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By Dietrich F. C. Hudewentz, Alfred H. F. Lücker

For centuries tunnellers have made use of the experience of miners. In West German coalmining tunnellers have returned the impulses in recent years by giving the miners valuable stimuli with the result that a technology has evolved which benefits drill and blast heading, opens the door to TBM heading and has developed special measures for difficult strata conditions in deep coal mines. WHAT DO THESE ROCK HEADINGS LOOK LIKE? The main roadways dealt with in this paper have crosssections of 20 to 40 m2, big enough to allow the massive airflows needed to aircondition the mines. Because of the difficult strata conditions they have to be supported: in shotfired headings mainly with multi-element arches, in TBM headings with rings of 6 to 6.5 m diameter. In West German coalmining the majority of rock headings are blasted. The proportion of rock headings driven by TBM was 11 % in 1980 and 16 % in 1981, a rising trend expected to continue. Drill and blast headings Drill and blast headings are normally equipped with two or three-boom electro-hydraulic jumbos, electro-hydraulic crawler-mounted loaders with 1.2 m3 shovel capacity, a movable working platform and both chain and belt conveyors for dirt clearance to the minecar loading point. Fans and air-condition plant complete the equipment. Spacing between arches is usually 0.8 m. Investment for this type of mechanisation works out at around 1.3 m DM.

Jan 1, 1983

By D. A. Jacobson

Mining operations, whether new or existing, are constantly looking for ways to maximize production and improve energy efficiency, while keeping the footprint required to a minimum. The Nordberg MP1250 cone crusher was designed with these three goals in mind. A series of side-by-side evaluations comparing an MP1250 to an MP1000 were completed at two Freeport-McMoRan operations. The first evaluation began October 2009 in a tertiary position and the second began March 2010 in a secondary position, where it remains in full production today. Utilizing 25% higher power capacity than the existing MP1000 tertiary crushers, the MP1250 had 29% higher capacity and 17% lower specific energy, adjusted for differences in feed and product size. The MP1250 compared to the existing MP1000 secondary crushers achieved 30% higher capacity at a slightly reduced specific energy, while achieving a finer product. The MP1250?s higher capacity and energy efficiency may have application in many crushing plants. Depending on site specific economic factors, greenfield projects may benefit from a smaller footprint and less ancillary equipment, whereas brownfield projects may benefit from higher capacity or a finer product within the same footprint.

Jan 1, 2012

By F. Habashi

Brazil is a major mineral and metal producer, has magnificent fauna and flora, and superb architecture. In 1693 gold was discovered in Ouro Preto and Brazil produced about half of the world's gold. In 1726 diamond was discovered in the region of Tijuco in the Province of Minas Gerais, 150 km east of Bello Horizonte. The country became independence from Portugal in 1822 as the Brazilian Empire. In 1876, an Englishman succeeded in obtaining from the Amazon region seeds of rubber trees and secretly transferred them to England, where they were planted in the royal gardens at Kew. Some of the seedlings which spouted were sent to Ceylon and Singapore. Thus, began the rubber industry in the East. Today, Brazil is the largest producer of niobium, and produces a large number of other metals. The Mineral Research Center in Rio de Janeiro is the countries main Government establishment for mineral research. The country has been a republic since 1889 with its capital in Brazilia.

Jan 1, 2009

By Thierry Bernard, Guy Gagnon

Blasting at very close proximity to urban areas is typically a situation where both local communities and mining stakeholders get nervous. The context becomes logically even more tensed when the blasting operations have to be performed above an old underground mine. When mitigating subsidence risks requires firing the largest possible shots, the nuisance control (flyrock, vibration, and noise) required by local and national regulations, contrarily urge for being more conservative.

Jan 1, 2014

By G. Richard Dreese

Most coal mining states have passed or amended laws restricting strip ruining in the past two years. In light of this and in anticipation of further restrictions by the states and the federal government on strip mining this paper attempts to show the Impact of these new laws on the structure of the coal mining industry in Ohio and specifically on one small stripping firm in Ohio. The implications of the study are applicable to other states under similar circumstances and to other industries which are being caught up in the ecological-economic struggle.

