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By B Powell

Coastal acid sulfate soils (ASS) are wetland soils and unconsolidated sediments that contain iron sulfides which, when exposed to atmospheric oxygen in the presence of water, form sulfuric acid. ASS form in protected low energy environments such as barrier estuaries and coastal lakes and commonly occur in low lying coastal lands as Holocene marine muds and sands. When disturbed, the iron sulfides in these soils can oxidise and produce large volumes of sulfuric acid (essentially similar chemistry to acid rock drainage with mines) resulting in the subsequent release of toxic levels of iron, aluminium, manganese and possibly heavy metals. This results in detrimental effects on aquatic biota, plants, animals and steel/concrete structures and on human health in the surrounding environment. There are an estimated 2.3 million ha of ASS located along 6500 km of the Queensland coastline. In contrast to many mineral sulfides encountered in the mining industry, the pyrite crystals in ASS can be as small as 2 mm and commonly occur as framboids with extremely large surface area per unit mass, substantially increasing their reactivity if exposed to air (oxidation). Highly reactive iron monosulfides can also occur, particularly in drains and shallow lakes. Many coastal areas, where some 80 per cent of the population of Queensland reside, are coming under pressure for agricultural and urban development. Construction of canal estates, marinas, housing/industrial estates, roads, golf courses, aquaculture ponds, sand/gravel extraction and drainage for sugar cane can disturb ASS and release sulfuric acid, which may then drain into adjacent waterways with heavy rain. As development continues to encroach on coastal lowlands, the identification, quantification and management of ASS must be addressed as part of a commitment to the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD). ASS can be successfully managed by adopting best practices and following guidelines, but government, community and industry must collaborate to raise awareness, avoid æhot spotsÆ and develop more cost-effective solutions. Scientists led the education and public awareness program showing infrastructure and environmental damages arising from ASS in Queensland. Using results from mapping and research, they convinced policy makers, industry and polititians to accept the need for legislation founded on good science. The resulting æState Planning Policy 2/02: Planning and Managing Development Involving Acid Sulfate SoilsÆ identifies the StateÆs interest in acid sulfate soils. The Queensland Government considers that development involving acid sulfate soils in low-lying coastal areas should be planned and managed to avoid potential adverse effects on the natural and built environment (including infrastructure) and human health. SPP 2/02 states where the policy applies and when a development application will trigger the policy. It can also be used to assist local governments in preparing their planning schemes under the æIntegrated Planning Act 1997Æ. The SPP 2/02 comes with a æState Planning Policy 2/02 GuidelineÆ to provide advice and technical information on interpreting and implementing the SPP 2/02. This guideline has legal status in assisting in the interpretation of SPP 2/02. Those seeking more detailed technical information can now also access the æSoil Management GuidelinesÆ and ASS æSampling GuidelineÆ, available from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines website. These are some of a series of chapters being developed for the æQueensland Acid Sulfate Soil Technical ManualÆ.

Jan 1, 2003

Open cut mining of the Black Rock chalcocite ore started in 1963. A ground movement monitoring programme was commencing in the early stages of mining when signs of instabilityof the western wall became apparent. Eventually 100.000 cu vd, of overburden Were removed beyond the rim of the western wall in an attempt to stabilize the slope. Subsequent decpenlug and mining till the final batter angle of 45 resulted in deterioration and mining was stopped 38 ft short in the ulltimte design deplh of 520 ft.Investigations showed that the geology of the western wall , was a major factor in the instability of this wall. A block jointed model was made 10 illustrate some of the pehomena observed. Quallatative agreement was found between the model deformation and the field measurements obtained.The results of the monitoring programme clearly show the value of this work In respect to the conlrol of the mining operatIon...

Jan 1, 1968

In late 1989, first-pass reconnaissance exploration delineated a 4km x 6km geochem- ically anomalous area centred 10km WNW of Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands Province at 6¦13'S and 145047'E. The area, named the Basangka prospect, lies between 2 200 and 2 400m asl. Interest in the area was prompted by a 14ppm Au assay of a silica-pyrite breccia float sample taken near Henkai village. The prospect was defined after several acid-leached silica- pyrite breccia and comb textured quartz float samples returned assays above lppm Au and relatively high Ag. Very encouraging and anomalous Au values were obtained from panned concentrates, despite the absence of visible Au colours. Several pan concentrates returned greater than 1mg Au and it is believed that the Au occurs as inclusions within iron oxides which were originally pyrite. In this early stage of prospect exploration, any Au value above 0.lppm in- 150# fraction stream sediments is treated as anomalous. Rock chips, panned concentrates and -150# fraction geochemistry all vividly define the areas of interest at Basangka.

