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By E. Onal, C. Craddock, A. Chapman, M. R. Endsley

ABSTRACT Mining equipment operators must interpret and respond to complex information delivered by technology-centric rather than user-centric systems. The ability to achieve high situation awareness (SA) in the face of this data overload is a key challenge to effective decision-making and information exploitation. Incidents attributed to human error that compromise safety and result in loss of revenue, or even life, are often the result of system designs that overload human cognitive capabilities. This paper defines SA as it relates to the operation of mining equipment and describes the design and preliminary evaluation of a new electric shovel operator user interfa

Jan 1, 2013

Operations and maintenance departments have had a long-standing adversarial relationship. The widespread evolution and adoption of modern management techniques, such as reliability centered maintenance (RCM) and Lean, however, has driven interest in working co-operatively to optimize overall plant performance. Mining and minerals operations have long adopted RCM in maintenance and are now adopting Lean throughout organizations. Such modern management initiatives explicitly call for co-operation between the two disciplines of maintenance and production and many advances have been made in terms of people and methodology. One area that has lagged behind in supporting these developments, however, is information systems. Enterprise asset management (EAM) systems in maintenance and newer manufacturing execution systems (MES) in operations have not been truly integrated in the needed ways. Complicated plants, different software architectures, continually changing conditions and many other variables have led to systems problems, which have contributed to the maintenance/operations divide. Master data synchronization (the plant tree) and integrated reporting of real-time data with transactional data are just two of the issues that are being solved by new approaches in information technology, including web services and service orientated architectures. New technologies are coming on-stream to enable the final bridging of the gap.

Jan 1, 2009

By Michel Massé

Eleonore Project- Agenda ? Purpose and Technical Overview ? SmartEXEC Control Capabilities ? SmartEXEC System Archetecture ? SmartEXEC System Advantage Eleonore Project- Purpose and Technical Overview ? Control air quality while maintaining target production levels at minimum energy operating cost ? Improve safety, work place conditions and operation flexibility ? Reduce energy consumption and green house gases footprint

Aug 1, 2013

A comprehensive axial test program has been undertaken at the WASM Dynamic Test Facility on the performance of 20mm threadbar. The threadbar tests had a double embedment configuration, with variation to the encapsulation lengths, debonded length and surface hardware and fixtures to examine failure mechanisms. Performance was significantly affected by the collar embedment length and type of fixture nut used. Results ranged from thread shearing occurring between the nut and bar at 1kJ of energy dissipated, to control plastic deformation of a central debonded length dissipating 22kJ.

May 1, 2009

By Lloyd W. Trevoy

Titanium and zirconium heavy minerals occur in the tailings streams from processing plants which use the hot-water extraction process for recovery of bitumen from tar sand. In a research program conducted by Syncrude Canada Limited, the crude tailings stream was upgraded to produce quality zircon and titanium mineral products. To process the tailings through conventional upgrading equipment, bitumen residues must first be removed from the mineral grains. Then, by gravity separation, fines and coarse sand grains were removed and a 71% heavy minerals concentrate was prepared which was further separated by high-tension equipment into zircon and titanium minerals concentrates. The zircon concentrate was upgraded by gravity, magnetic and high-tension cleaning to produce a high-quality 98% zircon product. The titanium minerals concentrate was separated into rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite fractions. Heavy minerals distribution in tar sand drilling core samples has been evaluated for various locations on Syncrude Lease 17, and expected annual production levels of heavy minerals have been estimated. A preliminary evaluation has been made of the potential for zircon, leucoxene and rutile production and for further upgrading of ilmenite and leucoxene to synthetic rutile for titanium dioxide pigment production.

Jan 1, 1978

By Oy Leuangthong

Red Dog mine is the world's largest Zn producer. The deposit consists of sulphide ore zones in sedimentary exhalative (sedex) deposits, and is characterized by the presence of multiple metals and multiple ore types. The objective of the case study is to characterize seven different minerals, Zn, Pb, Fe, Ba, sPb, Ag and TOC, within eight different rock types. Geostatistical models were constructed for each variable within the eight rock types, and subsequently assembled to give 40 realizations for six 25ft benches. The stepwise conditional transformation was used to account for the complex multivariate relations. In addition to reproducing the input data, histogram and variogram, the resulting models also respect multivariate relations locally and globally. This paper documents the methodology to construct these models. A thorough validation procedure was implemented. Comparisons with blasthole data show that the conditional simulations and the long-term models agree in expected value. The main advantages of the conditional simulations are (1) the explicit accounting of multivariate relations between the data in model construction, and (2) the ability to quantify variability and uncertainty at any scale. A small exercise comparing the profit from a kriged and a simulated model is also examined. Results show that the simulation approach showed a 3% increase in profit, relative to the conventional estimation approach.

