Search Documents

By A. Tor, M. Borowski, N. Szlazak, D. Obracaj

This article presents possibilities of reducing methane emission to the atmosphere in working mines in Jastrzebie Coal Company by means of proecological solution. They form a new approach towards the problem of rational and effective use of natural resources both in economical and environmental respect. Power and thermal energy for underground air conditioning in mining excavations are produced from the methane, which is drained out of the mine for safety reasons.

Jan 1, 2003

By D. F. Lascelles

D. F. Lascelles (School of Earth Sciences, MacQuarie University, North Ryde, N. S. W., Australia)- The paper contains many misconceptions commonly held by both geologists and soil scientists with regard to soil processes. The analogy between supergene copper enrichment and "nickel laterite" deposits is quite apt and the use of nomenclature from the former in describing supergene nickel deposits is justified. However, care must be exercised with regard to the notable differences in

Jan 1, 1974

BATMINÖ, BATMINEÖ, BATMINDÖ are an abbreviation for Business Analysis Tools for Mining, Mine Evaluation and Mine Design respectively. BATMINP are proprietary tools customised to suit individual client requirements. The first suite of tools provides for analysis and evaluation of open pit mining equipment alternatives and includes fleet selection, fleet sizing and production, productivity and economic outcomes. The models address all mine process activities including drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and auxiliary services. All models are built to provide for simultaneous evaluation of multiple alternatives that are time and condition related. Provision is made for modelling from first principles and/or default or shortcut inputs. Sensitivities to key input parameters are easily performed and consistent logic is applied throughout the process. The models are built to provide key outputs in a format suitable for presentation and documentation. Provision is also made in the models for validation of both inputs and outputs through benchmarking, back analysis and budget comparison. The same models can be used for short interval (12 month) planning and control, medium-term (three to five years) and long-term life-of-mine (LOM) planning. Millions of dollars are spent each year on mining plant and equipment. Decisions that impact on the medium and long-term are made. BATMINP tools have been used to perform studies with good results and in most cases the studies have been validated through back analysis and comparing model outcomes to real data.

Dec 6, 2010

By Oliver Zach

To know as much as possible about the condition of the refractory material (lining thickness, slag layer, build ups, ...) in an high temperature furnace is very important due to the safety and economic impacts. The new CONSCAN system offers the possibility to measure the inner surface of an furnace, and based on this results to calculate the thickness of the refractory lining, slag layer, build ups,.... The CONSCAN System provides this results as figures and graphics. This system is also working under hot conditions so it is not necessary to cool down the furnace. Based on these results the process control and the refractory lining concept could be optimized for maximum campaign life of the furnace.

Jan 1, 2006

By R. Rushforth

The surge of activity in the solar energy market, spurred by government incentives, has created new and more efficient solar technologies, but issues surrounding land- and water-use have backlogged the full-scale development of solar farms. This paper explores siting solar power plants on degraded or polluted lands, such as mine tailings impoundments. Historically, mining and has been integral to Arizona?s economy, but has dwindled in relevance due to urban pressures and environmental regulations. Currently, it is legal to site solar power plants on degraded or polluted lands, but the question remains whether the economics of this degraded lands solar development is more favorable than developing pristine land. Therefore, we explore economics of developing mine tailings impoundments at both the institutional and financial level. Methods of research for this paper were interviews with government regulators, environmental advocacy organizations, farmers, and mining company executives. Financial models using extant tax incentives show a positive net present value for the installation of solar power plants, even when accounting for the costs of land remediation.

