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By Joseph H. Harris

Shebandowan Mine presents a unique opportunity for the mining industry to demonstrate its willingness and ability to use electrical energy effectively. The mine is a typical 250D-ton/day operation supplied by a i5-MVA power transformer. it is a recent, up-to-date design and operates on a four-day/week, two-shift/day basis. The paper outlines an energy profile based on historical data. It accurately describes the individual and total energy input For: (1) production and non-productive junctions; (2) production and down-time periods; (3) peak and average activity levels; and (4) principal energy utilization equipment. A comparison is then made of production data to electrical data, and production and electrical data to design data. The paper concludes that energy management has an important benefit for the mining industry by assisting in maintaining a competitive operation through reduced costs and fewer production slow-downs in the event of energy shortages.

Jan 1, 1979

By Peter Babik

"Cable TV networks are extensively used throughout Canada for TV signal distribution. Mobile/portable radio communications are also used extensively throughout all sectors of industry. There are numerous manufacturer supplying these industries with a wide variety of equipment and accessories.IAL's underground radio communications system combines the techniques of cable TV and mobile radio to produce a flexible communications system with most of the advantages of both systems. Standard off-the-shelf mobile, portable, base-station and repeater equipment can be used. The equipment may need modification to be customized to particular end user requirements, but does not require a complete new unit redesign. Likewise, the cable TV distribution equipment is off the-shelf, with some items requiring modification for underground system application.Radio communications can be provided wherever the cable system is extended. Where traffic or type of activity warrants it, multiple radio channels can be provided on the same cable. Certain radio channels could also be used with data channels for control or supervision of remote equipment or environmental conditions. In addition, the same cable can be used to distribute or monitor signals from remote TV cameras in selected or dangerous areas. The system can be interfaced to a telephone system, if required, to provide extended communications to above-ground workshops, offices, medical stations or even hospitals and other emergency services.IntroductionReliable communications among personnel throughout an underground mine area have long been the dream and goal of various mine operations personnel. The system to be described was designed to meet this objective."

Jan 1, 1983

By M. E. Sirkka

"INTRODUCTIONInco Ltd. has ten operating mines in the Sudbury district. Over the last ten years mining methods have changed at Inco with special emphasis on the introduction of bulk mining replacing conventional mechanized cut-and-f ill and undercut-and-fill methods. At the same time, the technology and size of LH D equipment has also progressed to meet the demands of bulk mining. This paper will concentrate on various aspects of the introduction and operation of electric LHD equipment a t Inco Limited, Ontario Division. BackgroundInco Limited received its first electric 2 cu. yd capacity LHD in July 1975 at Creighton Mine. The unit was tested pulling shrinkage stope muck and then was moved to a mechanized cut and- fill complex on 6600 Level. The electric scooptram received quick acceptance from the operators, due to its quiet operation and low heat generation, in a relatively hot operating environment. Although there are only two of these units operating a t present, this initial favourable experience, both in cost and efficiency, led to the development and purchase of electric scooptrams of the 5 cu. yd size. There are currently eleven 5 cu . yd electric LHDs in operation.The most recent development a t Inco is the move to yet larger electric LHDs in the 8 cu. yd size. The first electric ""Eight"" has now been in operation at Copper Cliff South Mine for over a year. This unit has the distinction of being the first one of its kind in service in North America. At the time of writing, there were ten 8 cu. yd electric ma chines operating in Inco's Ontario Division Mines, with three on order."

