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By Jiaxin Zhou

Acid mine drainage is a serious and chronic environmental problem of mining. This paper discusses the factors affecting the rate of acid generation by mine rocks and illustrates the relevance of these factors to the mines of the Northern Territory, Australia. The factors may be divided into two groups: internal factors and external factors. The first group covers characteristics of ores, mine waste rocks, tailings, etc and the second group covers surrounding conditions. The latter is further divided into four sub-groups, viz surrounding temperature and pressure, chemical conditions (ferrous/ferric adsorption ratio, total iron concentration, oxygen concentration and pH), surrounding biological conditions and mechanical conditions. Special attention is given to the surrounding P-T conditions, especially water partial pressure, and its relevance to the Northern Territory mines.

Jan 1, 1994

By Frank Otten, Jochen Greinacher

"In July 2017, Deilmann-Haniel signed a contract with IOO Slavkaliy to sink two 750 metre (m) deep freeze shafts for the Nezhinsky Potash mine in Belarus. This is the second shaft project where this technology is employed after two over 1,000 m deep shafts for a potash project in Saskatchewan, Canada, have been sunk by the application of the Herrenknecht Shaft Boring Roadheader (SBR) technology. Developed to sink shafts for green field projects in soft to medium hard rock, in frozen or unfrozen geology, the machine technology utilizes a roadheader-type cutterhead on a telescopic boom to mechanically excavate the rock, and a pneumatic mucking system to convey the muck from the face into the buckets. This leads to a manless face during the sinking cycle and thus a significant improvement in terms of workplace safety. For the Nezhinsky project, the SBR design was significantly modified in close cooperation between Deilmann-Haniel and Herrenknecht, based on the available experience and the special requirements of the project. Such modifications have been for example the adaptation of the Pneumatic Mucking System to cope with wet material as well as dry as originally planned or the shaft lining moving from shotcrete application to jump for and tubbing installation for which a step-change hands-off tubbing erector for the placement of segments was designed. Further modifications to optimize the machine technology for the requirements during shaft sinking were applied on the two machines for the Slavkaliy project as well as several revisions to match the special project requirements. The SBR is suitable for soft and medium hard rock up to 100 MPa UCS. The main design limits are maximum weight of the machine with 400 tonnes and length or height of 50 m due to the depth of the pre-sink. The Pneumatic Mucking System was changed in all components, sheaves and rope arrangement were redesigned and the concept of the hoist system was also re-engineered. The SBR in Belarus is configured for a daily sinking rate of three metres and all systems behind the cutting boom are not the bottle neck of the whole system. The works on site started in November 2017 including freeze hole drilling, construction works, site setup, installation of hoists winches, permanent headgears and other components required for sinking. The SBRs arrived on site in June/July 2018 and were preassembled on surface and then lowered into the 50 m pre-sink. SBR #1 started full face sinking in mid-December 2018, and SBR #2 in late January 2019. By the end of February 2019, the machines were at 150 m and 100 m depth respectively, and achieved up to 3.6 m/day concrete lined shaft. The SBR and the sinking system, the experiences, problems, technical solutions and performances of this challenging project will be presented in this paper."

Jan 1, 2019

By Özgür Bezgin

This paper presents observations on the installation of drilled shafts from two construction projects and an academic study with experimental and analytical parts. The construction projects involved the use of pressurized drilling methods. The experimental part of the academic study involved the use of the auger drilling method. The analytical part of the academic study investigated the effect of drilling methods on the soil-structure interaction and the behavior of drilled shafts under lateral loads. The concept of ?free-length? is introduced for the lateral load design of pressure-drilled shafts that are thought to be fully embedded within a soil media. The academic part of the study presented herein was conducted in Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Jan 1, 2009

