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By D Beck, E Jones

The measurement and management of deformation in underground excavations is a key responsibility of geotechnical and mining engineers. A critical aspect of these roles is to ensure there is sufficient ground support capacity for the expected demand.Current methodologies for monitoring deformation and ground support serviceability-limits require measuring displacement at distinct points, or using visual observations. These current methods limit the assessment to a qualitative interpretation of deformation across the entire excavation.Recent advancements of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDar) technology permit a new method for monitoring deformation that allow a full 3D image of extended sections of an excavation to be precisely scanned. The results from the comparison with subsequent scans provide valuable information on the magnitude, direction and extent of regions exceeding the ground support serviceability-limits. This new method now provides a quantitative assessment across the entire excavation being monitored.The implementation of regular scanning has been demonstrated to be highly advantageous not only at mines with swelling or squeezing ground, but also at mines with rapid seismic induced deformation. The use of LiDar technology as a routine deformation measurement tool for geotechnical and mining engineers (and further applications) are discussed in more detail in this paper.CITATION:Jones, E and Beck, D, 2017. The use of 3D laser scanning for deformation monitoring in underground mines, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Underground Operators’ Conference 2017, pp 267–270 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 16, 2017

By W. L. Price

The intelligent selection of wire cloth and perforated plate for screening surfaces seems a rather confusing subject to the newcomer in aggregate processing. The proper application of various screening surfaces is a complicated one and one could consider himself an expert only after many years of working with all applications. However, part of the subject matter could be simplified considerably for, the average screen user. In this paper an attempt will be made to do this, by presenting some comparative specification data along with cost figures Unfortunately, it is impossible in the limited scope of this paper to give actual service comparison records between different cloths or cloth and plate. Anyone who has considered making actual service comparisons for competing screening media is well aware of the almost insurmountable problems Their solution would form the basis for a separate paper on that subject alone. Therefore, this paper will be limited to comparative data up to the point of installation.

Jan 1, 1961

By Henry Kreisinger, F. K. Ovrrz, C. E. Augustine

The Bureau of Mines is conducting investigations to determine how fuels belonging to or for the use of the United States Govern- ment can be utilized with greater efficiency. As a result of these investigations a number of reports have been published, each report treating of one phase of fuel utilization. A list of these publications is given at the end of this bulletin. The efficient utilization of coal depends on the correct design of furnaces and on their proper operation. To attain both of these conditions a knowledge of the fundamental principles of combus- tion is necessary. Therefore, the study of the combustion of coal in industrial furnaces has been made a part of the bureau's fuel in- vestigations. The desirability of investigating the fundamental principles of combustion was suggested by the study of a large number of steam- ing tests made by the fuel-testing division on coals from all of the more important fields in the United States. The results of these tests have been published in Bulletin 325 of the United States Geological Survey and in Bulletin 23 of the Bureau of Mines. As a result of that study a plan to investigate the combustion of coal in a special apparatus in which all conditions could be controlled was presented to the National Advisory Board for Fuels and Struc- tural Materials at its meeting of April 10 and 11, 1906. The plan received the approval of the board, and since the establishment of the experiment station of the Bureau of Mines at Pittsburgh the investigation of the combustion of coal has been carried on intermit- tently. The history of these investigations is given in Technical Paper 63.

Jan 1, 1917

The purpose of this study is to formulate practical guidelines for active underground mining in close proximity to water bodies. This was accomplished through systematic completion of three phases of study: I) Collection and Documentation of Data; II) Application of Existing Guidelines to Case Histories of Previous Inundations; and III) Development of Recommended Guidelines for Underground Coal Mining Near Bodies of Water. Phase I of the study involved a worldwide data collection effort designed to obtain foreign and domestic guidelines for mining near water bodies, and accident records and case histories of accidental mine inundations. Within Phase II, existing guidelines were categorized and classified and then evaluated as to their effectiveness in precluding past inundations had they been in effect at the time of inrush. Advantages and disadvantages of existing guidelines were defined. Drawing on the broad data base established in previous study efforts, Phase III was directed at development of viable guidelines to promote the greatest possible coal extraction while precluding accidental mine inundation. Two levels of guidelines are presented; Level I Guidelines require little or no subsurface exploration on the part of the mine operator, while Level II Guidelines recommend various testing and investigative procedures to permit greatest possible mineral extraction. This report presents findings and conclusions of the study.

