Search Documents

By W. P. Rawles

In the foreword by C. K. Leith, Chairman of The Mineral Inquiry, it is pointed out that the ordinary mineral production tables do not show the commercial control, and that some knowledge of the situation is desirable as a background for the consideration of problems involving mineral raw materials. The report consists principally of tables, accompanied by a brief text, giving the production and an analysis of the control, according to nationality, of 18 minerals: aluminum, chromite, copper, iron and steel, lead, manganese ore, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, nitrates, petroleum, potash, silver, sulfur, tin, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc. For the most part, the production figures for 1929 and the latest figures for reserves have been used. When feasible, the control has been shown at the various stages of production; mining, smelting and refining. American capital was dominant in the production of 10 mineral commodities, including six of the most important; British capital, in four instances; while Spanish, German, Chilean or Chinese interests cach led in the control of one. British, French, German, and Dutch capital occupied second place in the control of most of the important minerals. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of the world's mincral production is controlled by British and American capital.

Jan 1, 1934

By Victor J. Lynch

The Andover-Sulphur Hill mines are 12 miles northeast of Andover and 5 miles southeast of Newton, in Sussex County, N.J. The property is situated on the Lehigh Valley and Hudson River Railroad and half a mile east of U.S. Highway 206. It is connected with the main highway by a hard-surfaced county road. (See fig. 1.) Howard J. Hewitt of Lafayette, N.J., has under lease the Sulphur Hill tract, consisting of 28 acres, and has an option on the Tar Hill tract of 106 acres. The Tar Hill property adjoins the Sulphur Hill on the northeast. (See fig. 2.) The Andover-Sulphur Hill property is owned by the Lenape Corp. of Andover, N.J., while the Tar Hill tract is owned by the Crane Iron Co. of Phillipsburg, N.J. These mines produced iron ore during a period of about 100 years but have not been operated since 1880. Zinc and lead sulfides occur mixed with iron ores in the lower workings of the old mines. A diamond-drilling program was recommended to determine the extent of the sulfide mineralization in depth and also to explore further the iron-ore deposits on the property. The project was started October 6, 1942, and finished November 25, 1942.

Dec 1, 1947

By Kirty Dave

Foundations in any contract are the most uncertain parts of the contract and most of the "Construction-Contract-Disputes" are either directly related to foundations or arise as 'Side-effects of changes in promises related to foundations. Foundation Engineering is defined as ' The art of selection, designing and constructing the elements that transfer the weight of structure to the underlying Soil or Rock." (Ralph B. Perk). This art started becoming a science since 1920, when scientific efforts to determine the behaviour of sub-surface materials were made. The art and science merged to give new techniques and the science started dominating the field as more and more refinement came in techniques to predict more accurately the characteristics of the sub-surface elements. Inspite of good thorough investigations and design, the contractual promises drafted could leave some room for differences between the parties and above all the prudency expected of both the parties may fall short of the expectations raised in the contract. This may give rise to disputes which may need to be resolved as per principles of law. This paper attempts to initiate a dialogue amongst Foundations-Engineers and Contractors as to how do we minimise the differences arising out of or related to contracts concerning "Foundations".

Jan 1, 1996

This paper describes the characteristics of blasting which set it apart from other methods of breaking rock. The mechanism of rock breakage and the influence of rock proper- ties are then discussed. The strain and fragmentation produced by a cylindrical charge does not change once the charge is longer than 16 blasthole diameters. The influence of bench geometry, charge length and drill diameter are then examined. It is shown that spherical charges have advantages over long slender cylindrical charges. By selection of the appropriate drill diameter, explosive and charge configuration the optimum blasting practice for a given rock to give suitable fragmentation and muckpile profile for sub- sequent handling can be found. The fragmentat- ion depends not only on rock and explosive properties but also on the pattern which dictates how effectively the cracking is utilised. The size distribution of the fragments is given by the Rosin - Rammler equation. Undesirable cracking of the rock in the final wall can be controlled by the careful design of blasts as they approach the final wall. Finally, it is concluded that because of the distance to which blasting can fracture and then displace rock it is suited for the breakage of large volumes of rock.

