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By M. Wallin

Millions of tons of sludge from different metallurgical processes are produced worldwide annually, and the environmental impact of landfilling these often hazardous sludges stresses the need to understand their role as valuable resources. The current work explores the potential of producing a saleable low-phosphorous ferromanganese alloy by utilizing sludge from the silicomanganese industry together with an iron source. The aim of the project is to explore the feasibility and practical challenges related to reduction and dissolution of manganese and silicon from the sludge to liquid metal and slag. Parameters such as ratio of input material as well as the effect of adding limestone and coke to the mixture were explored by thermodynamic calculations and adapted experimentally. Results show that a ferromanganese alloy, in fact, can be formed, while silicon and calcium forms a complex slag that captures a significant amount of impurities.

By P. James

"INTRODUCTION Control of target stream acidity is widely used in MIW (mining influenced water). Tailoring pH (a measure of acidity) finds application for controlling key chemistry in both process and waste streams. Traditional lime addition for neutralization and precipitation is most often used but has high reagent costs and results in large amounts of mixed metal sludge requiring costly disposal. A new adaptation of BPS’s patented DEMET™ technology (Dynamic Electrolytic Metal Effluent Treatment) platform offers a potentially improved and “reagentless” alternative to traditional chemical addition for pH adjustment. Electricity rather than chemical addition utilized in BPS’s proprietary approach controllably tailors target stream pH. The method offers a simple, low-cost processing technique yielding cleaner treatment chemistry. BPS’s “green” approach may yield lower operating (OPEX) and life cycle costs and significant reductions (up to 50%) in sludge generation compared to conventional lime treatment. It can also allow new opportunities to generate revenue via selective recovery of valuable processing byproducts. Specific savings and revenues depend on the target site chemistries, details, and processing goals. A more detailed discussion of the process and its operational principles may be found in Reference One.[1] Here application of the BPS treatment to POx (Pressure Oxidation) leaching as an alternative to traditional chemical addition is examined. An example operation process flow for gold mining is considered.[2] Promising processing points for potentially replacing conventional processes with DEMET are noted. The possibilities for lowering OPEX costs, lessening sludge creation, and capturing various valuable byproducts and residuals are examined. Financial life cycle benefit estimates of the principal gains provided by DEMET application to the example operation are noted. Extension and generalization of the analyses to a wider range of scenarios is explored."

Jan 1, 2016

By Carlo Vargas Bolívar

Dado que en el 2003, se publicó la primera serie de estándares para la aplicación y certificación del Código Internacional para manejo del cianuro, se incrementó el número de compañías qe buscan certificarse con este estándar. En ese sentido, el presente texto describe el proceso para la certificación de este Código del Cianuro, evolución, ventajas y marco legal. El objetivo del Código es mejorar el manejo del cianuro utilizado en la minería del oro y ayudar en la protección de la salud humana y reducción de impactos ambientales. El programa se centra exclusivamente en el manejo seguro del cianuro, relaves de molienda de cianidación y soluciones de lixiviación.

Sep 1, 2014

By Charles L. Harness

Magnesia (MgO) has a variety of uses, and it has become increasingly important as a war material because of the imperative demand for refractories to line metallurgical furnaces, and because magnesia is used to make the in aircraft and other implements of warfare. Magnesia occurs as an integral part of nearly 60 minerals, but it is extracted commercially from only a .smaller number, of them. The present commercial sources are magnesite, brucite, dolomite, raw sea water, sea water bitterns, and well brines. Magnesia Raw Materials Magnesite magnesium, carbonate MgCO3, theoretically contains 47.8 percent MgO and 52.2 percent CO2. There are two varieties of magnesite, crystalline and cryptocrystalline (dense or amorphous). The latter type, though, not so plentiful as the former, is generally purer. It resembles unglazed write pottery in texture, whereas the crystalline variety is generally dark and granular, though the color may vary. The principal domestic deposits, of crystalline magnesite are near Chewelah, Stevens County, Wash. (which has supplied most of the magnesite mined in the United States), in the Gabbs Valley area of Nevada (near Luning); and in Llano County, Tex. Crypto-crystalline magnesite occurs principally in California. Magnesite occurrences have also been reported in several other States, including New Mexico, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maryland, but these deposits have not been developed commercially.

Jan 1, 1943

By M. G. Zabetakis

This publication describes an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Mines regarding the cause of an explosion of a dephlegmator or fractionating column at the Cities Service Oil Company Refinery, Ponca City, Okla., January 22, 1959. The column was that used with the refinery's No.1 Dubbs Coker. The explosion caused the death of an employee of the refinery and resulted in extensive damage to the refinery and to nearby property. The Bureau's study of the explosion began January 26.

