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By Stefan Norgaard

In today's modern gold mining industry in Australia, and the world, more and more companies are recognising the competi­tive advantages gained by implementing an effective training program for operations (processing plant) personnel. Plant operators, or process technicians, are unique amongst all other gold mine employees. They are at work in shifts cov­ering 24 hours a day and their actions can have a profound effect on the operation's economic performance. To a large degree, the minute to minute decisions and actions of an operator can deter­mine whether gold is extracted to bullion in the goldroom or is discharged into the tailings dam. Experience has suggested that most small to medium sized gold operations in Australia, and even some large ones, have not implemented an effective training program. This is not attrib­uted to deliberate negligence or "anti" attitudes against training, moreover mill superintendents and metallurgy managers are technical people not oriented to human resource techniques. Usually the demands of designing, constructing and commis­sioning a gold plant overshadow the need for training in the first instance, In fact some well designed plants treating friendly oxide friable ore have little need for a dynamic well trained oper­ating staff. However, many plants do require a thinking team to optimise production and changing ore conditions towards the end of a mine's life can expose poor competence levels at large expense. Few managers will argue that training is a necessity and results in a win-win situation. The operators win by increased job skills, job satisfaction, clear career development and possibly better pay conditions. Trained personnel usually reciprocate with increased effmt and work ethic. The company wins also by having a thinking team which will maximise gold production and reduce operating costs.

Jan 1, 1998

Dr. Wadsworth's discussion of leaching is straightforward and certainly points out some of the critical areas in regards to the fundamental aspects of leaching. I will address myself to the more practical aspects of leaching. As a couple of general comments, very fine particles are often dealt with only when necessary. In many processing applications the sands and slimes are separated with the sand portion being treated by common metallurgical techniques and the slime portion being treated essentially by any technology that will recover some of the values. Ore treatment techniques such as leach/precipitate/float (LPF) have been used in the copper industry to take advantage of leachable copper preferentially reporting to the fine fraction. The second advantage, of course, is the improved metallurgy associated with the treatment of the sand fraction. Cases can be made for sand/slime separations in the aluminum and uranium industry where most of the value reports to the slime fraction and the sand fraction is rejected In the agitated leach systems, fine particles are often the most readily attacked and leached. In dump, vat and in-situ leaching, fine particles cause considerable problems. The fines will tend to restrict the solution flow from portions of the leach feed. This either causes a significantly reduced solution flow or, more probably, the solution will channel, by-passing much of the ore. In either case the result is a decreased metal recovery from ore. The fine particles of principal concern are clays of a flat plate-like shape which can very effectively compact, swell and cause a decreased solution flow. Discrete silica grains or sulfide grains due to their shape, even though they may be very fine, will not cause nearly the problems clays and secondary precipitates can cause.

Jan 1, 1979

By D. C. Anderson

Utah Construction & Mining Co.'s Lucky Mc mine is one of the major uranium producers in the United States. It is located near the geographic center of Wyoming in Fremont County. The climate is middle-latitude steppe, with an average annual precipitation amount of 10 in.; the temperature varies from 40º below zero to 100º above. The land surface is moundlike, rolling terrain, with sparse grass and sagebrush. The northern slopes of the higher ridges support a scattering of juniper and pi[n]ion growth. DISCOVERY The discovery was made by Neil E. McNeice, of Riverton, Wyo., on Sept. 13, 1953. After prospecting the area and staking a few claims, McNeice reported his findings to geologists of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), who immediately began preliminary studies of the numerous surface uranium exposures of the district. The discovery received widespread publicity, resulting in an intensive search for uranium throughout the region ; thousands of claims were staked. The AEC drilled several shallow holes near the discovery outcrop. Assays of cuttings from these holes confirmed the presence of a low-grade, oxidized uranium deposit. McNeice and his partner, L. A. Morfeld, tried to start a mining operation but were plagued by a lack of capital and technical know-how. They sought assistance from a Salt-Lake-City-based mining firm, the New Park Mining Co., engaged in underground base-metal mining in the Park City district of Utah. After a period of negotiations, New Park initiated activities that led to the forming of the original Lucky Mc Uranium Corp. The company started limited development drilling and mining operations in the summer of 1954, with the first ore production being shipped by truck to the Vitro mill in Salt Lake City. The mining