Jan 1, 1978

By Yonghun Jong, Chungin Lee

The main purpose of this study was to apply the artificial neural network (ANN) models to determine optimal powder factors and predict peak particle velocities, based on a series of observations and input parameters. The used blasthole pattern was V-cut. The locations of blastholes and ignition patterns remained almost constant. The input parameters were 14 geological conditions (i.e., dip, dip direction, spacing, separation, and persistence of 2 discontinuity sets, tunnel orientation, rock strength, RQD, and RMR) and 4 blasting conditions (i.e., distance between blasting points and measuring points, charge weight per delay, drilling length, and blasting efficiency). Data for the ANN application in this study were recently collected in a highway tunnel under construction in Korea. The main rock type in the site was biotitic granite. An optimum ANN model was determined by training models with collected data. The trained model was used to evaluate the prediction capability of the optimum model. It was shown that the ANN model could predict the powder factor and the peak particle velocity depended upon the selected input parameters. Particularly, the ANN model predicted more accurate peak particle velocities than those obtained by the blasting vibration equation. Moreover, the more dominant factors among the input parameters could be determined by analysis of the relative strength effect.

Jan 1, 2002

FINANCE FOR EXPLORATION Two factors have basic importance in relation to the availability of finance: the apparent success of continuing exploration activity and tax concessions. It is not proposed to discuss the effect of existing tax incentives, as these have already been outlined and are generally accepted as being reasonably attractive; certainly not a deterrent to possible investors. However, it is obvious that the greater the tax incentives, the greater the amount of money that will be attracted, and the wider the number of people who can be brought into the pool. If, as is suggested, the chance of discovery is related to expenditure and effort, then the more money attracted, the better the prospects of significant finds. It is probably correct to assume that the largest expenditure in mining will come from, or be induced by, people expert in the field, people who are fully aware of the risks and benefits and perhaps making conservative decisions because of this awareness. Insofar as the general public is concerned, while in the first burst of enthusiasm it will frequently follow any promoter, in the long run it too will become more sophisticated and will strongly support only those promoters and companies of good repute and proven record.

Jan 1, 1971

By R. V. Ramani, A. S. C. Owili-eger

The quantity of methane emitted into the mine atmosphere and the movement of gas through solid coal and the adjoining country rock are dependent on the physical properties of the medium, boundary con¬ditions, the initial gas pressure distribution, and the combination of natural and mining factors. Functional relationships between these factors are not yet known. Consequently, the development of rigorous mathematical models to predict methane flow into the mine air is difficult and to date no model has been reported which is capable of such a function. Thus far, empirical formulas available for the calculation of gas quantity released from underground sources require too much his¬torical data, not currently available. Again, these estimations are at best only crudely approximate. The numerical methods available have not been made practical enough for industry wide application. Therefore, the development of a relationship amenable to numerical analysis and practical enough for use in the industry would provide the flexibility lacking in analytical approaches. The mathematical models given in equations (7) and (8) are further attempts in presenting practical models for predicting the quantity of methane emission into the mine environment. Equation (7) is the steady state model and equation (8) is the unsteady state model.

Jan 1, 1974

By E J. Gardiner, C M. Hogan

Acidic drainage has long been recognised as the largest environmental liability facing the mining industry, and to a lesser extent, the public, through abandoned mines. The Canadian Mine Environment Neutral Drainage (MEND) initiative was the first international multi-stakeholder program to develop scientifically based technologies to reduce the effect of acidic drainage. The original MEND Program extended over a nine-year time frame ending in 1997, with technology transfer activities continuing to the end of year 2000 under the MEND 2000 program. Both programs have contributed enormously to the understanding of acidic drainage and how to prevent it. MEND3, launched in 2001, intends to further this effort with a strong, research-driven program. The successes of the MEND initiative have come through the collaborative efforts of the partners, the sharing of experiences, the thorough evaluation of technologies and their incremental improvements. As a result, the knowledge base on acidic drainage has grown considerably. An international model of alliance between the various worldwide initiative involved in acidic drainage is being formalised at this conference. This global alliance will enhance technology transfer capabilities and will lead to improved environmental performance for the industry. It is through collaboration that we have achieved the most progress in environmental performance, and this formal relationship will further expand these benefits.