Jan 1, 1976

By Raymond E. Connell

From a macro business process perspective, if what we do in the Mining Industry is find material, dig it out of the ground, convert it to a product and sell it, we are in what might be considered a "simple business". If it is so simple, where does information technology fit? How does it affect our industry? Is it a strategic tool for our industry? What approach should we be employing to ensure we are utilizing information technology effectively? How is information technology integrated or tied together with other areas in the organization such as process control? What kind of people and skill sets are required to support the whole area of information technology? What effect does information technology and automation have on streamlining and rethinking the way we do business in the 90's. This paper covers how these areas have been addressed within the Noranda Group of Companies. It reviews how information technology has evolved, the approach, and what effect it has had on a diversified natural resources company in the mining and metals, forest products, and oil and gas industries.

Jan 1, 1993

By Hazel B. Comstock

[This material survey on magnesium and magnesium compounds is one of a series of Bureau of Mines publications designed to serve the needs of Government and industry for comprehensive, up-to-date information on mineral commodities and activities Magnesium, the world's lightest structural metal has become a most useful material in airborne and space vehicles, automotive equipment, machine tools, and consumer products. Use of magnesium on in basic refractories for iron and steel furnaces has expanded as the production of iron and steel has increased. Progress in converting steel furnaces to the use of oxygen has further increased the use of magnesium and magnesite brick.]

Jan 1, 1963

By Hazel B. Comstock

This materials survey on magnesium and magnesium compounds is one of a series of Bureau of Mines publications designed to serve the needs of Government and industry for comprehensive, up-to-data information on mineral commodities and activities. Magnesium, the world's lightest structural metal, has become a most useful material in airborne and spare vehicles, automotive equipment, machine tools, and consumer products. Use of magnesium ores in basic refractories for iron and steel furnaces has expanded as the production of iron and steel has increased, Progress in converting steel fun cares to the use of oxygen has further increased the use of magnesia and magnesite brick.

Jan 1, 1963

By J. Mackintosh Bell

External trade strongly influences the well being of all nations. In the modern economic mechanism, no country is so well endowed that it has not to import commodities from others and to export its products in turn to make good its deficiencies, to rectify or improve its financial structure. From the standpoint of international commerce, Canada is strategically well placed. On the south she is bounded by the richest country in the world. On the east she faces the Atlantic, on the west the Pacific. On both coasts there are fine harbours to which lead great lines of railway that span the continent. Canada is now fifth among the exporting nations of the world. For disposal abroad, she has enormous quantities of primary commodities and substantial amounts of manufactured goods as well. But she is far from being self-sustaining. She is unusually dependent on foreign trade, not only because of the commodities she has to sell but because of the lack of many essential articles she does not or cannot produce. To Canada, external commerce is vastly more important than internal trade. The wealth of nations is decided by their ability to produce more than they need, to sell more than they buy, and to build up favourable balances resulting from trade or services. With few countries, however, are returns perennially satisfactory. Fruitful periods are followed by leaner years. In times of prosperity foreign credits are increased, monetary systems strengthened, reserves accumulated to withstand recurring days of strain. Today, the foundations of financial systems are being re-examined, "dogmas hitherto accepted as canonical are being questioned" . It is not only in Europe and America that men search for illumination in problems arising from monetary restrictions.

Jan 1, 1933

By John S. Ball

Aniline points have been used to some extent for more than 20 years. to indicate the types of structures in hydrocarbons and thus to analyze mixtures of hydrocarbons . This type of analysis has been applied - principally to the low -boiling hydrocarbons found in the gasoline range . Although there is some disagreement as to their merits , both aniline point and diesel index (aniline point in degrees Fahrenheit times A.P.I. gravity at 60 ° F. divided by 100) are used rather extensively for evaluating ignition qualities of diesel fuels . In recent years aniline points have been employed in the study of lubricating - oil fractions . They also have been used to predict : the tendency of different oils to cause swelling of synthetic rubbers.5/ Recent standardization of the aniline - point determination by the American Society for Testing Materials has encouraged wider use of this test . Considerable data concerning , aniline points and critical solution temperatures in aniline have been accumulated in the course of a study of related subjects . Thesc data , together with some original results , are presented here in the hope that they will prove useful to other worker's in this field ...