Jan 1, 1969

By George W. Maynard

In the death of Sir William Siemens, the Institute loses its most distinguished honorary member, one who, without exaggeration, may be ranked among the greatest Men of the century. In justification of this claim, I quote in part the words of two other men eminent in the walks of science. Professor Huxley, addressing the Royal Society, spoke of Siemens as "a marked example of vast energy, large scientific acquirements, and intellectual power of a high order," and as one " who had no superior in fertility and ingenuity of invention, while hardly any living man so thoroughly combined an extensive knowledge of scientific principles with the power of applying then] in a commercially successful manner. The value of his numerous inventions must be measured, not merely by the extent to which they have increased the wealth and convenience of mankind, but by the favorable reaction on the progress of pure science which they, like all such inventions, have exerted, and will continually exert." Dr. Wedding, in his address before the Verein zur Befarderung des Gewerbefleisses in Preussm, speaks of Siemens as being "so fortunate as to combine German erudition with British activity in such a manner that both nations, Gertnan as well as English, were equally proud of him; and, now that his rich life is ended, regret is expressed on both shores of the North Sea, first by the Germans that his entire life had not been spent in Germany, and his powers dedicated to Germany, and by the English that he was not born a Briton." Germany may well be proud of being the birth-place, not only of such a man, but of such a family; for where in history shall we find in a single family such a wide range of knowledge so successfully applied to the arts? The least distinguished name in the following list has added to the world's knowledge enough to satisfy the desire for fame of any ordinary man. This constellation is made up of:

Jan 1, 1884

By Robert H. Richards

This truly remarkable machine was built on a preliminary scale in May, 1895. The first full-sized table was built by Mr. A. R. Wilfley, and was used in his own mill in Kokomo Colo., in May, 1896. The first table sold for installation was placed in the Puzzle mill, Breckinridge, Summit county, Colo., in August, 1896. The mill enthusiasts at first hailed it as the cure for all the ills that flesh is heir to in the milling line. A little later it was found to make losses which were serious, and on this account the table succeeded only to a limited extent in displacing the vanners of the gold-mills. Still later, mill-men in a number of districts throughout the country made special studies of the faults of the machine, and devised a number of ways of grouping supplementary machines to overcome as far as possible the losses, and at the same time retain the benefit of the extraordinarily large capacity accompanied by the production of clean concentrates for which the machine has become so justly famous. I hope to make an exhibit of some of these methods in an appendix to my book on ore-dressing which is now in preparation. These experimenters have not written up the subject, and if they possess all the facts they have not given them out for the benefit of the mining profession at large. The object of this paper is to obtain the facts and to present them so clearly that their bearing can be seen by all. To this end two complete series of tests have been planned. One (the present paper), to study concentration of galena in presence of quartz; the other (to follow shortly), to study concentration of chalcopyrite in presence of quartz. Some authorities claim that the table does its best work when treating natural products; by this phrase I mean products which have been crushed to pass through a limiting

Jan 1, 1908

The Honeymoon Well nickel sulphide deposits are located in the Agnew-Wiluna greenstone belt, about 45 km south of Wiluna. Both disseminated and massive sulphide nickel deposits are hosted by komatiitic rocks within the deformed and metamorphosed Honeymoon Well ultramafic complex. Fresh ultramafic bedrock is covered by up to 50 m of highly conductive transported material which greatly hampers both exploration and understanding of the bedrock geology. In the early-1970s, mineralisation was discovered by diamond drilling geochemical anomalies defined by wide-spaced percussion drilling over ultramafics that had been outlined by ground magnetics. Subsequent drilling has defined a resource of 158 Mt at 0.71 per cent nickel (based on 0.4 per cent nickel cut-off, 300 m below surface, December 1995) in four deposits. Over the life of the project a wide range of geophysical techniques have been used including airborne and ground magnetics, time domain clectromagnetics (EM), induced polarisation (IP)/resistivity, gravity and downhole techniques including EM, IP and physical property Measurements.

