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I have the pleasure to present 6 excellent papers in this section all of major relevance to the mining environment of today where competing social, legal and monetary interests and their often complex interaction require serious consideration. This is particularly true today where huge fluctuations in commodity prices makes mining a perilous undertaking while the world increasingly are becoming aware of the serious threat that mans activities has on his environment. The 6 papers deal with such complex issues as safety in an underground environment; How to protect sensitive wetlands well into the next century; The enormeous waterproblems in China and conflicting dewatering/water supply needs; Disposal of contaminated water in sensitive areas and the dynamic interaction between mining companies and legislation.

Jan 1, 1988

Outbursts of coal and gas are coupled both in their nature and mechanism and take place under varied sets of physical and geological conditions. The main interacting factors are geology and seam structure, seam gas composition and pressure and strata stress. By pre-draining the seam gas in advance of workings one of the factors contributing to outbursts is removed. One method of pre- draining gas from the coal seam or from areas of geological disturbance is to drill long horizontal holes in the coal seam. The technology to drill horizontal holes up to 600 m in the coal seam is now available by hydraulic control of the rotation and thrust on the drill bit and accurate survey methods to determine the vertical and horizontal position of the drill bit.

Jan 1, 1980

Although most N.S.W. coal mines contain large amounts of combustible materials such as coal and timber, the introduction of mechanisation has extended the range of combustible materials now found underground. The role of combustible material in a fire is not clearly understood and as a result the assessment of these materials for flammability by small and large scale tests is doubtful. Extensive research has been carried out on the toxic and irritating gases evolved during the combustion of plastics. However, most autopsies report death due to carbon monoxide inhalation because the combined toxicity of smoke and fire gases is unknown.

Jan 1, 1981

Throughout industry in Australia, time lost through work accidents and illness is three times greater than strikes. In 1978 in New South Wales alone, 400 workers died, 125,000 were injured, 6,000 were indust- rially deafened, and 3,800 people died of occupational cancer. It has been estimated that less than 10% of workers injured make claims for common law damages. The figure is probably in fact much lower than that. However, common law damages claims are starting to become a boom industry and employers are only now starting to see the effect of the increase in Claims. I predict that within 5 years the number of common law damages claims made will increase dramatically.

Jan 1, 1982

Commercial pelletizing commenced in 1955 to agglomerate very fine concen- trates which could not be fed directly to the blast furnace. Extensive develop- ment has taken place and is continuing. There are now three main heat hardening processes in use. Plants are operating, or under construction, throughout the world capable of producing in excess of 125 million tons per year of pellets from concentrates or direct mined orefines. The Whyalla Pellet Plant, which commenced production in May 1968, is examined in detail to illustrate the general principles of pelletizing. This plant converts high grade iron ore fines into high quality pellets at a rate in excess of 2 million tons per year.

Jan 1, 1971

The long term viability of a mining company is dependent on the success of its capital investments. Due to the specialised nature of the design, engineering and construction of large projects the management is often contracted to an outside organisation. This paper is a review of the phases of the relationship between Client and Contractor. A rationale is developed upon which the selection of a Contractor can be made. Subsequently, the key aspects of the Client/Contractor relationship are reviewed with reference to completing the project on time within budget. The aspects discussed include Contractor management systems, qualifications of key personnel, definition of scope of work, industrial relations, project control and Contractor remuneration.

Jan 1, 1983

The Broken Hill orebodies have 'traditionally been mined by cut and fill trethods. In the mid-1950's New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited experimented with sublevel longhole open stoping but did not pursue the method due to inefficient loading and poor fragmentation. The introduction of longhole open stoping in 1968 was a radical change and was necessary to enable the profitable extraction of lower grade orebodies and this method is now used for 55% of the production from The Zinc Corporation, Limited and New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited mines.

Jan 1, 1982

By Seshold P

The cost of capital is the rate at which a project's cash flow should be discounted to obtain the Net Present Value. The cost of capital is a weighted average of both debt and equity funds of a company, on an after tax basis. Two methods are described for calculating a company's cost of equity, the Dividend Valu- ation Model and, more importantly, the Capital Asset Pricing Model. A worked example is presented where the cost of capital was obtain- ed for two resource companies. The application of the cost of capital was illustrated by way of a mining equipment replacement problem. The paper outlines refinements and problems that may be encountered with the use of the cost of capital, and concludes that it is an integral part of any project evaluation.

Jan 1, 1983

By A D. Farmer

Power ultrasound may be used in a number of ways to enhance the processing of minerals. It is both technically and commercially feasible to apply ultrasound to leaching processes in order to enhance the removal of contaminating minerals, or the rate and ultimate recovery of valuable mineral. When applied to the production of synthetic rutile from reduced ilmenite produced by the Becher process, its use proved beneficial to both the aeration and the final acid leach process. The enhanced performance is achieved through the very localised high energy release at the mineral surface from the collapse of cavitation bubbles produced by power ultrasound. This gives rise to two effects: initially, the rapid cleaning of mineral surfaces û of oxidation products and coatings of fine adhering gangue minerals û and the attenuation of the boundary layer at the mineral surface during leaching, which allows fresh leachant to contact the surface more readily.

Jan 1, 2000

Stress Mapping Technology is aproprietary technique developed to target epigenetic mineralisation located in dilatant (low stress) sites. It is a computer based technique, based on rock mechanics principles and stress-strain relationships, which seeks to transform strain data, in the form of a solid geology map, to stress data.The main assumptions in the conceptual model are that:The strain pattern of faults and lithological contacts have not been changed since mineralisation i.e. that ore formation is late in the structural history.Stress orientations and magnitudes are known.Rheological properties of faults and rock units can be deduced.The 2D geometric and rheological data is then treated by a mathematical technique which permits the geometry of the elements to be defined by the spacing and orientation of the discontinuities in the rock mass.

