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By O. Leuangthong, M. Nowak

"The impact of high-grade data on resource estimation has been a longstanding topic of interest in the mining industry. Concerns related to possible over-estimation of resources in such cases have led many investigators to develop possible solutions to limit the influence of highgrade data. It is interesting to note that the risk associated with including high-grade data in estimation appears to be one of the most broadly appreciated concepts understood by the general public, and not only professionals in the resource modelling sector. Many consider grade capping or cutting as the primary approach to dealing with high-grade data; however, other methods and potentially better solutions have been proposed for different stages throughout the resource modelling workflow.This paper reviews the various methods that geomodellers have used to mitigate the impact of high-grade data on resource estimation. In particular, the methods are organized into three categories depending on the stage of the estimation workflow when they may be invoked: (1) domain determination; (2) grade capping; and (3) estimation methods and implementation. It will be emphasized in this paper that any treatment of high-grade data should not lead to undue lowering of the estimated grades, and that limiting the influence of high grades by grade capping should be considered as a last resort. A much better approach is related to domain design or invoking a proper estimation methodology. An example data-set from a gold deposit in Ontario, Canada is used to illustrate the impact of controlling high-grade data in each phase of a study. We note that the case study is by no means comprehensive; it is used to illustrate the place of each method and the manner in which it is possible to mitigate the impact of high-grade data at various stages in resource estimation."

Jan 1, 2015

By Kevin Beirne

Most people involved in the mining industry are familiar with student-industry co-op work-study programs. Many colleges and universities have used them for years. Northern College’s Haileybury School of Mines student co-op program adds a new dimension of productivity to the college and the mining industry. The college is located in Hailey-bury, Ontario, Canada. An example of the program’s success is the school’s relationship with Sabin Metal’s SMC (Canada) Ltd.’s McAlpine Mill in Cobalt, Ontario. Students gain practical knowledge and experience while industry gains an eager-to-learn worker. And many of the college’s advanced research services are made available to industry to supplement their own capabilities. The McAlpine Mill was established to provide custom milling of slags and ores. It also recovers metal values from other products of the primary and secondary precious metal industries.

Jan 1, 1999

By Thomas Novak, Sampurna Arya, Joseph Sottile

Dust generation and its dispersion in a longwall mine pose significant health and safety issues. The concern is prominent at both the working face, where coal excavation exposes workers to high dust concentrations, and also in the return, where float dust accumulates. To address this issue, researchers at theUniversity of Kentucky designed and fabricated a flooded-bed dust scrubber integrated into a full-scale physical model of a longwall shearer. This mock-up was installed in the longwall test gallery at the Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). A full-factorial experiment was designed to measure the effectiveness of the scrubber on dust capture. Test results indicated dust reduction of up to 57% in the return airways. This paper presents the development of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and its validation by comparing the simulation results against the experimental results. The CFD simulations show good agreement with experimental results with differences between + 6.9 and − 9.7%. The validated CFD model was used further to predict the scrubber performance under additional operating conditions, resulting in a dust reduction of up to 66.5%. With this level of success, the scrubber concept can be a game changer for the mining industry, and it can be utilized to improve health and safety in longwall mines.

May 26, 2020

By Isabelle Lamb, Manfred K. Lechner, Daniel N. Adams

Sydney Australia’s M5 East Motorway connects southwestern suburbs to the airport. Central to the project are twin 3.8 km roadway tunnels which are mostly driven through rock. In order to come up with the winning tender, the project team developed several unique approaches for tunnel excavation and support. The project’s flat roof with thin shotcrete lining, 20 m wide underground intersections, thixotropic-grout sheathed rockbolts and cablebolts, and new shotcrete testing methods all differ significantly from traditional concepts. This paper presents the design basis and construction methods used to achieve the 100-year design life required by the project’s owner.

