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By T. Shariff

Titanium alloys have found increasingly wide range of applications in aerospace, chemical, medical, sporting, power generation, oil and gas extraction industries mainly due to the low density, high mechanical property characteristics, biocompatibility, and excellent corrosion resistance. In the manufacturing routes of their finished products, welding has been a key technique used and always been a main concern requiring the stringent compliance to the well defined process. Conventionally, gas tungstenarc (TIG), gas metal-arc (MG), plasma arc, and electron beam welding processes have been used to weld titanium alloys. Nowadays, laser beam welding has provided great challenging applications for titanium alloys due to the low and precise heat input, deep and narrow fusion zone, small heataffected zone, low thermal distortion and high productivity. At the NRC Institute for Aerospace Research, some R&D work has been undertaken for titanium alloys using laser beam welding process. These investigations have mainly concentrated on optimizing the welding process as well as understanding the fundamental process-structure-property relationships. In this invited keynote presentation, the research progresses obtained and the main issues encountered in laser welding of titanium alloys will be briefly summarized.

Jan 1, 2011

By D. Neely

As Saskatchewan potash mines grow in age and size, mining reaches greater depths.  The stress-relief design principals which were empirically derived at shallower depths are beginning to show fault.  Nutrien Vanscoy Potash has began to encounter new ground support and panel design challenges which were previously had negligible effect.  While the initial reaction was to reduce extraction and implement distance buffers between operating machines, it eventually became clear that these would only provide short term relief and that in order to continue safely and efficiently mining broad areas, a fundamental change in the mine design would provide the long-term protection required.  Presented is a case study with an overview of the challenges encountered at Vanscoy Potash in areas of greater depth along with an account of the design changes considered, implemented and recommended for future success. 

May 4, 2025

By K. Kim

"All milling operations would like to achieve the best possible recovery in combination with the highest achievable throughput. Unfortunately, many operations have problems with low recovery, low throughput or both. In the majority of these cases investigated by the author, the solutions to improve recovery and throughput were simple. The solutions did not include implementation of new technology or major capital, but rather a return to fundamentals. In most cases, problems occurred because the operation was not following their own operating procedures, because the design of the circuit was changed without adequate change management or understanding of the implications of changes, or because basic metallurgical measurements and control were not taken or ignored. In this paper, examples of these problems and their solutions derived from long and varied experience will be discussed. The objective of this presentation is to provide the milling operator with practical and readily implementable solutions to common milling issues to improve throughput and recovery.INTRODUCTION Mill operations can be evaluated by many operating parameters, but the two best indicators are recovery and throughput. These two parameters summarize the wellbeing of an operation. The grade to the mill is also a good indicator, but this is usually controlled by the mine. The best recovery and throughput are achieved through a team work involving operators, maintenance workers and metallurgical staff. The milling operations include many unit operations, such as crushing, grinding, flotation, leaching, carbon in leach, Merrill Crowe, roaster, autoclave and refinery. The tools available to the operations are plant design, process measurements, assays, metallurgical balance, and operating strategy. Twelve real life examples of improvements of recovery and throughput are presented in this paper. EXAMPLE 1: CRUSHING CIRCUIT WITHOUT FINE ORE BIN At this operation plant throughput could not be maintained at a high rate because feed to the mill became coarse during the day. The cone crusher was feeding the ball mill directly. As the day wore on, the gap on the cone crusher would slowly increase, which would cause the product size to increase. This would increase the re-circulating load on the ball mill. The throughput would decrease accordingly. Furthermore, the throughput would decrease more with high frequency of maintenance on the cone crusher."

Jan 1, 2019

By Kan Xing

This paper introduces common detrimental consequences to the environment from mining in the Beijing West Mining Area. For example, ongoing mining operations can cause the following environmental deterioration: rock burst, roof rises, roof falls and inrush (Pit dash for ward water). Post-closure, after minerals resources are exhausted, the following environmental issues may remain: landslides (collapse, and mud-rock flow), dropping or exhausted water tables, water pollution, desertification and soil erosion, water accumulation, Slay endanger, ground subsidence, and causal factors in seismic activity. This paper analyzes this wide range of environmental consequences of mining, and offers a theoretical foundation to underpin a corresponding management scheme.

