Search Documents

By Charles W. Villiers

AS is well known, there are large and valuable deposits of coal in British Columbia, both on the mainland and on Vancouver island. These deposits are widely distributed over the Province. The chief sources of supply on the mainland are found in the Fernie and Princeton-Nicola districts and on Vancouver island in the Comox and Nanaimo districts. The coals range from a very high quality bituminous coal to lignite. On the Upper Skeena river there is said to be a very large deposit of anthracite or semi-anthracite, but this field has not been developed. Coal was first discovered in British Columbia on the north end of Vancouver island in the year 1835, but it was not until 1852 that coal mining was seriously undertaken by the Hudson's Bay Company at Nanaimo, where mining has been carried on continuously ever since that date. The production of coal in the Province continued to increase until the year 1910, when the annual output reached its peak at 3,100,000 tons and a total of 7,800 men were employed in the industry. Since 1910, the production has dropped steadily until, in 1934, only 1,347,000 tons of coal were produced and less than 3,000 men were employed. This continued decrease in production has in no way been caused by lack of coal reserves. It has been due entirely to curtailment of markets. I do not propose to discuss coal mining practice in British Columbia, where we have all sorts of mining conditions, including submarine mining. There is no lack of coal supplies for either industrial or domestic purposes, nor is there likely to be any shortage of coal in the Province for many generations. We have our mining troubles, which increase the cost of production, but there are no insuperable difficulties to prevent the extraction of a large and increasing supply of coal. Our main difficulty-in fact our only serious difficulty-is to find a market for our output, and we must consider means which can be evolved not only to conserve our existing markets but also to expand them, at any rate within the boundaries of Canada. I will therefore confine my remarks chiefly to the all-important factor of Markets for our coal.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. J. Pokora

This Bureau of Mines report is an applications manual that can be used by the nonmetallic mining industry for guidance in installing noise control materials into crushing and screening plants. These noise control modifications were installed and successfully tested at three operating quarries. This report identifies the major noise sources that can be encountered in crushing and screening plants, and discusses the applicable noise control materials and techniques that a plant operator can utilize on a retrofit basis to reduce equipment noise.

Jan 1, 1984

By F. S. Crawford

Companies which have been engaged in safety work for a number of years are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that it is not enough to supply guards for various pieces of machinery and equipment and to supply safety inspection to see that rules are being carried out. Studies of many safety organizations have demonstrated that the accidents which could have been prevented by proper guards constitute only a small percentage of the total acci- dents, and amount to perhaps not more than 15 per cent. Evidently, if success is to be attained in preventing all accidents which it is humanly possible to prevent, a company must have the cooperation of every employee. Mining particularly presents probably the greatest hazards of any industry. Prevention of accidents. is made increasingly difficult because men often work alone, although generally in pairs, and only in the concentrated systems of mining do they usually work in groups of more than three or four. Supervision is difficult, therefore, and much reliance must be placed upon the individual workmen. In mining, as perhaps in no other occupation, it is of the greatest importance that individual workmen should receive continuous safety education. Within the last few years safety education has come to the front as one of the most important of accident-prevention measures, although it is true that its importance has been repeatedly stressed by the United States Bureau of Mines and other national safety organizations since the inception of the safety movement many years ago. A review of the safety educational methods of some companies in the Lake Superior district should be of interest. Perhaps better methods are in use in other parts of the country, but the methods shown have been instrumental in many cases in reducing the number of accidents. In one mine in the district whose methods are described the frequency of accidents has been reduced to zero within the last two years. A number of other mines in the district have recently gone into the class having no lost-time accidents for considerable periods of time. One company in the Lake Superior region, operating over 30 mines, succeeded during one month of 1930 in operating every mine without having a single accident which caused lost time beyond the day of the injury. Records like these are increasing in number, and while it is believed that they are the combined result of different means of safety activity, it is undoubtedly true that many of these results were obtained through safety educational methods.

