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By G. R. Lane, A. Vermeulen, S. van de Venter, S. Bhoowanpursadh

Over the past two years Anglo Platinum made use of the specialist skills of Cyest Corporation to develop a Mine Optimization Tool (MOT) to enhance the current suite of in house mine planning tools and processes. The application was built in a multidimensional modelling environment developed by Cyest called CarbonL. This has allowed complex modelling that is transparent to the business users and therefore is not prone to the ?black box? approach that generally exists with these types of complex tools. The purpose of the MOT is to have an integrated software tool that can schedule production activities by half level for a shaft complex, while at the same time integrating the economics concomitant with that schedule. The tool allows the user to configure all activities relevant to the selected mining method, define the mine design parameters and geological parameters, define scheduling rules and then schedule all activities. This allows the user to test various production strategies and schedules very quickly and easily in terms of shaft value, costs and revenue profiles, labour complement and production ramp up so as to determine the option that best fits the overall strategy. This allows assessments of multiple scenarios in a relatively short period of time, after which only the best option is taken forward for graphic design and scheduling. This paper discusses briefly the rationale behind the Mine Optimisation Tool and the underlying workings of the modules that comprise the tool. It also covers the life cycle of this tool from the original prototype through to the final Mine Optimisation Tool software and discusses the positioning of the final tool.

Jan 1, 2007

Control of flotation processes is mostly managed by plant operators, who assess the performance of the plant based on their own experience and other heuristic rules. These rules tend to be subjective or ill-defined, since most of them are concerned with the structure of the flotation froth, such as colour, bubble size and shape distributions, froth mobility and froth stability. These phenomena are very difficult to quantify objectively, and inexperience on the part of the operators, human error, etc., can lead to significant inefficiencies in plant operation. In this paper the development of a fuzzy system to support the control decisions of plant operators is described, which leads to significantly smoother control action and more stable plant operation than could be obtained with crisp sets of rules or manual control strategies. Keywords: flotation, fuzzy logic, image analysis, genetic algorithms, rule induction

Jan 1, 2000

WHEN making comparisons of the efficiencies of different grinding and crushing machines it is desirable to be able to estimate the work actually done in crushing the ore from a given size of feed to a given size of product, the screen analysis of both feed and product being determined. Messrs. Klug and Taylor, in a paper on this subject, published in the monthly journal of the Chamber of Mines of WA, 31st January, 1906, have described a method adopted by them in calculations made in connection with a series of trials of grinding pans. Their methOd is based upon the assumption that if a quantity Q of material consisting of particles of average diameter x be crushed down until the average diameter of the particles is y, then the work done in grinding is proportional to Q x. There is no theoretical basis for this assumption that the writer is aware of, and it does not appear to satisfy the fundamental conditions necessary. If the material be further crushed until the diameter 2 becomes Z, the additional work done is measured. The work done in crushing from diameter x to diameter Z in one operation is proportional to Q x:, and therefore we ought to have zx2 y2 x2 Q-+Q-=Q-. y2 Z2 Z2But these expressions are not in general equal to one another. In other words, according to the theory underlying this method, if we crush from diameter x to diameter y, and then from diameter...

Jan 1, 1909

By Yufeng Guo

Mineralogy and physico-chemical characteristics of a nickel hydrometallurgical residue and recovery of iron-bearing minerals by flocculation-magnetic separation were studied. The results show that the nickel residue is super-fine and fraction less than 0.045mm reaches 85.4%. Ferrous minerals are chiefly magnetite and ferruginous glass. Magnetite accounts for 31.7% and exists as free magnetite. Ferruginous glass is of multicomponent amorphous substances with low-iron grade but strong magnetism, and accounts for 39.9% of total iron minerals. Addition of flocculants increases granularity and magnetic force of fine iron-bearing particles and improves iron grade and recovery. The tests with flocculation separation show that a concentrate assaying 56.68% Fe with 81.72% recovery was obtained in a magnetic tube. A concentrate with 56.92% iron grade and 67.96% recovery was obtained by flocculation-magnetic separation with a magnetic cylinder.