Aug 1, 2013

By Dennis Martin

What is Borehole Hoisting Borehole Hoisting is the use of a hoisting plant to hoist rock, workers and materials or both, vertically through a borehole, between a mine level and surface or between two levels of an underground mine. Screen and bolt ground support on walls of 5.5 m diameter borehole hoisting shaft

May 1, 2013

By Alain Grenier

To be more competitive, we have to try new mining techniques. A few of them are: extend honghole length increase drilling precision new type of primary opening (slot) use of CMS to extend stope length This paper will cover our trials, successes and failures and will cover a few real cases that occurred at the Doyon mine.

Oct 1, 2001

By Kenichi Fujino

Severe disasters have struck Japan in recent years. Following these disasters, construction robots have played important roles in investigation and restoration work in the disaster regions. To be applied in this way, construction robots require many functions according to the purpose of their use in each case. There are clear differences in the functions and usage conditions required by investigation robots and those required by execution robots. These differences will be important when designing and operating construction robots in the future. This report introduces a volcano exploration robot and unmanned execution system as examples of construction robots used for investigations and executions respectively. Based on this, the report organizes important characteristics of construction robots and explains differences in the concepts of disaster investigation robots and disaster restoration robots. Because they are used in harsh natural conditions and do not have any execution functions, efforts are made to clarify the fact that investigation robots have to overcome many problems such as mobility. When a construction robot is used, the scenario of the operation of the construction robot (execution plan) is extremely important, and in addition, it is necessary to clearly define the way it will be used according to the purpose of its use and specification conditions. In a plan for an unmanned execution system, it is possible to mitigate several strict prerequisite conditions by proposing a well-constructed execution plan. For example, the execution efficiency of an unmanned execution system can be improved by effectively using a temporary road.

Aug 1, 2013

By S. Kapusniak

Specialist Machine Developments (SMD) is a design and manufacturing company involved in the design of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV?s), ploughs, trenchers and mining machines for use in submerged environments. Established in 1971, the company has made over 500 vehicles for subsea use. These range in size from small remotely operated swimming vehicles with a weight of less than a tonne to heavy duty seabed crawling machines with a weight of up to 310 tonnes (in air). Primarily, these machines have been designed for offshore vessel-based applications, but the machines are equally suited to other submerged mining applications onshore. Many onshore deposits can technically and theoretically be mined using currently available submerged mining ROV technology. Similar equipment to that in use subsea could easily be fast-tracked into use to extend the life of opencast mines facing severe hydrological problems. It could also easily be used to mine vertical ore-bodies where the stripping ratio has become uneconomical due to increasing depth. In some cases mining ROVs could even be suitable for use as the primary extraction method for a new mine. Exploration and extraction techniques used in oil and gas gradually developed and moved from land to offshore in the middle of the last century. Are we about to witness a similar shift with other minerals? This paper describes the design concepts of submerged mining equipment, targetted subsea mineral deposits, the suitability of submerged mining ROVs for onshore deposits, limits to their application and parallel research and development activities which will help to accelerate the use of such equipment in the emerging submerged mining sector.

Aug 1, 2013

By Joel Werner

Weak metal prices, declining head grade, and increased operational costs are forcing many open pit mining companies to look to their balance sheets for significant cost reductions in order to remain competitive. Maintenance continues to represent a significant proportion of the total operating costs in the mining industry. Compared with the other major cost components of the mining process very little effort has gone into maintenance optimization. The potential payoff from maintenance optimization on the cash cost of the commodity is enormous. A large percentage of these costs are incurred in unscheduled maintenance events, which typically cause serious disruptions to the production process. These maintenance induced production losses can be a significant contributor to the overall operating costs. A structured proactive maintenance approach using the latest advances in technology can achieve dramatic cost reductions and productivity improvements. Remote condition monitoring systems are becoming increasingly commonplace and have the potential to identify problems prior to failure. Detection of equipment degradation prior to failure will enable repairs to be scheduled thereby reducing costs and interruptions to production. Remote condition monitoring technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, with a host of new tools becoming available to assist mine operators in improving their maintenance operations. These tools have capabilities such as: remote real-time vital signs and performance monitoring, alarm/event handling, trend analysis, and maintenance workflow management. When these monitoring tools are used in conjunction with a mine management system the vital signs data can be integrated and associated with maintenance history, predictive maintenance data, operational information, and geographical information. This integrated approach to the management of vital maintenance data will help shift the mobile equipment maintenance paradigm from reactive to proactive. This paper will introduce a proactive approach to the management of the maintenance process and the tools required to facilitate this process.

