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By Lawrence A. Browning

In recent years, there has been a growing realization of the importance of ground water as a national resource and increasing concern that this resource be properly managed and protected from a variety of pervasive practices that endanger it. Aquifers have been adversely affected in every region of the country. In dealing w.ith the underground water program, EPA will have the following objectives: to protect human health, and to protect and conserve an important national resource. In pursuing these objectives, EPA will take economic consequences and other national objectives (e.g., energy) into account. EPA intends to pursue these objectives in full partnership with the States. Generally the States should retain the lead in protecting ground water.

Jan 1, 1978

By Junfeng Shen

Geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) is a kind of waterproofing material used widely in engineering. The waterproof mechanism is understood in terms of bentonite particles becoming a water-obstructcolloid layer after they absorb water and swell. The swell stress, however, has not been determined directly till now. In our experiment, the swell stresses of the GCL under saturated and water absorbing conditions are measured directly using a custom-made instrument. The results show that (1) the instrument designed by the authors performed satisfactorily and the test results are reproducible; and, (2) The trend line of swell stress variation with time can be divided into three segments. The first segment is characterized by a quick increase of the swell force in the first 0?50 hours. The swell stress increases by 7.00×10-4?1.00×10-3 Mpa / hour. The second segment shows a slow increase of the swell stress during the 50?1730 hours. The swell force increases by 7.54×10-6?2.02×10-5Mpa / hour. The third segment is characterized by little variation in the swell stress after 1730 hours. In this segment, the average value of the swell stress measurements is 0.0719Mpa and the maximum value is 0.0729Mpa. It is suggested that the swell stress is mainly raised by water entering the pores among montmorillonite particles and the interstitial layers in individual montmorillonite crystals, leading to an increase in volume and manifested as a stress on the surrounding materials.

Jan 1, 2006

By J. Craig Green

Companies mining for coal, oil shale, and minerals in the western US must often complete extensive geotechnical studies to satisfy federal and state regulations. The modern mining process is further complicated by the legal problems and liabilities associated with mineral rights and land leasing. Yet the study of water rights-unique to the West is often incomplete or ignored until the latter stages of mine planning. Water rights in the West are not adequately understood by many mining companies and their geotechnical consultants. Some firms, headquartered outside the western US, have not had to contend with the water supply problems of a semi-arid region. Water problems encountered by eastern mining companies, for example, are primarily water quality, drainage, and flood control. Even when water quantity is a problem in these areas, ownership and/or use of it is governed by entirely different legal and administrative concepts than in the West. Both legal and engineering issues have to be considered when studying western water rights. Legal issues, such as existence and title, must be addressed to insure that a particular water right is properly established and maintained. The exercise of a water right, however, often requires engineering analyses that focus on preventing injury to the properly established water rights of others.

Jan 8, 1981

By W. Evans, C. E. Ells

The agglomeration of hydrogen in pure aluminum and A1-Mg alloys has been studied through use of hydrogen introduced into the metal by cyclotron proton irradiation. Both the growth and dispersal of the agglomerates have been followed by metal-lographic techniques. During the cyclotron irradiation, agglomeration occurs at temperatures i 100°C for hydrogen concentrations as low as 1 ppm. On heating at elevated temperatures, 300°C to 600°C, intragranular agglomerates first coarsen and then disperse. The agglomerates formed at grain boundaries are much larger than the intragranular agglomerates; with hydrogen concentra- tions > 10 PPm, heating for 1 hr at 500°C results in extensive grain-boundary cracking. The hydrogen agglomerates have been shown to inhibit grain growth, but no inhibition of recrystallization has been observed. The ability of hydrogen to enter aluminum at a free surface, combined with its high-diffusion rate at elevated temperatures, accounts both for growth and dispersal of the agglomerates. Irradiations at elevated temperatures give results consistent with the explanation proposed for agglomerate behavior on post-irradiation heating. 1 HE formation of hydrogen-filled bubbles, or blisters. in aluminum and its alloys has been studied for over' thirty years. The work up to 1952 has been reviewed by Kostron' and since then Ransley and

