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"Bay d'Espoir is in the approximate center of the south coast of Newfoundland. The geology of the area can most conveniently be considered in terms of three units: (1) an Ordovician or older polydeformed terrain termed the Little Passage Gneisses; (2) a Lower-Middle Ordovician volcano-sedimentary sequence assigned to the Baie d'Espoir Group; and (3) granitoid intrusive rocks of mid-Paleozoic age. Mineralizing events accompanied the formation of the latter two units.The Baie d'Espoir Group comprises a dominantly sedimentary sequence of pre-Middle Ordovician shelf and distal turbidite sediments deposited on the eastern margin of Iapetus. A significant volcanic component is, however, present in the Isle Galet Formation, consisting of up to 30% felsic volcanic rocks interbedded with sedimentary and epiclastic rocks. The Isle Galet Formation hosts several disseminated to thinly bedded Pb-Zn-Ag occurrences associated with altered felsic tuff and graphitic shale. They occasionally grade laterally into pyrite iron formation and appear to have been deposited in a very distal volcanic environment. The Isle Galet Formation is a time equivalent of the mineralized pre-Caradocian island-arc sequences of central Newfoundland, but differs from them both in style of volcanism and in the nature of the associated mineral deposits. It is, however, comparable in many respects to mineralized volcanic sequences in the La Poile Bay area of southwestern Newfoundland.Mineralization associated with granitoid rocks in Bay d'Espoir is best developed around the southeast margin of the North Bay Granite, where two-mica leucogranite forms a marginal phase. Numerous minor base metal showings occupy quartz, quartz-carbonate and barite veins in the adjacent sedimentary rocks. Collectively, the showings exhibit a well-developed, zonal pattern around the granite margin; molybdenite (±py, cpy) predominates near the contact, giving way outward to galena (±sph, py, asp, cpy) and eventually to stibnite (±asp, py) at the periphery. Mineralization associated with granites in similar settings elsewhere in southern Newfoundland includes tungsten in the Grey River and Granite Lake areas and molybdenite in the Rencontre Lake area."

Jan 1, 1982

By W. S. McDonald

PRACTICALLY all dusts derived from organic matter are explosive and instances are recorded of explosions-some of them extremely violent-having occurred in grain elevators and flour mills. While a discussion of the explosibility of dusts in general, doubtless, would be of more than academic value, it will be of greater interest, on this occasion, to consider various phases of the problems connected with the hazards arising from coal dust. Extensive and valuable research has been carried out during the past few decades on the subject of coal-dust explosions and a great part of this work has been concerned with the preventive effect of stone or other incombustible dusts. Four men have been outstanding in this very substantial achievement. The first is Dr. W. Galloway, who succeeded in demonstrating by experiments that one pound of coal dust mixed with 150 cu. ft. of air formed an explosive mixture. The next is Sir W. Garforth, who proved that stone dust is an effective preventive for coal-dust explosion. The third is G. Haon, and last but not least, L. G. Hill, both of whom laboured incessantly to produce a suitable stone-dust and a satisfactory method of application. Today, mining men all over the world are satisfied and convinced that stone dust, if properly applied, will prove effective in greatly minimizing, if not completely preventing, explosions of coal dust, as has been demonstrated in experimental mines, as well as in actual explosions, in practically every coal mining industry.

Jan 1, 1938

By George B. Saunders

It is the purpose of this paper to point out conditions as they exist in the merchandizing of coal, to compare these conditions with methods in use by competitive producers of coal substitutes, and to present briefly some suggestions which may help the individual operator to market more coal in the immediate future, while we are waiting for the scientist and research worker, who are now busy on coal betterment , to produce in a practical way the results which they now write about in such glowing terms. While it may be unnecessary to call the attention of coal operators to the present deplorable condition of the industry, it might be well to impress upon our members in other branches of mining, as well as upon the public at large, the seriousness of the situation. Emerging from the war and the period of reconstruction that followed, the coal industry found itself with too many mines and too many men for normal conditions. To make matters worse, the interruptions in deliveries caused by strikes, the unfavourable publicity caused by socialistic propaganda, and the repeated governmental investigations, made the market a fertile field for coal substitutes which were not so handicapped. These substitutes were well advertised, and were marketed in an up-to-date manner, furnishing an example from which the coal operator could well profit. Now, whether or not there is agreement as to the cause or causes of this condition, there can be no doubt that we are today face to face with the fact that the sale of coal has not kept pace with the sale and use of other commodities. Had it done so, we would ere this have been able to take care of the surplus labour and work our mines at least approximately full time.

