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By I. Stapf

Systematic investigations on silver-rare earth metal systems have been extended on the Ag-Ce system in order to clarify the discrepancies reported in literature. The phase diagram has been reinvestigated on the base of thermal analyses and of microstructure examination on cast and annealed specimen. All intermetallic phases Ag4Ce, Ag3Ce, Ag2Ce and AgCe show no extended range of homogeneity, they melt congruently fm), or decompose peritectically (d) at 815 °C (d), 1030 °C (m), 855 °C (d) and 855 °C (m), respectively. The system shows eutectics at 793 °C/10 at.%, 780 °C/42 at.%, and about 505 °C/81 at.% Ce. d-Ce dissolves up to 2 at .% Ag and decomposes metatectically at 710 °C. Furthermore, the phase transformation of the intermetallics would be clarified. The phases Ag5Ce and Ag51Ce14 reported in literature could not be verified.

Jan 1, 1984

By Roberts T, Firth B. A

A series of flotation experiments was carried out to study the interaction between the parameters of pulp density (mass per cent of solids in feed slurry) and frother addition (on the basis of solid mass feed rate). It was found that certain combinations of pulp density and frother additions caused large losses in yield. The interactive effect of these parameters can be primarily attributed to the total amount of frother added per unit of water. Consequently it is suggested that frother additions be made on the basis of water flow rate. As frother addition increased, in terms of the amount of frother per unit of water, yield increased rapidly but above an addition rate of about 10 g/tone it reached a plateau. Such results correlated well with qualitative visual observations of changes in bubble size and dispersion, with increasing levels of frother addition.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. G. Sandberg

Many gold-bearing ores throughout the Western United States contain small quantities of mercury. The presence of mercury not only decreases the gold-loading capacity of the activated carbon, but complicates the fire refining of cathodes and creates a potential health hazard. The Bureau of Mines investigated methods to limit mercury extraction during gold ore leaching and to remove mercury from cyanide leach solu-tions. Mercury dissolution was reduced from 40 to 10 pct by decreasing NaCN concentration from 20 lb to 0.34 lb per ton of solution at a pH of <11. When 0.1 lb CaS per ton of ore was added to a leach slurry, mer-cury extraction was reduced from 27 to 0.4 pct. Less than 0.5 pct of the mercury was solubilized when <0.1 lb CaS per ton of are, along with lime and NaCN, was added to a simulated grinding circuit.

Jan 1, 1984

By David E. Van Dillen

INTRODUCTION Current design practices for deep tunnels make extensive use of plasticity solutions by Newmark (1970) and Hendron and Aiyer (1971). These solutions are applicable to a circular tunnel subjected to a hydrostatic stress state in a Mohr-Coulomb plastic medium. The role of rockbolts is introduced into these solutions as a uniform internal pressure equivalent to the yield stress of the rockbolt pattern. The application of these solutions is hampered by their inability to consider the biaxial nature of the in-situ stress field or any surcharged stress, such as due to blast loading. As a means of considering the biaxial stress field, designers have turned to relatively costly alternatives, such as the finite element method. The recent work of Detournay (1983) simultaneously provided two generalizations to the state of the art of the analysis of circular tunnels. Whereas the solution of Newmark applies to nondilatant Mohr-Coulomb materials, and that of Hendron and Aiyer applies to materials having associated flow rules, the solution of Detournay covers materials of arbitrary dilatancy. Secondly, Detournay&apos;s solution is valid for biaxial stress states, as long as the problem remains statically determinate (St. John, Detournay, and Fairhurst, 1984). The topic of this paper is an investigation of various alternatives for introducing the effects of rockbolts into simple tunnel design charts developed using Detournay&apos;s solution. The study was conducted using the BMINES finite element code, into which rockbolt elements have been added (St. John and Van Dillen, 1983). These rockbolt elements allow for plastic deformation of the bolt, bolt

