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By E. F. Paski

Geological materials are likely the most complex and challenging substances to quantitate by ICPOES (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy). For complex materials having widely varying compositions, spectral overlap interferences govern detection and quantitation limits attained by ICPOES based analytical methods.

Jan 1, 1993

By R. E. Brewer

Phelps Dodge Mining Company (Phelps Dodge) is operating a pressure leach vessel (PLV) for copper concentrates at the Bagdad Mine facility in Arizona. This single PLV unit was engineered and constructed based on continuous laboratory testing, reaction chemistry and kinetics, and available pressure vessel technology. The challenge of designing for optimum process retention time, agitation, oxygen mass transfer, temperature and pressure will be reviewed in this paper. The PLV interior lining, agitation equipment and compartment configuration chosen for the PLV will also be reviewed.

Jan 1, 2004

By R. N. Torbin

The degree to which automation, remote control and robotics have been used in the mining industry is far less compared to general industry. Reasons include the adverse working environment, the difficult work operations and the generally lower incentive for capital investments in new mining equipment. The author and his employer has been involved in the development of advanced mining and underground construction equipment. This equipment is designed to he remotely operated, to improve both productivity and worker safety. Many of these machines employ advanced electronics and robotic features. The types of machines that will be discussed include remote shaft lining and placement, remote excavation and mining operations, and automated conveyor systems.

Jan 1, 1991

By Simon J. McDonald

In late 2007 Neptune Minerals Plc. commissioned Genesis - a leading consultancy and engineering company affiliated to the Technip group - to undertake a Seafloor Mining Conceptual Study for mining of Seafloor Massive Sulphides (?SMS?) in Neptune?s New Zealand licenses. A key deliverable of the study was information to de-risk the perception of SMS mining for investors the minerals, and that deep-sea mining of SMS material is technically feasible, commercially viable and can safely be managed as a sustainable marine resource industry. The aim of the study, completed in April 2008, was to evaluate alternative existing marine technologies for seafloor mining, ore lifting, dewatering and surface offtake, considering the following parameters: ? Efficiency; ? Reliability; ? Safety; ? Environmental impact; and ? Cost

Jan 1, 2008

This paper details the development of a functional work index that characterises the relationship between the energy that is imparted by a Roller Press into materials, against the resultant size reduction achieved. Such a Roller Press work index is necessary for this new grinding technology to differentiate it from Bond's grinding work index, and to clear up confusion that arises with such a comparison to Bond. The energy usage in a Roller Press does not follow Bond's "Third Theory of Comminution" but rather Rittinger's theory of new surface creation. The relationships for such a work index have been developed from the viewpoint of an equipment manufacturer with the hope that they will be of assistance to the minerals industry in the design of grinding circuits incorporating Roller Press comminution. The work index contains modification factors that reflects the effect of oversize, fines, moisture. closed-circuit operation and roll surface characteristics on the energy verses size reduction relationship. It has evolved from the results obtained from testing of a wide range of ore and mineral types that include bauxite, coal, kimberlite, limestone, iron and chrome ores, base metal and gold ores. The results show that even for such a diverse range of materials, they all demonstrate similarities of behaviour when comminuted in a Roller Press.

Jan 1, 1997

By A. K. Sheik, W. G. Pariseau

A small underground mine in northern Idaho was used as an experimental facility for studying the role of water in the analysis of mine opening stability. Laboratory test data, borehole measurements and geological mapping assisted in constructing a coupled finite element model of the rock mass. The model was used to make quantitative estimates of: 1) rock stress, strain and displacement changes, and 2) water pressure and flow velocity changes that occurred during historical mining. Stope cuts and wet fills were included in the analysis. Stability of crown pillars between stopes was of particular interest. The relatively low effective stress and high rock mass strength showed that water pressure changes were of no great consequence in agreement with experience. The computational tools used in the analysis may be applied to other wet mines with appropriate changes to site-specific input data.

