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By S. Heukelman

Zinc or, a zinc refinery in South Africa, uses oxygen enrichment of up to 26% O2 in its fluidizing air to increase concentrate-throughput in its fluidized bed roasters. The aim of the study is to determine whether O2 enrichment can be reduced by introducing micro-pelletized concentrate into the feed blend, while maintaining concentrate throughput rates and calcine quality. A laboratory scale fluidized roaster was used to determine the strength and oxidation kinetics of suitable micro-pellets. The strength of the pellets was determined by the extent of attrition during roasting. It was found that micro-pelletization decreases the fines in the feed to the roasters; the ?500 µm fraction decreased from 87% to 10%. The micro-pelletized particles do break down during roasting, which increases the -500 µm fraction to 31%. The general morphologies of the roasted particles are similar to those found by previous workers. Micro-pelletized concentrate particles require more time than non-pelletized concentrate particles to oxidize in the roasting step, although this is less than the mean residence time of the Zincor roasters. Roasting micro-pellets in O2-enriched fluidizing air increased the reaction rate.

Jan 1, 2011

By B. Simser

At Brunswick Mine, an increase in the number of seismically-related falls of ground and in particular rockbursts occurred during 1999. This was due to the ever-increasing stress levels in the remaining ore reserves, mining in difficult highly stressed areas and in particular troublesome geological features. In conjunction with the Noranda Technology Centre, development of rockburst support systems started at the Brunswick Mine in 1996 and efforts were accelerated in 1999. A support package consisting of #6 gauge chain link mesh, #0 gauge heavy mesh straps, and a 1 m by 1 m pattern of modified conebolts was developed. The conebolts were modified to enable mixing of the resin anchoring. Two major rockbursts occurred during an intense seismic episode at the Brunswick Mine from October 13th to 17th , 2000.The area was evacuated approximately four hours before the first burst hit, and remained closed during the seismic ?flurry??. The first damaging activity occurred around midnight on Friday the 13th, and a second damaging episode occurred on the 17th that included a local Richter Magnitude 2.7 event. The second rockburst had dimensions of approximately 5 m by 5 m by 20 m or 2150 tonnes of massive sulphide material (density 4300 kg/m3). The first failure area was more extensive, caving approximately six metres of an intersection back with the lateral extent not safely measurable. This paper briefly describes the mining conditions that led to the bursting, the seismic response of the region, the mechanisms thought to have caused the bursts, and a yielding support system which had been partially installed before the burst.

Jan 1, 2002

The optimum cut-off grade policy maximizes the net present value (NPV) of an open pit mining operation subject to the mining, processing, and refining capacity constraints. The traditional approaches to cut-off grade determination ignore the escalation of the economic parameters such as metal price and operating costs during life of an operation, and consequently lead to unrealistically higher values of the objective function. Further, the NPV of a mining operation declines due to the depletion of the available reserves, causing a decline in the optimum cut-off grade, i.e. higher cut-off grades in the early years of an operation and lower cut-off grades during the later years. Hence, low grade material mined in the earlier years may be stockpiled for processing during later years to offset the effect of escalating economic parameters on NPV. This paper demonstrates the combined impact of introducing economic parameters, escalation and stockpiling options into the cut-off grade optimization model. The model promises an enhancement in NPV as illustrated in a case study incorporating practical aspects of an open pit mining operation.

