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By E. J. Wasp, T. L. Thompson, T. C. Aude

The paper will deal with some of the more important technical aspects of slurry pipelines as they apply to the mineral field. In addition, the use of these technical concepts in arriving at realistic economic figures will be discussed.

Jan 1, 1970

By Augustus Locke

THE technical sessions at the Regional Meeting of the A.I.M.E. in San Francisco are to be de- voted LO changes, current or predictable, which may be expected to alter today's practices in mining and metallurgical engineering. Our present condition may be summarized as follows: Capacity to produce is excessive for domestic needs in molybdenum, copper, iron, and oil; sufficient in lead, zinc, and potash; deficient in aluminum, manganese, tungsten, chromium, and tin. Gold and silver are complicated by their use as money. Or, to look at it in another way, the "growth curles" of production, as C. K. Leith emphasizes, characteristically rise slowly at the beginning, show a second stage of rapid growth, and a third stage of leveling off. The third stage is already reached here in coal. copper, iron, lead, and zinc. But still in the second slage are oil, molybdenum, potash, and others.

Jan 1, 1939

By John M. Bolger, Keith E. McMaster

Excessive salt fines are undesirable in underground salt mining as they are considered a costly waste byproduct. This paper describes an extensive explosive application program conducted at The Canadian Salt Company Ltd, located in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada. The prime objective of the program was to reduce the quantity of fines generated from this company’s underground production blasts. The program was known as the “The Fines Reduction Program”.

Jan 1, 1996

By P. Favreau

"This paper describes the progress accomplished at the Noranda Technology Centre in the field of three-dimensional computer-aided underground blast design. Traditional methods of laying out underground blasts are reviewed, and the new computer-aided approach is described. Time savings achieved through the use of BLASTCAD can be advantageously used to better engineer blasts, using models and blast vibration analysis. Future work involving the attachment of blast models directly to the system is also addressed.IntroductionThe Noranda Technology Centre's (NTC) Environment and Mining Laboratory, in cooperation with the mining operations of the Noranda Group, is committed to the development and implementation of new technologies in the field of mineral extraction . Within the frame of its research program, the Blasting Technology Program is developing computer "" tools"" designed to assist the blasting engineer or technician. These computer "" tools"" are regrouped under a global software system called BLASTCAD.The BLASTCAD project started in 1990 at NTC. At that time computer programs designed to calculate and model various blasting parameters had been accumulated. These programs cam e from different sources and were mutually incompatible. Furthermore, they were developed as research programs with tittle effort spent on user interface. These programs are very useful, but are highly specialized, need large input files and can be quite tedious to use as ""standalone"" packages .Therefore, the situation being faced was one where all these programs were available at the Noranda Technology Centre, but not a t the operations. The two following options were then considered: 1. continue to run all the models and programs at the Noranda Technology Centre, and present results through reports to the mines, or2. regroup all the different programs under a single one that would make them share the same data base and be transported to the user. This second option is the one that was adopted; the result is BLASTCAD."

Jan 1, 1993

By G Brudek, P Elestedt

Schalker Eisenhütte und Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Nordic Minesteel Technologies and Bombardier Transportation have developed an evaluation tool that considers the main cost drivers of the rail, truck and conveyor haulage systems on the market today. In almost every circumstance, the advantages of a haulage solution are clear. A haulage system is outlined that is fully automated, including driverless operation, and that provides increased tonnage, safety and equipment life and reduced maintenance downtime. The haulage system has been implemented by a number of companies, including Codelco, LKAB and Freeport’s Grasberg mine. CITATION:Brudek, G, Elliott, R P and Elestedt, P, 2016. Moving mORE for less, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 535–542 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By Leena Korkiala-Tanttu, Ilkka Vähäaho, Juha Forsman, Paavo Lahdenperä, Kalle Rantala, Osmo Korhonen

