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By S. S. Deshmukh

An important element of evaluating a materials- handling system by simulation lies in being able to examine the details of the proposed operation in a fashion which closely approximates real behavior. The added factor of flexibility permits including or deleting those parts of the problem which can be shown to be important or trivial. Used carefully, simulation can match manpower and equipment far more efficiently than conventional calculations. The same is true of interacting equipment systems. This efficiency results from being able to simulate the real fluctuations in a system by using empirical probability distributions compiled from existing operations. Simulation eliminates guessing as to efficiency, absenteeism, bunching, and the broad host of delays that influence productivity and substitutes operating data in place of the usual factors. In this respect, simulation improves detail and confidence in the reliability of engineering estimates.

Jan 1, 1970

During the past three years there have been several parties prospecting for oil in the Stat6 of Queensland, and It was: gratifying to read the newspaper headlines last Christmasabout the discovery of oil in the Moohie Nol Well. This discovery was not only a welcome Christmas present for Australia but marked up another success for the seismicmethod in exploration for oil.The purpose of this paper is to discuss the operationaI aspects of seismic work in Queensland with-emphasis on shot-haledrilling. The paper is based upon the experience of one particular seismic survey which began in December of - 1959 and is still inoperation. This survey is being conducted by the Petty Geophysical Engineering - Company of San Antonios, Texas, and the Queensland area involved is in the general vicinity of Quilpie, Dlackall and Charleville.

Jan 1, 1962

By John Hillman

Reconstruction of the British mining industry began shortly after nationalization in 1947 and continued until well into the 1950s with the support of the government. This support diminished as plentiful supplies of cheap oil from the Middle East made many coal mines uneconomic. The planned rundown which followed was foreshadowed in the 1965 White Paper which outlined financial measures to speed the closure of uneconomic collieries. The decline appeared likely to continue into the 21st century as the role of coal in UK energy requirements became less and less significant. This policy was well on course in 1973 when the oil crisis led to a complete reappraisal of the position. A government examination in 1974 of the coal industry then supported the National Coal Board's general strategy of major capital investment as set out in its ' Plan for Coal ' .1

Jan 11, 1979

By J. L. Jernegan

IN this paper I propose to give a short and, I must confess, a rather incomplete description, as regards many details, of the process used in Chicago, Ill., for smelting the argentiferous ores of the far West, and shall confine myself in this description, principally, to the process used at the Chicago Silver Smelting and Refining Company's Works, known as the Balbach process, as all the other smelting works in that city follow the same method, with the exception of one, which has the Cordurié, process for the desilverization of argentiferous lead. In all, there are five silver smelting and refining works in and near the city of Chicago. The Chicago Silver Smelting and Refining Company's Works are situated at the little station of South Lynne, about seven miles south from Chicago. The plant at these works consists of one horizontal steam-engine, principally used for running the ore pulverizer, four reverberatory smelting-furnaces, connected by horizontal flues with a common chimney 85 feet high, three lead-softening furnaces, one so-called zinc or mixing furnace, one separating furnace or liquation hearth, one lead-refining furnace, three zinc distillation retorts, one English cupellation furnace, supplied with blast by a No. 3 Sturtevant blower, which is run by a small steam-engine having a vertical tubular boiler, and an assay office, in which there are two wind-furnaces of the ordinary construction, and also a small muffle furnace. The assay office is supplied with all the necessary apparatus and reagents for fire assaying. There are also a superintendent's office, various store-rooms for coke and charcoal, and for the preparation of fire-clay, etc. Recently a small slag hearth (Krummofen) with one tuyere, has been put up for the purpose of working over such slags as assay too high in silver and lead to be thrown away, of which there are large amounts. The principal ore worked while I was in the employ of the company was that of the well known Emma mine in Utah, and also small quantities of Colorado ore. The character of the Emma ore is well known to most members of the Institute. In consists principally of ferruginous mixtures of carbonate and oxide of lead, oxide