Jan 1, 2011

What is a nugget effect? In the early development of geostatistics, the term ?nugget effect? was coined for the apparent discontinuity at the beginning of many semivariogram graphs. This name was chosen to reflect the large differences found between neighbouring samples in ?nuggety? mineralizations such as Wits gold reefs. Geostatistical theory assumes that the difference between a sampled value and a potential repeat sample at the same location is actually zero. Included in this ?nugget effect? would be true variation between contiguous samples due to the nature of the mineralization, micro-fracturing, nugget or crystal size, and so on. Also included in the nugget effect would be any ?random? sampling variation which might occur due to the method in which the sample was taken, the adequacy of the sample size, the assaying process, etc. Arguments were put forward that ?sampling errors? actually exist at zero distance. Some geostatistical schools actually maintain that the ?nugget effect? is all sampling error. This would imply that ?perfect? sampling would eliminate the nugget effect entirely. There is now a dichotomy both in the geostatistical world and in the software packages provided for geostatistical analyses. It may seem academic to argue over whether the semivariogram model should take a value of zero, a value equal to the nugget effect, or a partial value at distance zero. However, the decision can have a profound effect on both the estimated resource and in our confidence on that resource. Whereas most geostatistical texts define the semivariogram model as taking the value of zero at zero distance, others imply that the full nugget effect should be used at zero distance. For example: ?The nugget effect refers to the nonzero intercept of the variogram and is an overall estimate of error caused by measurement inaccuracy and environmental variability occurring at fine enough scales to be unresolved by the sampling interval3 ?Christensen4 has shown that the ?nugget effect?, or non-zero variance at the origin of the sernivariogram, can be reproduced by a measurement error model ?The nugget effect is considered random noise and may represent short-scale variability, measurement error, sample rate, etc.5. In many training texts and Web courses, the definition of the semivariogram is ambiguous as the formulae for semivariogram models is not actually specified at zero distance6,7,8.

Jan 1, 2010

By D. C. Oliver

Paper written on project work carried out in partial fulfilment of B.Sc. (Eng.) (Metallurgy and Materials) degree Corrosion in exhaust systems can occur on both the interior and exterior surfaces. Chloride-containing de-icing salts on the roads in colder countries greatly increases the rate of corrosion on the exterior surfaces. This paper investigates the relative exterior corrosion resistance of three alloys?two ferritic stainless steels( AISI Types 409 and 441) and an aluminized mild steel. The exhaust system is split into two categories?the hot end and the cold end. A test for each of these ends was designed?the standard ASTM G85test was modified to create a simulated driving cycle. The cold end test samples were exposed to ten driving cycles, and the hot end test samples were exposed to five driving cycles. A driving cycle constitutes the car being started from cold, driven until the operating temperatures are reached, and switched off and allowed to cool. Pitting corrosion is the primary corrosion mechanism occurring at the cold end of the exhaust system. The aluminized mild steel was the most resistant alloy in this test, and Type 409 the least. However, once the protective aluminium layer degrades, corrosion will occur rapidly. At the hot end of the exhaust system, spalling of the surface oxide layer is the primary corrosion mechanism occurring. Type 441 was the most resistant in this test, and the aluminized mild steel the least resistant. Potentiodynamic tests were performed on the alloys?the results agreed with the results obtained in the exposure tests.

Jan 1, 2003

By H. Copur

Experimental studies for quantification of force and brittleness indices relevant to rock cutting performance are presented. A simple interpretation method is developed, which quantifies the force-penetration response obtained from indentation tests. Basic parameters of the quantification are force increment and decrementrates, force increment and decrement periods, and number of increment and decrement data points. Blocks of eleven different rock samples were collected from different operating mines in Turkey and subjected to indentation tests to calculate the indices. The samples included harzburgite, serpentinite, trona, limestone, claystone, two different sandstone samples, siltstone and three different chromite ore samples. The concept was validated by a set of full-scale linear cutting tests using a conical cutter for measuring the cutting performance in relieved and unrelieved conditions, i.e. cutter forces, specific energy, size distribution of rock cuttings. The rock cuttings were sieved to determine coarseness index, indicates coarse chip generation characteristics, and size distribution. The force index is moderately correlated with the cutting performance and mechanical properties of the rocks, and poorly correlated with the coarseness index and size distribution of cuttings. A general and moderate trend is observed between the brittleness index and the coarseness index, cutting performance for unrelieved cutting conditions and mechanical properties of the rocks. However, additional data is required to fill the data gaps and to potentially establish relationship between the brittleness index and all other parameters.

Jan 1, 2003

By David Brown, Dirk van Dyk

Horizontal rotating mills are being used all over the world associated with different mineral and power generation industries. David Brown South Africa, with over 140 years of experience in gear manufacture and design, has been supplying these industries with innovative designs at exceptional quality. The gearing systems associated with these industries are challenged daily with operating conditions with are not always fully understood. Failures are therefore experienced, over time in the industry, which can therefore not always be fully explained. David Brown South Africa has developed a gear monitoring system, the Intelligent Gearing System, in association with Transmission Dynamics (UK), in order to monitor and analyze these operating conditions in real time. The system has been designed on the principles of Six Sigma, incorporating Design for Six Sigma. The purpose with this system design is to monitor the operating conditions on the pinion, record the information and analyze the data in relation to the rate of fatigue damage to the girth gear and pinion. This is done in real time and unattended. The output from the Intelligent Gearing System can be fed back into the operating system of the mill user, in order to display an alarm for operating conditions exceeding the design criteria as well as information on the rate of fatigue damage due to these operating conditions. When the mill operating conditions are better understood, and the effect on the fatigue life of the mill gearing components, mill users can forecast critical spare holding levels with an increased accuracy. The Intelligent Gearing System also allows early actions to remove reasons for system overloads.

