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By M. Board, R. Pakalnis, S. Seldon, R. Brummer

The Kidd operation mines roughly 10 000 tpd of copper and zinc ore from underground and employs about 700 personnel. In the late summer and fall of 1997, major movements in the proximity of the east wall of the Kidd open pit had been observed. The Kidd pit had been mined from 1965 to 1977 to depths of 260 m (850 ft), followed by subsequent mining by underground methods to current depths in excess of 1830 m (6800 ft). The No. 1 Mine (2600 Level to pit bottom) is approximately 90% extracted, with most of the remaining reserve between 2000 and 2500 levels. Although initial concerns centred on the stability of the pit walls, the potential ramifications of the movements to the underground were recognized and measures were implemented to ensure the safety of personnel as well as to minimize the potential damage to existing operations. In late October, damage to underground operations was observed as deep as the 2000 Level. In the final assessment, the global mobilized mass was a “wedge”-shaped hangingwall block extending from surface to about 610 m (2000 ft) below surface. The “wedge” boundaries are defined by a fault and shear zone which have continuous lengths in excess of 1070 m (3500 ft); its base by shearing through the host rock mass; and its eastern face by deep tension cracks (Fig. 1). Mined and filled excavations at the western face of the “wedge” allowed mobilization of a mass in excess of 30 M tonnes. Movements in excess of 75 cm (30 in.) per day were recorded on the surface stations that preceded the complete shutdown of operations on October 29, 1997. The evaluations in the days following the shut-down were centred on mitigation of immediate and future possible negative impacts on infrastructure and mining of the remaining No. 1 Mine reserves while ensuring the safety of the operators. This effort required the rapid assessment of the potential damage of the block movement on underground infrastructure, stope access, drainage and ventilation, as well as airblast potential due to the falling of a large block into the pit near the ventilation intake at the base of the pit. These assessments were presented in a previous paper (Seldon et al., 1999). In total, the lateral movement of the block on the ground surface was over 4.3 m (14 ft). This paper describes the detailed studies performed to understand the failure mechanism and to assess the impacts on future mining in No. 1 Mine.

Jan 1, 2000

By D Prior

The Australian mining industry is a significant contributor to the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and like any industry, it must make efforts to reduce these. Medium- and long-term strategies will include the replacement of diesel engines with alternative energy sources, but what can be done in the short-term to reduce diesel consumption and hence CO2 emissions? Haul trucks are identified as the major contributors of CO2 emissions in the mining fleet and this paper focuses on firstly identifying what drives haul truck emissions and secondly, discussing what is the role of the Fleet Management System (FMS) in reducing these. A key enabler of this is having a robust fuel consumption model within the FMS, and I describe how this may be done. Besides novel approaches to incorporating fuel consumption (CO2) management into truck assignment algorithms, this paper also describes how the FMS can be used to implement and manage procedures and policies to reduce haul truck emissions.

Jun 22, 2022

By F. Dinter, C. McGregor, Q. G. Reynolds, L. Hockaday

The necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impact of anthropogenic climate change means that all industrial processes should investigate their options towards decarbonization. Iron, steelmaking, aluminium, and cement production produce the most industrial emissions. Although most research focuses on decarbonizing these industries, minerals processing industries must be decarbonized to achieve net zero emissions goals by 2050. Incorporating renewable energy sources and avoiding the combustion of fossil fuels are two ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reports on the results from a dynamic process model developed to investigate the feasibility of concentrating solar thermal pretreatment of manganese ores to pretreat carbonate-rich manganese ores for increased ferromanganese smelter productivity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The results indicate that pretreated ores reduce the energy requirement for smelting significantly for some ores and lowers total carbon dioxide emissions by 13 to 19% compared to the traditional smelting route. A high-level economic evaluation shows that solar thermal treatment is financially viable for low cryptomelane, high braunite ore that is common in the Kalahari Manganese Field.

