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By C. George Miller

"As the influence of governments has become more widely felt, the use of research techniques to analyze policy has increased. Mineral economics, as one of the foundations of mineral policy research, has grown accordingly. Policy research and analysis has been carried out within governments, university departments and the private sector. Each of these institutional environments has characteristics which influence the topics of study, the approach, the methodology and the output of the research. A brief survey of recent research activities provides illustrations of trends and developments occurring within this organizational framework.A radically different organization, the independent research institute, has begun to make an impact on policy research in recent years, and will have an increasing importance in the future. Combining certain features of the traditional research organizations, it nevertheless has important differences which are essential to its effective functioning. An overview of the formation, goals, organization and operation of one such institute is presented."

Jan 1, 1976

By Corby G. Anderson, Caelen D. Anderson, Patrick R. Taylor

"The United States contains a variety of domestic rare earth element mineral sources containing such as ancylite, bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime. Research has been performed to investigate the fundamental surface chemistry involved in the froth flotation of these minerals, and apply the knowledge gained to substantiate the results through experimental testwork on a domestically sourced rare earth ore. This paper will outline the fundamentals and literature of rare earth mineral flotation, review its industrial applications and provide some recent research updates.THE RARE EARTH ELEMENTSRare earth elements (REE’s) are a unique family of elements with nearly identical physical and chemical properties. They account for approximately 1/6th of all naturally occurring elements, but the entire group occupies only one position on the periodic table. These 15 elements make up the lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57–71), and all but one (promethium) occur naturally. In addition to these 15 elements, yttrium and scandium are also considered rare earths since they tend to occur in the same deposits as the rare earths and share similar physical and chemical properties as seen in Figure 1. In particular Figure 2 denotes, a cartoon of the subtle differences in each caused by the 4f atomic sub shell (Gschneidner Jr., 1964). These subtle differences result in very difficult challenges in the selective concentration and final separation of each rare earth. (Anderson, 2015, Kronholm, Anderson, Taylor, 2013)Rare earths are separated into two different subsections; the “lights” or LREE’s (lanthanum57 through europium63) and the “heavies” or HREE’s (gadolinium64 through lutetium71). Yttrium is generally considered a heavy rare earth since its ionic radius is close to that of the HREE’s, while scandium is not considered either a light or a heavy."

Jan 1, 2016

By D. A. Grieve

"Mineable coal seams in the East Kootenay region belong to the Mist Mountain Formation of the Jurassic -Cretaceous Kootenay Group. Three structurally separate coal fields (Crowsnest, Elk Valley and Flathead) are recognized, all of which are characterized by compressional tectonic features such as f aiding and thrust faulting, and by /ate-stage normal faulting. Tectonic history has greatly influenced coal mineability and quality. Coals range in rank from low to highvolatile bituminous, and reactive maceral content ranges from less than 60% to greater than 90%. A wide range of metallurgical and thermal coal qualities is found. Measured reserves (up to 1981) include 1.03 billion metric tonnes metallurgical and 165 million metric tonnes thermal coal. Introduction a) Location -Coal fields of the East Kootenays region occur in the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains, within 30 km of the Alberta -British Columbia boundary (Fig. 1). They extend over 175 km north from near the U.S. border, and occupy the regions of the Crowsnest Pass and Elk and Flathead River drainages. The deposits are accessible from Highway 3 (Fig. 1) and various secondary roads. The towns of Fernie, Sparwood, Elkford, Coleman and Blairmore serve the coal industry. East Kootenay coal deposits are contained in three structurally separate coal fields, the Crowsnest, Elk Valley, and Flathead coal fields (Fig. 1). Coal is currently being produced by B.C. Coal (now Westar Mining Ltd.) at Sparwood, by Fording Coal 20 km north of Elkford, by Crows Nest Resources at Line Creek 15 km southeast of Elkford, and by Byron Creek Collieries at Corbin. Westar Mining has also constructed a new mine on the Greenhills Range 8 km northeast of Elkford. Pre-requisite engineering and environmental studies have been carried out on the Elco Mining property, 35 km north of Elkford, and on the Sage Creek coal property near the U.S. border (Fig. 1). b) Coal land tenure -Coal rights in the East Kootenays are either held as freehold land, or are licensed from the provincial government. The former category includes lands acquired under the Railroad Act of 1890. Shortly after this the federal government also obtained 50,000 acres of coal-bearing lands from the Crown Provincial, the so-called Dominion Government Coal Blocks. Major holders of coal rights in the area are Westar Mining and Crows Nest Resources. Large blocks are also held by Fording Coal and related companies, Sage Creek Coal, and Canada Permanent Trust Company as trustee for Elco Mining, and small blocks are held by Byron Creek Collieries and Coleman Collieries. In addition the provincial government holds an area in reserve for possible future use of B.C. Hydro at the extreme north end of the Elk Valley coal field."