"District of Arabianranta (Helsinki, Finland) has been founded on an old seabed, which was filled with miscellaneous soil materials. The subsoil consists of very low shear strength clays and organic clays (gyttjas). The soil was moving towards the sea at a rate of 1050 mm/year, because of filling on top of the soft subsoil. In the middle of 1990’s it was decided to build a residential area to Arabianranta, because it is located only 5 km away from the downtown. To inhibit the movement of soil, it was planned to build this 700 m long deep mixed column-wall barrier along the shore of Arabianranta in the years 1997–2005. A lot of instrumentation and inclinometers were analyzed and it was noticed that the column-wall remains at its place and the displacement rate inside the wall has been only 0.44.6 mm/year after construction works. Nevertheless, the displacement of soil at the landward side of the column-wall is still 1.25.1 mm/year. The soil at the seaside of the barrier is also moving towards the sea 12.922.2 mm/year. Another problem might be displacements of soil near the places where the column-wall ends (tails).1. INTRODUCTIONArabianranta district (Helsinki, Finland) has been an industrial, storage and wasteland area for a long time. Developing this area into a residential area was earlier considered too expensive, so it has been constructed during last decade. The organic clay layers (gyttjas), which have weak shear strength and high water content, were covered by various layers of fillings done in different phases. Because of the fillings, the area was not only consolidating, but also moving horizontally 1050 mm/year towards the sea due to the fact that the frictional soil under clay layers slopes towards the sea. A trial deep mixed structure was constructed in 1997 to inhibit the horizontal displacements of soil. The actual construction of the columnwall was completed in 2000-2005 with overlapping deep mixed cement columns on the seaward boundary. The barrier was built so that the horizontal movements would not risk the pile foundations at Arabianranta. The length of the barrier is about 680 m and width varies between 1220 m. There is a great amount of instrumentation near the barrier (inclinometer casings and other measuring devices). All this measuring information has been collected and analysed at 2014 to find out how this deep mixed column-wall has affected the horizontal displacements."

Jan 1, 2015

By G. P. Halliwell, C. R. Austin

The investigation described in this paper deals with the development of high-temperature alloys of the Konel series over a considerable period of time at t,he Research Laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. The word ''Konel" has been coined to designate a class of alloys which are essentially nickel-cobalt-iron with other elements added, usually in small quantities. Most of these alloys contain titanium, usually about 2.5 per cent. The main consideration related to strength at high temperatures but the thermionic characteristics of the alloys was also of considerable importance. It is, however, with the mechanical properties at elevated temperatures that we are herein concerned. Much attention has also been devoted to their age-hardening characteristics. There is little need to stress the utilitarian aspect of this subject, as it has been discussed frequently. Alloys exhibiting superior properties at normal or elevated temperatures rapidly find many suitable applications. There may be some question, however, as to what constitutes a "superior alloy," or an alloy that may have good service possibilities at high temperatures. The problem is complex and various means have been employed to predict the useful life that may be expected of a material. In recent years the "creep limitJ' has been used as the best means of evaluation. Such tests necessarily are prolonged and hence collection of data is very slow. In a general survey of many alloys therefore the creep test is not desirable and recourse must be had to much shorter time tests in order more rapidly to select alloys which appear to show promise. For this reason the present survey has been made using the high-temperature tensile test and a bend test developed by Howard Scott.' In the tensile test the conditions have been standardized for all tests, so that values obtained are at least comparable, one alloy with another, although the absolute values recorded merely indicate the mechanical properties at the given temperature under a definite rate of loading.

Jan 1, 1932

By Isabela Leao Amaral da Silva, Felipe Perisse Duarte Lopes, Alice Barreto Bevitori, Sergio Neves Monteiro