Dec 11, 2024

By E. Fried

Cemented paste backfill (CPB) is an innovative tailings management method that consists in returning considerable amounts of mine tailings into the underground mine openings. The filled stopes thus participate to the ground support that allows maximizing orebody extraction and a safer environment for the mine workers. There are also significant environmental advantages of using CPB. Indeed, up to 50% of the concentrator tailings can be backfilled, leading to a smaller volume of problematic waste materials to be managed at the surface. Once the CPB is placed, or when the mine is flooded at its end-life, the backfill is subjected to underground water flows that may leach and spread the pollutants (mainly metals, sulphates, and acidity) which can contaminate the underground waters. The aim of this study is to characterize the leaching properties of CPB material and to identify the cement phases that ensure the metal fixation. A laboratory procedure was implemented consisting in the preparation of various paste backfill mixtures using sulphide-rich and sulphide-free materials, different types of binder, and mixing waters having various sulphates, copper and zinc concentrations. After 90-days curing time, the samples were submitted to column leaching tests. The CPB materials were flushed each day with 100 ml of deionised water during 100 days. The collected leachates were then analyzed for pH, Eh, electric conductivity and chemical composition. For some samples, a differential acid neutralisation test was carried out. The objective of this experiment is to dissolve selectively the hydrated phases by adding incremental acid concentrations. By analyzing punctually the equilibrated solutions, the composition of the dissolved phases and their metal content can be estimated. The leaching test results showed that the pH of the leachates remains alkaline during the test period. When the pH decreases under 10 (after 30 days), different behaviours in terms of chemical element release (especially for zinc) were observed. During the test, the oxidation of pyrite seems to slow down, probably due to passivating phenomena. Moreover, the differential acid neutralisation test results allowed a better understanding of the CPB mineralogy and the Zn-bearing cement phases. Zinc and the other metals seem to be fixed within a calcium-magnesium silicate.

May 1, 2007

By J. B. Boisvert, P. Oshust

A significant source of uncertainty in the diamond resource contained in kimberlite pipes is the volume of the pipes. Often the material within a pipe will be mined as ore, leaving the actual geometry of the pipe as a significant source of uncertainty. It is desirable to use stochastic techniques, rather than deterministic methods, to model pipe geometry because stochastic techniques generate multiple realizations that are reproducible and can be used to assess uncertainty in pipe geometry. The proposed methodology uses sequential Gaussian simulation of pierce point locations interpreted from drillholes through a kimberlite pipe. Kimberlite pipes are approximately cylindrical in shape; therefore, the data are transformed to cylindrical coordinates to facilitate the simulation of pipe geometry. Rather than using xyz coordinates to define the pierce points, z, ??and pipe radius are used. The radius variable can be simulated in z-??space to generate multiple realizations of pipe volume. Uncertainty in the volume of the pipe can then be evaluated. This methodology is demonstrated with a kimberlite pipe at BHP Billiton’s Ekati diamond mine.

Jan 1, 2008

By Christoph Mueller

Broad band mine communication today is characterized mainly by individual solutions, which have in common their long development phases and their high cost for development, operation and service. The use of Ethernet and TCP/IP on the other side provides an uniquely price efficient combination of high bandwidth open networking, universal use and accessibility of cheap development tools, especially because it forms the technical infrastructure for the worldwide Internet. TCP/IP and Ethernet assures reliable networking however it is not able to guarantee the latency timing of forwarding network information. Therefor, the network design requires strict load limitation and application level traffic control especially if moving equipment has to be manually remotely controlled via the network. To optimize the use of bandwidth on mining networks using load limited, ?bandwidth wasting? local Ethernet segments, long distance broadband traffic should be carried out using more efficient, deterministic communication backbones providing a guaranteed quality of service for each of the physically separated networks. Open networking and broadband systems however may lead to the anticipation that any demands on bulk data or multimedia traffic can be fulfilled in the future. This definitely will not be the case as the bandwidth demands of applications will be growing as least as fast as the bandwidth provided by communication systems. Looking on those problems from an overall system integration perspective, machines and equipment in the future have to be equipped with intelligent computing devices capable of an intelligent local data preprocessing. Such ?Embedded Machine Information Servers? running commercial computing power in the future will be the intelligent bridge between open networking and a secured, high safety local automation system. These ?Embedded Machine Information Servers? then also can make advantage of intelligent video and audio data preprocessing to store and transmit multimedia information ?on demand? or when the application requires it. Summarizing the potential for the future Ethernet based networking together with powerful communication backbones and intelligent local data preprocessing on the machines in the future will lead the way to integrative, reliable and cost efficient mine automation solutions.