Jan 1, 2003

By M. C. Fuerstenau

Each year during the AIME Annual Meeting, the MBD Division has its Business Meeting. Because many members cannot attend, it has be- come policy for the secretary of the Division to present highlights of the business conducted at the Meeting in Fine Grind. This year the Meeting was held on March 1 in the Americana Hotel. Five major items of business were brought up for discussion. These were: (1) the proposed name change for the Division, (2) institution of the Taggart Award, (3) a name change for a Unit Committee, (4) MBD funding of scholarships, and (5) authorship of Fine Grind articles. The Matter of What We Should Call Ourselves A lively discussion was held on the issue of a name change for the Division. Two names have been proposed: (1) Mineral Processing Division, and (2) Mineral Engineering Division. A number of strong reasons for changing the name from Minerals Beneficiation Division have been pointed out. Perhaps the most important of these is that the term "beneficiation" does not describe all of the functions that engineers in our Division perform. Further, there are inherent problems associated in the term, in that beneficiation is a long word which has the twofold disadvantage of being both difficult to pronounce and difficult to spell.

Jan 1, 1971

By W. A. J. M. Van Waterschoot Van Der Gracht

The commercial production of petroleum in Germany is confined to the North German plain, in the Hereynian foreland, and the intramontane Permian salt basin of Thuringia, south of the Hare Mountains. Petroleum is produced in the former only in connection with salt domes, upthrust through Tertiary and Mezozoic strata of great thickness. In the basin of Thuringia petroleum is found in a Permian dolomite underlying a salt formation. It is exclusively in the peripheric zone of a few of the salt plugs in the North German plains region that commercial oil has so far been developed, notably in the following fields, all in the general region northeast of the city of Hanover: (1) Hänigsen-Obershagen-Nienhagen, south of Celle; producing from horizons in the Upper Triassic, the Middle Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous; (2) Oberg, south of Peine; producing from horizons in the Middle Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous; (3) Oelheim-Eddesse, north of Peine; producing from horizons in the Upper Triassic, Lower and Middle Jurassic; (4) Wietze, west of Celle, where the main producing horizon is in the Lower Cretaceous. In some of these oil fields production from surface seepages was mentioned as early as 1669 (Oberg). Commercial production of importance dates only from recent time.

Jan 1, 1932

Meetings of this committee were held at the Institute headquarters on April 18, May 2 and 15, and June 19. At the meeting of June 19, the Secretary reported that letters of invitation to apply for membership in the Institute had been sent to all the alumni of the School of Mines of Columbia University and also to all State Mine Inspectors and their deputies. He also reported the securing of lists of the alumni of the Harvard Engineering Schools, and of the Mining Schools at Houghton, Mich. ; Butte, Mont. ; State College, Pa.. ; Seattle, Wash.; Fayetteville, Ark. Laramie, Wyo.; Montreal, Canada, and Worcester and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes. Arrangements were made to invite all these to join the Institute. It. was suggested that a member of the Institute resident in Australia be appointed to this Committee, also one from Japan. Attention of the members of the Committee was drawn to the fact that letters requesting others to join the Institute will be written in the offices of the Institute if desired. The applications for membership received recently have been as follows: March, 30; April, 62; May, 70; June, 54. The next meeting will be held July 17. THOMAS T. READ, Secretary.

Jan 7, 1913

By E Topal

Risk and uncertainty are attached to mining projects, and making decisions, hedging, future investment and evaluation of mining projects depend on forecasting the future price. The future technologic developments in mining will be primarily influenced by the future commodity prices. A few approaches, with different confidences are proposed to predict price movement in the future. This research introduces a new comprehensive version of the mean reverting jump diffusion model for natural-resource commodity prices. The novel model proposes that the historical data of mineral commodities have three terms to demonstrate fluctuation of prices: mean reversion component, diffusion component and jump component. The model calculates each term individually to compute the future prices of mineral commodities. Subsequently, in the second section of the paper, the model is implemented for monthly historical data of gold price from January 1968 to May 2008. This research is investigating the relationship between the historical oil price and inflation with the gold price. This is followed by a future estimation of gold price fluctuations up to 2018. The results from the application of this new method are discussed in the context of how they accurately replicate the historical gold price and how they can predict the future gold price.