"Jute fibers have in the past decades being investigated as possible reinforcement of polymer composites. However, information is still needed on the fiber interaction with a polymeric matrix for a complete evaluation of the capacity of load transference inside the composite. The present work investigated the interaction of jute fibers with polyester matrix by means of the critical length assessment through pullout tests. Tensile tests of polyester sockets embedded with different fiber lengths allowed the critical length to be determined and then the interface shear stress to be calculated. A relatively low interfacial strength was found, which indicates a weak adhesion between the ramie fiber and the polyester matrix. The SEM analysis of pulled out fibers corroborates this result.Introduction Natural fiber, mainly those lignocellulosic extracted from plants, have, in the past few decades, attracted the attention not only of scientists but also of industrial technologists of our society interested in their engineering applications. As it is well known, uses of natural fiber in clothes carpets, baskets, ropes and low cost construction roofing has existed from the beginning of our civilization. Today environmental and energy saving issues are motivating research works on new uses of lignocellulosic fibers in polymer composites [1-6]. Moreover, industrial application of lignocellulosic fiber composites are already in technological sectors such the automobile industry, packing and civil construction [7-9].In addition to environmental, economical and social benefits, some lignocellulosic fibers present specific properties that are comparable to those of other synthetic fiber used for polymer composite reinforcement. For instance, the specific strength (GPa.cm3/g) of curaua (1.31), sisal (0.92) and ramie (0.93) fibers, from results obtained with very thin diameters [10] are relatively closer to that of glass fiber E (1.33). Therefore, in principle, it would be technically justified to replace glass fiber, which is more expensive, toxic and represents a problem to the environment [ll], by a strong lignocellulosic fiber. However, serious drawbacks such non-uniform dimensions and heterogeneous properties [6] as well as the tendency to form aggregates during processing and incompatibility with a hydrophobic polymer matrix, reduce the potential of lignocellulosic fiber to be used as composite reinforcement [1-6]. In particular, a low interfacial strength causes a weak adhesion between the hydrophilic fiber and the polymer matrix."

Jan 1, 2011

By Douglas R. Piteau

"Assessing the stability of a slope cut in rock is basically a problem of engineering geology - geology, because it involves a sound understanding of the important aspects of geology, such as geological structure, ground water, weathering and other natural phenomena, which all relate to or exist in a geological environment, and engineering, in that quantitative evaluations and calculations are necessary, these being based on mechanics and relating to the strength of the geological materials and the forces causing instability of the slopes. The engineering geologist must make every attempt to. provide, in a quantitative way, information on those geological factors which are necessary for making calculations of the probable stability of the slope. These include numerical assessments of quantities relating to the characteristics of structural discontinuities, rock types, topography, hydrogeology, tectonic history and other environmental factors. Based on the development and extension of these general principles, both preliminary and final slope stability studies of some open pits in South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia have been conducted. Some of the basic concepts and techniques developed to carry these studies out are described."

Jan 1, 1972

By I. Ruiz Bustinza, L. F. Verdeja, Daniel Sbarbaro, R. Parra, J. Mochón

The oxidation of sulfides is a complex process involving gaseous products and intermediate species given rise to emission and absorption spectra which carry out important information about the reaction process. This information could be used for on line monitoring of pyrometallurgical reactor if the appropriate sensors were available. We present in this paper an analysis of the concept that has been successfully applied in iron and steel making industry, as well on fuel combustion control, where the spectra measurement gives the possibility for online monitoring and automatic control of high temperature processes. This concept has not been widely applied in the nonferrous pyrometallurgical primary production. The design of new sensors is discussed from the analysis of spectra measurements during flash combustion of copper concentrates at laboratory scale.