By A. C. Smith

The U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted a study to evaluate the effect of ventilation on the water spray patterns of automatic sprinkler heads. Experiments were performed in a rectangular tunnel with pendent, upright, pendent sidewall, and horizontal sidewall sprinkler heads at air velocities of 0, 150, 300, 500, and 800 ft/min. As the air velocities were increased, there were significant shifts in the total coverage areas, density distribution patterns, and the maximum coverage densities for all types of heads. The pendent and upright heads exhibited upstream shifts in total coverage in the direction of the air-flow ranging from 4 to 6 ft, while the downstream coverage distances were extended up to 14 ft at the 800 ft/min airflow. The shift in upstream coverage distance for the sidewall heads ranged from 6 to 12 ft, while the downstream coverage was extended up to 22 ft at 800 ft/min. The results showed that airflow can have a significant effect on the coverage characteristics of automatic sprinkler heads and needs to be considered in the design of effective sprinkler fire suppression systems for ventilated areas.

Jan 1, 2010

By J. L. Nebreda, Z. Fan, J. B. Patel

"A380 alloy has been widely employed to produce thin-wall components via high pressure die casting (HPDC). During HPDC processing, there is a significant problem of property variation even with the very stable and precision automated casting procedure. The enlarged variation lowers the component performance and affects the steady and uniform property distribution along the whole component. In this study, high shear melt conditioning technology was developed and applied to the melt prior to pouring into the shot sleeve. Experimental results show that with application of intensive melt shearing, the variation of elongation was decreased from 21.8to 13.9%, and yield strength variation was reduced from5.5to 3.6%. The improved property variation is attributed to enhanced nucleation both in shot sleeve and the die-cavity, and to the improved distribution of porosity and secondary phases as a benefit of high shear induced grain refinement. With application of high shear, large number of the Spinel phase (MgAl2O4) particles with double size distribution in average diameter of 80and 300nm were formed. Due to the good orientation relationship and small misfit between alpha Al and MgAl2O4, the particles act as the effective nuclei in shot sleeve and die cavity, respectively.INTRODUCTIONA380 alloy had been widely used for produce automotive components by cold chamber high pressure die casting(HPDC) processing, due to its relative good mechanical properties and cast ability performance, and more important most of A380 ingots were produced by recycled Al alloys. Therefore, to promote utility of A380 will contribute to reducing emission of CO2and to the lightweight of automotive industry as well. When cold chamber HPDC was employed to produce the components, the mechanical properties of A380 alloy always have a distribution range (named variation herein), or in other words the properties were not stable. The reason was ascribed to the typical solidification characteristics occurred in HPDC processing. During HPDC processing, there are three steps of melt movement. The first step is that the melt was poured into shot sleeve at temperature of about 680°C, in which shot sleeve was preheated by few shots of melt filling, or by heater. During step one, the first solidification of melt was happened in shot sleeve and about 20% solid made of coarse a-Al grains was formed(Li, Xiong, & Guo, 2016).Such kind of grains will retain in the final products and deteriorate the properties variation. The second step is that the melt was forced moving forward slowly by plunger at about 0.2–0.3m/s until the liquid melt front to the inner gate of mold. The third step is that the melt moved very fast to complete the filling of die cavity and refilling the solidification shrinkage by fast movement of plunger about 2–3m/s. The second solidification was occurred in die cavity and fine a-Al grains will be formed by high cooling rate at about 500–1000°C/s. From the solidification point of view, the grain size was dominated by nucleation and growth. When HPDC was employed to produce components, the melt quality becomes the priority factor to control the solidification process as the other casting parameters were kept at the same."

Jan 1, 2018

By P. C. Pistorius, M. P. Maphutha, J. D. Steenkamp

Advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) are sophisticated materials being developed by the steel industry to mitigate challenges related to the performance of motor vehicles. To meet the requirements of AHSS, the ferromanganese alloys (FeMn) utilized in the production of the steel are required to contain acceptable levels of unwanted impurities, i.e. P, S, N, H, and C. The focus of the current study was to investigate dephosphorization of ferromanganese to produce a low-P alloy that could be effectively utilized in the production of AHSS. The study involved conducting laboratory-scale testwork to study the efficiency of CaO-based slag systems to dephosphorize FeMn alloys. The addition of Na2O, CaF2, and BaO to MnO-CaO-SiO2 slag was considered. The test work was carried out in a 25 kW induction furnace at temperatures of 1350°C, 1400°C, and 1450°C. The P partition coefficient (Lp) remained small at <1, which is an indication that dephosphorization had not been achieved. The baseline slag, comprising 40%CaO-40%SiO2-20%MnO, reported higher Lp values. Addition of Na2O and CaF2 did not show any further benefit. Substituting half of the CaO by BaO, resulted in similar Lp values to those of the baseline slag under conditions of 1350°C and 1450°C at 30 minutes. In summary, based on the Lp values obtained, the conditions investigated with the CaO-based slags appeared to have been unfavourable for dephosphorization of FeMn alloys, as most of this impurity element remained in the alloy.

