophones. The successful application of the microseismic method to underground operations has improved safety at little, or no sacrifice, to production or extraction ratios. The anticipated reward in open-pit mining would be the improvement of safety with a minimum sacrifice to mining operations. There is also a possibility that the method could be used to optimize the unloading (stripping) of potential failure areas by the removal of intact rock from the slope wall rather than the cleanup of a slide from the bottom of the pit. This report contains a brief description of three types of microseismic apparatus used in four different pit walls, each of which is different in height, slope, rock types, or has different planes of weaknesses, such as faults, fractures, or joints. Because the geologic features of the pit walls are varied and complex, for brevity, this report dwells mostly on the microseismic apparatus, techniques, the rock noise rates, and the slope movements measured at the various sites. PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT The microseismic method was developed over 20 years ago; and the method and examples of investigations in underground mines are summarized by Obert and Duvall. 1 In more recent years, the method has been applied in several underground mines, and an in-situ test under controlled stress conditions is described by Morgan and Merrill. 2 Experience has shown that, on occasions, the microseismic noise rate and amplitude reach a peak value and then start to decrease before a failure occurs in an underground mine; on other occasions, the noise rate steadily increases to a maximum at failure. The method has been applied to slopes by Goodman and Blake,3 and by Paulsen. 4 Goodman and Blake found that the noises corresponded with failures in the slope

Jan 1, 1970

By D. R. Taylor

Treatment of bentonite clay with mineral acids yields a modified clay product of high surface area and acidity which exhibits enhanced adsorptive and catalytic properties. A highly specialized segment of the clay industry based on this process has evolved into worldwide business with a capacity of about one-half million tons/yr. This paper will present data on the chemistry, mining, manufacturing and applications for acid- activated clays.

Jan 1, 1986

By O Handayani, R Barr, E Isaaks

The mining industry has focused a great deal of attention recently on the impact of blast movement on grade control. Although the problem of blast movement and its contribution to dilution and ore loss is well known, solutions to the problem are less than satisfactory. Perhaps the most recent innovation is the application of blast movement monitoring (BMM) devices to quantify blast movement. These devices emit an electronic signal and are planted at surveyed locations within the preblast material. Following the blast, their new locations are found using an electronic scanner. The magnitude and direction of the blast movement is given by the vectors between the pre- and post-blast BMM locations. However, it’s not clear how the BMM vector data can be best used to minimise dilution and ore loss. One common solution is to displace preblast dig line polygons by distances indicated by the BMM vectors. However, studies of BMM vectors show that blast movement not only displaces material laterally but also mixes material internally within the bench (Thornton, 2009a).This paper presents a method for modelling the post-blast muck pile that accounts for displacement and internal dilution using simulated annealing. The preblast ore control block model is re-blocked to 1?×?1?×?1?m sub-blocks. Each sub-block is displaced by simulated BMM vectors conditional to post-blast surface topography and blast initiation sequence data in addition to BMM vector data. The displaced sub-blocks are aggregated into new ore control model blocks whose grades are calculated from the contained sub-blocks. New dig lines are then designed on the post-blast muck pile model using the new ore control block model grades. A case study based on actual data is provided.CITATION:Isaaks, E, Barr, R and Handayani, O, 2014. Modelling blast movement for grade control, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014 , pp 433–440 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 18, 2014

By John M. Gallow

Discussion of the paper of JOHN M. CALLOW, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 108, December, 1915, pp. 2321 to 2339. R. H. RICHARDS, Boston, Mass.-I think there is one note which would be interesting to have recorded in connection with this paper, and that is another form of flotation machine. The Minerals. Separation machine has a vortex action, with a vertical shaft and a propeller. This new frother has been developed for the Copper Queen Co. at Bisbee, Ariz. It has a horizontal shaft and a paddle wheel for a frother. It has eight cells, I think, all connected underneath in one continuous tank, and the only separation of the cells is in the upper chambers where the froth is. When this paddle wheel goes around it throws out the froth and the sand goes to the bottom and drifts over from the first to the second cell, where it is paddled again, and comes out with its froth; the sand goes to the third cell where it is again beaten. In that way the sand is continually drifting toward the last cell, while each new froth remains in its own cell. You can see in the working of this machine just the same effect that you see in Callow's machine, i.e., the earlier cell has the darker or richer froth, and the latter has the lighter or poorer froth until you get to the farthest one-which has very little froth, and is very light. JOSEPH W. RICHARDS, So. Bethlehem, Pa.-Speaking from the metallurgical standpoint, it is quite desirable, in many cases, that the oil be removed from the concentrate in order to facilitate the metallurgical work, and I think attention should be directed to the desirability of removing from zinc sulphide concentrates the oil which interferes with their subsequent roasting. The value of the oil is not large; in Mr. Callow's plant, for instance, it would be $20 a day, and it may be possible that a process might be developed which, within the limits of the value of the oil, would remove it, and thus facilitate the metallurgical treatment. LEONARD WALDO, New York, ,N. Y.-The question came up about a year ago as to why-Mexican crude was not an admirable oil for flotation. I have never heard any satisfactory answer to the question. The Mexican crude has the peculiar property of comparative freedom from dangers of fire, a very great reluctance to part with its water, and a specific gravity almost identically the same as water.

Jan 5, 1916

By Leandro Seixas Bicalho, Wagner Cláudio da Silva, Kelly Laranjeira Nunes, Lívia Marques Faustino

Seeking to implement the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management to improve the safety of their tailings facilities across the globe, mining companies are motivated to invest in new technologies to recover valuable minerals from tailings. One solution being evaluated is the use of magnetic separators to concentrate ultrafine tailings. However, this approach is energy intensive as it requires high magnetic fields to recover ultrafines, and usually results in low mass yields. Additives that modify pulp rheology and surface properties, or selective flocculate ultrafine particles, were tested to enhance the performance of magnetic separation. Promising results in laboratory scale testing different types of additives confirmed that it is possible to increase the mass yield, keeping the selectivity of this stage.

Feb 1, 2024