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By G. M. Brownell

Introduction Within the past year a new deposit of gypsum has been opened up and brought into production in the Province of Manitoba. Until 1930, Manitoba's entire production came from Gypsumville, northwest of Winnipeg, at mile 161 on the Gypsumville branch of the Canadian National railway. However, during 1930 a gypsum bed was opened up at a point one mile south of the village of Amaranth, forty miles north of Portage la Paririe, on the west side of lake Manitoba (See Figure 1). Although no exposure has yet been discovered, the presence of gypsum below the surface in that district has been known for many years as the result of drilling for water. In 1929, J. R. Spear (1), of Winnipeg, interested some local capital in the possibility of .finding commercial deposits of gypsum, and, after some exploration work in the area with a well drill, the Amaranth deposit was located. Sixteen holes were put down at intervals of 400 or 500 feet, all of which encountered what appeared to be a continuous bed of gypsum, about thirty-eight feet thick, at a depth of 92 feet. The extent of the deposit has not yet been determined.

Jan 1, 1931

By J. H. Fulton

Summary Considerable test work has been done with the detachable type of carbide bit. In general, these bits improved drilling operations, but at a bit cost .greater than was compensated for by the reduction in man-hours of labour. Too few bits continued in service for the possible drilling life of the carbide inserts, and technical improvements or lowered first cost, preferably .both, are indicated ?in order that the bits can be generally acceptable as an economical drilling tool. In ?preliminary test work, the drill rods .with ?one insert of the chisel-bit type appear to be more trouble-free, to have a longer life, and to give a somewhat lower bit cost per foot drilled, than other types. INTRODUCTION The object of this paper is to outline briefly the 'methods used and the results obtained in test work with tungsten carbide bits used in combination with the smaller bore, lighter weight rock drills. As various articles have appeared in the past few years giving the historical background ?and early development of carbide ?bits, this information will not be repeated. Table I lists the equipment used in the test work. The stopers weigh about 95 pounds and the jackhammers with airleg from 97 to 110pounds. The smaller rock drills are stated to deliver about 2,200 blows per minute at 1 to 30 rotation and to require 85 to 95 cubic feet of air at around 100 pounds pressure.

Jan 1, 1950

By Adrian Dance

Newmont Mining Corporation?s Carlin (?Carlin?) operation processes roaster feed through a double rotator, dry grinding mill following secondary crushing. Metso Process Technology & Innovation (?PTI?) was involved in a review of crushing and dry grinding circuit operations in August 2009. A number of opportunities for increased throughput were identified in the PTI study. Extended plant trials were conducted in July 2010 to provide justification for possible circuit modifications and if needed, additional equipment. The trials confirmed that a finer crusher product would reduce the build-up of material ahead of the coarse grinding chamber in the double-rotator. Also revealed were material transport and airflow restrictions in the dry grinding circuit that resulted in a high circulating load. The secondary crushing plant demonstrated it was capable of reducing the amount of +¾? material in the mill feed thus increasing dry grinding throughput. However, wet and sticky feed affected screening efficiency resulting in low utilisation of the existing crusher capacity. The open circuit configuration also made it difficult to control crushing circuit product size. For the dry grinding circuit, changes in grinding media size, transfer grate design and increased airflow were recommended to reduce circulating load issues and increase circuit capacity. This paper summarises the crushing and grinding circuit review, the extended site trials performed by PTI and the improvements in dry grinding operation that resulted from this study.

Jan 1, 2012

By Mory Ghomshei

Pebble Creek Geothermal Power project is associated with a massive recent volcanic eruption in Southwestern British Columbia Canada. Slim holes drilled to depths 1100 m in the prospect area, show very high temperature gradients around 80?100?C/km. The temperature and chemistry of the Pebble Creek hot springs indicate the possibility of a steam reservoir in the prospect area. In addition to high temperature gradients, presence of host rocks with high permeability, along with abundance of recharge waters (from the Lillooet River) provides clear signature of a high-grade geothermal power reservoir at depth 2000 to 3000 m. Data show that over five hundred Megawatt of green power can be generated from the prospect area in a commercially viable manner. The generated power will be base-load, which in comparison with large hydro has the advantage of lower capital costs and a significantly smaller footprint. The final hurdle to overcome, before starting the development phase, is deep exploratory drilling for resource confirmation. This paper is a summary of the data available on the Pebble Creek geothermal power prospect, presented in the context of viability of the resource for large-scale commercial power generation.

