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By R. E. Heithecker, D. B. Taliaferro

"INTRODUCTION Recovery of core specimens from subsurface formations and their subsequent analysis are important aids in efficient development and operation of oil and gas fields. Gore specimens first were obtained mainly for the geologic information they revealed; now they are analyzed to determine many of the physical characteristics and conditions of the subsurface formations as well. Cores recovered from the producing formations may be analyzed for porosity, permeability, oil content, ""connate"" water content, and other physical and chemical properties of the formation, all to the end of furnishing enough data for making reliable estimates of the quantity and avail¬ability of oil and as within a reservoir and in devising efficient means for their withdrawal.Examination of bottom-hole samples of oil gives valuable information concerning the amount of gas in solution in the oil within the reservoir and the resultant shrinkage of the oil when the gas is released. Producing characteristics of reservoirs nay be determined by means of subsurface pressure and temperature gages and measurements male at the wellhead; however, unless reliable core analyses are available, these data have only limited use in any quantitative study of reserves. In such a study the quantity of oil, gas, and water contained in a unit volume of the reservoir formation is extremely important. Although reliable methods of analyzing cores have been developed and the data thus obtained are valuable, their applications become more limited or reservoirs at higher temperatures and pressures are discovered. This condition results almost entirely from the fact that in recovering a core from a formation of high pressure and temperature by present methods a large part of the fluid content of the core is lost or contaminated to an unknown extent. For a number of years most petroleum engineers have held that if this loss and contamination of the fluid content of a core were eliminated, the value of core analyses would be increased greatly."

Nov 1, 1939

By Sérgio Fernando Nunes

No presente estudo foi realizada uma investigação da influência do teor de hematita especular, percentual e granulometria da carga circulante do pelotamento nos parâmetros de qualidade física das pelotas cruas e queimadas de minério de ferro da Samarco Mineração. Preliminarmente foram executados testes exploratórios em escalas de laboratório e industrial objetivando avaliar o melhor teor de umidade, área superficial específica do pellet feed e carga circulante do pelotamento. Após essa fase exploratória, foi feito o projeto de experimentos dos ensaios de pelotamento e de queima no pot grate, empregando três fatores em dois níveis com ponto central e réplica. A resistência á compressão a úmido e a seco, diâmetro médio e bulk density, foram os parâmetros de qualidade física avaliados para as pelotas cruas. A resistência á compressão, índice de tamboramento e abrasão, porosidade e bulk density, foram os parâmetros de qualidade física avaliados para as pelotas queimadas. O atributo percentual de pelotas nucleadas queimadas também foi avaliado. Concluiu-se que a mineralogia, granulometria do pellet feed e composição da carga circulante influenciam fortemente na qualidade física das pelotas cruas e queimadas.

Aug 1, 2018

Charles Catlett, Staunton, Va. (communication to the Secretary*):—Mr. Chance's suggestions that the brown hematite-ores of the Potsdam formation are due to the alteration in place of iron sulphide, and that their extension may reasonably he expected to contain valuable deposits of unaltered sulphide, are interesting; hut the facts marshaled by him are too limited

Jan 1, 1909

By Fathi Habashi

The year 1987 marked the centennial of the beginning of modern hydrometallurgy. On October 19, 1887 British Patent No. 14174 entitled Process of Obtaining Gold and Silver from Ores was issued*. The discovery was made by John Steward MacArthur (Fig. 1), a chemist-metallurgist, supported and assisted by Robert and William Forrest, two brothers practicing medicine in Glasgow. The discovery was made in the basement of their clinic. The process, which became known as the cyanidation process in reference to the alkali cyanide reagent used, immediately received industrial success in New Zealand in 1889 and in South Africa in 1890t. It displaced the chlorination method which had been in use. In 1903 MacArthur was awarded the first Medal of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in London1131 - The cyanidation process was responsible for the doubling of gold production in the world in the two decades which followed its first application (Fig. 2). To the modern metallurgist, it may be surprising to think of MacArthur coming across an obscure reagent such as an alkali cyanide as a leaching agent for gold ores. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the background and the factors that led to this invention, the development of the understanding of the process, and the application of modern technology.