Jan 1, 1989

By D. Kao, J. Gogal, S. Humphrey, T. Byrne, M. Davoodi

"High total and dissolved uranium values were noted in the process water at the Cigar Lake Operation (CLO) during early production start-up period, whereas significant levels of dissolved uranium had not been observed previously at similar operations. The excess dissolved uranium resulted in higher demands on the water treatment plant, along with higher operating costs, environmental risks and some unrealized revenue potential. A species balance indicated that uranium was leaching into solution in the grinding, dewatering, and storage circuits under normal operating conditions. Jet boring, water recycle, ball milling, and the use of Pachuca tanks for ore storage results in a highly oxidative environment, which is favourable to leaching.This paper will outline the testwork performed to identify the conditions under which the uranium leaches into solution and to determine required conditions for uranium precipitation. Maximum uranium leaching was found to occur under normal operating conditions (pH ranging from 7.0 to 8.5); testwork indicated that both lowering and raising the pH can significantly reduce the uranium leaching. Analytical results combined with the batch scale testwork indicate that the uranium solubility is associated with carbonate species in the ore. Uranium precipitation was maximized at pH values greater than 10.5 or less than 6, corresponding well to carbonate leaching and precipitation values from literature. Higher precipitation efficiencies were noted at high pH ranges.As a result of this work, a pH control system has been implemented in the Pachuca storage vessels and thickener prior to water treatment plant on a trial basis. Caustic soda is recommended for pH control due to ease of operation, economic viability and material requirements and downstream constraints."

Jan 1, 2016

By Franco Chiesa, David Levasseur, Bernard Duchesne

A 500kg aluminium AlSi7Mg03 casting has been poured and the metallurgical quality at different locations inside the casting has been thoroughly investigated. It included measuring the local tensile properties (YS, UTS, El) in the T6 condition, the dendrite fineness (DAS) and the level of microporosity. A correlation was found between the microporosity level, the local solidification time and solidus front velocity; this correlation allows to predict the porosity level in large aluminium castings (solidification times between 20 and 200 minutes). Quite expectedly, properties varied widely within the casting and the actual mechanical properties were much less than the "textbook values" based on measurements carried out on separately cast standard specimens. A correlation between the secondary dendrite arm spacing (DAS) and the local solidification time was in keeping with previously published data. Finally the conditions to obtain an acceptable finish on machined surface were determined.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. Li

Iron removal is a common procedure in hydrometallurgy of non-ferrous metallic ores. Chemical precipitation and solvent extraction are currently the main methods employed for separation of iron from copper leach solution. However, chemical precipitation methods have the problem of producing large amounts of iron precipitates, and/or requiring high temperature and high pressure conditions for precipitation. The precipitates are difficult to separate from the solution. Emulsification is a general problem for solvent extraction, which causes loss of extractants and contamination of the electrolyte. A common problem for solvent extraction and chelating ion exchange processes is the difficult iron stripping process. Therefore, finding an efficient and environmentally friendly method for iron removal is of great significance. In this paper, new processes of using ion exchange resins to remove iron from copper leach solution have been investigated. Salicylic acid, amino carboxylic acid, amino phosphonic acid and hydroxy-oxime resins were employed to adsorb iron from a simulated copper leach solution containing 40 g/L of Cu2+ and 36 g/L of Fe3+. It was found that a hydroxy-oxime resin, named Z-Fe, has excellent adsorption selectivity on Fe3+. Desorption behavior of the resin was studied by two step elution using dilute H2SO4 and oxalic acid solution, respectively. After optimizing the adsorption-elution processes, the extent of removal of iron from the simulated copper leach solution using resin Z-Fe was 90%, while copper recovery could reach 100% in closed circuit processing.

Jan 1, 2016

By J. R. Perumareddi, V. S. Sastri, M. Elboujdaini

It is well known that high strength steels used in aerospace industry, are generally susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement during surface treatment such as electroplating with zinc on cadmium. Hydrogen embrittlement reduces ductility and results in brittle fracture rather than failure by plastic deformation. Hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steels is mitigated by surface treatment such as plating with other metals. Data on the hydrogen contents of steels before and after surface treatment by hot extraction-thermal conductivity, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and UV-visible spectroscopy along with the mechanism are presented.