May 1, 2002

By CIM Mineral Resource

On January 9, 2018, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Council formed the CIM Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Committee (CIM MRMR Committee), which is a combination of the previous Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and the Best Practices Committee. As part of its mandate, the CIM MRMR Committee updates guidelines for use by Industry, which include the Uranium Practice Guidelines. The 2024 CIM Uranium Leading Practice Guidelines were adopted by CIM Council on November 22, 2024, and supersedes the 2003 version. The main principles and guidelines relating to preparation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve (MRMR) estimates are provided in the CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practices Guidelines (MRMR BP Guidelines, as updated from time to time). The MRMR BP Guidelines provide information pertaining to metalliferous and other deposits and many sections are readily applicable to the preparation of MRMR estimates for uranium deposits. However, additional guidance is appropriate for uranium deposits due to the radioactive nature of uranium, and its amenability, in some cases, to in situ recovery (ISR) mining methods.

Nov 1, 2024

Biosorption of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II) from Aqueous Solutions by Immobilised Phanerochaete chrysosporium Biomass in a Fixed-Bed Column The continuous-flow adsorption of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous solution by immobilised Phanerochaete chrysosporium biomass in a fixed-bed column was studied. The effects of flow rate, influent concentration of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II) and bed depth on breakthrough curves and biosorption capacity were investigated. The experimental results showed that the breakthrough time decreased with increasing flow rate, increasing influent concentration and decreasing bed depth. The data also indicated that the equilibrium uptake of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II) increased with decreasing flow rate and increasing influent concentration of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II). Two models were employed to predict the breakthrough curves and to determine the characteristic parameters of the column useful for column design. The Thomas model was able to predict the breakthrough curve in the range of relative concentration(Co/Ci) higher than0.3, Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II) whereas the validity of the Bohart-Admas model was limited to the initial part of breakthrough curve at all flow rates and influent concentrations of Cr(VI), Pb(II) and Zn(II). The feasibility of reusing the immobilised fungal beads through five adsorption/desorption cycles in fixed-bed column was investigated.

Sep 13, 2010

By Thomas P. Kwiatkowski, Joginder S. Bhore, Christopher D. Orlandi, Jose Velez

Three case histories of successful TBM tunneling for New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 are presented. The tunnels, costing about one billion dollars total, are the 5-milelong, 18'-11" OD Brooklyn Tunnel; the 5-mile long, 23'-2" OD Queens Tunnel, and the9-mile long, 12'-4" OD Manhattan Tunnel. The three tunnels are the first major tunnels constructed in New York City rock utilizing the TBM method of construction. This paper describes and compares the three tunnel projects in terms of geology, construction methods, TBM’s, rock and groundwater behavior, rates of advance and other performance data, and challenges and solutions encountered during the projects.

Jan 1, 2007

By Elaine T. Cullen, Thomas W. Camm

The mentor/learner model is a time-honored approach to teaching, including within the mining industry. Miners know when they see excellence and have a deep respect for experts in their field. By using expert miners as mentors to other, less-experienced miners, training programs can be developed that will have a legitimacy and credibility that resonates with those being trained. Building upon concepts in current theories of adult education, this paper highlights the unique advantages of using mentoring as a teaching method that can make the educational experience both interesting and effective. Current NIOSH safety training materials use these concepts to deliver effective adult learning experiences for workers in the mining industry.

Jan 1, 2002

By Donna lynne Anderson

This report documents the status of a laser-based underground guidance system for tracking and controlling the movements of underground mobile mining equipment. This research is part of a multiple project effort at the U.S. Bureau of Mines to increase mine safety and efficiency by developing technology for computer-assisted mining. Guidance systems, which can track and control the movements of underground mining equipment, are essential during computer-assisted mining operations. A continuous mining machine at the Bureau's surface test facility served as the test-bed for initial development and experimentation of this guidance system. Subsequently, a continuous mining machine in an underground mine served as the platform for in-mine experimentation The first section of this report includes details of the laser sensors, communication network, and computer hardware. The next section includes experimental results, which show the system capable of accurately tracking and controlling the tram maneuvers of a continuous miner underground. The final section discusses conclusions and recommendations.