Jan 1, 1874

By M. P. Kat, R. J. Barclay

"In 1984, a provincial inquiry into ground control and emergency preparedness in Ontario mines was commissioned by the Minister of Labour for Ontario. One of the recommendations put forth by the committee conducting this inquiry was that the Ontario mining regulations be modified to address more effectively the assessment of mine design. Mining regulations now require that every mine in the province annually assess its design with respect to ground stability. Subsequently, the Ministry of Labour has embarked on a ground control audit program to gather as much information as possible about the ground control programs in place at Ontario mines. In 1988, 47 underground mines were audited. The audits are intended to provide an overview of the level of engineering effort that is devoted to ground control on a provincial basis, by identifying the type of geotechnical information that is collected by each mine and how this information is used for stability analysis purposes in rationalizing excavation and support system designs. Also, the audits serve as an indicator of the severity of ground stability problems at individual mines, and how these problems are dealt with.This paper consists of information that has been extracted from the first series of ground control audits that were conducted in 1988. Specifically, the paper describes the types of support systems that are used in Ontario mines. It also discusses the rationale for local ground support selection, and the quality control programs that are in place for assessing the performance of installed ground support. As well, the type of geotechnical information that is collected, and to what extent it is used for the purpose of designing ground support systems, is reviewed"

Jan 1, 1991

By P. Geldenhuys, D. J. C. Taylor, D. C. Page

This paper gives a technical review of the history, occurrence, mining, and metallurgy of iron in South Africa. The reserves of iron ore worldwide and in South Africa are reviewed, and potential new developments In the iron-and-steel industry in South Africa are examined. The paper concludes that the exploitation of lower-grade iron deposits will probably supplement the reserves of high-grade hematite ore in the distant future, and that, accepting this scenario. South Africa will be well placed to provide iron ore for its expected internal steel requirements, as well as supplying quality Iron ore for the export market.

Jan 1, 1988

By BARRY BANNATYNE

About 90 per cent of Manitoba's industrial minerals production is for structural materials. Most of these come from the Paleozoic rocks west of the Precarnbrian Shield, or from glacial deposits that are extensive throughout Manitoba. The major raw materials are sand and gravel, and carbonate rocks for crushed stone (and also dolomite for high-magnesia lime, high-calcium limestone for lime and Portland cement, and dolomitic limestone for Tyndall stone). Glacial lake clays are used both in cement and in lightweight aggregate. The Jurassic and Cretaceous strata exposed along or near the Manitoba Escarpment include siliceous, carbonaceous, kaolinitic and illitic shales, all of which are quarried by Red River Brick and Tile in the Pembina Mountain and Ste. Rose areas for use in a brick plant at Lockport. Non-swelling bentonite near the base of the Pembina Member of the Upper Cretaceous Vermilion River Formation is of value as an absorbent clay, and is the only commercial source in production in Canada. It has been quarried by Pembina Mountain Clays Limited since 1940. Gypsum occurs in the Jurassic Amaranth Formation and supplies much of the market for wallboard and Portland cement additive in the Prairie Provinces. Quarries are operated at Gypsumville by Domtar Construction Materials Limited, and north of Amaranth by Westroc Industries Limited. Silica sand from the Ordovician Winnipeg Formation is of glass-grade quality, and about 100,000 tonnes are produced annually by Steel Brothers Canada Limited on Black Island . It is used as a glass sand, as foundry sand, for sand blasting, and as a filter-bed sand .

Jan 1, 1984

By Louis A. Panek

Rock-mass fracturing was measured on oriented drill core and along scanlines in three mines extracting mineralized porphyry deposits. Fracture families identified in the core were consistent with those found along scanlines, but fracture frequency in the core was twice that measured along scanlines. The excess fractures, which occur within 45º of a right angle to the core, apparently are produced during drilling, which implies that fracture spacing in drill core is an ambiguous quantity dependent on the drilling procedures, on the orientation and cohesion of the planes of weakness, and on the actual fractures present in the rock mass.

Jan 1, 1984

By W. A. Niepelt, F. A. Locher

Flow in steep cascades may lead to the occurrence of a nearly periodic train of waves known as slug flow. This, in turn, may result in overtopping of the channel walls and problems with energy dissipation in receiving sumps. Experimental data from an operating facility was used to extend clear water technology for predicting the occurrence of slug flow to conditions with slurry flows. A design methodology and a design chart to determine the region of steady flows is presented that will permit the design engineer to avoid slug flow in cascade systems for conveyance of slurries.