Jan 1, 1985

By L. Rao, P. Carabin

"Advances in thermal plasma torches have resulted in this technology becoming a commercially viable solution for chemical and metallurgical processes. The main advantages of plasma are its ability to control process chemistry and to build small footprint reactors due to its high energy density and reactivity of the free radicals that are produced. This paper focuses on thermal plasmas produced by DC torches and their applications for waste treatment, production of high purity metals, and nanomaterials. Both transferred and non-transferred torches have been used as either a source of heat or as a reagent in various industrial processes. INTRODUCTIONPlasma technology has become an ideal solution for many industrial chemical, metallurgical and mechanical processes (Venkataramani, 2002). Thermal plasma powered systems are typical used for their unique characteristics such as high energy densities, high temperatures, small installation sizes, rapid startup and shutdown features, controlled process chemistry and use of electrical energy as a heating source resulting in decoupling the heat source from the oxygen flow rate (Heberlein et al., 2007). Depending on the nature of the main plasma forming gas used, thermal plasma systems offer a high temperature heating source coupled with a highly reactive plasma plume rich in free radicals and ions which promote otherwise hard to drive chemical reactions, as well as high heat transfer rates.Industrial plasmas can be broadly classified as thermal plasmas and non thermal plasmas. Thermal plasmas are atmospheric pressure plasmas characterized by local thermodynamic equilibrium (Boulos et al., 1994). Thermal plasmas are typically established between any two current conducting electrodes separated by an insulator. A plasma forming gas is blown between the two conducting electrodes resulting in a high temperature plasma plume. A plasma torch generates and maintains an electrically conducting gas column between the two electrodes; a cathode (negative electrode) and an anode (positive electrode) (Camacho, 1988). If both electrodes are housed in a single housing, resulting in an arc enclosed inside the plasma torch, then such plasma generating torches are termed as non-transferred (NT) plasma torches, whereas, if the second electrode is external to the torch, creating an arc transferred between the cathode and the working piece, then such plasma torches are termed as transferred (T) plasma torches. Depending on the source of the electricity which can be either direct current (DC), alternating current (AC) at main network frequency or at radio frequency (RF), the plasma torches are classified as DC, AC or RF plasma torches (Venkataramani, 2002)."

Jan 1, 2012

By C. S. Chen, Y. J. Luo, M. W. Gao, B. Li, Z. F. Zhang

"To obtain large-sized billets with fine grains and homogeneous elements distribution, uniform direct chill (UDC) casting process, based on annular electromagnetic stirring coupling with intercooling, was employed to produce 7055 alloy billets with a size of F584 mm in this study. The results indicated that there were the coupled effects of annular electromagnetic stirring and intercooling on grain refinement and element homogenization, and also the billets produced by the UDC casting process showed excellent hot workability in comparison to the normal direct chill casting process.INTRODUCTION The high solute 7055 aluminium alloy has a wonderful combination of high specific strength and hardness, good resistance to stress corrosion cracking and high fracture toughness, which is very useful in aerospace application (Yan et al., 2013; Mondal & Mukhopadhyay, 2005). The production of large-sized 7055 alloy billets with high quality is the basic condition for the subsequent application of 7055 alloy to the aircraft. Inhomogeneous microstructures and performances of 7055 billets result from the high alloying element content and the inhomogeneous cooling condition in different regions of billets during the conventional direct chill casting (Paramatmuni et al., 2004; Lalpoor et al., 2011), which will bring bad influence to processing property, functional performance and utilization rate of materials. To alleviate segregation and obtain fine and uniform grains, some effective treatment methods were proposed including electromagnetic stirring (EMS) (Vives, 1989), ultrasonic vibrating (Zhang et al., 2011) and melt conditioning (Fan et al., 2013), on the melt to obtain fine and uniform grains. However, these methods could not effectively decrease the large temperature difference between central and periphery parts of the billet, because the solidification mainly depends on outside cooling including mould cooling and water spraying cooling. To change the heat extraction pattern of the billet functioned solely from the outer surface, based on annular electromagnetic stirring (A-EMS) invented by Xu et al. (2010), Luo et al. (2017) proposed uniform direct chill (UDC) casting coupling A-EMS with intercooling in the direct chill (DC) casting process. An in-mold cooler was inserted to the melt sump, and thus the alloy melt temperature and concentration at solidification front become more uniform."