Jan 1, 1991

By Kennedy G. L

Operating experience with the pilot Lurgi carbonization plant at Morwell showed that under conventional operating conditions, although the thermal efficiency of the plant was very' high, the physical quality of the char produced was extremely poor. By variation of operating conditions to produce the slow drying rate developed by the laboratory research at the University of Melbourne, an improvement in the size of the char was achieved. A similar approach in the carbonization stage where severe breakage of the briquettes still occurred was not possible due to insufficient control over the heating in this stage. Theoretical analysis of the heat exchange process has shown that severe heating of the briquettes entering the carbonizer is a characteristic of the Lurgi system and cannot be controlled by modified operation. The plant has been closed down for reconstruction of the heating system to enable it to be used to produce hard char.INTRODUCTIONAn experimental carbonization plant was operated at the Morwell Works of the 'Gas and Fuel Corporation from November 1958 until July 1959. This plant was built as a pilot plant by the Corporation to designs supplied by the Lurgi Gesellschaft fur Warmetechnik and had the nominal capacity to carbonize 25 tons of brown coal briquettes and to produce 11 tons of char per day. The briquettes were supplied from the· normal production of the Yallourn briquette factory and the 2t in. I-type briquette was the largest size which the plant could handle.This carbonization plant represents the intermediate stage of development between the laboratory research at the University of Melbourne and the commercial production of hard char as a metallurgical fuel. It is intended in the first place for the study of the technical problems in the handling and...

Jan 1, 1960

By Morabito J, Harrop D. W

Uranium exploration was commenced in 1973 and carried out at a regional scale over a wide area of the northern part of the Camarvon Basin of Western Australia by Minatome Australia Pty Limited and their joint-venture partners. As a result, pervasive uranium mineralization has been found in the Cretaceous sandstones near Manyingee Hills in the Onslow Region, which were probably deposited in a near-shore, fluvia deltaic palaeo-environment.Mineralization is generally found in poorly sorted argillaceous sandstones and siltstones near redox fronts formed by oxidizing waters circulating in reduced sediments. The principal minerals found in the two Manyingee deposits delineated so far are coffinite, uraninite with associated pyrite in the reduced zones, and phosphuranylite, siderite and limonite in the oxidized zones. The presence of dissolved uranium in the superficial aquifers, of secondary uranium minerals as coatings on granitic rocks, and of recent uranium-bearing calcrete sediments, suggest that the whole Cretaceous-Precambrian system has been subjected to the formation ofroll-front type uranium deposits since the Cretaceous. Continuing exploration is locating additional uranium occurrences. The deposits outlined so far are being evaluated for their amenability to in situ leaching tests planned for 1982-1983.

Jan 1, 1981

By K Shannon, A Shaw

The Hilton and George Fisher deposits occur 22 and 24 km north of Mount Isa, NW Qld, Australia respectively. Both deposits occur as deformed Proterozoic, sediment hosted, stratiform orebodies hosting Pb-Zn-Ag (Hilton) and Zn-Pb-Ag (George Fisher) mineralisation. The two deposits are separated by approximately 2 km of strongly faulted barren shales, mudstones and siltstones along strike. Despite this, correlations between the Hilton and George Fisher deposits have previously been assumed on the basis of textural, lithological and geochemical similarities, but previously lacked specific details to prove exact stratigraphic matches.Feasibility drilling allowed broad correlations based on the position of siltstone pillars separating individual orebodies. However the position of continuous potassium-rich, siliceous and cross-fractured tuffaceous marker beds (TMBs) often used as stratigraphic markers within the Hilton Mine were initially unrecognised within the George Fisher stratigraphy where they are erratically silicified and often not cross-fractured resulting in correlations being difficult to prove. As a more detailed knowledge of TMB locations at George Fisher was gained it was possible to look for corresponding TMBs within the Hilton orebodies. Recent underground stope definition drilling at the two locations enabled specific TMBs, stratigraphic units and even individual sedimentary beds to be matched between the two locations, despite the large separation between mines.The correlation between the two deposits has implications for future exploration drilling north of George Fisher. If a specific stratigraphic horizon can be determined within one hole, positioning of further drillholes can be more accurately planned. The significance of having stratigraphic matches between Hilton and George Fisher also has implications for correlations with other Isa Valley deposits. Convincing preliminary TM and stratigraphic correlations have already been made between George Fisher and the Isa Lead Mine 24 km to the south.