Jan 1, 1963

By C. McLean, Erickson, S. G. Kolb, S. C. Moore

The Grossschloppen vein-uranium deposit, Bavaria, West Germany, was examined with underground workings during 1980-82 by Esso Erz GmbH, an affiliate of Exxon Minerals Company (EMC). Geologic evaluation entailed dense drilling of a portion of the deposit from workings constructed specifically for the program. Discovered in 1977, the deposit was initially explored by surface diamond drillholes which allowed definition of a 30-60 m wide vein system discontinuously mineralized along a 1000 m strike length and to at least a 450 m depth. The underground program was conceives as a cost-effective procedure to answer quest ions on vein correlation, grade continuity and variability. A 1200 m decline allowed access for detailed sampling of approximately 10% of the known area of mineralization. Fanned drillholes, logged by gamma probe, were spaced to provide intersections of veins at 10 to 20 m intervals. Six cross-cuts also penetrate the pitchblende and uranophane mineralization which occurs in 0.1 to 2.5 m thick quartz veins. Detailed cross-sections and level plans were constructed for resource estimates of the intensively studied portion of the vein system. The program resulted in the discovery of local, high grade areas and an average grade in the evaluated area nearly double that expected from surface drilling.

Jan 1, 1984

By Keyte SG

Gravity methods of recovering alluvial gold are not very efficient at particle sizes below about 0.1mm. Whereas such gold may not have been economic to recover in the past, the same may not be true today. Centrifugal concentrators, like the Knudsen and Knelson bowls, are showing promise after an inauspicious start, at least in New Zealand. The large proportion of heavy mineral in many auriferous beach sands and the natural hydrophobicity of fine gold should make flotation an attractive contender for its recovery. The conventional mechanical flotation cell is effective, but roughing, scavenging and cleaning are necessary to achieve both high recovery and low mass yield. More problematic is the difficulty of maintaining coarse and dense sands in suspension. The air sparged hydrocyclone is effective at recovering fine gold from a fine Colarado River sand, but is not effective for the coarse and dense beach sands of New Zealand. The flotation column shows much promise for these sands, when recoveries of over 80% and mass yields of less than 1% can be achieved in a single pass. The froth separator of the USSR and flash flotation could also be worthy contenders. It is felt that flotation could be limited to naturally and artificially de-slimed concentrates.

