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By Levent Ozdemir, Roy H. Spitzer, Don W. Deere, John B. Blyler

This paper documents the construction of the Stanley Canyon Tunnel, the geologic conditions encountered, boreability of the rock, and the impacts of the conditions encountered on the construction. The 5.05 kilometer long (3.1 miles), 3.47 meter (11.4 feet) diameter, tunnel was driven through granites with a refurbished tunnel boring machine (TBM). Difficult ground conditions encountered included shear zones, high groundwater flows, and hard, tough, and strong rock. Detailed geotechnical studies during construction revealed that microscopic changes in the rock grain boundaries due to contact metamorphism, resulted in the hard boreability. Originally scheduled for five months, the tunnel construction required nearly three years, including periods of project shutdown.

Jan 1, 1995

The mechanism of caving is of interest to the mining engineer only in areas where he is directly concerned. One area is surface subsidence which is outside the scope of this paper. Another area is at the face where coal is being extracted and where control of caving is of vital importance. Coal mining systems have been developed with many considerations in mind, but in this list of considerations, strata control has seldom been given much importance. Research is in progress in Australia to endeavour to determine an optimum sequence for coal extraction underground. As information becomes avail- able from this work it is hoped that appropriate methods of controlling caving in various strata conditions will be devised. When this is done, equipment may be introduced to permit the mining operation to proceed under optimum conditions for strata control, rather than devising a mining procedure to suit the equipment available and methods developed for other reasons.

Jan 1, 1974

By B. Anameric

The pig iron nugget process is gaining in importance as an alternative to the traditional blast furnace. Throughout the process, self-reducing?fluxing dried greenballs composed of iron ore concentrate, reducing-carburizing agent (coal), flux (limestone) and binder (bentonite) are heat-treated. During the heat treatment, dried greenballs are first transformed into direct reduced iron (DRI), then to transition direct reduced iron (TDRI) and finally to pig iron nuggets. The furnace temperature and/or residence time and the corresponding levels of carburization, reduction and metallization dictate these transformations. This study involved the determination of threshold furnace temperatures and residence times for completion of all of the transformation reactions and pig iron nugget production. The experiments involved the heat treatment of self-reducing?fluxing dried greenballs at various furnace temperatures and residence times. The products of these heat treatments were identified by utilizing optical microscopy, apparent density and microhardness measurements.

Jan 1, 2007

By R. D. van der Weijden, W. F. C. van Wageningen

"Copper(II) can be recovered or removed from acidic copper sulfate solutions as cuprite or metallic copper powder by reduction with carbohydrates (van der Weijden et al., 2001, 2002). In order to make this process suitable for a commercial scale pipe reactor, process conditions and reactor configuration need to guarantee proper throughput of the dilute suspension. This is where crystal engineering also comes into view. Copper powder characteristics, such as size and shape of particles, influence the tendency to adhere to reactor walls and to agglomerate, which in turn influence the throughput. Furthermore, separation, drying, packaging and product quality, are dependent on the powder characteristics.In this paper the effect of both chemical and physical parameters on the shape and size of particles were systematically studied in a number of autoclave experiments. These parameters include mixing, Cu(II) concentration, pH, temperature, seeding, use of additives and reactor materials. Additionally, Monte Carlo simulations of copper growth inside a Kenics static mixer were made. Results show that the use of additives, and the use of static mixers influence particle characteristics the most."

Jan 1, 2003

By Reuter M. A., R. D. van der Weijden, W. F. C. van Wageningen

"Copper(II) can be recovered or removed from acidic copper sulfate solutions as cuprite or metallic copper powder by reduction with carbohydrates. The copper powder characteristics, such as size and shape of particles, determine the tendency to adhere to reactor walls and to agglomerate. In order to make this process suitable for a commercial scale pipe reactor, process conditions and the reactor configuration were varied in order to influence the copper characteristics in a positive way. The aim was to achieve proper particle throughput in the pipe reactor and to obtain a well defined copper powder.In this paper the effect of both, chemical and physical parameters on the shape and size of particles were systematically studied in a number of autoclave experiments. These parameters include mixing, Cu(II) concentration, pH, temperature, seeding, use of additives and reactor materials. Additionally, Monte Carlo simulations of copper growth inside a Kenics static mixer were made. Results show that the use of additives and the use of static mixers influence particle characteristics the most."