Jan 1, 2011

By Qingzhu Li

The brewing industry byproduct, spent grain (SG), was evaluated for its ability to adsorb Ag(I) from aqueous solutions. Ag(I) adsorption was dependent on solution pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, initial Ag(I) concentration and temperature. The kinetic data were well described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model, indicating that chemical adsorption was the rate-controlling step. The equilibrium data followed Freundlich isotherm rather than Langmuir isotherm, suggesting heterogenity of the adsorption sites on spent grain. Ag(I) desorbed from Ag(I)-loaded spent grain was also evaluated in this study. HCl, NaOH, Na2S2O3 and ultrapure water were chosen as eluants and desorbed Ag(I)-loaded spent grain for 30min, Ag(I)-loaded spent grain desorbed in 0.1M Na2S2O3 exhibited higher elution efficiency as compared with other eluants. The results indicated that application of spent grain for adsorption and recovery of silver from aqueous solutions was feasible.

Jan 1, 2009

By J. C. Cawley

This National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study was conducted to focus future research on the most significant electrical problems in the mining industry. Data from 1,926 mine electrical accidents (including 75 fatalities) that occurred between 1990 and 1999 were studied. Coal and metal-nonmetal operator- and contractor-reported data are presented. All data used in this analysis were MSHA closeout data, except 1999, which were preliminary data. Electricity was the 4th leading cause of death reported in mining despite being the 14th leading cause of injuries. Electrical shock, not electrical burns, caused 70 of the 75 electrical fatalities reported. About one-half of mine electrical accidents and fatalities occurred during electrical maintenance. Suggestions for mitigating electrical hazards are proposed.

Jan 1, 2002

By James C. Cawley

This paper updates an earlier report by the authors that studied electrical injuries from 1992 to 1998. The previous information is expanded and supplemented with fatal and nonfatal injury rates and trends through 2002. Injury numbers and rates were used to compare and trend electrical injury experience for various groups and categories. This information allowed identification of at-risk groups that could most benefit from effective electrical safety interventions. The data presented in this paper are derived from the U.S. Labor Department?s Bureau of Labor Statistics? Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Survey of Occupational Illnesses and Injuries, and Current Population Survey. Between 1992 and 2002, 3378 workers died from on-the-job electrical injuries. Electricity remained the sixth leading cause of injury-related occupational death. From 1999 to 2002, 4.7% of all occupational deaths were caused by electricity, down from 5.2% in the 1992?1998 time period. The cause of death was listed as electrocution in 99.1% of fatal cases. Contact with overhead power lines was involved in 42% of all on-the-job electrical deaths. The construction industry accounted for 47% of all electrical deaths between 1992 and 2002 but showed overall improvement from 1995 to 2002 by reducing its electrical fatality rate from 2.2 to 1.5 per 100 000 workers. In addition, 46 598 workers were nonfatally injured by electricity. Contact with electric current of machine, tool, appliance, or light fixture and contact with wiring, transformers, or other electrical components accounted for 36% and 34% of nonfatal electrical injuries, respectively. Contact with underground buried power lines was involved with 1% of fatal injuries and 2% of nonfatal injuries. The research of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health aimed at evaluating commercially available overhead power line proximity warning alarms is described. This paper is expected to be the initial step for eventual development of a performance standard for such systems.

Jan 1, 2008

By Guangqing Zhang

The paper presents results of a systematic study of synthesis of titanium oxycarbide and its chlorination. Titanium oxycarbide was produced by carbothermal reduction of titania in hydrogen, argon and helium. Formation of titanium oxycarbide started at 1200°C in all gases. The reduction was the fastest in hydrogen. Formation of titanium oxycarbide in hydrogen was close to completion in 120 min at 1300°C, 60 min at 1400°C and less than 30 min at 1500°C. Reduction in argon and helium progressed at a similar rate and reached 90-95% after 300 min at 1400-1500°C. The chlorination of titanium oxycarbide was ignited at 150-200°C. Chlorine partial pressure and gas flow rate strongly affected the chlorination rate. Chlorination of titanium oxycarbide produced with carbon to titania molar ratio 2.5 at 235-400°C was close to 100% in 30 min.