Jan 1, 1999

By Jamal Rostami, Mark Board, Clayr Alexander, Muthu Vinayak Thyagarajan

In the past several decades, many major equipment manufacturers have ventured into developing new technology for underground hard rock excavation. This includes variety of configurations for full and partial face mobile excavation units. Mining industry prefers machines that can excavate noncircular, flat invert profiles and be able to make tight turns in hard rock. The need to use disc cutters for cutting hard rock has impeded the development of such machines due to the need for gripper system or large mass of a machine to support the force requirements of the disc cutters. Most of the prior attempts have been partially successful and the operations have faced some practical limits and challenges. Among the units that have been successfully used, one can name mobile miner, which was used for rock excavation in some projects. A redesigned mobile miner, called the “Remote Vein Miner,” or RVM, has been developed by Epiroc for underground hard rock mining in Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine. This equipment potentially opens numerous opportunities for innovation in civil tunneling projects, where the operational flexibility and accessibility of a TBM’s limited tunnel path, design of the profile, and cost are limiting factors. This paper explores the application of the RVM in tunneling projects, its advantages and possible areas of innovation in tunnel planning and design.

Jun 13, 2021

By Aline Tavares

This paper describes the investigative studies carried out at Vale´s Center of Mineral Development (CDM) for a nickel sulfide deposit aiming to develop an adequate flotation flowsheet. The CDM facilities comprises of very well equipped laboratories to develop hydrometallurgical, comminution, flotation, physical separation processes, besides chemical and mineralogical laboratories, that are required to accomplish pre-feasibility studies, new process routes developments and, eventually, brownfield projects. Close association of the flotation group with the geometallurgy and the mineralogy teams play a key role during greenfield project development. Most of the information required by process engineers responsible for the flowsheet development can be provided by the mineralogy team and its mineralogical laboratory at CDM. During the flowsheet development of this nickel sulfide deposit, two ore types were identified as the most abundant in the deposit, named biotite-chlorite hydrothermalite (HID) and magnetite hydrothermalite (MAG HID). Six samples were selected for the investigative studies based on this initial information. Nickel grade varied from 0.39% to 1.95%. The main nickel-bearing minerals were millerite and pentlandite whereas the main non-sulphide gangue minerals were quartz, plagioclase, biotite, chlorite, actinolite, and/or magnetite. Electron microprobe (EMP) identified the presence of nickel in solid solution in gangue minerals such as biotite, chlorite, and actinolite. Nickel deportment in silicates varied from 3% to almost 40%. Magnesium was distributed in biotite and chlorite, except in sample MAG HID, in which talc was responsible for almost 50% of the Mg content. Liberation studies indicated that the optimum feed grind size was around 150µm and that pyrite occurred highly associated to the nickel sulfides. The flotation tests were planned based on the information provided by the mineralogical data. Rougher flotation tests indicated that the optimum P80 of the primary grind was 212µm for the HID type and 150µm for the MAG HID. From the reagents tested, amyl xanthate proved to be the most efficient in the recovery of the sulfides. In the MAG HID sample talc was well depressed by dosing 600g/t of CMC. Nickel recoveries in the rougher stage were lower than 90% due to the nickel distributed in silicates. However, sulfur recovery was around 95%, indicating high recovery of the total sulfides. Open circuit and locked cycle tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of the regrind size in the nickel grade and recovery (P80 of 44µm and 20µm). Nickel recovery decreased from 70% to 65% when finer regrind size was tested. Although nickel recovery decreased by 5%, the finer regrind size lead to a higher Ni grade (from 11% to 23%Ni) and lower fluorine grade (from 1138ppm to 700ppm) in the concentrate. Keywords: nickel sulfide, flotation, mineralogical characterization, flowsheet development

Sep 1, 2012

By Artur Frederico Fonseca da Cruz

Com a necessidade urgente e constante de aumento da competitividade no cenário atual da mineração, mostra-se fundamental o desenvolvimento constante de novos parâmetros de processo combinados a uma estratégia de manutenção focada não só na disponibilidade dos ativos, e sim no desempenho dos equipamentos. No que tange ao processo de pelotização neste trabalho foi dado foco especificamente na configuração de perfis de queima no forno de grelha móvel, onde foram testados quatro perfis e fixado o perfil nº 04 otimizado via sistema de otimização de processo para níveis de produções diferentes, equilibrando qualidade e consumo específico de gás natural, no período anterior e posterior à parada fria. A partir daí foram analisados parâmetros de qualidade, produção e processo, comparando-os entre antes e após a parada fria. Foram registradas melhoras nos índices de qualidade e redução de aproximadamente 13,50% do consumo específico de gás natural e 10,80% de redução no consumo específico de energia elétrica de ventiladores por níveis de produção.