Sep 1, 1931

By L. M. Southwick

"The history of extractive metallurgy is replete with examples of commercializing new processing technologies. The successes are widely reported, but failures seldom are. This is unfortunate, for usually we can learn more specifics on how to succeed in technology development by studying and thoroughly understanding their failures. Frequently one encounters a red herring that caused the whole effort to fail. A thorough and objective due diligence up front would have identified those red herrings and prevented the pursuit of a bad idea and the resulting destruction of capital. Due diligent analyzes performed before construction of three such bad ideas will be discussed. One is an EAF dust process, which pursued the red herrings of a poor understanding of the business, a naïve view of past experience, and false confidence in the technology. Another will examine the effort to commercialize a new pressure copper leach process that followed the red herrings of inadequate testing of the raw material, application of processing conditions that were inherently unsafe, and an improper assessment of the inherent advantages of past developments. The last is an alternative iron-making process, where the red herrings were incomplete and superficial assessment of prior pilot plant and demonstration plant tests, an assumption that the commercialization model of “build it and we will make it run” was viable, and a technology whose technical fatal flaws had already been identified. Unfortunately, capital destruction often also closes the window to more intelligent pursuit of technology development. TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATIONThe development and commercialization of new technology is a vital part of keeping industry profitable, able to deal with new sorts of feed stocks and current with economic, product, operational and environmental requirements. This is a difficult task in the best of times, and can be compounded when the developers become enamored of a particularly favorable characteristic of the project or of the product. These “red herrings” divert project focus away from the arduous path to success and, in the end, result in project failure."

Jan 1, 2012

By J. W. van der Merwe, A. S. Bolokang, M. J. Phasha, V. J. Matjeke, C. Moopanar

"Excessive wear rates on railway wheels can result in rolling-stock derailments. If wear is detected early the possible derailments can be prevented by prematurely replacing wheelsets, although the inventory cost and maintenance downtime remain a challenge. In the current study, wheels were introduced and monitored in-service for two years to investigate the cause of excessive wear rates. The wear rates and stresses were calculated for the wheels suitable for a maximum load of 26 t per axle. Microstructural and mechanical properties were analysed. As expected, the general microstructure of all the wheels tested was pearlitic. Although all the wheels complied with the tensile strength requirements, stress calculations confirmed material distortion on excessively worn wheels whereas trial wheels revealed yield strength exceeding the yield criterion. High wear rates observed on the wheels were a result of low yield strength relative to the load per axle. The typical wear mechanism found was due to a combination of rolling contact fatigue and abrasive brake wear. Despite compliance of the wheels with existing requirements regarding material and mechanical properties (hardness, ultimate tensile strength), it is recommended that the yield strength must also be taken into consideration as a critical parameter.IntroductionRailway wheels are used to support the wagon mass and guide the wagon along the tracks (Park, 1974). The wheels and rails must be able to tolerate the applied tangential forces in order to effect wagon dynamic performance and reduce material deformation (Ghidini et al., 1994; RSE_TE_SPC_0045, 2011; AAR M107/M 208 Specification, 2011. Over the past ten years, the South African coal wagon maintenance depot has experienced excessive hollow wheel wear rates on the heavy haul line wheels. The maximum load of Jumbo wagons on the coal line is 104 t, or 26 t per axle. Although the maintenance intervention cycle for wheelsets was two years, between February 2011 and August 2012 some wheels experienced excessive hollow wear. Hollow wear is regarded as wear exceeding 2 mm on the central portion of the wheel tread (RSE_TE_SPC_0045, 2011). This happened despite the fact that these wheels were manufactured and certified according to the requirements of AAR M107/208 standard for carbon steel wheels (AAR M107/M 208 Specification,. 2011) and the local wheel RS/ME/SP 021 standard specification (RS / ME / SP / 021 REV 5 (2013). The AAR standard only specifies a minimum hardness as a required mechanical property and the local standard specifies hardness and minimum tensile strength only. In general, an increase in hardness will improve the rolling/sliding wear resistance of steel. This relationship of hardness and wear resistance was found to be true only in a situation where solid and similar alloys are in contact (Singh, Khatirkar and Sapate, 2015). The sliding wear resistance of a material is usually estimated using Archard’s equation (Liu and Li, 2001)."

