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By Haydn H. Murray

A hydrothermal bentonite located in the high Sierras in Nevada is being mined and processed for use as a natural dietary supplement. Because hydrothermal clay deposits are normally zoned and not uniform in composition, a special stockpile was constructed to assure uniformity of processed products. The stockpile of clay was layered and rectangular in shape. Channel samples were taken from 10 locations around the stockpile and were mixed and quartered to provide representative samples. The samples were then chemically and mineralogically analyzed. The results showed excellent uniformity. The mineralogy and chemical analyses will be discussed in the paper.

Jan 1, 2005

By A. J. Jager, G. R. Adams

The pattern of mining-induced fractures ahead of stope faces in deep-level gold mines, as revealed by petroscopic observations, is described. It is shown that there are zones of fractured and unfractured rock ahead of the face, which are about I m wide and continue as discrete entities for at least 12 m parallel to the face and at least 5 m vertically. These zones do not form continuously as mining progresses, but develop from time to time, leaving a solid zone between the fractured zones. The maximum depth of fracturing ahead of the face depends on the rate of energy release.

Jan 1, 1980

By Canterford JH

Current and future methods of data acquisition in hydrometallurgy are reviewed. Hydrometallurgical operations involve a wide range of chemical and physical processes for the recovery of metals and other products from ores and concentrates. Control of such operations requires information on the different liquid/solid and liquid/liquid mixtures being processed. Continuous. data acqui-sition for the liquid phases uses procedures already commercially exploited in other types of chemical plant. The major problem is the lack of robustness of measuring probes. Continuous analysis of the solid phases is much more difficult to-achieve because of the sampling and analytical techniques involved.

Jan 1, 1985

By D. R. Zeni

Today's mine development requires the safe, expedient and economical construction of vertical shafts for both ventilation and access. This construction must be accomplished within diverse ground conditions. Advancements in large-diameter shaft drilling have led to many exceptional mechanical refinements in shaft-drilling technology. The author traces the history of the equipment and methods employed by the large-diameter shaft-drilling industry and explores the likely paths of future development. Case histories that illustrate the adaptability of shaft drilling as a versatile tool for advanced, worldwide mining operations are cited. Safety, scheduling, costs, environmental impacts and capabilities are discussed.

Jan 1, 1996

By Su Zhen

Based on the technical features of the Feng- huang-shan concentrator, the authors have designed a new scheme for optimal search and self-adaptive control in flotation process, in order to apply computer control to the concentrator. Hence, a plant test of optimal control in bulk flotation of copper and iron sulfides was successfully carried out. The control parameters are xanthate addition, pulp level, and amount of aeration, etc., in flotation cells. Two mathematical models of multiple parameters established by the authors were adapted and flotation efficiency was used as an objective function in the control.

Jan 1, 1984

This paper suggests the models for determination the optimum life of machines on the basis of sum and difference of investment and maintenance costs. The economic-mathematical models are based on complex percentage method taking into account the time factor of referring cost. The following strategies of maintenance policy have been considered in machines repair: a strategy without investment, a strategy with continuous investment and a strategy with step-like investment. The effect of value of investment in repairing and time interval of investment on optimum machine exploitation life has also been considered. An illustrative example is presented.

Jan 1, 2003

By Aziz NI, Beafi EY

In designing for a highly productive new mine during the present declining coal market, a very detailed ò planning is necessary. Attitudes of both management and coal operators may have to be changed, with more initial participation by the unions, governmental agencies, and the coal owners. A considerable number of Australian mines are remote from labour source and this trend is likely to increase particularly in the state of Queensland. Consequently such 'mines must be developed on the basis of the future technological and social changes in order to minimise both the capital and operating costs.

Jan 1, 1988

By David Martell, Wilf Ingram

For over 100 years mine hoists have been used in Cape Breton Coal mines which are situated on the eastern coast of Canada. Most of the coal seams have been inclined and as the mine advanced, longer lengths of haul were required. This paper describes the successful operation of slope hoists with rope capacities of up to 6100 m (20,000 ft.) at Cape Breton Development Corporation. A general description of the hoists is given. The braking systems, controllers and man riding cars used are discussed. The operational problems of using such long lengths of rope are described.

Jan 1, 1981

By A. J. Jacobs

THE purpose of this note is to draw attention to a set of tables, recently compiled in Rocketdyne Research Report No. 64-19, under the title "Crystal-lographic Data for Indexing Cubic Twin Reflections and Cementite (Fe3C) Reflections in Electron Diffraction Patterns."' These tables were an outgrowth of electron-diffraction work conducted over the past several years on steels, precipitation-hardening aluminum- and nickel-base alloys, molybdenum, tantalum, and tantalum-base alloys. The first table lists the indices of possible twin reflections for all the possible twinning planes in bcc and fcc lattices. The twin reflections correspond

Jan 1, 1965

By Roden S

This paper illustrates that sampling problems and difficulties are as common in an R&D environment as they are in an operating plant. Researchers need to be aware of the potential influence of poor sampling practices and when feasible determine the sampling and analytical precision at the start of any experimentation. Specific problems that have been encountered are discussed and the procedures implemented to overcome these difficulties are described. Examples from projects include the cyanidation of a Au/Ag ore, column leaching of refractory gold and oxide ores, the bioremediation of contaminated sites and the flotation of ore containing native copper.