Jan 1, 2006

By Frank T. Greene

An investigation of the quenching behavior of coal dust-air flames was carried out. The literature relevant to coal dust-air flames was reviewed, including information on the agglomeration, sedimentation, and dispersal of dust clouds. The simple equations relating the various concentrations involved in dust flame propagation are given and their implications elaborated. It is shown that the concentration seen by a moving flame in a sedimenting dust cloud can differ significantly from the concentration commonly measured in such experiments. The known dust cloud phenomena which appeared significant in flame propagation studies were experimentally evaluated, and quenching diameters, flame speeds, and lean propagation limits for several tube diameters measured. For Pittsburgh seam coal, the Minimum Quenching Diameter (MQD) for dust between 10 and 20 µm was found to be between 0.7 and 0.8 cm, and the lean propagation for 3.2-cm tubes to be approximately 200 mg/liter. Similar MQD data were also obtained for Pocahontas and Sewell coals, Beulah lignite, and a 50-gal./ton oil shale. The effect of temperature, coal particle size, and propagation tube material were also investigated.

Jan 1, 1981

Keywords: Pyrometallurgy, zinc, electrowinning Zincor has been producing zinc since 1969 via the roast-leach-electrowinning process. It is the only primary zinc producer in South Africa, and currently supplies the entire country with zinc. The plant was built by Goldfields of South Africa, on the site of an old gold and uranium mine. Since then, the ownership of the plant has changed a couple of times, and the plant and process have also been improved. Production output has increased from around 80 000 tons per year to more than 110 000 tons per year. This was done mainly through increasing the capacity of the roasters and acid plant. Zincor produces four main grades of zinc: SHG, Zn1, Zn2, and Zn4, in three shapes: a 25 kg ingot and 1 and 2 ton jumbos. In 2005, a pre-alloy furnace was built that enabled the production of jumbos pre-alloyed with aluminium. This has allowed Zincor's customers to improve the efficiency of their continuous galvanizing lines and to lower their production costs.

Jan 1, 2006

By Sigurd L. Lamhauge, Karl Gunnar Holter, Svein E. Kristiansen

An innovative sprayable waterproofing membrane in combination with the traditional Nordic method of waterproofing with polyethylene foam sheets was used for the waterproofing of the tunnel. The sprayable membrane was integrated in the final sprayed concrete lining in a sandwich structure, hence constituting a composite water-proof lining based on sprayed concrete. The spray able membrane was applied in areas with small to moderate water ingresses, making up approximately 50% of the total area requiring waterproofing in the tunnel. State-of-the-art application technology with a computerized spraying robot was used. A consistent application of the required thickness at a high speed was thereby achieved.

Jan 1, 2007

By Tom Szaraz, Steve Skelhorn

Part of a major sewer expansion for the City of Columbus, Ohio. The Big Walnut Outfall Augmentation Sewer (BWOAS) consists of 4,000m (13,200 ft) of 3.66m (12 ft)diameter tunnel passing mainly through glacial deposits with a water head of up to 2 bar. The project involves many new innovations, including: Slurry wall work shaft with excavation below the water table; Hybrid universal rings combining traditional steel reinforcement with fibers; New, full EPB Lovat TBM; Two component grout system pumped to the TBM from the surface; and, Linabond corrosion protection liner. The paper looks at the planning approach adopted to meet the various challenges presented, combined with an overview of progress to date.

Jan 1, 2007

By M A. Mongillo

Most geophysical and geochemical data collected during regional exploration programmes are in vector form (location, value), and have traditionally been presented and interpreted in a profile or contour map format. However, the human vision system can interpret data presented in image format much more easily and new information is often revealed by the judicious application of powerful interactive computer image enhancement techniques. This paper describes a practical demonstration of the application of such tools to gravity and resistivity datasets from the Central Volcanic Region of theNorth Island.   Filtering, contrast enhancement, relief shading, pseudo-colouring and then overlaying of the gridded datasets in image format has helped identify inter-relationships such as the association between many low resistivity anomalies (epithermal deposits or geothermal resources) and the edges of large gravity anomalies (calderas or grabens). Similar revelations should result from the application of these tools to the integration of other mapped datasets from geophysical, geochemical and geological disciplines.

Jan 1, 1992

By Marcos Villegas

El presente texto describe el desarrollo del sistema de gestión de riesgos en la reingeniería de procesos, justificando la inversión en gestión de riesgos de la concentradora Atacocha donde se protege a las personas, activos e ingresos, minimizando el potencial de pérdida de los riesgos y así proveer fondos para recuperar las posibles perdidas y soportar el sistema en salud, seguridad, medio ambiente y Calidad (SSMAC).