Jan 1, 2003

By L. Bratek, K. Jaworek, M. Czaplicka

Methods for arsenic compound removal from aqueous solutions include processes such as: coagulation, adsorption, membrane techniques, electrochemical and biotechnology techniques. Advanced oxidation using both UV radiation and strong oxidizing agents such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide may also decompose these compounds. It is known that effluents from metallurgical processes contain inorganic arsenic compounds in addition to the organic compounds such as: dimethylarsinic acid and phenylarsonic acid. This paper presents the conditions that lead to the formation of deposits containing mainly arsenic, such as pH, the wavelength of the radiation and the type of oxidant, for this type of effluent.

Jan 1, 2014

By B Mohanty, R Deshaies

Initiation of small diameter explosives by sympathetic shock pressure in water has been investigated under controlled laboratory conditions. Changes either in the geometry of the donor explosive or its point of initiation can alter the essential characteristics (amplitude and duration) of the resulting shock pressure pulse. The pressure signatures from both spherical and cylindrical explosives donors have been studied, in water as well as in various explosive matrices. This paper summarizes the investigations carried out with both 'primed' and 'non-primed' slurry and emulsion explosive matrices with various types of voids. These measurements serve the basis for predicting distances in water for sympathetic initiation for both spherical and linear charges. It is shown that the explosive-detonator system in combination has a far greater probability of initiation due to sympathetic shock pressure than either the explosive or the detonator alone. Various explosive matrices with air bubbles and glass microballoons have been examined and the differing sensitivities to shock pressure explained on the basis of these measurements. It is also concluded that explosives containing air bubbles instead of microballoons would be significantly more prone to sympathetic initiation.

Jan 1, 1992

By C. Zener, J. H. Hollomon

IT Is commonly recognized that a given material may be described as ductile or brittle only with reference to the conditions of test. Thus under the usual test conditions quartz is brittle, but under high pressures it is ductile. Salts that are brittle at room temperature become ductile at elevated temperatures. Pitch, brittle with respect o rapid loads, flows at low rates of loading. Pearlitic steel, ductile under the usual conditions of test, may be embrittled under the proper conditions of combined stresses, temperature, and rate of loading. EARLIER INVESTIGATIONS A clear analysis of the conditions necessary for plastic flow and for fracture was first given by Ludwik,1 who introduced two types of stress, the "flow stress" and the "stress at fracture." These stresses may refer to tensile or to shear stresses, or, in fact, to any type of stress. Ludwik considered these two stresses to be independent of one another, functions of the conditions of test and of the prior history of the material. For the purpose of analysis, both a flow stress and a stress at fracture can be envisaged as functions of strain over the entire range from zero to infinite strain. Thus, the material is brittle if the stress at fracture is less than the flow stress and ductile if the reverse is true. According to Ludwik's analysis, the problem of determining the effects of combined stresses, of temperature and of strain rate upon the behavior of metals reduces to a problem of determining the effect of these variables upon the flow stress and upon the stress at fracture. In the present paper, methods are described for determining the effects of two of these variables, temperature and strain rate, and examples are given of the dependence or now stress and stress at fracture, upon these two variables. The effect of combined stresses will be discussed in a succeeding paper. The flow stress may be determined from a load-diameter curve. Load-diameter curves were obtained over a wide range of temperature and over the limited range of strain rates obtainable with the lever-type Riehle machine used. The. curves were then converted to an extremely wide range of strain rate by making use of the equivalence of the effects of changes in strain rate and changes in temperature, previously proposed2 and demonstrated' by the authors. According to this principle of equivalence, strain rate E and temperature T affect the flow stress only through a single parameter p of the form: p = EeQ/RT [I] In this equation, R is the gas constant (2 cal. per gram mol per deg. C.), and Q is a heat of activation, which varies from material to material, and may depend upon the strain, but not upon the strain rate or the temperature. There is associated with every value of p a flow-stress curve. Combinations of strain rate and of temperature that give the same p have the same flow-stress curve. Therefore, merely by changing the temperature of test, the effect of changing the strain rate may be obtained. Thus, under isothermal conditions, the material will behave the same at

