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By R. A. Hemstock

"OIL EXPLORATION in Western Canada has produced outstanding results in the past few years. From such successes as Leduc and Redwater on the western plains, oilmen are now moving north in the ever-widening search for oil. They are reaching new frontiers and meeting new problems presented by this vast hinterland.One of the least known but most troublesome phenomena which will be encountered is permafrost. This term relates to a thickness of soil or other superficial deposit, or even of bed-rock at variable depths beneath the surface, in which a temperature below freezing has continually existed .for a long time. This permanently frozen ground affects, in many ways, oil exploration and exploitation. Seismic records are changed, pipe lines cannot easily be ditched into the ground, formation of wax is speeded-up in tubing and pipe lines, roads are difficult to build, and foundations of buildings and even of drilling 'rigs may require entirely new methods of construction.Permafrost underlies roughly one-fifth of the entire 'land surface of the world. It covers the northerly portions of Eurasia and North America. In the area that we are here concerned with, the southern boundary of permafrost extends south of east from about latitude 59°N. on the Pacific coast across the Rocky mountains, through Great Slave and Athabasca lakes, to cape Henrietta Maria, at the junction of Hudson bay and James bay (see Figure 1). Geologists generally agree that permafrost first appeared in the Pleistocene or Ice Age as the result of abnormal ground freezing."

Jan 1, 1952

By J. Luo

A major design problem for upper seam longwall gate roads that are to be constructed in a multi-seam environment is to predict the effects of stress field changes created by interaction. To quantify these effects, case study data were analyzed to develop empirical stress transfer relationships between seams for both longwall and room and pillar mining. Data analysis showed vertical movement and roof characterization in the upper seam to be controlling factors in damage prediction and, therefore, gate road planning and design. CMRR (Coal Mine Roof Rating) was correlated with the multi-seam roof characterization systems previously used. A WINDOWS-based software package named UGLY (Upperseam Gateroad Longwall Stability) was developed. Results from selected case studies were correlated with upper seam stress predictions.

Jan 1, 1997

By Halter L. Gould

Since the turn of the century there has been a marked increase in population, industrial and economic growth, and in energy requirements in the United States. During this time our energy needs have been met largely by natural gas and petroleum, but as our reserves of these materials are depleted, we are going to depend more and more on our large reserves of coal. The mining of coal for electrical power production has increased at a rapid rate during the past decade. Over half the coal produced in the United States in 1971 came from mines utilizing surface mining operations (Paone, et al, 1974). Surface mining is expected to increase as the rising cost of oil places more demand on coal for energy. About 57 percent of the coal reserves in the United States lie in the area west of the 100th meridian. About one-quarter of this can be mined by current surface methods. This would involve the disturbance of approximately 1.5 million acres (600,000 hectares). By the year 2000, projections indicate disturbance of about 200,000 acres, or 300 square miles, in the West. Mined areas receiving more than 250 mm of annual precipitation can usually be revegetated without irrigation if the spoils are properly shaped, the surface layer consists of suitable plant growth media, and proven techniques in rehabilitating disturbed rangeland are applied. Areas receiving less than 250 mm of annual rainfall or with high evapotranspiration rates pose a more difficult problem. Revegetation of these areas can probably be accomplished only with major inputs of water and good management (National Academy of Science, 1974).