Jan 1, 2018

By N. O. Lotter

The connection between mineralogy and metallurgical performance in a plant was recognised long ago (Gaudin, 1939; Petruk, 1976; Petruk and Hughson, 1977; Cabri, 1981; Petruk and Schnaar, 1981; Kinloch, 1982; Peyerl, 1983, Baum et al 1989 for example). The modern toolbox that we now routinely use for flowsheet development took decades to develop (Lotter et al., 2002; Baum and Lotter, 2004; Lotter, 2011 for example). Many workers contributed considerable time and effort to this overall mission of connecting sampling, mineralogy and mineral processing to integrate the flowsheet development activities. Certain key milestones marked this journey, such as Gy’s treatise on the sampling of particulate materials in 1979, which was later added to by François-Bongarçon, Pitard, Minnitt, and Holmes for example. The development of QEM*SEM by Gottlieb et al. of the MLA by Gu et al. constituted a huge leap forward in accuracy and mineral measurement capacity, as well as a reduction in standard errors of mineral characterisation. The advancement of the microprobe to an automated platform made a significant difference to detailed compositional mineralogy. This led to a strong position from which to draw meaningful processing implications from the mineralogical data. Reproducible flotation testing and reliable plant survey material for characterisation was dealt with by, amongst others, High Confidence Flotation Testing ( Lotter, 1995: Runge, 2010, and Bradshaw, 1997); and Statistical Benchmark Surveying (Lotter, 2005), with earlier prototypes which were steadily improved (Lotter, 1994; Restarick, 1976). The sterling work of Napier-Munn in engaging sound statistical methods with mineral processing led to the successful design and use of methods that could identify and quantify small recovery gains in plant scale trials. This history and present capability are reviewed, including leverage into asset management.

Jan 1, 2018

By L. Chunpongtong

ABSTRACT The mining limit in oil sands is regulated by the ratio of total mining volume (ore, interburden, and overburden) one has to mine per volume of bitumen in place (TV/BIP). This paper presents a mathematical solution for creating the most economical pit outline where the TV/BIP ratio upper limit is 12, by combining mining economic theory and the Lerchs-Grossmann (LG) algorithm.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. K. Sinclair

In situ leaching of copper has the potential to deliver low-cost recovery for soluble copper deposits of sufficient permeability. In order to provide key inputs for modeling of the in situ leaching process, bench scale test work can be used in conjunction with geochemical software to identify key leaching and precipitation reactions. A case study is presented in which a series of flow-through acid leaching tests were conducted on drill core sections from a porphyry copper deposit without crushing or grinding. Concentrations of copper and other key elements were monitored in the recirculating leach solution over several months. A geochemical model of each leaching test was prepared using Geochemist's Workbench using a combination of diffusion-controlled and reaction-controlled rate mechanisms. Key reactions included leaching of chrysocolla, iron oxides, and plagioclase. The model was able to simultaneously satisfy the evolving chemistry of the recirculating leach solution, mineralogy of the head and leach residue, measured acid consumption, and leaching rates for key minerals reported from previous laboratory studies. Opportunities and limitations for scaling up the model to simulate the commercial wellfield are discussed.