Sep 1, 2021

By Rodrigo Toro, Ivan Yutronic N

"The Copper Concentrator Plant of Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi (CMDIC) is composed of three grinding lines, the third one being the largest. Due to the capacity feature of the third line, specially its SAG mill, it is a priority that the advanced process control team of the Company deploys a supervisory control strategy that allows this unit to operate in an optimal way, in order to achieve the maximum productivity at minimum cost. It is in this kind of tasks where advanced control applications play a key role in obtaining the best economic profit of the process.The advanced process control team, formed by people from Informatics, Automation and Operations of CMDIC have assumed the challenge of generating the transition from a manual SAG Mill 1011 operation (40 x 22 feet, the largest copper SAG mill of the world), to a fully automatic SAG Mill using a multivariable control strategy instead of a rule based on expert control system (widely used in industrial mining process control applications).Therefore, CMDIC decided to work together with Honeywell APC Team implementing an advanced automatic control strategy for the SAG Mill 1011, using for this purpose a technology called Model Based Predictive Control (MPC), based on a variety of control methods that uses dynamical models of the process, obtained from input/output data, in order to print the process knowledge into a group of mathematical relationships that links the constraints (controlled variables) with available commands (manipulated variables) and measured disturbances.The main objective of the advanced control strategy is to ensure process government, tending to throughput stability and optimization, by the execution of coordinated control actions, proactively avoiding measured disturbances effects and the SAG mill overloading.The most important benefits of using a multivariable control strategy are: the automated operation of SAG mill 1011 (that was manually operated before the implementation of this application), a safer, more coordinated and more stable process operation, achieving through this an increase of throughput and a decrease of specific energy consumption, controlling the amount of oversize material production, power consumption, mill loading, noise and torque. In addition to the operational results, this challenge has consolidated a control team, with the participation of engineers and operators, diminishing the typical implementation time and achieving a greater use of the application in a short time."

Jan 1, 2010

By Alex Matheson, Nick W. D. Massey, Peter T. Bobrowsky

Crowing pressures on aggregate resources include diminishing reserves, high transportation costs, sterilization and land use conflicts. In the absence of detailed resource knowledge for a particular region, aggregate resource potential maps provide the best "first approximation" regarding the surficial distribution of sand and gravel. The 1:50 000 scale Level Ill aggregate potential map integrates several important factors which influence the management of sand and gravel. Data used to generate this type of thematic map is readily available in most areas, fieldwork required is minimal, there is a logical quantitative evaluation of the data layers and integration is easily accomplished on a desktop PC-based platform. Also the aggregate potential map, with its focus on identifying areas of potential future aggregate exploitation as well as present inventory, provides a useful tool for the aggregate explorationist.