Jan 1, 1990

By Nicholas J. Grant, Bill C. Giessen

The phase diagram Ta-Ni has been treated repeatedly; investigations up to 1958 are summed up in Ref. 1. Since then, an equilibrium diagram has been presented by Kornilov and Pylaeva.2 They found the following intermediate phases: Ta2N; (CuA12 type),3 "TaNi" (p phase, Mo8Co7 type), TaNiz, and TaNi3 (Ticus type).5 Of these, the crystal structure of TaNin remained unknown, and no further literature reference was found. According to Kornilov and pylaeva,&apos; TaNil melts peri-tectically at 1420°C. A 5-g alloy of Ta + 66.7 at. pct Ni was prepared by inert-gas arc melting using 99.95 pct Ta rod (NRC-MG) and 99.9 pct Ni shot (Fisher). The weight loss after three melts was <2 mg; a microscopically homogeneous ingot resulted. As shown in Ref. 6, no oxygen or impurity pickup needed to be considered under these conditions. Specimens were annealed for 15 hr at 1350°C, 15 hr at 1205oC, and 15 hr at 875°C with subsequent powdering and stress relief for 10 min at 1350°C, 15 min at 1205oC, and 1 hr at 875oC, respectively. Micrographs and X-ray analysis (114.6 mm Norelco camera, filtered CuK, radiation) showed homogeneous one-phase alloys in the as-cast state and at all three temperatures, all having the same powder pattern except for broad lines in the as-cast state. From this it is concluded that either TaNi, melts congruently or its melting behavior is a transition between the eutectic and peritectic cases. Since it was found that very slight surface contamination on stress relieving can considerably alter the structure of similar phases (e.g.,TaPt3),7 patterns before and after stress relief were also compared; they were identical except for line broadening in the non-stressrelieved condition, and two faint impurity lines in the stress-relieved samples. The powder pattern is presented in Table I. All lines were accounted for by indexing with a tetragonal lattice, 0Yh- I4/mmm , with a, = 3.154 ± 0.001A, co = 7.905 * 0.002i and c/a = 2.506. The atomic positions are: 1000; 1/2, 1/2, 1/2] + 2Ta(a): 000; + 4Ni(e): *(002); z = 0.333 * 0.002 This proves TaNi2 to be a representative of the MoSiz (Cllb) type. The variable parameter was determined by grouping the visually estimated intensi- ties according to their 2 indices, plotting their F values, and varying z for best fit, which was obtained at z = 0.333= 1/3. Since absorption was not considered, only the relative intensities with similar 28 can be expected to agree. The interatomic distances are presented in Table 11; the standard error is *o.o2A, resulting chiefly from the uncertainty in z. These distances indicate a coordination number 10 for both kinds of atoms and show that the pseudohexagonal layers along (110) are rather un-distorted. The mean atomic volume of 13.1A3 is close to the Vegard&apos;s law value of 13.3A3, showing

Jan 1, 1964

MOUNT STEWART is situated half a mile south of Leadville railway station, which is distant 240 miles by rail from Sydney via Mudgee. It forms a low ridge from which rock waste and alluvium slope gradually to the black-soil flats of the Coolaburragundy River. The Mt. Stewart mine comprises:(a) The Mt. Stewart workings in M.L. 44, parish Talbragar, Co. Bligh.(b) The Grosvenor workings in M.Ls. 44 and 45, parish Talbragar, Co. Bligh.(c) The Extended workings in M.L. 44, parish Talbragar, Co. Bligh.The workings contain 1375 ft.. of vertical shafts, 1105 ft. of underlay shafts, 800 ft. of rises and winzes, 8520 ft. of drives and crosscuts, and 18,000 ft. of stapes.The mine was first opened in 1888 as a silver-lead mine, and a waterjacketed furnace was erected during 18B2. The furnace was installed with two internally-fired tubular boilers of 35 h.p. and 25 h.p. respectively, and two Baker&apos;s rotary pressure blowers. The results of the smelting campaign indicate that, during 14 months, a total of 15,000 tons of ore were treated, yielding silver and lead. In addition to this, a quantity of matte was sold containing about 8000 oz. of silver. As a result of the treatment...

Jan 1, 1925

By Neal Cochran

I consider it a distinct privilege to be afforded the opportunity of discussing the program of the Office of Coal Research. The principal activities I will be discussing are concerned with projects that fall in the utilization area. I will, to be sure, touch on other activities of the Office of Coal Research but am not equipped to discuss these activities in great detail. Research activities of the Office of Coal Research are conducted on a contract basis with commercial, academic, and non-profit institutions. We do not operate any laboratories of our own but we do maintain a very small staff for technical and administrative supervision of our contractors. We have consistently attempted to interest outstanding, creative, and practical research organizations in our program. We are constantly seeking the imaginative new idea that will materially reduce the cost of mining coal, transporting it, or will process it into a more convenient and useable form. In assessing proposals and in developing our program, we search for the improvements that will develop large-scale new uses for coal or coal products or those that support these new uses.