Oct 1, 1943

By John C. Tosh, Peter M. Kandaris, Sheldon John

Geologic, geotechnical and hydrologic studies were performed for the design of 115 deep, large diameter drilled shaft reinforced concrete foundations (6 to 12 feet) to support tall steel monopoles for a new 13-mile long 230/69kV transmission line in southwestern Arizona. The subsurface conditions along the alignment posed a wide range of challenges for performing investigation and design studies. These conditions include saturated, loose granular flood plain deposits with generally low lateral capacity, potential ground loss up to 23 feet due to occasional river flow (scour and embankment loss), liquefaction impacts from nearby active fault seismicity that can generate magnitude 6.5-7.0 earthquakes, and unsaturated alluvial and eolian sand-dominated soils to full depth with low lateral capacity. All conditions will require significantly deeper than normal foundation embedment (depth ranging from 22 to 77 feet) and will present construction difficulty due to ground instability from groundwater and dry soil sloughing. A phased investigation was performed to accurately characterize the conditions for design and construction, and included performing a review of existing data, detailed field geologic reconnaissance, a limited number of standard exploratory borings (limited access), seismic cone penetrometer soundings (SCPT) in saturated soils to better understand liquefaction and strength loss potential, and hydrologic analyses to estimate scour/ground loss potential. This paper describes the site conditions, presents details on the investigation team’s approach, documents findings in relation to deep foundation analysis and design, and discusses recommendations for foundation construction to help in reducing risk.

Sep 8, 2021

By Mark Gilliam

Control of true steel level in the tundish during casting is desired in order to maintain the correct pressure head and thus provide a stable flow to the mold. Also the control of tundish draining prevents slag carryover and can increase yield at each end of cast sequence. At Steel of West Virginia (part of the SDI Group), it was understood that to be able to measure the true steel running level and control the drain level at the end of casting would be a great benefit during production at their three strand billet caster. This paper sets out to show how an evaluation process was started to find the best method to determine steel level in the tundish and to prevent the steel level dropping low enough to allow slag to enter the mold. Also how the decision was taken and a real time molten steel measurement system was installed and by utilizing the resulting data in the process, how slag in the mold was removed as an issue, how lost production was reduced and how consistent steel level has provided constant casting speeds and improved stream integrity, all leading to realized quality improvements. Other areas discussed within the paper will be the training of operational staff, the difficulties to be overcome when first installing new equipment and how these teething problems were cured by close co-operation between the steel plant and the equipment suppliers. In conclusion the paper will discuss the production improvements achieved, production cost savings at the plant and how the generated data was integrated into the plants process control system.

Aug 16, 2017

By O. A. Carson

Introduction Although the equilibrium conditions of the copper-tin alloys have been the subject of a ?great amount of research, the equilibrium diagram is still in doubt. The first systematic investigation of the series was made in 1894 by Le Chatelier, who published a freezing-point curve. In 1895, Roberts-Austen and Stansfield published the complete liquidus and partial solidus curves, which they modified somewhat in 1897. Their liquidus as given in 1897 is essentially that accepted today (Figure 3). Haycock and Neville also published a liquid us curve in 1897. In 1898, William Campbell published a series of micrographs showing the changes in microstructure which accompanied the thermal changes of Stansfield? s diagram. The classic work on the bronze series was published by Heycock and Neville in 1903. Their diagram was based on both thermal and microscopic evidence, and is the first for this series of alloys which can be considered nearly complete. Further, it was the first bronze diagram in which any attempt was made to apply the phase rule in the interpretation of the thermal and microscopic results. That portion of Heycock and Neville's diagram covered by the present work is reproduced in Figure 7.

