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By Steve Kral

Commodity price down cycles are a fact of life in the mining industry. And companies pre-pare for them as best they can. Evenso, operations are still curtailed or closed during those cycles, profits shrink, layoffs are inevitable and many companies do not survive. However, one of the few good things that occurs during down cycles is the new, innovative exploration, mining and processing technologies that come about during hard times. To survive the lean times, the mining industry turns to improved technology to decrease costs and hold the bottom line. And, because mining is a cyclical business, each down cycle brings about technology improvements that carry over into the good times.

Jan 1, 2004

By K. S. Liddell

The Kell Process has been developed for the extraction of platinum group metals (PGMs) and base metals from sulphide flotation concentrates. The process has been successfully tested on several different sulphide flotation concentrates, including those from the UG2 chromitite horizon and the Platreef mafic/ultramafic layer. It has been shown to provide high (>95 per cent) and selective extraction efficiencies for the key valuable metals, i.e. Pt, Pd, Rh, Au, Ni, Co, and Cu. The Kell Process consists of several commercially proven unit operations. S, Ni, Co, and Cu are first selectively removed by use of a pressure oxidation step during which the dissolution of PGMs is minimized. The residue from pressure oxidation is subjected to a thermal treatment to ensure efficient PGM recovery by subsequent chlorination. All the core steps are very similar to well-proven conventional unit operations in common use, as are the subsequent metal recovery steps to provide marketable end products. Typical metallurgical responses of flotation concentrates from UG2 and Platreef to the Kell Process are provided, and key outcomes of an energy comparison study with smelting are summarized in this paper. Kell presents a potentially substantial improvement in PGM concentrate processing technology, in terms of economics via much-reduced power costs, ease of processing, and various environmental benefits. It allows for the treatment of high-chromium low-grade 'dirty' concentrates, such as secondary concentrates from the platinum industry's 'mill-float-mill-float' (MF2) flotation circuits and concentrates from retreatment of tailings. It allows greater concentrate mass pulls, has higher tolerance to gangue intergrowths in concentrates, and its use can provide substantial increases in overall PGM recovery. Its adoption would be a step change in the platinum industry, and given the commercially proven unit operations embodied in the Kell Process, at much-reduced risk compared with other more experimental technologies. Since the initial process development work, significant improvements and refinements have been introduced as a result of further compre¬hensive testing and process modelling. Pilot-scale testing and engineering study work is in progress for several selected sites.

Jan 1, 2012

By Daniel Barkley

Underground coal mining in Illinois has a lengthy history dating back to the early 1800?s. High extraction underground mining has played a significant role in production through out this time. Modern mechanized longwall mining methods were introduced in the 1960?s and have been in continual use ever since. Regulations governing subsidence from underground coal extraction and the mitigation of resulting impacts to surface structures and surface land initiated in 1983. Despite the history of experience with subsidence, recent plans to longwall in Illinois have stirred public emotions and strong opposition. Anti and pro longwall groups formed and divided a community over the potential economic benefits new mining ventures could bring verses the potential problems associated with longwall mining in productive flat farmland. The debate culminated in a county wide referendum vote on the use of longwall mining. This paper provides an overview of the history of underground mining in Illinois, the controversy that has risen in central Illinois regarding longwall mining, and the efforts to educate the public about regulations that govern longwall subsidence.

Jan 1, 2007

By Brad Murray

Evaluating the performance of a shielded tunnel boring machine (TBM) can be difficult because the ground cannot be observed directly and in relation to the TBM attitude within the excavation. It is difficult to determine whether performance problems are caused by ground loading, steering issues, fine muck packing against the shield, or migration of annular grout around the shield. The Arrowhead Tunnels Project in Southern California uses strain gauges on its shielded hard rock TBMs to detect shield strains early and correlate them with tunneling conditions, thereby increasing the chances that problems will be correctly diagnosed and addressed to optimize TBM performance. The frequent automatic measurement of shield strain has also been valuable by confirming whether remedial methods used to free the machine after stoppages are effective. This paper discusses the qualitative interpretation of characteristic strain patterns on the Arrowhead Tunnels TBM shields and discusses installation details and special considerations for setting up a strain measurement system.

