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By Chee Theng

"It is not surprising that the most popular key takeaway from the Developing Diversity in Mining workshop (see box) held on the first day of the SME Arizona Conference in December was, “Have more parties!”The adage that mining professionals work hard and play hard was clearly demonstrated at the two-day conference in the JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, AZ. Nearly 550 participants, some of whom had left behind frigid temperatures and thick parkas in their hometowns, attended a full slate of technical sessions, shared industry experiences and knowledge, reconnected with buddies in the industry, and made strategic new contacts in the conference’s collegial environment, aided by the mild Arizona winter.To start off the technical sessions, John Mansanti, president and chief executive officer of Crystal Peak Minerals and 2017 SME president, entertained a packed lecture room with his keynote lecture on “Tariffs, Embargos, and Cartels ... Oh My! A Perspective on Potash.” Mansanti gave the audience the benefit of his more than 35 years of experience at companies including Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining Corp., Placer Dome, Freeport-McMoRan and Intrepid Potash, where he was senior vice president for operations, technology and strategy. At the luncheon, Justin Cross, general manager of Freeport-Mc- MoRan’s Bagdad operations, spoke on how the role of a leader in mining is transforming from one based on technical expertise to one based on the ability to collaborate, to lead and to adapt to changes in technologies and skill sets, in his talk on “Knowing When to Learn, When to Lead and When to Manage.”"

Feb 1, 2019

By A. B., Sabin

THERE are many who know The Lucky Tiger and will remember the 35-mile road from Esqueda, a station on The Nacozari Railroad in northern Sonora, Mexico. They will remember the box canyons of the Agua Caliente Mountains which are scarcely wide enough for two cars to pass; the Bavispe River which one hour may be a lazy trickle and the next a sweeping torrent, and the tortuous road up Tigre and Espuela canyons, now following the wash, now hugging some gigantic red cliff. It is still the same. From camp the view of the distant blue-gray mountains is the same. But one thing a visitor of a former day might miss: The hundreds of pack mules and burros, loaded with concentrates from the mill, which used to take most of the road and show up at the most inopportune places, have almost disappeared, replaced of course by the auto truck.

Jan 1, 1929

By R. H. Ogburn

THE GROUND now being worked by the Fairbanks Exploration Co., near Fairbanks, Alaska, has been known to be gold bearing since 1901. In the early days it was worked by drift mining and other small-scale methods. In 1922, Hammond started prospecting the gold-bearing ground and obtaining options on the properties desired. Two years later the present Fairbanks Exploration Co. started taking up the options, and preparing to exploit the ground. For the prospect drilling Keystone drills were used, with holes at the points of equilateral triangles 600 ft. apart. Holes were also put down more closely spaced to determine the limits of dredging ground. In the first drilling casing was used to the bottom of the holes, but in later work the casing was put down only to the bottom of the thawed ground, and the rest of the hole put down without casing. The gold content was determined by panning, each 2 ft. of depth being determined separately. Where no casing was used the size of the hole was determined by using water to measure its volume. The greatest concentration of gold occurs at or near bedrock. All the gold-bearing streams head in one big dome. Gold, however, is not found clear to the head of the creeks, the pay being first found some distance downstream from the head.

Jan 1, 1933

By Joseph T. Roy

MINING revival during the last few years has brought about a considerable increase in the number of gold and silver determinations made, noticeable in all branches of the industry but especially so in the business of a custom smelter. At East Helena, solely a custom smelter the assay department found that the four assay furnaces available were inadequate to handle the increased amount of work. These furnaces were of a standard design, having duplex muffles, one superimposed on the other; each muffle was 12 1/2 in. wide, 18 1/4 in. long and 6 in. high, and could handle 72 cupels or 20 fusions. Since the heat varied considerably between the upper and lower muffles, cupellations were not ruin in both at the same time. To speed up assaying, E. A. Meale, chief chemist, had the happy idea of enlarging a muffle furnace, originally designed by the Montana Power Co., so that one muffle would acconmmodate at least as many determinations as the duplex muffles. An order was given to the Denver Fire Clay Co. for a Carbofrax muffle of the size required and the local engineering department enlarged the furnace to accommodate the muffle. Details of the