Jan 1, 1929

By Neeraj Saxena, Madhu Huggahalli, Jerry Bednarski, Ken Grieshaber, David Stoffel

"The use of oxy-fuel burners in secondary aluminum melting applications offers several advantages over air-fuel burners including reduced fuel consumption, faster charge to tap times and lower NOx emissions. Their successful, safe and economical use in a furnace depends on several factors and considerations such as burner and flue placement, metal circulation, charge practices and the type of refractory used in the furnace.These factors required in the successful conversion of furnaces from air-fuel to oxy-fuel based burners are discussed in this paper. Critical parameters are identified and examined using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Parameters are estimated via laboratory testing and validated through trials performed at commercial installations. Guidelines and a simplified approach to estimate a priori the economic impact of converting from air-fuel to oxy-fuel are presentedThe final products of this research are simplified and validated tools for modeling aluminum furnaces. These include improved heat and energy balance models and parameterized CFD solutions which provide rapid customization to individual furnace configurations. These tools provide field engineers with immediate and accurate predictions of performance, allowing for repeated precise scenario analyses."

Jan 1, 2001

By Cynthia Belt

"Before energy can be saved in the materials industry, the process must be understood. At the same time, baby boomers are starting to retire. New people are entering the field without experience and training especially in methods to save energy. Various classroom courses, seminars, books, software, and websites are available for the professional to better understand the industry with the ultimate goal to reduce energy use. This paper is a review of what is currently available with some comments on potential needs.IntroductionEnergy use is high within the materials industry. For the United States, the primary metal industry uses 8% of all energy used in manufacturing (Figure 1 )1 or 1, 736 trillion BTUs per year. Sadly, while energy use is high, energy management is not universal within the industry. Counting both internal programs and external such as the utility supplier, equipment manufacturers, federal and state programs, only 66% of primary metals companies participate in an energy management activity1.For the materials field, process heating is the majority of the energy use in a plant2. Understanding and optimizing process heating is a critical need for materials energy professionals. Surprisingly, process heating is not necessarily the work addressed within an energy program. The U.S. 2006 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (see Table 1) found more primary metal companies addressing lighting with 31 % participation versus 15% with process heating work even though energy used in lighting tends to be a minor (in the range ofl-3% ofa typical plant's energy use)."

Jan 1, 2013

By Norman Paley, Zachary Pickett

The Red Dog Mine is a high-grade zinc-lead mine located in northwest Alaska which began operations in November 1989. In June 2014 the upper half of a charge in a trim shot in the Aqqaluk pit deflagrated. No other holes in the area were observed to react and the remainder of the pattern was shot without incident. This was the only known case of a deflagration in the 25 years of operations. As part of the investigation into the cause of this incident rock samples were obtained from the area of this hole and from other areas in this pit.

Feb 1, 2020

By R. E. MacAfee

THERE have been great changes in the design, capacity, and pressure of steam generating units over the past fifty years. If we go back as far as 1890, the plants then existing were largely horizontal return tubular boilers, hand-fired, with the boilers supported on the brick sitting which was com-posed of red brick with, probably, a refractory lining one brick thick in the combustion chamber. About this time, the water tube boiler began to supplant the H.R.T. boiler and, where new plants were being constructed of any size, water tube boilers were largely installed. In those days, say from 1890 to 1905, a 250 h. p. water tube boiler was considered a large unit. These boilers were largely the straight tube type and were set with the first row of boiler tubes three to six feet above the grates. The brick setting was a combination of red brick and fire-brick. The fire-brick lining in the furnace proper was usually 9 in. thick and in the first pass 4 1/2 in., while the rest of the setting was entirely red brick. These units were largely hand-fired and were expected to produce about 100 per cent rating as a maximum. It may be well at this point to define rating, which is the evaporation of one boiler horse power per hour by each ten square feet of heating surface in the boiler. A boiler horse power is the evaporation of 34.5 pounds of steam from and at 212°F. Consequently, a boiler containing 2,000 square feet of heating surface is rated at 200 h. p. and the evaporation at 100 per cent rating is 200 X 34.5, which equals 6,900 pounds of steam per hour from and at 212°F.

