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By Harvey S. Mudd

WHEN talking about Europe it is well to endeavor to keep politics and economics apart but they have become so intermingled in recent years that the discussion of one topic inevitably leads to the other. Economic influences formerly prevailed over politics but today national and international economies are governed by political forces. Commerce in raw materials, food, and manufactured products is now so restricted by governmental controls that the capacity of the world to produce and to consume, to exchange goods and to pay for them, cannot be gauged by the past or predicted by a multitude of experts. In prewar days there were some yardsticks but today there are none. Thus it is hazardous to make forecasts, for in all fields of human effort the world has been cast upon an uncharted sea.

Jan 1, 1947

By D Laurence

Mining cycles have come and gone and with them there have been dramatic swings in the levels of interest and student entry into minerals-related education programs, hence graduate supply to the industry. So what is the problem? These trends will keep happening and the industry will keep on keeping on – or will it?This paper discusses recent trends in Australian minerals education programs and some international examples, together with some of the more recent initiatives taken by both the minerals education sector and the industry, such as the Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC) and MEA. The real problem is that things will not just keep going the way they have over recent decades – there will come a time when there is no longer a supply of minerals academics available to provide the educational programs; and universities will simply shut down subcritical mass mining programs and invest in the much more lucrative programs such as commerce, law, medicine, etc. By the time this starts to happen it will be at least ten years too late for any last-minute reactive response by industry, if they were to try and avert such a consequence. International experience with mining programs bears out this scenario quite clearly.It is therefore timely for industry individual mines and mine management to take a much more strategic look at their role in the education sector. Sustainable mining also means sustainable minerals education – without one, the other will not function over the long-term. There is a pressing need for long-term strategic buy-in by industry into the education sector – not just for the good times, but also through the tough times. This means much more than a scholarship here or there, but includes such commitments as major industry-university research partnerships; collaborative recruitment initiatives and much more. The paper will discuss a range of such issues, problems and opportunities to address these important issues through strategic, comprehensive, long-term commitments by industry and equally significant and appropriate responses by the education sector. We care – do you?

Mar 21, 2011

By T. Krichler

"Current mine control stations are either single-position systems with high engineering effort or all-in-a-box solutions with low integration possibilities of third-party devices. Above all, both approaches are cost-intensive and not feasible for small companies. This paper shall be an inspiration of how to enhance the productivity and monitoring of an existing mining system in a modular way by introducing a proven technique of the ongoing digital revolution: A Wi-Fi network based on the communication protocol OPC UA. The starter kit consists of a single-board computer, a WLAN access point and any electronic sensor. INTRODUCTION The majority of the European mining industry is run by small and medium deposits (Europe Geology, 2017). This is due to the fact that most ore mines in Europe are widely distributed within the continent, are generally small and additionally they are often steeply inclined. Such ore bodies are normally mined with underground mining methods and must be excavated with high selectivity because of their small thickness. That is why the economy of scales, higher efficiency through bigger machines, cannot be used in most deposits in Europe except for lignite mines. It is important to find an alternative possibility to improve the efficiency of European mines for making them competitive internationally. For cost optimization and profit maximization it is necessary to use the trends of industry 4.0 and to broadcast these into the mining industry to reach a technological advantage. The goals of the EU within the Horizon 2020 funded project are to shorten the actualisation of the mine and block model to hours, improve the communication with Through the Earth (TTE) via very- or ultra-low frequency for long-time monitoring of the abandoned workings, and develop a cost-effective mine control station for optimization of mining processes in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well. This paper deals specifically with the new approach for data acquisition, transmission and visualisation of a mine. SCADA AND ERP IN MINING There are already many Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programs on the market, but these are normally not developed for the mining industry. At the moment this leads to three options. • To hire a system integrator, who shall build a complete control station for one mine that requires a high amount of knowledge in programming and cannot be maintained by the mining company itself. • To buy different types of out-of-the-box systems, whereby every system can include some of the used technology. In this case a huge amount of project engineers and operators – at least one per system and shift- is required. • To buy every machine and program from one company including the service contracts."