Jan 1, 1999

By Bekta? Uz

The study area is located between Orhangazi and Sapanca geographically known as Armutlu Peninsula (Figure 1). It is steep broken and mountainous with an area of 4000 km2. [ ] Economic marbles are investigated in regionally such as Orhangazi, Elmali, Menek?eyayla, Sapanca, Pamukova and they are seperated approximately 800 km2 (Figure 2). These marbles are massive, thick and dispersed as small sized outcrops in Armutlu Peninsula.

Jan 1, 2005

By M. Sengupta

Surface mining in arctic regions is characterized by many unique problems. Continuous and discontinuous permafrost (perennially frozen ground) occurs in most of the arctic and subarctic areas. Permafrost presents special problems of slope stability. Stability of permafrost depends on its temperature, moisture content, and material type. Permafrost slope fails due to solifluction, disturbance of ice-rich slopes, and liquefaction. Drilling and blasting of frozen ground present special problems. Depending on their degree of saturation with water, freezing soils and rocks have a number of important characteristics that affect blasting efficiency. Metals used in mining equipment and mining structures require special selection. At low temperatures, many steels lose most of their normal ductility and toughness (resistance to brittle fracture). This paper discusses engineering solutions to unique problems of arctic mining.

Jan 1, 1988

By Richard Louis Viner, William D. Leech, Walter A. Mergelsberg

With the construction management team established and a full funding agreement secured the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) now has the manpower and the financial resources to continue Metrorail construction into the 1990's. This paper describes WMATA's new role as construction manager after the transition from Bechtel Associates and gaining the full funding agreement with the Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) and regional governments to complete 84.7 Metrorail miles (136km). The authors review the most recent station and line tunneling projects. WMATA's contractors have employed the state of the art soft ground and hard rock tunneling equipment and methods - an earth pressure balance TBM, a closed face TBM, and the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). In final, the paper previews future underground work to be let under the funding agreement.

Jan 1, 1987

By Gary F. Meenan

The industrial practice of froth flotation for upgrading the quality of fine coal is a relatively complex, expensive, and inefficient process when compared to the coarse- and intermediate-size coal cleaning circuits. The differences in cost and process efficiency can be attributed mainly to the lower equipment throughput, the added cost of flotation reagents, and the fact that flotation is typically a manually operated process susceptible to fluctuating feed characteristics that influence the overall operating efficiency. The emphasis in recent years has been on improving the flotation process efficiency and lowering the cost per clean ton. This has been achieved by larger flotation cell designs, implementation of flotation reagent evaluation programs, and improved process instrumentation and control. These developments are reviewed along with other current coal flotation practices.

Jan 1, 1999

By Peter W. Harben, Edward M. Dickson

The distribution of metallurgical grade bauxite deposits will be discussed with the aid of a comprehensive table and a reference map. Information will include operating companies, mine locations, ore grade, and chemical analysis, geological environment, and production capacities. General comments will be made on the distribution of production and its relationship with major consuming regions. The pattern for the future will be assessed, including potential new producers, changing specifications and industry structure.