Jan 1, 2016

By X. Q. Ma

The beneficiation test on low grade phosphate ore from a state of Russia is carried out. The rougher-cleaner ? re-cleaner system is used in the flotation process, The fineness of grind is 39.07% minus 200 mesh. The result indicates that concentrate containing 31.25% P2O5 can be obtained from the flotation feed assaying 6.18% P2O5, with 93.54% P2O5 recovery. The test result is also a guideline for further development of some currently operated phosphate beneficiation plants.

Jan 1, 2014

By David W. Brunton

I. INTRODUCTION. THE list of our past-Presidents comprises the names of runny who, in their official addresses, have sketched the current progress of the arts and professions with which they were familiar. Such addresses are, in my judgment., highly useful, setting forth the results of our own work as a. society, and recalling to our minds the particular lines in which discussion would prove most fruitful. . Following this course with some hesitation, I venture to offer an outline of the recent improvements and the present situation in minim and metallurgy in the Western United States. The wonderful advances in mechanics, chemistry, and electricity have all combined to aid these arts to such an extent that. progress during the last decade has undeniably been more rapid than ever before in the history of the profession.. In all mining countries improved transportation-facilities, in many instances called into existence by the traffic created by the mines themselves, have done much- to enlarge the. field of operations by the reduction of freight-, operating- and living-expenses, thereby bringing lower-grade properties into the producing class. Under normal' conditions, as the age of a district in¬creases, all these differentt factors should combine to off-set. the augmented costs attendant on deep mining, and greatly tend to prolong the profitable life of the mines. The more recent and important improvements in our Western mining-practice which have contributed most toward the advancement of the art may be briefly summarized as follows; but, before beginning this portion of ray address, I wish to thank most heartily the many engineering friends who have so

Sep 1, 1909

By Lloyd H. Banning

Crucible-smelting tests at the Northwest. Electrodevelopment Laboratory and a pilot-plant test on electric smelting of western phosphate rock for the Westvaco Chlorine Products by the Tennessee Valley Authority indicated that the small vanadium content of the rock is concentrated in the ferrophosphorus by-product of Phosphorus smelting. This research is concerned' mainly with recovering vanadium and phosphorus froth the ferrophosphorus produced from western phosphate rock. Exploratory tests were made of several methods of treating vanadiferous ferrophosphorus. Attempts to separate vanadium as a carbide dross by saturating molten ferrophosphorus with carbon were unsuccessful. Volatilization of phosphorus from ferrophosphorus was accomplished to some extent, both with and without addition of sulfur in several forms, but elimination of phosphorus was not complete. Brief testing in a small experimental converter on oxidation of vanadium and phosphorus; into a slag by blowing with air showed promise. A method that comprised fusing vanadiferous ferrophosphorus mixed with soda ash under oxidizing conditions gave encouraging results and was tested beyond the preliminary stage. A slag product of the fusion contained most of the phosphorus and vanadium as water-soluble sodium phosphate and. virtually water-insoluble sodium vanadate. After leaching the sodium phosphate froth the slag, the leach residue was reroasted with soda ash and salt. This roasted product was leached again with water to extract the vanadium.

Jan 1, 1951

By John Paul Gries

This Bureau of Mines report reviews the mineral industry of the Black Hills area, including Butte, Custer, Fall River, Lawrence, Meade, and Penning- ton Counties, S. Dak.; and Crook, Niobrara, and Weston Counties, Wyo. It includes discussion of geological occurrence, processing, and potential of 27 commodities that have been produced from the nine-county area. The value of mineral production exceeds $70 million annually. Gold and petroleum account for two-thirds of the total, followed by clays, cement, sand and gravel, and rock. The combined mineral industries annually consume 268 million kilowatts of electrical energy, 933 million Mcf of gas, and 2 million barrels of fuel oil. Water consumption is about 10,000 gallons per minute. About 2,700 persons are employed on a year-round or significant part-time basis.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. K. Work, H. B. Emerick

