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Mineralogical analysis of a nickeliferous laterite from the Rockhampton region shows that the nickel is largely associated with the manganese wad and opaline silica. The laterite also contains an appreciable chromite content (about 12 per cent Cr2O,) although this tends to be poorly liberated.Leaching with hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, at atmospheric pressure at the boiling point is non-selective with respect to iron dissolution.The degree of dissolution increases as the acid concentration and retention time are increased; cobalt dissolution requires less aggressive conditions than does the dissolution of an equivalent amount of nickel.Leaching with sulphuric acid at elevated temperatures and pressures leads to a minimum amount of iron dissolution, is rapid, and requires a reduced acid addition rate. Nickel and cobalt recovery from the clarified leachate would be simplified because of the leach selectivity.Pressure leaching appears to be the most practical route for treating the Rockhampton laterite. The economics of processing would be made more attractive by the recovery of a chromium concentrate from the leach residue. This would typically contain about 45 per cent Cr2O, and could be used as a source of chromium chemicals.

Jan 1, 1986

By Grynberg H, Lindon P, Wardrop J

The Gippsland Basin is unique in Australia in that it is a major resource based industry centre within a sensitive and special environmental context supplying Melbourne, a major urban/industrial environment with most of its energy 'on-line'. The environmental effects of the supply systems are generally local and mostly affect only those who are directly or indirectly dependent on the upstream systems. The major urban metropolis which is served remains largely unaware of the environmental impacts of the system upon which it is dependent, except when specific attention is drawn to them as in the case of the Latrobe Valley Outfall, algal blooms in the Gippsland Lakes, etc. This paper discusses the environmental context within which the energy industries operate, the environmental legislative framework which applies, the likely environmental impacts and some solutions. The energy resources of the Gippsland Basin occur in an area where the physical environment exhibits a wide variety of inherent energy states in its physical and biological regimes. The off-shore regions of the oil and gas platforms has to be able to withstand the wind and wave energy generated in a shallow sea in a confined waterway lying athwart the main current and climatic stream. The coastline includes the delicately balanced quiescent environments of Corner Inlet with its 'wilderness' tourism industry and the powerful surf and long shore drift and dunes of Ninety Mile Beach.

Jan 1, 1992

By Keet B. A, Waid J. S

The Gippsland Basin is one of Australia's most important producers of petroleum products. An inevitable byproduct of the production, refinement and transport of the millions of barrels of oil is thousands of tonnes of waste. These wastes are generated from the wellhead through to the petrol bowser and range from oily brines and coal tars to oil and petrol contaminated soils. The vast majority of these wastes are of a relatively low toxicity and most importantly are carbon-based and biodegradable. Current disposal practices tend to ignore the latter characteristic and inappropriate and/or expensive waste disposal solutions such as landfilling (tipping), incineration or ocean outfalls are the result. A very cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative is land treatment of such wastes. Landfarming, as it is called, has been successfully practiced in Europe for over a decade. Essential features of the system are: ò Application of a predetermined quantity of biodegradable waste in liquid, sludge or highly contaminated soil form, to pre-ploughed soil with concurrent addition of nutrients (N, P and trace elements) and lime to encourage bacterial activity. ò Harmless bacteria already present within the soil break down the carbon-based compounds into carbon dioxide, water and waste heat, WHILE concurrently generating new cells. The breakdown occurs over a period of weeks to months and continues with time with the extremely low levels of the more difficult waste types being the last to disappear. ò Further waste is applied to the soil at regular intervals. The treatment area may be dedicated to landfarming or may be used alternatively for agricultural purposes. Application rates vary but may be as high as 800 tonnes per hectare per year for wastes such as refinery sludges.

Jan 1, 1992

Same-batch and non-blind as well as blind pulp duplicates are often submitted as quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) control samples to a routine laboratory along with routine assays (and other control samples such as reference material samples). The current ways of interpreting the results of duplicate assays to derive QA/QC conclusions and decisions, however, has not yet been formalised in a scientific manner. The current, prevailing approach and its limitations are reviewed and a new method is proposed as a substitute tool. This new tool should allow for operational error detection on a batch per batch basis (ie batch rejection) as well as laboratory performance assessment with time on reproducibility.

Jan 1, 2008

Terramin Australia LimitedÆs Angas Lead and Zinc Mine operates in the unique and picturesque environment of Adelaide Hills, 60 km South East of the Adelaide city centre itself. The mine was granted approval for construction by the South Australian Government in April 2007 and the Process Plant was constructed and commissioned in July 2008. This paper outlines the background to the plant design and the approval process given the close proximity to the local town of Strathalbyn, with a major focus on the commissioning learnings from the Concentrator startup for future reference and a review of the operational performance of the Concentrator throughout the first year of successful production versus design and expectations.