Jan 1, 1984

By L. Eros, R. H. King

The US Bureau of Mines has funded several research and development projects in computerized mine monitoring and control. Hardware and software components have been sufficiently developed so that mine operators have been provided with an efficient means to comply with federal regulations and increase mine safety. Several cost benefits have been realized as well, particularly with increased conveyor belt haulage availability. Western Fuels-Utah Inc. approached the Bureau to assist in planning, installing, and evaluating a computerized mine monitoring and control system because of the agency's research experience in this area. The installation was planned for Western Fuel's Deserado mine, located in Rangely, CO. Since a large, complex, underground mine producing about 2.4 Mt/a (2.7 million stpy) of coal was projected, the company anticipated significant benefits in safety and efficiency through a computerized monitoring and control system. A major part of the cooperative program was to document and evaluate the system design, installation, and operation. This will assist others to adequately design, specify, install, and operate future systems. Mine description The Deserado mine plan and layout have important impacts on the monitoring system requirements. Long range plans are to produce 2.4 Mt (2.7 million st) of clean coal annually from two longwall sections and four continuous sections. Presently, two continuous miner sections operate under 213 m (700 ft) of overburden in the 2.3 to 2.5 m (7.5 to 8.5 ft) thick D seam to develop main, submain, and panel entries have developed for a longwall. These began operation in December 1986. Belt conveyors haul the coal from the mining sections to a 1.4-m (54-in.) belt located in the upper compartment of the slope. The lower compartment contains a hoist for men and material transport. From the slope, the coal moves to two 9 kt (10,000 st) raw coal storage silos, then to a 680-t/h (750-stph) preparation plant. After cleaning, a 5.5-km (3.5-mile) overland conveyor carries the coal to a clean coal slot storage and rail load-out facility. An electric locomotive then transports the coal to the Bonanza Power Plant in Utah. Allen-Bradley monitoring and control hardware and software controls the preparation plant, with two PLC-3 programmable controllers and a Process Control Industries D-1200 color graphics interface. The system operator uses three "smart" color video display units and an alarm printer for hard copy records. Originally, it also monitored and controlled the conveyors from the bottom of the slope to the top of the raw coal silos, the preparation plant, the overland conveyors, the main mine ventilation fan, and the hoist. Some of these features, though, were later transferred to the mine system.

Jan 2, 1988

By J. D. Miller

Pilot-scale tests indicate that effec¬tive concentration of fine gold from Colorado River sands can be achieved by flotation with the air-sparged hydrocyclone. The fine sands (55% minus 400 mesh and 0.01 opt*) from gravity concen¬tration were processed with a 5-cm air-sparged hydrocyclone (capacity -1.0 tph dry solids). Concentrate grades as high as 5.0 opt were produced in a single stage at a recovery of 75.0%. The separation efficiency was significantly better than that achieved in conventional batch flotation experiments.

Jan 1, 1985

By J. A. Herbst, Z. Rogovin

In order to develop more accurate procedures for scale-up and design of semi-autogenous grinding mills through detailed mathematical models, a better understanding of the charge motion and rocklball segregation is needed. To achieve this a 0.61 m (2.0 ft) diam by 0.305m (1 .0ft) length plexiglas mill was constructed as a scale model of a commercial SAG mill. Rock motion in the rotating mill was simulated using various sizes of ceramic balls. Quantitative measurements of dynamic angle of repose, water and slurry motion, holdup and size segregation of the charge were taken. In addition, a video presentation (available to the public) was prepared to elucidate charge and water motion at various mill speeds, charge volumes, rocksize distribution, and flow rates.

Jan 1, 1990

By Changhong Huang, Y. J. Wang

This paper describes the formulation of mine ventilation network optimization as a standard nonlinear programming problem and the solution of the problem using the generalized reduced gradient (GRG) method. In general, the GRG method is regarded as one of the most effective and efficient methods for solving large-scale nonlinear programming problems. The variables considered in the network optimization include air quantity, regulator pressure loss, and fan pressure for each branch. Each of the variables is constrained by lower and upper bounds. This facilitates proper assignments of ventilation requirements and provides a great flexibility to include various situations encountered in mine ventilation. The objective of the network optimization is to minimize the overall air power consumed by or supplied to the network; whereas the constraints are, in addition to the variable bounds, the two fundamental network laws: Kirchhoffs voltage law and Kirchhoffs current law. A computer program has been developed based on the GRG method for the network optimization. An example of network with 18 branches, 8 regulators and 3 fans is included for illustration.