Jan 1, 1996

By A. Beeby Thompson

ALTHOUGH the exclusion of foreigners and private owners from participation in the development of the Russian oil fields prevents first-hand information being obtained, both official and private news indicate a growing appreciation of the value of the country's oil resources. Notwithstanding the suppression of that initiative and energy which only ambition can adequately stimulate, the industry is progressing and exports of products are assuming an importance that cannot be disregarded as an economic factor in the world's oil business. The following notes and observations must be regarded mainly as the views of one who has closely followed the fortunes of Russian oil, when considering the changes that have taken place in geological knowledge and oil-field technique, which have so profoundly modified oil-fields methods. Russia is fortunate in having retained the services of a few scientists and technologists whose devotion to science has superseded their personal inclination, and to these few men must be attributed the slow, but nevertheless striking, progress that has been made. The productive oil fields of Russia are centered around the Caspian Sea which, with its connected river system, constitutes such an ideal means of internal distribution for products. From the group of oil fields of which the city of Baku forms a center, oil is pumped to Black town, a suburb of Baku, where all the refineries are situated. The next important group of oil fields is located in the Terek district near Grosny, where refineries are erected and the products are piped or carried by tank cars to Petrovsk for the internal Russian market, or sent to the Black Sea by rail. A third oil field is spread over the province of Uralsk, north of the Caspian Sea, the main port of outlet being Gourief, at the mouth of the River Ural. In Trans-Caspia there are two oil-field centers, one near. Krasnovodsk on Chelekan Island, and one in Central Asia at Ferghana. The product of the former fields is transported to Baku for treatment, while the output of the Turkestan field is refined and consumed locally, mainly by the railway.

Jan 3, 1925

By E. L. Davis

There have been many attempts to devise formulas for flowing efficiency and flow friction of oil-gas mixtures in oil-well flow tubes. Actually, however, flowing efficiency is rarely any real concern of the oil producer and flow-friction formulas contain so many unknown variables as to be of little, if any value. The production engineer is generally concerned with producing as much oil as possible with a minimum expense per barrel, and with the lowest possible net gas-oil ratio. These ends frequently are opposed to each other and the gas-oil ratio usually is sacrificed. In competitive operations, such as in town-lot fields, high current production is the sole interest. In conservative operation the greatest possible amount of oil obviously should be produced by natural flow unless the net formation gas-oil ratio can be improved by circulating gas. In practice this condition frequently exists. It would be a great advantage if the flowing condition of a well could be analyzed to determine the best possible producing status. Anticipating the death of a well so that gas-lift could be started immediately after the death, or preferably before, would save both production and expense. Frequently it happens that circulating gas fails to help a flowing well, or will not flow it after it has stopped flowing naturally. A knowledge of the laws governing flow would save considerable expense in testing such cases. A predetermination of probable pressures and amounts of circulating gas needed to flow wells and give best possible producing conditions would help in designing compressor installations. The optimum producing status of an oil well generally may be obtained by the conditions that subject the producing formations to the least possible back-pressure. This pressure is made up of the weight of the fluid column, frictional resistance to flow and the reaction from the acceleration of the fluid mass. A mathematical calculation of these components to arrive at a condition giving a minimum summation is impractical. Formulas would be complex and the results untrustworthy because it is impossible to assign proper values to the many variables involved.

Jan 1, 1931

By Beeby Thompson

ALTHOUGH the exclusion of foreigners and private owners from participation in the development of the. Russian oil fields prevents first-hand information being obtained, both official and private news indicate a growing appreciation of the value of the country's oil resources. Notwithstanding the suppression of that initiative and energy which only ambition can adequately stimulate, the industry is progressing and exports of products are assuming an importance that cannot be disregarded as an economic factor in the world's oil business. The following notes and observations must be regarded mainly as the views of one who has closely followed the fortunes of Russian oil, when considering the changes that have taken place in geological knowledge and oil-field technique, which have so profoundly modified oil-fields methods. Russia is fortunate in having retained the services of. a few scientists and technologists whose devotion to science has superseded their personal inclinations, and to these few men must be attributed the slow, but nevertheless striking, progress that has been made. The productive oil fields of Russia are centered around the Caspian Sea which, with its connected river system, constitutes such an ideal means of internal distribution for products. From the group of oilfields of which the. city of Baku forms a center, oil is pumped to Black-town, a suburb of Baku, where all the refineries are situated. The next important group of oil fields is located in the Terek district near Grosny, where refineries are erected and the products are piped or carried by tank cars to Petrovsk for the internal Russian market, or sent to the Black Sea by rail. A third oil field is spread over the province of Uralsk, north of the Caspian, Sea, the main port of outlet being Gourief, at the mouth of the River Ural. In Trans-Caspia there are two oil-field centers, one near Krasnovodsk on Chelekan Island, and one in Central Asia at Ferghana. The product of the former fields is transported to Baku for treatment, while the output of the Turkestan field is refined and consumed locally, mainly by the railway.