Jan 1, 2007

By B. P. Watson

The first crush pillars on the Bushveld platinum mines were introduced at Union Section in 1978. Before the introduction of crush pillars, serious problems were experienced when stoping advanced to a point 30 m to 40 m on both sides of the centre gully. At least three to four stopes were collapsing per month. The introduction of the pillars stopped the stope collapses in the mining area where they were introduced. The residual stresses of these pillars were never measured; however, the successful elimination of the ?back-break? problem suggests that the original pillars had a residual strength of at least 8 MPa. Apart from back analyses, very little work has been done to determine the residual strength of crush pillars and only very recently have any measurements been made. The lack of knowledge in this field has resulted in pillars being designed based on experience. Concerns about stope collapses, similar to the Coalbrook disaster, have led to larger pillars being cut in more recent times. If such pillars were cut in brittle quartzites they would always fail violently but the ductile nature of the Merensky Reef generally allows large pillars to fail without bursting. Occasionally, however, one would burst in a working area. Increased incidence of bursting has been reported on some mines at deeper levels but most of these bursts occur in the back areas. Nevertheless, the incidence of bursting increases the risk of falls of ground in already dangerous areas, and the larger pillars decrease the extraction ratio. This paper describes the evaluation of stress measurements conducted in two boreholes over a crush pillar with dimensions 2.5 m x4.0 m, and a height of 1.2 m. Boussinesq equations for vertical and shear stress were used to analyse the original measurements and provide a stress profile across the pillar as well as the residual strength of the pillar. The results showed an unexpectedly high peak stress of 280 MPa at the centre of the pillar and a residual strength of 48 MPa. The reason for the high residual strength is suspected to be the result of the stiff environment under which the pillar failed and the small height of the siding on the up-dip edge of the pillar. More measurements should be conducted on several mines to establish a range of residual strengths for narrow crush pillars.

Jan 1, 2008

By Basson. J., L. R. Nelson, L. A. Cramer

The South African based platinum mines produce the world?s majority of platinum metal that is used in autocatalysts and jewellery. As the platinum market is forecast to grow at healthy rates into the future, the South African producers, Anglo Platinum, Impala, Lonmin and Northam are planning to expand in the next decade. Furthermore a number of smaller producers who are accessing other mineral rights are entering the buoyant market. The South African platinum mines have traditionally exploited the Merensky reef of the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC); however, the mining of this reef is reaching depths that require significant vertical shaft systems and costly refrigeration for access to the ore bodies at deeper levels. In the past decade all of the producers have begun to mine the less attractive UG2 reef because of its cheaper mining costs. This UG2 reef contains significant quantities of chromite with typically a chrome-to-iron (Cr/Fe) ratio of 1.35. UG2 ores can contain between 10 and 25% Cr2O3 depending upon the reef width and the selected mining method. It is relatively cheap and easy to extract a portion of the chromite from a platinum concentrator tailings stream at a grade of between 40-42% Cr2O3. However it is only in recent years that some ferrochrome producers have begun to source some of their chromite from the tailings of platinum producers. South Africa is also the world?s largest single producer of ferrochrome and supplies much of the world?s stainless steel producers and thus the growing market for their product. As the traditional sources of high Cr/Fe ratio ores have been depleted at the shallow economic depths and thus have become more expensive sources of chromite, technical developments have improved the ability to use fine chromite economically to make acceptable grades of ferrochrome. Thus UG2 fines are now becoming possible cheap sources of acceptable feed to the ferrochrome industry. The abundance of feedstock for ferrochrome production and the lessening dependence on mined material will impact upon the structure of the ferrochrome business in South Africa. With continued platinum mining from UG2 reefs, South Africa is set to remain highly competitive in the world?s ferrochrome/stainless steel industry.