Jan 1, 1929

By B. Samanta

Abstract - Ore reserve estimation, based on sparse drill hole data, was conducted for a placer gold property in Nome, Alaska. A problem with sparse data is that random subdivision of the data into modelling and evaluation subsets (as is commonly done) becomes a problem, as random selection may result in biased/skewed subsets. Therefore, a technique that combined data segmentation with genetic algorithms (GA) was applied to divide the samples into three equivalent subsets: training, validation and testing. Data segmentation was done on the basis of the distribution of gold values. Neural network and a variety of kriging techniques were used to estimate gold grades. A multi-layer feed forward neural network along with "early/quick stop" training was used for neural network modelling. A comparative evaluation of kriging and neural network methods was then performed. The results revealed that neural network was generally superior to the kriging techniques for gold grade estimation in the Nome deposit.

Jan 1, 2002

By J. A. Finch

"Gas dispersion in flotation defines the efficiency of the process once the chemistry has been established. There are three measurements, superficial gas velocity, gas holdup, and bubble size, which along with the derived quantity bubble surface area flux, are used to define “gas dispersion.” Sensors for measuring gas dispersion in industrial machines have been developed. This communication describes the working principle of the techniques and illustrates their potential to detect problems and to improve the operation of individual cells, banks and circuits. IntroductionFlotation is the most widely used process to separate minerals and is finding increasing application in other chemical and environmental fields. The process exploits natural and induced hydrophobicity to collect selected particles on the surface of a bubble. Once the process chemistry to control hydrophobicity has been established, the efficiency depends on dispersion of air to generate the necessary bubble surface area. Bubble surface area flux, Sb, the interfacial area generated per unit time and unit area of the machine, is emerging as one of the most useful variables to quantify gas dispersion (Gorain et al., 1997, 1998) although not without its critics (Heiskenan et al., 2001).For a bubble population of mean size db at a superficial gas velocity (or rate) Jg, the bubble surface area flux can be derived from geometric considerations (Finch et al., 1999):"

Jan 1, 2002

By P. Leo

The Al-Zn-Mg alloys (e.g. 7004, 7020) are employed for land transport and architectural applications whereas the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys (e.g. 7075, 7050) provide the high strength aircraft alloys. The Cu gives rise to suitably sized and distributed precipitation but causes high quench sensitivity. Their hot work processing also has marked differences; the Cu-free alloys have good extrudability whereas the Cu-bearing alloys have low extrudability and are difficult in rolling as well. The behaviors of the two classes are described in terms of flow stresses and ductility over 300 - 500°C, along with constitutive contrasts. The ductility of the alloys with Cu is much reduced above 400°C by precipitation of a phase at the grain boundaries that can be avoided by suitable heating schedules. The high strength alloys are subject to de-lamination corrosion of sheared edges due to severely pancaked grains; this can be alleviated by holding between passes, in mid-rolling schedule. In torsion tests at 10-1 to 10 s-1/ 250 - 500°C, the stresses (ductilities) at 300°C/ 1s-1 and activation energy Q for 7004 were 118 MPa (2) and 262 kJ/mol. The 7075 was tested after several pretreatments: completely over-aged (softened): 107 MPa (5), Q=150 kJ/mol; whereas, solution and quick cooling to testing caused extraordinarily high peaks related to dynamic precipitation resulting in 160 MPa (1.2), Q=300 kJ/mol.

Jan 1, 2011

By D. D. Tannant

An experimental and numerical study was conducted on the geomechanical behaviour of oil sands during penetration tests in which a steel wedge with an apex angle of either 20 degrees or 30 degrees was forced into compacted oil sands. The boundary conditions simulated in the laboratory tests are similar to shovel penetration into oil sands. The objective of the laboratory tests was to measure the force required to push a steel wedge into compacted oil sands. A wedge penetration test differs from conventional triaxial tests in that much more shear is generated. The laboratory data was needed to improve calibration of micro-mechanical input parameters for a two-dimensional discrete element model of oil sands constructed with Particle Flow Code (PFC). Initial model calibration was performed with triaxial test data and then a PFC model of the wedge penetration test was constructed. The measured force-displacement behaviour of the steel wedge was compared with PFC modelling results. It was found that different combinations of PFC particle and bond parameters could equally well replicate the laboratory triaxial compression data for bitumen-rich oil sands. When the wedge model was run, it was found that the resulting force required to penetrate the wedge into the oil sands was about four to six times higher than that measured. This clearly indicates that further research is required to improve the predictive capability of PFC models of oil sands.