Jan 1, 2015

By H. C. Gunning

In spite of the fact that mining has been more or less active in the northern part of Vancouver island since the late 'nineties', there seems to be a remarkable lack of information regarding the nature and development of the region. Recently the operations at the Old Sport mine of the Coast Copper Company, Limited, and spectacular copper discoveries in the vicinity of Nimpkish lake, have directed the attention of the mining fraternity to the district. The writer spent the summer of 1929 making a reconnaissance examination of the general geology and mining properties of the area between Quatsino sound and Nimpkish lake, and he feels that a short paper describing the nature and mining possibilities of the region should be of interest at this time. A more detailed account of the ?geology and of the mining properties will be published in the forth- coming Summary Report of the Geological Survey. A short paper dealing with the Nimpkish Lake district was presented at the Annual Meeting of the British Columbia Division, held recently in Vancouver.

Jan 1, 1930

By Daniel B. Leznoff

The cyanoaurate anions [Au(CN)2]- and [Au(CN)4]- are shown to be useful building blocks for synthesizing supramolecular coordination polymers. For the gold(I) unit, aurophilic interactions often increase the structural dimensionality of the system and can impart increased thermal stability to the metal-polymers produced. A series of polymers of the form M[Au(CN)2]2(Ligand)x have also been prepared and show large colour changes upon changing the ligand, thus illustrating a sensor-type application. Both building blocks can mediate significant antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions between transition-metal centres in the polymers. For the gold(III) unit, no metal-metal interactions are observed, although weak Au-N(cyano) interactions control the intermolecular packing. Several structural examples of cyanoaurate-based coordination polymers are presented, including 2-D and 3-D arrays and a supramolecular square.

Oct 1, 2003

By F. P. Hassani, M. Hefni, M. F. Kermani

"This study is part of large and an ongoing investigation into the development of a light-weight and highly fluid mine fill for various applications in mining and civil operations. Foam mine fill is the new material proposed for backfilling mines, and is fabricated by mixing stable foam into a mixture of tailings, binders, and water. This paper investigates the effects of both binder dosage and the amount of foam used upon the mechanical and physical properties of foam fill, mainly in regards to compressive strength, porosity and density.Samples were prepared using tailings from a copper mine as the inert material, Normal Portland Cement as the main binding agent, and a foaming agent with a foam generator. Samples were cured for 7, 14 and 28 days and were then subjected to unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing. Select samples were subjected to mercury intrusion porosimetry, so as to study the microstructural properties. An empirical model was then developed, using a response surface methodology to establish a relationship between the investigated parameters. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDThe disposal of mine tailings is a significant issue in the mining industry, particularly as mine production increases. Many mines re-use mine tailings for backfilling, which is a method for reducing environmental exposure to tailings, maintaining underground stability, and increasing ore recovery (Benzaazoua, Belem & Bussière, 2002).This paper introduces a new type of backfill called ‘foam mine fill’. This proposed backfill material is similar to cellular concrete, as air bubbles are entrained in cement or lime mortar, resulting in a cellular structure (Narayanan & Ramamurthy, 2000). Air voids can occupy up to 70% of the volume of concrete, which makes it light- weight, and thus can be used for a wide range of civil applications, including backfilling (Tarasov et al. 2010; Panesar, 2013). Unlike cellular concrete, the incorporation of air bubbles into a mixture of tailings, binder and water makes foam fill a potential new backfilling material. Furthermore, a preliminary investigation on foam fill samples found that pulp densities should be optimized before adding the foam, in order to produce consistent samples without foam segregation or losses (Hefni et al., 2014)."

Jan 1, 2015

By R. J. Craig

Introduction All mining operations produce rock dust. Inhalation of rock dust, particularly if it has a high silica content, causes silicosis. Silicosis is, therefore, recognized as a hazard of the mining industry and has been made compensable throughout most of Canada. Most of the dust in any mining operation is caused by rock drilling and blasting operations and the movement and transportation of broken rock. Dust from blasting cannot be eliminated, but it can be controlled by means of increased ventilation, the use of water sprays, and the control of blasting hours. Dust from ore movement can be reduced by keeping the broken rock in a moist condition at all times. The dust from the rock drilling operation has been found to be the most difficult to control. Concentrations of dust caused by rock drills in stopes can usually be reduced to the safe minimum of 300 particles per cubic centimeter (p.p.c.c.) by diluting the air with increased ventilation. In development headings, where the machines are more confined, this is not always practicable. Therefore, the dust must be eliminated at its source. This paper deals with the reduction of dust from Leyner machines by adopting improved designs.