Jan 1, 1984

By C. R. Edwards

"Equity Silver Mines Limited owns and operates an open pit silver 111ine located 37 km southeast of Houston in the Omineca District of British Columbia, Figure l. The property is approximately 300 km west of Prince George and 417 km east of the Port of Prince Rupert. This is the largest silver mine in Canada and one of the five largest silver producers in the western world.Equity is a subsidiary of Placer Development Limited, which owns 70 of Equity's issued and outstanding Common Shares. Placer was responsible for financing and developing the property and now provides general management and administrative services.All mining is by open pit methods, using three 1600 P&H shovels, eight 45 t Caterpillar and three 77 t Wabco trucks, three 40R rotary drills, two D8 dozers, one 9888 front-end loader and other ancillary equipment. We are now phasing out the Southern Tail pit and bringing the Main Zone into productior; see Figure 2.Comminution in the concentrator is achieved via primary, secondary, and tertiary crushers followed by rod and ball mills. The flotation circuit, with Southern Tail ore, produces a concentrate containing between 3 000 and 6 500 g of silver per tonne, 201 copper, and 25 g of gold per tonne. Running Main Zone ore, concentrate grades will decrease to about 4 500 g of silver per tonne, 17% copper, and 18 g of gold per tonne. Design milling capacity is 5 300 tpd, which is often exceeded.The flotation concentrate contains relatively high levels of antimony and arsenic. Because of these impurities Equity was unable to obtain economically acceptable long-term sales contracts for flotation concentrate. For this reason a leaching process was developed, and a plant designed, built and placed in operation. Due to the complex and unique technology involved, many start-up problems were encountered but by March 1983 the leach plant was considered ""fully operational."" This paper describes some of our progress and problems in bringing the Equity leach plant through its start-up period."

Jan 1, 1984

By D. R. Tesarik

To ensure the stability ofa tailings pond embankment, the height of the phreatic surface must be kept at or below a safe level. In this investigation, the Bureau of Mines analyzed various horizontal drain designs for tailings embankments to determine their effects on location of the phreatic surface. This report describes the investigation, and it includes 21 dimensionless graphs that can be used to estimate the drain spacing and length dimensions necessary to ensure the stability of embankments of various configurations. Analyses were based on the use of two computer codes, a three-dimensional finite-element code and a two-dimensional finite-difference code. The computer-generated results were compared with results obtained from a laboratory embankment model, other laboratory test results, and piezomet-ric data from two actual tailings embankments. Nearly the same phreatic surface locations were predicted using either of the computer codes. For one of the actual embankments studied, the predicted phreatic surface location was slightly higher than the measured location; for the other, the predicted location closely followed the actual surface trend. Phreatic surfaces of the laboratory model were slightly higher than the code-gener-ated locations, and the differences grew larger as drain length increased or drain spacing decreased.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. G. Robins

The processing of gold bearing sulphide minerals which contain arsenopyrite and various complex arsenic sulphides results in arsenic containing emissions and effluents which are suspect in relation to clean air and clean water standards. Removal of arsenic from gaseous emissions is briefly reviewed. The use of lime to stabilise aqueous residues as either calcium arsenate or calcium arsenite is shown to be inadequate for long term disposal since both compounds are converted into calcium carbonate due to the influence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mixed calcium arsenate-phosphate residues are similarly unstable, but present better stability than the straight calcium compounds. Alternative disposal methods are reviewed whereby the arsenic is converted to more stable compounds, such as barium arsenate, titanium (IV) arsenate, and arsenic sulphide.

Jan 1, 1984

By C. J. Newman, D. J. Kemp, R. M. Sweetin

"The smelter is described by area; feed preparation, continuous furnace line, gas handling and auxiliary systems, blister refining, Hazelett casting of thin anodes, and scrap remelting. Early smelter campaign data is presented and compared to design. Some modifications to the basic design of the furnaces and gas trains are indicated, with their respective impacts on improving smelter performance.Plant compactness, the use of jumbo tanks, and a highly automated electrode handling system are featured in the refinery description, with brief coverage of the liberator and slimes leaching sections. Early experience in refining thin regular Hazelett anodes, and submersible pump recovery of raw slimes are relayed, together with automatic stripping from titanium blanks.Refinery tonnages and operating parameters are given showing the relatively trouble-free attainment of refinery design performance.IntroductionPrevious papers and articles ( 1), (2) ,(3 ) have described the metallurgical facilities serving the copper-zinc-silver Kidd Creek orebody located near Timmins, Ontario. For convenience a brief review of their mid-1983 operating status is presented.The concentrator, originally designed for 9,000 short tons, was commissioned in late 1966. It can now comfortably process over 13,000 metric tonnes per day largely as a result of the addition of a fourth circuit in 1978."

Jan 1, 1984

By J. V. Scalera

Because of U.S. dependency on imported critical metals, the Bureau of Mines has conducted research to evaluate the possible substitution of nitrided low-alloy steels for higher chromium-containing alloys. The corrosion data for nitrided steels are limited primarily to the Soviet literature. The objective of this study was to determine the corrosion properties of six commercially nitrided low-alloy steels in a 5-wt % NaCl solution at pH 4. Weight-loss tests indicated that, in deaerated test solutions, most of the nitrided steels were less corrosion resist-ant than nontreated steels. However, electrochemical tests indicated that under more oxidizing conditions, nitrided materials are converted to a passive state with a significantly reduced corrosion rate. Elec-trochemical tests performed in an aerated environment confirmed the passivity of the samples in an oxidizing environment.