Aug 17, 2017

By N. O. Johnson

This is one of a series of-Information Circulars dealing with mining and milling methods and costs at mines in various districts in the United States. The Hog Mountain gold mining district is of the northern edge of Tallapoosa County, in the east central part of the State of Alabama. The district is equally close to Goodwater and to Alexander City, both stations on the main line of the Central of Georgia Railroad. From Alexander City the mine is reached by 13 miles of graded road, traveling in a northeast direction. In dry seasons the road is good; in wet weather it is bad but passable. Improvements are being made constantly on the road, so that in the near future the gravel road should be good under all weathered conditions.

Jan 1, 1936

By G. F. Vander Voort

The accident at Unit No. 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor (TMI-2) on 28 March 1979 was the worst nuclear accident in US history and crippled the nuclear industry. An international Vessel Investigation Project was formed to assess the integrity of the vessel. However, it was not possible to remove specimens from the lower head until January?March 1990. Fourteen of the fifteen specimens removed by electrical discharge machining were from under the debris pile that accumulated on the lower head due to melting of approximately 19 000 kg (45%) of the core. Specimens were previously cut from the lower head of a cancelled reactor of very similar size and design destined for Midland, Michigan. These specimens were subjected to controlled heating cycles with peak temperatures from 800°C to 1100°C for periods of 1 to 100 minutes. The initial study qualitatively compared the structures in the 15 specimens from TMI-2 to the control specimens from the Midland lower head. The writer used the same specimens and employed microindentation hardness traverses, electron microprobe analysis, and selective etching followed by quantitative metallography (by image analysis) to obtain a far more detailed description of the thermal exposure experienced.

Jan 1, 2013

By Ayman Tawadrous

Cave mining offers a flexible technique to exploit large, low grade, deep ore bodies with low operating costs. It is typically done in either a top down approach; i.e. sublevel caving, or in a bottom up approach; i.e. block or panel caving, to extract ore bodies that may have been previously considered unfeasible to mine. Sublevel Cave (SLC) mining, in particular, is a cave mining method based upon the utilization of gravity of blasted ore while the overlying host rock fractures and caves under induced stresses and gravity. Thereby the caved waste originating from the overlying rock mass fills the temporary void created by ore extraction to achieve a controlled collapse of the roof.

Jan 1, 2015

By J. S. Redpath, W. R. Dengler

"A description of the equipment used and the electrical-mechanical problems encountered in sinking a deep shaft is given. This shaft is currently being sunk to a depth of 7,115 feet. Some of the features of the sinking plant are a 6,500-hp double-drum hoist, a Blair stage hoist, special high-capacity mucking gear, a Galloway stage, high-tensile stage suspension ropes and 12-ton sinking buckets.INTRODUCTIONIN THE EARLY FALL OF 1965, a contract was let, by The International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited, to Shaft Sinkers (Canada) Limited -J. S. Redpath Limited -Joint Venture, • to sink and equip the Creighton No. 9 shaft at their Creighton Mine proper-ty in Ontario. This paper describes the electrical and mechanical equipment used by the contractor on this project, and details various problems that were en-countered.The shaft itself is circular in section and is lined with monolithic concrete. Upon completion, it will feature twin skip compartments, a cage compartment, counterweight compartment, manway and pipe compartment. The finished diameter of this opening will be 21 feet and the shaft will bottom 7,115 feet below the collar. The present depth of the shaft (April, 1968) is 5,400 feet. The opening is concrete lined as excavation takes place and the steel will be placed in the shaft upon completion of sinking. Hoisting is done on rope guides which are part of the stage suspension system."

Jan 1, 1968

By Oliver Bowles

"Asbestos" is not the name of a distinct mineral species but is rather a commercial term applied to fibrous varieties of several minerals. The origin and significance of names applied to asbestos by early writers are discussed in the section devoted to sources of supply and terms employed in ancient times. VARIETIES The most useful variety of asbestos is chrysotile, a fibrous serpentine the composition of which is expressed by the formula H4Mg3Si209. Chrysotile is characterized by a strength and flexibility that permit the use of the longer fibers for spinning. The bulk of the world production of both long and short fibers, is of this variety.