Jan 1, 2002

By Ivan Malinsky, Gérard Castonguay

"On a développé un procédé qui donne une fonte (2,3% C, 0,07% V) du V2O5 (99%) et un rutile synthétique (94% TiO2) à partir d'un minerai, dont les réserves au Québec sont importantes. Le procédé comprend les opérations suivantes: 1) la concentration magnétique du minerai (30% Fe, 9% TiO2 et 0,65% V2O5) pour produire un concentré (65% Fe, 7% TiO2 et 1,6% V2O5); 2) le smeltage du concentré aggloméré dans un four à arc, sans fondant, pour produire une fonte et une scorie (30% FeO, 40% TiO2 et 8,0% V2O5) qui contient plus de 95% du vanadium et du titane présents dans le concentré; 3) le grillage alcalin (37% Na2CO3) de la scorie suivi d'une lixiviation à l'eau et de la précipitation de l'hexavanadate d'ammonium à partir du filtrat; 4) la lixiviation du résidu par l'acide sulfurique pur ou usagé pour produire un rutile synthétique. Un estimé préliminaire de la valeur économique du projet laisse croire à sa rentabilité à la condition que l'investissement pour le smeltage soit inférieur à environ 400$/tonne de fer.IntroductionLes gisements de magnétites titanifères sont nombreux dans le monde. Ils consistent en une magnétite étroitement liée a l'ilménite, La teneur trop élevée en TiO2 empêche l'exploitation de ces gisements pour la production de fer. Cependant, dans certains cas, la magnétite a une teneur intéressante en vanadium qui peut rendre l'exploitation de ces gisements rentable. Aujourd'hui, les magnétites titanifères constituent la plus importante source de production de vanadium. On estime qu'environ 70% du vanadium produit provient de ces sources."

Jan 1, 1983

By S. A. Bradford

The twenty years before World War I was the Golden Age of copper smelting in British Columbia. In this short time, the smelters developed from small, primitive units to large, efficient operations. The first copper claims had been staked on Howe Sound and Knight Inlet in 1864, and there was extensive copper mining in the interior by the mid-1880s, but before 1895, all ore was shipped out of the country for smelting, converting and refining. The first interest in smelter construction was undoubtedly inspired by a Provincial bonus and Dominion land grants offered to smelter builders. The early smelters made use of small blast furnaces which were designed to smelt any kind of ore, but usually far too little ore was available. The first smelter seems to have been the McRae furnace on the Spillimacheen River (1883), followed by Vancouver (1889), Revelstoke (1891), and Golden (1891) (1). They each smelted a few tons of galena and then quickly closed down permanently for lack of ore. Only smelters that actually produced some copper matte are described in the following sections.

Jan 1, 1999

By Walter Herd

For the past eight years, No. 2 mine of the Cumberland Railway & Coal Co., Springhill-a subsidiary of the Dominion Coal Co., Ltd.-has had an unenviable reputation for bumps. As the workings extended in certain directions under a greater cover, these bumps increased in severity and it became apparent some change in the system of extraction was necessary if the mine was to continue to operate. In September, 1924, following several fatalities resulting from bumps, the Mines Depart~ of Nova Scotia requested from the U. S. Bureau of Mines the services of George S. Rice, Chief Mining Engineer of the Bureau, to report on the conditions then prevalent in No. 2 mine, Springhill. °This request was promptly and courteously granted. Mr. Rice made a full investigation and a comprehensive and helpful report, which is embodied in the 1924 Annual Report of the Department of Public Works and Mines, Nova Scotia. Prior to 1925, the room-and-pillar method was employed, and in January of that year (there being a cessation of work from March to August due to labour troubles) longwall retreating on the west side, on a limited scale, and in a small section on the east side of the mine, was started. The major portion of the east side was not operated on this system till August, 1926, as there was developed a considerable area ready for pillar extraction between an arbitrary boundary and a point up to which bumps of any consequence had not been experienced. In ?the interval, development work for longwall retreating below the 5,900-foot level was vigorously pushed.