Jan 1, 2009

By Z. Yu

Low-rank/oxidized coals respond poorly to oil agglomeration. Emulsification of kerosene in the presence of surfactants dramatically reduces the size of the kerosene droplets. While this dramatically reduces the amount of oil that is required for efficient agglomeration (down to 0.25-0.5%), more importantly, the surfactants entirely change the electrokinetic properties of the oil droplets and thus the interaction between oil droplets and coal particles. Consequently, kerosene cationic emulsions can efficiently agglomerate oxidized coal particles. The agglomerates obtained in such a process can still be recovered by screening. Surfactants can affect fine coal filtration very profoundly when used to emulsify the oil which is utilized to agglomerate coal prior to its filtration. This sequence is much more logical than the use of flocculants - highly hydrophilic polymers - as filtration additives to aid dewatering of flotation concentrates. Although such polymers flocculate coal particles, they also render coal surfaces hydrophilic and make reduction of the cake moisture content difficult.

Jan 1, 2000

By Peter Moser, Frank Chiapetta, Sacha Diaj, Florian Bauer

Good toe breakage and a flat working bench after blasting are important parameters to achieve a high productivity during material loading and reduce the necessity for secondary blasting. Good toe breakage requires a proper burden – side spacing design and a suitable sub-drilling. With unfavourable jointed rock mass conditions the use of horizontal bottom holes still can be found as common work practice even that this is associated to high risks.

Jan 1, 2009

By Marc Arpin

La Bolivie possède tout pour réussir. Son vaste territoire de plus d'un million de km2 et qui occupe une position stratégique au coeur du continent sud-américain recèle des ressources naturelles (forêts, minéraux, gaz naturel, etc) variées et abondantes. Elle a une frontière avec pas moins de 5 pays dont le géant que constitue le Brésil ainsi qu'avec l'Argentine, l'autre puissance régionale. Pourtant, malgré tous ces atouts, la Bolivie demeure l'un des pays les plus pauvres du continent. Ce paradoxe n'est nulle part mieux reflété que dans le secteur minier. Celui-ci fait face à une situation de crise en dépit d'une tradition minière de plus de quatre siècles et d'un potentiel géologique indiscutable ayant conduit à la découverte et à l'exploitation de fabuleux gisements d'argent et d'étain. Les habitants des districts miniers vivent dans des conditions de pauvreté extrême et les indicateurs de développement humain de ces régions sont parmi les plus bas en Amérique du Sud. La Bolivie réussit difficilement à attirer les compagnies minières alors que, chez les voisins, et particulièrement en Argentine, qui n'a pas de tradition minière, les investissements miniers majeurs affluent. Dans cette conférence, nous chercherons à expliquer les causes de cette situation et proposerons des solutions possibles.

May 1, 2001

By Oliver Bowles

"Asbestos" is a name applied to a group of naturally fibrous minerals. Because it has the fibrous characteristics of silk or cotton and at the same time will not burn and has other advantageous properties as well, asbestos has specialized uses for which no adequate substitutes are yet available. Asbestos furnishes a major raw material for a great variety of essential products, the manufacture of which constitutes a vast industry. Asbestos generally occurs in irregular veins scattered throughout rock masses. Most of the fiber-bearing rock is mined in huge open-pit or underground workings. The fibers are separated from the rock and sorted into groups, according to length, in large, complex mills. The longer fibers are stripped to textile plants, where they are further fiberized and prepared in special machines and are used for spinning into yarn and weaving into unburnable cloth that has many important uses. The shorter fibers, which are much more abundant than the long ones, are used in asbestos-cement building materials in heat-insulating products and for a multitude of other applications. These processes and uses are covered in considerable detail in later sections of this report.