Jan 1, 2002

By A R. Penney

Since mining-induced seismicity first became apparent at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in 2002, there has been an ongoing program of geotechnical investigations to understand the phenomenon and allow for the development of strategies to manage the risks it posed to personnel, the business and the community at large. Studies resulting from a seismically induced rockfall on Anzac Day 2006 have been extensive, and have advanced the understanding and management of seismicity at the mine. Enhancement of the mineÆs seismic array, implementation of extensive monitoring of ground behaviour, improved ground support and reinforcement design, and ongoing numerical modelling provide a technical framework for the management of seismicity. In addition, extensive involvement of the workforce in risk assessment and the development of standard work procedures (SWPs), has contributed to a æbest practiceÆ approach to manage seismic hazards at the mine.

Jan 1, 2008

By Hargraves A. J

With increasing depth, stresses and stress phenomena are becoming more important considerations in Australian coal mining.A large number of compressive and tensile strength tests was made on coal and rock cubes cut from samples taken in various Australian collieries. In addition, an empirical impact strength test was carriedout on fragments of the same samples, to obtain a correlation with compressive strength.In one colliery, flat-jack measurements were taken to assess stresses in coal ribs and in the roof.INTRODUCTIONBy world standards, some of the New South Wales collieries are approaching depths of cover considered a maximum for bord and pillar the normal Australian coal mining method. Several South Coast collieries are winning coal at depths of about 1500 ft., and future operations are being planned at deeper cover. Some areas of these deep workings produce considerable quantities of seam gas.Phenomena associated with high stress and copious gas under pressure in the seam violent phenoma presenting a danger and a nuisance in mine working - have occasionally occurred, and the phenomena are being investigated as a whole (Hargraves, 1958), and separately as a gas problem (Bolt and Innes, 1959; Hargraves, 1962) and as a stress problem. This paper relates to the latter - to investigations into the strengths of coals and coal measure rocks, and into the stresses in and about coal seams...

Jan 1, 1962

Neutralization with lime is a simple, cheap, and effective means of treating acid raffinates from uranium processing to' raise the pH, reduce the concentrations of dissolved salts (including heavy metal impurities), and remove amine by adsorption. Two-stage neutralization, using limestone in the first stage at approximately pH 4 and lime in the second, lIlay be advantageous.Lime neutralization of mffinates in the pH range 7 to 8· 5 generally reduced the radium ·concentration to 10 to 200 pCi 1-1, but ·there was considerable scatter in the experimental data. The radium concentration was further reduced to less than 3 pCi 1-1 by co-precipitation of barium (radium) sulphate with 10 mg Ba (as barium chloride) per litre of raffinate. Adsorption of radium on barytes was -also effective in reducing the radium concentration in neutralized raffinate to less than 3 pCi 1-1.The radium concentration of pit water was readily reduced to less than 3 pCi 1-1 when pit water containing 0·01 M sulphate as ammonium, calcium, or sodium sulphate was treated with 20 mg Ba per litre of pit water.Adsorption on barytes was also effective in removing radium from pit water containing 0·03 M sulphate.

Jan 1, 1975

The Mount Lyell Mining Field is Australia's chief productive source of copper. It is situated near Queenstown, on the western flanks of the West Coast Ranges, about 20 miles from the west coast of Tasmania (Fig. 1).The following observations on the mineral composition of the copper ores of the Mount Lyell Field are based on a...