Jan 1, 1944

By E. Barsky

"The aim of separation is to obtain two products that are as distinct as possible from each other. It is currently believed that the most objective criteria for the quality of a separation are the Hancock criterion and the entropy criterion.1. Hancock criterion:- for yield of fine product"

Jan 1, 2003

By H. A. Schwartz

FROM time to time, one of the authors has had occasion to investigate the graphitizing reaction and has published the results mainly as discussion1 of the work of other investigators. In view, therefore, of the diversity of both observations and interpretation, it seemed well to attempt a revision of the entire subject in the Research Laboratory of the National Malleable Castings Co. The work consisted of a careful study of a single, impure, iron-carbon alloy. The material, which may be considered typical low-carbon white cast iron of the malleable industry, was an air-furnace iron of the following composition: carbon 2.30 per cent., silicon 1.20 per cent., manganese 0.29 per cent., phosphorus 0.156 per cent., sulfur 0.048 per cent. The freezing range extended from 1213° to 1132° C., the latter figure agreeing with Gontermann's data .2 We have attempted to define the equilibrium diagram of this alloy, in the stable condition as related to the metastable diagram, from a temperature somewhat below the eutectic freezing point to a temperature below Ar1 and for a graphitic-carbon content from practically nothing to the original total carbon of the specimen (see Fig. 6). More especially we desired to locate the line in the stable diagram corresponding to the Acm line of the metastable system, which is designated by analogy, the Atm line (tm from temper carbon) ; also to determine the location of Aim with respect to Acm toward their lower extremities at Ar1 in order to determine whether or not graphitization is completed by the separation of an iron-carbon eutectoid analagous to pearlite in the iron-cementite system. This would involve further a comparison of the locations of the stable and metastable A1 points.

Jan 8, 1922

By I. O. Flores, A. Anani, H. Li

Current technological advancement has increased the exploitation of deeper ore bodies using underground methods. In certain cases, the mineral deposit starts near the surface and continues deep within the earth's crust. Such deposits are best mined with both underground and surface methods. Two main techniques are used to determine the optimal transition depth from surface to underground - a disintegrated approach and an integrated approach. Both methods have limitations in their use to determine the optimal transition depth. The objective of this research is to investigate the conditions in which an integrated approach to the transition depth problem is superior to a disintegrated approach. Three binary integer linear programming models are developed for this purpose: a surface and underground model for the disintegrated instance and an integrated model. A case study is performed to validate the models, with a comparative sensitivity analysis to obtain operational insights.