Jan 1, 2004

By J. Basson, L. R. Nelson, L. A. Cramer

The South African based platinum mines produce the world?s majority of platinum metal that is used in autocatalysts and jewellery. As the platinum market is forecast to grow at healthy rates into the future, the South African producers, Anglo Platinum, Impala, Lonmin and Northam are planning to expand in the next decade. Furthermore a number of smaller producers who are accessing other mineral rights are entering the buoyant market. The South African platinum mines have traditionally exploited the Merensky reef of the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC); however, the mining of this reef is reaching depths that require significant vertical shaft systems and costly refrigeration for access to the ore bodies at deeper levels. In the past decade all of the producers have begun to mine the less attractive UG2 reef because of its cheaper mining costs. This UG2 reef contains significant quantities of chromite with typically a chrome-to-iron (Cr/Fe) ratio of 1.35. UG2 ores can contain between 10 and 25% Cr2O3 depending upon the reef width and the selected mining method. It is relatively cheap and easy to extract a portion of the chromite from a platinum concentrator tailings stream at a grade of between 40-42% Cr2O3. However it is only in recent years that some ferrochrome producers have begun to source some of their chromite from the tailings of platinum producers. South Africa is also the world?s largest single producer of ferrochrome and supplies much of the world?s stainless steel producers and thus the growing market for their product. As the traditional sources of high Cr/Fe ratio ores have been depleted at the shallow economic depths and thus have become more expensive sources of chromite, technical developments have improved the ability to use fine chromite economically to make acceptable grades of ferrochrome. Thus UG2 fines are now becoming possible cheap sources of acceptable feed to the ferrochrome industry. The abundance of feedstock for ferrochrome production and the lessening dependence on mined material will impact upon the structure of the ferrochrome business in South Africa. With continued platinum mining from UG2 reefs, South Africa is set to remain highly competitive in the world?s ferrochrome/stainless steel industry.

Jan 1, 2004

By M. Z. Emad, N. Abbas, Y. Majeed

Room-and-pillar mining is commonly employed for the extraction of rock salt in undergroundmines. Pillar stress is a major concern in these mines as it is directly related to stability and mineralrecovery. In this study a flat jack method was used to measure pillar stresses in three undergroundrock salt mines in Pakistan. The field work included determination of in-situ stress, in-situ elastic modulus, recording of field variables (pillar length and width, height and width of opening, opening width to height ratio, extraction ratio, and overburden height) and collection of salt block samples. The geomechanical properties of rock salt (uniaxial compressive strength, Young’s modulus, Brazilian tensile strength, and density) were also determined to estimate overburden stress, pillar strength, and factor of safety (both estimated and actual). It was found that the measured pillar stresses are proportional to the overburden stress values, with their magnitude ranging from 6.05 MPa to 11.97 Mpa, and the pillars were found to be stable. Regression analysis was performed to develop statistical models for in-situ stress and in-situ elastic modulus. Finally a quick guideline chart was developed to determine the suitable length of pillar for a given span and required level of safety.

Jun 5, 2023

By D. Ksinsik, R. Boisvert, D. Leblanc

Casting, cooling and crushing/sieving of ferroalloys has followed a well-established pattern in the whole ferroalloys industry for many years. Usually liquid metal or alloys are cast into flat open moulds of various shapes and forms, and after solidification the product is removed from such mould to further cool down to a temperature where subsequent handling steps are feasible. Common to all mechanical product fractioning is the generation of dust and fine size material with lower product value. For almost 10 years, Bécancour Silicon has investigated alternative roads to improve technology and/or reduce or solve problems related to those disadvantages. Since 1995 Bécancour Silicon operates a special silicon granulation plant targeted to product for the chemical treatment/conversion of silicon for silicones production. Prior to the development of the granulation process, various systems had been evaluated, among others the vibrating casting bed, now in operation elsewhere but judged inappropriate because of the tapping volumes to be handled at Bécancour Silicon and other disadvantages. After evaluation of all aspects of heat transfer, radiation, and conductivity in relation to transfer media and within the product, a novel system was designed and built.