Jan 1, 2009

Using a cylindrical hydrocyclone with a long vortex finder as the separator, a batch sizer was developed for the fast comparative sizing of the coarse solids normally encountered in mineral pulps.Operating times as short as 2 or 3 min gave separations ranging from 16 mesh down to the subsieve sizes.Reproducibility was good and sensitivity was adequate for most applications.

Jan 1, 1968

By G Chitombo, D Francis, P C. Stewart, I Brunton

The ability to precondition (weaken) a rock mass to enhance caving (cavability and fragmentation) is becoming increasingly important, as more potential caving deposits are in stronger rock masses, and at greater depth. This paper discusses a full-scale blast preconditioning experiment conducted at the Cadia East mining operation, including quantification of visible and microscale blast damage. From a cave mining perspective, the objectives of the experiment were to quantify the effect of confined blasting on rock mass characteristics relevant to enhanced caving, and to provide calibration data for the purpose of numerically modelling alternative blast preconditioning designs.The experiment was located approximately 360 m below surface, and consisted of two f165 mm blastholes (60 m vertical holes) and eight HQ diamond drill monitoring holes (35 m horizontal holes). The diamond drill holes were used to sample the rock mass before and after the blast at varying distances from the blastholes. Rock mass blast damage was quantified both visually using core logging, and on a microscale using LABYRINTH® statistical analysis of X-ray microtomography data. Results from the experiment indicated four major findings:on the visible scale, the experiment indicated a 147 per cent increase in the number of hairline cracks within 5 m (p value = 0.015), but no change in geotechnical logging parametersmicroscale tomography of intact rock samples indicate significant localised intact rock damage up to 4 m from the blasthole (p = 0.007)preliminary point load test results indicate that blast damage results in a significant reduction in intact rock strength (p = 0.050)the significant increase in porosity and microfracture size associated with damage provides a mechanism for reduced intact rock strength due to confined blasting.CITATION:Stewart, P C, Brunton, I, Francis, D and Chitombo, G, 2016. Quantification of rock mass damage associated with a confined blast preconditioning experiment at the Cadia East block cave, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 119–132 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By J L. Mauk

The Gladstone Hill area hosts epithermal veins similar to those at Martha Hill, which is less than one kilometre away. There are several vein types in the Gladstone Hill area including (1) pyrite-marcasite, (2) quartz, (3) base metal sulfide, and (4) calcite. Pyrite veinlets formed first, whereas the quartz and carbonate veins formed later. The base metal sulfide vein occurs at depth and is predominantly comprised of quartz and chlorite intimately intergrown with pyrite, sphalerite, galena, and rare chalcopyrite. Platy calcite and massive calcite veinlets were the last vein types to form. Several vein textures occur in the Gladstone Hill area, including colloform and crustiform banding, lattice-bladed, zonal, comb, massive and feathery textures. Crustiform banded veins are the dominant texture and contain variable gold-silver grades. Colloform banded veins consist of ubiquitous quartz and minor chalcedony with gold grades as high as 60 g/t. The lattice-bladed texture forms from the deposition of calcite, which has been replaced in many samples by quartz, indicating that boiling and later cooling has taken place. Unreplaced platy calcite only occurs at deeper levels (>300 m). Zonal and comb textures are preserved in quartz and late-stage amethyst veins. Feathery textures within quartz are commonly associated with breccias and some colloform banding, and with significant Au-Ag grades.   The homogenisation temperatures (Th) of primary and secondary inclusions in quartz, amethyst and platy calcite range from 166 to 274¦C, with salinities <1.3 wt% NaCI equiv. The presence of vapor-dominated inclusions and primary fluid inclusions in platy calcite suggests that boiling occurred intermittently throughout deposition. The veins formed under a relatively flat lying paleowater table that occurred 280 - 300 m above sea level. The fluids involved in vein formation were alkali chloride in composition and low in CO2.

Jan 1, 2001

This modern plant was installed with the object of treating all oxide ore and payable dump material by the cyanide process.The plant is located on a ridge on the eastern side of Linda Gully. The mill -site has a slope to the south of 1 in 4.The new plant is of steel and concrete construction and was specially designed to suit the climatic conditions which exist at Mount Morgan.THE COARSE CRUSHING PLANTThe ore received from the, mine is dumped into a 600-ton steel bin which is commanded by a 3 ft. 6 in. gauge railway,The mine ore is conveyed by steam locomotives in rakes of five self-dumping 7-ton railroad cars. The dump material is mostly loaded by bull-dozers and conveyed to the binsin large motor lorries. Located on the top of the bin is a heavy railroad grizzly having 12-in openings through which all ore must pass.The flow of ore from this steel bin is controlled by a No. 7D 3-speed Ross chain feeder. It should be mentioned here that, although the bottom of the steel bin is inclined at an angle of 45°, it has been found, owing to the clayey nature of the oxide ore, that the live capacity of the bin is only about 50% of the total capacity.