Jan 1, 2006

By H. Clare Horwood

"Three types of structures, the main shear zone, the north shear zone, and a series of hanging-wall fractures, contain all the orebodies so far discovered at the McKenzie Red Lake mine. Lenses and veins of quartz in these zones and fractures are the sources of the ore. The ore-bearing structures are unusual in that they are in a complex intrusive mass known as the McKenzie-Gold Eagle stock. They are believed to have been produced by compressive stresses from the south andsouthwest.The mine is on the northeast side of McKenzie island, in Dome township in the central part of the Red Lake area. The original discovery, the main shear zone, was made in 1928, about 3 years after the property was staked, by M. L. Bouzan who was in charge of prospecting and development work on the property. Subsequent diamond drilling and underground exploration led to the installation of a mill, which came into production early in 1935. The hanging-wall fractures were found branching out from the main shear zone during development work on the 350-foot level. The north shear zone was discovered in 1940.From 1935 when the mill began operation until the end of 1946 total production from the mine was approximately 269,349 oz. gold and 69,317 oz. silver, having a value of $9,679,739, recovered from 823,527 tons of ore.GENERAL GEOLOGYThe McKenzie-Gold Eagle stock has a total length of approximately 1 ½ miles and a width of about ½ mile. It was intruded into a complex synclinal fold in Timiskaming sediments. The sediments, which have been cut in only one place in the underground workings, are principally wellbedded greywackes. The stock is composed of large masses of diorite and granodiorite, a small mass of hornblende pyroxenite, and basic dykes of two ages. The diorite occurs as irregular masses in large measure surrounded by the granodiorite that it intrudes. It contains tabular crystals of andesine, having a maximum length of3/4 inch. The hornblende pyroxenite is an elongated lens or dyke in the diorite. The granodiorite masses occupy about two-thirds of the stock. Along its eastern side the main mass tends to become darker and more dioritic toward the diorite contact.Basic dykes of pre-vein and post-vein age are the youngest intrusive rocks at the mine."

Jan 1, 1954

By J. Reinhardt, R. Uken, S. S. Chinnasamy

Au mineralization in the Kilpwal Gold Mine is confined to laminated quartz-carbonate lodes and associated alteration along the Klipwal Shear Zone (KSZ) in the upper Mozaan Group of the Mesoarchaean Pongola Supergroup. The brittle-ductile shear zone is characterized by inner and proximal hydrothermal alteration domains that are comprised of chlorite, epidote, sericite, pyrite, arsenopyrite and gold. Possible sources of gold are: (i) paleo-placer U-Au rich conglomerates from the lower Mozaan Group; (ii) the underlying mafic volcanics of the Nsuze Group; (iii) greenstone belts in the basement to the Pongola basin. Post-Pongola granites probably provided the heat to mobilize auriferous fluids into the KSZ.

Jan 1, 2011

By N. Bartie

Realising the circular economy (CE) is faced with some significant challenges. Process metallurgy and its infrastructure play key roles at the heart of making the CE work. Therefore, the enabling role of process metallurgy within the CE will be central to the discussion in this paper, touching among others on product and system design as well as the key metallurgical and other process fundamentals that need to be investigated and understood to make the CE a reality. The central role of materials and its processing will be discussed in an integrated circular cities perspective. A key focus will be a discussion on designing a resilient “Smart Materials Grid” using and innovating metallurgical process engineering tools, which will manage the flows through Sustainable Circular Cities. The discussion will be using copper as leitmotiv of the discussion i.e. from copper ore, to metal, to complex products, recycling, product design and simulation and its impact. INTRODUCTION The transformation of our economies from linear to circular models in which waste materials become resources is the focus of the Circular Economy (CE) paradigm. Its important intentions: to take control of the damage we have been doing to the planet to ensure its livability and the welfare of future generations. This can only be achieved through careful utilisation of human, natural and economic resources. The concept is derived from several others (Beaulieu et al., 2015), of which Cradle-to-Cradle, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Industrial Ecology, and Life Cycle Thinking are just a few. Other relevant concepts include resource efficiency (RE), design-for-recycling (DfR), and various others discussed by Blomsma and Brennan (2017) and Homrich et al. (2018), as well as various R-hierarchies e.g. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (3R). However, does society comprehend these concepts, the actors and actions that influence them and how they interact? Do we know the limits of CE? Does society understand the key role of Copper and other metals to rendering the CE operable? True life cycle and systems thinking, focussed on simulation-based, process and metallurgical design are required to answer these questions. Lieder and Rashid (2016) identify nine widely-varying fields that study the concept ranging from sustainability sciences and engineering to economics, business, law, and social sciences. Overlap between questions addressed highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration (Nanz et al., 2017) in the assessment of the current status, and further steps needed to transform to CE. This doesn’t apply just in academia, but also in industry where concrete implementation of CE needs to occur at multiple levels, thus necessitating cooperation between government, civil society and other stakeholders (Beaulieu et al., 2015).