Jan 1, 1935

By John R. Holliday, William Marcum

Apogee Coal Company, DBA Arch of West Virginia, faced the challenge of drilling and blasting over one million cubic yards of high temperature overburden at its Ruffner surface operation near Logan, West Virginia. The overburden was removed above the Upper Five Block seam that was previously deep mined, abandoned, and later engulfed by fire. Borehole temperatures were measured above 700” F.

Jan 1, 1996

By Richard D. Hagni

Quantitative techniques have become increasingly important in recent years in the study of ore minerals. Precise measurement of indentation hardness and reflectance is the most important quantitative ore microscopic technique for mineral identification. Reflectance measurements of various wave lengths under monochromatic light provide the data necessary for the preparation of spectral reflectance curves and for the quantitative determination of an ore mineral's color. The procedures for the measurement of indentation hardness, reflectance, and color coordinates have recently been standardized and 204 items of quantitative data for ore minerals are now available in the first issue of the quantitative data file of the International Mineralogical Association's Commission on Ore Microscopy. A number of systems utilizing these quantitative data for systematic ore mineral identification have been published and others are in preparation. Rotation properties, although not included on the data cards, are useful in the identification of certain groups of minerals. Other aspects of quantitative ore microscopic techniques include the utilization of automatic image analysis for mineral percentage determinations and the use o~ various microbeam instruments for elemental analyses. These techniques provide a greatly improved basis for mineral identification in mineralogical and beneficiation studies.

Jan 1, 1981

By B. Calver, D. J. M. Farnsworth

"As open-pit operations expanded at Pine Point, hydraulic aquifer evaluation was undertaken to establish the criteria necessary for the design of a feasible dewatering system.The extreme climate of this northern location dictated that the ore zone under extraction be rendered as dry as possible to minimize freezing effects. The design and implementation of such a system necessitated detailed hydraulic evaluation, and the problems that occurred are typical of those inherent in open-pit mining operations in northern areas.The paper describes the problem solution as approached from a mine engineering point of view, with particular reference to the practical aspects of operation and installation. The hydrological analysis used is simple and readily applicable to most open-pit dewatering problems."

Jan 1, 1969

By M. B. Kime

"Discrete-element method (DEM) modelling is a powerful tool for studying particulate systems within the mineral processing industry. DEM simulations were conducted to investigate the power draw, load behaviour, and impact energy profile of an experimental ball mill under different milling conditions. The variables considered were mill rotational speed (percent critical speed), ball size, and lifter face angle. The simulation results indicated that the grinding efficiency would be enhanced by using 80% critical speed, 30 mm ball diameter, and 45° lifter face angle. These findings can be useful in guiding actual ball milling tests involving an ore sample.RÉSUMÉ La modélisation par méthode des éléments distincts (MED) est un outil puissant qui permet d’étudier les systèmes particulaires au sein de l’industrie de traitement des minerais. Des simulations par MED ont été menées de façon à étudier le profil de la consommation énergétique, du comportement de la charge et de l’énergie de rupture d’un broyeur à boulets expérimental dans diverses conditions de broyage. Parmi les variables prises en compte figuraient la vitesse de rotation du broyeur (vitesse critique en pourcentage), la taille des boulets et l’angle de coupe de la cornière élévatrice. D’après les résultats de la simulation, on pourrait améliorer l’efficacité de broyage en utilisant une vitesse critique de 80 %, un diamètre de boulet de 30 mm et un angle de coupe de 45 ° de la cornière élévatrice. Ces résultats peuvent se révéler utiles pour les essais concrets de broyage à boulets impliquant un échantillon de minerai.INTRODUCTIONComminution is a very energy intensive process. It consumes approximately 5% of the electricity produced worldwide and more than 50% of the total energy used in mineral processing plants (Pokrajcic, 2010). Among all the comminution stages, ball milling is one of the most energy intensive processes. In ball mills, rotational movement provides the rise of the load and the media that are projected and impact on the mill shell at lower angular displacement, resulting in particle breakage. Ball mills are able to reduce particle size over a relatively wide range of particle sizes. This explains their wide applicability in research laboratories and the mineral processing industry."

Jan 1, 2017

By R. K. Sinha, B. S. Choudhary, Desh Deepak, A. K. Mishra, Hemant Agrawal, Shankar Kumar

There are several methods (empirical, statistical, and machine learning tools) to calculate blast-induced ground vibration. Still, due to complications in the blasting procedure, under varying blasting loads and strata conditions, it is not easy to predict and simulate blast vibration precisely. Therefore, a study was conducted to simulate the field blast data in Ansys software using explicit dynamics. For this study, monitoring of ground vibration for 20 single hole blasts was carried out. The density of emulsion explosives was in the range of 0.9 to 1.15 g/cc. In the laboratory, rock properties were determined from the rock sample collected from the mine site before blasting. The in-hole velocity of detonation (VoD) and the density of the emulsion explosive were also determined. These parameters were used for numerical analysis to know the ground vibrations at specified points. The results of ground vibration predicted by the model are validated using field data.