Jan 1, 2008

Experimental investigations were made into the decoppering of lead, tin, and bismuth using a technique which approximates on the small scale to industrial practice.Decoppering lead with sulphur alone in the absence of tin and silver did not proceed to low copper values. With a minimum of 0·02 per cent Ag or 0·10 per cent Sn, lead was decoppered to less than 0·01 per cent Cuby stirring with 0·2 per cent S over 10 min. Decoppering of tin or bismuth proceeded rapidly to very low levels in the absence of any "catalytic" impurities, at any rate in excess of those concentrations normally encountered in commercially pure tin or bismuth.

Jan 1, 1971

By T. S. Lundy, J. Askill

J. Askill and T. S. Lundy (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)—Moore has proposed a simple correlation between the activation energy for solute diffusion in fee metals and the atomic volume of the diffusing species using both tracer and chemical-diffusion data. The first point we wish to make is that it is wrong to attempt such correlations without separating the two types of data. Activation energies obtained using tracer techniques cannot, in general, be directly compared with those obtained from chemical-diffusion experiments. A knowledge of the variations of chemical potentials with composition is necessary and chemical-diffusion data must be corrected for such variations, even for dilute alloys, before a comparison is possible. Secondly, for nickel, iron, aluminum, and lead, Moore neglected a number of recently published works, e.g., Al26 and Mn54 in aluminum,46 cr51 in nickel,47 and Fe55 in iron.48 These and others should have been used. If one considers only the tracer diffusion data, there is left no simple correlation of the type proposed by Moore. For example, in the case of solute diffusion in aluminum the only reliable tracer data listed by Moore are for zinc and aluminum. The nickel, cobalt, and iron data of Agarwala49 are representative of near-surface diffusion-not bulk diffusion. In conclusion we suggest that for tracer diffusion data in these fee metals there is no justification for proposing any simple correlation of activation energy with atomic volume using the limited data that are presently available. R. H. Moore (author's reply)—The writer has proposed a simple correlation which is useful in estimating the internal consistency of diffusion data. The accuracy of the correlation is, of course, a function of the number of data available. Lundy and Askill take issue with the writer's decision to include data for the systems: nickel, iron, aluminum, and lead, taking the view that the data are insufficient to establish the correlation. The writer agrees that the data are insufficient and has cau- tioned the reader that the correlation is tentative in these instances. Inclusion of these systems is justified by the interesting trends the correlation reveals. For example, the distinction between interstitial and substitutional diffusion may be clearly established, Figs. 4 and 6, and the behavior of transition elements and nontransition elements is indicated to parallel the behavior illustrated by the silver and copper systems. Lundy and Askill have singled out the aluminum system for special criticism. The writer chose to discuss the data for diffusion of iron, nickel, and cobalt in aluminum in the terms used by the original authors9 and has included the comments of Balluffi.l0 The writer did not intend the reader to conclude that data for these elements should correlate with data for the nontransition elements as Lundy and Askill have evidently assumed. Iron, nickel, and cobalt form intermetallic compounds with aluminum, so the activity coefficients of these elements may be expected to deviate markedly from unity. This may account for the low frequency factors observed by Hirano.9 The nontransition elements, on the other hand, yield relatively simple phase diagrams with no evidence for intermetallic compound formation as in the case of iron, nickel, and cobalt. In dilute solution, Henry's law should be closely obeyed, the activity coefficients should not deviate markedly from unity, and the effect on the activation energy should not be large. The accuracy of the correlation applied to these systems will improve as the data is extended. It does not seem unreasonable to conclude that its extension should be encouraged.