Jan 1, 2015

By Z. Zhang, M. S. Gonzalez, M. de P. Bueno, P. Holopainen, S. Luukkanen

"Despite being a field of study that requires practical knowledge and experience, mining engineering education follows the same pattern in most mining universities around the world, consisting of theoretical courses and laboratory-based practical modules (Mischo, 2015). The possibility of having practical training in real mining conditions on actual mine sites or processing plants is limited, while the only contact that undergraduate students have with mining operations during their time of study is usually through shorttime internships or visits in the context of educational trips. Real integration between universities and the mining industry may be scarce, which does not help students to observe the actual processes and thus understand the whole picture of mining operations.Indirect practical training is now possible since that technology is shifting from mechanical to digital, and the use of virtual reality — in the context of Mining 4.0 — can provide additional experience to the learning process. However, virtual reality is limited to the visual impression and is also limited in actions (Binder et al., 2018). In any case, when there is not a proper pragmatic view of how the different disciplines link to each other, especially if there is a lack of communication, unfortunately the results could be seen at a later stage in the mines as a poor performance of professionals and workers.Another major challenge for educating specialists in the mining sector is that experimental mines suitable for practical education, where the skills and knowhow could be developed and/or enhanced, are rare worldwide. Such research and educational (R&E) facilities are practically former metal ore mines that have been transformed into experimental sites. Besides being limited in number, not all facilities of this kind serve both a research and educational purpose.An early example of asolely experimental mines is the Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Mine site operated by LKAB in Sweden, where systematic research on rock mechanics and mining engineering was successfully carried out in the 1980s. As a result, the developed underground mining technology was applied in LKAB’s mines at a later stage. There have also been research mines within collieries such as the former Lake Macquarie Mine at New South Wales in Australia and the Zeche Tremonia Mine in Germany), but these are no longer in operation (Mischo, 2015)."

Oct 1, 2019

By Walter B. M. Davidson

Phosphorus is one of the elements having the widest distribu tion, and phosphoric acid plays an important part in the composition of the crust of the earth. It is allied in various chemical combina- tions with many bases, of which lime, alumina and iron are the most common. It is difficult to state in what chemical combination phosphoric acid predominates in the crust of the earth, for while phosphate of lime, as the mineral which is sought for and found in deposits of economic value is the most familiar, it is probable that the phosphates of alumina and iron are the most usual forms in which phosphoric acid exists in all soils not essentially calcareous. It has been shown by thousands of analyses that all fertile soils contain from a trace to 0.5 per cent. of phosphoric acid. All limestones, dolomites and chalks contain it in proportions which, though usually small, are large enough to make careful analysis necessary in the selection of limestone as flux for iron-smelting. It is generally Trenton limestones that are found best for this purpose, the more recent strata being more phosphatic. In some places phosphoric acid replaces carbonic acid, and the limestone or chalk becomes phos phatic to a large degree, or sometimes pure phosphate of lime. The waters of the ocean, from very early periods, have contained phosphoric acid. Different analyses show varying contents; it is asserted that some portions of the Gulf Stream are more phos phatic than the surrounding waters of the Atlantic. Many springs, usually from limestone regions, contain soluble phosphates in vary ing quantities. I think it safe to assert that phosphorus is nearly the most widely and evenly distributed element on the surface of the earth, and probably the most subdivided. This can be readily understood when the important part which phosphoric acid plays and has played in the vital cosmos is taken into consideration. Phosphorus was on the earth in gaseous, liquid or solid form before the dawn of life, and since then all animal and vegetable creation have combined with the

Jan 1, 1893

By Roberto Folchi

This note deals about the controlled demolition work for the dismantling of an industrial structure in San Seplocro, Italy. The structure to be demolished, the FLOWERS SILOS, consisted in a multilevel reinforced concrete frame supporting r.c. silos and steel silos. This was standing near civil buildings and was adjoining a warehouse that had to be safeguarded for being renewed.

Jan 1, 1994

By B. N. Church, J. J. Barakso, A. F. Bowman

"An evaluation of mineralization in the Goosly- Owen Lake area of central British Columbia is the result of a comprehensive geochemical study of rock samples obtained from a regional geological survey. The dispersion of metals in country rocks about a line of Tertiary intrusions suggests that these igneous bodies may be genetically related to known sulphide replacements, disseminations and vein deposits. The geochemical investigation is based on the determination of 12 elements from samples gathered from more than 800 scattered field stations. To assist processing and interpretation, the data are subjected to a variety of statistical procedures, including correlation of the elements, factor analysis, clustm• analysis and computer contouring of the elements. Some practical applications of rock geochemistry in regional exploration are indicated."