Jan 1, 2018

By T. B. Beeton

In view of the limited reserves of good-quality coking coals in South Africa, Iscor has been involved in direct reduction since the middle sixties. Since the early seventies, its interest in direct reduction was stimulated further by a swing towards' continuous casting, which, in turn, contributed to a shortage of the scrap supply for electric-arc-furnace (EAP) steelmaking. Rock engineering The First International Conference-Rock Enginet:ring and Excavation in an Urban Environmentorganized by The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and the Hong Kong Section of the Institution, in association with the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, will be held in Hong Kong from 23rd to 28th February, 1986. SPOTLIGHT on Gold Fields National Engineering Awards For the Gold Fields Foundation National Engineering Awards, each university affiliated to the South African Federation of University Engineering Students (S.A.F.U.E.S.) selected a candidate who, in their opinion, presented the most outstanding design project in their final year during 1984.

Jan 1, 1985

This report is a compilation of all information obtained in accordance with the requirements of contracts S0122076 and H0232056. A series of eight coal mines were visited to determine their communications usage and requirements. Presently available equipment was surveyed and evaluated to determine its applicability to the needs of the mines. The equipment studied includes that made by the following companies: Anaconda Telecommunications Division Andrew Antenna Bendix Communications Division Collins Radio Group of Rockwell International Executone Communication and Sound Systems Gai-tronics Mine Safety Appliances Company Motorola Communications and Electronics, Inc National Mine Service Company Plessey Communications Systems Corp Pye Electronics Limited Reach Electronics Set Com Corporation Sonex Incorporated

Jan 1, 1974

By C. R. Kato, G. Proulx

"Within the continuous scenario of reduced aluminium price and plants production costs increase, the energy consumption optimization in the aluminum electrolytic pots continues as the main focus for the producers. Energy consumption was chosen as a key performance indicator to drive the efforts and actions for improvements. Alcoa improved the energy consumption by approximately 3% from 2005 to 2015. This improvement was a result of best practices implementation, new technologies introduction, strategic actions with plant curtailments and management practices. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the importance of the management practices for planning and operational improvements beyond the technology changes. About 10 years ago, Alcoa reorganized its approach to retain knowledge in the Smelters by using a Best Practices format. For each specific subject, a skilled team defined the minimum requirements and the Best Practices for several aspects of operation and maintenance, which affect the environment, safety, cost, customers and performance. These Best Practices were deployed to all Smelters combined with training sessions to process and operation professionals. We will describe how the Best Practices were organized, the deployment strategy used, and the approach to measure the plants’ success. We will describe the management approach that includes Manufacturing Analyses focused on 3-year potential, annual planning, and weekly monitoring of plant stability. A manufacturing analysis is organized at select plants with cross-functional participation of specialists from technical, operational, procurement and finance. The output of a manufacturing analysis includes a roadmap of enablers to improve energy efficiency. A quarterly follow-up of enabler deployment is held with the plant and resources that participated in the analysis. Annually, there is a Planning Process where energy consumption enablers are selected to be implemented during the next 3 years for each plant. A monthly critical analysis is made by the plants with regional best practice support. On a weekly basis, key performance indicators are reviewed with determination of a stability index for each plant. Any deviation signal of unstable condition is alerted and supporting resources are diverted to the plant to reverse trend with countermeasures.INTRODUCTIONDue to factors like excess aluminum in the market and lower consumption in China, the LME price is declining along the last years, as showed in Figure 1. In 2011, the price peaked at US$ 2,400/ton and since then, continues to trend down and approaching the lowest level at US$ 1,500/ton in the last 5 years."