Jan 1, 2001

By V. Labiouse, B. Heidenreich

The rebound phenomenon, which occurs during rockfalls when a rock block impacts with a slope surface, is influenced by several parameters related not only to the slope material but also to the block and the kinematics. The paper presents a small-scale testing campaign undertaken at the LMR (EPFL) to better understand and quantify the bouncing of blocks on granular slopes. The influence of some factors related to the ground material, the block and the kinematics is examined. Bei Steinschlägen wird die Flugbahn eines stürzenden Felsbrockens maßgeblich durch den Abprall vom Hang bestimmt. Der Rückprall hängt von verschiedenen Parametern ab, wobei nicht nur das Hangmaterial sondern auch Blockeigenschaften und Kinematik eine große Rolle spielen. Zum besseren Verständnis dieses Phänomens und seiner Quantifizierung werden am LMR (EPFL) kleinmaßstäbliche Versuchskampagnen auf granulären Materialien durchgeführt. Der vorliegende Artikel stellt die Versuche vor und untersucht den Einfluss verschiedener Boden-, Block- und kinematischer Parameter. Le phénomène de rebond qui se présente lors de l’impact d’un bloc rocheux sur la surface d’un versant dépend non seulement des caractéristiques du terrain, mais aussi de facteurs relatifs au bloc et à la cinématique. L’article présente une campagne d’essais sur modèle réduit entreprise au LMR (EPFL) afin de mieux comprendre et quantifier l’impact de blocs sur des matériaux granulaires. L’influence de divers paramètres relatifs au sol, au bloc et à la cinématique est mise en évidence.

Jan 1, 2003

By K Thorpe

Amorphous silica deposits have been identified at Tikitere and Taheke near Rotorua. Two areas at Tikitere have been surface sampled and drilled to establish a resource of amorphous silica in excess of one million tonnes. A pilot plant was established to develop a process to manufacture a high quality super pozzolanic material. This development process took two years before a commercial product was introduced to the construction industry in 1996. The amorphous silica product, marketed as Microsilica 600, is used as a pozzolanic material to produce high quality strong and durable concrete, sprayed tunnel linings, mortars and grouts. Microsilica 600 has been used locally and exported to 11 countries.

Jan 1, 1999

By Eduardo Gimenes Jabes, Thiago Pires Nagasima, João Ricardo Filipini da Silveira, João Batista Ferreira Neto, Marcelo de Aquino Martorano

Foi implementado um modelo matemático para simular a solidificação de ligas do sistema Nd-Fe-B no processo de lingotamento de tiras. O modelo foi baseado na aplicação da equação de condução de calor unidimensional através da espessura da tira e da parede do rolo refrigerado da máquina de lingotamento. A resolução numérica dessas equações permitiu o cálculo do perfil de fração de sólido através da espessura da tira e dos perfis de temperatura através da tira e da parede do rolo. A temperatura de um ponto da superfície do rolo oscila em ciclos formados pelo contato com o metal líquido (vazamento) e pelo destacamento de um pedaço da tira. A temperatura média do rolo aumenta continuamente, diminuindo a taxa de resfriamento nas tiras. Mesmo no início do processo, os pedaços de tiras que se destacam ainda não estão completamente sólidos.

Oct 1, 2019

Pillars in underground limestone mines are required to support the overburden and provide a safe, stable working environment for mining personnel and equipment. Pillar stability was assessed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in underground limestone mines in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. It was found that current mine layouts have been successful in providing support to the overburden, while a small number of isolated pillar failures were observed. The stable pillar layouts and failed pillars were plotted on a chart that demonstrates the relationship between pillar width-to-height ratio and pillar stress. The results show that pillar failures occurred at the lower range of width-to-height ratios and can occur at relatively low stress levels. Zones indicating the potential risk of pillar instability are shown on the chart, based on hazards associated with the onset of rib spalling, large angular discontinuities and unconfined pillars. The chart can assist limestone mine planners to evaluate potential instability in current or new pillar layouts that are similar to those included on the stability chart.

Jan 1, 2008

By Herty, C. H.

Present-day interest in the question of "dirty steel" has arisen primarily from the increasingly rigid specifications on various grades of steel and from the growing conviction that non-metallic inclusions are the source of many of the difficulties in meeting these specifications. The importance of inclusions has unquestionably been over-emphasized in many cases, but on the other hand many unpublished instances could be recorded where all evidence pointed to inclusions as the primary cause for the failure of steel in rolling or in service. The solution of the problem of dirty steel is not a matter of a few years. There are almost numberless types of inclusions. They segregate in steel ingots in an entirely different manner from other impurities, and, at best, only a start has been made in developing correct analytical methods for their determination. Most of the writers in the field have expressed opinions rather than given facts, and so many variables enter into the manufacture of steel that a study of plant conditions is difficult unless definite facts on certain phases of the inclusion problem are available. This statement is not intended to convey the idea that little work has been done on this problem. On the other hand, the number of investigations has been large, but in most cases too many variables have been present to allow definite conclusions to be drawn. In the body of the text, reference to previous investigations is made at suitable points. Rather than burden the reader with a lengthy review of the literature on the general subject of inclusions, reference to the particular works pertinent to the subject matter of the bulletin has been discussed. Three excellent bibliographies b on the subject have been lately published: one by the Committee on