Jan 1, 1929

By N. Schmalbein, L. von Ketelhodt, L. Kotelo

"The mining industry continues to remain challenged. Lower commodity prices, increasing labor costs and more importantly diminishing reserves are amongst some of the primary factors contributing to the difficulties faced. Ore sorting technologies have demonstrated their potential to improve the downstream beneficiation performance. The general processing route sees all primary crushed material milled for liberation and then processed in accordance with characteristics of the gold therein, i.e.: refractory golds would require direct leaching or oxidation whilst free gold would follow the conventional cyanidation process, after gravity concentration. Ore dilution increases the associated operating costs within each stage of this process. The opportunity to process the same throughput at a higher grade can only be achieved through pre-concentration. Sensor based sorting has been examined on numerous occasions by various gold producers. Test work carried out on different bulk low grade gold ores has shown the successful applicability of ore sorting to remove waste, whilst maintaining high recovery rates of gold. The results of a combined XRT/Laser sensor sorter have shown grade improvements of over 300% from feed grades of 0,25g/t to 1,15g/t at gold recoveries of 66% and waste ejection rates of 85%. This paper presents some of the results from the work undertaken by STEINERT with respect to gold sulphide ore sorting and presents a modelled financial scenario, which can enable a company to target and reclaim low grade ores.INTRODUCTION The mining and minerals processing industry presents with many different challenges including, volatile commodity prices, increasing labor costs and more importantly diminishing reserves. Conventional processing routes will continue to play a crucial role in the beneficiation process, however innovative methods of reducing operating costs and optimizing on the overall circuit performance is where technologies such as sensor based sorting come into the fore. Sensor based sorting as a dry mechanical process not only reduces water consumption by eliminating unnecessary waste but also reduces the requirements for reagents in the downstream processes. Sensor based sorting under dry conditions presents a highly efficient alternative to wet pre-concentration methods such as dense medium separation (DMS)."

Jan 1, 2017

By J. A. Jr. Carpenter

Expanding world economic prosperity, probable peaking of conventional petroleum production in the coming decades and environmental concerns require efforts to increase the efficiency of, and the development of alternatives to, petroleum-based fuels used in automotive transportation. In January 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) of the "Big Three" traditionally-USA-based automakers, DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors, formed the Freedom Cooperative Automotive Research (FreedomCAR) Partnership to fund high-risk, high-payoff research into advanced automotive technologies with the potential for eventually lowering the USA's nearly complete (95%) dependence on petroleum, 55% imported, for its transportation fuels. FreedomCAR replaced the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) which existed from 1993 to 2001. In January 2003, the energy-supply industry joined with the FreedomCAR Partnership forming the FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative (FC&FI) to develop the technologies needed for the mass production of fuel-cell vehicles using hydrogen as fuel and the infrastructure needed to deliver the hydrogen to the consumer. The goal is to enable the automotive and energy-supply industries to make commercialization decisions in 2015 on large-scale introduction of such vehicles and on developing the infrastructure beginning in 2020. In addition to work on fuel cells and hydrogen infrastructure, the FC&FI conducts research on technologies with the potential for nearer-term energy efficiency and environmental benefits, such as new engine concepts, lightweight materials, and engine-electric hybrid propulsion systems. Lightweighting is seen as crucial for shorter and for longer term benefits because hybrid and fuel-cell powertrains are expected, at least in the early stages of adoption, to be heavier and more costly per unit of power than the standard internal-combustion, gasoline- or diesel-fueled powertrains they replace. Research and development (R&D) on casting of aluminum automotive components were major parts of the PNGV and R&D on casting of magnesium automotive components have been and are so under FreedomCAR. This presentation will review those efforts.

Jan 1, 2006

By Donald V. Currie

"The Alberta and Northwest Chamber of Mines was founded in Edmonton, Alberta in 1935. The organization represented private sector mining explorers and developers in the province and north west Canada. The Chamber aided and abetted the establishment of the two territorial mining associations. Because of corporate human resource department creation by north of sixty mine operators, the Chamber refocused on Alberta and broadened its perspective to include activities beyond mining. In 1977 the name changed to the Alberta Chamber of resources. The slogan (in more modern terms vision, mandate, goal, etc) remains as Orderly Development of Canada's Resources.The sixty-three year reputation of the Chamber, built on volunteer rather than staff contribution, is the principal reason for any success. The key has truly been the reputation, not an image, as all activities have been solution oriented.This presentation provides insight into the structure and methodology applied by the organization, and reviews some of the successes and failures during the period 1985 to present. Examples discussed include:• Canada-Alberta Partnership on Minerals 1992-1995• Regional Upgrader Business Plan• National Oil Sands Task Force• Lakeland and Waterways Railway"