Jan 1, 1939

A thermochemical model is developed to study the two-stage smelting reduction process for ironmaking without post-combustion. Steady-state multi-material and heat balance equations are solved simultaneously to study the effect of metallisation, slag basicity, coal rank and heat loss on consumption rates of coal, ore, flux and oxygen and production rate of slag to produce hot metal of a given composition, tapped at a given temperature. The model is applied to the commercial data for a COREX-plant producing a wide range of hot metal compositions, tapped at different temperatures. The computed rates of coal, slag, flux, ore and oxygen were found to be close to the reported ones, but an exact match could not be obtained. It is found that a four per cent change in metallisation brings changes the coal rate by five per cent, flux rate by six per cent, slag rate by eight per cent and oxygen rate by 13 per cent, while a ten per cent change in basicity changes the coal rate by ten per cent, flux rate by 13 per cent and oxygen rate by 22 per cent. Further, it is found that an increase in metallisation decreases the coal rate and export gas. At a given per cent metallisation, the coal rate and the export gas are lowest for anthracite compared to all other types of coal.

Jan 1, 1999

The mineral composition and microtextures of a cubanite-rich sulphide ore are described and cubanite breakdown textures are illustrated. The occurrence of cubanite in macroscopic dimensions is featured.The origin of the ore is tentatively related to a composite ore fluid arising initially from an ultramalic source and extracting some metal components from an older granite mass along the margin of which the serpentine was emplaced. Some alternative possibilities as to origin are also mentioned.

Jan 1, 1969

By Thompson D. R, Milton R, Perry K. M A

From the Department for Research in Industrial Medicine (Medical Research Council), The London Hospital; and the De Havilland Aircraft Company:M.R.C. INVESTIGATIONS IN 1936In 1936 the Industrial Pulmonary Disease Committee of the Medical Research Council investigated both clinically and radiologically a group of fifty workers who had been exposed for a number of years to the inhalation of alumina in the reduction factory of the British Aluminium Company. The results are shown in Table 1.They also considered the sickness records of all the workers (Hill, 1936), as compared with those in other parts of the factory (Table 2).

Jan 1, 1945

By Budiselic C, Hefter G

The uptake of gold by activated carbon from acid chloride solutions involves the reduction of gold(IIl) to metallic gold. Deposition occurs only on the surface of the carbon at localized active sites at first, and subsequently at less active areas. The rate of uptake depends on the surface area of activated carbon, which confirms results from a recently published study (de Siegel and Soto, 1984). Increased rates of uptake were observed at higher temperatures and lower chloride concentrations due to the decreased stability of AuCI4-, the major gold(IIl) species present. Recoveries of gold approached 100 per cent for a contact time of 60 minutes at 20°C in a well stirred solution initially 5 ppm in gold(III) and containing 0.5 per cent w/v coconut-shell carbon. The presence of 0.25 Mnitric acid or 100 ppm iron(IIl) had no detectable effect on either rate or efficiency of gold uptake.