Jan 1, 1960

By Laura A. Sanders

Mineral scale formation is prevalent in numerous mining operations. Such scale formation can occur in the direct-contact heat exchangers ahead of an autoclave. In these heat exchangers, the incoming slurry comes into contact with steam in a stage-wise fashion, which is re-circulated from the downstream flash vessels to heat the slurry in stages ahead of the autoclave. Calcium sulfate scaling causes severe problems in mining operations where increased temperatures are involved due to rising temperatures promoting calcium sulfate scaling through a decreasing solubility. In a number of these operations, the scale formation can occur in the presence of mineral solids, where fine-grained charged particles are at concentrations in excess of 35%. Scale prevention is not difficult in standard aqueous systems; however, the presence of solids leads to significant deficiencies in the prevention of scale due to the adsorption of the polymer onto the charge solids instead of the polymer interaction with the scale. Therefore, a technical solution to prevent mineral scale build up occurring in presence of pulp slurry in mining operations is needed. Several novel antiscalant technologies were developed and evaluated which provided a substantial improvement in the scale prevention in such systems.

May 1, 2013

By BURCU NILGUN CETINER, Serdar Aktas

Antimony has been used extensively in industry and in everyday life since the 19th century, and antimony sulfides have been known since around 4,000 B.C. Antimony’s most significant applications are as a flame retardant in the manufacture of electronics and textiles, as a catalyst for plastic fabrication, and as paint pigment and fining agent in glassware, opacifier in ceramics and an alloying element in ammunition and battery manufacturing plants. It is also used in vehicle brakes and tires. Brake pads contain stibnite (Sb), the sulfide compound of antimony. In particular, stibnite is used in automobiles as a lubricant, vibration reducer and friction stability improver. Anthropogenic activities are the primary source of antimony in the atmosphere [1,2]. Annual global consumption of antimony has increased to more than 1.4 × 105 t, and China is the most significant producer [2].

By Violeta Vigo, Sara Laughton

Cajamarca es uno de los departamentos con mayor historia y presencia del sector minero a nivel nacional; sin embargo, en la región solo el 22,9% de la población adulta accede a créditos formales en el sistema financiero (INCORE, 2022). Las mujeres tienen más restricciones que los hombres para acceder al crédito formal. Respondiendo a esta problemática; desde el 2008, en colaboración con el Banco de Desarrollo del Perú (COFIDE), la Asociación los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC) fundación empresarial de Minera Yanacocha, viene implementando un proyecto de educación financiera que apoya a las comunidades locales a optimizar la gestión de sus ingresos y ahorros.

Sep 29, 2023

By Javier Antoñanzas, Susana Caballero, Eduardo Fernández, Jorge Aragón, Juan Carlos Múgica, Lourdes Yurramendi

Air Pollution Control (APC) residues treatment by plasma was studied as a technology for vitrification. During the project a protocol to verify the plasma technology was developed and afterwards applied to a specific case study: the APC residues from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators (MSWI). Different operational conditions were tested and the vitrified products obtained were analyzed using standardized leaching tests in order to evaluate their new properties concerning safety storage. Two leaching tests were used for the evaluation, the European EN 12457-4 compliance test for leaching of granular waste materials and the French XP X 31-211 test for the determination of the leachability of a solid waste material initially massive or generated by a solidification process. Finally, conclusions about the environmental performances of the technology were obtained.

Jan 1, 2008

By P Holtham, K Duffy, W Valery, A Jankovic

As high grade ore deposits are depleted, remaining deposits are generally lower grade and require the mining and processing of larger volumes of material per tonne of product. These low grade deposits often contain a large proportion of barren gangue. Pre-concentration aims to remove this barren material at as coarse a particle size and as early in the process as possible. This has the potential to reduce processing costs, energy and water consumption, increase production and improve resource utilisation.There are several technologies that may be applicable for pre-concentration. This paper looks specifically at bulk ore sorting and how it can be integrated into existing or new mining operations to improve profitability and reduce environmental impact. Bulk ore sorting is the separation of barren gangue from a fully loaded conveyor belt based on the grade as measured or inferred from a sensor measurement. It may be used to increase the production rate through fixed plant capacity, or increase production and/or reduce the size of downstream processing equipment in Greenfield operations. Marginal ore sub-economic reserves may be upgraded, making them economic to treat and improving the resource utilization. Bulk ore sorting could also be used to reduce dilution and ore loss in mining operations by improving grade control, or to separate ore types to treat via different process routes. Various applications of bulk ore sorting are discussed in this paper, and three cases are investigated considering the impact on the overall operation and the associated benefits.CITATION:Duffy, K, Valery, W, Jankovic, A and Holtham, P, 2015. Integrating bulk ore sorting into a mining operation to maximise profitability, in Proceedings MetPlant 2015, pp 273–287 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 7, 2015