Jan 1, 1998

By Mengmeng Gai

This paper introduces a model-based automatic object recognition and registration framework to assist heavy equipment operators in rapidly perceiving 3D working environment at dynamic construction sites. A video camera and a laser scanner were utilized in this study to rapidly recognize and register dynamic target objects in a 3D space by dynamically separating target object?s point cloud data from a background scene for a quick computing process. A smart scan data updating method has been developed which only updates the dynamic target object?s point cloud data while keeping the previously scanned static work environments. Extracted target areas containing 3D point clouds were orthographically projected into a series of 2D planes with a rotation center located in the target?s vertical-middle line. Prepared 2D templates were compared to these 2D planes by extracting SURF features. Point cloud bundles of the target were recognized, and followed by the prepared CAD model?s registration to the templates. The field experimental results show that the proposed rapid workspace modeling method can significantly improve heavy construction equipment operations and automated equipment control by rapidly modeling dynamic target objects in a 3D view.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. R. Miller, M. C. Bétournay, D. L. Barnes

"A number of successful proof-of-concept projects have been carried out to replace conventional power application, such as diesel and rechargeable batteries, in underground mine vehicles. This has led to the development and testing of the world’s first fuel cell production vehicle, a mine locomotive. A fuel cell loader is being built and tested.This paper provides an insight into other projects that are being carried out. Some are related to further underground applications, and some to further research, such as refueling options, power plant durability, and vehicle automation.Also outlined is an evaluation of the overall mining applications and advantages this technology can bring to underground mining, including the facilitation of automation and tele-remote operation."

Jan 1, 2003

By Peter Wells, Gordon Marrs, Dominic Fragomeni, Warren Holmes, Daryl Macnamara

"LocationThe Strathcona mill ofFalconbridge Limited is located in Onaping, Ontario, 50 km northwest of Sudbury.GeneralOre from the Falconbridge mines in the Sudbury Basin (Strathcona, Fraser, Onaping, Craig and Thayer Lindsley mines) is processed through the Strathcona mill with 8500 t of nickel ore and 1500 t of copper ore being treated daily. Current capacity is -3 Mt of ore at 1.8% Ni, 1.9% Cu combined grade. Custom feeds are also processed. The valuable minerals in the ore are pentlandite (FeNi)9S8, chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) with some cubanite (CuFe2S3) and very minor nickel sulphides/ arsenides. Cobalt is present mainly in solid solution in pentlandite. There are small but economically important concentrations of precious metals including platinum, palladium gold, and silver. The common non-sulphide gangue minerals are feldspar, quartz, mica, talc, and chlorite while pyrrhotite (Fe7S8) is the major gangue sulphide. The pyrrhotite contains between 0.6% and 1.2% nickel in solid solution and additional nickel as exsolved pentlandite in micron sized blebs. The nickel and copper ores are batch-crushed in a two stage dry crushing plant and then ground in separate circuits. Concentration by flotation and magnetic separation produces a nickel concentrate assaying approximately 16% nickel plus copper and a copper concentrate assaying 30% copper and 0.4% nickel. The nickel concentrate is trucked as a slurry to the Falconbridge smelter while the copper concentrate is trucked as filter cake to the Kidd Division of Falcon bridge"

Jan 1, 2000

By A. E. Hall

"This paper summarizes findings of a two-month investigation in Zambia and Zimbabwe and a one-month visit to Britain in1990-1991. United States contacts have supplied information about that country.Zambia's political unrest and severe devaluation, combined with developments in Namibia and South Africa, enhanced staff recruiting problems in the School of Mines. Zimbabwe has a strong and developing mining department. The departments of mining in the United States and Great Britain are readjusting and contracting due to the reduction in the scale of the industry.The above factors are reviewed and their impact on the countries evaluated.IntroductionCanada trains the majority of its mining engineers domestically but a significant number are recruited from other countries. Examination of the qualifications of 200 professional engineers registered in the mining discipline in British Columbia showed that125 received their first degree from a Canadian university, 33 graduated from institutions in the United States and 42 from the rest of the world including 30 from the United Kingdom. This is a rough and-ready sample but it indicates that developments in the education of mining engineers in the United States and in Britain are relevant to the Canadian mining industry.The recent changes in the world economy and political structure have significant implications for the mining industry and for the supply and training of engineers. Change in eastern Europe coupled with the downturn in mining, especially in the European coalfields, has enabled many engineers to travel freely to the West. The low gold price and the legislative changes in Africa that have improved access to education for Africans with the ability to fill responsible positions, have reduced the South African mining industry’s overseas recruitment to a minimal level. The Australian recession has also lowered their recruitment of mining engineers from other countries."