IN the past year the steel industry underwent an abrupt conversion from a war tempo to a highly competitive peacetime schedule. It is still too early to gain a comprehensive picture as to which of the measures in production metallurgy, that made the war effort so successful, will remain in the postwar production of steel, but many of them undoubtedly will fill an important place after the war. Considerable speculation has developed regarding the disposition of the war-born production facilities of the steel industry. These include new open-hearth and electric furnaces, as well as vast numbers of auxiliary, supplementary, and balancing units that increased and speeded up production beyond the normal capacities of existing melting furnaces and finishing mills. Although these facilities were installed primarily to help meet war requirements, consideration was also given, in planning, to their possible peacetime use. The new equipment is generally modern and efficient, and it seems reasonable to suppose that strategically located units will gradually be absorbed by various steel companies to supplement their own facilities, or to replace in kind, obsolete and inefficient equipment now ready to be scrapped. Some, however,

Jan 1, 1946

By Felix Edgar Wormser

JUST as the ancients used the products of their crude mining endeavors to fashion tools with which to make digging easier, so today mining enterprises are dependent upon the very metals they mine for the efficient conduct of mining and metallurgical operations. In fact, the outlet afforded by the production of minerals in the United States is no mean market for the nonferrous metals. I believe that mine managers frequently lose sight of the opportunity they have to select from competitive products those which will help the market for their own metal output. For example, some years ago a large lead mine used storage-battery locomotives for its haulage, common practice, of course, throughout the United States. These particular locomotives, however, were powered not with the ordinary lead storage battery but by a competitive battery product made from an imported metal. After studying this situation, the manager saw how he could help himself by purchasing a product made from his own mineral output, and in his next order turned tip the use of the lead storage battery.

Jan 1, 1935

By Leo Panian, Ryan Nagle, Priyanshu Singh, Gina Carlson, Wayne Magnusen

"This case study presents the design and construction of an integrated foundation and ground improvement solution utilizing deep soil mixing (DSM) and micropiles. 270 Brannan is a midrise office building in San Francisco that straddles the historic shoreline that was reclaimed in the 19th century. Subsurface conditions include shallow bedrock inland of the historic shoreline, and steeply dipping bedrock overlain by 60 feet of compressible deposits and liquefiable fill on the bay side. Project challenges included mitigating the liquefaction and lateral spreading hazards, addressing settlement concerns in the fill and the bay deposits, developing a cost-effective foundation support solution, assuring satisfactory seismic performance, and addressing construction restrictions with existing adjacent structures.DSM combined with micropiles was identified as the most cost-effective solution for the ground conditions. The DSM panels act both as a liquefaction mitigation mechanism and a foundation support system. Resistance to seismic overturning is provided by uplift-resisting micropiles. The DSM-micropile solution allows the use of efficient conventional spread footing foundations, integrating isolated micropile groups to anchor the shear walls. Successful installation of the system relied on a program of field testing to validate the design and conformance with the design criteria.INTRODUCTIONThe regular grid of surface streets within San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) district provides little evidence of the geotechnical complexities that lie below. In the late 1800s, sand dunes, bedrock hills, cliffs, marshes, and mud flats were flattened and filled, concealing their locations and characteristics. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire leveled many buildings in SOMA; new buildings were built after 1906 – often on top of rubble and debris from the structures that came before. Locally, the combination of natural geology and historical interventions can produce complex subsurface conditions that vary dramatically over short distances. This is particularly true at locations where tidal mudflats once met bedrock hills at the shore of San Francisco Bay.This case study describes an integrated foundation and ground improvement system implemented for a multistory “Class A” office building at a complex SOMA urban infill site. The system utilizes cement deep soil mixing (DSM) in combination with spread footings and micropiles to address a range of design and construction issues, including liquefaction and lateral spreading mitigation; consistency of earthquake ground motions; shallow foundation support; seismic uplift resistance; and avoidance of loading adjacent basement walls. The system was implemented by a technically-sophisticated owner through a process that included constructive collaborations between the project geotechnical engineer, structural engineer, general contractor, and specialty foundation and ground improvement contractor(s). The system is designed to cost-effectively provide a high level of seismic performance."