Jan 1, 2016

By J-N. Oyourou, R. McCrindle, C. J. S. Fourie

"Many mines in South Africa were inappropriately closed and left unattended during the last century. These old mines are potential sources of environmental pollution and may pose a health risk to local populations, since the surrounds contain elevated levels of toxic elements. Soil from the old Edendale lead mine property in Mamelodi Extension 11, east of Pretoria, which was suspected to be contaminated with lead, was analysed. The mine, which primarily extracted galena, was decommissioned in 1938. During this study, the old mine property and surrounds were screened for zinc and lead using a field-portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometer. The metal concentrations, which ranged from 18 to 7 300 mg/kg for zinc and from 50 to 21 000 mg/kg, for lead, were plotted together with the GPS coordinates to produce a concentration distribution map for lead and zinc. This map revealed three anomalies of unacceptably high concentrations, possibly corresponding to areas where ore had been piled or dumped to waste from the old mine. Thirty-six of the soil samples that were analysed by pXRF on site were selected and analysed in the laboratory using inductively coupled plasmaoptical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for verification purposes. The zinc and lead concentrations obtained from the two analytical methods were compared using linear regression analysis. Excellent correlation was obtained between the results from the two methods (r2 = 0.99 for zinc and r2 = 0.95 for lead). IntroductionEarly economic development in South Africa was based mainly on mining. However, these activities left a legacy of approximately 6 000 improperly closed mines scattered throughout the country (SAI, 2009; van Schie, 2012). Due to their proximity to settlements, these abandoned mines may pose a potential health risk to humans and an environmental hazard. Mining activities generate large amounts of waste, mostly in the form of overburden and process tailings, which often contain high concentrations of toxic elements. Bioavailable toxic elements can contaminate crops growing in the polluted area (Kala, 2010; Marwa, Meharg, and Rice, 2012) or eventually migrate and detrimentally affect the groundwater (Rösner and van Schalkwyk, 2000). Moreover, sulfides accumulated in mine waste generate acid minewater (Rösner and van Schalkwyk 2000). Unfortunately, owners of mines, closed before the promulgation of the Minerals Act more than twenty years ago (Act 50 of 1991), avoided the compulsory rehabilitation of the environment enforced by this legislation. Toxic elements, such as lead, which were confined within ores, may become exposed through mining and are therefore more easily mobilized within the environment. Elements essential to human and plant metabolism, such as zinc, when exposed by mining activities, may become hazardous due to elevated concentrations (Aslibekan and Moles, 2003; Wuana and Okiemen, 2011). Humans exposed to potentially toxic metals may experience harmful effects as discussed elsewhere (Nriagu and Pacynar, 1988; Wayne and Ming-Ho, 2005)."

Jan 1, 2019

By R Domotor

Brisbane’s Airport Link is Australia’s largest road infrastructure project, worth a total value of A$4.8 billion. The project is using surface and underground blasting to excavate hard volcanic rock, Brisbane Tuff. This paper tells the story of the most challenging and difficult blast of the whole project: the removal of a remnant pillar of rock (approximately 2250 m3) next to a major arterial road and within 100 m of existing infrastructure including a number of heritage listed buildings, residences and privately owned sensitive receivers. The pillar consisted of a hard rock wall (Brisbane Tuff) between 2 m and 6 m thick, 15 m high and 35 m wide; with in situ precast concrete piles embedded within 1 m of the boundary of the pillar. Orica Australia Pty Limited was contracted by Thiess John Holland, to perform the work in this area, including design, modelling, drilling and loading of the explosives, as well as blast clearance and shotfiring. Access to the area was limited so all explosives and equipment, including the 20 t drill rig, had to be lifted in and out by crane. Due to the nature of the blast, with infrastructure 5 m directly in front of the 15 m high face, there was only ever going to be one chance to get this blast right. This was an extremely complex blast which required the use of a number of different types of packaged explosives, as well as special timing techniques only made possible by using electronic initiating systems. This type of blast is high risk, and is more typical of a building demolition in the urban environment. The blast was fired on the 25 September 2010, and was highly successful. The environmental results for vibration and overpressure were well under the imposed limits, and the embedded concrete piles remained undamaged.