Jan 1, 1993

By M. Desjardins

The Hoyle Pond underground mine, located in the Porcupine Gold Camp, east of the city of Timmins, Ontario, Canada, is the cornerstone of Goldcorp Canada Ltd?s Porcupine Gold Mines. Cut and fill, shrinkage, longhole and panel mining methods are employed to excavate the narrow gold bearing structures. In order to meet increased flow requirements of 256 m3/s at the mine, a new Fresh Air Raise (FAR) and new surface fans were commissioned in early 2005. The newly acquired fans were capable of supplying the desired volume of air within a range of 1.5 and 2.0 kPa. Upon commissioning of the surface fans the total pressure was found to be exceedingly high; far beyond the design capabilities of the new installation. Consequently only one surface fan could be operated at any given time providing about half the required volume of air. Extensive work was immediately started aimed at reducing the system resistance in order to permit operation of the two fans in parallel and achieve the required mine flows. Larger booster fans were installed in parallel at the 900 m level, a 3 m raise bore linking the 450 and 900 m levels was developed to twin the existing fresh air circuit, and the FAR from surface to the 450 m level was twinned with the original FAR. This strategy, completed in 2012, resulted in a drastic reduction in system resistance and pressures, allowing the two surface fresh air fans to be safely operated in parallel and meeting the flow requirements. This paper describes details of the engineering design work and commissioning of the modified ventilation system, successfully ensuring the long term viability of the project.

Aug 1, 2013

By X. M. Zhou, T. Wu, He X. N.

"In order to study the support effect of concrete in the surrounding rock of a metal mine, the concrete and surrounding rock were comparatively studied. Firstly, the general situation of the ultra-kilometer deep shaft in Xincheng, surrounding rock and geological conditions are introduced. Secondly, the experimental scheme of material mechanical properties of surrounding rock and shaft lining concrete based on same standard dimension and shape are examined, and the mechanical tests of rock and concrete based on different shapes and sizes are carried out. The study shows that the compressive strength value and elastic modulus of the rock cube are 1.28 times and 1.78 times that of the cylinder, and the Poisson's ratio is 0.77 times. The dimensional effect law of the concrete cube and cylinder test data is consistent with the rock law. However, the test results of the concrete are less discrete than the rock; the test also shows that the strength and elastic modulus of the concrete lining of the main shaft of the Xincheng are much smaller than the surrounding rock that is also used as the concrete aggregate, which indicates that the support of concrete lining in the surrounding rock shaft behaved weakly. Based on the development of the modern NATM rock support theory, it is suggested that the mechanical test standard of artificial support materials should be unified into the mechanics test standard of natural rock, which will help to improve the accuracy and practicality of scientific calculation of geotechnical engineering.INTRODUCTIONConcrete and rock mass are usually attributed to a class of materials called frictional materials or geotechnical materials, of these two kinds of materials, the first is man-maded and the second is natural. The attentive scholar can find that there are many differences in the test criteria for the mechanical properties of the two kinds of materials among different industries or departments, reflecting the differences in their sources, tradition, and the application thoery of material strength among them.There is a situation wordwide, that there are many testing standards of the same material mechanical parameters such as elastic modulus, compressive strength, etc. The cube with a side length of 150 mm is adopted as a common sample in the architecture department in China, while a cylinder with a diameter of 50 mm and a height of 100 mm is as a standard specimen in geotechnical department.Knowing that mechanical parameter values are strongly affected by the the size, shape of specimen and loading rate etc, that is to say the mechanical parameter values of the same material are completely different when obtained from different test with different standards. However, such a problem has been long neglected in geotechnical engineering."

Jan 1, 2019

By Chris Cross

A working group from Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata reviewed supply and demand for graduates from mining education departments in countries where they normally recruit: Australia, Canada, Chile, Western Europe, South Africa and USA. Departments are typically small and increasingly unsustainable, resulting in a steady rate of closure. Supply and demand for graduates in the minerals industry is cyclical, with supply lagging behind demand and trending downwards. Currently, supply is tight and the industry is trying to expand with an ageing workforce. Greater collaboration between universities and within the industry is recommended to address these issues.

May 1, 2006