May 1, 2004

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 Joseph Poplawski, Christian O’Keefe, Robert Maron

"Unique and difficult minerals processing measurement situations will be described and the application of passive array-based technology for performing these measurements will be illustrated. Examples of these situations include volume flow measurements in froth lines and flotation feed lines with entrained air, slurry lines with magnetite and other magnetic ore, slurry lines with abrasive or corrosive materials, high pressure lines, and slurry and non-slurry lines exhibiting scale buildup. Other situations include measurement of entrained air levels in pipes and in flotation columns. These measurements are achieved through CiDRA’s patented passive sonar array-based technology. This technology performs two independent measurements – flow rate and entrained air amounts. Two hardware implementations of this technology have resulted in a non-intrusive flow and entrained air meter which easily is installed on the outside of the pipe, and a submersible version for entrained air or gas holdup measurements which is used in flotation processes. Recent developments in extending this technology to solve other unique measurement problems such as valve movement confirmation will be covered.INTRODUCTIONThe minerals processing industry faces many unique and challenging process control conditions and environments. In terms of flow measurements, many of these situations are not being properly served by traditional flowmeters such as ultrasonic meters, magmeters, turbine meters, orifice plate meters, vortex flow meters, Coriolis flow meters, and venturi meters. A new class of flowmeters has been developed that solves these unique situations and flow measurement problems. This new class of flowmeter technology utilizes sonar-based processing algorithms and an array of passive sensors to measure not only flow, but also fluid composition. It does so accurately, reliably and without making contact with the fluid. These measurements are performed on practically any type of fluid within virtually any type of pipe.PRINCIPLE OF OPERATIONSonar array-based flowmeters are ideal for tracking and measuring the mean velocities of disturbances traveling in the axial direction of a pipe. These disturbances generally will convect with the flow, propagate in the pipe walls, or propagate in the fluid or slurry. First let us focus on the disturbances that convect with the flow. The disturbances that convect with the flow can be density variations, temperature variations or turbulent eddies. The overwhelming majority of industrial flows will have turbulent eddies convecting with the flow, thus providing an excellent means of measuring the flow rate as described below."

Jan 1, 2008

By E. L. Bruce

Red lake is a body of water some thirty miles in length lying about forty miles northwest of the outlet of Lac Seul. It forms one of several large lake expansions on a river which enters the English river from the north, twenty miles below Lac Seul. Before the construction of the National Transcontinental railway a long canoe journey was necessary to reach that part of the English river, and Red lake, two days travel beyond, was one of the furthest outposts of the trading companies in that difficultly accessible triangle of country between Lake Winnipeg, James Bay and the English and Albany rivers. The Hudson's Bay Company post at Red lake is said to be one of the earliest established in the district but there are no records at the post, and as the English and Albany rivers never were used to any great extent as travel routes there is no mention of the place in the diaries of any of the early explorers. Dr. Bell passed through Red lake on his excursion to the Berens river country in 1883, and a brief note mentions that Huronian rocks were seen. To Dr. Dowling, however, belongs the credit for the first thorough description of this basin of sediments and basic volcanics. In 1893 he followed the course of Dr. Bell's trip, of ten years previous, through Red lake to the upper part of the Berens river.

Jan 1, 1926

By Jay F. Colinet

Researchers at the Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) work to reduce respirable dust exposures in mining operations. One focus of this research is silica dust control for surface and underground operations in the metal/nonmetal mining industry. PRL researchers analyze dust sampling results from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to identify high-risk occupations to guide research efforts. Research is then conducted in an effort to improve existing technologies and/or develop new controls for reducing worker exposure to airborne silica dust. During the last few years, PRL researchers have conducted research related to the following goals: improving protection provided by enclosed cabs on mobile surface mining equipment, reducing dust generation from surface drills, reducing dust levels in iron ore operations, and developing a new method to clean dust from workers? soiled clothes. A description of each of these controls and subsequent dust reductions quantified through site surveys will be provided.