Nov 8, 2011

By W. E. Foreman

A mathematical model was developed to assess the costs for reclamation of surface mining using the shovel overcasting operation, the front end loader operation, and a backfilling operation. A literature review was made of the present laws in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia pertaining to surface mining and of the various parameters that influence the input data for a mathematical model. It was determined that the working mathematical model would have to be applied on an area to area basis, preferably on a permit by permit basis in the area where surface mining was being done. To this end, a flexible model was developed with input data obtained from the area of study. The results of the study show that the cost per ton of coal for reclamation can be estimated for various reclamation levels. Validation of the model was done for selected permits from Virginia. It was determined that the permits could easily be used for input data to the model.

Jan 1, 1974

By Robert D. Perry

This report describes methods of reclaiming abandoned or inactive tailings ponds and dams. The investigated sites were selected tailings deposits adjacent to metal mines in the southwestern United States and the Pacific Northwest. The basic data developed for each site consisted of the following: a review of existing literature; a site visit that included sampling of the tailings and surrounding materials; laboratory and engineering studies; and development of reclamation plans. Laboratory tests determined the gold and silver content of each tailings deposit and the chemistry of the tailings and surrounding materials. Reclamation plans that include approximate costs were developed for five tailings deposit sites. These ranged in size from 52,000 to 103,000,000 tons. Our conclusions on the remining potential of each site are based on the tailings assay and other technical data. This study concludes that remining as a reclamation tool is feasible at certain sites. Included in this report is a remining program as part of the overall reclamation plan for two sites. Our preliminary results indicate that remining as a reclamation tool is feasible for only one of them.

Jan 1, 1981

By John Newby, Ulf Gwildis, Fred Marquis

From the Brightwater Conveyance System in Seattle to the Second Narrows Water Supply Tunnel in Vancouver, BC, the design and construction of deep-lying tunnels in the Pacific Northwest often require the incorporation of deep portal shafts. Alluvium overlying marine and glacial deposits combined with the high regional seismicity is the common geologic setting. The latest example illustrating the development of shaft design for this scenario is the 40-m-deep shafts of the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant New Outfall System. The main components of the shafts include the initial lining, providing the excavation support system to be used for launching and receiving a 5-m-diameter TBM; and the final lining, designed to withstand all static and seismic loads and to remain viable for the intended design life. This paper presents design and construction considerations for these shafts against the background of and lessons learned from past project experiences.

Jun 13, 2021

By A Deakin

It has been almost a decade since the release of the International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM) Health and Safety Critical Control Management: Good Practice Guide (2015a). During this time the ICMM member companies, along with many others across industry, have been busy designing, deploying and enhancing their own critical control management (CCM) programs. So, what have we learnt? This paper discusses the scope, application and learnings from the implementation of CCM within the mining industry. What’s going well? What are the common challenges? What are the opportunities to strengthen the approach? What are the threats to successful implementation? The paper draws on the author’s experience as one of the key contributors to the development of the CCM Good Practice Guide and an adviser to many mining companies, including six of the ICMM members. The paper focuses on the practical (operational) application of CCM and the cycle of identifying, defining, implementing, verifying and improving critical controls at the frontline. The paper also includes a discussion on the safety performance of the ICMM member companies over the past decade and provides a recommendation for how CCM can be incorporated into a more proactive model to measure safety performance. The paper concludes with practical recommendations that mining companies, regardless of their CCM maturity, can consider as they look ahead. They are supplemented by three additional recommendations for consideration at the industry level.

Apr 16, 2024

By Lionel Ryan

In 1996, the Dominican Republic operation of Falconbridge (Falcondo) developed a 5-year Process Control Plan in conjunction with the corporate Process Control group located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This plan was further refined into an analysis of the areas of the highest potential economic return for the company with the reduction shaft furnace operation being the most promising. Historically, the reduction plant, which comprises 12 shaft furnaces, has been the bottleneck of ferronickel production. Since 1996 there has been a history of control development, and the current status is that all 12 furnaces are using advanced model-based multi- variable predictive control. The combination of advanced process control (APC), improved control system performance and improved process information management has resulted in an increased throughput of 6% per shaft furnace and a reduction in operating costs of 4.5 US cent/lb of Ni. This paper reviews some of the major milestones that have been achieved in this development Keywords: Advanced Process Control; Model Based Predictive Control; Connoisseur, Reduction Shatt Furnace; Nickel Laterite Ore; Ferronickel; MonitorMV