Jan 1, 1985

Green policies have gained momentum since the 1972 Stockholm, Environment Conference. The environmental movement has influenced political initiatives both in New Zealand and abroad. Governments and international institutions have addressed local, regional and global environmental issues with varying degrees of success. New Zealand so far has not supported the United Nations' call for sustainable development in a consistent manner. New institutions and new rules for resource management mean there are opportunities to look after the land in different and more ecologically sensitive ways than has happened in the past. The increasing influence of regional councils in resource management planning will have important implications for mining and mineral exploration. These trends are discussed and possible future events outlined. Green policies have gained momentum since the 1972 Stockholm Environment Conference. Environmental issues are now global and the twentieth year Environment Conference planned for 1992 is likely to see new commitments made by world leaders and their national governments. Green politics may be the popular trend of the moment but green principles of managing the earth's resources are here to stay. There are many businessmen, many technologists, and many politicians who have hoped that the environmental movement was a passing fad and would fade into oblivion. The evidence is otherwise. Far from passing into oblivion, the environmental movement is growing rapidly. Each year brings further scientific data that indicates mankind is on a self destructive course unless we learn how to better manage the earth's natural resources. This information has contributed to a growing population of environmentally aware people. In the last 20 years there have been messages of concern about a population increase out of control and the energy crisis which focused on dwindling oil stocks. The issues are all interrelated including the present global issues of climate change and thinning ozone layers. The attention being given the messages by the United Nations and member states requires similar attention by industry. The problems have been identified; the challenge is to determine what should be done about them. Every challenge brings new opportunities and the future need not be doom and destruction. Mining is seen by some of the environmental action groups as unnecessarily destructive of the environment, but I do not see mining ceasing in the next few decades. Rather, the rules will be clearer with some areas excluded from mining, the methods of extraction will improve, the technology of processing will become more sophisticated and restoration of mining sites will be not only normal practice worldwide, but the end result may leave no hazards, may enhance the landscape and may result in acceptance of the industry by the general public. For that to happen, commitment and cooperation is required between the industry, the government, and society. As an Officer of Parliament my role is to review the system of agencies and processes established by Government for allocating, using and preserving natural resources and to report whether the system is maintaining and improving the quality of the environment. I also have a responsibility to see that the environmental planning and management carried out by public authorities is effective. That Ineans I have a keen interest in how the mining industry is administered by New Zealand public authorities, including Ministers of the Crown and district and regional councils. Today I intend to review the approach to resource management being taken by international agencies and by the New Zealand Government, and to comment on how environmental impact assessment for mineral exploration, as well as mining, may be administered in the future.

Jan 1, 1990

This paper forms the second of a series, in which it is proposed to communicate the results of an extensive research into the influence of alloying elements on the physical properties of lead, now being carried out in the Metallurgy School of the University of Melbourne.Some general comments on this research were made by the present writer as an introduction to the first contribution by R. S. Russell*: It was there pointed out that it was the intention to prepare lead as pure as possible, to determine its properties and then to make alloys with the various elements added singly, and in various combinations, in order to determine the effect of each. This line of action is still being pursued.It occurred to the writer, however, that this fundamental attack might, with advantage, be accompanied by a parallel investigation in which lead of commercial purity would form the basis material. In this way, using a standard *Professor of Metallurgy, University of Melbourne.

Jan 1, 1934

By Davies S. G, Mackey L. C

The oxidation of iron and nickel sulphide concentrates, and the dominant sulphide minerals which comprise them, has been studied under ignition conditions using thermogravimetry (fG). The concentrates were derived from various minesites and they showed differing tendencies to ignite. Ignition temperatures ranged from 416 to 488°C and the extents of reaction, measured at 500°C, varied from 64 to 88 percent. The reactivity of the least reactivematerial was improved significantly by grinding. Particles <63/lm showed 85 percent oxidation compared with 55 - 65 percent for particles >63/lm.Examination of the individual sulphide minerals revealed that these materials also have significantly different degrees ofreactivity and are subject to particle size effects. For particles <45/lm, the ignition temperatures were as follows:ò pyrite and violarite 380 - 385°C; pentlandite 425 - 430°C; and pyrrhotite 470 - 475°;ò for particles >90 /lm, the ignition values were: pyrite 395 - 400°C;ò violarite 430 - 435°C; pyrrhotite 540 - 545°C; and pentlandite 560 - 565°C.Using the data on the individual minerals it was possible to rationalise the differing degrees of reactivity of the concentrates. The role of the most reactive constituent in initiating the ignition reaction has also been discussed.Finally, the results of this work were found to compare. favourably with the behaviour ofthe concentrates in industrial and pilot-scale flash smelters.

Jan 1, 1989

Mine ore, reduced to minus 71/2 in. by primary crushers, is stockpiled. Size reduction of the reclaimed material by secondary and tertiary crushers is achieved in a closed circuit crushing and screening plant. Screen products of minus 30 mm plus 6 mm lump, and minus 6 mm fines are stockpiled by conveyor and stacker systems prior to rail despatch 10 port facilities at Dampier. Crusher settings, determined from experience, are closely maintained to obtain the desired lump/fines ratio. Chemical and sizing analyses from automatically taken samples are used to maintain product specifications. The beneficiation plant upgrades the fines product when this is necessary. The recorded wear life of individual plant components is the basis of a planned maintenance programme.