May 1, 2007

By V. Polotski

Initiated and financed by the Canadian Space Agency, Micro-Rover Platform with Tooling Arm (MRPTA) project has targeted the development of a robotic system with remote control and autonomous navigation capabilities for testing a large variety of analogous planetary missions. Although developed for planetary exploration, the navigation system is highly suitable to such areas of application as construction and in mining. Autonomous navigation system is capable of moving the platform to predefined position(s)/orientation(s) while continuously mapping the terrain, assessing its traversability and choosing most appropriate path to follow. Designed according to the JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) framework, the system consists of several interconnected components. Following components are of particular importance: Pose Estimator (PE), Terrain Evaluator (TE), Map Manager (MP), and Path Planner (PP). The PE uses a minimal sensor configuration consisting of an azimuth gyroscope, inclinometer and wheel odometry. The PE provides reliable pose estimates in spite of pronounced slippage by employing extensive use of fused data. The TE uses a nodding laser scanner which continuously sweeps the area in front of the platform and constructs a ?traversability grid? (TG) of the surrounding area. Multiple TGs are constantly constructed along the platform motion path are combined into a terrain map maintained by the MP. The PP uses this map to compute a motion path Obtained path is executed by the motion controller and remains current until it is contradicted by the most recent map ? at which point it is re-planned. This paper addresses integration issues, lessons learned and also outlines the possible applications for construction and mining.

Aug 1, 2013

By Ralf M. Kleine

THE property of Consolidated 1 Discovery Yellowknife Mines Limited, (Figure I) is situated in the Northwest Territories, approximately 50 air miles north of the town of Yellowknife. The mine is reached by a shaft which extends from surface to a depth of 4,000 feet, with working levels established at 1 50-foot intervals. Stopping operations are carried on throughout a vertical range of 2,000 feet, with both shrinkage and cut and fill methods being used, depending on the ground conditions. Production started in 1950 and milling is done in a 1 65-ton per day cyanide plant. During ten months of the year, the property is serviced entirely by air, utilizing charter aircraft from Yellowknife. A 4,000-foot runway near the mine was constructed from mill tailings. This strip is adequate to receive Bristol freighter planes carrying heavy loads. Other servicing is done by Otter aircraft, equipped with skis or wheels for winter and with pontoons for summer operations.

Jan 1, 1962

By Carl Bertrand, Patrice Nadeau, Claude Bazin

"Rio Tinto Fer et Titane processes the ore extracted from the Lac Tio orebody to concentrate the hemo-ilmenite (FeO.TiO2-Fe2O3) mineral that is subsequently smelted to produce pig iron and titanium oxide slag. The ore is crushed, heat treated (roasted) and concentrated using dry magnetic separators. This paper describes a model to predict the magnetic susceptibility of the roasted ore and its behaviour in the magnetic separation plant. The model uses a classification of the ore as a function of the size and magnetic susceptibility of the particles. A subsequent division into mineral species allows the simulation of the magnetic separation process. The model is used to assess various operating options when process disturbances occur.INTRODUCTIONOre processing operations consist of ore size reduction followed by the recovery of valuable species in a concentrate that is subsequently sold for its minerals or metal content. The concentration processes are based on the physical and/or chemical properties of the minerals contained in the ore. Flotation is typically used to recover minerals of base metals such as copper, zinc, lead or nickel. Iron ore and other dense minerals are typically concentrated by gravity separation processes. Magnetic separation uses the magnetic properties of the minerals to concentrate magnetite and other minerals, to clean coal concentrate and to recycle ferrosilicon for dense separation processes (Brophy, 1985).Magnetic separators can be divided into low and high intensity separators and high gradient magnetic separators (Gillet, 2008). Most of the low gradient magnetic separators are built as rotary drums that are operated in wet or dry conditions. Dry magnetic drum separators are used by Rio Tinto Fer et Titane in Sorel-Tracy, Canada to concentrate hemo-ilmenite from the ore extracted at the Lac Tio Lake mine near Havre St-Pierre, Canada. The analysis of production data suggests that process improvement could be achieved by identifying key variables for the control of the magnetic separation circuit and/or by modification to the circuit flowsheet. The use of a process model was considered to be an effective approach to conduct a preliminary analysis of the circuit with a view toward process optimization. However, the literature contains few detailed studies dealing with the modelling of magnetic separation processes."