Jan 1, 1938

By Oliver Bowles

TO keep pace with technical progress is an important function of any industry. All branches of mining may learn important lessons by observing progress made in other branches. The non-metallic mineral industries may learn much from each other as well as from the metal miner and the metallurgist. Recent technical advances which have come to the attention of the Committee on Non-metallic Minerals are presented herewith for consideration and comment. It is planned to present this review for open discussion at the February, 1931, meeting of the Institute. Comments will be welcomed either in the form of written or oral discussion. It is desired that new developments not covered in this paper be brought up at that time. Some notable advances have been made in cement technology. Recognition is now being given to the advantages of closed-circuit grinding of cement raw materials in wet-process plants, with stage removal of the fine materials, It increases mill capacity, reduces the wear of grinding media, and also reduces the power requirement. The method is well known in metallurgical plants, and its acceptance by cement companies is another illustration of the lessons the non-metallic industries may learn from the metal industries. Closed-circuit dry grinding has also proved advantageous for both raw materials and clinker.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. M. Foley, Hidesaburo Kurushima

About 25 pct of all Japanese pyrite comes from the Yanahara mine on Honchu Island. For the past 40 years lack of an economical recovery process forced the operator, Dowa Mining Co., to sell the pyrite for its contained sulfur only, leaving 7 million tons of high grade iron ore waste. Introduction of the Dorrco FluoSolids roasting system enabled the company to make use of its iron sulfides and also to find a market for the mine's considerable pyrrhotite production. The success of this project is of great importance to Japan's economy since it points the way toward material increase in her natural resources. Prior to use of the present process, no practical method was available for commercial exploitation of known large tonnages of pyrrhotite, while the copper content of the even larger deposits of pyrite made the roasted residue unacceptable for the iron and steel industry. In Europe, large amounts of copper-bearing pyrite cinder are given a chloridizing roast for separation of the copper and iron but this treatment is not economical in Japan where salt is imported from as far away as Egypt.

Jan 10, 1958

By C. J. Webb

Abandoned uranium mines in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota were sampled for uranium, radium, and rare earth elements during 1992 and 1993. Analyses of water samples from several shallow ponds in the mine pits showed pH values between 3 and 4 with uranium concentrations between 1600 and 2600 ppb. Rare earth elements and their respective isotopes were analyzed with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and were referenced to a shale normalization pattern. All samples showed an enrichment in the middle rare earth elements. Rare earth levels often were greater than 0.2 ppm. At one site, the concentrations of lanthanides were 150,000 times above background levels. While the southern Black Hills have long been known for rich uranium ore deposits, these analyses show that significant levels of rare earth elements also are present, indicating that the potential exist for future development.

Jan 1, 1995

By Wayne J. Nordstrom, Dennis L. Murr, James E. Wennen

National Steel Pellet Company (NSPC) conducted pilot scale testing and computer simulation studies which indicates that the capacity of the secondary grinding mill could be increased and that concentrate grade improvement could be expected with improved classification in the grinding circuit. Based on these studies, a decision was made to modify one secondary ball mill line at NSPC to include both cyclone and screen classification with magnetic separation applied to the circulating load. This paper will briefly discuss the studies leading to the decision to modify the circuit, the design of the modified circuit and the initial start-up and operating experience.

Jan 1, 1997

By P. Mendoza, R. Siwale, H. Amini, R. Silva, M. Richards, V. Ngcoza, D. Rivera, C. Canaza, R. van Reenen

Development of a realistic flotation model to predict its performance is of paramount importance to the processing plant and operators, a model that accounts for predictive and no-predictive maintenance simulating individual equipment downtime and the effect of it in the metallurgical performance on the flotation bank with final recoveries and grades has a huge advantage on optimizing the flotation circuit/bank in terms of mechanical and metallurgical side. The Model was developed in a dynamic environment that allows for a better and more realistic simulation of the flotation bank. The maintenance model accounts for the Failure rate, Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) and Reliability (R(t)) those characteristics are combined to a multi-compartment process model that consists of a slurry recovery model, two options of froth recovery models, entrainment and carry capacity as a final check for the system. In addition to the maintenance and process model, a dynamic dart valve model was added to the simulation in order to have a realistic model to control the slurry level at the flotation cell. The paper goes over a study case for a current flotation operation trying to explore all the elements and the simulator to optimize the Rougher flotation bank.