Aug 1, 2013

By Terence M. Gordon, Mati Raudsepp, Gregory M. Dipple

Four methods of measuring mineral abundance in a rock are examined for their potential in assaying for high-tech industrial minerals. One method uses X-ray powder-diffraction data and the other three rely on whole rock chemical data and information on mineral assemblages and mineral compositions. All four methods were employed to estimate wollastonite content in diamond drill core of skarn collected as part of an exploration program and are compared to visual estimates of wollastonite content from core logs. These techniques for assaying wollastonite span a considerable range ofaccuracy and expense, and combined, define a non-linear relationship between these variables. Accuracy increases rapidly relative lo expense up to total costs of about $50 per analysis. Assay methods in the $50-100 per analysis range have associated errors of 5-10% relative and probably suffice for most exploration programs. Improvements in accuracy above this level require a much larger investment. The most expensive assay technique (-$300 per analysis) yields the most accurate measurement of grade (relative error -1%). Its application may best be limited to periodic checks on other assay techniques and for fine-tuning ofmineral separation procedures.

Jan 1, 2001

By Kenneth M. Haley

THE development of Reserve Mining Company's pelletizing practices began in 1949 in a pilot plant located at Ashland, Kentucky. Three years later the participating companies -Armco Steel Corporation, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Mining Company and Republic Steel Corporation concluded the work and the small plant was shut down. Oglebay Norton and Company was the operating manager and Armco Steel Corporation furnished labor and services. Arthur G. McKee and Company were the designers and constructors. The equipment flow sheet that was employed in that pilot operation is shown in Figure 1. This was Reserve's first step from the laboratory work per-formed by the Mines Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota in developing a commercial operation. The plant used New York state concentrate, purchased from Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation's Benson Mine. This concentrate, minus 14 mesh, 64.3 per cent Fe, 5.7 per cent Si02, was processed at Ashland to 80 per cent minus 325 mesh in conventional ball mill, classifier, thickener, filtering

Jan 1, 1961

By A. C. A. Howe, J. C. Rowntree

"The Bernie Lake pegmatite near Lac Du Bonnet in southern Manitoba is a complexly zoned pegmatite containing several lithium-bearing units in addition to the western world's largest known reserve of cesium. The pegmatite forms a flat-lying ellipsoidal body within an east-west-trending Precambrian amphibolite. The pegmatite enclosed by this vertically schistose amphibolite lies near the eastern tip of a granitic intrusive. The relationship of this intrusive to the pegmatite is obscured by Bernie lake. To date, the pegmatite body has been delineated aver an area of approximately 80 acres; it attains a maximum thickness of 280 feet. Several distinct zones, including three assemblages of economic importance, comprise the pegmatite itself. The combined spodumene and lepidolite assemblages provide a recoverable defined lithium ore reserve of almost 5 million tons averaging more than 2 per cent lithium oxide. The recoverable cesium ore of the pollucite assemblage provides 300,000 tons averaging more than 20 per cent cesium oxide; this represents more than half of the western world's pollucite reserve. The Bernie Lake pegmatite deposit, owned by Chemalloy Minerals Limited, is well located with respect to the growing United States markets, and its reserves of cesium are large enough to enable it, under favourable economic circumstances, to become the major producer of this metal in North America."

Jan 1, 1967

By J. Doucet, C. Price

In an industrial setting, operational changes are continually introduced, driven by new technologies or changing economics. Because of day-to-day variability, quantifying the impact of these changes based on metallurgical performance requires long trial periods to achieve statistically significant results. Tools and techniques developed by the mineral processing group at McGill University have allowed for direct measurement of process variables (e.g., bubble size, gas and solid holdup). Two case studies are described where direct measurement techniques were used to evaluate: a) a new rotor stator mechanism; and b ), the introduction of a new frother type. Application of these methods has accelerated the evaluation of process changes and improved confidence in results.

Jan 1, 2009

By D. B. Dreisinger, A. A. Gunaratnam

A pressure oxidation (POX)-hot cure (HC)-lime boil (LB) process is used in industry to recover silver from refractory gold sulfide ores containing minerals such as pyrite and arsenopyrite. Pressure oxidation is used to oxidize minerals and liberate occluded gold particles. As such, iron goes into solution and under acidic and high temperature conditions often precipitates as basic iron sulfate (BFS). BFS consumes excess lime during neutralization prior to cyanidation. Therefore, a hot cure stage is required to re-dissolve BFS back into solution. BFS re-dissolution consumes acid and produces ferric sulfate. In the presence of silver, these conditions favor the slow formation of silver jarosite. Silver jarosite is refractory to cyanidation, and must be broken down prior to cyanidation. This is done in the lime boil to produce a cyanide-soluble silver hydroxide. A study was conducted to investigate parameters that affect the precipitates that form in each stage of the POX-HC-LB process.