Jan 1, 1947

By Sub-Committee of the Committee on Research

"THE FOLLOWING REPORT was compiled by a sub-committee of The Metallurgical Society of CIM, Committee for Research, and represents a viewpoint of the steel industry in Canada. The objective was to define those areas in which the industry considers that external sources of Research and Development are a necessary function in supporting the in-house R & D conducted by the industry.On future occasions, the viewpoints of other metallurgical industries, such as those of nickel, copper and aluminum, will be presented. The report is divided into several sections: 1.-R & D Spending by the Steel Industry (a) Memberships in Recognized Steel Research Centres (b) Memberships in Recognized Industry Associations (c) Sponsored Research at Recognized Centres (d) Sponsored Research at Universities(e) Sporadic Research 2.-Areas for Research and Development(a) Instrumentation (b) Environment Control (c) Refractories (d) Sponsored Research at Universities(e) Electric Furnaces (f) Continuous Casting"

Jan 1, 1970

By Melvin S. Taylor

The environmental control program at Cassiar Mine is an active one involving government, unions and company personnel all working together to achieve a goal- "A clean and safe working environment". This can only be achieved by utilizing three of Cassiar's most important resources; i.e., people, time and money. Past environmental programs have more than proved that the goal can be reached and. with the future programs now in progress. Cassiar Asbestos will achieve its environmental goals.

Jan 1, 1978

By R. Agius, A. Nacu

"Cyanide destruction technologies are implemented at gold and silver operations to comply with the International Cyanide Management Code and meet ever more stringent discharge limits. Currently, the most common chemical cyanide destruction processes used in industry are sulfur dioxide/oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and Caro’s acid. The cyanide destruction process used at an operation must reliably generate streams of acceptable quality at all times, and depends on numerous factors, including permit discharge requirements, tailings chemistry, location, site-specific climatic conditions and size of the operation. Selecting the most appropriate cyanide destruction process and determining the process design criteria requires accurate laboratory testing. This paper presents and discusses the results of a number of cyanide destruction evaluations that have been conducted to reduce cyanide concentration in process solutions or cyanidation tails. Laboratory testing provides important insights into reagent consumption and other factors required to achieve the target residual weak acid dissociable cyanide (CNWAD) levels.INTRODUCTION Process solutions associated with the extraction of gold and silver contain several forms of cyanide. The most toxic form of cyanide is free cyanide, which can be present as a dissociated cyanide anion (CN-) or gaseous or aqueous HCN. Weak or moderately stable cyanide complexes such as those of zinc, copper and nickel are classified as weak acid dissociable (CNWAD). Although less toxic than free cyanide, weak acid dissociable cyanide complexes are considered “ecologically sensitive” forms of cyanide and are regulated in most jurisdictions. In practice, reported WAD cyanide values comprises both free cyanide and weak acid dissociable cyanide complexes. Cyanide complexes with gold, mercury, cobalt and iron are referred to as strong acid dissociable complexes (CNSAD) and are much more stable, even under mildly acidic conditions. Another term commonly used in cyanide chemistry is total cyanide, which represents all cyanide compounds present in solution. Total cyanide levels in solutions are always equal to or higher than WAD cyanide values and the difference between the two usually indicates the presence of iron-cyanide compounds. Typically in Canada, CNTOTAL levels cannot exceed 1 mg/L in solutions discharged to the environment."