Jan 1, 1992

By J. J. Geldenhuys

A colloquium on 'Developments in the Mechanization of Mining Operations' was held in, conjunction with the 1984 Electra Mining Exhibition, at the Milpark Holiday Inn in Johannesburg on 19th September, 1984. An attendance of close on 200 delegates was testimony to the popularity of the subject. The delegates included a number of visitors from abroad, including senior members of the management of foreign companies and a member of the Council of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, United Kingdom. Both the local and foreign press was also represented.

Jan 1, 1985

By David Cronan

"Most of the recent renewed interest in manganese nodule mining has been focused in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the NE tropical Pacific where nodules are rich in Mn, Ni and Cu. However, equally interesting, but compositionally different, nodules occur in the tropical central South Pacific (CSP). The CC Zone deposits lie in the International Seabed Area whereas those in the South Pacific lie mainly in the Exclusive Economic Zones of Island States, principally the Cook Islands and Kiribati. The CSP nodules should not be regarded as an alternative resource to CCZ nodules, as they are enriched in different elements. Rather, the CCZ nodules should be thought of as a source of one group of metals (Mn, Ni and Cu) and the CSP nodules the source of another group (see below), mutually complementing each other and to be mined in parallel for their different metals.Manganese nodule mining in the South Pacific has been mooted since the 1970s. However, new data on manganese nodule composition and abundance there have recently appeared. Also, a recently developed interest in 'rare', 'green' and 'technology' elements has necessitated a re-examination of old South Pacific nodule data for information on these elements (previously thought to be economically unimportant), and the re-analysis of the deposits to obtain new data on them. Additionally, current and possibly future applications to the UN to extend island 'continental shelf' areas necessitates an appraisal of the manganese nodules in these areas. These developments have prompted recent work that has helped to refine our understanding of the distribution and abundance of metals of traditional interest in South Pacific nodules, namely Mn, Co, Ni and Cu, but has also drawn attention to other elements of possible economic interest including titanium (Ti), vanadium (V) and the rare earth elements (REE)."

Sep 1, 2014

By G. Daws, N. Woodward, A. Oxley

Many mines around the world have been seeking ways to achieve sustainable developments and reduce operating costs. Rockbolting is a technology that needs to be considered as it provides a means of reducing operating costs and improving safety whilst allowing improved production to be achieved. The problem is how to introduce this technology in the knowledge that a successful outcome will be achieved. Rockbolting is a complete package and not only includes the consumable materials but also training, production of Codes of Practice, Monitoring Schemes, Refinement of Design and long term management of the systems. This paper explains the methods that have been applied for its successful introduction and discusses several case studies. It does not give fine detail but is intended to allow decision makers to gain a basic understanding of the method used to successfully introduce rockbolting to a mine.

Jan 1, 2011

By Jones S. C

A specific arc can be cut in hard rock formations using a specially designed multistep piloI bit, variable sized drift joint and long heavy control rod as a stabilizer rather than the Vaughan Thompson "Lifting" arc cuttingequipment. The rate of deflection can be controlled after an initial determination of behaviour in any particular rock type.

Jan 1, 1966

West Virginia ranks second in the nation in coal production, surpassed only by Wyoming, and usually accounts for 15 to 20percent of the nation's total annual production. Cod occurs in seams of minable thickness in all but nine of the state's 55 counties. There are two coal- producing regions, the northern field and the southern field. West Virginia coal is mined by both underground and surface methods. Underground mines in West Virginia account for a major portion of its coal production. Surface mines are generally contour operations and, especially in the southern field, are in steep slope areas, with slopes greater than 20 degrees. Many of the surface mines remove multiple seams. Recoverable reserves in West Virginia total in excess of 55 billion tons of bituminous coal. West Virginia's regulatory program was conditionally approved on January 19, 198 1. Its Abandoned Mine Land Program was approved February 23,198 1, with emergency authority granted on August 26,1988.