Mar 2, 2022

By Robson Luís da Silva Nascimento

O mercado do aço no mundo está muito competitivo, e as indústrias siderúrgicas têm desenvolvidos projetos com foco na melhoria da qualidade dos aços e na redução dos custos dos processos de fabricação. Este trabalho descreve os avanços nos processos de lingotamento contínuo, com foco na redução do sucatamento de placas por “bolsa”. Esta melhoria consistiu na modificação na taxa de refrigeração aplicada na placa de cauda durante o processo de descarga da máquina (final de lingotamento). A implementação dessa ação propiciou uma homogeneidade na solidificação das placas de cauda aumentando assim sua temperatura de extração reduzindo significativamente o sucatamento das mesmas. Outras melhorias obtidas com o trabalho foram a redução das ocorrências de placa parada no interior da máquina, redução das ocorrências de restrição de velocidade por Baumann, redução das ocorrências de intervenção para regularização de GAP e melhoria na qualidade superficial. O trabalho foi realizado sem investimento contribuindo na redução do custo de transformação do aço em placa.

Jul 30, 2018

By Charles R. Keyes

Discussion of the paper of Charles R. Keyes, Bi-Monthly Bulletin, No. 19, January, 1908, pp. 1 to 31. BERNARD MACDONALD, Guanajuato, Mexico (communication to the Secretary*) :-Mr. Keyes's paper is very interesting to me because of my personal experience with the development of the ore-deposits of Lake Valley. Seeing that many of the important facts connected with the early history of the development of these mines are either now unknown, or have become more or less distorted, and thinking that it would be interesting as well as valuable to have these recorded as a historical supplement to Mr. Keyes's elaborate paper, I present the following narrative: In February, 1881, soon after the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railroad made connection with the Southern Pacific at Denting, N. M., the Lake Valley properties were brought to the attention of New York and Philadelphia capitalists by John A. Miller, of Silver City, N. M. At that time silver was $1.10 all ounce and silver-mining was very attractive. Vast fortunes were being made in Leadville and other Colorado camps, and Tombstone was pouring out its millions. Lake Valley, like all' other mining-camps in their early history, had its drawbacks, but the railroad, then passing within 14 miles of it, mitigated many of these. The camp lay in the foot-hills of the Black range, in which the Apaches had their stronghold, and raided, when it suited their convenience, the surrounding country, killing the prospectors and pioneer settlers and stealing their cattle. This band of Indians was joined by the outlaws and desperadoes from the frontiers of Texas, Arizona, and Mexico, who collectively defied the United States soldiers, restrained, as the latter were, by the mollycoddles from the East. The brutality of the Indian raids through Arizona and New Mexico in those days would scarcely be believed now, but they stain in deep

Feb 1, 1909

By P. Ramsaywok, S Ndanduleni, G. Legodi

The objective of this paper is to share the optimisation journey of a pilot Reflux classifier (RC) circuit in the Exxaro GG1 plant, at Grootegeluk beneficiation complex in Lephalale, South Africa. The RC circuit was commissioned in 2016 to produce semi-soft coking coal at its fines circuit; however the stability of operation as well as the quality control of the coal product was not fully achieved. Various test campaigns and optimisation studies were conducted to understand and optimise the RC circuit at GG1. The studies revealed circuit design inefficiencies; provided an improved technical understanding of the current pilot circuit and the parameters required for the circuit to reach a stable operation. The operation was stabilised with its current inefficiencies to produce an average 12.5% ash semi-soft coking coal product for sustained periods, above the initial target of 10.3% ash. Keywords: Reflux classifier, coal

Jan 1, 2020

By A. D. German

This paper presents one of a series of digests of foreign mining legis- lation and court decisions which is being prepared in advance of a general report relative to the right of American citizens to explore for minerals and to own and operate mines in various foreign countries. This interpretation of tie laws of Ecuador has been prepared from the best available information in Washington, but is released subject to correction and amplification, if necessary, by the proper American diplomatic and consular officers to whom it is being referred through the courtesy of the Department of State..