Jan 1, 1973

By H. E. Wheeler

THE work described was carried out during 1917 and 1918 at the testing laboratory of Watertown Arsenal at the instigation of the Nitrate Division and later with the concurrence of the Cannon Section of, the Ordnance Department, U. S. A. The experiments follow three principal lines of work: First, the effect of nitrogen under pressure on steel containers of various compositions at a red heat; second, the effect of decomposing ammonia on various alloy steels, iron, and non-ferrous alloys; third, a new theory of the erosion of guns in respect to the effect of nitrogen in steel. PART I In the Haber process for the manufacture of ammonia from its elements, it is necessary to have nitrogen and hydrogen of 1500 lb. per sq. in. (105.5 kg. per sq. cm.) at a temperature of 500 to 600° C. The steel containers for these gases gave trouble by failing without apparent cause. When the General Chemical Co. began to develop its method for the production of ammonia, it experienced the same difficulty and, knowing that the Haber process had solved the difficulty by the use of alloy steels, it made several small steel bottles of different compositions and kept them filled with these gases at this pressure and temperature until they failed. The time of service varied from a few days, for the plain steel casting, to two years for a chrome-vanadium forging. Four of these steel bottles were sent to this laboratory for investigation; they were a plain carbon-steel forging, a nickel-steel forging, a chrome-vanadium steel forging, and a chrome-steel forging. The time of service was as follows: plain carbon steel, 4 mo.; nickel steel, 6 mo.; chrome-vanadium steel, over 2 yr.; chrome steel, 4 mo. When these containers were cut open and the cross-section surface polished, they showed an inside zone with a different luster from the rest of the metal. Upon etching, this zone was almost unaffected while the rest of the steel etched normally.

Jan 4, 1920

THIS method of melting with a little wind furnace is called by many melting with air. It is a method that is done with little labor. First a furnace is made with crucibles and charcoal. It is small or large as you wish, without blast from bellows, but not without a draft of air which proceeds from the place where it is made and from the arrangement of the furnace.* This, after a certain period of time, has the effect of melt- [ ] gin the thing in the quantity that you wish, provided, however, that you proportion it properly to the space, to the fire, and to the air which makes the wind. In order to make this, the aforesaid furnace is first made of bricks, or it is dug out of an elevation of stone or [106V] in a wall of clay. It can also be made portable with iron bars and loam as I shall tell you. However you may make it, you must place it in a spot that is windy, for instance, in some large room or opposite doors or windows. It is made round or square as is most pleasing to him who is to make it. But here we will now say that it is to be made square for greater convenience of building with bricks. Having chosen the place, make it a half

Jan 1, 1942

By Carle Hayward

AT THE February, 1916, meeting of the Institute, a paper presented by Hayward and Raymond gave the results of a study on the effect of time in tempering medium-carbon steel, when the following conclusions were reached: It is not fair to consider the question settled when only three specimens were used for each treatment, but the results obtained indicate that for reheating quenched medium-carbon steel to temperatures below 500° it is only necessary to heat it through. Longer heating has little or no effect on the tensile strength, ductility, or hardness. At temperatures above 500°, increasing the time of treatment causes a slight falling off in hardness and tensile strength with a corresponding increase in ductility. In the discussion of the paper these conclusions were attacked and evidence presented that seemed to throw doubt on their accuracy. The authors, however, showed that this evidence was based on high-carbon or alloy steels and no facts regarding medium-carbon steel were presented. During this study the heat treatment was carried out in a small electric resistance furnace. It held nine specimens, but when these were placed in the furnace the temperature was lowered to such an extent that 30 to 40 min. were required to reach the desired heat. The authors pointed to this as a weak point in the investigation and it seemed wise to supplement the research by work on similar steel but using a different method of heating. This has been done and the results are given in the present paper. The Rhode Island Tool Co. cooperated by furnishing the steel and turning the tensile specimens.

Jan 1, 1922

Les Mines Inmet ? La Division Troilus exploite une mine d?or à ciel ouvert depuis 1996 et produit un concentré de cuivre. La Division Troilus est localisée à 175 KM au nord de la ville de Chibougamau? au 51 parallèle.

Feb 1, 2008

By H. C. Ko

The Bureau of Mines maintains an active program in thermochemistry to provide thermodynamic data for the advancement of mineral science and technology. As part of this effort, the standard enthalpy of formation at 298.15 K, ?Hf°, for 2CdO-CdSO4 was determined by HCI acid solution calorimetry to be -345.69 ±0.61 kcal/mol.