Jan 1, 2019

By H. Bannach

"This paper focusses on what seem to be the leading indicators of prosperity in the minerals industry during this decade: the geographical distribution of deposits, environmental impact, capital allocation and acid consumption. There is a potential for meeting environmental criteria at a reasonable profit margin, but those with limited acid demand within economic range will face hard times to meet growing environmental concerns, resulting in additional mine closures. At the other end, those with old waste dumps who are thinking about smelting capacity additions will need capital influx at a much larger rate than ever before. All things considered, a change should be made in the way the world's copper reserves are computed, because there is a growing need to internalize these effects back to the ore blocks before a meaningful estimate of reserves becomes available.IntroductionThe copper industry has undergone several changes during the past decade, many of which were expected to take place because they rel1ect the economics of ageing mines. However, many others took place that shocked the industry because they were not completely under control. The focus of this paper is to rel1ect on those changes, and on market expectations for this decade that somehow depend on their impact.To review the prospects for new mine developments and expansions from an industry perspective to a full extent, it would be necessary to consider not only the deposits themselves, but also geographical constraints, environmental constraints, labour composition, technology development and use, the availability of capital, ownership issues, and integration within the industry. This paper, however, will concentrate on only some of the key elements that are believed to playa major role in shaping the market in the decade that has just begun. These elements, all interconnected, are:"

Jan 1, 1992

By C. C. Allen, H. H. North

"The Young-Davidson mine is in the southeastern part of Powell township, in the district of Matachewan. It is 32 miles southwest of Kirkland Lake, 48 miles southeast of Timmins, and 25 miles by road Northwest of Elk Lake. The Young-Davidson and its neighbour, the Matachewan Consolidated mine, are the two present producing properties in the district. The Matachewan area is the southwestern extension of the Kirkland Lake belt or 'break'. The Young-Davidson mine since coming into production in 1934 has been operated by Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited. ""Desultory prospecting(1) has been carried on in the Matachewan area from time to time since the discovery in 1906 of silver in James township at Elk Lake, and some gold has been found in the southeastern part of Alma township and in the central part of Cairo township. The first real interest in the area, however, was started by Jake Davidson's discovery in 1916 of gold on Davidson creek, on what is now part of the Young-Davidson property, and by Sam Otisse's discovery shortly afterwards on claims a short distance to the east, now part of the Matachewan Consolidated property. In subsequent years both of these properties were investigated by various companies; the Young-Davidson chiefly by the Porcupine Gold fields Development and Finance Company, Limited, and the Matachewan Canadian by the Colorado-Ontario Development Company, Limited, which in 1919 was reorganized under the name of Matachewan Gold Mines, Limited. Work was discontinued as the ore was considered too low in grade to be mined"". However, in 1933 Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited, undertook to bring the property into production and this became a reality in 1934.The total production to the end of year 1945 was 319,185.59 oz. gold and 73,541.94 oz. silver from 3,228,845 tons of ore. This represents an average grade of $3.67, including exchange and premiums."