Jan 1, 2004

By A. Nuric, S. Nuric, L. Kricak, M. Negovanovic, S. Mitrovic

"SynopsisRotary drilling with rolling tricone bits is the most widely used method for drilling large-diameter blast-holes in large surface mining operations. This drilling method is applicable to a wide range of soft to hard rock materials. This paper presents a fuzzy model for predicting the penetration rate of tricone rotary blast-hole drilling. The model is based on data obtained during the drilling of blastholes in rocks with various uniaxial compressive strengths in the Veliki Krivelj open pit mine, Bor, Serbia. The model was developed using the fuzzy logic toolbox of MATLAB with the Mamdani inference system. The fuzzy model was tested with 23% of the total dataset. The results obtained show the high reliability of predicting the penetration rates. Although there are possible limitations in applying the model to other open pit mines because of differences in rock properties, the prediction methodology applied in this paper can be used in many other predictions of the penetration rates.IntroductionAccording to Tamrock, rotary blast-hole drill operations depend on four important elements:•,Torque in the drill string drive sufficient to turn the bit in any strata encountered•,A high bit loading capability (pulldown force) sufficient for optimum penetration•,An air volume sufficient to remove chips generated during the drilling and to provide cool air to the drill bit bearings•,The selection of the proper type of bit for the material being drilled (Tamrock, 1984).The effects of rock mass parameters on the choice of the type of tricone bits were investigated by Kricak (1997)."

Jan 1, 2015

By W. Wittke

SUMMARY: Geotechnical problems often lead to an increase of construction time and costs for large highway and railway projects. Some reasons, which have led to failures and thus to a delay of construction works as well as to increasing costs, are demonstrated by means of case histories, in which the author was involved as expert or planner. Proposals are made how to identify the reasons and to avoid repetitions. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Bei Großprojekten der Verkehrsinfrastruktur stehen häufig geotechnische Aufgabenstellungen im Vordergrund. Wegen geotechnischer Probleme kam und kommt es häufig zu Termin- und Kostenüberschreitungen. Anhand einiger Beispiele, bei denen der Autor als Gutachter und Planer beteiligt war, wird gezeigt, welche Ursachen zu Schadensfällen und damit auch zu Termin- und Kostenüberschreitungen geführt haben. Es werden Hinweise und Anregungen gegeben, wie die Ursachen erkannt und Wiederholungen von Schadensfällen vermieden werden können. RÉSUMÉ: À grands projets de l'infrastructure de la circulation, souvent des tâches géotechniques sont au premier plan. Par suite de problèmes géotechniques, souvent des dates et frais ont été dépassés. Au moyen de quelques exemples, à lesquels l'auteur participait comme expert et planificateur, les causes sont mises en vue qui menaient à des cas de dommage et par cela aussi à des dépassements de dates et frais. Des indications et suggestions sont données pour s'apercevoir des causes et éviter des répétitions de cas de dommages.

Jan 1, 2003

By K. Goshtasbi

In this paper a genetic algorithm is used in a heavily jointed rock mass in order to investigate the critical circular slip surface and modification of slope surface. This method was applied to the southern wall of the 6th Golbini Jajarm bauxite mine. The mine is the largest bauxite deposit in Iran, located to the northeast of the town of Jajarm in the Khorasan province. Estimated reserve of bauxite in this deposit is about 160 million tonnes. Field and laboratory investigations were conducted in order to determine rock mass behaviour. A genetic algorithm code that uses the Simplified Bishop method as an objective function was developed for findingt he safety factor of circular slip surfaces. Sensitivity analysis was applied to determine the optimum values of the genetic algorithm variables, such as population size, selection method, crossover and mutation rates. After finding the critical circular slip surface, slope modification is carried out by removing unstable sections from marked critical slip surfaces, and this process is repeated until the last unsafe section is removed. Based on this code, modification occurred during 7 steps, by reaching a safety factor of 1.3 in the last step. Finally, the modified slope angle of the southern wall of the 6th Golbini Jajarm bauxite mine was determined to be 48.44 degrees. Keywords: Genetic algorithm, slope modification, circular slips surface, 6th Golbini Jajarm bauxite mine .