Jan 1, 1978

By S. A. Bogidaev, M. Yu. Tiunov

"The paper describes the results of the flotation tests with complex rare metal ores from deposits in the Trans-Baikal Territory. Correlations between the quality of produced wolframite, hubnerite and mica concentrates with or without the presence of various alkaline modifiers are determined. Commonly, rare metal ores contain minerals of comparable value to main elements recovered in processing plants using gravitational methods. The paper describes the results of flotation recovery of valuable minerals – main and associated – from gravity tailings of deposits in the Trans-Baikal Territory. It was found that gravity tailings from the first deposit contained fine-grained wolframite, mica (muscovite, lepidolite etc.), feldspar; hubnerite, scheelite, beryl, fluorite, rubidium-containing muscovite from the second deposit, correspondingly. This paper presents the results of the stage flotation tests with the production of tungsten (wolframite, hubnerite), fluorite and mica concentrates from gravity tailings. Figure 1 demonstrates the flowsheet of tungsten ore minerals and mica stage flotation from gravity tailings of the first deposit.Wolframite can be floated using oleic acid with the presence of soda ash, a complexing collector (IM-50), under slightly alkaline conditions in combination with a nonpolar collector [1, 2, 3, 4]. The study included wolframite flotation using the combination of two alkaline modifiers. Flotation of wolframite was performed after pulp desliming, using tall oil saponified with soda ash. The recovery of wolframite in the concentrate of rougher flotation reached 80-85%; the concentrate contained up to 1% of tungsten oxide that can be upgraded to a saleable product using gravitational methods. This procedure was tested during flotation of wolframite, tantalite-columbite and pyrochlore, and provided high performance regardless of a season, at pulp temperatures of 8-10°C, though fattyacid collectors are significantly inefficient at such low temperatures due to low solubility, dispersion and increased collector consumption, consequently. The introduction of two alkaline modifiers in pulp appears to improve these characteristics.The first stage of the tests was focused on increase of iron-bearing tungsten ore minerals recovery from gravity tailings and stabilization of the cold pulp flotation process."

Jan 1, 2018

By P. Dauphin

"CANMET’s Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories have developed the Canadian Mining Technology Network (CMT-Net), a website to provide industry with up to date information on technologies in several areas. This paper gives background on the Mineral and Metal Processing sector, describes the steps leading to the development of the websites strategy and gives a tour of CMT-Net. IntroductionThe government of Canada is developing a strategy aimed at fostering the development of value-added activities in the area of mineral and metal processing (MMP). Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Industry Canada will partner in delivering on this strategy. Instrumental in defining the main thrusts of the value-added strategy was a series of consultations held across Canada with representatives of companies and organizations active in the sector. The objective of the consultations was to identify barriers to the development of activities which add value in the sector, as well as point to positive factors.Following the consultations, a discussion paper was produced, “From Mineral Resources to Manufactured Products: Towards a Value- Added Mineral and Metal Strategy for Canada” (Natural Resources Canada, 1998). The paper reviews the sector’s structure and main statistical information, lists some of the positive factors and barriers to value-added activities and defines a new partnership between industry and government that will lead to more valueadded activities. The main objective of the paper is to serve as a discussion document between stakeholders during the development of the strategy."

Jan 1, 1999

By Paul A. Gerding

PURPOSE: Presentation to Society of Mining Engineers, Technical Session, Wednesday, February 19, 1958 - 2:00 P.M. General Industral Minerals - Penn Top South The silica industry is relatively small and in general is made up of small plants located near the consumer. In the United States there are approximately 155 established operating plants located in 37 states, extending from coast to coast. Silica, in varying degrees of chemical purity, enjoys a very diversified market. Silica is the basic ingredient of glass, bothcontainer and flat glass, and is used for grinding and polishing of flat glass up to the final polishing stages where rouge is generally used. Silica is used for foundry molds and cores, sandblasting, stone cutting, refractories, placing sand in furances, glass coatings and linings, laboratory glassware, construction, oil well fracturing for increased oil flow, filtering purposes, silicate of soda, silicon carbide, and others.

Jan 1, 1958

By F F. Pitard

Observation from attending many conferences around the world reveals that many people are constantly shifting from the word ‘error’ to the word ‘uncertainty’ without a clear vision of what the subtle difference is. The same applies to a large swath of the scientific literature, in which these two concepts are unfortunately often used synonymously, which is a scientific flaw of the first order. In practice, as demonstrated in the Theory of Sampling (TOS), there are both sampling errors and sampling uncertainties. Sampling errors can easily be preventively minimised, while sampling uncertainty for a preselected sampling protocol is inevitable. P M Gy’s work, supported by G Matheron’s critical reviews, demonstrates beyond any possible doubt that sampling uncertainty cannot be achieved if sampling errors are not preventively minimised by applying very stringent rules that are too often ignored by sampling practitioners. A clarification, in line with the TOS, is presented to mitigate the confusion created by circles favouring the use of uncertainty versus the use of the word error. Both words are very different in nature and scope and they are both necessary in their due place and time.CITATION:Pitard, F F, 2017. From errors to uncertainty – a clarification for proper use by the Theory of Sampling, in Proceedings Eighth World Conference on Sampling and Blending , pp 355–358 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2017