Jan 1, 1959

By Mariana Beatriz dos Reis Silva

A influência do tempo entre passes na evolução microestrutural de dois aços austeníticos, F138 (sem nióbio) e ISO 5832-9 (com nióbio), foi investigada através ensaios de torção a quente em condições industriais. Análises foram realizadas através de microscopia ótica e eletrônica de transmissão, EBSD e microdureza. Menores tempos entre passes produziram menores tamanhos de grãos e de precipitados. Microestruturas mais refinadas induziram a maiores microdurezas. O aço ISO 5832-9 apresentou maior resistência que o F138. Precipitações de TiNbN, após o encharque, e de NbCrN e NbN (5%), durante o processamento, foram observadas no aço ISO 5832-9. Ambos os materiais sofrem recristalização dinâmica, partículas grosseiras (> 200 nm) atuaram como partículas de reforço e partículas menores (< 50 nm) no ancoramento dos contornos de grãos e discordâncias no ISO.

Jan 16, 2018

By John Nagy

To facilitate increase in the rate of coal production the Bureau of Mines conducted a study several years ago, on the basis of which the allowable charge limit for permissible explosives in single-hole blasting was raised from 1.5 to 3.0 pounds. Further demands for accelerated production led to consideration of multiple blasting in coal, a practice that is deemed hazardous and is not permitted by most States in this country. In multiple blasting, 10 to 20 pounds of explosive or more may be detonated in a coal face within a fraction of a second, which might result in blown-out or blown-through shots with possible ignition of gas or coal dust. As experimental evidence was lacking, in January 1949 an investigation was undertaken in the Experimental coal mine at Bruceton, Pa., principally to study and compare with single blasting the condi-tions under which simultaneous multiple blasting and particularly multiple short-delay blasting may be practiced without danger of igniting gas or coal dust in mines. The first report on this subject was presented at the last international conference of mine safety research. Since that time numerous additional experiments have been made; because of other pressing problems the work has been brought temporarily at least to a conclusion. This paper is the second report on the problem. It does not contain a detailed description of all test conditions and test arrangements, many of which were described 2 years ago in part 1 (now available as Report of Investigations 4868), but the conclusions are based on the entire study. A more complete review, which will incorporate data from the entire investigation, is being prepared as a Bureau of Mines bulletin. Up to the present time, short-delay blasting of coal in commercial mines has been introduced only experimentally in Washington and in a few mines elsewhere. If the system is adopted more generally, new problems may arise, and the study may have to be reopened.

Jan 1, 1952

The role of government and the community has changed significantly over the last two decades in relation to environment protection, particularly in the mining sector. Increased community expectations have moved well ahead of regulatory requirements, and there is now a much greater appreciation generally of the concepts of ecologically sustainable development and intergenerational equity, and the gap between current practice and practices which would be in harmony with these concepts. Besides providing a `safety net&apos; through regulations to ensure that basic environmental performance standards are met, government is now working proactively with the mining industry to encourage higher levels of environmental performance. This paper describes some initiatives between the Commonwealth government and the industry designed to achieve these higher levels of environmental performance, through programs aimed at the paradigms of best practice environmental management and continual improvement.

Jan 1, 1997

By Carolina Person Maschio

Pelotas compostas de minério de ferro, aglomerante e coque foram analisadas quanto à resistência à compressão (a frio e após aqueciemento) e porosidade. Para isso, três lotes de pelotas foram confeccionados, com diferentes teores de redutor, até a quantidade necessária para reação completa com os óxidos de ferro. Após seu preparo, as pelotas passaram por diferentes tempos de cura ao ar. Ensaios de resistência à compressão à frio e porosidade foram realizados em pelotas verdes e com 3, 7, 14, 21 e 28 dias de cura. Após 28 dias, uma série de pelotas foram secas e submetidas a testes de resistência à compressão após serem aquecidas a temperaturas entre 200ºC a 900º. Analisou-se, também, a perda de massa em cada patamar de temperatura. Entre os principais resultados, verificou-se que o comportamento mecânico de pelotas autorredutoras é melhorado com o aumento do tempo de cura e prejudicado pelo aumento do teor de coque e aumento da temperatura. Após 600ºC, a resistência das pelotas cai potencialmente. Além disso, lotes com maiores teores de coque apresentaram maiores valores de porosidade, sendo que este aumento foi mais significativo nos primeiros dias de cura.