Jan 1, 1954

By Pierre Beaudoin, Michel Bourassa, Robert Lanthier, Samir Chéfaï

"Mine Doyon, in collaboration with CRM's Process Control Division, improved the control strategy at the SAG mill I Ball mill grinding circuit. The project aimed at increasing operation stability and throughput. First, a needs analysis was achieved in order to define the control philosophy and to upgrade the process control equipments and instrumentation. The stabilizing control strategy has been developed and implemented successfully using single loop PID controllers. The monitoring feature as well as the rule based supervisory control strategy were implemented on 486PCs running Process Vision and COMDALE/C softwares. Main features of the control strategy are described in this paper while results are presented and discussed.RésuméLa Mine Doyon, en collaboration avec le service de contrôle des procédés du CRM, a optimisé la stratégie de contrôle au circuit de broyage. Les objectifs du projet étaient !'amélioration de la stabilité de !'ensemble de !'opération et la maximisation du tonnage usiné. Une analyse de besoins a été réalisée pour concevoir la philosophie de contrôle et déterminer les ajouts a apporter a I 'instrumentation et au systeme de contrôle. Une stratégie de contrôle à deux niveaux, integrant stabilisation et supervision, a été developpee et mise en opération. La regulation est réalisee par une combinaison de contrôleurs Moore de type PID. Le monitoring et la stratégie de contrôle a base de règles soot implantés sur des micro-ordinateurs de type PC/486 avec les logiciels ProcessVision et Comdale/C. Les principaux aspects de Ia stratégie de contrôle sont décrits dans cet article et les résultats obtenus soot présentés et discutés."

Jan 1, 1995

By SeyedBijan Mahbaz

Development of Geomechanical Earth Models (GEM) is a prerequisite to reservoir management, involving issues such as stress path analysis, prediction of induced seismicity and sanding initiation, and coupled flow-stress modeling that leads to more realistic predictions of oil rates and rock response. Part of GEM development is the stipulation of the 3-D lithostratigraphic disposition (geometry) which is used to choose the geomechanical units. The digital geological model is then populated with quantitative and semi-quantitative data on rock properties, fluid properties, saturations, initial conditions (p, T, [_]) and other information. Both fluid and solid properties are needed this requires integration of geomechanics skills with geophysical and rock physics skills, and this article deals with a subset of this integration process, with an example from two wells in southwest Iran.Rock physics approaches are used to predict reservoir rock and fluid properties with wellbore and 3-D seismic data, which are also used to interpolate rock mechanics properties to the inter-well regions. The first step in a generic rock physics approach is diagnostic and involves the introduction of a suitable Rock Physics model.Acoustic impedance (AI), shear impedance (SI), and density (_) are the fundamental rock properties usually derived using AVO equations, and these parameters, along with attenuation coefficients, can then be correlated to static rock mechanics properties that define deformability and perhaps even strength. In this study, Poisson Impedance is introduced as a new seismic attribute used for lithology and fluid differentiation in the FahliyanFormation (reservoir rock) in two oil wells in the southwest of Iran. To do this, a novel rock physics model was developed for this naturally fractured carbonate reservoir.Currently, these data are also being used to correlate to a limited rock mechanics data base to develop a more extensive GEM to serve as input to more general geomechanical and reservoir modeling tasks.

Jun 1, 2012

By Robert D. Brown

"All ten Canadian provinces have now tabled their 1981 /82 budgets . Only the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia made more than minor modifications to their tax structures, with both Ontario and Quebec imposing major tax increases. In the past year, the federal budget was also released in the spring. Not so this year: we have that to look forward to in the fall!This month, Tax Notes presents a brief summary of the more significant tax changes introduced at the provinciallevels in the last months.Summary of provincial tax rate changesThe tax changes in this year's provincial budgets were both up and down- but there were far more tax increases than tax cuts.At the corporate tax level, two provinces, New Brunswick and British Columbia, increased their general corporate income tax rate; the former by two percentage points and the latter by one percentage point. Quebec, rather unexpectedly, sharply cut its corporate tax rate on business income, but increased some of its other business taxes at the same time. British Columbia reduced its corporate tax rate on small business income by two percentage points and Saskatchewan by one percentage point."