Jan 1, 1879

By Xiang Zhu

Xidagou is the largest waste water discharge channel of the Anshan Iron and Steel Complex (AISC) with average flow rate of 8000 cubic meters per hour, which is about 75% of the total effluent of the AISC. The waste water from Xidagou seriously polluted the Taizi River Basin. In order to meet the Chinese Class V Standard for Surface Water Discharge and the Standard for Recycled Industrial Water Reuse, with the aid of the World Bank, the AISC began the treatability studies in 1991. Based on the bench-scale test, the AISC carried out pilot-scale treatability studies on three different treatment processes and five different chemical coagulants for more than half a year in 1992. The study results show that the processes of primary sedimentation- chemical mixing and flocculation-secondary sedimentation-filtration can meet the requirement and that PFS and PAM are effective and economic chemical coagulants.

Jan 1, 1994

By Osamu Nishikokura, Jumpei Yamashita, Darrell Liebno, Malcolm Sheehan

"The Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown Project builds a 19km LRT corridor that includes a 10km underground portion, between Keele Street and Laird Drive. The West Tunnel Contract (ECLC1-15) includes 6.5km of twin EPB TBM bored tunnels with a 5.75m internal diameter precast concrete segment lining (PCTL), between Keele Street and Yonge Street. This paper summarizes the overall scope of work, the technical challenges faced and innovative solutions developed by the contractor during the TBM move across an existing subway tunnel using state of the art high capacity strandjack gantry crane.1. PROJECT OVERVIEW The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is Canada’s largest urban region, populated with over 6 million people, and is one of the most rapidly growing regions in North America. One forecast estimates that the population of this region will increase to 8.6 million by the year 2031. In September 2008, Metrolinx, an agency of the Government of Ontario, launched a 25-year regional transportation plan named “The Big Move” to cope with the expected increase in transportation demand. The Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown, one of the projects included in “The Big Move”, is a light rail transit (LRT) that will run across Toronto in an east-west direction between Mount Dennis and Kennedy along Eglinton Avenue. In October 2012, the West Tunnel Contract of the Crosstown LRT (ECLC1-15) was awarded to Crosstown Transit Constructors (CTC), a joint venture between Obayashi Canada Ltd., Kenny Construction Company, Kenaidan Contracting Ltd. and Technicore Underground Inc. The project includes approximately 6.2 km long twin bored tunnels, 9 cross passages, 1 emergency exit building, 7 sets of station headwalls, and an intermediate pair of extraction and launch shafts. Each of 6.5 km long twin tunnels are divided by the existing subway station into two drives: the first half from the launch shaft LS-1 (west of Keele Station) to the extraction shaft ES-1 (west of Eglinton West Station), and the second half from the launch shaft LS-2 (east of Eglinton West Station) to Yonge Station, as shown in Figure-1. The TBMs are extracted at ES-1 and moved to LS-2 over the existing Yonge-University Subway Line at Eglinton West Station before resumption of tunneling at LS-2."