Oct 30, 2017

By Walter O. Snelling

Discussion of the paper of WALTER 0. SNELLING, presented at the San Francisco meeting, September, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 100, April, 1915, pp. 695 to 704. A. C. McLAUGHLIN, San Francisco, Cal.-It seems to me that Mr. Snelling&apos;s work, if it is what it appears to be, is one of the most important contributions to petroleum technology that has been brought out iii the last 25 years. If his end products are what they seem to be, he has made a discovery, which, in my judgment, will revolutionize the petroleum industry. As to industrially carrying out these processes I do not think there is the slightest difficulty, for I have had some work recently where crude oils were handled successfully at a temperature of 750°F. and pressure of 750 lb. per square inch. WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS, San Francisco, Cal.-What metal did you use, Mr. McLaughlin? - A. C. McLAUGHLIN.-Ordinary seamless tubing, extra strong. WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS.-Tests were made in Dr. Rittman&apos;s experimental plant at Pittsburgh, upon samples of residuum furnished by Mr. Bell, the residuum being the remainder of the crude oil after the lighter fractions had been removed. After the material had been run through Dr. Rittman&apos;s plant, yields of from 43 to 58 per cent. of material, boiling under 150°C. were obtained. The distillate had a peculiar odor, due to the presence of benzene, toluene, and other unsaturated hydrocarbons. W. N. BEST, New York, N. Y.-What is the difference between the Rittman and the Snelling process or system? WILLIAM A. WILLIAMs.-The fundamental difference is that reactions take place under relatively higher temperatures and pressures and with none of the oil present in its original or liquid state, while the reactions secured by Mr. Snelling and other investigators have been from the liquids in the presence of some vapors. Under such conditions as Mr. Snelling operates, the temperatures and pressures used are limited and the flexibility in the control of these variables is extremely limited when compared with the Rittman process.

Jan 1, 1916

By Ronald P. Hollenbeck

The value of mineral production in Alabama reached a new high of more than $246 million. 4 percent above the previous record established in 1964. New high values were reported for bentonite, portland cement, fire day, kaolin, miscellaneous clay, lime, crushed limestone, crushed marble, mica. salt, and sand and gravel. Among the States, Alabama ranked second in the production of bauxite and scrap mica and third in the production of native asphalt. The mineral industry of Alabama was dominated by the mining and processing of coal and Slone, the manufacturing of cement, and the production of crude petroleum, which together comprised 85 percent of the total value of mineral output, compared with 84 percent in 1964. The iron ore industry continued to decline. Coal production continued to increase, resulting in the State&apos;s coal-mining best year since 1948.

Jan 1, 1967

By Wen-Chieh Cheng

Two bored piles with base grouting are loaded axially and the results are used to compare with numerical analyses. One compressive pile with a diameter of 2 meters is drilled through clay deposit and into bedrock to a depth of 13.7 meters. One tensile pile with a diameter of 1.5 meters is drilled through the same clay deposit and into bedrock to a depth of 17 meters. Both piles are installed with monitoring system such as rebar strain meters, concrete strain gauges and extensometers. The monitored data during pile load test are used to obtain average frictional stress (t) a displacement (z) curve, pile tip bearing (q) as well as pile head load (p) and a displacement (s) curve. FLAC3D is used to simulate the pile loading and base grouting. The soil and bedrock are modeled with Mohr-Coulomb. The parameters of the constitutive law are established from soil biaxial tests and rock bore hole deformation tests. The pile is assumed as an elastic body. The interface element is used to simulate the pile/soil interface and pile/rock interface. The numerical results are compared with the pile load test in terms of t-z curve, q-z curve and p-s curve. Finally, the pile base grouting is simulated and the uplift is analyzed. The result from this study is promising and the numerical modeling is successful.

Jan 1, 2006