Jan 1, 1993

By Regina N. Tempel, Laurie S. Balistrieri, Lisa L. Stillings, Lisa A. Shevenell, Maggy F. Lengke

Dexter pit lake, within the townsite of Tuscarora, Nevada, has been in existence since 1990 and provides a natural laboratory for the study of cycles of trace elements associated with ore deposits (e.g. As, Cu, Pb, and Se). Our goal in this study is to develop and calibrate methods of geochemical modeling that may be applied to estimating the concentrations and fluxes of trace elements in pit lake systems. Our initial modeling work considers limnology, hydrology, wall rock mineralogy and geochemistry, benthic fluxes, and colloid composition. Results from our work may be useful in evaluating water quality in the arid West.

Jan 1, 2000

An insufficient hydrologic data base exists for most large and small coal basins in Alaska owing to the lack of need in the past to collect data. The runoff process is insufficiently understood which is complicated by specifically northern phenomenon, and the lack of understanding of hydrologic relationships in permafrost environment. This paper presents an understanding of the hydrologic effects of frozen ground and presents methods by which the influence of surface mining upon the hydrologic balance can be analyzed.

Jan 1, 1988

By C. B. Rash, W. W. Fowler, Gill Montgomery

INTRODUCTION Fluorspar is the common term used for the mineral fluorite, which is naturally occurring calcium fluoride (CaF2). It is the principal source of fluorine, the most reactive of the chemical elements, from which a great variety of unique and strategically important chemicals are produced. Commercial deposits of fluorspar are widespread throughout the world, and its availability is essential to the industrial progress of all nations. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY In its pure form fluorspar, CaF2, contains 51.1% calcium and 48.9% fluorine, and has a sp gr of 3.18 and a hardness of 4. It is commonly a glassy mineral. colorless, white, or grayish. but may also be various shades of purple, pink, blue, green, yellow, or tan. It belongs to the cubic system mineralogically, and commonly crystallizes into cubic shapes in vugs and cavities, although most of it is massive, with interlocking crystals. Minable fluorspar deposits, in descending order of importance, occur as bedded limestone replacement deposits along fault zones; fissure-filling vein deposits; breccia filling in limestones, dolomites,

Jan 1, 1985

By John K. Adams

Phosphorus may be incorporated into sedimentary rocks in at least four different ways: (1) by the accumulation of detrital mineral fragments, (2) by the accumulation of phosphatic organic debris, (3) by diagenesis and (4) perhaps by the primary precipitation of calcium phosphate. Based-on the petrographic examination of Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments from the northern and central parts of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Diagenesis is the most important of these mechanisms. Both syndiagenesis and epidiagenesis are required to explain the origin of all the diagenetic phosphate mineral species which occur in the northern and central parts of the coastal plain. Syndiagenesis produced much of the coastal plain's apatite. It was operative below the sediment-water interface while the substrate was being compacted. Compaction forced pore waters, which were enriched in phosphate by the decomposition of organic matter, upward through calcareous sediments. The PO43- radicle replaced the CO23- and calcareous nodules, pellets and shell fragments were converted to apatite. Epidiagenetic reactions occurred in the subaerial environment where downward percolating meteoric waters carried phosphate in solution to cites where cation activity was sufficiently high to form new minerals. Vivianite may form where ferrous iron is available and wavellite and variscite may form in the presence of aluminum rich minerals. Textural evidence suggests that many of the reactions were repeated. The present day appearance of apatite, vivianite, wavellite and variscite in the coastal plain may represent several generations of diagenesis.

Jan 1, 1972

By N. T. Rempe

The underground voids that result from mining provide opportunities for deep geologic waste disposal (DGWD). Such disposal could solve many environmental problems. DGWD takes careful planning, technology transfer and true partnership between waste generators and mine/repository operators. The US government is now planning on using specially mined excavations to dispose of radiotoxic and mixed waste. Using the experience gained from the domestic projects that are now in preparation and from foreign repositories that are now in operation, US mines can claim their rightful share of the growing market for DGWD.

Jan 1, 1997