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By G. J. Biefer

"Fatigue and corrosion fatigue measurements were carried out on five commercially available metals -four steels and an aluminum alloy -which are used as structural materials in mine shaft conveyances. In the corrosion fatigue measurements, drain waters collected in the shafts of three different Canadian mines were used as corrodents. The mine waters had been selected on the basis of their relatively large differences in acidity and/ or composition.It was found that the corrosion fatigue strengths of the four steels were similar, despite their differences in tensile properties, and that the type of water used in the tests had little effect on the results. Mild steel showed the highest and most consistent values of the damage ratio (ratio between the corrosion fatigue and the plain fatigue strengths at 107 cycles). The corrosion fatigue behaviour of the aluminum alloy (ASTM Type 6061-T6) was found to differ markedly in the three mine waters. A high damage ratio (i.e., superior performance) was shown in a mine water in which the corrosion attack was uniform; much lower damage ratios were shown in waters which produced localized corrosion attack. Corrosion rates were too low to be deter-mined conveniently by conventional weight-loss methods, but calculations from polarization curves provided a rapid demonstration that corrosion rates were distinctly lower in the mine water which produced high damage ratios."

Jan 1, 1967

By Carroll C. Bailey, William F. Boericke

Mine financing, or providing adequate capital for developing and bringing a mining property into production, is an essential requirement for a successful operation. Today it presents a different picture than even twenty-five years ago. The day appears to be gone when a mining property could pay its own way from grass roots to production. The country has been quite thoroughly combed for surface showings from which sufficient initial profit could be immediately garnered to pay for further development and production facilities. The four M's for success in mining-mineral, market, management, and money-are still essential; but doubled or tripled wage costs and steep advances in cost of equipment and supplies throw increased emphasis on adequate capital funds for bringing in a prospect and making it a producer. Consequently, the old picturesque, although seldom rewarding, grub- staking procedure where a single venturesome citizen might advance funds to a prospector on a fifty-fifty basis for whatever discovery he might find, has largely disappeared. Its place, to some degree, has been taken by the small syndicate of venturesome members who band together for furnishing funds to a group of prospectors for the same general purposes. Such a syndicate has a definite organization and is usually assured of sufficient initial funds, or flow of funds, to carry on work for several years. It is headed by an engineer-promoter who has had considerable field experience as well as personal knowledge of his prospecting crews. For the owner of a potential mining property who has ample capital, the problem is to determine (1) justification for the necessary investment in exploration and development, and (2) the economics of the enterprise as to size and degree of integration of the final operating entity. If the owner of such a property has little or no capital, he also faces these same basic problems but, in addition, must be able to present the findings of fact and persuade the prospective investor that the enterprise will produce

Jan 1, 1959

By Sam H. Patterson

This paper is concerned primarily with the kaolin deposits extending northwestward from Macon, Ga., which is in the western part of the Irwinton district (fig. 1). These deposits are in a belt of kaolin districts extending along the inner edge of the Coastal Plain from the Aiken district, S. C., southwestward to the vicinity of Macon, a distance of 150 miles (250 km). Large kaolin deposits associated with bauxite also occur in an extension of this belt southwestward from Macon as far as the Eufaula district, Ala., a distance of about 130 miles (208 km). The belt splits away from the inner edge of the Coastal Plain in a southwesterly direction from Macon; the Eufaula district is approximately 50 miles (80 km) south of the contact of Coastal Plain sedimentary rocks with much older crystalline rocks. Structure The strata of Cretaceous and Tertiary age containing the kaolin deposits all dip gently seaward irom the landward edge of the sedimentary rocks. The dip of the Cretaceous strata is about 25 feet per mile (4.9 m per km). The dip of Tertiary strata is about 15 feet per mile (2.1 m per km). In places, the Tertiary strata overlap the older sedimentary beds and rest directly on the crystalline rocks. Faults having a few feet of displacement have been observed in several mines, but no major faulting is known in the area.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. C. Ross

"The paper will deal with non-destructive testing in general, and its advantages to those responsible for the maintenance of wire rope. An outline of the main features of the M.D. 6 Defectograph will be given, and the method of operation and results obtained will be described.The instrument will accommodate ropes at 7 /16-to 2 %-inch diameter at reasonable speeds, and is capable of detecting the most minute defects in even the largest-diameter wire ropes."