Sep 9, 2007

The closure of the only professional mining school in New Zealand will mean that the minerals industry will have to explore other options to fill their mining professional positions. Globally mining is not seen as an attractive career option for young people and recruitment into mining courses is at a low level. Yet industry demands ever increasing competencies with respect to technology, environmental issues and legislation. This paper addresses this issue by first discussing the attributes required of graduate mining professionals. It then looks at alternative ways on how these can be met internationally and on the home front.

Jan 1, 1997

By David C. Lager

While not a new construction technique "top/down" construction is seeing increased use in high rise building construction. Using diaphragm wall, drilled shaft and mining construction techniques, top/down construction enables construction of both the below grade basements and high rise structure simultaneously. To date the top/down method has been used on at least four major building projects in the United States. This paper will review the economic, engineering, construction and schedule issues associated with top/down technology on two projects -Olympia Centre, Chicago, and One Westwood, Los Angeles. Top/Down construction is currently under consideration on several additional projects in the United States.

Jan 1, 1987

ONE of the phases of mining wide ore-bodies, such as are found in Broken Hill, is the laying-out and design of the sill floor gangway timber, When, in the above operation, a detail has to be repeated frequently, it is desirable in the interests of efficiency that that detail should be standardized as far as possible. Before arriving at a standard design e.g., a crosscut layout-it would seem necessary to compare its strength with some other unit of timber and see that the general design is at least as strong as the unit that has been taken for comparative purposes, In these notes no attempt is made to calculate the stresses to which timber underground is subjected, but merely to draw a comparison between the relative strengths of the various cross sections of timber in common use underground.It has been assumed for the purposes of comparison that the milling exerts pressure in a vertical plane only, and is uniformly distributed over any area. A beam supported at both ends, and with a uniformly distributed load, has the maximum bending moment at a point midway between the points of support, and equals- WL2 8 where W = load per unit length. L = distance between points of support.The bending moment also equals M-, where y M = modulus of rupture of the material in question. I = moment of inertia of the section of the beam about a given axis.Y = distance of extreme fibre from that axis. WL2. I The formula -8- = MY- only holds good until the elastic limit...

Jan 1, 1923

By George Joseph Malina

Contractor chose and Owner allowed concrete to be placed using the arch first principle while excavating the 35'-3" O.D. rock tunnel. The contract included excavating and lining 26,000 L.F. of rock tunnel to 33'-I.D. Concrete was placed at a rate of 90LF per working day using a movable bridge to allow batching, mixing and pumping of concrete adjacent to the tunnel form.

Jan 1, 1981

By Roshan B. Bhappu, Zeki M. Dogan

Two magnesite ores containing 3.15% and 8.73% SiO2 and a calcined magnesite product assaying 2.6% Si02 were first reduced in size to -20 mesh by roll crushing. 'They were then treated dry on a high intensity magnetic separator to reduce their silica content by rejecting iron-stained silicate minerals in the magnetic fraction and obtaining marketable magnesite or calcined magnesite as a nonmagnetic product.

Jan 1, 1975

This investigation was planned to determine:1. The precipitation-hardening properties of the copper-nickel-phosphorus alloys; and2. The influence of arsenic and bismuth, singly and together, on the mechanical properties of these alloys.It was carried out in conjunction with an investigation, previously published in these Prooeedings on "The Influence of Various Elements on the Mechanical Properties of Copper containing a small percentage of Bismuth," and also formed part of a study of the influence of bismuth, nickel and phosphorus on the properties of commercial arsenical-copper.The first part of the present investigation arose out of a discovery some years ago of precipitation-hardening in phosphorus-deoxidized coppernickel boiler tubes, containing approximately 2% nickel and 0·03% phosphorus, supplied to an Australian Railways Department. At that time there was little information available on precipitation-hardening in copperrich copper-nickel-phosphorus alloys, but at the end of 1935 a short paper on the subject was published by E. C. Rollason and T. G. Bamford(2) and at the beginning of 1940 a comprehensive account was published by D. K. Crampton, H. L. Burghoff and J. T. Stacy.(3) Although the investigation carried, out independently by the present author was not as comprehensive as that of Crampton, Burghoff and Stacy, the results are in agreement with those of the American as well as of the British authors; hence, only a summary of this aspect of the work is needed here to establish a basis for a study of the influence of bismuth and arsenic.PREPARATION OF TEST PIECESAll alloys were melted under charcoal in plumbago crucibles in an oil-fired furnace and were poured out of contact with air into oil-dressed moulds to give billets either 7· 5 in. long X 0.83 in. diam. X 1·3 lb. weight or 12 in. long X 1·125 in. diam. X 3·3 lb. weight depending on requirements (the larger size was used, for example, in establishing the annealing characteristics of the precipitation-hardening alloys). The raw materials were electrolytic copper of the composition described in the previous paper(I) 6% copper-arsenic, 14% copper-phosphorus, 1:7% copper-bismuth, and Mond nickel in the form of "shot." The method of producing test pieces from these billets and the annealing treatments ana tests to which the pieces were subjected have been described in the previous paper.