Jan 1, 2017

By Edgar Stansfield

Introduction First, I should define more closely the vague term 'recent work' that appears in the title of this paper. Following the period of depression that was an aftermath of the first Great War, the Research Council of, Alberta carried on for ten years without a Council and without a financial yote by the Legislature. In November, 1942, a new Council was formed, under the chairmanship of the Hon. N. E. Tanner, Minister of Lands and Mines, and a vote was granted by the Legislature early in 1943. By 'recent work', I mean work during the present regime. The Council is now going full steam ahead, or would be if it could get suitable technical assistance and required apparatus and materials. Lack of these has so far made unnecessary my responsibility for seeing that we do not exceed our estimates. The Annual Meeting of the Research Council will be held in November (1945), and at that meeting the programme of work for next year will be discussed. The present time is therefore the correct time for any of you who may have ideas as to work which might profitably be undertaken by the Council, to submit these ideas for consideration. I propose to discuss my subject under several headings, and to give enough of these to show that the Council has wide interests.

Jan 1, 1946

By J. P. Rider, T. W. Beck, J. A. Organiscak

"The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Pittsburgh Mining Research Division (PMRD) has recently developed a series of models utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study gas distribution around a continuous mining machine (CM) with various fan-powered flooded bed scrubber discharge configurations in an exhaust curtain working face. CFD models utilizing species transport model without reactions in FLUENT were constructed to evaluate the redirection of scrubber discharge toward the mining face rather than behind the return curtain. The study illustrates the gas distribution in the slab (second) cut. The following scenarios are considered in this study: 100% of the discharge redirected back towards the face on the off-curtain side of the continuous miner; 100% of the discharge redirected back towards the face, but divided equally to both sides of the machine; and 15% of the discharge redirected toward the face on the off-curtain side of the machine, with 85% directed into the return. These models were compared to a model with a conventional scrubber discharge where air is directed away from the face into the return. The models were validated based on experimental data and accurately predicted sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas levels at four gas monitoring locations. One additional prediction model was simulated to consider a different scrubber discharge angle for the 100% redirected, equally divided case. This paper describes the validation of the models based on experimental data and the gas distribution results of the CFD models. INTRODUCTION To control methane gas and dust concentrations on continuous mining operations, it is important to provide sufficient quantity of fresh air from the end of tubing or curtain to the active face. In this region, operating machine-mounted water sprays and fan-powered, flooded bed scrubbers can significantly increase the amount of airflow reaching the face [1-3]. However, when an entry is large, especially in higher coal seams, the water spray configuration and the scrubber capacity may not be adequate to maintain sufficient forward airflow to confine the dust cloud to the face. Dust can roll back toward the machine operator as a result [4]. Currently, several coal mines having negligible gas emissions in higher coal seams (2.4 to 3.0 m [8 to 10ft.] thick) with exhaust tubing systems redirect the scrubber discharge back towards the face in an effort to improve dust collection. NIOSH studied the redirected scrubber exhaust techniques for dust and gas control in a full scale CM gallery to assess its potential for industry-wide application [5]. For a CM face, previous studies have concluded that the behavior of gas and respirable dust is a complex process. The distribution/dispersion and transport of gas and respirable dust after they are liberated at the face are governed mainly by their mass properties, the movement pattern of the ventilation air, and interactions with the mining machine and water droplets created by the external water spray systems used for dust control [6-10]. To understand these behaviors in a complex CM environment and to evaluate the effectiveness of various control techniques, numerical modeling has become a necessary supplement to laboratory experiments and field studies."

Jan 1, 2017

By Norman Paley, John Kells

The climate and location of the Red Dog Mine present several challenges to blasting operations. The mine is located north of 68º latitude, in an area of continuous permafrost. Ground temperatures are below freezing year-round and air temperatures range from -40 to 70°F (-40 to 20°C). Because there is no overland access to the mine, the entire year’s supply of bulk explosives, approximately 7,000,000lbs (3,175,000kg) is shipped in by barge during the 100 day shipping season when the port is ice-free. The first week in July is the earliest that new product arrives at the port. Emulsion usage is maximized from mid April through October when surface water fills the blastholes during drilling. This necessitates that a considerable portion of the bulk explosives are stored for 10 months or more before usage. The emulsion is routinely pumped from the ISO containers at temperatures of 20ºF (-7°C). The mine engineers conducted a testing program during the 2001-2 blasting season to identify the bulk explosives best suited for the conditions at the mine. A secondary goal was to decrease the usage of sensitized emulsion, as this is the most difficult portion of the explosives order to ship. To ensure repeatability when transferring the results to the day-to-day blasting operation, the majority of the testing was incorporated into normal blasting operations in the field. The mining methods used at Red Dog Mine make direct fragmentation analysis impractical and performance testing in the field relied primarily on VOD measurements. The products were also tested for their ability to be pumped in cold temperatures.