Jan 1, 1965

By R. J. Wasilewski

Elastic constants have been determined on single crystals of maximum-melting-temperature NiAl compound (50.6 at. pct Al) at 25°C. Temperature variations of Young&apos;s modulus in the three principal crystal directions between -150°C and +800°C exhibit no anomalies similar to those repovted for the isomor-phous compounds brass and AuCd. It is concluded that the ordered CsCl structure is stable throughout the temperuture range investigated NICKEL aluminide is a congruently melting inter-metallic compound of CsCl (B2) structure, stable over a rather wide composition range (40 to 54 pct Al). It exhibits a lattice-parameter maximum of a. = 2.883A at 50.6 pct 1,&apos; at which composition the excess aluminum atoms are randomly distributed on the vacant nickel sites;&apos; at higher nickel compositions the excess nickel atoms replace substitutionally in aluminum sites, while at higher aluminum compositions vacancies are present in the nickel sublattice.&apos; For compositions close to NiAl no significant variation in order has been observed at temperatures up to 900°C.3 At high nickel (65 pct) compositions the existence of a martensitic structural transformation has been reported.4 NiAl is isomorphous with the ordered B-brass structure and with the high-temperature structures of AuCd and TiNi alloys close to equiatomic composition. All of these exhibit anomalous elastic behavior as the temperature of their diffusionless transformation to lower-symmetry structures is approached.&apos;-&apos; This behavior has been explained as indicative of low stability of the CsCl structure in these compounds.8 The present paper reports the experimental determination of the elastic compliances of single-crystal NiA1. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD 1) Specimens. Polycrystalline NiAl was prepared by induction melting of carbonyl nickel and high-purity aluminum and casting into solid copper molds in gettered helium atmosphere. The castings thus produced were canned in mild steel and impact-extruded at 1100 to 1200°C to 38-in.diam rod. After the steel sheath was pickled off, the rods were converted to single crystals by repeated high-frequency satisfactorily produced the desired orientations in the form of crystals 38 in. diam by 8-12 in. long. These were subsequently center less-ground to 7 to 8 mm diam by 12 cm long, electropolished (in 80 pct methanol, 20 pct HzSO, at 25°C and 15 v), and their axial orientation determined to 1 deg by the Laue back-reflection technique. The rod dimensions were determined to 0.01 mm and the densities determined from geometrical dimensions and the weight of every specimen. The average density was 5.905 0.005 g per cu cm. 2) Elastic Data Measurements. Room-temperature elastic compliances Sii were obtained by determining to 0.1 cps the fundameGtal resonance frequencies in the longitudinal and torsional vibration modes. At these frequencies the following relations hold: E =p(2lfif =pvl= Sn- 2r[Sll- S12- -£„«] g -P(2iftf = pvf = (s<« - fr(sii - sw - ±s»y where vl and vt are the velocities, and f andft the resonance frequencies of the longitudinal and torsional waves, respectively; 1 is the length of the specimen, and r is the direction cosine factor—{cos2 a • cos2 0 + cos2 a . cos2 y + cos2 0 ¦ cos2 Y}. Given three crystals of orientations (loo), (110), and (111)) i.e., F = 0, 14, and 13, we can obtain six equations for the three unknown compliances, thus providing adequate internal check. Mode mixing can readily occur in the relatively long wavelength resonance utilized here. This could cause a significant error in the torsion wave velocities calculated from the apparent resonance frequenies. Therefore, throughout the present work, a method, described previosl,&apos; was used to ensure that no significant mode mixing took place at resonance. The apparatus used was originally designed for the Elastomat, Magnaflux Corp.. Chicago, 111. determination of flexural vibration resonance frequencies. At room temperature torsional vibration mode could be established by suitable positioning of the thin wires from the input and pick-up transducers, and longitudinal mode by cementing thin magnetic foils at the ends of the specimen, and inducing the vibration by means of electromagnetic transducers. Only flex-ural resonance frequencies could, however, be obtained reproducibly over the temperature range of -150 to 800°C. These data are considerably less accurate, the error in the modulus being estimated at -0.6 pct from the specimen dimensions and the room-temperature Poisson&apos;s ratio. The reproducibility of the resonance frequencies in repeat runs was, however, to better than l in 15,000, hence the relative elastic modulus error less than 0.02 pct. Therefore, the temperature variation of the principal Young&apos;s moduli obtained by flexural resonance, relative to room-temperature values, is believed to be satisfactorily accurate.

Jan 1, 1967

By Michael Hood

An overview is given of some of the major mining research activities in Australia. Automation of mining equipment is not an objective in its own right. The objective is to improve the safety and the economic performance of mining operations. Automation can be a useful method for achieving this objective. There is a strong focus on mining equipment automation and related issues and specific examples of ongoing and recently completed automation projects are described.

May 1, 2002

The observation of lower-than-predicted Fe/Cu ratios in the cementation of copper on iron in tests at elevated temperatures indicated that some other reaction was contributing to the reduction of cupric sulphate in addition to the reduction by elemental iron. Experiments showed that the copper sponge, which initially formed on the iron, subsequently reduced the cupric sulphate giving the products cuprous oxide and sulphuric acid.Tests were undertaken to determine the rate and equilibrium conditions of the reduction reaction with variations in the types of the reducing agent and solution parameters. The reaction first became apparent at temperatures above 50&#176;C and as it ceased at pH 1&#183;8 it was possible to induce further reaction by alkali addition.