Jan 1, 1963

By R. F. Favreau, Patrice Favreau

"A blast with explosives creates vibration waves in the zone around the blast.The prediction of the intensity of vibrations is important because people in the cinity demand that the vibrations do not disturb them, and society imposes limits on the vibrations. The U. S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) showed that the easurement of the particle velocity U predicts the risk of damage from vibrations. A currentapproach of blasters to monitor vibrations is to measure them with a seismograph at several distances S, and create a graph of U vs. S and the explosive charge “W” according to the equation U = K / (S / W)N where K and N are constants that depend on the blast method and the nature of the ground over the distance S. Though useful, this equation is empirical, and the results predicted from it are very variable, as shown by figure 1 which indicates that a prediction of U can deviate significantly from the actual value. Moreover, a minimum of two seismograph measurements at two values of S are required to establish the curve. However, here now exists another very convenient method to predict U; it is with the simulator Vibmas, which is based on the fundamental principles of how a blast reates vibrations. This simulator takes into account not only W but rather all the blast parameters, the type of explosive and the properties of the rock. Moreover, to establish the calculation of U as a function of S, only one seismograph measurement is required rather than two as for the USBM method. This last difference is important because it makes it easy to predict U not only as a function of S, but also as a function of the orientation of S. On the site this allows much safer control of the vibrations, and the use of larger explosive charges which reduce excavation costs. The article presents results from a field case at a hydroelectric project in Canada, where the deviation was very moderate. Use of this vibration simulator on the Web is very easy."

Jan 1, 2015

By P. M. Pearson

This paper describes the principles ()f systems engineering and their application to the various transport problems confronting the mining industry. The organization of mining operations into sub-system design problems is explained.

Jan 1, 1970

By Emery Chilton, Charles Taylor, Mark Senk, Linda McWilliams

Three-axis ultrasonic anemometers are used to study airflow in the NIOSH ventilation gallery where ventilation in an underground mine is simulated. In this study, performance characteristics of this anemometer are evaluated and the effects of sensor orientation and sampler location on flow readings are examined. The study results provide guidelines for more effective use of the ultrasonic anemometers in the ventilation gallery.

By Paul L. Allsman

Butte mining district contains extensive manganese vein deposits forming a peripheral zone. Oxidation in the veins studied usually extends to a depth of about 75 ft. Secondary minerals formed by oxidation were found to be ramsdellite-always accompanied by intermixed pyrolusite-and cryptomelane. Enrichment of the gossan is accomplished by reduction of weight upon oxidation; theoretical enrichment is 32.2 pct. Additional enrichment is caused by leaching of soluble minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium carbonates. Butte mining district contains extensive manganese vein deposits in the outer zone, surrounding the copper and zinc deposits and corresponding to the well known silver zone. This article describes the mineralogy of the manganese veins, the oxidation and enrichment processes, and the use of this information in prospecting.

Nov 1, 1956

By Hélio Blak

The Paranapanema Group was created in February 1996 when a group formed by the Brazilian pension funds acquired four companies dealing with nonferrous metals. The new Paranapanema Group, basically related to the tin and construction business, became the sole Brazilian primary copper producer, the second zinc producer and one of the most important producers of copper products, mainly tubes and fittings. To put together such different companies, managed before by family groups and with different cultures and principles, was and still is a big challenge. The strategy of developing and consolidating it as an homogeneous group is based in three pillars: an increase in production, quality and technological improvements on products and market mix and a permanent cost reduction program, using all the potential synergies founded.

Jan 1, 1998

By J. M. Ortiz, J. P. Bertini

"In mineral resource and ore reserve estimation, several sources of information are generally available, such as diamond drillholes, reversed-circulation drillholes, and blastholes, and originate from one or more sampling campaigns and are analyzed by one or more laboratories. In such a situation, the grade measurements may not have the same precision and one should distinguish between hard and imprecise data.This work aims at studying the impact of data imprecision in resource/reserve evaluation through two case studies on simulated deposits: a porphyry copper deposit conditioned to real exploration and production data, and a gold deposit simulated without any conditioning data. Several geostatistical techniques are used to estimate the grades of selective mining units from exploration samples, including kriging, cokriging, lognormal and indicator kriging. Two types of imprecision are examined— measurements with multiplicative errors and measurements defined as intervals. The results are compared to the simulated grades of the selective mining units from a statistical and economic viewpoint.The study concludes that imprecise measurements should never be discarded because they help to improve the estimates, and that simple methods such as kriging are as efficient as more sophisticated ones for resource/reserve assessment. Finally, a few indications on how to diagnose and model the data imprecision are given."