Jan 1, 1984

By Alfredo O. Del Campo

Copper concentrate smelting has been the subject of significant improvements during the last three decades. Several new processes are being successfully applied at industrial scale, and probably no new copper smelter will be built with the old-fashioned reverberatory furnace. However, because of financial reasons, the existing reverberatory furnaces, which smelt a significant part of the copper produced worldwide, are likely to last at least another decade. Some improvements have been introduced in reverberatory smelting practice, the best known being the use of oxyfuel burners. However, efforts to optimize the reverberatory furnace operation through automatic control have not been reported. The complex and semi-continuous nature of the process makes it dificult to find a suitable strategy for its automatic control. Many factors, like fuel economy, productivity, boiler capacity, refractory wear, converter slag return, copper losses in discard slag, etc. are interconnected. The chosen control strategy should take into account all these factors to achieve good economic results. A detailed discussion of these problems is presented.

Jan 1, 1984

THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 101 MINERAL SCIENCES BUILDING UNIVERSITY PARK. PENNSYLVANIA 16803 To the Editor: With respect to the Fenvessy and Schwab article, I offer the following: As thorough as the study may be, it still has a glaring weakness. The presumption of constant supply in face of falling demand - their "low growth" case - is just wrong. It does not allow for the rapid migration, by transfer and change of major, from former high-demand programs, such as mining, to programs that have more recently obtained the cachet of job security. The figures that are shown for rapid growth in mining engineering enrollments in the period 1970-1981 are, no doubt, correct and reflect a rapid inmigration of students into mining. A similar out-migration, which began in 1982, from mining to other engineering and science disciplines is not factored into their study. Given 1983-84 enrollments, which can already be documented, it is clear that the low-growth case will, by 1985, be 50% or less of 1981. I wish students would pick their majors on the basis of their own individual abilities and interests rather than rushing lemming-like to programs that are reputed to have jobs. In the end, students will have better jobs and careers if their college majors match their talents and we, in the academic side of things, will have a livelier and more dedicated student. Lee W. Saperstein Professor and Chairman of Mining Engineering UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ROLLA To the Editor: I write concerning the recent article on future demand for graduates in the mining industry. The article is, unfortunately, inaccurate because of the erroneous assumptions it makes in its basic premises. To cite but two of these, class sizes will not continue at their current level, but will, in fact, alter dramatically as a function of the perceived immediate job market rather than the future trend, so that enrollments are already below those predicted. Secondly, it is patently wrong to assume that everyone who gets a degree in the mining field will continue until retirement to work in that field. People who do not have a job in the industry will get work elsewhere and often do not come back. Others will later move to different areas. My major argument, however, deals with the underlying assumptions and methodology of the survey itself, with the concomitant challenge to the subsequent conclusions. It is no great secret that the technological world is undergoing a dramatic revolution. Computer use is rapidly spreading to the point where the microcomputer will be an integral part of every mine engineer&apos;s desk. Such a tool, which for optimal benefit must be operated by knowledgeable mining engineers, will make mining much more of a science than the current level. To remain competitive, mines will increasingly rely on higher level deci-

Jan 1, 1984

By T. N. Singh

Board and pillar system of mining has beer, practised in India in view of abundant availability of cheap labour force, low investment and quick return. Subsequently, selective mining from thick seems and partial mining under surface features boosted the trend. As s result over 2000 million tonnes of coal is locked up in form of developed pillars inclusive of about 1000 million tonnes of high grade coking coal in Jharia field alone. The trend of pillar formation is still uninterrupted as the estimated pillar reserve in this field in 1974 was only 700 million tonnes which increased to 961 million tonnes in 1983. The trend is not much different in other coalfields end as a rough estimate 100 million tonnes of virgin coal reserve is being transferred to pillar every year. The method of board and pillar mining is likely to remain moat preferred technology for decade9 to come in view of several inherent advantage in Indian mining conditions.