Jan 1, 1981

By John H. Fowler

"Barytes is one of the major components of drilling fluids used in oil and gas well-drilling. This mineral's close association with the petroleum industry bestows it with a commodity status not enjoyed by many other industrial minerals. Approximately 85% of world barytes production is used as a weighting agent in oil and gas well drilling while the remaining 15% is consumed mainly in the manufacture of barium chemicals, glass and as a pigment, filler or extender.Barytes mining began in Nova Scotia around 1865 and has continued until the present. Currently there are three barytes producers in the province one exporting pharmaceutical-grade barium sulphate and the other two supplying drilling mud-grade barytes to the offshore. Several barytes exploration and development programs are underway with excellent possibilities that Nova Scotia deposits will supply a significantly larger share of the drilling mud-grade barytes used in east coast drilling programs.Currently there is renewed interest in barytes activities in Nova Scotia because of its use as a weighting agent in drilling flu ids used in offshore oil and gas drilling programs.This paper reviews the use of barytes by the well drilling industry; outlines the history of barytes mining in the province, progressing to present-day exploration, development and production activities underway in Nova Scotia; and concludes with the market potential for Nova Scotia barytes."

Jan 1, 1986

By A. I. A. Salama, M. W. Mikhail

"A comprehensive software package has been developed at the Western Research Centre to meet many of the coal preparation requirements in the Canadian coal industry. This package performs three main functions: (1) data handling and manipulation; (2) data analysis, including the generation of washability data, performance evaluation and prediction, density and size modelling, evaluation of density and size partition characteristics, and attrition curves; and (3) graphics output.The software described in this paper is potentially a valuable tool for coal preparation plant engineers and operators for evaluating process performance and adjusting plant density separator cutpoints. Moreover, the analytical laboratory technician could find this package very useful in manipulating and presenting laboratory results."

Jan 1, 1997

By J. F. Dorion

This paper presents the results of on-going investigations on the performance of support systems in Québec underground mines. The focus of these investigations is on site observations complemented by laboratory investigations. Of particular interest is deducing the corrosion rate, at selected mine sites, as determined by the installation of monitoring coupons.

May 1, 2009

By Gennaro Delisle

"Les Services TMG (Niobec) currently treat a niobium ore in the Chicoutimi area of Quebec. The mineral pyrochlore is present in a carbonatite deposit which assays 5% to 7% apatite.The ore is ground to minus 65 mesh and deslimed at 10 micrometres. Part of the carbonates are floated with a fatty acid emulsion and rejected to the tailings as a first step to ensure the proper conditions for the flotation of the pyrochlore concentrate. The carbonate concentrate is 65% minus 44 micrometres and is composed of dolomite, calcite, 22% apatite and a minor amount of silicates.A laboratory investigation was undertaken to determine the feasibility of extracting apatite from the carbonate concentrate. This led to the development of an economic flowsheet to produce high-grade apatite concentrate. The apatite is depressed with phosphoric acid, and the pH is adjusted at 4.8-5.0 with sulphuric acid. An additional amount of fatty acid is added to permit efficient flotation of the carbonates. 1n a second stage, the silicates left behind with the apatite concentrate can be removed by depressing the apatite with AIC3 while floating the silicates with a secondary amine.The results of the laboratory tests indicate the possibility of producing an apatite concentrate assaying 38.3% P2O5 (83.7% BPL) with a recovery of 66.2%. Pilot-plant tests undertaken at the concentrator yielded a concentrate of 34% P205 and recovery of 76%."

Jan 1, 1981

By Errol Ladner

The application of large-diameter bore holes in underground operations at Heath Steele was first tried in February, 1975. Since that time, 90,000 feet of 6-l/2-inch holes have been drilled, primarily in open blasthole stoping, for a total of 1.4 million tons, 37% of underground production. This paper deals with a review of drilling with conventional percussion longhole drills, a practice which is still utilized at Heath Steele, and the changeover to accommodate the use of larger blastholes in underground operations. The discussion will include layouts for 2-inch-diameter blasthole stope blocks, 6-inch-diameter stope blocks, trials for I. T.H. (in-the-hole) stope rooms, and drill pat/ems, drilling and performance. The complexity involved in the development, drilling and blasting of 2-inch blastholes is overcome by the over-all simplicity of drilling and blasting in I. T.H. stopes. This has made the practice of open blasthole stoping more economical and efficient. The future indicates an increase in the company's I. T.H. program. Investigations are being undertaken regarding longer holes to decrease development costs. A VCR stope is also being developed for trial.

Jan 1, 1979