Jan 1, 1976

By R. C. E. Bray, Peter Price

"The property of Pamour Porcupine Mines, Limited, is in the eastern Porcupine area, about 12 miles northeast of Timmins. It covers parts of lots 3-6 (inclusive), cons. 5 and 6, Whitney tp., Cochrane district, Ontario. It is an amalgamation of the old La Palme, Three Nations, and Porcupine Grande properties.The first discovery on the Pamour was made in 1911. During 1911 to 1914 a small shaft was sunk on the Three Nations vein to the 200-foot level and a 100-ton stamp mill was put in operation, but only a small production was achieved. The property remained idle from 1914 to 1923. In 1924 some diamond drilling was done along the Keewatin-Timiskaming contact with some encouraging results, but the gold mineralization encountered was too low in general at the price of gold then prevailing to warrant further · work. The increase in the price of gold revived interest in the area, and the above noted amalgamation was effected in 1934. Options were taken and successively dropped by two large mining companies. Following this, exploration both on the surface and underground was started by Quebec Gold Mining Corporation, Limited. Diamond drilling in the early part of 1933 showed considerable ore in conglomerate and greywacke to the east. In the middle of 1935 Noranda Mines, Limited, assumed control and management. A new shaft was sunk and the property was ·equipped with a mill having an initial capacity of750 tons a day. This was subsequently enlarged to 1,500 tons a day.From the commencement of milling (May 16, 1936) to the end of 1946, 5,025,545 tons of ore having an average grade of 0.1327 oz. a ton ($4.64 at $35 an oz.) have been mined and milled."

Jan 1, 1954

By M. J. Virnig, G. A. Kordosky

Throughout time, the mining industry has been very successful in meeting the world's requirements for metals and materials while meeting the challenges of decreasing ore grades and increased emphasis on protection of the environment. This success has been due to the development and implementation of new technologies. A clear example of such a development over the past 25 years is the increasing use of leaching/solvent extraction/electrowinning for the recovery of copper from oxide and sulfide ores. The key to the successful introduction of this technology was the discovery and development of the hydroxyoxime liquid ion exchange reagents by General Mills Chemicals (now Henkel Corporation). An important role was also played by the close working relationships between General Mills Chemicals and Ranchers Exploration which resulted in startup of the first plant in 1968 and between General Mills Chemicals and Bagdad Copper which resulted in the startup of the second copper SX-EW plant in August of 1970. Following on the heels of the hydroxyoxime development came the commercialization of other new chelating reagents based on different chemical functionalities, i.e., beta-diketones, alkylated 8- hydroxyquinolines and sulfonamidoquinolines. This initial spurt of activity was then followed by a slowing of development in terms of new reagent functionalities. Activity has continued in terms of further optimization/improvement of existing reagent functionalities but the commercialization of new reagent functionalities has slackened. This observation reflects the fact that the development of new reagent functionalities for metal recovery has become increasingly more expensive such that the right combination of price and sales volume must exist in order to justify the investment required to bring a new reagent to the market place. Given the dependence of the mining industry on innovation to meet the needs of the future, one can ask how these new developments, particularly in new reagents, will occur. To arrive at an estimate of the costs involved in commercializing a new metal extractant functionality, particularly a chelating type functionality, a case study of the development of LIX ®* 34

Jan 1, 1994

By P Holtham, K C. Runge, E Tabosa

Traditionally, comminution and flotation have been surveyed, analysed and optimised separately. This often results in less than optimal outcomes because of the complex interactions between the two processes. Flotation recovery is a strong function of the valuable mineral particle size distribution with lower recovery of ultra-fines due to poor flotation kinetics, optimum recovery for the intermediate sized particles and lower recovery for the coarser particles due to poorer liberation. Thus, to optimise flotation recovery and grade it is usually best to grind to a fine size. This requirement needs to be balanced by the cost of grinding finer and the revenue that results from an increase in grinding throughput, which often results in a coarsening of the flotation feed.This paper demonstrates a technique which can be used to predict the effect of a change in feed grind size on flotation performance. It can be used to determine the optimum grind size for a particular operation which optimises total circuit profitability. Analysis is relatively easy to perform, as a minimum, requiring only size by assay data of the feed and product streams of the process. Case studies will be presented that demonstrate the usefulness of this technique in feed grind applications. Potential use of the technique for regrind evaluation is discussed. The limitations associated with this technique in certain circuit scenarios will also be outlined.CITATION:Runge, K C, Tabosa, E and Holtham, P, 2014. Integrated optimisation of grinding and flotation circuits, in Proceedings 12th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2014 , pp 77–84 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 1, 2014