Jan 1, 2008

By B. C. Alberts

Planning the use of South Africa's energy resources, especially coal, is of the utmost importance. The State and the mining industry require reliable official estimates of the economically mineable coal reserves for planning purposes. An overview of al the previous reserve estimates is given, with specific attention to the two most recent estimates-those of Petrick and De Jager. The differences between these two estimates are highlighted. The following important aspects are discussed: . the need to update the information regarding South Africa's mineable coal reserves, . the necessity of understanding and agreement between the coal-mining industry and the State department responsible for updating the coal-reserve data, and . the importance of the specific assumptions used in the updating of the data. A downward adjustment of mineable reserve figures is proposed, and the factors that influence the meaningful exploitation of the coal reserves are discussed. A recommendation is made as to how the Waterberg coal reserve should be exploited, and it is concluded that the Soutpansberg Coalfield cannot be exploited economically in the foreseeable future. An evaluation of the status of the coal-export trade is made and compared with the assumptions and targets set at the start of the coal-exportation scheme. The comparison shows the extent to which the exploitation of the coal reserves is being negatively influenced by the current market situation. Recommendations are made regarding planning for the coal-export market, and the aspects that have to be taken into account to keep South Africa in the export market are identified. Reference is made to the fact that the present unrestrained wage and salary adjustments, which show a total disregard of South Africa's poor productivity record, require serious thought and speedy rectification if the country is to survive in the export market. A salary and wage strategy must be developed to suit the specific needs of the Republic of South Africa.

Jan 1, 1987

By L. Mabiza

Keywords: Pyrometallurgy, furnace, sulphur, SO2, off-gas, Zimplats Zimplats embarked on an off-gas sampling campaign in December 2009 to characterise the concentration of SO2 in the off-gas from their 13 MW furnace. In excess of forty isokinetic samples (US EPA Method 8) were taken over seven days. The aim of the sampling campaign was to increase the understanding of factors that influence sulphur release from sulphide concentrates in an electric furnace. Specifically, detailed monitoring was conducted over various operating conditions to evaluate: ? The relationship between SO2 and feed rate (i.e. furnace power) ? The relationship between SO2 and ingress (i.e. furnace freeboard pressure) ? The impact of concentrate bed thickness on SO2 (i.e. blacktop) ? The effect of events such as tapping and converter slag return on SO2 ? The desulphurization reactions that take place in the blacktop A model was developed to predict the SO2 content in furnace off-gas for a particular set of operating conditions. In order to evaluate the impact of random, uncorrelated changes in concentrate composition, ingress and power (feed rate) on the SO2 content of the off-gas, a Monte Carlo approach was adopted whereby concentrate composition, power, and ingress were allowed to vary randomly around selected set-points. The model is primarily based on the release of ?labile? sulphur from the partial thermal dissociation of sulphide minerals with an over-stoichiometric sulphur content (e.g., Fe7S8 decomposition to FeS and S). The main findings of this work suggest that labile sulphur does not fully account for the measured SO2 content of the off-gas, and that limited oxidation of sulphides during melting also contributes to the SO2 content. Details of sulphide oxidation reactions in the furnace remain unclear, and it is currently not possible to provide a theoretical framework for the relationship between the extent of oxidation and variables such as temperature, gas composition, particle size, and residence time in the furnace black top. Through the use of the Monte Carlo model it was, however, possible to constrain the extent of sulphide oxidation to about 1%. This work has shown in practice what was expected in concept, that SO2 in off-gas is proportional to furnace power and ingress rate. The model that was developed consistently slightly under-predicts the quantity of SO2 generated. It also highlights that more work is required to better understand the analytical methods used to analyse for SO2 in off-gas.