Jan 1, 2001

By Phillip I. Merritt

"IntroductionDuring and since• the war, it has been my privilege to work closely with those in Canada who are responsible for the vital raw materials needed in our co-operative atomic energy programme. The understanding which has developed between our two groups in this all-important enterprise has been a great source of pleasure. We in the United States are aware of the importance of the contribution made by Canada to this project, and we look forward to continuing our mutually advantageous relationship.The impact of World War II, and the decision by Canada, Great Britain, and the United States to join in a programme for the development of atomic weapons, created a sudden and immense demand for uranium minerals. Early in the raw materials programme, it was evident that sufficient raw materials to fulfill war-time atomic weapon requirements could be secured from three sources: the rich pitchblende deposits of the Eldorado , mine at Great Bear lake; the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo; and as a by-product of the vanadium industry of the Colorado Plateau in the United States. In the early part of the programme, therefore, our joint efforts were directed toward obtaining immediate maximum production from these localities. The contribution made by Eldorado Mining and Refining (1944), Limited, both in supplying and refining raw materials, was and continues to be of vital importance.In addition, it was also obvious from the first that in this programme, as in any mining enterprise, exploration activities directed•toward the discovery and development of new sources of uranium ore were essential if production were to be maintained over an extended period of time. In order to satisfy obvious security requirements during the war, it was necessary to proceed with this exploration programme, both in Canada and the United States, as secretly as possible. With the end of the war, and the revelation that an atomic weapon had been developed, however, secrecy in exploration was no longer required. The important thing was to get on with a broadened exploration programme."

Jan 1, 1950

By F. W. Bryan, D. H. Lynch

Introduction This paper is a general description of current central Florida phosphate mining, beneficiation, and product transportation. It is directed and believed to be of interest to engineers not familiar with this industry. Deposit: The phosphate deposits of central Florida are generally located in a five county area which includes Polk, Hillsborough, Hardee, Manatee, and DeSota counties. Geologically, the deposit is of marine origin and is identified as the Bone Valley formation. This formation is Pliocene to Recent in geological age and overlies a Miocene limestone formation known as the Hawthorn. The Bone Valley formation sediments are regionally characterized by equal proportions of apatite, quartz, and clay. The clay is predominantly of the mont-morillonite family. On a local scale, however, the proportions of these three major constituents vary considerably. The phosphate occurs as the apatite mineral (Ca 10F2(PO4)(6) and with the clay and sand, the minable ore is commonly referred to as matrix. This matrix is overlain by unconsolidated overburden of sand and sandy clays, ranging in depth from 10 to 45 ft. The matrix usually occurs in fairly horizontal continuous beds from 3 to 25 ft in thickness. The bedded limestone formation lies directly below the matrix and is generally well defined. The phosphate particles range from 3/4 in. to 200 mesh (Tyler) in size. The phosphate particles coarser than 14 mesh are called pebble phosphate and those less than 14 mesh are termed flotation feed which, when beneficiated, subsequently become concentrates. Through mining and beneficiation, phosphate quality is measured in BPL percent which stands for bone phosphate of lime units. In subsequent chemical manufacturing, the quality is indicated by P205 content. The deposit is economically characterized by various ratios such as tons of product per acre and cubic yards handled per ton of product. Magnesium, iron, and aluminum content are also considered in evaluating ore reserves. These elements are often critical to the chemical fertilizer processes. Presently, an ore body is considered economically minable if it meets the criteria shown in [Table 1]. These, of course, are general guidelines and specific costs and returns on investment must be considered in each case for acquiring reserves. On a new grass-root venture, a 20-30 year life is generally expected with a mineral recovery of 80%. History and Uses Phosphate mining in central Florida began around the turn of the century. However, in the early days, only pebble phosphate was produced until about 1930 when technology was available to beneficiate the -14 + 150 mesh particles. The -150 or -200 mesh material was discarded as it is today. The basic processes for beneficiation are washing, scrubbing, desliming, sizing, and flotation. These basic unit processes are essentially the same today although many improvements have been developed since the early days. Phosphate is used primarily in the production of high analysis fertilizer chemicals, typical of which are triple superphosphate, monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and diammonium phosphate (DAP). Phosphate is also used in the production of food preservatives, dyes for cloths, vitamin and mineral capsules, steel hardeners, gasoline and oil additives, toothpaste, shaving creams and soaps, bone china dishes, plastics, optical glass, photographic films, light filaments, water softeners, insecticides, soft drinks, road fill, and livestock feed supplements. Florida produces over 80% of the nation&apos;s marketable phosphate rock and one-third of the world production, according to the US Bureau of Mines. This amounted to approximately 35 million tons in 1975. Exports of Florida phosphate rock were to such countries as Canada, Japan, West Germany, Italy, and India, with Canada and Japan being the major users. Almost 95 o of all outbound cargo shipped through the port of Tampa is phosphate rock or related products. Beneficiation Following is a description of Agrico&apos;s new Fort Green beneficiation plant which is typical of the newer large capacity plants being built in the field. Agrico&apos;s Fort Green mine was completed in 1975 and is located in the southwest corner of Polk County and is directly adjacent to Manatee, Hillsborough, and Hardee Counties. With some minor differences, Fort Green is typical of a modern central Florida plant. The rated capacity is 3,000,000 plus tons of product per year and this varies according to the richness of the ore being handled. A simplified flowsheet is presented in [Figs.1 and 2]. This plant is served by three draglines of the 40-cu-yd class. The phosphate beneficiation is usually divided into three major functional steps: (1) washing and screening to produce a pebble product and flotation feed, (2) feed preparation and (3) flotation to produce concentrates. The typical plant is similarly divided into these three functional areas. Washer: Briefly, the slurried matrix is pumped from two draglines simultaneously at a combined rate of about 20,000 gpm at 2000 tph (solids) to rotary trommel screens sized to make a 7/8-in. separation. ([See Fig. 1]-) The trommel oversize is sent to hammermills where it is crushed and returned to the trommel screens, or pumped to tailings if minor impurities (Fe203, A1203, MgO) are too high. The trommel undersize is pumped to 14 mesh stationary (static) flat screens. The flat screen over¬size is subjected to three stages of 14 mesh vibrating screening and two stages of log washing in order to produce a final pebble product. The pebble product (+ 14 mesh material) is conveyed by belt conveyor to a large on-ground storage pile. Pebble product is reclaimed through a tunnel and loading system below

