Search Documents

By Zoltan Hajnal

Magnetic studies have been carried out on 88 surface and 157 underground samples from the Coronation Mine area of northern Saskatchewan. The intensity of the surface samples was compared to trace element determinations from the same locality. A good correlation was found between the titaniferous constituent of the rocks and the intensity of magnetization. From the direction of the remanent magnetism, two virtual geomagnetic poles were determined -latitude 12° 54' North, longitude 158" 17' West; and latitude 23" 42' North, longitude 163° 45' West. The sulphide ore specimens showed anisotropic susceptibility characteristics. A relationship was found between the measured maximum susceptibility values of the ore specimens and the direction of the tectonic forces which are considered to have formed the structure at the Coronation mine. Introduction T HIS paper summarizes the results of a study of the magnetic properties of samples from well-known Precambrian formations. The observed data give information for an interpretation of the magnetic field conditions in Precambrian times. The high magnetic intensity values indicate the importance of the study

Jan 1, 1965

By Michael Boyle, John Zeni

"The Blind shaft boring method is a mechanised process of excavating large diameter vertical shafts downward from the surface. It is a rotary drilling technique eliminating any requirement for personnel to enter the shaft or access underground workings during drilling and lining phases. Excavated material is delivered to surface carried by a flow of circulating fluid through the centre of drill rods. The drill assembly is suspended from a large A-frame rig and powerful winch at ground level providing vertical thrust to a hard rock cutter head. INTRODUCTION The Southern Coalfields Ventilation Shaft was constructed at a mine, 45 km north-west of Wollongong. The 5 m finished diameter (6.2 m drilled) shaft reaches a final drilled depth of 517 m, the deepest, fully lined blind bored vent shaft to date in Australia. Operated by a mining company in the Southern Coalfields, the expanding mine required a new ventilation shaft and associated surface infrastructure to service future operations. An assessment of future ventilation requirements for the coal seam operations identified a need to improve the capacity and reliability of the existing underground ventilation system in order to ensure a safe and efficient underground working environment. Installation of the new upcast ventilation shaft was determined to be the most cost effective and reliable solution to provide adequate ventilation for underground operations. The completed shaft is smooth and fully lined with steel/concrete composite liners that are hydrostatically sealed. The shaft lining is designed to meet the mine ventilation requirements for a service life of 20 years. The shaft intersects the top of the working section of the coal seam at approximately 513 m of depth. This includes the shaft collar depth and shaft bottom profiled intake section.PROJECT METHODOLOGY AND INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICE The shaft was drilled using the blind bore method, an innovative construction technique and an alternative to the traditional methods of sinking deep and large diameter shafts, such as raise boring and conventional drill and blast shaft sinking. The blind bore method allows the shaft to be drilled from the surface down without anyone having to enter the shaft or the mine during the construction process. This is by far the safest method of shaft construction and is especially suitable for difficult ground conditions where there may be unstable or water-charged strata. As this method involves drilling from the surface downward, shafts can be completed ahead of the underground mine development. Thus, allowing underground operations to focus on development and production without the conflicts of managing ventilation priority for underground contractors and mucking out spoil from excavation workings."

Jan 1, 2019

By J. T. Liu, G. H. Han, W. C. Chai, Y. F. Huang

"In beneficiation process, metal ions could adsorb onto clay mineral surfaces or interact with flotation chemicals, and then result in the flotation behavior changing of desired minerals. Al(III) is the dominating ion existing in the bauxite flotation system. In this research, the adsorption behaviors of Al(III) on two silicate clay minerals (including bentonite and kaolin) were investigated by means of UV-Vis spectra, zeta potential testing and scanning electron micrograph analysis. The adsorption experiment results show that the adsorption capacity of clays for Al(III) ions increases with the initial Al(III) concentration, contact time and solution pH. There are some different adsorption behaviours for two clays. Increasing the clay concentration decreases the adsorption capacity of bentonite, while increases first then decreases for kaolin. Higher temperature favours the adsorption of Al(III) on bentonite but goes against for kaolin. The adsorption capacities of bentonite and kaolin for Al(III) respectively reach 12.48 and 0.875 mg/g at initial solution pH 5. Zeta potential results show that the adsorption of Al(III) on two clays is characterized by electrostatic attraction mechanism.INTRODUCTIONIn beneficiation process, there is inevitably a wide variety of metal ions generated from mineral crushing, mineral dissolution and water chemistry conditions. Metal ions adsorb on the mineral surfaces or interact with the beneficiation agents, affecting the flotation efficiency of desired minerals (DiFeo et al., 2001; Parolis et al., 2008; Shackleton et al., 2012; Shengo et al., 2014). Therefore, it is necessary to have a detailed investigation on the adsorption behaviour of metal ions on clay minerals.Having good ion exchange capacity and negative surface charge, the clay minerals could take up various metal ions from the mineral-water system. Bentonite and kaolin are very common aluminosilicate clays in the mineral processing system. These two clays both hold a permanent negative charge, =X- on the basal surfaces, and a smaller variable charge, =SiOH on the mineral edges (Gu & Evans, 2008; (Gu et al., 2010). Adsorption experiments are usually used to study the adsorption affinity of metal ions for clay minerals (Sen & Bhattacharyya, 2012). The adsorption of Zn(II), Cu(II) and Pb(II) onto natural bentonite showed that the adsorption amounts of metal ions increase with contact time, solution pH and metal ion concentration, but decreases with adsorbent concentration and system temperature (Sen & Gomez, 2011; Melichova & Hromada, 2013). Cr(III) adsorption on bentonite was significantly pH dependent. The adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order model and the equilibrium adsorption was consistent with Freundlich isotherm (Lollino et al., 2015). The adsorption behaviours of Pb(II), Cd(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) onto kaolin indicated that increasing pH favoured the adsorption of metal ions (Jiang et al., 2010). The adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) onto kaolin showed that an ion-exchange reaction occurred at pH<7.0 and inner-sphere surface complexes were prone to form at higher pH (Srivastava et al., 2005)."