Jan 1, 1969

The U.S. economy and, consequently, the demand for minerals grew at more moderate rates in 1995 compared with stronger performances the previous year. Demand for metals such as steel and copper was relatively stable. For example, the decline in steel consumed in motor vehicle manufacturing (reflecting lower vehicle sales) for the first half of 1995 was offset by an increase in steel consumed in construction during the same period. More detailed information on events, trends, and issues in the mineral and material sector Is presented below and in the commodity sections that follow. Overall Performance The value of processed materials of mineral origin produced in the United States during 1995 was estimated to be $395 billion, an increase of almost 10% compared with 1994. The estimated value of U.S. raw nonfuel minerals production in 1995 was $38 billion, about 7% more than in 1994. The value of U.S. minerals production has increased in 30 of the last 35 years.

Jan 1, 1996

By T. Orser

In 2010 Newmont made the decision to purchase a 42 foot (ft) Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill from Metso and a 28 Mega-Watt (MW) Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) from ABB for the Conga Project in Peru. The test and study work showed that a single line 42 ft SAG mill circuit gave the most favorable project economics in comparison to an equivalently powered single line 40 ft SAG mill circuit. This paper does not address the process design or the project economics, but instead focuses on the key aspects of the SAG mill design, GMD design and the associated component manufacturing. This paper also addresses, where applicable, the potential reliability differences between the initially proposed 40 ft SAG mill and the finally accepted 42 ft SAG mill.

Jan 1, 2012

By E. J. Gleim

Contact with trolley wire in the mines of the United States has taken a considerable toll of life throughout the years that trolley locomotives have been employed as a means of' transportation. A study3/ of the records over a 15-year period for one State alone showed that, of 98 fatalities resulting from contacts with electrical circuits and equipment, 75 were caused by direct or indirect contact with unguarded trolley wire in coal mines. The law relating to guarding trolley wires in the mines of this particular State, as amended in 1935, reads in part as follows: "All trolley wires carrying 220 volts or more, and less than six feet six inches above top of rail, must be guarded at all points under which men and animals are required to pass***,'" The natural conclusion to be drawn from such records is that lack' of guards or shields must be held responsible for these fatalities. As a preventive measure, it has been advocated that every foot of trolley wire in mines should be guarded. Although some such drastic steps may appear to be amply justified, closer examination of the records nor this and other coal-mining States shows that absence of guards is not entirely responsible; but rather that other factors, such as carelessness and neglect it the observance of certain well-established simple rules concerning installation and location of trolley wires, also are responsible. In other words, if trolley wire is installed carelessly and its maintenance is neglected, it should not be expected that the mere installation of guards will overcome such carelessness and neglect. This publication discusses Various types of guards that have been used in Coal and metal mines of this country, together with related steps bearing upon the problem of 'preventing shock and fatalities from contacts with trolley wire. The material herein contained is taken largely from Information Circular 6577,4/ now out of print, and has been revised to include some types of guards that have been used in metal mines, together with a discussion of guard materials not covered in that publication.

Jan 1, 1945

By F. F. Aplan

Mineral processing engineers have recorded an- other year of active research and development work. Most gratifying was the broadly based attendance at the Mineral Processing Fundamental (formerly Basic Science) Committee sessions at the 1968 Annual Meeting of the AIME. Because of the availability of good papers, the active discussion and the growing attendance, sessions have grown from one to three at the annual meeting. Prof. M. C. Fuerstenau of the University of Utah will chair the Mineral Processing Fundamentals Committee for the next two years and we may thus be assured of continued active leadership. The name change from "Basic Science Committee" to the more descriptive "Mineral Processing Fundamentals Committee" approved by the MBD executive council is a welcome improvement. Our profession continues to attract the interest and cooperation of those in other professional groups. The 1968 Engineering Foundation Particulate Matter Conference, under the chairmanship of John Karpinski of Bethlehem Steel, was devoted exclusively to comminution this year. It attracted conferees from five continents and served as a particularly stimulating source of interchange of knowledge from many technical fields. Next year's conference will be under the chairmanship of Professor L,. G. Austin of The Pennsylvania State University. This conference plus the Symposium on Wettability and Flotation to be held at the annual American Chemical Society meeting in Minneapolis in April indicates the success achieved in the inter-disciplinary approach to problems. Other evidence of this spirit of professional cooperation is the forth- coming book on Size Reduction edited by D. W. Fuerstenau. This is the outgrowth of an AIChE symposium on size reduction held in 1965.