By Pablo dos Santos Pina

O alto custo do coque na produção de zinco no Forno Waelz da Votorantim Metais Zinco, em Juiz de Fora, ensejou a realização de testes em parceria com o SENAI CIMATEC para utilização de combustíveis alternativos na Planta Piloto, com o objetivo de mapear a viabilidade técnica e financeira para utilização na Planta Industrial. Ao longo dos testes foram utilizados: cavaco de eucalipto, chip de pneu e moinha de carvão vegetal. Os testes foram realizados com sucesso, apresentando oportunidades de substituição do coque usado atualmente por combustíveis alternativos, com potencial de ganho financeiro para VMZ JF. Este potencial precisa ser validado em testes em escala industrial.

Aug 17, 2017

By H. W. Gillett

BATTELLE Memorial Institute is an endowed in stitution for scientific research in metallurgy, fuels, and allied fields, established by the will of Gordon Battelle, 2nd, as a memorial to his father, Colonel John Gordon Battelle. Before I tell you more of what Battelle Memorial Institute is, I want to go back a bit and tell you why it is. Colonel Battelle began his services in the iron and steel industry in Wheeling in 1866 and in 1883 came to Ohio, where he successively engaged in the iron and steel industry in Cincinnati, Piqua and Columbus. The family had been prominent in Ohio affairs since 1788, when Gordon Battelle's great-great-grandfather came from New England to settle in Marietta. He was one of the pioneers and a member of the famous "Ohio Company."

Jan 1, 1929

By C. D. Messelt

The Bureau of Mines investigated the application of a diffusion model to sintering rate data developed for lithium titanium ferrite. The data were obtained by sintering pressed pellets under identical conditions for various times up to 11 hours. Stereological measurements were made on polished sections, and sintering rates were calculated. A model for intermediate stage sintering was fitted to the stereological data. This procedure produced a method by which these type data could be used to study the relative importance of volume and grain-boundary diffusion under a variety of sintering conditions.

Jan 1, 1979

By Rafael Abreu Fraga

Em qualquer novo investimento, o desafio é ter um projeto com uma fábrica com flexibilidade para produzir uma ampla gama de produtos de alto valor agregado para atender a demandas futuras dos setores de energia, naval, construção e equipamentos pesados. O emprego de equipamentos robustos com elevado nível de automação é fundamental para isso. Um componente chave é a utilização da laminação totalmente automática através de modelos físicos integrados com o controle dos equipamentos e das temperaturas de processo objetivando alcançar patamares diferenciados de produtividade e qualidade. Este trabalho visa apresentar os novos recursos técnológicos incorporados a nova linha de Laminação de Chapas Grossas da Gerdau em Ouro Branco/MG.

Aug 17, 2017

By V. D. Jalevsky

A new methodology of an experimental-analytical approach has been developed. It is used in building an information geomechanic monitoring system for the modeling of geomechanic processes during coal seam working. The approach synthesizes experimental (in-situ) measurements of rock pressure manifestation in separate points, methods of numerical modeling of processes on rock boundaries with coal, and a seam analytical calculation of rock mass in a spatial strained state. One of the realizations of this approach is the developed theory and calculation method of adjoining rock surface shift (overhang) formation during underground working of sheet deposits and of rock mass geomechanic state determination. There are description algorithms of cavity configurations with broken lengths of faces during underground working of useful mineral sheet deposits. These algorithms have been used in computer modeling of formations of adjoining rock surface overhangs and abutment pressure upon rock mass in the area of coal faces with irrectilinear longwalls. Peculiarities of surfaces shifts and stress allocation are established for different face schemes. The use of theory and methods alloww working out techniques of automatic control to receive processing algorithms of RPM measurement results and calculate geomechanic situations within panels in the process of planning and development as well as during mining, i.e., to carry out long-term prediction, in-line control, and short-term prediction of rock pressure manifestations.