Jan 1, 2011

By B. Yu, N. Verbaan, A. Mezei

The recent 20 years witnessed a boom and bust in the nickel laterite industry. Most notoriously is the story of the first three Western Australian nickel laterite projects which all suffered major ramp-up issues. Many hard lessons were learned by the industry and it has been widely reported that the major contributing factors included insufficient testing as well as a limited understanding of the materials handling characteristics at the front-end stage of the flowsheet. This paper compares the current "race to production" in the REE industry to the laterite industry 20 years ago and addresses the fundamental question: ‘Have mining and exploration companies with rare earth projects learned from past lessons and are they doing sufficient and appropriate testwork to prevent failure’? The authors will provide the perspective of a commercial metallurgical laboratory that has gone through the laterite cycle and is active in the present REE cycle.

Jan 1, 2014

By Roger Payne, John R. Goode, Feng Gao, James Brown

The Eco Ridge deposit is located in the Elliot Lake mining camp in Northern Ontario, Canada. Between 1955 and 1996, the area produced more than 138,000 t (300 million pounds) of U3O8 and very significant amounts of thorium and heavy rare earths. Based on the NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment by Roscoe Postle Associates (RPA) dated June 2012, and the economic review by RPA as announced in Pele Mountains’ Press release dated September 12, 2013, the Eco Ridge Mine Project would extract and process 46 Mt of material to produce about 19,000 t (42 million pounds) of U3O8 and about 65,000 t of rare earth oxide (REO) over a 14-year life. This paper discusses process optimization studies including beneficiation and hydrometallurgical testwork. The proposed modified flowsheet includes the flotation and processing of 1) a pyrite concentrate, 2) a dominantly light rare earth elements (LREE) concentrate, 3) a concentrate containing most of the balance of the uranium and heavy rare earths (HREE), and 4) a relatively inert tailings.

Jan 1, 2014

By Anthony A. Zoobkoff

Gotcha! ? What Did I Just Agree To? ? You can?t repeat or use anything you heard. ? Did you agree before you knew what you were going to be given, told or shown? ? If you knew what you were to be given, told or shown, would you have still agreed?

May 1, 2013

TABAKOTO / SEGALA ? Annual gold production approximately 100,000 oz ? Debt free ? Unhedged ? Combined surface reserves 949,000 oz ? Combined 9 year life Tabakoto open pit reserve 568,000 oz (3.4m tonnes @ 5.26 g/t Au) Segala open pit reserve 381,000 oz (3.98m tonnes @ 2.98 g/t Au)

May 1, 2006

By P. J. Sylvester, D. H. C. Wilton, R. I. Wheeler, M. A. E. Huminicki, D. Evans-Lamswood

"Systematic characterization of the mineralogy of massive sulfide ore deposits can provide valuable insights into ore genesis and metallurgical processing that would not be apparent otherwise. We describe a method wherein (1) normative mineral abundances are calculated from whole-rock chemical assays using an algorithm, (2) the results are cast in block models, (3) the results are then verified with automated image analysis of a subset of samples prepared as grain mounts by backscattered electron imaging and X-ray mapping on a scanning electron microscope, and (4) those verified results are integrated with textural data determined by optical microscopy.The technique is applied to the magmatic Ni-Cu-Co sulfides of the Ovoid orebody, based on geochemical assays of 3175 whole-rock samples. Three principal ore zones are defined in the Ovoid. Type I ore occurs in the center of the deposit; it is magnetite-rich and pyrrhotite-poor with intermediate contents of pentlandite and chalcopyrite. Type II ore surrounds Type I ore and is pentlanditechalcopyrite- rich with intermediate contents of pyrrhotite and magnetite. Type III ore occurs at the base and along the outer periphery of the northern part of the orebody; it is pyrrhotite-rich and chalcopyrite- poor with an intermediate content of pentlandite, and a low-to-intermediate content of magnetite. La caractérisation systématique de la minéralogie des gîtes de sulfures massifs peut fournir des indications précieuses sur la genèse des minerais et le traitement métallurgique qui ne seraient pas disponibles par d’autres méthodes. Nous décrivons un procédé par lequel (1) un algorithme est utilisé pour calculer l’abondance de minéraux normatifs à partir d’analyses lithogéochimiques, (2) les résultats sont exprimés dans des blocs diagrammes, (3) les résultats sont par la suite validés par analyse d’image automatisée sur un microscope électronique à balayage en électrons rétrodiffusés et par cartographie en rayons X sur des échantillons constitués de grains montés en résine, et (4) les résultats de cette validation sont combinés aux données texturales obtenues par microscopie optique.Cette technique est appliquée aux sulfures magmatiques de Ni-Cu-Co du gisement Ovoïde, en utilisant les analyses géochimiques de 3175 échantillons de roche totale. L’Ovoïde comprend trois types de minerai. Le type I est situé au centre du gisement; il est riche en magnétite et pauvre en pyrrhotite avec des quantités intermédiaires de pentlandite et de chalcopyrite. Le minerai de type II entoure le minerai de type I et est riche en pentlandite et en chalcopyrite avec des quantités intermédiaires de pyrrhotite et de magnétite. Le minerai de type III se trouve à la base ainsi qu’à bordure externe de la partie nord du gisement; il est riche en pyrrhotite et pauvre en chalcopyrite, avec un contenu intermédiaire en pentlandite et une quantité faible à moyenne de magnétite."