Jan 1, 1990

By Weimin F

In the last decade, great strides have been made in the raise boring technique in China. Extensively, the drilling and blasting method has been replaced by the mechanized raising method since 1980. There are now over 3C raise drills operating in more than 20 mines. The diameters for shaft boring varies from 500mm to 2000mm, and to depths up to 90m. Tlis paper mainly describes the performance, mtLin technical achievments and applications of all four kinds of raise drills, and auxiliary equipment. Finally, some recommend- ations for future improvement in the raise boring technique are presented also.

Jan 1, 1987

By C E. Vidal

Geological exploration and mining development increased their intensity and rate of success during the last five years in Peru. Particularly relevant are the mining projects of Yanacocha and Pierina for epithermal Au and Ag. Also relevant are the new mining operations at Iscaycruz and Uchucchacua for limestone replacement Zn- or Ag-rich base metal skarn deposits. Miocene continental volcanics host the low-grade but near-surface orebodies of the Yanacocha mining district in Cajamarca. Several deposits have been mined since 1994 with open-pit and heap-leach gold production increasing from 300 000 ounces to 1 300 000 ounces in 1998. In a similar geological setting, but with three times the grade of Yanacocha, the Pierina valley-leach operation in Ancash is set to produce 800 000 ounces Au during 1999. At Iscaycruz in Lima, Cretaceous limestones host massive pyrite and sphalerite skarn deposits with 10 to 20 per cent Zn. Mining and milling were started in 1996 with last yearÆs production rising to 180 000 tonnes of Zn concentrates. At Uchucchacua, selective underground mining of fracture-controlled Ag skarns, with 400 to 420 g/t, has been recently increased from 1200 to 2000 tonnes per day to produce 5.5 million ounces Ag during 1998. Advanced exploration projects are located in the framework of nine Phanerozoic metallogenic provinces. Mineral deposits of preferred attention are precious metal disseminations and veins, base metal replacements and skarns, porphyry Cu (Mo-Au), Mississippi-Valley-type Zn and base metal volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. Geological discovery of new orebodies enables a sustainable development of the mining industry in the country.

Jan 1, 1999

By K. Kovári, G. Anagnostou

Slurry and EPB-shield tunnelling have been successfully applied worldwide in recent years. Under extremely unfavourable geological conditions, however, face instabilities may occur. The present paper aims at a better understanding of the mechanics of face failure. For the case of slurry shield, attention will be paid to the time-dependent effects associated with the infiltration of slurry into the ground ahead of the face. Related topics, such as the stand-up time and the effect of the excavation advance rate, will be discussed. In the case of an EPB-shield, a distinction will be drawn between fluid-pressure and effective pressure in the chamber. The effective pressure can be visualized as a “grain to grain” contact pressure between the muck and the ground at the face. The water pressure in the chamber reduces the hydraulic head gradient in the ground and, consequently, the seepage forces acting in front of the face. The face is thus stabilized both by the direct support of the pressurized muck and by the reduction of the seepage forces in the ground. The paper includes normalized diagrams which allow the assessment of tunnel face stability.

Jan 1, 1997

By Joseph Irons, David Westfall

Three rock tunnel sewer systems are underway in the Chicago Area. (Figure 1) The three are designed to act independently and to be later connected to the future tunnels of the master plan. The tunnel excavation for each of the systems has been completed. One is in the Northwest area within the City being built by the City, known as the Lawrence Ave. System. Another is in the Southwest suburbs, known as the LaGrange-Brookfield Sewer or Southwest 13A, being built by the Sanitary District, the third is in the South suburbs called the Crawford Avenue sewer or Calumet 18-E, Ext. A- being built as a joint venture between the City and the District. The three are similar in that they have the same purpose, the same component parts and their tunnels were constructed in the nigaran limestone using a mechanical mining machine. The purpose of each of the systems is two-fold. First to provide flood relief for existing inadequate sewer systems, and second to reduce the pollution load to the waterways caused by combined sewer overflows. The existing systems in the areas to be relieved are combined sewers built many years ago. The main outlet for the Village of LaGrange, for example, was built in 1908, is badly in need of repair and lacks the capacity to handle the flood flow from the heavily urbanized area it now serves. The dry weather flow from the area is taken off by intercepting sewers. However during