Jan 2, 1969

By M. Vallée

Several reviews of mineral project performance in the past 35 years indicate a pattern of occasional, but recurrent, mining project failures due to shortcomings in geological information and estimation, mineral processing and metallurgical testing, feasibility study objectives and requirements, and project start-up methods. A commitment to quality assurance and continuous improvement methods and to obtaining “ENOUGH DATA, OF APPROPRIATE QUALITY” is essential. Recent international and Canadian proposals for mineral resource and ore reserve definitions have taken a nonprescriptive stance that will undermine the formulation of requirements, guidelines and industry standards for efficient deposit delineation and estimation, and for the determination of project feasibility. To help reduce problems, every feasibility study supporting a mine development and production decision should be based on objectives and methods adequate to reach completion targets similar to the bankers’, as a good business target for a profitable project. In a resource/reserve system, the use of reserve should be restricted to a project that meets required technical, economic and legal feasibility requirements for successful project implementation, and the definitions of these categories should provide explicit limits. Current shortcomings will limit the ability of the Qualified Person to provide “adequate professional practice,” fulfill his/her professional responsibilities to his employer or client and provide adequate information to the investing public. We must take advantage of present opportunities for Setting New Standards for the new Millennium.

Jan 1, 2000

By W. John Rankin

The finite and non-renewable nature of mineral resources poses unique challenges for sustainability: How can mineral and material needs of society be satisfied indefinitely? How can the benefits of exploitation of minerals best be captured for present and future generations? How can the environmental problems caused by large scale mining and processing best be ameliorated? These issues are rarely addressed, or if so only incidentally, in traditional courses in geology, mining, metallurgy and materials yet addressing them will increasingly be a major role for professionals in the minerals and materials industry and related sectors and agencies. This paper describes a framework for examining these and other sustainability issues related to meeting future material needs from non-renewable resources. The framework may be useful for educational purposes, either as the basis of a dedicated subject or by including the elements of it throughout a traditional course in relevant subjects.

Jan 1, 2014

By J Hartog, V Beehan, D Beeson

Treating an ore blend from five different deposits at Newgold’s Peak Gold Mine (PGM) has always been a challenge due to the inherent variability between each of the orebodies.Operating the processing plant at PGM with a ‘normal’ level of process control and a good operations and metallurgical team has allowed the processing plant to achieve above the name plate design at 102 t/h and recoveries in the order of 92.8 per cent for gold and 88.4 per cent for copper.With a company value and culture of striving for continuous improvement, PGM implemented the Manta Cube® system, an advanced process control system, for the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, gold leach circuit and tailings thickener over a 12-month period throughout 2012 and 2013.The overall benefits of implementing the Manta Cube® system has led to an increase in mill throughput of at least two per cent, improved SAG mill liner life, a ten per cent decrease in cyanide consumption and a reduction in flocculant of at least 30 per cent with no detriment to the gold and copper recoveries.The entire project had a payback period of less than two months, and the combined benefits resulted in an overall increase in revenue of at least $5 million per annum. This is quite significant for a processing plant the size of PGM.This paper describes the methodology, overall results and economic benefit of applying the Manta Cube® system on-site at Newgold’s PGM.CITATION:Hartog, J, Beehan, V, Karageorgos, J and Beeson, D, 2014. Optimisation of the Peak Gold Mine’s processing plant through advanced process control, in Proceedings 12th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2014 , pp 335–344 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 1, 2014

By Paul M. Tyler

Graphite is an essential war mineral and for that reason has received much attention from the standpoint of national defense. During the World War the situation with respect to graphite supplies, though it never became acute, caused considerable concern. Even in peace time, however, graphite has aroused more interest than the actual size of the industry seems to warrant. Despite this wide interest the facts of the industry do not seem to be generally known. Often there has been an almost total disregard of the essential' economic and technical problems involved. Long ago Bastin3 made the following statement; in a Government' report: "To-day there are more abandoned mines and mills in the United States than the number in operation * * *. In the number of times' some of these properties have changed hands in the course of a few years, there is a record of misrepresentation and disappointment that can hardly be equaled in any other branch of mining; and many properties have been notoriously associated with stock manipulation of doubtful character." According to one authority fully 600 graphite mines have failed in the United States, and the record shows that of all these properties scarcely a score have ever succeeded in operating for as much as a year or two. More than 40 mines have been worked at various times in the State of New York alone and at least that many in Alabama. Throughout the country, in fact, there are scarcely a dozen States in which efforts have not been made at some time to exploit graphite deposits. At the present time the list of mines that can be classed as at all active is reduced to less than ten. Failures inevitably occur in all lands of mining, but the disheartening feature of the record of graphite mining in this country is that so few ventures have even paid back the money put into them and. that none has been a conspicuous success.