Jan 1, 1957

By B. M. England, C. Y. Yang, L. T. Matthews, J. Y. Yin

The domestic concentrate used by the Shanghai Meishan Metallurgical Corporation in Nanjing contains significant siderite, magnetite and haematite, the siderite having a substantial influence on its sintering behaviour. On the basis of experimental findings and published information it is proposed that siderite decomposition starts at c.400 degrees C and results in the formation of CO and/or H2, which then reduces the haematite to magnetite prior to the initiation of high-temperature sintering; inter-mixed particles of Australian haematite and pisolite ores also undergo significant reduction. As the gaseous reduction process is so effective, low-temperature forms of silico-ferrite of Ca and Al (SFCA) cannot form even at high sinter basicity. The bench-scale results were confirmed in a pilot-scale facility whose sinters consisted mainly of magnetite, high-temperature SFCA and glass, which is typical of sinters formed from mixes with high magnetite levels

Aug 1, 1995

"Exploitation of an ore deposit can be optimized by adapting the beneficiation processes to the properties of individual ore blocks. This can involve switching in and out certain treatment steps, or setting their controlling parameters. Optimizing this set of decisions requires the full conditional distribution of all relevant physical parameters and chemical attributes of the feed, including concentration of value elements and abundance of penalty elements. As a first step towards adaptive processing, the mapping of adaptive decisions is explored based on the composition, in value and penalty elements, of the selective mining units.Conditional distributions at block support are derived from cokriging and geostatistical simulation of log-ratios. A one-to-one log-ratio transformation is applied to the data, followed by modelling via classical multivariate geostatistical tools, and subsequent back-transforming of predictions and simulations. Back-transformed point-support simulations can then be averaged to obtain block averages that are fed into the process chain model.The approach is illustrated with a ‘toy’ example where a fourcomponent system (a value element, two penalty elements, and some liberable material) is beneficiated through a chain of technical processes. The results show that a gain function based on full distributions outperforms the more traditional approach of using unbiased estimates."

Jan 1, 2015

By Krishna Parameswaran

"This paper discusses energy use and conservation in the primary copper industry and illustrates eco-efficiency considerations, using select examples of practices at ASARCO LLC, an integrated primary copper producer and others in the industry that promote eco-efficiency. The World Council for Sustainable Business Development first publicized the concept of eco-efficiency at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Eco-efficiency is a management concept linking environmental and economic performance and is aimed at generating added value for a business through, among other things, increased resource and energy conservation and reduced environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the product or service. This concept differs from sustainable development in that focus is only on economic and environmental factors and does not include social considerations. In the metal mining and processing context, this added value can be realized by implementing practices that promote conservation of water and mineral resources, conservation of energy, minimization of waste, reduced emissions and effluents and increased recycling. The examples from the primary copper industry used to illustrate eco-efficiency considerations include: water and energy conservation in mineral processing, adoption of flash and bath smelting processes, emission reduction and process improvement associated with fire-refining, implementation of green chemistry in electrorefining, promoting product stewardship initiatives and fostering renewable energy project on disturbed mined lands.INTRODUCTION ASARCO LLC (Asarco) was organized in 1899 as the American Smelting And Refining Company. Originally a consolidation of several lead-silver smelting companies, it evolved over the years into an integrated producer of primary non-ferrous metals, including copper, lead and zinc and associated co-products. Grupo México, S.A.B. de C.V acquired Asarco in 1999. Today, Asarco is a vertically integrated producer of primary refined copper and associated co-products such as gold, silver, molybdenum, selenium and tellurium. Asarco operates three open-pit mines and mills, two leach, solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plants and a copper smelter in Arizona and a copper refinery in Texas."

Jan 1, 2017

By Frank E. Cash

Published or available data on safety in quarries are few except those pertaining to blasting issued by manufacturers of explosives. During the past 25 years the quarrying industry (including various types of quarries producing many different materials) has had a markedly improved accident experience. The downward trend has not been phenomenal or has it been uniform from year to year, owing to occasional major disasters; but from the information at hand it appears that improvement during the 25-year period has been definite.