Jan 1, 1997

By L. F. Reinartz

The furnace in which rimming steel is made has an important bearing on the quality of the steel produced. Furnace.—Particularly in the manufacture of low-carbon rimming steels, it is necessary to have an efficient, easily regulated furnace, because of the relatively high finishing temperature requirements. In recent years, the most important development in design of open-hearth furnaces has been the sealing and insulation of the greater part of the furnace to prevent air infiltration and loss of heat. Efficient, straight-line valves insure proper draft. Combustion controls guarantee correct gas-air ratios. Furnaces of all sizes ranging from 20 to 200 tons have been used successfully in the manufacture of rimming steels. Metal bath is varied from 20 to 40 in. in depth without appreciable variation in quality. Charging.—A normal open-hearth charge consists of pig iron (hot or cold), scrap of miscellaneous nature, and slag-making additions, such as limestone and burnt lime. Because of local conditions, some plants find it necessary to discard the use of pig iron and use some carbonaceolis substances with varying percentages of cast iron to replace the pig iron. It is questionable whether such practice will consistently produce the quality of rimming steel required for auto stampings and other severe drawing requirements. Pig Iron.—An open-hearth furnace under proper control should melt 150 tons of low-carbon rimming steel on about 35 to 38 per cent pig-iron charge basis. In some practices, best results are obtained when the total charge contains from 0.40 to' 0.50 per cent silicon. If reasonably low-

Jan 1, 1935

By L. F. Reinartz

The furnace in which rimming steel is made has an important bearing on the quality of the steel produced. Furnace.—Particularly in the manufacture of low-carbon rimming steels, it is necessary to have an efficient, easily regulated furnace, because of the relatively high finishing temperature requirements. In recent years, the most important development in design of open-hearth furnaces has been the sealing and insulation of the greater part of the furnace to prevent air infiltration and loss of heat. Efficient, straight-line valves insure proper draft. Combustion controls guarantee correct gas-air ratios. Furnaces of all sizes ranging from 20 to 200 tons have been used successfully in the manufacture of rimming steels. Metal bath is varied from 20 to 40 in. in depth without appreciable variation in quality. Charging.—A normal open-hearth charge consists of pig iron (hot or cold), scrap of miscellaneous nature, and slag-making additions, such as limestone and burnt lime. Because of local conditions, some plants find it necessary to discard the use of pig iron and use some carbonaceolis substances with varying percentages of cast iron to replace the pig iron. It is questionable whether such practice will consistently produce the quality of rimming steel required for auto stampings and other severe drawing requirements. Pig Iron.—An open-hearth furnace under proper control should melt 150 tons of low-carbon rimming steel on about 35 to 38 per cent pig-iron charge basis. In some practices, best results are obtained when the total charge contains from 0.40 to' 0.50 per cent silicon. If reasonably low-

Jan 1, 1935

By Pinter R

Several major routes connecting Northern and Southern Europe or Asia run through Austria. These highways have to surmount the alpine range which traverses Austria from west to east. In order to ensure safe driving conditions even in winter, tunnels, at times quite long ones, are necessary. Austria now has tunnels totalling 160 km in length. These tunnels are either already in use or just about completed. The Plabutsch tunnel near Graz will be one of the longest tunnels in the world: approximately 10 kilometers in length. It will be put into operation in the summer of 1987. Before construction could begin, soil and rock conditions had to be investigated by means of a test tunnel. Afterwards, excavation was begun to the full 100 m' cross section. The new Austrian tunnelling method with conventional blasting was used for the major part of the tunnel. It was necessary to have such a large tunnel cross section because a fully transverse ventilation system is installed for environmental reasons. In order to avoid air pollution from the tunnel, exhaust fumes are not allowed to escape from the tunnel portals but from two shafts, each with a diameter of 8.5 m. In this way, exhaust fumes must rise 90 meters or 240 meters before they reach the open air and will thus not affect the city. The ventilation system influences the size of the excavation, and especially the size of the ventilation caverns and the air shafts. All these factors directly influence construction and maintenance costs, and an economical optimisation leads to the appropriate dimensions for the excavation.