Jan 1, 1944

By Diane Jones, Jeremy Spearman, Tom Matthewson

Requirements for minerals are on the increase globally and the deep sea offers a potential source of essential materials. Extracting these minerals from what is considered an environmentally sensitive area, and one about which little is still known, is a challenging activity, which needs careful consideration and an appropriate environmental impact assessment to be carried out. Extraction of material from the deep sea beds can cause disturbance or damage to benthic communities; impact on mobile marine species such as fish, mammals and reptiles; cause increases in suspended sediment and sediment deposition onto potentially sensitive areas or potentially release contaminants which were previously bound to the sediment. This paper discusses the potential environmental issues surrounding extraction of deep-sea deposits using aggregate dredging techniques and how those issues can be appropriately assessed. In particular issues of suspended sediments, plume transport, water and sediment quality and underwater noise impacts on potentially sensitive species and habitats will be explored.

Sep 1, 2014

The failure of a seal in an underground coal mine can have devastating consequences. Traditionally seals have been constructed as flat walls. Large hydraulic dams, on the other hand, are constructed as concave arches. This paper presents an initial analysis of the potential strengthening of seals by concave construction as well as the impact of additional cost in terms of labor and material. A simple finite element analysis of three-dimensional solids under uniform loading allows comparisons between the strength of a flat wall and a curved arch. The models are examined for reasonable behavior and displacements at 20, 50, 100, and 200 psi loads.

Jan 1, 2007

By Leon Dominian

(Wilkes-Barre Meeting, June, 1911.) I. INTRODUCTION. THE lack of Aryan roots for the names of metals commonly known among the Aryan settlers of Asia Minor, as well as the later colonizers of Europe, indicates that these races were generally ignorant of the use of metals until they came into contact with Semitic peoples. Practically all mining-terms in current use among the earliest Greeks resemble very strongly their distinctly Semitic equivalents, which can be traced all the way in a broad belt beginning in Lower Mesopotamia, and extending westwardly to the Syrian shores of the Mediterranean. The Greek word " "metallon," for instance, used indiscriminately to designate mine or ore, probably came from the earlier Semitic equivalent, " matal." Again, the Greek words " chrysos " (gold) and " chalkos " (copper) seem to be descended from the Semitic forms " throats " and a chalak." It is a natural inference that primitive mining-methods were evolved by the dwellers in the mineralized areas of Asia Minor, from whom later Greek, Roman, and even North European miners obtained their first notions of the reduction of metallic ores, by virtue of a general westward migration of mining and metallurgy. Some traces of its passage through Turkish territory will be noted in this paper. While European Turkey can boast of one ancient gold-field, the Asiatic dominions of the Sultan may lay claim to at least two well-defined and widely-separated gold-producing districts. These three regions may be distinguished as the Thracian, the Pontic, and the Anatolian gold-fields. II. TURKEY IN EUROPE. . The Thracian Gold-Field. The most conspicuous topographic feature of the lowland between Constantinople and Salonica is the uplifted Archaean

Nov 1, 1911

By E. Jackson

This paper describes highlights of the Placer Dome MiniMole project - the development and testing of a robotic machine for mining narrow ore veins. A prototype hydraulically controlled robotic machine was built and tested. The machine provided a platform for testing numerous cutters in the field. Other cutters, e.g. undercutting devices, were tested in the lab. Extensive analyses were done on specific energies and cutter penetration. Three sets of quarry trials were done, then the machine was tested in an underground mine. Rock UCS values varied from 180 MPa to 230 MPa. The paper includes lessons learned and recommendations based on the project findings.

Jan 1, 2007