Jan 1, 2004

By Eric L. Trist

The objective of this contract was to review the results of the Rushton Mining experiment in work organization and design, to explore the extension of knowledge gained from Rushton to other underground coal mines, and to conduct a search for a potential mine site for a demonstration project. The primary focus of the contract was on a search process to provide the research team with the opportunity to evaluate the different potential experimental sites, in order to select one or more with the highest potential for success. This search process also provides the various levels of union and company officials the opportunity to fully understand the context of the research before making a decision on whether to participate. While the search project failed in its attempt to locate a specific mine site, the research team believes that this is not a rejection of the actual project but rather extreme caution because of the uncertainty within the UMWA.

Jan 1, 1978

By R. S. Douglas

THE Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited, is engaged in the mining and concentrating of copper ores, and, incidentally, in the mining of coal and the production of electric power. The Company has been engaged in these various operations both on the mainland of British Columbia and on Vancouver island for the past forty-five years. This paper will attempt to cover their present operations in the Similkameen mining district of southern interior British Columbia. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT The Interior Plateau in southern British Columbia ranges in elevation from 3,000 feet to 6,000 feet. In the vicinity of Princet0n, a depression in the Plateau forms a well defined basin which is floored with a series of nearly flat-lying Tertiary sediments containing some workable seams of lignite. From this basin, the upland surface rises gradually t0ward the south, from an elevation of 2,000 feet at Princet0n to 4,000 feet at Copper mountain, and 6,000 feet in the upper parts of the Similkameen basin, where it merges into the rugged and diversified t0pography of the Cascade system, with glacier inhabited peaks rising to over 9,000 feet. The valleys of Similkameen river and its tributaries are wide, having flaring sides and gentle slopes, and are separated one from another by subdued rounded spurs, of which Copper mountain is typical. The drainage of this district is taken care of by Similkameen river and its larger tributaries, such as Pasayten river, and Wolfe, Friday, and Whipsaw creeks. The name Copper mountain is applied to a gently arched, nearly flat-topped spur between the deep valley of Similkameen river to the west and the shallower valley of Wolfe creek tO the east. The mountain is appro-priately named from the number of copper deposits occurring on its sides and summit, some of which have been developed int0 an important producer, known as the Copper Mountain mine.

Jan 1, 1943

By C. J. Newman

The Kidd Creek Copper Smelter has been expanded from its original design of 59,000 tonnes of copper per year to over 120,000 tonnes per year. Modifications to the process gas handling system and acid plant have been made to accommodate this higher production rate and to generally optimize the operation. The gas handling system associated with the continuous smelting process is discussed in terms of boiler accretions and modifications to minimize their impact on operations; design changes to effect reductions in high pressure drop duct configurations; material changes to overcome corrosion and plant additions to improve gas cleaning capability. The acid plant is reviewed with references to changes? made to accommodate the increased SO2 gas strength resulting from the higher smelting rates.

Jan 1, 1992

The object of this paper is to give an insight into various metallurgical operations involved in the making and shaping of steel for shipbuilding at the Newcastle plants of the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., Commonwealth Steel Co. Ltd. and the Port Kembla plant of Australian Iron and Steel Ltd. Whilst not steelmakers, inasmuch as their processes start with semi-finished. steel supplied by the Steelmaker, the plants of Stewarts and Lloyds (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. and their associate company, British Tube Mills, Rylands Bros. (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. and the Newcastle and Kembla plants of John Lysaghts (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. make substantial contributions to the Australian shipbuilding industry, principally by way of boiler tubing and wires for welding rods and sheet steel, including special silicon lamination sheet for electrical motors.THE MAKING OF STEELThe making of iron and steel began as an accident, slowly developed as an art and has not yet become an exact science. The iron age dawned on the day when, by chance, man's primitive ancestor built up the wall of his fire with ironstone. In the ashes of the fire he found pieces of sponge iron from which he hammered out the first sample' of wrought iron. For many centuries iron ·was manufactured in bloomeries and occasionally, when the temperature was excessive, the iron combined with some carbon and steel was produced. But it was not till '1740 that steel was manufactured under controlled conditions. In that year Huntsman invented the crucible process which held undisputed sway for over a 100 years until in 1856 the invention of the Bessemer process revolutionised the whole industry.From then on, rapid progress was made. The Siemens...