Jan 1, 1980

By S. J. Swainson

PHOSPHATE ROCK is a low- priced commodity. This fact has influenced the choice of mining and beneficiating methods to a greater degree, perhaps, than in most other low-grade mining operations. The fact that many yards of everburden and matrix must be stripped and mined per ton of salable "rock" produced and sold has necessitated he development of relatively simple btneficiating plants having high capacity and low capital and operating costs. The law of diminishing returns must always be reckoned with in phosphate mining and washing, and often recovery must be sacrificed in favor of costs in order to achieve the highest over-all economic efficiency. The phosphate-bearing formation, known as "matrix," is composed of (1) phosphate pebbles, which are somewhat rounded in shape and which vary in size from 1-in, to micron sizes, (2) rounded quartz grains usually smaller than 10 mesh, and (3) clay, of varying "stiffness," which is the binder of the matrix. The phosphate pebbles vary in hardness. Their color, which varies from white to black, is not a reliable indicator of the Bone Phosphate of Lime (B.P.L.) content of the

Jan 1, 1944

By M Dean, M Nehring, P Knights, M S. Kizil

Integrated continuous mining techniques such as fully mobile in-pit crusher and conveyor (FMIPCC) systems offer inherent labour, energy and environmental benefits to deep pit metalliferous mines. However, before such systems become commonplace, a number of barriers must be overcome.This paper outlines a number of commonly perceived barriers to FMIPCC application, together with a number of suggested solutions. The paper advances a design approach for specifying FMIPCC systems for deep pit metalliferous applications. A novel FMIPCC configuration is advanced using a hydraulic excavator in backhoe configuration. Because of the requirement to minimise belt extensions, a mine planning approach is presented based on a series of parallel and radial belt conveyor moves.The FMIPCC system does not fully replace truck-shovel systems. In the proposed mine plan, sinking is undertaken with truck-shovel systems using a series of box cuts, whereas pit ‘widening’ activities are accomplished via the FMIPCC system. Because of inherent differences in mine sequencing, the net present value derived from the FMIPCC mine will differ markedly from that derived from traditional, nested-pit, truck-shovel mining approaches. Therefore, any comparison of the FMIPCC and truck-shovel approaches must take into account radically different mine planning approaches.CITATION:Dean, M, Knights, P, Kizil, M S and Nehring, M, 2015. Selection and planning of fully mobile in-pit crusher and conveyor systems for deep open pit metalliferous applications, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 219–226 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