Jan 1, 2016

By M. Hardy

"The structural design of mine headframes is challenging due to the significant differences in the geometry, rigidity, and behaviour of these structures compared to conventional buildings. The differences are related to the main purpose of these structures, which is not human occupancy, but rather the support of hoisting equipment. The main objective of this paper is to present the seismic elastic behaviour of headframe structures in comparison with conventional buildings, which is the base case for the definition of seismic loads. This paper highlights the impact of backlegs on the dynamic behaviour of mine headframes, more specifically the resulting torsional sensitivity. INTRODUCTION The design of industrial structures is often governed by industrial processes rather than by architectural constraints. In ground-mounted hoisting plants, the structural configuration of headframes must allow clearances around conveyances and ropes while resisting the lateral loads associated with the hoisting equipment. Typically, these structures use backlegs to withstand the lateral loads, which leads to highly irregular structures with unconventional dynamic behaviour. The codes and standards applicable to the structural design of mine headframes in Canada are often incomplete or not adapted to the reality of practising engineers. This situation creates confusion, and engineers must look at various guidelines and international standards to support the engineering calculations required for the design of these structures. The loads resulting from the support of hoisting equipment, such as ropes and conveyances, are usually simple to calculate and are determined based on the information from manufacturer and industry related guidelines. Moreover, the loads associated with snow accumulation and wind are calculated applying the same methodology used for conventional buildings, without any major issues. On the other hand, the seismic loads are often difficult to calculate based on the methodology from the National Building Code of Canada due to the significant differences in the dynamic behaviour of the structures. The resulting structures may be either over-designed or worse, under-designed. Hence, there is a lack of uniformity in engineers’ designs. The latest edition of CSA S16-14 “Design of steel structures” includes Annex M (Informative) “Seismic design of industrial steel structures” to help designers close the gap between the requirements of traditional regulations and actual engineering practice."

Jan 1, 2019

By R. J. Fruehan

Oxygen steelmaking (OSM) is not only the dominant steelmaking process but defines the structure of the industry. There are a number of myths regarding the future of OSM, which are false. These myths include that the EAF will become the dominant process in the near future, it is less costly to produce steel in an EAF and OSM is a mature technology and no new developments are occurring. These myths are shown to be false. Selected new developments are discussed such as post combustion, recycling of waste oxides, slag splashing and sensors.

Jan 1, 2004

By J. W. M. Porritt, M. P. Brameld, R. H. McCorkell

"Soil-gas Rn was measured by two types of alpha-particle-track detectors, by emanometry and by counting alpha-activity on Rn-decay-product collectors. Soil samples were analyzed for V by fluorimetric and fission-track methods, their Rn-emanation by decay-product collectors and their total alpha activities with track detectors. The same uranium anomalies were revealed by each method. Fission-track analysis of leaves for V showed only random variations with sampling site, and the Rn emanation of trees and leaves removed from them was barely detectable . The agreement among the other methods is significant, total alpha and collector methods are simple, rapid and useful, and a combination of methods at a site would reveal disequilibrium in the U-decay series if present. Track-Rn measurements are highly reproducible and insensitive to apparatus design and their sensitivity is not enhanced by covering the detectors with thin foil or placing them in large containers.IntroductionIn the past two years , a number of methods of geochemical exploration for uranium have been tested by the authors over the known copper-uranium occurrence at South March, Ontario. This was done partly to compare methods and partly to develop and test new ones. The South march deposit has been described a number of times by others(1,2,3,4). The methods included in this study were the following.Emanometry, Radon in soil gas is measured by pumping the gas into the cell of a scintillation counter or emanometer(5,6). Alpha particles from radon (222Rn) and its decay products (218Po and 214Po) produce scintillations of light in the silver-activated zinc sunphide (ZnS(Ag) covering the walls of the cell. These are counted by a photomultiplier tube and scaler, the count ra sulphide (ZnS(Ag) covering the walls of the cell. These are counted by a photomultiplier tube and scaler, the count rate being proportional to the concentration of radon in the soil gas."