Jan 1, 1996

By C Dick

Over the past three decades, mining operations have seen a significant increase in the use of contractors for mining, camp management and catering, recruitment, maintenance, power management, and commissioning. More recently contractors have been engaged for stores and logistics, OH&S, environmental, exploration, training etc. In some countries, such as South Africa, the trend is towards total outsourcing of all aspects of a mining operation which is coordinated by the owners’ management team.During the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) more Australian companies considered and/or took on this approach to recruiting for both projects and operations as mining companies were forced to rethink their corporate strategies as commodity prices plummeted to low levels, pushing operations and projects into potentially financially unviable territory.This paper discusses the labour recruitment, commissioning and operating strategy of Western Areas NL (WSA), with the assistance of Independent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd (IMO), as it progressed construction, commissioning and operation of the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrator at the Forrestania Nickel Project during and post GFC. The use of IMO contractors allowed Western Areas to mitigate labour cost risk during the uncertainty caused by the GFC and let their management team focus on the task of bringing a new operation into viable and profitable production.

Aug 8, 2011

By Walther Rodolfo Ventura Gallardo

El presente texto señala un ejemplo de desembalse de relaves desarrollado en el campamento Comihuasa, perteneciente a la Compañía Minera Cautelosa S.A., donde se afectó las condiciones naturales de los ríos, población y actividades productivas. Por tal motivo, se ejecutó un plan de acción inmediato y de corto plazo que consiste en un estado de alerta de los establecimientos de salud, protección del ganado para evitar que beban agua de los ríos contaminados, inventario de animales afectados por falta de agua segura para su consumo, construcción de abrevaderos, abastecimiento de agua para ganado, recojo de relaves y suelos afectados, su disposición adecuada y segura, rehabilitación de suelos, recuperación de pastizales, repoblamiento de especies acuáticas en los ríos, supervisión del cumplimiento de las medidas de remediación, y recuperación de la calidad ambiental y sanitaria de los ríos.

Jul 1, 2014

By H. M. Woodrooffe

This paper deals with the laboratory facilities at the Mines Branch for carrying out research in the industrial minerals field, and also reviews current programs in ceramics and construction materials, in non-metallic minerals and in the milling of industrial minerals. It then discusses the application of these pro-grams to industrial problems.

Jan 1, 1967

By Pat DeWilliam

The Yakobi nickel-copper deposit is located essentially at tidewater in the east-central part of Yakobi Island, about 16 1 airline km (100 airline miles) west of Juneau, and can be reached by float plane and boat from Juneau and Sitka. The fishing village of Pelican, population 400, is situated 14.5 km (9 miles) to the east. An unimproved road, approximately 4 km (2.5 miles) long, connects a dock site at Lisianski Strait with the main part of the deposit known as the Basin Area (Fig. I). Other mineral occurrences are known as the Takanis, Flapjack, and Beach Areas. Another smaller nickel-copper deposit is located about 32 km (20 miles) to the south on Western Chichagof Island and is known as the Mirror Harbor nickel-copper deposit. The original discovery of the Yakobi deposit was made by S.H.P. Vevelstad about 1920 and a 47.5-m (156-ft) long adit was driven on the southwest side of the deposit in the Basin Area. The deposit was examined by J.R. Van Fleet of Union Carbide in 1930 and by J.G. Fairchild in September 1931. Stanley and Yates of the International Nickel Co. of Canada (Inco) visited the property in August or September 1937. In 1942, the controlling interest in the deposit, covered by 124 unpatented claims, was said to be held by Vevelstad and associates

Jan 1, 1991

By George Young

DURING the spring of 1910 I visited a number of open-pit brown-coal mines and underground workings in the vicinity of Halle, Halberstadt, Leipsic, Cologne and Bonn. The notes which I took and the observations which I made at the time have been condensed and make up the principal part of this paper. Certain supplementary information has been taken from several sources which are given in the paper. The mining of brown coal is one of the important industries of Germany. The coal varies in color from dark brown to almost black and is soft like loam. Pieces of wood and strips of bark and, even parts of tree trunks are frequently encountered in the excavation although the coal for the most part consists of a pulverulent, more or less matted mass of small particles of vegetal matter. It is a product between peat and lignitic coal. An analysis, taken from Coal Resources of the World shows the approximate composition of the material: Moisture, 53.73 per cent.; ash, 4.98; fixed carbon, 18.08; volatile carbon, 23.31 per cent. The principal characteristic is the amount of moisture. This seldom runs less than 48 per cent. The ash is usually low and ranges from 5 to 10 per cent. The sulphur content is usually less than 0.5 per cent. The heating effect of the fuel ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 calories.

Jan 2, 1916