By A Roseman, T Gruber

Traditional methods for installing gaskets for segmented bored tunnels have relied upon different bonding procedures with adhesives that carry a series of disadvantages to segment producers. Fixation of the gaskets into the concrete segment as part of the casting procedure has been developed over the last 20 years and has emerged as an economical solution to produce high-quality tunnel segments for various technical tunnel applications. This paper investigates the advantages of using anchored gaskets, the different tunnel systems that employ anchor gaskets and reviews the first anchor gasket project; the Lee Tunnel and analyses how segment production efficiencies are gained.CITATION:Gruber, T and Roseman, A, 2014. Use of anchored gaskets in segmented bored tunnels, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014 , pp 253–256 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

By Fidelis T. Suorineni

Rapid drifting enables quicker access to orebodies, higher productivity rates and a resultant reduction in activity costs. Increased advance rates, by examination of the key components (face preparation and drilling, hole loading and blasting, scaling, mucking and support installation) in the development cycle, and optimizing these processes is a high priority for research in the Canadian mining industry. Support installation time alone is typically 36 to 46% of the total development cycle time. A reduction in support installation time or techniques and alternative scaling strategies could result in significant gains in drift development advance rates. Support Staging and hydroscaling within the drift cycle could offer alternative drift development sequences that could reduce the overall cycle time. MIRARCO?s research into the support and hydroscaling processes for rapid drift development also suggests that there are many other factors (e.g. mine ventilation services) that have a significant impact on the rate of advance. These factors should be considered to promote and manage safe and rapid drift development. Constraints to the rapid drift development processes can only be overcome by sound construction management practices. In other words, the goals of rapid drifting can be achieved by the implementation of contractor-type construction management. This paper examines various constraints and processes affecting rapid drift development and draws attention to other factors affecting safe rapid drift development.

Apr 1, 2005

By Richard D. Short

The Pseudo Static Pile Load Test, PLT, is a rapid method for determining pile capacity. Pile design is usually based on theoretical calculations of ultimate load capacity using soil data from a field investigation. The pile capacity is confirmed during construction by analysis of blow counts using dynamic formulae, dynamic pile monitoring, and load testing. Load testing is the most direct and reliable method of determining the actual capacity of a pile. Conventional load testing procedures, however, are time consuming and expensive. A typical load test requires installation of two to four reaction piles, construction of a high-capacity steel test frame, hydraulic jacks, and dial gauges, and will typically take one to three days per pile. Costs for load tests range from $10,000 to $20,000 per test. The Pile Load Test machine features a 25-tonne weight mounted on a mobile test frame. PLT load tests can be performed in a matter of minutes once the equipment has been mobilized to the site. This paper examines three test sites where the PLT test method was used and compares the results to conventional load test results and theoretical capacity calculations.

Jan 1, 2000

By Jun Xiao, Xiaodong Li, Chunming He, Daixiong Chen

"Benzohydroxamic acid with double dentate can react with copper to form cyclic hydroxyl oxime acid copper chelate, indicating a good selectivity for copper oxide minerals flotation, especially for malachite. The flotation results of the pure malachite mineral show a strong synergistic collecting effect between hydroximic acid and xanthate at a ratio of 3.5:1, achieving a malachite recovery of 95.5% when certain sodium sulphide is used as a sulphidizing agent in the optimal pH range. Thanks to the synergistic collecting effect, the flotation recovery of malachite of a real refractory ore flotation ,can reach over 92% under the optimum condition, a 12% higher than the recovery achieved with the conventional collectors. In industrial application, the flotation of the copper oxide minerals is improved , leading to a high efficiency utilization of copper oxide resources.INTRODUCTIONBeneficiation of copper oxide ore is one of the recognized challenges in mineral processing industry. Copper oxide ore is a vital component of copper resource in the world, which has abundant reserves. Majority of sulphide deposits has oxidized zone on the top, and some deposits are oxidized to become the large and medium-sized oxide deposits (Willam & Chavez, 2001). Most copper oxide ores have problems in processing such as high slime consumption, poor floatability, complex ore property and low flotation recovery, so it is of great significance in beneficiation of copper oxide ores to develop an efficient collector, especially for malachite (Fu & Gu, 1997; Wen, 2010; Riet, Kier & Elford, 1980). At present, sulphidization-xanthate flotation is the most important method for treating copper oxide ore. In recent years, due to the decreasing ore grade, the utilization of refractory copper oxide ore draws more and more attention (Zhou, 2003), except for sulphidization-xanthate method, chelating flotation method (Lu, 2009), chemical beneficiation method (Lenormed, Salman & Yoon, 1979), microwave radiation flotation method, hydrothermal sulphidization-flotation method (Mao, Wen & Fang, 2014) and ammonia leaching of sulphide precipitation-flotation method (Lekang, Stevik & Bomo, 2003) have occurred."