Jan 1, 1939

Alkaline leaching with sodium carbonate solution adjusted to pH 9·5 to 10·0 preferentially dissolves thorium from a mixture of rare earth and thorium hydroxides. Rare earth sodium carbonates form in the alkaline leaching stage.These are converted to rare earth oxides for use as optical and ophthalmic polishing agents. Quadrivalent cerium is extracted under similar alkaline leaching conditions.INTRODUCTIONAustralia has made significant contributions to mineral chemistry and mineral dressing. As often happens with an industrially immature country, research investigations often outstrip the ability or desire of commerce to exploit them. It is wrong to think exclusively in terms of export of raw materials. Imagination assists in developing world trends. The chemical utilization of mineral sands has interested a group of investigators, chiefly at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (C.S.I.R.O.) and, more recently, in the mining industry itself. From an international point of view the highlight of this work was Newnham's (1960) process for the separation of hafnium from zirconium. Earlier work at C.S.I.R.O. investigated the chlorination of rutile, zircon, and monazite. Assuming that titanium tetrachloride would be available in large quantities in the post war years, extensive work was done by Kraitzer, McTaggart, and Winter (1948) on organic compounds of titanium. This work led to the development of heat resistant paints, plastic compositions, and improved organic protective coatings that predated overseas work by up to seven years. (Post, Shiihara and Schwartz, 1961; Anon, 1955). Contributions were made to the production of refractory hard metals (Kraitzer, 1949; Kraitzer and Newnham, 1956). Pilkington and Wylie (1947) and Urie (1947) investigated the production of rare earths from monazite by an acid process.

Jan 1, 1963

By N Clarke, R Dineen, W Jones

The Mt Lyell copper mine in western Tasmania has discharged acid drainage (AD) into the Queen and King Rivers and Macquarie Harbour for over a century. Presently, dissolved copper loads of about 1000 tonnes per annum and dissolved aluminium loads of >2000 tonnes per annum are contained in the AD, which is derived from underground workings (~60 per cent) and historic waste rock dumps (~40 per cent). Flows vary from about 100 L/s during dry periods, to >400 L/s during the wet winter. The site is presently operated by Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT) who are not responsible for the acid drainage generated from the mine site. Although western Tasmania is famous for its mining history, tourism and aquaculture have emerged as the new industries on the West Coast, with a major tourism railway (the Abt) recently opened along the banks of the Queen and King Rivers. The emergence of these industries in a æclean greenÆ Tasmania has resulted in a strong community and government push to remediate the acid drainage. Remediation investigations and efforts at Mt Lyell were initiated by the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (DPIWE), previously known as DELM, in 1995, and have included the quantification of environmental impacts arising from the AD, and the investigation and costing of potential remediation options. A primary focus of the work has been to identify cost-neutral options which recover metals from the AD in a saleable form to help defray on going treatment costs. This paper summarises these activities in generally a chronological order, highlighting findings of the program that are potentially applicable to other acid drainage sites.

Jan 1, 2003

Over the past few years, there has been an emerging relationship between business and civil society, especially NGOs. This relationship has the potential to bring about significant change, identifying common ground between commercial and societal interests. The mining industry has been a leader in acknowledging the need for community consultation and engagement. This paper argues that partnerships can make a very significant contribution to the industry as it comes to terms with the dilemma of an open economic system pushing against a closed ecological system.The paper will pose a number of questions: where is the locus for debate about sustainability in the mining sector?; how well embedded within companies are the new competencies that Leon Davis first identified in 1995 for the mining sector?; how has education for mining engineers or exploration geologists changed to prepare people for what are very different expectations within the working environment?; how well is the industry doing in managing its own environmental impact and what is its responsibility to an agenda for sustainability which extends beyond its own operations?;and how can NGO partnerships contribute to more sustainable outcomes? The paper does not aim to answer these questions, but to explore them in the hope that the issues and possibilities raised will contribute to advancing progress towards sustainability within the industry.

Jan 1, 2002

Magnetic anomalies in the Southern Coalfields have been subdivided into two characteristic types. Each type is attributed to a separate cause, one being basement structure, and the other near-surface igneous intrusions.Detailed geological mapping of the area and the ability to sample throughout the coalmines greatly assisted in this subdivision.The Triassic sequence contributes no magnetic effect of its own except to diminish the effect of sources within the underlying formations by raising the level of observation.Detecting the presence of igneous intrusions ahead of colliery working faces by magnetic observations within the coal mines may be of value in preventing accidents caused by gas outbursts and in planning the workings so as to avoid loss of production time.