May 1, 1930

By Noller B. N, Mine F. J

Modem open cut and underground mining in the tropics inevitably expose partially weathered and unweathered rocks to oxygen and water, leading to weathering and the release of solutes and often acidity as well. Historical monitoring data can demonstrate these phenomena. Three case studies from open cut mines in the north of the Northern Territory illustrate the deterioration in quality of pond water receiving drainage from waste rock dumps. The potential for deterioration of water quality was not recognised in many mine Environmental Impact Statements prepared and accepted in the 1980s. The examples documented indicate the importance of adequately planning for this near inevitable process. Retrofitting a mine water management system to 'no' or minimal release can be very difficult and expensive, and may not be feasible, leading to downstream pollution. The characterisation of acid and solute production potential of ore and waste rock, and improved dumping strategies and water management are very important to minimise the environmental impact of mining in the tropics.

Jan 1, 1994

By Erich J. Jacob, Volker O. Meldner

INTRODUCTION Our company has made persistent efforts to utilize the very latest cost-saving technology in tunnel design and construction. However, we were relatively late in joining the clan of slurry shield tunnelers. The challenge came in 1973, when our company was low bidder on a major sewer tunnel in Hamburg, West Germany. The tunnel was to be driven under the harbor region through coarse and fine sands with up to 60 ft hydrostatic head of water. Outer diameter was 15 ft, and length was 2.9 miles. This contract appeared right to enter the new field of slurry face tunneling. We gathered a design-engineering team to develop the machine, called it "Hydroshield", and used it on the project. The good performance of the prototype machine encouraged us to improve and modify the equipment design. The very latest model is now in use on a subway tunnel in Antwerp, Belgium. This tunnel is 21 ft outer diameter and 2.4 miles in total length. In terms of excavated volume it is the world's largest slurry shield contract. While the drive is still in full swing, we are currently preparing for 3 further Hydroshield applications, with diameters ranging from 12 to 32 ft. This paper describes the Hydroshield's salient design features, operational characteristics, construction reliability and performance levels, as experienced in West Germany and Belgium.

Jan 1, 1979

By Johannes Käppeler, Alexander Weh, Harald Giese, Klaas van der Wielen

"High voltage breakage is a novel comminution technology that shows considerable potential for various applications in mineral processing and recycling. It relies on highly energetic electrical pulses to induce electrical explosions in rocks, causing the formation of plasma channels and powerful shockwaves that result in fracturing and fragmentation of particles. There has been considerable interest in this technology for its ability to weaken rocks and preferentially liberate target minerals, as previously demonstrated by other authors. Weakening has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption during comminution, or alternatively, increase throughput of a circuit. Better liberation may yield an improved concentrate grade and/or recovery, reduce fines losses to tailings or increase the grind size required for liberation, thereby also reducing energy requirements. This review aims to increase general awareness of this technology, and promote further research into it by providing a general summary of the theory underlying high voltage breakage, as well as the envisaged applications of this novel technology. A brief history of the technology is presented before progressing onto the physics underlying the electrical and geomechanical aspects of high voltage breakage. Key results regarding weakening and liberation are discussed, and some mention is made of current challenges and planned developments to increase the throughput of high voltage breakage units to the level where it can be integrated into new and existing processing circuits."