Jan 1, 1983

Common practice in mineral resource estimation consists of partitioning the orebody into several domains defined by grade intervals, prior to the geostatistical modelling and estimation/simulation at unsampled locations. This paper shows the pitfalls of grade domaining through a case study in which we compare the performance of several estimation schemes and demonstrate that the use of domains defined by grade cut-offs implies a deterioration of the resource estimates, mainly in what refers to precision and conditional bias. Then, several conceptual limitations of the grade domaining approach are stressed, in particular the fact that it does not account for the spatial dependency between adjacent domains and for the uncertainty in the domain boundaries. Also, this approach is shown to be sensitive to the cut-offs that define the domains, to provoke artifacts in the kriging maps, histograms and scatter grams between true and estimated grades, and to lower the kriging variance, a feature that may impact the mineral resource classification. An alternative approach is finally proposed to overcome these limitations, based on a stochastic modelling of the grade domains and a co-kriging of the grades using information from all the domains. Keywords: geostatistics, kriging, conditional bias, geological control, grade zoning.

Jan 1, 2005

By Robert S. Holmes

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Explosive Excavation Research Office (EERO) of Livermore, California, has been engaged in research and development of excavation techniques using both nuclear and conventional explosives since 1962. Prior to July 1971, this organization was designated the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Nuclear Cratering Group. The EERO mission is performed as part of the joint Atomic Energy Commission -Corps of Engineers nuclear excavation research pro-gram. During the period 1962-1969, the Corps executed many cratering explosions using spherical charges of up to 85 tons of nitromethane to model nuclear excavation concepts and to develop design criteria for the nuclear cratering explosions. The experience gained in these modeling tests suggested that explosive excavation using large chemical explosive charges could be applied to excavation projects as an economical substitute for traditional excavation techniques. Consequently, the Corps' research program was broadened in 1969 to include development of chemical explosive excavation as a construction tool. The term "explosive excavation" denotes the use of large buried explosive charges to produce an excavation by fracturing the material and casting it into a desired configuration. In its simplest form, this technology involves detonation of a single explosive charge buried at the proper depth to produce a crater which is roughly hyperbolic in cross section. The types of craters produced by various depths of burial are illustrated by Figure 1. Single or Multiple rows of charges are used to excavate linear cuts required for water conveyance or navigation channels. .More complex explosive excavations include small craft harbors, railroad and highway cuts, and removal of W1denvater rock barriers to navigation. While the literature indicates widespread use of large explosions in the (1) ERRO is a field activity of the Waterway Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Jan 1, 1971

By R. Radhakrishnan, C. Gunasekaran

"Calicut Bypass Phase-II project included construction of 7 m high embankment over soft compressible clays up to 18 m in thickness. Approx 1.5 km length of road out of a total 5 km length consisted of abandoned paddy fields which were low lying, waterlogged and marshy in nature. On the basis of excellent results achieved in earlier phases of the by-pass construction, ground improvement work by installing pre-fabricated vertical drains (PVD) was undertaken to stabilize the embankment foundation along the weak clay areas prior to road pavement construction to avoid large post construction settlement as well as to improve the lateral stability during and after embankment construction. This project perhaps stands out as one of the highway projects completed within a very short time period of total 18 months including four month long heavy monsoon period, when embankment construction was not possible and construction of two bridges across rivers. All activities including the ground improvement had to be programmed and completed within the shortest time period possible. The paper discusses details of the extensive ground improvement and soil instrumentation carried out for the project and will illustrate how careful planning and execution can reduce the period required for highway projects involving ground improvement.INTRODUCTIONPhase-II construction of Calicut by-pass was undertaken on a priority basis by the State of Kerala in 2014. The main contract was awarded to M/S ULCCS Ltd, Kozhikode, Kerala and the ground improvement work was awarded to M/S Geo-Enviro Engineers P Ltd, as specialist agency to design and execute the work.Soil investigation carried out confirmed thick soft clay deposits below GL in three areas along the road alignment totaling approx 1.5 km in length. These areas were low lying, waterlogged and marshy in nature. Highway embankment had to be constructed up to 7 m in height above existing GL to form the proposed road alignment along these areas. On the basis of excellent results achieved in earlier phases of the by-pass construction using pre-fabricated vertical drains or PVD (R. Radhakrishnan, 2006), ground improvement using PVD had been included in the contract to stabilize the embankment foundation along the weak clay areas prior to highway embankment construction to avoid large post construction settlement as well as to improve lateral stability during its construction."