Jan 1, 2016

By V. W. Lumadi, S. Nyasha

The mining industry has yet to fully accept and embrace the strategic role of technology and innovation in successful business planning and execution. In this study, we empirically determine the factors that influence acceptance of technology solutions in the mining industry in South Africa, assess critical success factors influencing adoption of advanced technology in the South African mining industry, and explore challenges faced by the mining industry in South Africa in adopting advanced technology in its operations. Thematic content analysis is employed in the data analysis. Results show that critical success factors to the adoption of mining technology include learning culture, knowledge sharing, high labour costs, and behaviour of other firms in the industry; commonly identified challenges include inadequate engagement with external stakeholders, uncertainties, the cyclical nature of the sector, and high risk related to the adoption of unproven technology and performance systems focused on volumetric production. The study encourages mining companies to implement usage of technology. This can be properly done through regular engagement with the Minerals Council South Africa.

Apr 14, 2024

By O. Hyvärinen

Outokumpu has developed a new chloride leaching process called HydroCopper®. In this process copper sulfide concentrates are leached at atmospheric pressure in concentrated sodium chloride solution using cupric ions as the oxidant. Copper is recovered from the purified leach solution by precipitating cuprous oxide, which is then reduced to pure copper and further melted and cast directly into copper products. The key reactants: sodium hydroxide, hydrogen and chlorine are generated from the spent sodium chloride using chlor-alkali technology. An important feature in the HydroCopperTM process is that the gold contained in copper concentrates is leached as chloride complexes and recovered from solution by activated carbon. Conditions for the leaching of gold-bearing pyrite can also be achieved in the chloride system by optimizing the redox conditions. This paper deals with the basic factors affecting gold leaching from copper sulfide concentrates. Opportunities for the recovery of refractory gold associated with arsenopyrite and pyrite will also be discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By M. Dupuis, V. Bojarevics

It is well known that horizontal current density in the metal pad contributes greatly to the generation of MHD driven bath-metal interface wave. It is possible to compute very accurately the metal pad current density using a very detailed finite element model [1], but a MHD model must be compatible to this level of mesh refinement and to recalculate the current distribution at each time step, including the full busbar supply system. The accuracy of the instability prediction of the cell depends on the accuracy of the metal pad current density calculation. This study presents the comparison of the metal pad current density calculation of the detailed finite element model and the MHD-Valdis model for different metal pad heights and ledge thickness. It also presents the corresponding cell MHD stability predictions.

Jan 1, 2006

By T. V. Durkin

Approximately 1,390 t (44.7 million ounces) of gold have been produced in South Dakota since 1875. South Dakota&apos;s mining laws attempt to strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection by promoting mining as an industry while requiring prevention of pollution and reclamation of affected lands to a beneficial use. The mining laws have evolved since their inception in 1971, especially in response to gold mining. The laws have remained flexible to meet changing regulatory needs. Gold production has continued relatively unabated, even in the face of public scrutiny, two mining moratoriums, and isolated environmental problems. The department&apos;s system of "one-stop-shopping" for environmental permits streamlines the permit process, fosters quick resolutions to compliance problems, and helps keep enforcement actions out of the courts. Specific case histories at heap leach mines within the Black Hills are presented.

Jan 1, 1998