Jan 1, 2011

By Moraka N. V., van Rensburg M. Jansen

"SynopsisGoing beyond transformation claims contained in employment equity scorecards and industry compliance reports, this article provides qualitative insight into the initiatives employed and challenges experienced by mining companies in a quest to transform the mining industry. Perceptions expressed during in-depth interviews with 10 senior executives showed that the assumption that mining companies are reluctant to transform is erroneous. Results from this study suggest buy-in and commitment to transformation. This article describes specific initiatives undertaken by mining companies to transform. The most notable initiatives include staff recruitment efforts to appoint historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs), staff development initiatives, as well as community development. The findings furthermore contextualize the challenges experienced by industry participants in their quest to transform. Despite accusations that industry participants are not taking responsibility for the implementation of the transformation agenda, government needs to recognize that they too have a role to play and need to appreciate and assist in the current challenges experienced by the industry.IntroductionWe need a mining sector that works. Mining employs over half a million people. It is the biggest earner of foreign exchange in our country. It also contributes about 20 billion rand directly to tax revenue. Mining also makes a far larger contribution as a buyer of goods and services, and a supplier of inputs to other sectors of our economy and other economies around the globe’ said President Jacob Zuma during the 2014 State of the Nation Address (Zuma, 2014). However, despite apparent commitment from government, enforced compliance with social and labour plans, regulations and Mining Charter targets, the South African mining industry is slow to gain local and international investor trust (Deloitte & Touche, 2013; Mashego, 2013).Industry players acknowledge that their context has changed – creating various challenges (Davis, 2014). In the past few years, such challenges included subdued commodity prices, increased working costs, constrained infrastructure, and high labour costs, coupled with poor levels of productivity, strained labour-management relations, an uncertain regulatory environment, and the inevitable maturation of the industry (Deloitte & Touche, 2013; Davenport, 2014). Mining affected communities also became more cognisant of their rights, and politicians more vocal in their expectations from their relationships with the mining giants (Davis, 2014). One of the main issues that contributed to the difficult operating conditions was claims from organized labour and Minister Shabangu that this industry is too slow to transform. Specific claims were made in terms of employment equity, fair salaries and wages for mineworkers, housing and living conditions, health and safety issues, and general working conditions (Limpitlaw et al., 2005; Miningmx, 2013; Shabangu, 2010). These claims were followed by what Gill Marcus, Reserve Bank Governor, explained as ‘unprotected strike action [that] has escalated into an uncontrolled, violent and unlawful landscape, led by a mob mentality in the absence of formal and recognised leaders’ (Mavuso,2013)."

Jan 1, 2015

By G. L. Smith, B. Genc, V. Morar, U. Govender

This paper presents a novel holistic healthy human framework for C-suite executives and senior leaders in the minerals industry. The value-add of the framework centres around the integration of inner holistic health and interpersonal holistic health to support and enhance environment, social, and governance transformation, with a focus on the social enterprise. The framework unpacks key components of holistic health and their interlinkages to environment, social, governance, and stakeholder engagement. Insights were gleaned from interviews with 10 C-suite executives, each with over twenty years of experience in mining or business leadership. By applying the holistic healthy human framework, industry leaders can strengthen the social licence to operate and positively transform the industry's public image. Broader application to other sectors is underway.

Oct 2, 2025

By R. J. Hundermark, L. R. Nelson

"The critical importance of tap-hole design and management for furnace performance and longevity is explored through examining some of the specific matte, metal, and slag tapping requirements of non-ferrous copper blister and matte converting and smelting, ferroalloy smelting, and ironmaking systems. Process conditions and productivity requirements and their influence on tapping are reviewed for these different pyrometallurgical systems. Some critical aspects of the evolution of tap-hole design to meet the diverging process and tapping duties are examined. Differences and similarities in tapping practices and tap-hole management are reviewed. Finally, core aspects of tap-hole equipment and maintenance are identified – aspects that are considered important for securing improved tap-hole performance and life, so pivotal to superior furnace smelting performance. IntroductionThe sheer diversity of tapping configurations used on industrial pyrometallurgical operations is at first bewildering. They range from historical tilting furnaces without tapholes to modern eccentric bottom tapping (EBT) tilting and/or bottom slide-gate electric arc furnaces; to classical single tap-hole multiphase tapping (e.g. metal/matte and slag); to dedicated phase tap-holes (e.g. dedicated metal/matte-only and slag-only); to dedicated phase multiple tap-hole configurations (up to eight metal/matte-only tap-holes and six slag-only tap-holes); to more esoteric metal/matte-only siphons and slag overflow skimming, e.g. Mitsubishi Continuous Process (Matsutani, n.d.). This can be further complicated by periodic batch tapping; consecutive tapping on a given taphole; alternating tap-hole tapping practice; near-continuous slag-only tapping, with discrete batch matte/metal tapping on higher productivity, but low metal/matte fall (<20% by mass feed) Co and Ni ferroalloy and platinum group metal (PGM) matte furnaces; near-continuous tapping through batch tapping of individual tap-holes that are opened consecutively (Tanzil et al., 2001; Post et al., 2003); to fully continuous tapping on coupled multi-furnace cascades (Matsutani, n.d.)."

Jan 1, 2016