Jan 1, 2016

By Chunyang Guan, Jilai Xue, Jun Zhu, Qiaochu Liu

"Al-Sc Alloys have showed many advanced properties for a wide range of industrial application, which is usually produced using thermal reduction process. This work is aimed to develop an electrochemical process to make Al-Sc alloy using industrial Hall aluminum reduction cells. The experiments have been carried out in a lab cell where NaF/AlF3-Al2O3-LiF as electrolyte, Sc2O3 as raw material, and liquid aluminum as cathode were used at operating temperature of 950 °C. The resulting Al contained 0.2 - 0.5 wt.% Sc that is the common range in its content for advanced applications. However, a small fraction of Sc was found from thermal reduction at Al melts interface. SEM-EDS and ICP-AES analysis showed a uniformed distribution of Sc at varying locations of the Al-Sc alloy sample. In addition, a higher Sc content in Al-Sc alloy can be obtained with introducing ultrasound through the cathode than that without it.IntroductionIn recent years, scandium has been investigated as an alloying element for aluminum alloys. With addition of a small amount of Sc, Al alloys can improve the strength, weld ability, resistance to re-crystallization and corrosion resistance [1-3]. Due to their advanced properties and potential applications, the demand for Al-Sc alloys will increase in the future. However, the difficulties in reduction technologies and the high costs in production process may limit their expansion in application areas.The current major method of producing Al-Sc alloys is to mix Sc into Al by melting Al-Sc master alloy. This alloying process has several technical problems, such as easy segregating and heavy burning loss, etc. The price of Sc metal or starting material is also high, so the mixing process is an expensive alloying method. Molten salt electrolysis is alternative method to prepare RE metal and RE alloys [4, 5]. It also can reduce the segregation of alloying elements. Sc2O3 is an ideal material as raw material with low price and decomposition voltage. Some work has proved that Al-Sc alloys can be obtained by electrolysis Sc2O3 directly in cryolite [6-8], or CaCl2 molten salt [9]."

Jan 1, 2012

By Luis Cáceres, Genny Leinenweber

"We have designed a planar perpendicular flow cell for electrochemical measurement of a mineral available as a fine powder. The working electrode consisting of mineral powder supported on a carbon paste surface as a 4 mm diameter disk, was concentrically positioned inside a vertical tubular reactor. The counter electrode was a 316L tube embedded in the body cell. The supportive media was a 1.2:1 mixture of candle wax and graphite powder respectively, which is a good electrical conductor. The concentrate electrode as a film attached on a carbon paste disk was prepared rubbing the surface carbon paste against dried powdered mineral. An Ag/AgCl 1 M KCl cell as a reference electrode was attached to the body cell by using a fast coupling fitting. A stable flow rate was achieved using a frequency inverter to drive the pump motor. The flow through the cell verified to be laminar due to the Reynolds number in the cell flow passage. Cyclic voltammetry from - 1200 a 600 mVSAgE were measured using a carbon paste with and without mineral attached to the surface. The main findings of this work were: a). Electrochemical measurement of mineral powder in contact with flowing samples was easily achieved using ground mineral. This is important where massive samples are not available. b). The voltammetric curve features of ground mineral coincided with reported data. c). The working electrode could be quickly replaced while maintaining very good reproducibility."

Jan 1, 2014

By R. R. Wells

This report summarizes the results of laboratory investigations by the Alaska Mining Experiment Station, Juneau, to determine the practicability of treating cinnabar-stibnite ore by bulk flotation and controlled-atmosphere roasting of the concentrate. Ore from the Red Devil mine near Sleetmute, Alaska, was selected for testing; it is typical of ores widely distributed throughout the Kuskokwim River Basin. The material, consisting of stibnite and cinnabar in ankerite, dolomite, and quartz, assayed 1.55 percent Hg and 2.87 percent Sb. Continuous treatment of the ore in a laboratory flotation circuit recovered 95.7 percent of the mercury and 82.6 percent of the antimony in a concentrate that assayed 20.4 percent Hg and 34.6 percent Sb.

Jan 1, 1958

By Y. Akin

The floatability of a typical boron mineral, colemanite (Ca2B6O11.5H2O), is shown to be hindered by the presence of montmorillonite type clay minerals. The clay is found to act in the form of slime coating. The mechanism of slime coating is investigated using pure colemanite and clay and their mixtures with an anionic reagent in a microflotation cell. Adsorption, flotation, solubility, zeta potential and scanning electron microscope studies reveal that slime coating occurs through electrostatic attraction. It is possible to minimize the effect of slime coating either at high surfactant concentration or at high pH values.