Jan 1, 2012

By E. Barnard, J. Tero, J. Rajala, N. Avenido, M. Fullam, A. Nashitati, S. Mbalamba

"The Otjikoto mining and milling complex is 90% owned by B2Gold Corporation, and began commercial operation on February 28, 2015. The milling circuit operates at a throughput 3.3 million tonnes per annum, with an average reserve gold grade of 1.28 g/t. The ore is high in Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG), which varies between 73-91%, depending on ore type. Overall gold recovery since start-up is 98.2%, with about 63.5 % coming from the gravity circuit as doré. 2016 cash operating costs, and all in sustaining cost (“AISC”) were $361 and $604 per ounce, respectively.During design, three ore types were tested for GRG content, and based on the high GRG value of all three ore types, the decision was made to treat the full ball mill circulating load by gravity. Once operating, the gravity circuit performance was characterized by performing a detailed gravity audit, which included the ore, cyclone classification, Knelson concentrators, and the Consep Acacia intensive leach system. The deeper ores contain significant pyrrhotite, and this created some unusual challenges that had to be overcome. This paper presents the gravity circuit design process, the circuit commissioning, and the audit results and ongoing improvements.IntroductionHeadquartered in Vancouver, Canada, B2Gold Corp. was founded in 2007. Currently, B2Gold has five operating mines, and numerous exploration projects in various countries, including Nicaragua, the Philippines, Namibia, Mali and Burkina Faso. The Otjikoto Mine is located in the north-central part of the Republic of Namibia. It is situated approximately 300 kilometers north of Windhoek, the country’s capital, within the Province of Otjozondjupa. The Otjikoto mining and milling complex is 90% owned by B2Gold Corporation, and began commercial operation on February 28, 2015. The milling circuit operates at a throughput 3.3 million tonnes per annum. During design, a large emphasis was placed on gravity recovery, as the Otjikoto ores are unusually high in Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG)."

Jan 1, 2018

By C. W. Reno

"THE LORNEX MINING PROJECT is one of several large-tonnage, low-grade operations recently placed in operation in British Columbia. It is located in the Highland Valley in the south central portion of the province. This area is described as a divide valley at an elevation range of 4,000 to 6,000 feet and is situated on the divide between two drainage systems. The major drainage to the west flows into the Thompson River and to the east and south the drainage enters the Nicola River system. This open-ended valley lies between low, rounded mountains in fairly heavily-wooded country. Prior to the commencement of copper mining activities, the first by Bethlehem Copper Corporation Ltd. over ten years ago, the valley was only sparsely settled. A few small ranches were in existence on the several Indian Reserves located along the valley bottomland. There has also been a small amount of logging activity in the valley, although much of the area is covered by dense lodgepole pine which has little or no value to the loggers. As the mining interest mounted with further discoveries of the disseminated copper ore typical of the district, much of the valley was covered with mineral claims and exploration drilling was carried on by several companies at various times. At the time Lornex was preparing to commence major construction work in early 1970, there was very little activity of any kind in the Highland Valley outside of the Bethlehem operation and a small amount of ranching."

Jan 1, 1973