Jan 1, 1929

By Lisa A. Banick, Robert A. Rubin

The lawyer's role in underground construction, certainly for the past 20 years, has been principally that of the advocate in disputes resolution. Disputes in underground construction have been steadily increasing, making the lawyer a more prominent participant in the underground construction process. It is widely believed, however, that this is not a salutory state of affairs. It is our thesis that lawyers ought not be eliminated from the process, but rather that their role should be changed. They should function as prophylactics rather than as swords, i.e., they should be used to prevent or reduce disputes rather than, after the fact, to champion their clients' causes. a. Mr. Rubin is a partner in the New York law firm of Postner & Rubin. He has litigated and arbitrated numerous complex construction disputes. He has also participated in efforts to improve contracting practices on committees of ASCE and the National Academy of Engineering. b. Ms. Banick holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia and is a law student at New York Law School. She is a law clerk at Postner & Rubin.

Jan 1, 1983

By S. S. Klima, H. Jiang, T. W. Beck, Y. Zheng

Researchers at NIOSH’s Pittsburgh Mining Research Division (PMRD) performed comparative testing of six different water sprays at pressures ranging from 689 kPa (100 psi) to 6,895 kPa (1,000 psi) in a 14.5-m3 (512-ft3) confined dust chamber. Testing was conducted to determine the effect of various pressures on each spray’s respirable coal dust knockdown ability. It is known that higher water pressures are typically preferred for lowering airborne dust concentrations, but it was important to determine at what pressure range the dust knockdown ability of each spray plateaus or reaches its minimum dust concentration. Results from this testing showed that several sprays saw up to 100% decrease in dust concentrations during the five-minute water spray testing period, with some occurring well below the maximum 6,895 kPa (1,000 psi) spray pressure.

Feb 1, 2023

By Forrest T. Moyer

The safety record of the coal-mining industry, both anthracite and bituminous, in 1966 was improved over that of 1965 in all general measures of injury experience. The improvement was more pronounced in the anthracite industry. The total of 10,679 disabling work injuries comprised 233 fatal and 10,466 nonfatal injuries, 26 and 692 fewer, respectively, than in 1965. The number of fatalities in 1966 was the lowest annual total since complete records were started in 1910. Similarly, the number of nonfatal injuries in 1966 was lower than in any year since 1930 when such data were first collected.

Jan 1, 1969

By D. H. Steve Zou, Cui Lin

"This paper first discusses the basic attributes of sustainable mining and the responsibilities of various steak holders including mining companies, governments, and engineers. It is followed by a brief overview of the current practice on regulations, inspections, waste management and mine closure planning in Canadian mining industry. A case study is then presented as an example of sustainable mining where mine planning, mineral recovery, environment protection, reclamation and community development were integral parts of the overall strategy. A comparison of the mine site before and after mining is made to demonstrate the ""best practice"" in modern mining.Sustainability in Mineral Resource Development Extraction of mineral resources and other natural resources on the Earth has been and will continue to be an essential activity necessary to support human’s life. We live on the planet and depend on the available resources to survive. The extracted materials form the base to support modern life. However, we must be aware of the fact that mineral resources are limited on the Earth and may not last forever. Every time we extract one ton of materials, there is one ton less. They are not able to regenerate or regrow. One can ask a simple question: How long will they last? Or, is there anything left for our great grandchildren and many generations to come? The answer is not simple. Some minerals have become scarce or about to deplete. Some minerals may last longer. The reserve of a type of minerals depends on what we have discovered and the minable amount depends on accessibility and technology we have. Even if there are minerals in the deep ground, we may be limited by our technological capability. At the same time, we also need to understand the action of mineral extraction from the ground and the consequences of that action. Mineral extraction is a very hard work. We must break the ground to extract the ore, either through surface mining or underground mining. This action means disturbance of the land where we live. The disturbance is much more visible in surface mining than underground mining. The disturbed land, if not properly reclaimed after mining, is not going to be reusable. The very purpose of extracting minerals from the ground is to support our life but the action has a negative impact on our life. How can we reduce and limit disturbance of land from the action of minerals extraction? How can we make the disturbed land reusable? These issues must be properly addressed and a balance achieved."