Jan 1, 1951

By Sydney H. Ball

I. INTRODUCTION. DURING the past 50 years the attention of mining-men has been turned to Africa, and within the past decade prospecting-expeditions sent into Central Africa have resulted in the opening-up of several mines. Having recently spent two years in the Belgian Congo for the Société Internationale Forestiere et Miniere du Congo, it is our purpose to outline briefly the mining-conditions in that part of Central Africa. Before it became, in 1908, a Belgian colony, this region was known as the Congo Free State. II. LOCATION AND AREA. The Belgian Congo lies in southwestern Central Africa, west of the continental divide, is illustrated in Fig. 1. It has a coastline of but 20 miles on the Atlantic, but widens rapidly eastward to points 5° north and 14° south of the equator. Its area is 908,000 sq. miles, which is almost one-quarter that of the United States and Alaska, or more than one and one-half times that of Alaska. Stated in other terms, its area is nearly one-third that of the United States, exclusive of Alaska and the insular possessions, or more than that of all the United States east of the Mississippi river. III. TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE. From north to south, Africa is made up of three topographic elements: 1, the Atlas mountains, a highly-accentuated region

Apr 1, 1910

By J. A. Sweet

The issues facing graduate training in the mineral processing industry are not too different today from those that prompted the initiation of the Anglo American Platinum Graduate Development Programme (AGDP) in 2002. Graduate metallurgists in South Africa enter the industry from different undergraduate programmes at various tertiary institutions, and so the knowledge and skills of the young graduates varies. Further, the geographical expansion of the industry combined with the downsizing of business units means that there are fewer opportunities for young graduates to be mentored through their first few years on site. Anglo American Platinum chose to address these issues by implementing an intensive, structured graduate training programme for all their new metallurgical graduates, known as the AGDP. The first two years of experience of the AGDP, from the viewpoints of both graduates and lecturers, were presented to the mineral processing community at the IMPC in Turkey in 2006 (Sweet et al, 2006). From the beginning, the programme was structured in a modular fashion to include a basic technical ?toolbox? including statistics, the scientific method and sampling protocols, while the mineral processing content comprised advanced learning in comminution, classification and flotation (later extended to include hydrometallurgy). Technical communication ? both written and verbal ? was included from the start. The programme was focussed very strongly on site work (?learning by doing?), with a major integrated site campaign conducted and analysed by each cohort. In 2012 the AGDP will accept its ninth cohort into the programme. This paper describes how Anglo American Platinum and the University of Cape Town have developed and adapted the programme over the last few years, in response to the challenges of the global recession, skills retention, and the changing operational needs of the company. The programme, which was drawn up to accommodate around 15 concentrator-only graduates, now accommodates 35-40 concentrator, smelter and refinery graduates annually. The programme has also been modified to facilitate new graduates spending most of their first year on the operations. The benefits of the programme for Anglo American Platinum have been tangible, and will be discussed in the paper. Keywords: graduate training, technology transfer

Sep 1, 2012

By Philip C. Tully

This bibliography contains 2,072 citations to technical and scientific literature about helium and alpha-particles abstracted by 12 abstract service publications during 1962. Citations are listed by 16 major subject classifications with several subclassifications to minimize areas of literature search. Automatic data processing was used to reduce the time and labor required to compile the bibliography.

Jan 1, 1969