Jan 1, 1997

By Mory Ghomshei

As fossil fuels become depleted over the next century, it is imperative that Canada and other countries examine ways to transition to other sources of energy, particularly renewable resources. A critical obstacle to developing Canada?s renewable energy resources is the scarcity of infrastructure to wheel the generated electricity to a viable market. For each megawatt of renewable electrical power, a maximum of 1 km of connecting power line is typically feasible. This means that hydropower, geothermal, and wind power projects with capacities up to 100 MW must be located within a maximum of 100 km of a main power line in order to be economically viable. With a total length of about 1200 km, the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline project creates an excellent opportunity to become a corridor that can seed renewable energy projects in Northern British Columbia and Alberta. Utility companies must build new infrastructure to provide the electricity for constructing and operating the proposed pipeline. The pipeline and linked power line infrastructure therefore, should be designed and built with consideration to create an energy highway to the significant renewable energy resources, such as hydro, wind, and geothermal, in the vicinity of the proposed pipeline. Some of the important renewable energy resources in northern British Columbia can be developed in connection with the proposed pipeline. It is estimated that close to 2,500 MW of commercially viable wind, geothermal and run-of-river power resources are present in the proximity of the proposed pipeline corridor. While oil flows westward from the Alberta bitumen fields, the generated green power can flow eastward to help the Canadian oil sand industry to offset as much as 10 Megatons of carbon emissions per year. The generated carbon credits are equivalent to 75% of the emissions associated with extraction of the 525,000 barrels per day of oil from oil sands, intended to be carried by the pipeline.

Aug 1, 2013

By K. Huttu, A. van Wageningen

"The Kittila underground mine is extracting one of the largest known gold deposits in Europe and has an estimated mine life through 2034. The Kittila mine is located in the Lapland region of northern Finland, approximately 900 kilometres north of Helsinki and 150 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The ore at the Kittila mine is refractory, making gold extraction relatively difficult because the gold is generally locked inside the two main sulphide minerals – arsenopyrite and arsenic-rich pyrite. The orebody consists of a complex pinch-and-swell structure including up to 100 different gold mineralization lenses. Fluctuating gold prices and other economic considerations increase the need to maintain and update the mining plans more frequently. Over 3,000 stopes need to be designed and optimized once a year for the LOM-plan and more frequent updates are needed for mid- and short term plans as well as production studies. As a large part of ore body is very sensitive to cost and gold price changes, stope optimization is crucial to find the best possible production scenario for every moment. Kittilä has gone through several methods for stope design and optimization. Most recently the Deswik Stope Optimizer (Deswik.SO) has been successfully used. Dewsik.SO has helped Kittilä to design and optimize stopes in a timely and cost efficient manner. Together with the Deswik suite of planning tools, reliable and auditable plans are created. This paper describes the methods used for stope design and optimization at Kittilä. THE KITTILÄ MINE The Kittila underground mine in northern Finland is extracting one of the largest known gold deposits in Europe. Kittila achieved commercial production on May 1, 2009, becoming Agnico Eagle’s first mine to open outside of Canada. The Kittilä orebodies were initially mined from two open pits – Suuri and Roura – and underground operations were added in October 2010. The pits were mined out in November 2012, so mining is now entirely underground in the Suuri and Roura deposits. Additional, small open pits will mine any remaining near-surface reserves in the future. The Kittila mine is located in the Lapland region of northern Finland, approximately 900 kilometres north of Helsinki and 150 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. With a mine life estimated through 2034, Kittila is Agnico’s longest-life mine. The mine’s proven and probable reserves contain 4.7 million ounces (32 million tonnes at 4.6 g/t gold). Ore has been mined from underground since 2010. The original 3,000-tonne-per-day operation underwent an expansion project to increase the throughput capacity of the mill by 1,000 tonnes/day, starting by the end of 2014. The region around the Kittila mine is underlain by mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Kittila Greenstone Belt oriented nearly vertical. This greenstone belt is similar to those hosting Agnico Eagle's Canadian deposits in Quebec’s Abitibi region and Nunavut. At the contact point between iron-rich and magnesium-rich rocks lies a 100- to 200-metre-thick structural zone known as the “Suurikuusikko Trend”. This trend hosts the Kittila deposit, where multiple mineralized zones have been traced over a strike length of more than 25 kilometres."