Jan 1, 2017

By Patricia Curtis Petty

Thirty years ago, the appearance of a female mining engineer, geologist or miner in a company, union or mine environment would have been unthought of, unwelcomed and violently opposed. Twenty years ago, the intellectual perception of the news that women were interested in becoming mining engineers, geologists and miners had been accepted by the industry-but no one wanted to be the first to hire one of these exotic creatures. Ten years ago, those who had been most vehemently opposed to the philosophical idea of women working in these areas were faced with competent, productive engineers, geologists and miners-who only incidentally happened to be women-and began hiring them. Historically, of course, one can always find the isolated individual who worked in these areas-the first female graduate of the Colorado School of Mines with a mining engineering degree graduated in 1903-but the concept of woman as professional engineer was very slow in arriving in the United States. The few who worked as miners generally worked in small family enterprises, such as some of the coal mines in both Eastern and Western United States. Others accompanied husbands or sons into wilderness areas searching for gold and other precious metals.

Jan 1, 1984

By Cloyd M. Smith

A FEW years ago, the Ventilation Committee established the practice of presenting one topic each year for discussion at the annual meeting. The practice has met good response on the part of committee members and I suggest that it be continued. The topic chosen for this year, "Underground Anemometry," is a topic which has bothered me for more than 20 years. It seems to me that the coal industry is content to rely on slipshod methods for measuring the rate of flow of air underground, so I prefaced my discussional charge to committee members with the statement that I regard air measurements made in the usual way, with hand held anemometer, as no good. Agreements and disagreements came in from more than a dozen engineers, some of whom are with operating companies, coal and metal; some with manufacturers; others with government agencies.

Jan 1, 1949

By E. M. Cameron

Reconnaissance radiometric and geochemical data have been obtained for an area on the western shore of Wollaston Lake that includes the Rabbit Lake uranium deposit. The study area is extensively drift cover ed. The geochemical data were obtained by analysis of center-lake sediments and surface waters for a variety of elements and other constituents. The airborne radiometric data comprise measurements of eU, eTh and K obtained with a .50,000-cc NaI (Tl) detector at a mean terrain clearance of 120 m and 5-km flight-line spacing. Uranium in lake sediments and uranium in waters are the most effective geochemical indicators of uranium mineralization; the other elements measured are not notably anomalous. A sample site density of one per 1 8 km 2 is more than adequate for identification of the mineralized area. Because many water samples contain close to or below the current analytical detection limit of 0.05 ppb U, the use of sediments is generally favoured. for broad-scale reconnaissance in the region. Uranium in these lake sediments appears to be little influenced by variations in the organic or iron and manganese content. The most effective radiometric indicator of the mineralization is the eU/eTh ratio. This parameter is less influenced by environmental variation on the ground beneath the flight line than eU alone . The eTh/K ratio is anomalous under the Athabasca Formation unconformity where, in places, the uranium mineralization is localized.

Jan 1, 1977

By Rohan Fernando, David P. Snyder, John F. Burr, Susan M. Moore

"The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act Public Law 109-236) was passed by Congress in response to three major underground coal mine accidents in the United States that claimed the lives of 19 miners. The Act resulted in substantial changes in the underground coal industry relative to the use of technology for mine escape, rescue, disaster response and other areas where the lack of these technologies contributed to the fatalities caused by these tragedies. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the MINER Act, which makes it an opportune time to reflect on the events that led to its passage, the changes that have been made since then, and the work that remains to be done.As discussed below, the last decade has demonstrated tremendous cooperative efforts among mining operators, technology innovators, labor, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and state regulators, resulting in substantial improvement of the technologies used for escape and rescue and noteworthy progress toward meeting many of the goals of the MINER Act. While the MINER Act and this article pertain primarily to coal mining, many of the technologies are equally applicable to any underground mining and have already found some acceptance outside of coal.Technology gaps targeted by the MINER ActThe MINER Act addressed several technology challenges:• Problems with donning and switching between self-contained, self-rescuers (SCSRs).• Poor visibility in smoke.• No wayfinding assistance for escape from the mine.• Limited breathable air supply.• Inability to locate trapped miners.• Inability to communicate with trapped miners.• Failure of mine seals."

Dec 1, 2016