Jan 1, 2015

By Richard W. Brummett

Problems in new strip mine development is a subject that could require several days to cover adequately. Coupled with the fertile imagination of television writers, we could probably expand it into a series rivaling Gunsmoke in longevity with just as many shootouts at sundown. It would-of course-be subject to a high Neilson Rating. To bring the subject into perspective, we will limit the comments to a general discussion covering western strip coal developments. Stimulated by increased demand for low sulfur coal, surface mineable western coal operations began a shift into high gear approximately four years ago. Then came last year's "energy crisis" that increased the pressure on coal development not only in the west, but nationwide. Several eastern power plants having dual oil and coal burning facilities were directed to discontinue using oil. Also, a number of new south and southwestern power plants scheduled to burn natural gas or of I commenced an ordered conversion to other fuels, namely, coal. The involved utilities with reserve positions accelerated their planning while others began the search for long-term commitments from coal producing companies. In addition, announcements were made for proposed mine mouth coal gasification projects in New Mexico, Wyoming, and North Dakota.

Jan 1, 1974

By Z. Y. Lan

Bioleaching of marmatite with various mixed cultures of microorganisms was investigated. The experiments were carried out in shaking flasks with iron-free nutrient and the pulp density of 10% wt/vol at the temperature of 30?. The results show that zinc is preferentially leached before iron. The leaching rate of zinc with the mixed culture of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans is 62% in 18 days. The leaching rate of zinc with the mixed culture of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans is nearly the same as that with the mixed culture of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans (45% versus 50%). SEM and EDX analysis of the leaching residues indicate that a solid product layer composed of iron sulfide, elemental sulfur and jarosite accumulates in the mineral surface and becomes a barrier to the dissolution of marmatite. The bioleaching of marmatite follows the shrinking core product layer model. When the product layer increases and becomes insoluble, the leaching rate is controlled by the diffusion through the product layer and slows down. When the product layer decreases or becomes a porous layer, the leaching rate is controlled by chemical reaction and enhanced dramatically.

Jan 1, 2014

The Department of Mineral Resources has a statutory responsibility for mine site environmental management and control in New South Wales. The Department is focusing on an environmental management systems (EMS) approach, as a management tool to achieve æbest practiceÆ outcomes both within our own organisation and on mine sites. One of the DepartmentÆs tools is environmental risk assessment and management which incorporates the Mining, Rehabilitation and Environmental Management Process (MREMP). The MREMP was introduced many years ago in order to integrate the activities of key stakeholders who may have a material interest in the mine. The MREMP provides an ideal mechanism by which ædue diligenceÆ requirements and environmental management programs can be integrated into mining operations and lead to a sustainable post-mining land use.

Jan 1, 2002

By M. Cai

A practical simple method is proposed to estimate the tensile strength (st) of strong brittle rocks from the strength ratio of R= sc/st = 8 sc/sci, where sc is the uniaxial compressive strength and sci is the crack initiation stress in an uniaxial compression test. 8 is the Griffith strength ratio and the term sc/sci accounts for the difference of crack growth or propagation in tension and compression in uniaxial compression tests. sci can be reliably obtained from volumetric strain measurement or acoustic emission (AE) monitoring. With the strength ratio R determined, the tensile strength can be indirectly obtained from the result of uniaxial compression tests. In addition, a practical estimate of the Hoek-Brown strength parameter mi is presented and it is suggested that mi = 12 sc/sci can be applied to strong, brittle rocks in high confinement zone and mi = 8 sc/sci can be applied to low confinement to tension zones. It is found that the predicted tensile strengths and Hoek-Brown strength parameter mi using this method are in good agreement with test data. The rock strength parameters like st and mi, which require specialty tests such as direct tensile (or Brazilian) and triaxial compression tests for their determination, can be reasonably estimated from uniaxial compression tests.