Sep 1, 2021

By Mark A. Krall, Robert L. Geddes, James C. Frost

Introduction The Conda Partnership's Dry Valley phosphate mine is a thinly bedded, multiple seam open-pit mining operation where selective mining techniques are used to recover phosphatic shales. The mining methods used are truck/shovel and scraper/dozer operations. Ore is shipped 32 km (20 miles) by rail to a beneficiation facility. The ore is upgraded by washing and calcining. The mine and beneficiation complexes are owned by the Conda partnership. It is a joint venture between Beker Industries Corp., of Greenwich, CT, and Western Co-Operative Fertilizers (US) Inc., of Alberta, Canada. The Partnership operates as a separate entity of the two partners. The Dry Valley mine is located 48 km (30 miles) northeast of Soda Springs in Caribou County in southeastern Idaho. The mine is situated on the Caribou National Forest. Mining operations take place between 2 and 2.4 km (6400 and 7900 ft) in elevation. It is accessible partly by 32 km (20 miles) of paved roads and 16 km (10 miles) of dirt roads. The winters are long and severe, and the summers are short and mild. This article describes the history, geology, exploration, mining, and reclamation that makes this mine Idaho's largest producing mine and the western US' leading phosphate producer. History and production In the mid-1950s, Western Fertilizers of Salt Lake City, UT, drove an exploratory drift in Maybe Canyon. A large bulk sample of phosphatic shales was analyzed for phosphate content and processing characteristics. No large scale mining or processing operations were undertaken. In the late 1950s, the Dry Valley property was sold to Central Farmers of Chicago, IL. No major operations took place. In 1964, Central Farmers sold the property to El Paso Products Co. of Odessa, TX. El Paso Products supervised the mining operations of Wells Cargo Mining Co. from 1965 through 1967. During this time, El Paso Products built a beneficiation facility and a fertilizer complex in Conda. A 32-km (20-mile) railroad was also constructed from the mine to this facility. From 1968 through 1972, the mine was shut down due to a depressed fertilizer market. In 1972, El Paso products sold its ore reserves, beneficiation plant, and fertilizer complex to Beker Industries Corp. In 1979, Beker Industries sold 50% of its ore reserves and 50% of its beneficiation plant to Western Co-Operative Fertilizers (US) Inc., of Alberta Canada, forming the Conda Partnership. It has operated the mine and beneficiation plant since January 1979. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, no substantial production took place. From 1965 to 1967, El Paso Products stripped 3 Mm3 (4 million cu yd) and mined 2.3 Mt (2.5 million st). From 1972 through 1983, 50 Mm3 (66 million cu yd) were stripped and 18 Mt (20 mil¬lion st) were mined. Geology The Wells Formation forms high ridges and hillsides in the Dry Valley area. It is best exposed along the west face of Dry Ridge. It forms the imposing wall on the east side of Dry Valley. The formation is divided into two members. The lower member, about 213 m (700 ft) thick, is dominantly thin to medium-bedded limestone and silty limestone. It contains nodules and stringers of chert and minor sandstone. The upper member is composed principally of thick-bedded to massive cross-bedded, light-gray to orange-yellow, fine grained sandstone. There is some interbedded brown to light-gray limestone. This member varies from 369 to 457 m (1300 to 1500 ft). Recent investigations indicate that the upper Wells is of Permian age. Under some conditions, the Wells may be water-bearing. Otherwise, it has no apparent economic significance. Grandeur Member (Park City Formation) Overlying the Wells Formation is a distinctive light-gray to white dolomitic fossiliferous limestone. This unit has been identified by the US Geological Survey (USGS) as the Grandeur Tongue Member of the Park City Formation. This member is sometimes absent due to its contact with the Meade Peak Member of the Phosphoria Formation. It is easily detectable by its color, hardness, and fetid odor. Phosphoria Formation The Phosphoria Formation of Permian age was named from Phosphoria Gulch, Bear Lake County. The formation has been studied extensively and developed for its economically valuable phosphate reserves.

Jan 11, 1985

By Glen A. Knox

The writer has been asked to set forth for this Institute, the experience of the past eleven months in the mining operation conducted at Sweetwater Mine in which coal has been produced by the use of Link-Belt Conveyors on long faces. The coal in this mine has an average of six feet three inches in thickness, and lies on an average pitch of five degrees. The roof is a sandy shale of medium hardness and has been generally considered as good top in the room and pillar method of mining. When our company became interested in conveyors, the writer visited most all of the mines in the East where conveyors and other mechanical methods of mining were in use and decided that the modified method of w-hat is in use at the Norton-West Virginia mine would be the most feasible for our conditions. We in- stalled three hundred feet of conveyor as an experiment to see whether or not our roof could be handled and taken care of on long faces. This three hundred feet was installed as two separate conveyors, one as a face conveyor-100 feet in length, the other as a heading conveyor that delivered the coal into the mine car on the main entry. This face was worked directly on .the strike and down the pitch. This did not prove to be a success as the caving of the roof carried over to the working face and necessitated propping between the conveyor and the face and it was also necessary to shovel coal on the conveyor up the pitch. After working out this block, 200 feet in length, we installed these two conveyors at a place adjoining this worked out block, but on a half V shape shown on the sketch. This block of coal was sixty feet wide. This method proved to be very successful. We cut a place, moved the conveyor against the face before shooting and carried two rows of cribs between the conveyor and the cave, and caved the roof every second cut. After working out this block we were satisfied that this system was feasible with our mine. We then ordered twelve hundred feet more of the same type as the trial conveyor with the exception of a very few modifications. We then installed this fifteen hundred foot unit on the four faces shown on the sketch, with one hundred feet to each face, two hundred feet on each heading and three hundred feet on the main conveyor that delivered the coal into the pit cars. We also had a head and rear section for each of the four advancing places shown on the sketch. As the sections were taken out of the heading conveyors they were installed on the advancing conveyors, and when the faces approached the main conveyor, the main conveyor was taken out and installed in the next uphill or main conveyor place. The roof caved very well in line of the points and was broken about every twenty feet. It broke in a straight line and did not curve at each V. We encountered no trouble unless we permitted one of the points to get behind. The maximum tonnage possible to be produced on this method was estimated to be seven hundred and twenty-five tons a day, assuming that all places were cut and cleaned up in one shift, and this we did for several consecutive days. While this was a success from a cost standpoint, we felt that we could