Jan 3, 1925

Mansfield MERRIMAN,Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa. (communication to the Secretary*):—The formulas established by Mr. Campbell require the use of tables in order to take into account the influence of manganese on the tensile strength of steel. On examining these tables I find that the quantities given therein may be expressed by simple algebraic forms, so that formulas for tensile strength may be written which can be used without the help of tables. Referring to the case where the carbon is determined by

Jan 1, 1906

By E. C. Harder

HERBERT K. SCOTT, London, England (communication to the Secretary*).-I am acquainted with the manganese-ore deposits of Russia, India and Brazil, and agree generally with the statements contained in the paper regarding those deposits. The information given by Mr. Harder regarding the Chilean deposits is very welcome. When examining the Caucasian deposits, I endeavored to determine the quantity of ore originally contained in the deposit, and by deduction, the amount remaining for extraction. These calculations were rendered possible by the great extent of the outcrop and the extensive work that had been carried on in the deposit. In making the first estimate, the quantity of manganese ore and associated sterile material in the bed was measured in a large number of

Jan 12, 1916

By Robert M. McGeorge, Edward S. Frohling

Most mining engineers and metallurgists who get out of school usually wind up working for a large or medium-sized company and are seldom heard of again. The enterprising few who decide to go into business for themselves soon discover that while they can adequately tackle the various technical problems involved in developing a new ore body, they know little about putting together a feasibility study-and even less about financing their project. If you are in that predicament, you'll probably tend to view the financing problem as insurmountable, especially when the economy is in a slump, capital is scarce or seemingly non-existent, the equity market is in the doldrums, labor and equipment costs keep going up relentlessly-and, to make things worse, you must operate within the competitive context created by large mining firms that seem to have in abundance all the capital and managerial expertise you feel you lack. If it's any consolation, many potentially successful properties, whether owned by big companies or small firms like yours, never reach the production stage either because of illogical expenditures made in the early phases of development or because of inefficient management. And inefficient management is a common plague in big and small companies

Jan 9, 1975

AN earthquake caused an upheaval in Japan, started fires which destroyed large parts of Tokio, Yokohama and Hakone, and with tidal waves and other consequences extinguished some 68,000 lives and much property right at the beginning of September." Also on Sept. 1, the Italians, offended by the murder of members of the Albanian frontier commission by Greeks, occupied the Island of Corfu, which was viewed as an act of war by Italy against Greece. An appeal by the Greeks to the League of Nations was flouted by the Italians. One of the consequences of these affairs was to throw discredit upon the League of Nations and to excite doubts whether it would be able to survive. On Sept. 19, Greece made the formal apology to the Allies collectively and following that the Italians with-drew from Corfu. During this month also the embroilment between Italy and Jugoslavia over the matter of Fiume came again into prominence. In Bulgaria there was a communist uprising which was promptly put down by the government. The whole country was put under martial law. On Sept. 13 there began a military revolution at Barcelona, in Spain. On Sept. 14 the king of Spain accepted the revolution and charged the leader with the formation of a new government. Cosgrave was reelected president of the Irish Free State, without there being any disorder. Great Britain paid the remainder of her silver debt to the United States, thus writing finis to the Pitman Act. The position of Germany went from bad to worse during September. The mark has become valueless and the business that is being conducted is largely on a gold basis once more, in terms of dollars and pounds sterling. Chancellor Stresseman announced Sept. 24 that the German government had decided to abandon pas-sive resistance to the French and Belgians immediately and unconditionally.