May 1, 2009

By Hubert D. Keiser

AN observation that is finding fresh confirmation in the leadership of the Allied Nations is "When the need arises, a man will rise to fill it." Much the same can be said of industrial advances in the current emergency. Events and circumstances have created needs for new materials and stimulated the inventive genius of man to fill them. The timely development of fibrous-glass manufacture, in relation to present war needs, is a case in point. HISTORICAL SUMMARY It is probable that the first glass fibers produced by the hand of man were made about 4000 years ago. Successful production of glass fibers for manifold industrial and military uses, on any scale that could begin to meet present needs, has a history spanning a scant four years. The American processes that brought this young industry into being were developed between the years 1931 and 1937; research and manufacturing efforts were consolidated to create a commercially satisfactory operation as late as November 1939. In the 40 months that have elapsed since then, the industry has achieved commercial importance, supplied immense quantities of materials for pre-war industrial expansion to meet "defense" and Lend-Lease needs, and now has reached such importance that it has come largely under the control of the War Production Board for equitable distribution of its major products among 13 claimant agencies. It is worthy of note, however, that the Bureau of Ships, Navy Department, began exploratory use of fibrous-glass products in 1932, within one year after the date of the first experimental trials of the new process. This early recognition of the military importance of fibrous glass gave impetus to further research work. The foregoing rapid scanning of historical development must be filled in, lest the impression be created that glass fibers were suddenly created out of thin air, with no antecedent trials, failures, and partial successes. The actual history of glassmaking is lost in antiquity. Probably some nomadic tribesman found molten glass beneath the bed of a hot campfire built upon sand of the proper composition. If his curiosity led him to poke the glowing, viscous pool with a green-wood stick or some handy weapon, it is probable that he drew a glass fiber on the end of his implement. Molten glass has much the same consistency as honey or molasses; it strings out tenuously. Thus, it is quite possible that the first form of glass shaped by man's action was a glass fiber. Artisans in glass, throughout the long history of glassmaking as an art, drew fibers from fine rods for many decorative applications, including "spun glass" decoration in beautiful stemware and the charming millefiori (glass flowers encased in solid glass), and even to create the blood vessels in glass eyes to match a bleary mate.

Jan 1, 1943

By Christina Dahnér, Kristina Jonsson, Savka Dineva

The iron-ore underground Kiirunavaara mine (Sweden) has been seismically active since 2008. In 2021 the production is on levels 1079 and 1108 m, at the deepest. The seismic activity has changed in character over time with one step change in 2015 when the number of large (ML>2) seismic events increased, and another one when the mine experienced a seismic event with Mw 4.2 in 2020. In 2017, the mine evaluated Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) as a possible mitigation technique for larger seismic events and a one-hole trial was performed. The trial proved promising, and it was decided to go forward with a large-scale trial covering an entire production area in the mine. The large-scale trial consists of 25 fracturing holes, 50 – 100 m long, running along 500 m out of the ~4500 m long orebody and spanning between production levels 1108 m and 1252 m. The fracturing process continued for a year, resulting in ~38,000 seismic events with −3.3<ML<1.4. The breakdown pressure varied between fractures in the same hole as well as between holes in the same area. Average breakdown pressure per hole was between 12 MPa and 50 MPa. The seismic response to HF in 2021 varied greatly from hole to hole and between fractures in the same hole. The variation in response could be related to the geological conditions and the infrastructure, such as large caving ore passes. In this paper some details about the experiments and broad preliminary analysis of the effect of the HF by using seismic source parameters of the induced seismic events are presented: 1) Distribution of seismic activity, 2) the ‘equivalent’ magnitudes for each hole calculated from the cumulative seismic energy and seismic potency released during the fracturing, compared with the local geological conditions; 3) the predominant failure mechanism of the seismic events caused by HF was defined. A difference in the behaviour between larger and smaller events was noticed, as ML>0 events seem to be compression type failures and ML<0 events seem to be related to slip on pre-existing structures. No seismic events related to creation of a new fracture have been identified yet.

Apr 26, 2022

By David A. Grieve, David E. Pearson

"A rank-map of Crowsnest coalfield, showing the distribution of the bituminous coal measures and the locations of major structures, has been produced from vitrinite reflectance measurements on over600coal samples. The timing of coalification in relation to these major structures has also been determined.In the west-central portion of the coalfield a complete stratigraphic succession of coal measures which rides on major thrust surf aces is all of high-volatile bituminous rank, but despite the structural discordance no break in rank is discernible across these structures. The thrust faults therefore predate much of the coalification.Three major valleys expose cross sections of the folded coal measures and in each an increase invitrinite reflectance is demonstrable as individual seams are traced from ridge crest to valley floor. Thus, in these sections, a significant amount of coalification post-dates folding. The proportion of this post-folding coalification is found to increase toward the south of the coalfield.A late gravity-fault, exposed along the east crop of the coalfield, places high-volatile coal-bearing successions in contact with low-volatile coal and demonstrably is a reactivated thrust fault. Coalification at this locality occurred between these two different ages of faulting.The variations in rank and the subtleties of the coalification pattern have, together with systematic changes in the maceral composition of coal seams, had a profound effect on coal quality in the coalfield. Coking coals with a variety of properties occur together with some coals that have no caking capacity."

Jan 1, 1985