Jan 1, 1976

By Walter Weeks

THE process of cooling air by allowing it to expand and do work in an engine is well known, but the theory of obtaining cold air by free expansion without the aid of an engine operating with cutoff has been little discussed. CASE I If compressed air is allowed to expand to the atmospheric pressure through an orifice in an air line that is supplied by a running compressor, no cooling results except the negligible one due to the Joule-Thompson effect, which will not be considered in this discussion. The effect of moisture will also be neglected.

Jan 1, 1937

LOUIS Buchman walks down the hall of Kennecott's Chrysler Building offices as if he belonged there, but it wasn't his setting of choice. The West has become his home, that and the scene of operations is there. When he was a child his family came to the United States from Latvia and settled in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where he went to school and on to Michigan College of Mines. Graduating with B.S. and E.M. degrees, he headed west in 1907 to the mining camp of Ophir, in the state where he spent the bulk of his career - Utah.

Jan 5, 1953

By Theodore M. Barry

Work measurement is the most common of many titles given to determining the amount of human work required to do any job. A new technique-like most modern management tools-it still needs years of constructive research. Yet despite known imperfections, it is probably the most enthusiastically used tool of cost control developed in the last hundred years. Over 85 pct of all companies employing more than 100 workers in one of the major industrial areas use work measurement. For a good reason, however, this has not been true in the mining industry until very recently. The facts make an interesting story.

Nov 1, 1955

One of the first all-hydraulic crawler drills in service at a US open-pit mine has significantly exceeded the penetration rates of comparable pneumatic crawler rigs, according to Atlas Copco Inc. Overall production with the hydraulic unit has been double that of pneumatic crawlers in use. The installation is at the Foote Mineral Co. surface mine at Kings Mountain, N.C., where the company is engaged in mining spodumene, a combination of lithium, aluminum, and silicates. The ore is found in pegmatite dikes, a tough and abrasive host rock with compressive strength of tip to 5800 kPa (40,000 psi).

Jan 9, 1978

By Ronald D. Hill

Acid mine drainage is the result of the oxidation of pyrite and similar iron sulfide material and the release of iron and sulfuric acid into the environment. In addition to the acid water flowing from underground and surface mines, spoil materials in surface mines are acidic and will not support good vegetative growth; thus erosion is a major problem. Lime and limestone are the major neutralizing agents used to treat these acidic conditions. Lime is the reagent preferred by industry for treating acid discharges, although a few companies use limestone. Agricultural lime- stone is used to "sweeten" acid spoils.

Jan 1, 1974

Although most N.S.W. coal mines contain large amounts of combustible materials such as coal and timber, the introduction of mechanisation has extended the range of combustible materials now found underground. The role of combustible material in a fire is not clearly understood and as a result the assessment of these materials for flammability by small and large scale tests is doubtful. Extensive research has been carried out on the toxic and irritating gases evolved during the combustion of plastics. However, most autopsies report death due to carbon monoxide inhalation because the combined toxicity of smoke and fire gases is unknown.

Jan 1, 1981

By W. C. Hazen, A. V. Henrickson

URANIUM plant operations of the Kerr-McGee Oil Industries at Shiprock, N. M., began in December 1954. As originally designed, the plant treated Plateau carnotite ores by the acid cure process, which dissolved both uranium and vanadium minerals. After 16 hr of acid curing, the ore was conveyed to an agitator and leached for 2 hr in acid liquor at a pH of 1.0. The leach pulp was then separated at 100 mesh in a classifier, the sands continuing through a washing classifier circuit and the slimes going to a countercurrent decantation system of four thickeners.

Jan 9, 1957

By C. Morrow

Deformation studies were performed on tuffaceous rocks fran Yucca Mountain, Nevada Test Site to determine the strengths and coefficients of friction under confining pressures from 10-50 MPa at room temperature. Frictional strengths of 30ºsawcut samples increased with pressure and reached values of around 150 MPa at the higher confining pressures. However, the failure strengths of the intact samples were quite unpredictable. The coefficients of friction ranged between 0.7 and 0.9 for all specimens. These data can be used in conjunction with in situ stress measurements at Yucca Mountain, to evaluate the potential for earthquake activity in the region.

Jan 1, 1984

By K. P. Madhusudhanan, R. K. Bhatia, K. S. Narasimhan, R. N. Singh

A typical case study of a coal washery of capacity 500 t/h raw coal input has been presented and discussed with particular reference to the techno-economics for flotation column vis-a-vis the conventional flotation cells, keeping parameters like input capacity and product ash same. The results presented indicate that substitution of flotation cells by columns in a coal washery results in advantages of increased fine coal recovery, better quality of concentrates, lower capital and production costs etc.,. The effect of increasing the specific capacity of the column by design modifications on the cost benefit is also analysed.

Jan 1, 1988

By G. Cifuentes

It is known that the cathode purity and the electrolyte treatment are affected by the solids present in the electrolyte. Anodic slimes properties (e.g., chemical composition, crystalline composition, sedimentation) were studied in copper electrorefining. These properties were modified through anodic composition and current density. In this investigation, we have worked with anode material from the Ventana Smelting, Hernan Videla Lira Smelting (ex - Paipote) of ENAMI (National Mining Company) and El Teniente Smelting of CODELCO-Chile (National Corporation of Copper of Chile). The characterization of the anodic slimes was done as a function of current density and anodic composition.

Jan 1, 1999