Jan 10, 1923

By Dr. Hans Von Höfer

APART from the hypothesis of a .cosmic origin (which failed of acceptance because it was not adequately supported by facts), the only important controversy concerning the origin of petroleum has been, for a long time, between the advocates of inorganic and of organic origin respectively. Each of these theories has had a long history of development, and is still being perfected, under the influence of two causes: (1) the increasingly extensive and thorough study of the oil-fields (of which new examples are periodically discovered and opened); and (2) the progress of synthetic experiments devoted to this question. Moreover, the advance in our physical and chemical knowledge of the properties of this peculiar natural product has necessarily modified all criticism of conflicting views. I. THE HYPOTHESIS OF INORGANIC ORIGIN That the notion of an inorganic origin of petroleum, first set forth by Berthelot in 1866, and afterward ingeniously developed and formulated by Mendelejeff, should thus have proceeded chiefly from chemists, is quite natural; for the question was one of possible chemical processes in the earth's interior, and of imagined chemical reactions to be, verified by experiment. Hypotheses of this kind were suggested by many chemists, of whom two, P. Sabatier and J. H. Senderens, may be specially named by reason of their highly interesting chemical experiments. Among geologists, Mendelejeff's hypothesis was received at first with much interest and favor; for it rested on the assumption of a central terrestrial mass of iron carbide, and the geologists had good reasons for adopting that assumption. Yet comparatively few of them attempted to furnish geological proofs of the hypothesis: the majority either silently believed in it, or for one or another reason rejected it altogether.

Jan 5, 1914

By Ted D. Johnson

INTRODUCTION The report of the workshop on Alternate Energy Strategies estimated that the world's reserve of uranium oxide is about 700,000 tonnes. In order to extract these reserves, it is estimated that between 100 and 200 million tonnes of solid waste and of the order of 1 billion cubic meters of liquid waste will be generated. In addition, radium within tailing will continue to generate radon gas as it decays for many years after closure. Hence, the handling, storage and possible use of uranium mine waste is a matter which deserves serious consideration and planning. Since the properties of the waste will largely dictate the method of handling and storage or use of the waste, the properties of the waste should be determined, to the degree possible, prior to the design and subsequent operation of the mine. Uranium mine waste has both solid and fluid constituents. The solids include soil and rock removed during site preparation, similar material removed during development of the mine and uranium tailing generated by the mill. Soils can be stockpiled for reuse during reclamation or used as earth materials for construction of fills, roads, dams and soil linings. Rock can be stockpiled, used as mine backfill or can be used for earth construction in fills, roads and dams. The tailing is usually placed in a tailing storage area. The fluid constituents are both liquid and gaseous. The liquid waste is generally composed of the mill water; however, additional waste water can be generated by dewatering processes and diversion of surface runoff. The gaseous constituent of the uranium mine waste is radon generated by the radioactive decay of radium in the ore tailing. DEFINITION OF PROPERTIES The following presents a brief definition of some of the more important properties discussed later. The definitions are not intended to be comprehensive, but are useful as a basis for understanding.

Jan 1, 1980

By P A. Dowd

This paper describes an integrated approach to the evaluation of ore loss and ore dilution via geostatistical simulation of in situ geology and grade characteristics, simulation of blasting mechanisms and simulation of loading from a blast muck pile. The approach is demonstrated on a case study. The sequential Gaussian method is used to simulate in situ bench grades on the scale of the smallest selectable volume within a blast muck pile. The simulated grades of these component volumes are interpreted as the reality that would be available with exhaustive sampling. The simulated bench is subjected to a blast simulator, based on the SCRAMBLE model, which effectively moves each of the component model volumes to its final resting place in the blast muck pile. Ore/waste delineation and selective loading processes are applied to the simulated muck pile to determine the degree of selectivity that can be achieved by various sizes of loader and types of loading and to quantify ore dilution and ore loss. An in situ model representing the reality of knowing only the data and information that are available from specific grade control drilling and sampling grids is obtained by sampling the geostatistically simulated model on a specified grid. The volumes comprising the in situ model are then populated by estimates based only on the data and from the specified grade control drilling and sampling grids. Different drilling and sampling grids are used to generate different models, each reflecting the levels of data and information available. Selectivity is assessed as a function of the drilling and sampling grids as well as the size and type of loader. Performance is assessed against the ideal selectivity that could be achieved on the perfect knowledge model comprising the simulated values of each component volume. Costs, prices and financial criteria enable an optimal selection of the grade control drilling grid, size of loader, type of loading and blast design.