Jan 1, 1984

By Alan D. Smith

Mine roof fall characteristics of 250 falls in 5 different room-and-pillar coal mines, located in Pike, Martin, and Floyd counties, were investigated to determine the relationship of selected parameters associated with roof failure and the assumed condition of the mine roof before failure. The selected parameters used in the study included: presence of cracks and water before the occurrence of fall, sloughing of coal ribs, floor heave condition, type of roof support (resin or mechanical anchor bolts), distance to coal face, and time of occurrence of fall after initial coal extraction. In addition, research hypotheses, utilizing multiple linear regression techniques, were generated to test the relationship among the selected parameters and mine roof condition. The results indicated that the vast majority of falls portrayed some presence of water before the actual fall, occurred in less than 30 weeks after initial coal excavation, located usually greater than 30 meters from nearest coal face, gave evidence of cracks in mine roof before occurrence of fall, generally portrayed a good roof condition before the fall, showed presence of sloughing of coal ribs, and gave no occurrence of floor heave before occurrence of fall. In terms of the characteristics of the original support systems in the mine roof falls studied, most roofs were either supported by mechanical-anchor bolts or resin or full-column bolts; very rarely did the roof appear to fail if supported by posts or cribs. A detail inspection of the hypothesis and model comparison results gave supporting evidence that the condition of the roof is not dependent on the usual indicators of potential failure, such as presence of cracks and moisture. In fact, in most cases of mine roof failure, the immediate roof condition was rated as good or better, which gives little or no indication of pending failure and collapse. Hence, a combination of factors that are not easily accessible to measurement, are the dominant factors in the determination of roof fall-potential areas.

Jan 1, 1984

By N. Mao

This paper presents the results of a research effort to develop a technique for estimating in situ stresses by measuring stress-induced velocity anisotropy around a borehole. Relevant parameters required to make the estimate were identified and measured in the laboratory on a 35.6 cm (14.0 in) cube of Nugget sandstone with a 10.2 cm (4.0 in) diameter hole, under biaxial loading. Two pairs each of radially and tangentially polarized transducers were placed inside the hole with displacement directions either parallel or perpendicular to the principal stress directions. With this configuration, relative travel times were measured by both a pulsed phaselocked loop technique and a cross correlation of digitized waveforms. The biaxial velocity data were used to back-calculate the applied stress. The standard deviation of the differences between the calculated and applied stresses is 0.62 MPa (90 psi) for a stress level up to 8.63 MPa (1250 psi).

Jan 1, 1984

By R. R. Klimpel

"SYNOPSISA discussion of the importance of flotation rate in the analysis of mineral flotation is presented. In particular, the highly interactive nature of the flotation ""system"" is emphasized where there are components of chemistry, equipment, and operating conditions simultaneously involved. It is further shown that: 1) flotation rate must be measured in order to economically optimize the performance of an industrial flotation circuit, 2) that consistent patterns exist in both flotation rate and equilibrium recovery when changing various settings of the system components, 3) that knowledge of these patterns is necessary in order to avoid making system changes that are either self-compensating or dramatically re-enforcing in some particular aspect of performance, and 4) the rate related role of the chemistry component (e.g.frothers and collectors) is often much bigger than is sometimes realized (especially in a negative sense involving overdosing of reagents). INTRODUCTIONFroth flotation is widely usedl-6 in mineral beneficiation processes as a method for separating different types of finely divided solids present in a liquid (usually aqueous) suspension. The approach is based on the contacting of solids with upward moving air bubbles in an agitated vessel where the solids are exposed to chemicals (collectors) which create a condition favoring the attachment of a certain portion of the solids to the air bubbles. This selected portion is then removed in a froth stabilized by chemicals (frothers) and subsequently recovered from the flotation vessel. Depending on the settings of the various components of the flotation ""system"" (see Figure 1) it is possible to achieve a wide range of flotation performance."