Jan 1, 2004

In early June, Rio Tinto?s chief executive officer Tom Albanese said that he expected demand for iron ore, aluminum and copper to double in the next 15 years. Driven by global industrialization and urbanization, Albanese said during his company?s annual general meeting that to meet the demand in 2030, the additional supply required will be equivalent to replicating the iron ore output of Australia?s Pilbara region every five years, adding another aluminum production complex the size of Canada?s Saguenay every nine months and developing another copper mine the size of Escondida, in Chile, each year.

Jan 1, 2010

By Georg Petersen

El presente texto señala el aporte de Alexander Von Humboldt en la minería a través de "Observaciones mineralógicas sobre algunos basaltos en el Rhin" (1790) y sus posteriores exploraciones geográficas al Perú. Asimismo, impulsó vigorosamente la producción aurífera en Prusia y en 1793 fundó una Escuela de Minas, elaborando su plan de estudios. . De otro lado estableció una especie de seguro contra accidentes y enfermedad para los mineros. Entre sus principales exploraciones está su viaje entre Ayabaca y Lima que se divide en 5 etapas: Ayabaca- Huancabamba; Huancabamba Desembucadura del Río Chamaya; Desembocadura del Río Chamaya - Tomependa; Tomependa - Cajamarca; y Cajamarca-Lima.

May 1, 1959

By John Mills

THREE case histories from professions other than engineering will serve to introduce ideas basic to this discussion. Case (1) Date, about 1900. A young man, B. D. from a three-year graduate course in a prominent divinity school, was for two years a successful pastor of a small church; then friction over theological matters arose with a fundamentalist deacon of the "Bible belt" type. He resigned, returned to his university for a four-year medical course, interned for two more, and thereafter was successful and apparently happy as a physician. We may assume that he was converted in early adolescence and vowed himself to service as a minister. Acceptance of his announced career by parents, friends, and teachers plus his own determination confirmed his choice until illiberal criticism threatened his usefulness and he awoke to the fact that his inner needs were not along the direction in which inertia and his conscience had constrained him.

Jan 1, 1947

By A. Haghighat

The Missouri University of Science and Technology?s (Missouri S&T) Experimental Mine is a teaching and research facility which has been excavated in limestone by mining engineering students over almost 100 years. The mine is currently being extended to a second level. Available fans for ventilation are two surface fans of 24 kW and two underground booster fans of 12 kW. The design of a ventilation network in conjunction with multi surface fans and booster fans entails a complex procedure. Ventsim Visual software modeling has been used for network analysis to determine the optimum surface and booster fans locations, blade settings, and speeds. Both natural and mechanical induced ventilation pressures have been taken into account. Three working faces on each level have been designated as target points that minimum air quantities are required. The model has been calibrated against a pressure and quantity survey. Design of ductwork, door/stopping positions and different fans characteristics have been examined. The optimum flow rate at identified working faces, efficiency and minimum energy losses and annual network power cost determine the best scenario. The optimum design has been determined for the ventilation network for the next 100 years. The optimum flow rate across working faces is the key criterion selected.

Feb 23, 2014

By D. Newman

Mineral production in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland during the last ten years has been confined to the sporadic production of industrial minerals—for example marble, anorthosite, limestone, talc and silica. From 1962 onwards there has been an upsurge in mineral exploration in the Highlands, increasing in tempo from 1966 onwards due to the efforts of the Institute of Geological Sciences, the Highlands and Islands Development Board, and private and public companies. Geological, chemical and economic aspects of some of the more interesting mineral prospects are discussed: these include anorthosite, feldspar, magnetite, quartzite and brucite marble. Reference is made to a geochemical survey undertaken in the Rosehall district of Sutherland, the results obtained being summarised. Problems that affect the future of mineral exploration in the Highlands are stated.

Dec 1, 1971