May 1, 2003

World copper electrowinning tankhouse plant practices have been surveyed. This survey is a supplement to previous surveys that have been carried out in 1995, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003. On a world basis, process technology trends include the further installation of automated electrode handling systems including permanent cathode systems, automated cathode handling machines, fully automatic cranes and polymer concrete cells. Designs also have included larger electrode sizes and higher electrolyte flows and current densities. Overall these trends have further resulted in optimized tank house productivities and improved electrowon cathode purity. Most greenfield copper electrowinning projects are occurring in South America and Central Africa.

Jan 1, 2007

By M. Moats

World copper refining tankhouse practices have been surveyed. This survey is a supplement to previous surveys that have been carried out in the 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2003. On a world basis, process technology trends include the further installation of automated electrode handling systems including permanent cathode systems, automatic anode preparation and cathode handling machines, section switches, fully automatic cranes and polymer concrete cells. General plant process control has increased with more automation of material handling in the copper refining tankhouse. The general trend for most greenfield copper refining projects remains in eastern Asia.

Jan 1, 2007

By Roy Sage

Overview ? History ? background to current programs ? Kyoto status ? Support for technology development ? Support for GHG reduction ? Sources of information History ? 1988 - Toronto Conference - The Changing Atmosphere ? Proposed target ? CO2 levels reduced to 20% of 1988 levels by the year 2005 ? 1992 - Canada signed Framework Convention on Climate Change at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 ? Canada launched the National Action Plan on Climate Change ? Kyoto protocol adopted in principle in 1997

Nov 1, 2002

By Adrian White

Agenda Overview of pastefill at Kidd Mine Pipeline wear and the need to monitor Steel Loop monitoring Steel Borehole monitoring Monitoring pipe linings

May 1, 2013

By José J. Suárez

As pressure grows for commodity pricing, new mines are more difficult to develop, the stock markets demand better financial returns from mining companies, resources for the developing and operations are scarce, and developing countries in Asia, and Africa demand more metals, it is important that mining companies effect better utilization of capital to develop capital projects. In the last few years, the costs for Capital projects have been impacted by the following factors:

May 1, 2013

By W. H. Hastings

Introductory In the amount of her coal reserves, Saskatchewan ranks third among the provinces of the Dominion, with a total, as estimated by D. B. Dowling, of 59,812,000,000 tons. All the coal so far discovered in the Province is lignite, and it would appear unlikely that bituminous or higher grade coals exist. General Occurrence of the Coal The location of the coal-bearing formations in Saskatchewan is shown on the accompanying map. It will be seen that the areas lie principally in the southern part of the Province. The more darkly shaded areas indicate locations where development is taking place, or where coal-seams are known to occur, either through outcrops in valley-sides or through having been encountered during boring operations. The coal-seams are not necessarily continuous throughout the shaded areas, but in all pans of these there are coal possibilities. It is quite possible that small outliers of the coal-bearing formations may occur further north in the Province, but, generally speaking, coal is not likely to be found outside the shaded areas.