Jan 1, 1941

By S. Norman Kesten

The Galena mine is located astride the Polaris fault in the Coeur d'Alene district of northern Idaho. The surface installations are about a mile up Lake Gulch, the mouth of which is about 2.4 km (1 112 miles) west of the old town of Wallace. The mine had its beginnings when the first claims were located in the early boom days of the district in the 1880s and when the first underground ore bodies were opened up in 1917. During the ensuing 14 years, ore was mined from which were recovered 5.4 Mkg (12 million lb) of lead and almost 14.2 Mg (112 million oz) of silver. Workings consisted principally of a vertical shaft from surface to the 800 level and an offset underground shaft to the 1600 level, together with extensive lateral openings. High-grade silver-copper ore was discovered near the Silver Standard fault in the Sunshine mine, a few miles to the west, on the 1700 level in 1930. By 1937, the Sunshine and adjacent mines were producing silver-copper ore on a regular basis. In 1943 additional ore of a similar type was found along the Chester fault, to the east of the principal Sunshine workings. The interest of American Smelting and Refining Co. (renamed ASARCO in 1975) was aroused and the company's geologists determined that the Galena mine, idle since 1931, provided a geological environment in which similar ore might be found. After negotiations were initiated with the owners of the property, Callahan Zinc-Lead Co., the property in question was deeded to Callahan's wholly owned subsidiary, Vulcan Silver-Lead.

Jan 1, 1990

TIMBER supports for large underground cavities are temporary expedients until the permanent filling can be put in. Nevertheless, timber supports are very necessary in some form. The general problem is to support the cavity in all directions withthe minimum of timber, disposed in the strongest way. The simplest way of filling an irregular space with timber sets is to form triangles.The right-angled isosceles triangle (Fig. 1) leads to the true square set, in which caps are equal to struts. The right-angled unequal-sided triangle and the scalene isosceles triangle (Fig. 2) lead to the oblong square set, where caps are longer than struts.The scalene triangle (Fig. 4) leads to the rhombic or oblique set. The equilateral triangle leads to the hexagon set (Fig. 3), in which the caps and struts are all equal. These five plane figures, the triangle, square, rectangle, rhomb and hexagon, are the only figures that will completely fill any irregular plane figure, without interstices. Hexagon sets were first suggested by the writer in 1902 to a mine manager at Broken Hill, who did not see his way to use them.

Jan 1, 1912

By Yukio Shigaki

Tendo como objetivo a melhoria contínua dos processos de laminação de produtos planos, foi elaborado um projeto de aplicação de modelos matemático-numéricos para a simulação dos laminadores de tiras a frio da Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN). A premissa principal é a de que esses modelos permitirão relacionar as diversas variáveis operacionais com o perfil emergente da tira e, baseado na variação da coroa entre a entrada e a saída, estimar a qualidade da sua planicidade. O presente trabalho apresenta os principais modelos aplicados, informações sobre os ensaios realizados para tomada dos dados industriais e alguns dos primeiros resultados com foco no perfil e planicidade. Resultados preliminares indicaram a modificação da coroa dos cilindros de trabalho do Laminador de Encruamento, levando à redução da quantidade de tiras com ondulado lateral. Também foram obtidos resultados satisfatórios na simulação das cadeiras do Laminador de Tiras a Frio no. 1, que é composto de cadeiras 6-high e 4-high.

Oct 30, 2017

By Victor Raul Alarcon

The Ilo Refinery was commissioned in 1975, with a cathode production capacity of 150,000 tpy. In 1994, Southern Perú Copper Corporation (SPCC) purchased the Refinery from Minero Perú SA. Subsequently, in November 1999, Grupo Mexico acquired control of Southern Perú. The anode production facility is located at the Ilo Refinery. A number of effective operating and quality control practices have been developed that have improved anode quality, as well as increasing anode production capacity to 350,000 tpy. These, and other optimization actions have allowed for a current density increase from 213 A/m2 to 275 A/m2, while maintaining current efficiency at 98% and sustaining the high quality of the cathode. The paper will outline the scope of operational practices in the Anode Plant and provide some discussion on the Ilo Smelter modernization project, and the resulting impact on the existing anode plant.

Jan 1, 2005

By D. F. Hewett

CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 1 Geologic features of eastern Oregon 2 Geology of the Sumpter quadrangle 2 Rocks older than the ore deposits 3 Rocks younger than the ore deposits 8 Lodes of the Sumpter quadrangle 8 Areal distribution 8 Geologic distribution 9 Major features of the veins 9 Mineralogy and texture of the veins 13 Ore deposits zonally disposed around the Bald Mountain batholith . . . . 13 Summary of mineralogy and texture 32 Zonal relations 33 Ore deposits zonally disposed around Greenhorn Mountain batholith . . . 36 Zonal relations 37 Relation of textural features to zonal arrangement of veins 37 Summary of zonal relations 38 Comparison with similar districts 39 Outlook for the district 40 INTRODUCTION IN an earlier report on the Sumpter quadrangle1 it was briefly stated that the quartz lodes of that region might be separated into several groups or belts on the basis of the kind and abundance of the minerals of which they are composed, and that these belts were disposed as areal zones around the principal intrusive mass of the region. When the opportunity to revisit the region was offered in 1929, as a result of a cooperative agreement between the State Mining Board of Oregon and the United States Geological Survey, it seemed advisable to pay particular attention to this feature of the lodes, in the hope that if the idea of zonal relations was confirmed it might serve as a guide in exploitation.