Jan 1, 1925

By Oliver C. Ralston, Foster Fraas

VIRTUALLY all commercial use of electrostatic separation has employed separators depending on differences of conductance of the broken, solid mixtures treated by them. The two main types of conductance separators have been: (1) Those in which the separating field is as near a static field between two charged electrodes as it is possible to maintain in the face of the usual leakage that takes place between electrodes with some 5 to 50 kv tension between them and spacing of l/z to 3 in.; (2) those in which a convective discharge of corona or spray type, but not a spark discharge, takes place between the carrier electrode and a charged electrode facing it, which is of very restricted area, such as a row of needle points or a small diameter wire parallel to the face of the carrier electrode. The present paper deals with this latter type. The principle is usable in separators where the carrier electrode, usually grounded, has the shape of a roller, a conveyor belt, a vibrating table, a sloping chute, or a nearly vertical plate. The innovation studied by us has been the use of the convective field for charging material on the carrier electrode and succeeded by a field between the carrier electrode and an electrode made of a true dielectric which cannot take on a charge by conduction but is charged by being in the radius of the corona discharge. The acquired charge is of the same sign as that of the corona but is not dischargable by contact with a good conductor. However, high-tension charge tends to leak off because of the ionization of the ambient air. The field between this electrode and the carrier electrode is as near static as it is possible to obtain. There are some differences in behavior of this electrode and that of the gas tube electrode used by Sutton, as will be discussed below. Both electrodes cause increased adhesion of nonconductive particles to the carrier roll. The particles are pinned there because they are convectively charged on their outer surfaces facing the corona electrode. The electrodes also cause increased rate of release of conductive particles tending to be pinned by corona charging but conveying the charge to the grounded carrier roll almost as rapidly as it is received by the particles.

Jan 10, 1950

Federal Regulations require that coal producers conduct a written, in-house investigation with every lost time injury accident. Besides their obvious value in accident prevention, competently conducted investigations can provide a number of additional benefits to include positive supervisor involvement, the control of rising worker's compensation costs and a measure of protection from civil/criminal proceedings. The paper describes such topics as MSHA minimum requirements, investigator selection and training, accident site procedures, witness interview techniques and the management review process. The reader is also presented with a number of information resources available through MSHA, the National Safety Council and other sources.

Jan 1, 1995

By P Holtham, K Duffy, B, W Valery, E Tabosa, rade

Pre-concentration has potential to significantly improve Mineral Resource efficiency by removing gangue early in the process, before energy intensive and expensive comminution and fine processing. However, there are numerous options for pre-concentration and the performance and benefits of these are very case specific. To determine the best option for a particular deposit and to successfully integrate it into the overall mining and processing operations requires comprehensive evaluation. This needs to consider orebody suitability, technology capability and economic viability. The in-situ variability of a deposit and how it is influenced by mining methods and the liberation size of gangue are key factors which are generally not well understood. Geostatistical methods provide an insight into orebody variability, and the overall selection of any pre-concentration solution must be an integrated approach between geology, mining and processing. Many pre-concentration evaluations investigate the potential of just one option. Technology selection should start wide and may include: selective mining, pre-screening (with or without selective blasting), sorting (bulk and or particle), coarse gravity separation (e.g. jigging, DMS), coarse particle flotation, magnetic separation, etc. The upgrade performance of these processes is very ore specific and should be determined from testing, with detailed multi-component modelling used to determine the overall process performance. Many of these pre-concentration processes require significant ancillary equipment, feed preparation and materials handling. It is important to realistically estimate all costs to understand overall economics and select the best option. Some examples showing evaluation and comparison of pre-concentration options are presented in this paper. These include assessments of in-situ variability using geostatistical tools, process modelling of pre-concentration options and overall performance, preliminary layouts and cost estimates, and economic evaluations.