Jan 1, 1992

By H. A. Dakin

"An introduction to the metallurgical requirements of the Flin Flon concentrator reveals the magnitude of ore blending which is required in its operation of three flotation circuits. The resulting variability in flotation heads which has in-creased the separations complexity justified the development of an on-line analysis system.This paper provides a summary of the development and operation of that system. Particular attention is devoted to the problems encountered and where possible their solutions; as the requirements of accurate information and minimum downtime of the sampling system and x-ray analyzer are considered essential. The addition of a recess central computer has provided information in a more easily understood form and as well has allowed the start of automatic reagent control.An indication of the on-line analysis system's value to the concentrators' operation is provided by an examination of the plant in metallurgical data and reagent costs in previous years.The metallurgical plants of Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting lie adjacent to the city of Flin Flon on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary. Plant operations commenced in 1930 treating copper-zinc ore from the local mine. In recent years ore bodies near Flin Flon and in the Snow Lake area, about seventy-five miles east, have been brought into production.By the beginning of 1973 the number of producing mines had increased to nine; with all the ore being handled by the Flin Flon concentrator. Figure l, showing mine ore assays during 1973 indicates the variation in metal content possible."

Jan 1, 1974

By Kihong Park, Matthews C. Habjan, Arthur L. Miller

New Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations limit the mass concentration of airborne diesel particulate matter (DPM) or, more specifically, the concentration of elemental carbon (EC), in underground mines. The mine operators are responding by introducing a variety of controls to reduce DPM in the mines, potentially including the evaluation of new maintenance procedures to reduce underground mine vehicle emissions. There is currently a lack of an inexpensive and dependable method to directly measure the DPM concentration emitted from the vehicle tailpipe. To that end, this work demonstrated a simple field portable method for estimating the mass concentration of elemental carbon exiting the tailpipe of a diesel engine using a direct reading photometer. Simultaneous measurements of tailpipe exhaust were made with a Thermo Electron Personal DataRAM 1200 photometer (particulate mass concentration based on light scattering) and by analyzing PM2.5 and PM1.0 samples collected on quartz fiber filters using the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method 5040 (mass concentration of EC via thermal-optical method). Results indicate surprisingly good correlation (R2 ) 0.97) of the two methods when the data are adjusted for relative humidity (RH) and corrected using an empirically generated calibration factor. Although preliminary, it may be possible to implement this method in maintenance shops to monitor emission trends and to compare emissions of various vehicles in a fleet. Such data will be useful for fleet planning to meet new air quality standards.

By S. Ragab

The objective of flotation models is to predict the recovery rate of minerals from a flotation cell. In this paper a CFD?based flotation models is presented. The model uses first order rate equation, and the collision frequency is estimated using Abrahamson [1] model with input from CFD two-phase simulations. Spatial distributions of dissipation rate and air volume fraction (also called void fraction) are determined by the two-phase hydrodynamic simulations. Knowing these parameters throughout the machine is essential in understanding the effectiveness of different components (rotor, stator or disperser, jets) on the flotation efficiency. Not only the average pulp recovery rate can be estimated but also the regions of high/low recovery rate can be identified. The CFD-based flotation model presented here can be used to determine the dependence of recovery rate constant at any locality within the pulp on particle diameter, particle specific gravity, contact angle, and surface tension.

Jan 1, 2012

By M. Keen

The backfill system at Cleveland Potash?s Boulby Mine places waste filter cake underground in the form of a high concentration slurry in worked out areas of the mine reducing the mine?s environmental impact. The backfill system delivers slurry approximately 1100 m down the mine and up to 11 000 m horizontally underground. The Boulby backfill system is unique in that the placed backfill waste is not used for the usual purposes such as support, pillar extraction or reducing ventilation requirements. It was specifically implemented for environmental reasons. This influenced the design and resulted in some unique features of the system. A previous paper (Wilkins et al., 2004) described the design and commissioning of the backfill system. This paper describes the operational experience with the backfill system and backfill placement since commissioning in May 2003 and looks at lessons that can be applied in other backfill designs.

May 1, 2007