Jan 1, 2014

By Donald H. McLaughlin

ZEST in the search for new supplies of metallic ores and petroleum is difficult to maintain with stocks of raw materials accumulating and with over- production rightly or wrongly blamed for most of our industrial troubles. Enthusiasm over new methods of prospecting has consequently diminished and exploration programs in many fields have been drastically cur- tailed. Very naturally the effects have been felt with particular keeness in highly specialized phases of the work, such as geophysical prospecting, for the feverish scramble for new areas in which to drill beneath magnetic or electrical anomalies has abated, and there is even a lull in the firing in the battle over salt domes on the Gulf Coast. It is unquestionably an unhappy time for many of the organizations dependent on this work, but in certain respects the situation may be beneficial in correcting unsound practices that .have grown up through the necessity for haste and for quick decisions. With the restriction of the field to the more competent workers by the harsh rule of survival of the fittest, a general improvement, not only in technique but in business methods, can be expected which may go far in restoring public confidence. Geophysical prospecting in the short period that it has been utilized in North America, has suffered severely both from over-popularity and from excessive abuse. The former evil now

Jan 1, 1931

In Canada and other countries, legislation dealing with accurate factual disclosure for mining projects is being expanded to include more metallurgical design information. Grinding characteristics, metallurgical recovery of contained metal and environmental hazards associated with tailings disposal will be part of the Canadian package. This paper will examine only that portion of the plant design standard practice that relates to grinding ? in SAG mills and ball mills that grind ore from as received crushed material to final ground product that is fed to downstream plant recovery processes. Since grinding plants represent a significant portion of the overall concentrator cost, accountability in grinding design should no longer be left to chance, opinion, or hidden proprietary information. This is the 21st century. It is reasonable to expect that a factual basis will be needed so that a Qualified Person (QP) reviewing the grinding mill design can understand it. That will also involve how many and what quality of samples are taken to define the characteristics of the deposit, the accuracy of the tests used to measure ore hardness and the method by which the dimensions and power of the mills are determined. If these criteria are not met, the QP may have no choice but to call attention to the lack of convincing information regarding the grinding mill design for the project. At the same time clients are expected to demand getting the correct design information at a cheaper price, results in a more timely way, and accurate design to the point where the risk of tonnage shortfalls are reduced or eliminated. Tables will be presented to show how this can be done to current standards using existing technologies. At the same time it is acknowledged that current standards are ill-defined and that to achieve consensus among those involved in SAG mill design work, it may require that a consortium funded project be set up to establish what tests and methods for grinding design are suitable to meet the new standards for metallurgical disclosure. By running parallel design methods on several major projects over a period of 5 years, the process of how to design grinding circuits will be better understood because the projects will start at the design stage, include procurement of the mills and will end with a benchmark test on the plant. Selecting the samples and the best schedule for doing test work on core samples submitted and mill design, will be discussed in this paper. The issue of completing the grinding design in time for early procurement decisions is on the critical path for most major projects. Discussions between mining engineers, geologists and process engineers are needed early in the development cycle, at the scoping study level (SS), preliminary engineering assessment (PEA), prefeasibility study (PFS), and at the feasibility study stage (FS), to ensure that proper planning for design sample selection is done. Using adequate sampling and testing methods in a timely way allows early procurement of the grinding mills and minimizes project risk.

Jan 1, 2012

By B Miles, D J. Williams, J Ahn, T A. Vangsness

The flooding of open strip coal mines in the Bowen Basin and Hunter Valley Coalfields of Eastern Australia has the potential to soften the spoil and floor materials to produce “mud”. This mud can act as a slip plane or weak zone when spoil is dumped into it, resulting in geotechnical instabilities. It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms and degree of degradation likely to occur within coal mine spoil of different qualities.To investigate this, five clay mineral-rich coal mine spoil samples were collected from the Bowen Basin, and each sample was subjected to wetting and drying cycles to simulate degradation that could be expected on wetting-up in situ, with their particle size distribution analysed both before and after degradation. These results were compared with the results of a modified slake durability test, in which the entire sample was tested.The paper presents the results of the accelerated degradation and modified slake durability tests on each of the five spoil samples. These results were related to the physical and geochemical characteristics of the samples, which highlighted their importance. The modified slake durability test may be used to rapidly simulate the expected in situ degradation of coal mine spoil on wetting-up, enabling susceptible spoil materials to readily be identified.CITATION:Vangsness, T A, Williams, D J, Ahn, J and Miles, B, 2018. Accelerated degradation and modified slake durability testing of clay mineral-rich coal mine spoil, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 83–96 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