Jan 1, 2017

By A M. Goodwin

Detailed stratigraphic studies in the Birch-Uchi Lakes area have shown that the volcanic components are arranged in superimposed sequences, or cycles. Each cycle displays a progression from predominantly mafic effusives below to predominantly felsic extrusives above. Sedimentary rocks are preferentially associated with the felsic extrusives. Two volcanic cycles are represented. The average stratigraphic thickness of the volcanic rocks present is 31,000 feet. The original volcanic pile was probably in the order of 40,000 feet thick. The present lithologic composition is estimated to be: mafic volcanic rocks, 60 per cent; felsic volcanic rocks, 27 per cent; sedimentary rocks, 10 per cent; and others, 3 per cent. Gold occurrences are preferentially distributed with respect to the volcanic succession. Of fifty recorded occurrences, thirty-nine are located in the upper felsic division of the lower volcanic cycle; forty are associated with closely interbanded daciterhyolite pyroclastic rocks, andesitic lavas and siliceous sediments. The gold-bearing quartz veins either lie at the contacts of enclosing lithologic units or occupy cross-cutting fractures in one or more adjacent units.

Jan 1, 1965

By C. Cristonffanini, S. Nazari

"In the past, simulation was considered to be an offline tool disconnected from plant operation. Advancements in the computation power combined with utilizing physics and chemistry sciences have allowed us to significantly improve the modeling and simulation technology for mining and mineral processing. This paper investigates the benefits of first principle models and simulation by connecting them to real time operation. Process data are connected to high fidelity models executed in parallel to the operation. In recent literature, this concept is known as Digital Twins. The Digital Twin is used for various purposes such as optimization, virtual instrumentation and condition monitoring. Using IDEAS™ simulation software we are able to construct a digital twin for different equipment inside a mineral processing plant. Two case studies for building a digital twin for the primary hydrocyclone feed pump and thickener underflow are presented. Using the pump’s model, a digital twin is developed and is installed in a gold extraction plant that is able to infer the slurry density in real time. Additionally, it is used for detecting sanding in the pipes and impeller condition monitoring.INTRODUCTION Since the eighties, thanks to advances in computation technologies, computer based simulation of processes using first principle models has become a well-known engineering tool for various industries. As our understanding of processes has increased, their representative models have become more realistic and more sophisticated. Due to this increase of accuracy, use of simulation is becoming more fundamental in process industries. The main goals to use accurate simulation is to decrease the engineering and construction cost, optimize the process design and improve the operation performance by decreasing operation cost and increasing efficiency. The term Digital Twin was first introduced in 2010 by NASA (Shafto et al., 2012) in aerospace industry. Subsequently, the concept quickly spread through other industries. As of today, no standard organization has provided an official and unique definition of Digital Twin for process industries. However, there are three important aspects that are common throughout various descriptions. When simulation is core functionality of the process (1) along the entire life cycle of the plant (2) with direct linkage to operation (3), it is called that process has a Digital Twin. According to Gartner, the concept of Digital Twin has elected as fourth most important disruptive technology for the year 2018 (https://www.gartner.com/, 2017)."

Jan 1, 2019

By E. C. W. Perryman

Materials research and development has played an important role in the commercial success of the CANDU- PHW nuclear reactor and in the production of heavy water. Both capital investment and energy conservation demand very high component reliability in such systems. The interactions among reliability, plant performance and economics will be discussed in relation to materials research and development. Likely materials requirements for the nuclear industry over the next twenty five years will also be discussed.