Jan 1, 1967

By Arndt C. R

The Ispat Mexicana SA de CV (IMEXSA) pelletising plant is located at Lazaro Cardenas on the west coast of Mexico. It is the primary source of feed stock for the adjacent direct reduction (DR) plants and steelmaking facilities. The initial design of the pellet plant began in 1981 for 3 Mtpa of DR grade pellets using local concentrate received by pipeline.' Several construction delays, an ownership change, and a decision to use imported concentrates delivered in 60 000 to 90 000 tonnes ship cargoes required flowsheet modifications and additions. The design concepts are described for the plant which includes concentrate regrind to final pelletising particle size.

Jan 1, 1999

By J L. Maule, S J. Mathews, K A. Rodgers

Gold and Silver bearing epithermal veins of the Golden Cross deposit are hosted in Miocene and Pliocene calc-alkaline volcanics occurring 8 km northwest of Waihi at the southern extent of the Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand. Veining occurred during a period of hydrothermal activity that began early to late Pliocene, and possibly continued into the Pleistocene.   Field relations and petrographic relationships reveal that multiple generations of FeS2 occur in the Golden Cross region, with FeS2 occurring in all nine rock types recognised at Golden Cross. The variability of FeS2 morphology was investigated by preparation of high purity FeS2 separates, and grain counting. Marcasite is the dominant FeS2 phase at Golden Cross, and along with pyrite is shown to have a systematic habit variation. Pyrite shows a sequence from cubes through octahedra to pyritohedra to dendritic growth. This pyrite sequence conforms to an experimentally determined sequence. The parallel sequence for marcasite at Golden Cross is from tabular through bladed aggregates to euhedral miscellaneous marcasite morphologies. The FeS2 sequences observed are believed to be due to increasing temperature, and perhaps also increasing FeS2-oversaturation and fluid flow.

Jan 1, 1994

By C MacDonald

There are many technologies available today in terms of fire and life safety in road tunnels. So many in fact that it is becoming more and more difficult for clients and contractors alike to determine what they want and what they need. From a clientÆs perspective, fire and life safety is about protection to its infrastructure and to the public at large. Conversely, the contractor is looking to meet its æfit for purposeÆ or ædeem to complyÆ requirements in the most economic and practicable way. Practices regarding fire and life safety in road tunnels have undergone a degree of transformation during the last decade or more throughout the world. This transformation has largely been driven by a series of catastrophic accidents such as the major fires in Europe including the Mont Blanc Tunnel, Tauern Tunnel, Saint-Gothard Tunnel, and now most recently in the CityLink Tunnels in Melbourne. International guidelines produced by organisations such as the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC), the European Union, the International Tunnelling Association (ITA) and the US National Fire Protection Authority (NFPA) now provide clients, owners and designers with the tools required to define and specify the required fire and life safety systems in road tunnels. The majority of these tools are based on risk assessment and risk management. Recent road tunnel projects within Australia, however, have not referred solely to such guidelines. Clients have opted to prescribe different or additional fire and life safety requirements within the projectÆs technical specification documentation (project requirements), leaving designers and contractors with little room to implement alternatives or substitutions. Further, these project requirements are largely dictated by practice established on previous road tunnel projects within Australia. This paper looks at the current international guidelines and practices and undertakes a comparison with the EastLink tunnels in Melbourne and other road tunnels within Australia and makes assessment on whether Australian methods are the most appropriate for clients and contractors alike. Focus is directed to the key elements of fire and life safety such as:traffic envelope, barrier arrangements and emergency walkway provisions;deluge systems;drainage systems;fire rating requirements;tunnel ventilation systems;cross passage provisions;fire safety assessment;critical intelligence systems including help phones, CCTV, incident detection, tunnel signage, etc; andexternal tunnel control systems.