By Carroll C. Bailey, William F. Boericke

Mine financing, or providing adequate capital for developing and bringing a mining property into production, is an essential requirement for a successful operation. Today it presents a different picture than even twenty-five years ago. The day appears to be gone when a mining property could pay its own way from grass roots to production. The country has been quite thoroughly combed for surface showings from which sufficient initial profit could be immediately garnered to pay for further development and production facilities. The four M's for success in mining-mineral, market, management, and money-are still essential; but doubled or tripled wage costs and steep advances in cost of equipment and supplies throw increased emphasis on adequate capital funds for bringing in a prospect and making it a producer. Consequently, the old picturesque, although seldom rewarding, grub- staking procedure where a single venturesome citizen might advance funds to a prospector on a fifty-fifty basis for whatever discovery he might find, has largely disappeared. Its place, to some degree, has been taken by the small syndicate of venturesome members who band together for furnishing funds to a group of prospectors for the same general purposes. Such a syndicate has a definite organization and is usually assured of sufficient initial funds, or flow of funds, to carry on work for several years. It is headed by an engineer-promoter who has had considerable field experience as well as personal knowledge of his prospecting crews. For the owner of a potential mining property who has ample capital, the problem is to determine (1) justification for the necessary investment in exploration and development, and (2) the economics of the enterprise as to size and degree of integration of the final operating entity. If the owner of such a property has little or no capital, he also faces these same basic problems but, in addition, must be able to present the findings of fact and persuade the prospective investor that the enterprise will produce

Jan 1, 1959

By P. Payson

INTERGRANULAR corrosion in corrosion-resistant chromium-nickel steels has been widely discussed in the last few years. So far as the author knows, nothing has been published which definitely shows that this tendency can be eliminated, although suggestions have been made that a remedy is possible if certain specifications are satisfied. Strauss, Schottky and Hinueber1 suggested an increase in chromium content to an extent that would prevent the impoverishment of chromium on carbide precipitation sufficient to cause impaired corrosion resistance in the matrix. Pilling2 suggested an increase in nickel, so that the stability of the austenite matrix would be increased. Aborn and Bain,3 say that "intergranular attack-may be eliminated by preventing carbide precipitation (e. g., by lowering the carbon content or somehow raising its solubility) or by precipitating it permanently under conditions which will not remove chromium from solid solution so drastically at any points." In a later paper Aborn and Bain4 state that many different metallic elements, tungsten, vanadium, copper, aluminum, molybdenum, titanium and zirconium, have been added in small per-centages to increase the stability of these alloys, but that it has been reported that according to the copper sulfate test these added elements act only to retard the intergranular corrosion, and that increased nickel and chromium contents have similar effects. Newell5 showed that the lower the quenching temperature before reheating, the less severe was the intergranular attack.

Jan 1, 1932

By Dale Matthews

The Getchell Mine, near Winnemucca, NR, was discovered in the 1930s and was initially mined to recover gold from oxide ores. During the 1940s and 1950s, gold was recovered from the highly refractory arsenic sulfide ores using horizontal kilns to roast the ores. During the 1960s, fluid bed roasters were used to oxidize the ore and recover the gold. The mine was shut down from 1968 through 1985. In 1985, heap leaching was started on the low-grade oxide ores that were available. In 1989, a pressure oxidation circuit was started to recover gold from the higher grade sulfide ores. Flowsheet The basic plant flowsheet of the Getchell Mine are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The plant was designed to process a nominal 2.7 kt/d (3000 stpd) of ore with about an 85% onstream availability and a gold production of 15.5 kg/d (500 oz/ day). Run-of-mine (ROM) ore is fed directly to a wet semiautogenuous grinding (SAG) mill after the +457-µm (+18in.) rock is removed on a stationary grizzly. From the SAG mill, the ore goes to a ball mill where it is ground to 80% -75 µm (-200 mesh) and is then sent to a thickener. The SAG and ball mill operate in closed circuit using cyclones.

Jan 1, 1994