Jan 1, 2015

By Francis Martino

Just as coal producing mines are faced with various handicaps which control the quantity of coal produced and sold, the subsequent user of that product is faced with parameters that impact the optimum utilization of coal. Traditionally, the industry focused on the quantity of mineable coal in a reserve. The mine planning development was primarily concerned with two important criteria: (1) safety and (2) the productive efficiency in a quest to produce the lowest cost coal.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. K. Wen

The Mojiang nickel deposit is situated in Mojiang county, yunnan province, a tropical area in the southwestern China. The known geological resource (measured and inferred) includes 4 million tons of nickel sulphide ore at an average grade of 0.50% Ni and 0.34% As. Nickel minerals are mainly gersdorffite (NiAsS), millerite(NiS), morenosite (NiSO4?7H2O), and more than 50% nickel minerals is gersdorffite which contains arsenic. Pyrite is the dominant sulfide mineral, 22% in the ore and part of nickel minerals are locked in pyrite. It is difficult to attain the nickel concentrate quality allowed by a smelter and the acceptable nickel recovery through flotation due to the high arsenic in the ore and the nickel minerals locked in pyrite. The shake flask tests and column tests for nickel recovery from the Mojiang nickel sulfide ore had been finished by the end of 2003. The column bioleaching tests were carried out using the columns with diameter of 120 mm and height of 1200 mm, and 70% of nickel dissolution was attained in 300 days. A 10,000t pilot test heap was built in the Mojiang Nickel Mine by June 2003. The ore used in the test heap was supplied from the underground mine and was crushed to -20 mm before being feeding to the test heap, which is 4~5 m high, 30 m wide and 50 m long. The naturally adapted mesophile and moderate thermophile have been inoculated into the leaching pile by June 2003. The operating temperature in the heap ranges from 38? to 55?, varying with season. 30% of nickel dissolution was achieved in 3 months and the typical pregnant leach so-lution (PLS) contains 2~3 g/L Ni and 20~30 g/L Fe. The Ni sulfide which was produced by us-ing Na2S 10 t/t?Ni contains 16%~20% Ni and Ni recovery was 98%. 70% of Ni dissolution is expected in 12 months. The test heap was scaled up to 60,000 t of ore per year by mid of 2005. In this paper metallurgical studies and performance of the pilot test heap will be described. The results of mineralogy, shake flask tests and column tests on bioleaching of the nickel sulfide ore are reviewed. The key test heap operation parameters, the performance of bio-heap leahing-Na2S precipitation, ferrous oxidation-ferric precipitation-Na2CO3 precipitation, bacteria in the pile, water and acid balance, effluent disposal, capital and operation costs are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Richard S. Dennis

Acid recovery employs ion exchange (I-X) resin as separation media for inorganic acids from dissolved metallic salts by physical adsorption and without the use of chemicals. This technology has been used for years on spent etching and plating liquors to recover acid for reuse in the bath and to reduce waste acid neutralization costs. It is also used for electrolyte treatment to facilitate valuable metal recovery via acidity reduction. TETRA's ccrxr'" I-X contactor has been used successfully for acid separation from its metallic salt counterpart in a simple, continuous operating mode using strong base anion resins. Efficient separation is enhanced by acid reconcentration to nearly its original strength or as high as 14-20%. Continuous treatment also recovers heat to the tankhouse or bath and improves metal quality due to consistent acid quality. Conventional fixed bed ion exchange (I-X) systems are impractical for acid recovery because of complex control design and large resin inventories needed to process very low liquid-to-resin treatment ratios associated with strong acid concentrations.

Jan 1, 1996

By D J. Williams, A Shokouhi, A Naderian

Extracting alumina from bauxite involves the production of fine-grained waste known as red mud. The highly alkaline red mud is usually neutralised by applying sea water, thickened to between 25% and 30% solids by mass, before disposal to a Tailing Storage Facility (TSF). Hydraulic sorting, settling, self-weight consolidation, and desiccation are the processes contributing to the overall volume change of the red mud after deposition. Investigating the effect of these processes on the volume change behaviour of the fine-grained red mud is an important step in the estimation of the required storage volume of the storage facilities. This paper presents the results of a series of laboratory consolidation tests in a slurry consolidometer, and comparisons are made with field testing and observations.CITATION:Shokouhi, A, Naderian, A and Williams, D J, 2018. Assessing the volume change behaviour of red mud through laboratory and field testing, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 309–316 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018