Jan 1, 2008

By G T. Kukla

A Seam deposit User oriented Mine Planning System (SUMPS) was developed by The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) at its head office in Melbourne. It is one of the computer mine planning systems developed by the Corporate Data Processing (CDP) section of BHP. To date it has been employed in the feasibility study of four coal prospects for the BHP Group, including Gregory in central Queensland û Ham and Van Hoorn (1978). It was also used in detailed short term mine planning for Gregory. A recent application was in the feasibility study of Saxonvale, a multi seam coal deposit in New South Wales with seams up to 20 m thick. The other two applications of SUMPS were also on thick multi seam coal deposits. Development of programs for the underground subsection of SUMPS is continuing. SUMPS was developed and implemented on mini computers with graphics and plotting peripherals. The company's philosophy towards computing is one of centralized development and project planning, with transfer of hardware and software to site once the mine becomes operational. Support of the site's system continues from head office which is continually involved in development of SUMPS and issuing revision updates to sites. The users, as well as programmers, were mostly geologists and mining engineers. This helped to ensure rapid, successful implementation. The broad approach of this system was to use interactively the specialist skills and interpretative abilities of the user mining engineers and geologists with the data manipulation abilities of the computer. It is an integrated system which covers geological exploration, deposit modelling, mine planning and production scheduling. An important feature of the system is that the user has full interactive control over each function through a graphics terminal where applicable.

Jan 1, 1980

By D van der Wal, R Dobbe, K Moeller

"Ore mineralogy and texture are primary variables controlling mill recovery efficiency in flotation plants. However, tracking daily variations of key mineralogical characteristics such as species-by-species liberation is not possible with current on stream analysers and assay lab techniques. In addition, traditional plant mineralogical analysis limited by long data turn-around times from central analysis laboratories typically provides only a time-averaged view of mill performance, e.g. by means of monthly composite feed, con or tailings analysis.This paper presents the results of a development and first field test of an on-site Automated Mineralogy solution (MLA or QEMSCAN) with the specific goal of monitoring recovery variation, ore quality and flotation performance on a mineral species-by-species and day-by-day basis, from up to twelve million direct particle observations per month. The trial was performed at a Pb/Zn-Ag operation in the US from November 2012 to April 2013. The focus of the study was three-fold: to validate the robustness of equipment and operational procedures for daily use by mine site technicians at a remote mine site to develop a methodology to boil down hundred-thousands of Automated Mineralogy particle data from size-by-size con and tailings samples to a couple of numbers meaningful to chief metallurgists to monitor recovery trend changes and correlate these to changes in the feed properties and/or flotation efficiency.The study focused primarily on the Pb/Ag rougher-concentrator circuit. Ten polished blocks of two and three size fractions of con and tailings were prepared by mine site technicians during a daily twelve hour shift. Eight hours of daily measurement time by the instrument revealed an estimate of the dayÆs recovery performance, ore quality and flotation performance for Freibergite (Ag-species) and Galena (Pb-species), within 36 hours from initial sampling. Data quality was assessed by means of calculated versus measured assay reconciliation. Cumulative sum curves of recovery performance, ore quality and flotation performance reveal trend changes with a frequency of 1 to 4 weeks. These were correlated to cumulative sum curves of e.g. locked and slimed particle classes of the mineral species of interest, attempting to identify a possible root cause of recovery performance trend changes. Systematic over-grinding and flotation chemistry issues were the primary causes of below average plant operations during the trial.CITATION:van der Wal, D, Dobbe, R and Moeller, K, 2013. Development of an on-site mineralogy solution for metallurgists, in Proceedings MetPlant 2013, pp 126-132 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Jul 15, 2013

The minerals industry focus over much of the past twenty years has been on cost reduction and production growth supported, but not driven, by technology improvements. Mergers and acquisitions, and the demands of financial markets, have been high priority items whereas research and development and technology based innovation have received less attention and have been cut back in many companies. Technology improvements will be critical if the industry is to make progress on the stated aims of improving energy efficiency, reducing water usage and maximising recovery from deposits. They will also be important for improving capital efficiency and in treating difficult deposits. However the role technology based innovation will play both in the overall industry, and within individual companies, during the next decade is quite uncertain. There are major challenges in progressing technology based innovation in an industry with limited technical resources which is dominated by long life high capital operations. Specific opportunities for energy and productivity improvements exist but face significant technical and structural barriers that need to be overcome if the industry is to significantly improve performance. Current evidence suggests that changes in approach will be needed for these improvements to be realised. Recent studies in the United States and Canada have highlighted the wide range of energy performance across the industry and the scope for marked improvement from both incremental improvements and increased research and development. Comminution, material transportation and underground mine ventilation were identified as high priority areas. Opportunities within these areas are discussed both in respect of specific technologies and in how they may change performance. The role of open innovation as a source of new technology is also discussed. This is an abstract only. No full paper was prepared for this presentation.

Sep 13, 2010