Jan 1, 2005

By J. J. Moore

Combustion synthesis, or self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), reaction systems are discussed with respect to thermodynamics and kinetics. In particular, the effect of the process parameters, e.g. particle size, [All] ignition and combustion temperatures, on these self-sustaining reactions is discussed. Combustion theory is used to investigate the effect of the overall actuation energy of the SHS reaction on the combustion front propagation rate and in obtaining a clearer understanding of the transition from stable to unstable propagation. Finally, examples of the application of combustion synthesis to advanced materials processes are made, in particular the synthesis of Ni-Ti-X intermetallic shape memory alloys, TiC-AI2O3 and ZrB2-AI203 ceramic composite materials.

Jan 1, 1992

By D Williams

Recent advances in global positioning systems (GPS), machine guidance technology and telemetry allow an unprecedented level of control of surface mining operations. GPS technology can now locate the bucket of a shovel or the blade of a dozer within 50 mm. Some of the outcomes possible are: precise selective mining û even when the ore is visually indistinguishable from waste; tracking grade and tonnage of every ore parcel through the mine; real time productivity monitoring; detailed post accident safety analysis; and tracking the movements of every piece of equipment. This paper will consider the contribution that GPS based machine control systems can make to ensuring that surface mining projects deliver the outcomes promised in the feasibility studies. Case studies of installations are presented.

Jan 1, 2003

By W Russell, P Wighton, J Franke

Recent advances in ruggedised industrial control system technology and architecture in combination with latest technologies in the fast-evolving 3D LiDAR sensor sector becoming available have enabled the implementation of sophisticated automation algorithms for mining equipment such as bucket wheel reclaimers, as published by the authors in the peer reviewed AusIMM 2019 Iron Ore conference proceedings. This paper provides an overview of a second use case for such automation technology in bulk material ports integral to iron ore operations. The real-time 3D machine-vision based port automation system described in this paper was originally developed for the BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Hay Point port. The system has seen deployment at other major mining and general ports in Australia, such as at Dalrymple Bay Terminal (DBT) (shown in Figure 1) managed by Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure Management (DBIM), Hay Point, Queensland. It has the following use cases:

Nov 8, 2021

The current global economic climate has adversely affected the resources industry in general. For the gold mining industry, even though the gold price has been stable as compared to other resources, there is still a need to cut costs even further in order to be profitable and sustainable. Of all the costs that are associated with mining, comminution of ore accounts for the majority. Comminution costs constitute mainly electricity, grinding balls and liners. Of these three components, grinding balls form the major portion of the consumable costs, and can be as high as 40%?45% of the total. As a result, proper grinding ball selection is a key consideration towards reducing mining costs. This paper discusses quality control procedures that can be conducted in order to select the best grinding balls for a particular application. Keywords: grinding balls, forged, semi steel, hardness, chemical, metallography, wear testing, impact test

Jan 1, 2009

By Waldbillig. D.

A baseline of the poisoning effect of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) fuel impurities on solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) anodes was developed using polarization testing. After the baseline behaviour was characterized, tests to study the effect of various H2S concentrations on the rate and amount of cell voltage degradation and recovery were performed. Attempts were made to improve the rate and amount of recovery by various methods. Testing was very reproducible, but significant electrochemical performance degradation was seen after all H2S poisoning tests even at an H2S concentration of 0.1 ppm. Degradation is initially quite rapid, but after a period of time the rate of degradation levels off. After poisoning was complete, the H2S flow was stopped and the cells were allowed to recover. Some recovery was seen after poisoning, but cell performance was never fully recovered.

Jan 1, 2005