Jan 1, 1977

By M. Grenon

"The presence, size, orientation, nature, and persistence of geological discontinuities dictate the behaviour of a rock mass. Block size, which is defined by discontinuity spacing, by the number of joint sets, and by the persistence of the discontinuities delineating potential blocks is an important indicator of the degree of fracturing of a rock mass. Consequently, block size is represented either explicitly or implicitly in all rock mass classification systems employed for analysis and design of surface and underground mining structures. Insitu block size distributions may provide a better means to describe the structural complexity of a rock mass. These are the distributions that would be derived if the in-situ rock mass was separated into its constitutive blocks, delineated by existing discontinuities, and each block measured. This paper presents the results of a field campaign at Louvicourt Mine aiming to characterize the rock mass using different methods for determining block size and block size distributions. IntroductionGeological structural data are used to provide input data for analysis and design methods for surface and underground structures. As the collection of structural data involves considerable investment of time and effort, it is sometimes overlooked, thus denying an important source of information for mine design. What is somewhat surprising, however, is that when structural data are available, they are not used to their full potential. Recent work has shown that data on block size have potential applications in different areas of rock engineering:• Blasting — Hudson (1993) has described the excavation process as the change of a preexisting natural block size distribution to the debris fragment size distribution (Fig. 1). Lizotte and Scoble (1994) have reviewed previous efforts on integrating site specific geological conditions into blast design. Grenon et al. (1997) provide a case study where in-situ block size distributions are compared to photogrammetric studies of blasted rock.• Rock mass classifications — Block size is used in the majority of rock mass classification systems either explicitly, as in the RMi classification system Palmstrøm (1995), or implicitly, such as in the NGI system, Barton et al. (1974)."

Jan 1, 1998

By Nehad Elsafty

It is always necessary to expand existing buildings, so that they could meet the growing societal needs. Compared with demolishing them and then constructing new ones, the expansion of existing buildings could not only reduce project cost, but also save the use of energy and raw materials in projects. Therefore, it is widely adopted in most under-developed countries. However, the expansion of existing buildings is not an easy task. It has been involved with a lot of issues in defining the scope of work, planning landscape, managing construction activities, etc. This paper investigates the potential challenges in expanding existing buildings. The project of expanding the Al-Agoza Hospital, one of the biggest and oldest hospitals in Cairo, Egypt, is selected as a case study. In the case study, the project documents have been carefully reviewed. The project engineers and the health-care professionals working in the hospital have been interviewed. This way, the point of views from the owner, the architect/engineer, and the contractor have been taken into account. Several lessons are learned through the discussion with these people. The results from this paper are expected to provide pieces of useful advice and suggestion for the expansion of existing buildings in the future.

Aug 1, 2013

By E. Swartzman

This paper presents a general re-view of the various methods of briquetting coals, with and without the aid of a binder, with special reference to the production of a suitable briquette from Nova Scotia 'fines' for re-blending with industrial coal. From the economic and technical viewpoints, either small stoker-sized briquettes made with about 4 per cent asphalt in standard low-pressure double-roll presses, or briquettes made without binder in high-pressure double-roll presses, appear to be the most reasonable solution at present.

Jan 1, 1959

By J. H. C. Scrimgeour, T. Toong, R. E. Hamilton

"The principles involved in the use and application of mathematical models as an aid to the development of advanced process control computer systems are described briefly. This is followed by a brief survey of known models of this kind for the simulation of mining industry processes.The main part of the paper describes a dynamic model of the flotation process developed by Canadian General Electric. Using flotation rate constants for each species of mineral and gangue, the model provides a numerical solution of the differential equations describing cell behaviour. The cell mode] is used repeatedly as a subroutine in the •over-all-plant model. The features of the cell and plant models are described.Simulation runs from the plant model show stream .assays and other indications of plant behaviour printed typically in 1-to 10-minute steps for several hours of •Operation following typical disturbances such as changes in feed rate or reagent addition rate. The simulation can :Show expected behaviour for both uncontrolled and computer-controlled plants."

Jan 1, 1970

By A. O. Dufresne

A Step which, it is believed, will prove extremely beneficial to the Quebec asbestos-mining industry was taken during 1931, when the asbestos mine operators of the Province assembled to work out a uniform method of naming the products of their mines. The outcome of several meetings was the drawing-up of a classification which defined, limited, and designated anew the numerous grades of asbestos marketed. It entailed no drastic departure from the existing processes of grading, nor any revolutionary changes in methods of testing, but aimed rather to perfect existing methods. The classification proposed has been accepted by all operators in the Province, who, from January first of this year, began introducing the new nomenclature. Unless one is conversant with the properties and mode of occurrence of chrysotile asbestos, with the unique milling methods devised for its recovery, and with the history of the development of their technique, he may not readily understand the basis of the new classification. For information on these and other data concerning the industry, the reader is referred to a recent publication, Chrysotile Asbestos in (Canada, by James Gordon Ross, issued by the Mines. Branch of the Department of Mines, Ottawa. The object of this paper is to present briefly some of the phases in the evolution of the classification of Canadian chrysotile asbestos, in the hope that the recent effort to standardize the marketable products of one of Canada's most important non-metallic mineral industries will open a field for discussion, fruitful in new ideas and constructive suggestions. The necessity for the grading of asbestos results fundamentally from the fact that the price per ton depends on the length of fibre. At all times in the history of the industry, the very limited available supply of the longer grades, as well as the requirements of the trade, have caused relatively very high prices to be paid for fibre over half an inch in length, while for the shorter grades the price decreases rapidly, and at a rate which bears no proportionate relation to the length of fibre.