Nov 10, 2020

By C J. Greet, J Kinal, C Hitchen

Following the successful completion of a marked ball test defining the potential wear benefits the high chrome alloys may offer against forged steel, as well as laboratory test work investigating changes in pulp chemistry and improvements to metallurgical performance, a plant trial was commissioned at NewcrestÆs Ridgeway concentrator. The paper briefly describes these results.Newcrest decided to convert their media charge by the top-up method. To monitor the trial a sampling protocol was put in place whereby the pulp chemistry was monitored before, during and after the purge. The metallurgical shift data was analysed using various statistical methods to determine if the metallurgical performance had improved with the change in grinding media. While the analysis indicated that the metallurgy had improved, not all of the benefits could be assigned to the change in grinding media alone. However, the combination of reduction in media wear and the increases in copper and gold recoveries suggested that it was economically viable to operate with high chrome grinding media.As with many trials of this nature the prevailing economic conditions are fluid and a decision was made to revert back to forged steel grinding media in an effort to reduce operating costs. It was further agreed that Magotteaux could monitor the pulp chemistry and metallurgical changes in this reverse trial to confirm the results observed in the earlier conversion to high chrome grinding media.CITATION:Greet, C J, Hitchen, C and Kinal, J, 2012. Conducting high chrome grinding media trials at NewcrestÆs Ridgeway Concentrator, in Proceedings 11th AusIMM Mill OperatorsÆ Conference, pp 56-64 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 29, 2012

By Milton E. Wadsworth

The evolution of engineering education and research has been profoundly influenced by computer technology and has concomitantly followed changes in this technology. Today, virtually all faculty have access to at least two hierarchies of computers: desk personal computers and at least one echelon higher (workstations or a variety of mid-sized computers). Most faculty have access to three or even four hierarchies: the two listed, plus super-mini and super computers. The ready availability of computers at a low cost has increased dedicated and site-specific computer technology. This has permitted universities to move into the field of macro-engineering, to address increasingly complex problems in resource recovery, manufacturing and many other areas, including important societal problems, like the environment. The creation of university research centers indicates the growing importance of macro-engineering involving large systems of interactive components. Funding agencies have increasingly favored such centers since they cross disciplines, generate inter-university consortia and foster university-industry programs.

Jan 1, 1992

By George M. Leonard

Mineral commodities on National Forest System lands contribute to the nation's well being. Access to these commodities is dependent on public perceptions of the effects of mineral operations on other resources. An outlook is described which the Forest Service believes is essential to the minerals industry if it plans to continue seeking minerals on National Forest and Grasslands.

Jan 1, 1991

By V. L. Ketellapper

This paper discusses the technical issues and stakeholder collaborative processes which resulted in achieving a balance between the reclamation of abandoned mine sites, providing affordable housing, and preservation of open space at the French Gulch Site. Through this process, it was discovered that mine site reclamation would need to be conducted in conjunction with two priorities for community sustainable development: providing affordable housing for locals who work in the resort town of Breckenridge, and open space preservation. It was found that conducting these activities concurrently would result in providing resources necessary to complete mine site reclamation. The first phase of the affordable housing development is almost completed. This development resulted in redevelopment of mining impacted lands and was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a National Smart Growth Award in 2002.Negotiations are also underway to preserve the remaining 1,800 acres of land held by the mining company as open space. This transaction will in turn provide resources to address water quality issues associated with mine discharges.

Jan 1, 2004