Jan 1, 2017

By R. M. Beauchamp

Base metal processing operations often treat process tailings and acid mine drainage using a high density sludge (HDS) water treatment process. Lime is used in this process, which reacts with existing sulfates to form gypsum. When a recycle stream is incorporated in the process, gypsum levels in recirculating water may build up and cause high levels of gypsum supersaturation. Precipitation of gypsum from the supersaturated process water causes many problems. It is speculated that gypsum may precipitate on sulfide minerals and silica gangues in the flotation circuit, resulting in decreased selectivity and recovery. An understanding of the determinants and nature of precipitation may provide solutions to mitigate the formation of precipitates and improve flotation performance. This study showed that both sphalerite and silica exhibited gypsum- or calcium carbonate-like behavior in the respective supersaturated solutions, indicative of a coating of calcium species on the mineral particle surfaces. The addition of copper sulfate and/or potassium xanthate had little effect on the precipitation of gypsum or calcium carbonate on the mineral particles. Sodium carbonate is encouraging as a method to minimize calcium species interactions on sphalerite/silica surfaces.

Jan 1, 2006

By T. Verdel, Y. Gunzburger

Rockfalls are major and essentially unpredictable sources of danger, particularly along transportation routes (roads and railways). Thus, the assessment of their probability of occurrence is a major challenge for risk management. From a qualitative perspective, it is known that rockfalls occur mainly during periods of rain, snowmelt, or freeze-thaw. Nevertheless, from a quantitative perspective, these generally assumed correlations between rockfalls and their possible meteorological triggering events are often difficult to identify because i) rockfalls are too rare for the use of classical statistical analysis techniques and ii) all intensities of triggering factors do not have the same probability. In this study, we propose a new approach to investigate the correlation of rockfalls with rain, freezing periods, and strong temperature variations. This approach is tested on three French rockfall databases, the first of which exhibits an outstandingly high frequency of rockfalls (approximately 950 events over 11 years), whereas the other two databases are more typical (approximately 140 events over 11 years). These databases come from (1) the national highway RN1 on La Réunion Island, (2) a railway in the Bourgogne-Franche Comté region, and (3) a railway in the Auvergne region. Whereas a basic correlation analysis is only able to highlight an already obvious correlation in the case of the “rich” database, the newly suggested method appears to detect correlations even in the “poor” ones. Indeed, the use of this method confirms the positive correlation between rainfalls and rockfalls on La Réunion Island database. This method highlights a correlation between cumulative rainfalls and rockfalls in the Bourgogne region, and it detects a correlation between the daily minimum temperature and rockfalls in the Auvergne region. This new approach is easy to use and also serves to determine the conditional probability of rockfall function of a given meteorological factor. This approach will help to optimize risk management in the studied areas based on their meteorological conditions. Nevertheless, even if some rockfalls are correlated to meteorological factors, other seems to occur independently of these factors, which highlights the unpredictability of rockfall hazard.

Jan 1, 2015

By H. Saeedi Ali, A. J. Monhemius

"Anglo Asian Mining’s Gedabek mine is situated in the Lesser Caucasus mountains in Western Azerbaijan. The ore body is a complex copper-gold porphyry deposit, comprising intermixed oxidized, transition and sulphidic gold and copper-bearing ores. Gold in the sulphide ores is generally not refractory and is recoverable by cyanide leaching, but the secondary copper minerals, which are also cyanide soluble, lead to high cyanide consumptions. Ore processing at Gedabek is by agitation leaching for high grade ore (>1g Au/t) and heap leaching for lower grade ore. In order to cope with the high copper concentrations in the cyanide leach liquors, a unique combination of resin-in-pulp for selective gold extraction and SART processing for copper removal and cyanide recovery is used. In 2015, a flotation plant was added to treat the tailings from the agitation leach plant before the tails are sent to the tailings dam. This plant produces a copper sulphide flotation concentrate and also recovers some of the residual gold and silver in the tailings. Since February 2017, due to lower grades of gold and higher copper in the feed ore, the decision was taken to alter the flow sheet and to carry out flotation ahead of agitation leaching, to reduce the cyanide consumption during leaching by removing soluble copper minerals. The paper compares and contrasts the performance of the plant in the two configurations, namely, (i) leaching followed by flotation and (ii) flotation followed by leaching.INTRODUCTION In May 2009, Anglo Asian Mining started open pit mining for gold on its Gedabek property in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in western Azerbaijan. Gedabek is situated on the highly mineralized Tethyan Belt that runs from the Himalayas to the Balkans. The ore body at Gedabek is a complex copper-gold porphyry deposit, comprising intermixed oxidized, transition and sulphidic gold-bearing ores. The sulphidic ores contain mainly pyrite and chalcopyrite, with some secondary copper sulphide minerals, such as bornite and chalcocite, and minor amounts of sphalerite, galena and tetrahedrite. Gold in the sulphide ores is generally not refractory and is recoverable by cyanide leaching, but the secondary copper minerals, which are also cyanide soluble, lead to high cyanide consumptions and passivation of free gold."