Jan 1, 1932

By W. de Klerk, M. B. Thorpe

Golden Star Resources Bogoso operates in Ghana’s Western Region. The gold recovery plant includes; a flotation circuit producing a concentrate for the BIOX® process that oxidizes sulphides before a CIL circuit; and a dedicated CIL circuit. BIOX® uses bacteria, therefore water from the BIOX® and CIL plants remained separated; CN water could not be introduced into the flotation / BIOX® circuit. The operation built a process water inventory with high TDS and installed a process water treatment plant (PWTP). Water was released in compliance the permits but containing some thiocyanate. The PWTP brine was returned to the TSF, further exacerbating the TDS. The operation experienced a drought removing the traditional water sources; the team evaluated the options to maintain production - various water streams were laboratory tested provided options for water use. The paper presents the story (treatment chemistry and process chemistry) of continued operations by treating stored water and PWTP discharge water with peroxide; brine usage within the CIL circuit, which increased gold recovery (laboratory testing) and reduced the TDS. Water flows were further modified to include hydraulic tailings re-mining to a CIL circuits. Details of the recovery, basic chemistry and costs savings are provided.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. A. Young, H-H. Huang, L. G. Twidwell

Equilibrium calculational software programs can be effectively utilized to model important parameters in aqueous and aqueous/solid systems, e.g., activity or concentration, solubility, temperature, solution pH, solution potential, and ligand complexation. In this regard, the calculational program ST ABCAL will be demonstrated. Illustrative examples for the creation of diagrams such as potential-pH, and activity or concentration-pH will be presented to demonstrate the fundamentals in real hydrometallurgical systems. Speciation, titration and mixing will be used to simulate or predict operational processes. Berkeley Pit water from a flooded abandoned copper open-pit mine will be used to illustrate the modeling process. According to analytical results the water contains about 20 important constituents. In addition to measured potential and dissolved oxygen, there are two distinctive oxidation/reduction couples. Concentration and other experimental parameters are seldom matched to each other and 12 different conditions have been identified. Water for each condition must be speciated in order to find the best-fit model. The STABCAL program will be used for the modeling calculations and the implication of the water chemistry to defining treatment opportunities will be discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By Long Han, Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Yu Xie, Yunhai Zhang, Yangge Zhu, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Yanbo Shang, Xingrong Zhang

"The first-principles method was employed to study the adsorption of hydroxyl calcium (CaOH+) and hydroxyl (OH-) on hematite and quartz surfaces. The calculation results suggested that OH- preferred to interact with the active Fe sites on the hematite surface, whereas OH- adsorbed on the quartz surface by weak hydrogen bond. Though CaOH+ could easily adsorb on the hematite and quartz surfaces by the formation of Ca-O bond, the covalence formed on the quartz surface was apparently stronger than that on the hematite surface, meaning a stronger and more stable adsorption. CaOH+ adsorbed on quartz surface was mainly through the interaction of O-2p and Ca-3d states, and this interaction on hematite surface was weaker.INTRODUCTIONIron Increase and Silicon Reduction Technology (Yu & Duan, 2002) of hematite is mainly through the reverse flotation (silica is floated away from the iron concentrate). There are two ways to achieve this (Houot, 1983). One is to collect quartz by cationic collector directly; the other is to activate quartz by lime and then collect it by anionic collector. There are two main different views with respect to the mechanism of quartz activation: mono-hydroxyl compound theory (Fuerstenau, Rice & Somasundaran, 1965; Fuerstenau & Palmer, 1976) and surface hydroxyl precipitation theory (Hu & Wang, 1988; Wang & Hu, 1990). The former indicated the formation of the mono-hydroxyl complex is one of the two criteria of quartz flotation. The later theory, on the other hand, suggested that surface precipitation is the adsorption of active species of metallic ion on quartz surface. However, most of those researches are based on the solution chemistry of flotation and little is done at the microscopic level.In this paper, by the help of first-principles calculations, the adsorption models, bonding conditions, Mulliken charge populations and adsorption energies of hydroxyl and calcium hydroxyl ions (OH- and CaOH+) on hematite (001) and quartz (100) surfaces were investigated to find out the lime activation of quartz at atomic level, which is significant for the researches of quartz activation theoretically and practically."

Jan 1, 2016