Jan 1, 1929

By I. Kirman, B. Waters

World wide applications for nickel use will be summarized and examples of those uses given. Nickel products are critical to many important aspects of modern society. These products are just as important for modern China as they are in other parts of the world. It is argued that future pattern of nickel use in China should be expected to be very similar to that in the rest of the developed world. Total use of nickel in products in China is already very large. In 2004, it was the largest market for stainless steel (nickel containing) in the world. A survey of Chinese stainless steel applications will be presented. Current high nickel prices have revived speculation about substitution, particularly for nickel containing stainless steels. The presentation will discuss some of the complicating factors that need to be taken into account when considering substitution. These factors are as valid in modern China as they are in other developed economies. Recent substitution efforts and the reaction to them will be examined. The Nickel Institute position regarding appropriate application of the various grades of stainless steel will be discussed. Price-motivated substitution in China, and elsewhere, will occur but it is argued that the extent will probably be limited.

Jan 1, 2005

By Tracy-Lynn Humby

A recent report commissioned by the South African Chamber of Mines, Mining Vision 2030, identifies the South African mining industry?s negative legacy, its exploitation of people and the environment, as the single biggest hurdle to maximizing the industry?s impact on national development. Industry leaders have identified the need to put the past ?to rest?. With reference to three recent cases involving members of the South African mining industry, this paper points to the continuities between the past and present. It argues that the metaphor of ?multiple crossings? is more generative than the notion of putting the past ?to rest? for purposes of engaging with mining?s negative legacy.

Aug 1, 2013

By Joe Price

Canada?s energy future will increasingly depend on a supply of light, sweet crude oil derived from the Athabasca oil sands deposit of North-eastern Alberta. Billions of dollars are being spent on the construction of new and expanded mine and bitumen extraction plants, in situ recovery facilities, pipelines, upgrading installations and all the infrastructure needed to support these projects. The success of the existing operators has also inspired new players, anxious for ?a piece of the action? to come forward with exciting project proposals of their own. None of this investment and spin-off economic activity would be taking place today if events had unfolded differently in this part of the world some one hundred million years ago. The accumulation of sand in rivers, estuaries and in the near-shore marine environment created the great reservoirs that host the enormous oil deposits these projects are designed to exploit. Mine operators of all stripes will likely agree that there are few good ?geological surprises?. With specific reference to oil sand deposits, the geological history determines the distribution of sand, silt and clay bodies, which in turn controls the ore grade. Important design factors including everything from stable pit slope angles to tailings properties reflects events that took place millions of years before. An understanding of the sequence of events that resulted in deposition and preservation of the sediment and oil are important to sound design for both mining and in situ facilities. A geological history of the region is described. Site-specific examples from Syncrude?s operating mines are used to illustrate some of the geological factors that can present design challenges.

May 1, 2003

By Rob Kelso

The PISCES Goals ? To conduct research and develop programs to enable and promote planetary surface exploration ? To host international tests and technology demonstrations at the PISCES Test Site. ? To promote STEM education, inspiring students by connecting Hawaiian culture to space exploration and settlement. - economic and workforce development ? To involve the commercial sector, spinning off technologies to help the local Hawaiian economy. ? To develop a full-scale, technically valid, analog lunar/Martian outpost on Hawai`i Island.

May 1, 2013

By H. A. Wentworth

The Central Manitoba mining district, as spoken of in Manitoba, refers to that portion of the country lying between lake Winnipeg on the west and the Ontario boundary on the east, and from a few miles north of the Wanipigow (or Hole) river on the north, to a few miles south of the Bird river. It embraces two known mineralized belts; the gold area in the north, extending from the shores of lake Winnipeg almost to the Ontario boundary (in a slightly southeasterly direction) a zone some eight or ten miles wide and perhaps forty miles long, lying (for the most part) north, and parallel to, the Manigotagan river; and the Bird river copper and coppernickel deposits, an area not yet clearly defined, but in general lying immediately north of, and roughly parallel to, the Bird river. To the south of the Bird river is a somewhat differently mineralized area, numerous pegmatite dykes being found, with minerals typically associated with such rocks. More specifically, the known gold deposits are largely segregated in the above belt; (1) around English brook; (2) along the north shore of Wanipigow lake; the Rice lake area (about midway of the belt); and the Long Lake-Bulldog lake area, at the eastern end of the belt. Not all the known gold occurences are found in these segregations, but the density of claim staking in these areas is perhaps an indication of the greater number of prospects found in them to date.

Jan 1, 1925