Jan 1, 1987

By C. S. Barrett

IT has been observed that deformation in iron takes place by slip on {110} + {112} + {123} planes1,2 but in silicon ferrite with low deforma-tion temperatures or high silicon contents (exceeding 4 per cent) the authors have found that slip is confined wholly to {110} planes, at least with small amounts of deformation. The purpose of the present inves-tigation was to determine the effect of this alteration of slip mechanism on preferred orientations in cold-rolled and recrystallized strips. Inci-dental observations on the effect of the recrystallization temperature were also made. The numerous determinations of the texture of cold-rolled iron and steel have been in satisfactory agreement as to the principal features of the texture. (with the exception of a few conclusions that apparently have been based on insufficient data). The texture is chiefly one in which [110] directions of the grains lie along tile direction of rolling, with a deviation of a few degrees, and in which the (100) planes lie in the plane of the rolled sheet, with a deviation from this position chiefly about the rolling direc-tion as all axis 3-9. This deviation about the rolling direction as an axis has been measured by different observers and lies between about 45° and 50° or 60° for iron5,6,9 and is usually in the neighborhood of 50° for mild steel6,7,8. The range of this deviation is a function of the percentage of total reduction 8, 10. Post' reported that it decreases with increasing percentage reduction, but apparently he .studied only the surface material, which Gensamer and Mehl7 found to be somewhat differently oriented from the material in the inside of the sheet. McLachlan and Davey10 found that the deviation also decreases with increasing percentage of total reduction for the material in the interior of the sheet and is independent of the percentage of reduction per pass.

Jan 1, 1937

By J Johansson, B Johansson

The mining industry needs to attract and recruit young talented people. An important task is, therefore, to create an attractive mining workplace that engages with, and motivates youngsters who are not particularly interested in working in the industry. This paper aims to illustrate a way forward for the mining industry to form healthy and safe workplaces honouring key components such as knowledge, skill, co-operation, continual development and acceptance of diversity. This is a way to create a vision of healthy and safe mining work. The mining industry must work towards zero vision; a future without accidents and hazardous environments. In this paper the authors discuss different aspects of an ‘attractive workplace’ and summarises lessons learnt in 26 statements dealing with safety, both physical and social work environments, and social responsibility. The authors hope these recommendations will provide some guidance for how attractive workplaces should be designed for future deep mining.The paper is based on lessons from two large European projects, a Swedish-Polish project: The Smart Mine of the Future; and a European Union project: Sustainable Intelligent Mining Systems (SIMS). One of the authors was the WP leader of health and safety in both projects.CITATION:Johansson, J and Johansson, B, 2017. Attractive workplaces in future underground mining, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Underground Operators’ Conference 2017, pp 99–102 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 16, 2017

By F. Ames Smith

Offshore oil and gas production operations have moved from water depths of about 50 feet in 1948 to the present record depth of 340 feet. Although mobile drilling rigs are widely used for exploratory drilling, most development drilling and production operations have been conducted above water from the decks of fixed, bottom-founded platforms. Increasing water depths have caused problems associated with design and construction of these platforms and with laying of pipelines, but not so much with other activities. After a platform is installed, drilling, production, and maintenance operations are similar to those onshore and are relatively unaffected by water depth. Events of 1968 indicate that offshore production may soon extend into much deeper water. These events include leasing of Santa Barbara Channel acreage in water depths over 1500 feet, and the successful drilling of a wildcat well in 1300 feet. Designs have been developed for platforms suitable for installation in water over 600 feet deep, and studies suggest they may be used in some areas to water depths of 800 to 1000 feet. Buoyant towers can probably support above-surface platforms in water 1000 feet and deeper. Although the cost of either of these platforms will be high, once installed they will permit relatively low-cost development drilling and production operations compared with estimates for subsea production systems. In some cases, savings in development drilling costs alone could pay out the platform investment.

Jan 1, 1969

By K. Bounou, K. Komnitsas

"Risk quantification may be used as a sustainable development index in the mining industry, since it encompasses both economic and social factors. In addition, it may assist in the development of a framework, which is also indirectly related to sustainable development, to prevent accidents and improve health and safety standards. However, risk quantification in the mineral sector involves diverse activities and is considered a very difficult task. Although statistical data report accident severity rates, incident rates and accident frequency rates, none of these allow for accurate risk calculations. In this paper, two risk calculation formulas, which may be used to quantify risk, as well as to identify hazardous activities in a workplace, are proposed. Numerical examples are given based on statistical data available through the MSHA database. Also a combination of a decision/fault/event tree that allows risk quantification is presented."

Jan 1, 2005