Jan 1, 1974

By Robert J. F. Goodfellow, William A. T. Meakin, Kevin Clarke, Eric Cole

INTRODUCTION New York City Water Supply—Background and History Since the 1840s New York City has been developing the largest, and perhaps, the best urban water supply and distribution system in the world in terms of quality and reliability. One of the engineering marvels of the modern world, the New York City water supply and distribution system serves a population of almost nine million, including residents in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange Counties of New York State. The average daily supplies presently are running at almost 60 m3/sec(about 1,350 million gallons per day). The watershed for the New York City water supply system, under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), consists of19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes, and covers an area of approximately5,000 square kilometers (about 2,000 square miles) north of New York City. The watershed total available storage capacity is about two billion cubic meters (560 billion gallons) and is divided into three reservoir systems: the Catskill and Delaware watersheds located West of the Hudson River; and the Croton watershed, located east of the Hudson River, see Figure 1. The first element of the system, the Croton Aqueduct, started operations in 1842.Through several updates and expansions, the present-day Croton system was in place by 1911, providing a potential maximum supply of about 15 m3/s (about 340 mgd). The system includes ten reservoirs and three controlled lakes. In the late 1800s, with the tremendous growth of the City, New York City water engineers began to look for additional sources. Between 1907 and 1929, the City acquired water rights and constructed a new 148 km (92 miles) Catskill aqueduct to convey water from the Ashokan Reservoir to the City. The Catskill system also included the construction of the Kensico and Hillview Reservoirs just north of the City,

Jan 1, 2005

By G. D. Schena, M Zanin

A numerical approach is presented for predicting the liberation of phases during comminution, with direct calculation of a liberation spectrum giving the fraction of the particulate system in each narrow size-composition class. The numerical model uses a Poisson flat process for stochastic generation of the non-convex three-dimensional Poisson polyhedral textures and the system of fractures that give rise to convex fragments. With this numerical approach, there is no need to assume random uniform isotopic fracture (lack of selective liberation); only computational geometry primitives are exploited for the derivation. The agreement with relationships obtained previously under the random uniform isotopic fracture hypothesis demonstrates that the approach is capable of deriving full liberation spectra directly. Both volumetric and superficial composition can be calculated

Jun 21, 1905

By John Drew Ridge

Tables showing world trade in metallic mineral raw materials during the years 1953 through 1957 have been prepared for the following twenty-one commodities: alumina, aluminum, bauxite, chromite, copper concentrates, partly refined and fully refined copper metal, iron ore, pig iron, iron and steel (simple shapes), lead concentrates, lead metal, manganese ore, mercury metal, nickel ore, concentrates, and matte, nickel metal, raw pyrites, sintered pyrites, tin concentrates, tin metal, zinc concentrates, and zinc metal. In each instance, the amounts given by the importing country were used except when statistics from the importing nation were lacking, incomplete, or misleading. To show the considerable divergence between importing and exporting country totals for the same years, the complete mercury table is given and, in parallel columns, shows the comparable tonnages of importers and exporters. Tables for the other twenty commodities are presented in summary form. The data of the concentrate tables are used with those of the corresponding metals as a basis for a discussion of trade in concentrates versus trade in metals. The data of all twenty-one tables provide the basis for testing the thirteen rules governing international trade in metal raw materials which I first published in Mining Engineering for July 1955. Because the 1953 through 1957 data are far more complete and considerably more extensive than those on which the 1955 rules were based, it was found possible to deduce five additional rules and to modify three of the original thirteen appreciably. The full text of the eighteen rules is given.

Jan 1, 1960

By Rapheal Trousselle

For over 5 years, Davey Bickford has been developing and testing an electronic detonator blasting system. These new-technology detonators provide more accurate timing than conventional systems that rely on the combustion speed of a pyrotechnic composition.

Jan 1, 1997

By N. M. Levine

This work defines and systematizes the physical factors of the problem of leaching and demonstrates for the first time the utility of macropore volume, micropore volume, specific surface, pore size distribution and permeability as parameters of leaching based on a study of the recovery of uranium from the Top Black member of Chattanooga Shale.