Jan 1, 1970

By C Simpson

The Pilbara region of Western Australia is well known for its abundant exports of hematite-goethite deposits, which have been mined and exported since the 1960s. Magnetite has also been mined in Australia throughout this period, although historically of much lower production volumes (WA Iron Ore profile, 2016). Magnetite offers a source supply of material >66 per cent iron grade product, which is used as premium feed (predominantly pellets) to blast furnaces or specialised steel mills.The Iron Bridge project area contains outcropping magnetite and hematite banded iron formation (BIF), which within the region was recognised as having potential to host economic mineralisation during the 1960s. Development within the project area, however, did not commence until Fortescue Metals Group acquired the tenements based on a 2004 agreement, formed a joint venture with interested groups and then initiated an assessment for magnetite (rather than hematite) mining potential. The combined deposits now have an identified large mineral resource inventory, with test work demonstrating they are able to produce a magnetite concentrate of greater than 66 per cent Fe over an extended mine life. This concentrate would be suitable for forming pellets or feed for direct reduced iron products.The deposits form a singular orebody, approximately 12 km in length by 1 km in width and extending to depths beyond 600 m. The four main deposits are geographically separate and have subtle mineralogical differences, thought driven by the degree of deformation and alteration within each area.Definition of the stratigraphy, structure and key mineralogy of the deposits has been carried out through several stages of exploration and project development. This has also included recent mining and processing of more than 1 Mt of feed material to an on-site processing facility. This demonstrated at a production scale that dry plus wet processing techniques can efficiently separate the magnetite from the gangue minerals to form a suitable (marketable) product.Geometallurgical classification of the host stratigraphy has been carried out from analysing the high volume of quantitative data available for this deposit. This has allowed definition of mappable units within the fresh BIF to be used as a driver in mine scheduling, delivering optimal feed to the processing plant.Construction of mine and processing facilities is expected to commence once all technical risks have been addressed, market conditions are deemed appropriate and approval is given by the joint venture partners.CITATION:Simpson, C, 2017. The Iron Bridge magnetite deposits, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 287–294 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

Factors of importance in the ntilization of coal fines are mentioned, and the results of flotation tests on coal fines from three important coal seams in New South Wales are presented.INTRODUCTIONEconomic utilization of fine coal is an important problem in the Australian coal industry, particularly as the proportion of fines mined is increasing with progressive mechanization.While the use of uncleaned coal fines may be economic, it may be preferable to beneficiate them, but the most economic process must be selected.For beneficiating coal finer than about 28 mesh, froth flotation can be applied, but mining engineers should avoid practices that may be detrimental to flotation. Such practices include the indiscriminate use of water, particularly that containing a wetting' agent, for dust suppression. In addition, clay stemming in wet conditions may produce slimes which could adsorb on coal surfaces, while the use of oils and greases as well as the application of stone dust and chlorides in roadway consolidation may influence adversely fine coal beneficiation.This paper deals with the application of flotation to samples of fine coal from the Bulli, Greta, and Victoria Tunnel seams. In addition a discussion is given of the mineralogical constitution, size analysis, and degree of liberation of ash constituents of the various samples.COAL SAMPLESRepresentative samples of coal from the Bulli, Greta, and Victoria Tunnel seams were obtained for testing.

Jan 1, 1961

By A Raza, D P. Kohn, D A. Foster, A J. W Gleadow

A large and increasing data base of apatite fission track results from sedimentary and granitic rocks exposed within the south-eastern highlands and along the continental margin ofAustralia provides constraints for the tectonic development of the south-eastern passive margin. The fission track results suggest that many regions of the south-eastern margin of Australia experienced distinct episodes of relatively rapid cooling during the middle Cretaceous to early Tertiary that can be attributed to the effects of rifting. One cooling episode is middle Cretaceous in age and related to denudation of the south eastern highlands from Tasmania to northern New South Wales between ~90 - 100 Ma. Rocks exposed along the present coast line record a later episode of rapid cooling, which is diachronous and decreases in age northward from ~80 to 90 Ma in northern Tasmania to southern New South Wales, ~60 - 80 Ma in central and northern New South Wales, and to ~50 - 60 Ma in southern Queensland. The results are consistent with models suggesting that underplating occurred inward of the rift along the eastern margin of Australia as a result of the onset of continental extension in the Tasman Sea at ~96 Ma. This resulted in a significant change in base level and km-scale denudation of much of the southeastern highlands. Subsequently, as breakup commenced during the Late Cretaceous at ~80 Ma and continued into the Paleocene at ~60 Ma, the second stage of cooling was imprinted on the rocks along the margin. This cooling is probably due to the relaxation of elevated geothermal gradients associated with rifting as well as some denudation. Because rifting was oblique to the present-day coast, different regions record different ages of cooling associated with the rift. The southern regions of New South Wales and Victoria yield ages associated with earlier rifting while regions of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland give ages associated with later rifting.

Jan 1, 1995