Jan 1, 2017

By J. F. Wright

INTRODUCTION Eighteen years ago about half a dozen experienced prospectors moved from northern Ontario to northwest Manitoba to prospect 'greenstone' areas shown on geological maps of .parts of northern Manitoba prepared by J. B. Tyrrell, D. B. Dowling, and Wm. Mclnnes. Gold-bearing quartz was soon discovered by these men in this new field, and in succeeding years many more prospectors entered the district. A number of the pioneers are still prospecting, and since 1913 mineral deposits have been discovered each year in widely separated areas of the large district extending 150 miles eastward from the 102nd meridian and 60 miles north of latitude 54°30'. The majority of the discoveries, however, have been made near Schist, Elbow, Wekusko, and Kississing lakes. One hundred or more mineral occurrences of some merit are known, the main types being sulphide replacement bodies containing nickel-copper or copper-zinc and gold-bearing quartz veins. Some underground exploration or diamond drilling has been completed on 25 or more of the prospects. Up to the present, three ore-bodies, namely, Flin Flon, Sherritt-Gordon, and Mandy, have been proved. Of these, Flin Flon, the largest, is estimated to contain from 16,000,000 o 19,000,000 tons of copper-zinc ore carrying some gold, silver, and lead. Next in importance in regard to tonnage is Sherritt-Gordon, with a calculated reserve of nearly 5,250,000 tons of copper-zinc ore carrying less than $1.00 combined gold and silver.

Jan 1, 1931

By Jaeheon Lee, Junmo Ahn, Isabel F. Barton

"Newmont’s Mike prospect, currently undeveloped, is a blind Cu-Au(-Zn) deposit on the Carlin Trend, containing >8.5 M oz. Au, 1027 M lbs. Cu, and 809 M lbs. Zn as Carlin-type gold and polymetallic Cu-Zn minerals in Paleozoic lower-plate carbonates and shales. This project was undertaken 1) to examine the effectiveness of different lixiviants for leaching the Mike supergene Cu-Au ores via bottle roll tests, and 2) to determine what ore minerals resist dissolution in each leaching agent by comparing the mineralogy and chemistry of head and tail samples. Sulfuric and sulfurous acids were used to leach copper and cyanide was used to leach gold. Thiourea, glycine, and other lixiviants were used to leach both base metals and precious metal. QEMSCAN and SEM study of six samples of different ore types and grades indicate that the Au occurs as varieties of native gold, including auricupride and electrum. Major Cu minerals are native Cu, cuprite, malachite, chrysocolla, and conichalcite (Ca-Cu arsenate), with locally significant Cu in jarosite and goethite. Gangue mineralogy is dominated by quartz, sericite, chlorite, alunite, smectite and kaolinite, K-feldspar, and iron oxides (sensu lato). Results of bottle roll tests and leach residue mineralogy will be presented and discussed at the conference.INTRODUCTION Resource and Geologic Setting The Mike deposit is a large, blind Cu-Au(-Zn) deposit in the Maggie Creek district of the Carlin Trend of Nevada, USA, near the Gold Quarry mine (Figure 1). The mineral inventory, based on drilling, is 8.568 Moz. Au, 1027 M lbs. Cu, and 809 M lbs. Zn at average grades of 0.72 g/t Au, 0.34 wt% Cu, and 2.13 wt% Zn (inventory for a cone at $400/oz Au and $0.80/lb Cu by Norby and Orobona, 2002)."

Jan 1, 2017