Jan 1, 1962

By P. F. Ledwaba

South Africa?s Northern Cape Province houses a variety of gemstone minerals. Diamonds remain the primary gemstone in the province, but there are also tiger?s eye, sugilite, rose quartz, jasper, amethyst, amazonite, tourmaline, and topaz deposits. This paper gives an overview of the tiger?s eye (TE) mining sector in the Northern Cape, with the objective of assessing the potential of TE to contribute to job creation and poverty alleviation in the province. Mining of TE started in 1803, but gained momentum during the 1960s. Mining is conducted on a small-scale basis, and in most cases without any legal framework. The majority of the residents are not benefiting from TE. It has been reported that an estimated R700 000 to R800 000 worth of TE is leaving the country every week through illegal trading. The potential for TE mining to contribute to socioeconomic development is hindered by illegal operations, lack of technical skills and knowledge, exploitation by dealers, lack of market information, community rivalries, and absence of value addition. A multi-stakeholder approach is needed to formalize the sector and reap the benefits. Mintek is spearheading a TE project in the Prieska area of the Northern Cape, which aims to establish a gemmological centre where TE can be beneficiated into saleable and high-value products..

Jan 1, 2014

By Ivo Dreiseitl, Kondratenko. Anatoly

"The second prime area within the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization exploration area named H22 was delineated in 2013 with the goal to ensure sufficient nodule reserves for profitable mining operations and processing.The knowledge base for area H22 has been obtained from archive materials. The geological situation can be characterized as follows: the sea bottom is represented by tectonic blocks oriented in a sub-meridional direction. According to swath mapping, the depressions (troughs) are contoured at depths of 4500-4600 m while the tops of horsts occur at 4300-4350 m. Volcanic relief occupies 6% of the H22 area; in the eastern part a multicone volcano was detected. Its area at the base is 153 km2. The maximum height of a cone above the base is 850 m. The crystalline basement composed by tholeiitic basalts of late Oligocene age is covered by about 100 m of sediments. Semi-consolidated to consolidated calcareous nanofossil sediments of the Marquesas formation are deposited on the basement. Higher up in the profile sediments of the Clipperton formation occur. They are represented by unconsolidated siliceous (Radiolaria, Diatom) ooze. Sediments containing calcium carbonate have not been detected. Where opaline silica (or CaCO3 if any) content is below 5%, the sediments belong to zeolitic clays or red pelagic clays. Grain size composition of the seabed and the near-seabed sediments in H22 classifies them into clayey silts."

Sep 1, 2014

By J. de Villiers

Through the application of the Rietveld method, X-ray diffraction analysis has developed into a fully quantitative method for phase analysis. The Rietveld method itself has progressed from an unstable method that required constant operator intervention to a stable and robust method suited even for routine analysis. The method, however, requires a good initial calibration and periodic checks on its precision and accuracy. Several examples from minerals processing, pyrometallurgy, and materials science show the strengths and applicability of the method. The limitations and sources of error are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2007

By Kenneth G. Skinner

The rapid growth of the metallurgical, chemical, and allied industries on the Pacific coast just prior to and during the war caused a sudden increase in the demand for refractories, which was the immediate cause of a revival in interest in refractory clays available on the Pacific coast, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Population increases and shortage of shipping facilities caused an increase in the amount of various ceramic materials and products used and produced on the Pacific coast, with accompanying demand for information regarding sources of clay. In an effort to supply part of this information, the Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the College of Mines, University of Washington, started a program in 1944 to test the refractory and other properties of clays from seven Pacific Northwest deposits that had been drilled and sampled as part of the Bureau of Mines alumina from clay investigation. Figure 1 shows the location of these deposits.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. Abela

Heavy mineral sands are usually beneficiated in a spiral concentrator circuit prior to separation of heavy minerals into streams of zircon, rutile and ilmenite. The performance of the spiral concentrators is heavily affected by the presence of slimes in the rougher feed. The paper quantifies the effect of slimes content and discusses the beneficial effect of spiral feed de-sliming. The net effect of inefficient slimes removal can cause significant recovery losses of the heavy minerals present in the feed.

Jan 1, 2003

By M. H. Pelkki, R. J. Sweigard, P. W. Conrad, J. M. Ringe, D. H. Graves

Research has shown that excessive soil compaction is detrimental to the establishment of trees in reclaimed soils. Dry bulk density and penetration resistance are two soil parameters that can be used to indicate the level of compaction in reclaimed soils. It is believed that reclamation practices which minimize soil compaction will produce better results when forestland is the intended post-mining use. The University of Kentucky has developed reforestation test cells on reclaimed soils at a surface mine in eastern Kentucky to test this hypothesis. Each test cell has been planted with various species of trees, and since 1997, data have been collected at these test cells for soil average dry bulk density, average penetration resistance, average depth to refusal, and average survival rate of trees. These data have been correlated to determine the relationship between soil compaction and tree survival rate. It is believed that the two soil compaction parameters may ultimately be used to predict tree survival rates on reclaimed surface mined lands.

Jan 1, 2001