By D. K. Sarkar, Jiawei Xiong

"Self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on the aluminum substrates are used as the adhesion promoter between two aluminum substrates when bonded with the adhesive in adhesive bonding technology. Traditional surface analysis tools are not capable of identifying the presence of SAM on a surface; therefore, EIS has been used to determine their presence on the aluminum substrates. In this study SAMs have been deposited on aluminum using the monomer of (3-Glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GPTS) organosilane. AA6061 aluminum alloys substrates were chemically cleaned with NaOH and HNO3 to remove the native oxides, followed by immersion in silane solutions. In a second method, SAMs were prepared by applying a spin coating of silane solution to the samples. The prepared SAM coated aluminum samples were analysed by EIS in the three electrode corrosion cell using a diluted alkaline solution. The impedance of the SAM coated aluminum is found be higher than the as-received aluminum. It has been also observed that the open circuit potential (OCP) of the SAM coated aluminum is higher than the as-received aluminum. Both elevated values of the impedance and OCP confirm the presence of SAM on aluminum.INTRODUCTIONSelf-assembly (Schreiber, 2000) is defined as the spontaneous formation of complex hierarchical structures from pre-designed building blocks, typically involving multiple energy scales and multiple degrees of freedom. Generally speaking, SAMs are created by the chemisorption of ""head groups"" onto a substrate from either the vapor or liquid phase followed by a slow organization of ""tail groups"" of a molecule. Typically, head groups are connected to a molecular chain in which the terminal end can be functionalized with groups such as –OH, –NH2, –COOH, or –SH to vary the wetting and interfacial properties (Chauhan et al., 2007; Ulman, 1996; Vashist, Lam, Hrapovic, Male, & Luong, 2014). Though there exist several methods to prepare SAM (Chauhan et al., 2007; Chen, Yang, & Zhang, 2014; Cho, Park, Jon, & Choi, 2007; Igor Luzinov, 2000; Reis, de Melo, & Costa, 2006; Song, Zhai, Wang, & Jiang, 2006; Sugimura, Hozumi, Kameyama, & Takai, 2002; Vashist et al., 2014), the two methods vapor phase (Song et al., 2006; Sugimura et al., 2002) and solution(Chen et al., 2014; Igor Luzinov, 2000) are commonly used. Recently, many articles have been published on the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces with SAM technology (Cho et al., 2007; Pan, Shen, Shang, & Xing, 2012; Siddaramanna, Saleema, & Sarkar, 2014; Song et al., 2006). Brassard, Sarkar, and Perron (2011) successfully obtained a superhydrophobic film by applying fluoroalkylsilane via self-assembly on monodispersive silica. SAMs are also reported as good candidates for anti-corrosion and adhesion promotion (Chen et al., 2014; Saleema, Sarkar, Paynter, Gallant, & Eskandarian, 2012). However, papers on the characterization of SAM properties are rarely seen. The most commonly used substrate for SAM is silicon and the method implemented is scanning probe microscopy (SPM) such as atomic force microscope (AFM) (Igor Luzinov, 2000; Moores, 2011; Zhang, 2003, 2005). Igor Luzinov (2000) analyzed the epoxysilane SAMs’ surface morphology and microstructure properties using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and ellipsometry on single-crystal silicon wafers. SAMs have been used to improve the adhesion bonding of aluminum or plastics but no characteristic data have been presented yet (Saleema et al., 2012; Telegdi, 2007; Wang, Xu, Luo, Wang, & Wang, 2009). Recently, Reis et al.(Reis et al., 2006) have studied SAM of alkane diphosphonate (Gardobond X4661) on Al 5052 alloy samples by EIS in a naturally aerated sodium sulfate solution."

Jan 1, 2016