Jan 1, 1990

Australia has a high level of research and development capabilities in government, industry and tertiary institutions. In the- remote sensing fields, we have developed a range of applications in geology, agriculture, infrastructure and environmental monitoring which are very cost effective and applicable to projects in the Asian and Pacific region. Support by the Department of Science through the Scientific Industries Steering Committee has enabled rapid penetration of this technological capability into projects with significant economic and financial benefits. It has also led to the opportunity for development of new sensors and processing systems, through collaborative projects with regional countries, which. will have applications in cloud covered, rainforest, and coastal tropical regions for geological and resource applications.

Jan 1, 1987

By Walton DR

It is self-evident that the availability of well qualified and experienced people to manage mining operations is vital to the success of an individual mine and to the ability to develop new mines either in Australia or overseas. For larger operations the term "mine manager" is here used to denote a range of positions within an individual company. Thus "mine managers" may be people managing individual mines at one geographic location with overall management provided by other "mine managers" in the roles such as mine super- intendents, production managers, general managers, etc. Smaller operations may have only a single level of management nominated as "mine manager".

Jan 1, 1980

By Keren Z, Huanguo G, Jlchuan Q

In this paper, the authors introduce a new flotation technique, a double collection flotation precess, which succeeds in separating feldspar from quartz effectively in weak acidic medium (pH = 5-6). In the presence of sodium hexametaphosphase(HMP), sodium oleate selectively improves the floatability of feldspar in the first collection step. Dodecyl amine- hydrochloride is used as collector in the second collection step to separate feldspar from quartz. The flotation tests with pure minerals as well as artificial mixture give out satisfactory results. The mechanism of reagent effect was investigated briefly, which is helpful for understanding the Process.

Jan 1, 1993

The Court rejected the suggestion that CRAE had actively misled DMR concerning the worth of its tenements. The Court agreed that CRAE remained silent about certain significant information concerning CRAE's own tenement area. It was a significant question as to what duties CRAE'was under, given that it was in joint venture with DMR in respect of one of the tenement areas. Did that joint venture create an obligation on CRAE to disclose everything it knew? The Court said no. The Court said that the fiduciary duties were defined by the terms of the farm-in agreement between DMR and CRAE. When the Court examined the disclosure obligations within the confines of the contract, it held that CRAE had not breached those terms.

Jan 1, 1990

The role of marketing in the development of a new project will be affected by political, commercial and technical pressures. Marketing success will be determined by the ability to predict and react to tomorrow's environment. In the Australian coal industry there is an emerging transition from production to marketing orientation. As a result, greater technical awareness of customer needs will be required. In particular, the industrial product nature of coal markets will need to be recognised. Greater attention will also need to be paid to product options and quality in mine planning. Marketing personnel will become more involved at every phase of the development of a new mine.

Jan 1, 1983

By M Brooks, M Nelson

A fundamental study was carried out on super pit sulphidic gold ore to establish the most influential flotation characteristics which were subsequently used in the development of an optimum flowsheet to achieve best economical recovery of gold. In developing the flowsheet, consideration was given to existing operational constraints in the treatment of the Super Pit ore. The fundamental study also included an innovative diagnostic investigation to establish the location and value of gold in the major mineral assembly of the super pit ore from a metallurgical rather than a mineralogical perspective. This study mapped a metallurgical fingerprint of the major types of super pit ore in relation to the location and association of gold.

Jan 1, 2000

Selective continuous surface mining is a rapidly developing system of mining which will have a significant impact on many present and future open cut mines. In many aspects the technology is in its infancy, whilst in other facets concepts drawn from other sectors of engineering are well proven. Full development of the potential and benefits of this technology will only be achieved if the mining companies and manufacturing companies work together to produce machines which the end user really wants.

Jan 1, 1986

By Hryniewicz M

The paper presents a sound critical estimate of mathematical models presently used for the process of compaction of fine-grained materials. It shows the mathematical model of compaction developed by the authors, which was used to formulate the program of computer simulation of the process. The examples of computer simulation experiments of compaction of selected fine-grained materials regard the results of the experiments made by the authors on variability of external friction occuring in this process. Simulation examination presented in the paper crucially contributed towards the original method of selection of rational compaction technologies of fine-grained materials developed by the authors.

Jan 1, 1993

By Hall ST, Miles NJ

Recently an inorganic salt, sodium polytungstate (SPT), has become available that allows the preparation of non-toxic solutions of relative densities up to 3.1. It is relatively expensive and at the higher relative densities achievable, highly viscous. Alternative inorganic compounds may in the future be identified that overcome these limitations. The Australian Mineral Industries Research Association Ltd (AMIRA) has initiated a project to examine possible alternatives. However, it has been found that by the addition of finely divided ferrosilicon to solutions of SPT, relative densities of up to 4.0 can be achieved. A laboratory technique for density fractionation of sized mineral samples utilising this finding has been developed. This is currently being extended to study the potential applications of such liquids and suspensions in dynamic systems for mineral, coal and recycled waste separations.

Jan 1, 1993

This paper refers to the open cut mining practice developed at Western Mining Corporation's Kalgoorlie Gold Operations (K.G.O.). Mining activity was centred attwo areas, namely W.M.C.'s Siberia "Sand King" and"Missouri" open cuts plus W.M.C.'s "Great Boulder" and K.M.A.'s "Horshoe" and "Morrison -Hannan's Star" open cuts in Fimiston.Kalgoorlie Gold Operations was set up initially to look after W.M.C.'s open cut interests in and about the Kalgoorlie area. The first mine commenced was, the Sand King open cut, approx 75 km NW of Kalgoorlie. it was here that the requirement for a highly selective form of mining first became apparent.

Jan 1, 1984