Jan 1, 2008

By Irwin Roman

In addition to projects such as those reported in parts I and II above, the Section of Geo-physics of the Federal Government has undertaken a considerable amount of fundamental research. Two such field-projects may be mentioned, one a magnetometric study in the Comstock Dis-trict of Nevada, and the other a resistivity-study of snow and ice. In addition to the field-problems, there have been two classes of research of a mathematical type. One of these has been the preparation of tables, scales, and charts for the important geophysical functions already known; the other has been the extension of the relations involved in the resistivity-problem. The magnetometric study at Spring Valley, in the Comstock District, was made for the pur-pose of determining the value of the magnetometer in extending the knowledge of a region, as ob-tained by purely geological means. The variations in the vertical magnetic intensity were mea-sured with an Askania balance at intervals of 20 feet, along lines as shown in Figure I.. These lines were 100 or 500 feet apart over an area approximately a rectangle 6000 by 7500 feet. In addition to the lines shown, two areas were selected for more intensive study. In one, short

Jan 1, 1940

By J. F. Shirley

"Very seldom, if ever, is a molybdenite by-product plant operated exactly the way the process design engineer visualizes it. The best thing the design engineer can do is provide a sound, basic circuit with enough room and flexibility in order that the operating staff can make the necessary modi fi cations to optimize the process. The plant, with minor modifications, should be capable of handling more than one process. This is especially true when the client is having the plant designed for a new process.The writer would like to propose the following ten ""rules-of thumb"" for designing by-product molybdenite plants where the molybdenite is floated out of a copper concentrate. The term rules-of-thumb is used, because there are probably valid reasons for not using one or more of them in a particular plant design. In fact it was 1980 before the writer was all owed to start up a plant where all of these rules were honored in the plant design. This was after 19 years of experience in the design of molybdenite by-product processes and plants. The main reasons for not following the rules are available capital, available space, and the client's experiences based on pilot plant and laboratory test results."

Jan 1, 1981

By Joao Felipe Costa, Jair Carlos Koppe, Alexandre Grigorieff

Discrepancies in raw materials properties informed by both producer or consumer is a common problem in most areas of the industry. Commercial contracts in the mineral industry normally penalises the producer, if contaminants in the ore exceed established limits. In some situations, the supplier is penalised if the quality of the ore is below a contracted amount. Differences in lab analysis are due many sources of error, such as distinct practices used in two laboratories for sampling, preparation or analysis. Rigid contracts impose to the miner the use of rigorous quality control program and in these situations sampling plays a major role. Sampling theory provides the tools to analyse errors involved in sampling, preparation and analysis. This paper proposes a methodology to check the precision and accuracy of a given sampling protocol emphasising the application of Gy's sampling theory to broken ore. A procedure to measure the error on each step of the protocol is introduced and the results compared to the fundamental error measured by Gy's theory. The results show the applicability of the method and its relevance to audit sampling procedures aiming at error minimisation. The methodology is illustrated in a case study at a major coal producer in Brazil.

Jan 1, 2002

By Charles M. Stone, Dale S. Preece

Introduction The Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) is a national program dedicated to storage of large quantities of crude oil in leached salt caverns in the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast area. The program has required storage in existing caverns at each site and includes plans to leach new ones. The structural stability of each cavern depends on the behavior of the surrounding salt. In the past cavern stability has been predicted based on experience with other caverns in the vicinity. With the development of good non-linear finite element structural computer programs, it is possible to predict stability before the cavern is created. An important step in verifying the applicability of these predictive methods is comparison of analytical and field data. The analytical data come from finite element analyses of a specific cavern where the laboratory determined material properties and an approximation to the cavern geometry are used as input. These comparisons have been made for caverns in the Bayou Choctaw Dome (Louisiana) and Eminence Dome (Mississippi) with reasonably good correlation being obtained between measured and predicted volumetric response of the caverns. This paper discusses 1) the acquisition of material properties, 2) the finite element program SANCHO, and 3) the comparison of analytical and field data for each of the caverns.