Jan 1, 2004

By Charles Enzian

This report is issued by the Bureau of Mines as one of a series dealing with methods of increasing safety and efficiency in mining operations. It is intended purely as a preliminary statement of the present development of hydraulic mine filling as conducted in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. A discussion of different methods, their variations and modifications, as well as their probable extension as a result of amplified tests of the various roof-supporting materials, will be presented in a future bulletin. The history of the development of the anthracite-mining industry, from the time when the Indian tribes in the Wyoming and Lacka- wanna Valleys first discovered the existence of "stone coal," on through subsequent events-the purchase of lands containing enor- mous deposits of coal for insignificant sums of money, the develop- ment of the first mine, the formation of the first company, the build- ing of canals and railroads-up to the present time when the industry has become of such tremendous importance to the prosperity of north- eastern Pennsylvania and of the Nation itself, is intersprinkled with romance, tragedy, and pathos. The great economic lessons to be learned from a study of mining operations in the anthracite region suggest to the person interested in the efficient utilization of natural resources the need of applying such methods as will make possible the conservation to posterity of this invaluable deposit of coal that has resulted from the operation of the processes of nature during probably hundreds of millions of years. It is the opinion of many prominent mining men familiar with mining operations in the United States and abroad that under certain conditions the most practical way of preventing loss of unmined coal in pillars and of protecting surface property from damage by sub- sidence is by filling the workings with refuse material. This bulletin aims to present a general discussion of hydraulic mine filling, its origin, development, and practicability in anthracite mining.

Jan 1, 1913

ADVANTAGES OF LIFE MEMBERSHIP The Institute calls the attention of members to the following advantages of obtaining life membership: 1. One payment avoids the trouble of future payments. 2. The interest on $150 is less than the annual dues. 3. Provision is thus made early in life for the less productive years. 4. In case of in increase of clues at any time in the future life members are exempt from increased payments. Excerpt from, By-Laws. Article III. Section 3 Any Member or Associate not in arrears may become, by the payment of one hundred and fifty dollars at one time, a Life Member or Life Associate, and shall not be liable thereafter to pay annual dues. The money thus received shall be invested and only the income thereof used for current expenses of the Institute.

Jan 1, 1916

By G. M. Schwarz

There has been considerable controversy regarding the structure and mineral constituents produced when iron ore is sintered. This investigation was undertaken in order to establish the fundamental reactions that take place in the sintering process by determining the nature of the resulting minerals. The writer's immediate interest in the subject arose mainly from the request of E. W. Davis for information based on a microscopic study of sinter submitted by him in May, 1926. In the author's preliminary work, samples of iron-ore sinter were secured from the Minnesota School of Mines Experiment Station and from commercial plants. These were polished by the usual methods for polishing opaque ores. In order to study these surfaces satisfactorily, it is necessary to magnify them rather highly, a range from 100 to 1000 dia. being used. For the higher magnifications oil-immersion lenses and an intense source of light are necessary. After the preliminary study had shown the problems involved, a series of small samples were sintered under carefully controlled conditions and with analyzed materials. Variations in the relative amounts of ore, coal and water were made in order to study the effect of each constituent. The attempt has been to arrive at a clearer understanding of the sintering process and the reactions involved without reference to any preconceived notion as to sinter. It is clear that the study of polished surfaces has yielded results not possible with thin sections alone. The thin sections made in this work were found unsatisfactory at magnification greater than 75, whereas magnifications of 1000 were easily studied with reflected light on carefully polished surfaces. A rather complete statement of observed facts is made so that the reader may form his own conclusions. The writer's interpretations are suggested. It is to be hoped that a more complete understanding of the structure arid composition of iron sinter, as well as the changes which go on during

Jan 1, 1929

By Richard LeSar

Sustainability requires more from engineering than the development of technology. Engineering must also take into account the effects of that technology on the integrated social, economic, and environmental processes that constitute our society. Schumacher introduced the powerful concept of an appropriate technology, by which he meant a technology that is appropriate to the environmental, educational, cultural, and economic situation for which it is intended. While the principles of appropriate technology have been most commonly applied in the developing world, they are equally valid in the developed world as well. In this paper we will review appropriate technology and discuss its role in helping to define a way to think about this broad view of sustainable engineering. We will end by presenting one strategy for introducing the concepts and applications of appropriate technology in an engineering curriculum.

Jan 1, 2010