Jan 1, 1931

By W C. Cook, S J. Mathews, A H. Purvis

The Golden Cross Gold Mine is located at the head of the Waite kauri Ri ver, 8 km northwest of Waihi near the southern end of the Coromandel Range. The mine produces gold and silver from epithermal veins hosted by Miocene andesitic flows and pyroclastics of the Coromandel Group. Golden Cross is owned in joint venture by Coeur Gold NZ Ltd (80 per cent) and Viking Mining Company Ltd (20 per cent). Mining is by open pit and underground methods. Mineralisation in a near-surface sheeted/stockworked vein zone is mined from the open pit. The deeper Empire Vein System is mined from underground where higher grade mineralisation is restricted to generally discrete veins. The open pit stockwork zone is west of and offset from the updip trend of the Empire Vein System. The Empire (hangingwall) Vein strikes generally north-northeast and dips steeply west. Dips become subvertical at greater depth. The hangingwall vein is a well developed, generally continuous structure with relatively high gold grades. A complex footwall vein system forms shallow west-dipping offshoots to the hangingwall vein. Structure and gold grades become increasingly erratic away from the hangingwall vein. The better developed footwall veins carry economic grades and high 'spot' grades over 50 g/t Au are not uncommon. Highest gold grades are associated with tightly crustiform banded sections of quartz veins and with dark fine grained siliceous breccias. The main hangingwall vein occupies a major north-northeast trending fault structure, the Empire Fault. Footwall veining forms within subordinate splinter fault zones. There has been extensive multidirectional pre-, syn- and post-mineralisation faulting. Fault manifestation is highly dependent on host rock characteristics. The central part of the hangingwall vein and surrounding silicified country rock has been shattered by a major fault structure, the West Mine Fault, forming a poorly consolidated, blocky quartz-breccia ore zone. Away from the more brittle ore zones and associated silicified envelope, wide clay-filled shears mark the major fault trends. Development of the deposit is considered to have occurred in two distinct stages related to separate episodes of dilational jog movement on the Empire Fault. The first phase reactivated the pre-existing Empire Fault as a dilational fissure with subordinate splinters on the footwall side. The Empire Vein System (hangingwall and associated footwall veining) formed during this phase. A second phase of renewed movement with further dilation resulted in more extensive fracturing of the Empire Vein and surrounding country rock and formed the sheeted/stockwork veining of the open pit. An upwards/westward migration of the hydrothermal system is assumed but fluid pathways between underground and open pit veining are unclear. Ore extraction and mining geology methods have responded to improved understanding of the grade and structural variability, and changing ground conditions inherent in the vein system. The underground mine produces ore from flatback cut and fill, post-pillar and bench stopes. Open pit and underground ores are campaign milled through a conventional CIP plant.

Jan 1, 1993

By H. Rozovsky

"AbstractThis paper discusses the methods of handling air in a large asbestos mill presently being completed at the Jeffrey mine of the Canadian Johns-Manville Company in Asbestos, Quebec.The mill, being the largest single asbestos producer in the world and capable of handling over 14,000 tons of ore per day, requires vast quantities of air. A minimum of 2,500.000 c.f.m. is required or about 10 tons of air for each ton of ore milled.Short descriptions of the process and systems requiring this air are given, followed by details of the fans and filters which make up the heart of the mill.This 'draw through' system, located on the top or 12th floor, is an automatically .controlled volume-pressure system creating the required suction to draw .air throughout the mill building and its numerous air systems.The dry mechanical method of milling develops enormous quantities of airborne dust and fibre. A section of this paper is devoted to a description of the multiplicity of dust systems within a system to control, filter, and remove this dust.Finally, the paper describes the method of returning the filtered air to the• working floors or to the outside, with some notes on heat, humidity and dust counts.IntroductionGeneralTHE discussions in this paper deal only with operations where air movement is involved. No attempt is made to delve into production methods.The Jeffrey mine of the Canadian Johns-Manville Company, located about 100 miles east of Montreal, is the largest single asbestos producer in the world, being responsible for over half of Canadian asbestos fibre production."

Jan 1, 1955