Jan 1, 1939

By Roger L. Williams

The Zinc Corporation of America Monaca smelter continues to use the St. Joe-developed electrothermic process for producing zinc metal and zinc oxide. As we enter the 1990s, the electrothermic process flexibility permits treatment of larger quantities? and lower-grade zinc-bearing recycle materials. A new sinter plant having one large sinter machine will increase sinter feed production required to meet our capacity target of 150,000 tons per year.

Jan 1, 1990

By Gary Brierley, Lok Home

"The majority of tunnels for civil engineering applications are now being constructed using some form of mechanical excavation. Beginning in the 1960s with rock tunnel boring machines (TBM), the tunneling industry has introduced both earth pressure balance (EPB) and slurry pressure balance (SPB) soil machines; mixed soil and rock machines and a variety of different mechanical devices for the construction of small diameter tunnels. Over time, these machines have become more powerful and more adaptable to a wider variety of ground conditions; so much so that tunnels are now being constructed in ground conditions and in the vicinity of third-party impacts that would have been considered beyond the state of the art just 10 years ago. Figure 1 is an example of a mixed ground crossover TBM used successfully at Mexico City’s Túnel Emisor Poniente II.All of the above is highly advantageous for the tunneling industry, but it has also placed a much higher level of risk on the performance characteristics of the tunneling machines, on the contractors operating those TBMs and on the manufacturers of those machines. Most of the risks for a tunneling project are associated with creating the space inside of which the finished facility will be constructed. In order to create that space, the tunnel contractor must make many decisions about the best way to excavate the ground, the best way to control the ground at the face of excavation and the preferred method for supporting the ground around the tunnel in a manner that is safe for the workers and stable with respect to all of the overlying and adjacent existing structures. If it is proposed to use some form of TBM in order to build the tunnel, then the TBM becomes central to all three of these activities and becomes an integral part of managing the risks associated with these activities."

Jan 9, 2018

By Clyde E. Williams, JAMES L. GREGG

THIS review of the past year's progress in iron and steel metallurgy presents examples of only a few of the interesting or important accomplishments made in the United States. In the field of iron ore concentration increased attention was given to the study of the more difficultly separated wash ores and some progress was made in tabling. One difficulty with the table, in concentrating iron ore where the percentage of concentrate in the feed is large, has been the removal of fine silica from the thick layer .of concentrates in the cleaning zone. One company has -Made an important contribution toward the solution of this problem by an extension of the well-known plateau principle. By a special riffling of the plateau section of the table, the concentrates are crowded together. This action forces the fine silica to the top of the bed in the cleaning zone, whence the cross-flowing currents of water -can wash it into the middling product. Some work has been done on the application of froth flotation to the concentration of iron ores. Laboratory experiments were made at the Colorado School of Mines in which hematite was, successfully floated. Using oleic acid as a frothing and collecting agent and sodium carbonate as the conditioning agent, a high recovery of rich ,concentrate was obtained. A laboratory flotation unit is in use at Taconite, on the Mesabi range, and a commer-

Jan 1, 1932

By J. F. Poland

B. C. Burgess-—Prior to hearing this paper presented at the San Francisco meeting, I travelled by car from Yuma, Ariz., across south-central California and up through the San Joaquin Valley. After hearing the paper I returned by the coast route to San Diego then along the Mexican border to Yuma. The striking feature of these trips, related to this paper, was the dry river and creek beds at a time of year not the dry season. Contrasted with this was the wasteful use of water in irrigation canals and laterals. Poland says "at least 90 pct of the ground water pumped is used for irrigation." That being the case, it would appear that first consideration should be given to conservation of this use. Probably a small part of this is actually reaching the plants. Some measure of this loss between pump and crops would be revealing. Methods that might be employed to reduce this loss are pipe lines and spraying of some crops such as the banana planters are using in Central America. Another idea which might be investigated is to line canals and ditches with some water-repelling mineral like pyro-phyllite. Perhaps a comparatively thin sprayed-on

Jan 1, 1951