By K. C. Dean

During the investigation of the occurrence of manganese deposits in western United States, the Bureau of Mines collected 2-ton samples from three oxide manganese ores in the Columbia and Elberta Mining Districts, Tooelo and Juab Counties, Utah. To determine the amenability of these ores to standard ore-dressing methods: of concentration, extensive laboratory tests were made. The Wildcat property, one of those sampled, is 7 miles east of Fairfield, Tooele County, Utah. The ore is described as a replacement deposit and occurs along fracture and bedding planes of shale and limestone. Experimental work was done on a sample taken from a stockpile at the mouth of the shaft. The Wildcat manganese ore is intermediate in grade (25.7 percent manganese) and contains clay as the principal gangue constituent. A high-grade product was obtained with high recovery of Manganese by simple washing.

Jan 1, 1949

By Byron Bird

WHILE Mr. Fahrenwald has been working on the fundamentals of ore-dressing, in Idaho, the Northwest Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the University of Washington, has been studying the corresponding fundamentals for the closely-allied subject of coal-washing. In this work many of the principles outlined in Mr. Fahrenwald's paper have been touched on, one important exception being that phase of his studies where conditions were approximated between those existing on a table and those existing in a hindered-settling classifier. During the past three years this work has been given over almost exclusively to a study of coal-tabling to devise better methods of cleaning fine sizes of coal, particularly the coals of the Northwest, which are very difficult to wash. One important result of this study thus far has been the development of a satisfactory hindered-settling coal classifier, now in use in several commercial plants. Recently table stratifica-tion has been the subject for study. This latter phase of the work with coal,. as well as the earlier portion dealing with hindered-settling classification, has in a measure paralleled Mr. Fahrenwald's work with ore. Without going into details about the results of the coal experiments, I shall merely say that, from a quali-tative standpoint, they are, in general, concordant with Mr. Fahrenwald's, but that from a quantitative stand-point the results, particularly those with, table strati-fication, are somewhat different. These differences may disappear as the work progresses-Mr. Fahrenwald is further ahead with his experiments than we are at the Northwest Station-but if not, the disparity would not be surprising, and indeed would be what one might reasonably expect when investigators work on two very dissimilar materials and use different apparatus and methods of study. However, this- mention of our coal-washing experiments is made only in passing. A principle of general application that may be estab-lished from Mr. Fahrenwald's paper is that different types of stratification should be used in successive' gravity-concentration processes to. obtain best results.

Jan 3, 1927

By PAUL H. SHAEFF

THIS paper is presented with the idea of discussing only the basic open-hearth charge. The importance of the charging operation in producing steel is more clearly understood by dividing the principal components into four groups and discussing each separately, thereby becoming acquainted with what constitutes a charge. The significance of these components in the charge itself will then be taken up. Classification of the charge components is as follows: steel scrap; pig iron ; limestone ; refractories and coke. Steel Scarp The first component, steel scrap, according to size, analysis and cleanliness, may be classified as heavy, medium and light. Heavy melting scrap includes crop ends such as are produced in blooming ingots or the heavy crops from bar mills abovely in. in diameter; railroad scrap, which comprises rails, side-plates, car-frames, draw- bars, etc.; and such automobile forgings as axles, crank- shafts, gears, etc. This class of scrap should give a four-box charging-car (box dimension 24 by 18 by 72 in.) an average load of 10,000 to 20,000 lb.

Jan 1, 1926