Jan 1, 1982

The Australian Mining Industry Council (A.M.I.C.) was established in 1967 as a body to co-ordinate the interests of the mining industry on a nation-wide basis. Its member- ship now embraces the great majority of mining groups in Australia. One of A.M.I.C.'s major continuing functions since its formation has been to work with Governments towards the enactment of more effective and efficient mining legislation. Yet, over the period, the,overall position, if anything has deteriorated. The main reason for this was that because of the rapid succession of what appeared to be quite separate problems during the period there was never sufficient time for Govern- ments to take stock of a situation before it would be changed by a new set of circumstances. By early 1973, the Council was certain that most of the various questions raised were really part of the one overall land use problem and its work in this area thus took a new emphasis from that time. In discussing the Council's involvement with Australian mining legislation over the last six years, the paper helps to clarify the present situation. It then explains a land management system which the Council believes could pro- vide the basis for the type of enlighened

Jan 1, 1974

By J. A. Procarione, M. K. McCarter, Bradley C. Paul

A numerical technique is described which can be used to model the quantity and distribution of air flow through broken rock. The method can also describe gas concentration and temperature distribution. A computer code implementing the numerical approach was developed to assist in determining the feasibility of a proposed modified in-situ leaching method for extracting copper from sulfide porphyry deposits. This mining method requires air to be forced through cells of rubblized ore. The flow serves to supply oxygen for the leaching reactions and to dissipate heat that would other-wise build due to the exothermic reactions. The method substitutes the Carman equation into the Laplace equation. The solution of the resulting non-linear formulation is done on a finite difference grid using SOR with iteration improvement of coefficients. This procedure yields the required air flow pattern and pressure drop. An equation for advection with absorption is then solved over the same grid using explicit schemes to yield oxygen concentration. Finally, a similar technique is applied to the convective heat transfer formula to yield the temperature profile. The model is potentially applicable to such mining problems as the prediction of leakage through caved ground, the prediction of methane concentration in gobbed ground, and the prediction of heat build-up in caved workings.

Jan 1, 1989

ST. LOUIS SECTION EUGENE MCAULIFFE, Chairman, J. N. HOUSER, Vice-chairman, VICTOR RAKOWSKY, Vice-chairman., H. G. WASHBURN, Vice-Chairman, W. E. MCCOURT, Sec'y-Treas., Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. H. A. BUEHLER, G. H. COx, L. C. GLENN, E. A. HOLBROOK, W. E. NEWNAM. The eighth meeting of the St. Louis Section was held at the Mercantile Club on Apr. 15, 1918. ,, The meeting was preceded by a dinner, at which 51 members and guests were present, and at which T. T. Brewster presided. Bradley Stoughton, Secretary of the Institute, and Major J. R. Fordyce were the guests of the Section. A number' of the Joplin members were obliged to leave before the close of the dinner, in order to make train connections. The Vice, chairman, therefore, called on Victor Rakowsky, who brought a message of greeting from the Southwest district. At the close of the dinner, the Vice-chairman, T. T. Brewster, introduced Bradley Stoughton, who talked on various subjects of interest to members of the Institute, especially the affiliation of local sections with those of other national engineering societies. The minutes of previous meetings were read and approved-and-the Treasurer presented a financial report covering the previous year.

Jan 6, 1918

By L. C. Stilwell

The paper will attempt to identify the threats, however obscure, that could confront the South African platinum industry. South Africa has the largest reserves of platinum group metals in the world, and is the largest producer of those metals. This situation is no different from that which existed in the gold sector fifty years ago. Since then South Africa?s share of world gold production has dwindled, and the gold mining industry has lost its dominance. Unlike gold, platinum has widespread use as an industrial commodity. Its investment value is a minor portion of its total value. It is therefore subject to different market forces. The sheer magnitude of the industry in South Africa obscures the fact that it is a wasting industry, and that South Africa exports almost all its production as a refined metal in the form of autocatalyst. Since Hotelling published his seminal work The economics of non-renewable resource in 1931,the science of mineral economics has developed exponentially. The paper will present a background of mineral economic theory and compare to this the development of the South African platinum industry. Of particular concern to a mineral exporting country is the question of mineral rent?its definition and employment. This will be the mail theme of the paper.

Jan 1, 2006