Jan 1, 1984

By G. R. Davidge

"Falconbridge Mine has a history of significant microseismic activity dating back to 1955. Since mid-1981, a microseismic monitoring system has been operating in the area around the No .9 Shaft hoist room located 25 m from the are zone at a depth of 1200m. Several mine wide faults dissect this area and have been shown to be microseismic-active due to mining. The microseismic monitor has been interfaced with a small dedicated personal computer and a communications device to perform routine data evaluation and to produce graphical output. The programs are described and selected result s from the monitoring program are presented.IntroductionFalconbridge Mine is located on the southeast rim of the Sudbury Basin. The nickel-copper sulphide ore zone is essentially a tabular orebody striking approximately east-west and dipping at 80 degrees north near surface and rolling to 75 degrees to 80 degree s south by the 1000 level. (Mine level number s represent the approximate depth in feet below ground surface .) This dip is maintained down to the 6000 level. The north wall is comprised of jointed norite and a faulted contact up to 1 m thick exists between the ore zone and the norite. The south wall rock is a greenstone with highly siliceous lenses and often has a faulted contact with the ore zone. No less than five mine wide faults exist, as shown in Fig. I.Mining ha s been carried out from virtually the bedrock contact to depths of 1830 m although the majority of current activity is between 900 and 1500 m below surface. A winze provides access below the 4025 level and the cage hoist room is located on the 3850 level in the north wall 25 m from the contact. Because of concern for the stability of this hoist room, there has been no mining activity within 60 m of the hoist room and by 1980 this block of ore was one of the major blocks of high-grade ore remaining in the mine . Mining of this block was originally scheduled for very late in the decade.Prior to a six-month shutdown in 1982, this mine produced approximately 450,000 tonnes of ore annually, mainly by cut and- fill techniques. Following the shutdown, annual production has been reduced to approximately 200,000 tonnes and production is now mainly by undercut and fill techniques .Mining-induced seismicity has occurred at Falconbridge Mine since at least 1955 and reviews of the microseismic problems for the periods from 1965 - 1970 and from 1971 to 1979 were made by Singh (1971) and Vongpaisal et al. (1980), respectively. The need for instrumentation was addressed by these authors. Following several large events during the spring of 1980, a decision was made to investigate existing microseismic monitors and to apply micro seismic monitoring techniques in Falconbridge Mine. Application of microseismic monitoring to Falconbridge Mine was to concentrate on the No . 9 Shaft hoist room area of the mine, particularly around the 4025 level where a large mechanized cut-and- fill stope was approaching this level. By mid - 1981, the microseismic monitor was fully installed and with in a year , a short-period seismograph and a personal computer had been added to the system."

Jan 1, 1984

By Hu Weibei

This paper describes the development and implementation of the control system in the flotation plants of China. The control system can be categorized as: Control in the crushing circuits: Automatic control of the flow rate of the crusher. Control in the grinding circuits: Control of the feed rate of the grinding mill and circulating load. PSM-200, an indigenous particle size monitor, and gamma-ray density gauges are utilized. Control in the flotation circuits: pH control, flotation reagent dosage estimation and control, pulp level control, aeration control, etc. Complete grinding-flotation circuits control is based on minicomputer operations. Some typical control systems which have been applied in copper flotation plants are summarized and specific problems discussed.

Jan 1, 1984

By B. C. Haydon

Manganese silver ores are well known to be refractory towards cyanidation. Various processes have been suggested for improving the amenability of these ores. A sulfurous acid pre-leach is one such process. This paper traces the development and implementation of the sulfurous acid pre-leach process for the retreatment of manganese silver tailings at Tonopah, Nevada. An account of the test work program is presented, followed by a description of the operating plant and specimen metallurgical performance. The paper also summarizes the history of the Tonopah tailings, their mineralogy and makes reference to previous application of the sulfurous acid pre-leach process.

Jan 1, 1984

By Daniel C. McLean

Copper concentrates produced by many operations in the United States and South America contain chalcocite (79.9% Cu) as a major component, yet the grades of these concentrates rarely exceed 25 to 28% Cu. Mineralogical studies made by E.P. Cadwell indicated that the low grades were caused by dilution by pyrite rimmed with secondary chalcocite. Laboratory and plant tests proved that concentrates could be significantly upgraded by using a simple, low cost cyanide leaching technique to dissolve the rims and reject the pyrite. The many advantages of this new procedure are cited and the process steps and a typical flowsheet are described.

Jan 1, 1984

By Tadeusz Cyrul

Results of a large scale compression test in situ are the subject of discussion. A cube of coal having an edge length of 1.5 meters was subjected to uniaxial compression tests in situ. At the same time both load and deformation were controlled. Deformations were measured on 60 short measurement bases, each 23 cm in length. The bases were uniformly distributed on the side surface of the cube, forming five horizontal rows and twelve columns on the development of the surface. Readings were taken from each gauge for each level of loading which was increased step by step. Due to heterogeneity of the rock, readings showed scatter. Scattered data were approximated by a plane, using the least squares method for each row separately and for the entire population of bases. Orientation of the planes are analyzed. The geometrical measure of the bending moment is introduced. It shows that the magnitude of the bending moment and the bending plane differed from row to row, thus implying that the cube was not only bent but twisted as well. This complex behaviour of the coal cube is apparently caused by its heterogeneity and vertical anisotropy. The results constitute a contribution to the verification of existing design criteria on the stability of mining pillars.

Jan 1, 1984