Jan 1, 1981

By S. Kashani-Nejad

The kinetics of the thermal decomposition of samples of Mg2(OH)3Cl.2H2O that were obtained by a novel leaching technique applied to a commercial magnesium electrolysis feed were investigated under ambient atmosphere. Thermogravimetric (TG) Analysis showed that decomposition of Mg2(OH)3Cl.2H2O exhibited a single intermediate stage wherein crystalline water was lost at roughly 108 °C. Conversion of the resulting Mg2(OH)3Cl to MgO, HCl and 1120 occurred at temperatures above 398 °C. Thermal decomposition of anhydrous Mg2(OH)3Cl was seen to be consist of two stages. Both stages exhibit first order kinetics with respect to the weight percent of Mg2(OH)3Cl remaining in the sample. However, the rates of decomposition in the two stages were significantly different. Detailed analysis of the kinetic data suggested that the rate of decomposition of Mg2(OH)3C1 was controlled by the rate of removal of the gases released. The change in decomposition rate during the course of the experiments was explained by HCI being released in stage 1 and followed by release of H2O in stage 2.

Jan 1, 2004

By C. I. Godwin

"The relative-value (R-value), discrimination-factor (D-factor), and vector-ratio (V-ratio) method (RDVM) provides a geological knowledge-based statistical and geological-genetic interpretation scheme for geochemical data that enhances discovery in geochemical exploration. The practical advantage of RDVM is that it synthesizes geochemical features geologically related to ore-deposit discovery in three steps: reclassifying element concentrations using log-probability plots into R-values; calculating geologically defined D-factors from R-values; and determining V-ratios. D-factors are the sum of R-values, divided by the number of R-values summed. Based on the analyses selected, D-factors mimic rock or mineral deposit signatures. V-ratios refine interpretations of rock type and vector to orebody locations.RÉSUMÉ La méthode de la valeur relative (valeur R), du facteur de discrimination (facteur D) et du rapport de vecteurs (rapport V) (RDVM), fournit un schéma d’interprétation des données géochimiques basé sur les statistiques et les connaissances géologiques et la génétique géologique; ce schéma contribue aux découvertes en exploration géochimique. L’avantage pratique de la RDVM est qu’elle fait la synthèse des caractéristiques géochimiques reliées géologiquement à des découvertes de gisements de minerais en trois étapes : une reclassification des concentrations des éléments au moyen de courbes de probabilité logarithmique en valeurs R; un calcul des facteurs D définis géologiquement à partir des valeurs R et la détermination des rapports V. Les facteurs D sont la somme des valeurs R divisés par le nombre de valeurs R additionnées. Selon les analyses choisies, les facteurs D imitent les signatures de la roche ou des gisements minéraux. Les rapports V peaufinent les interprétations des types de roches et dirigent vers des emplacements de gisements."

Jan 1, 2016

By P. -Q. Wu

A modified electrochemical noise (EN) technique has been applied to monitor corrosion wear of TiN-coated ASP23 steel and TiN-coated AISI 316 stainless steel sliding against corundum in 0.5 M H2SO4. Experimental results show that the EN technique can sensitively detect potential and current variations during a corrosion-wear process. Corrosion-wear mechanisms of TiN coatings depend on their substrate properties. If the substrate is passive, such as AISI 316 stainless steel, the potential and current variations reflect the properties of the coating. Depassivation and repassivation alternately take place on the tribo-activated wear area during the steady-state phase. If the substrate is active, such as ASP23 tool steel, the electrochemical noise is dominated by dissolution of the substrate at the pinholes and the hydrogen evolution all over the exposed surface.

Jan 1, 2005

By H. J. McQueen

Pressure welding is a solid state joining technique that depends on bringing the parts into sufficiently close contact that inter-atomic bonds are achieved. Pressing is more effective at elevated temperatures where plastic flow causes the asperities to collapse; improved application conditions are derived from hot-work research to clarify temperature and strain rate dependence of hot strength and ductility. The substructure evolution systematically studied in hot working to determine dynamic recovery or recrystallization is applied to clarifying that developed in welding. The various processes are affected differently by work-piece geometry and final shape requirements. In addition to pre-cleaning of the surfaces, the plastic flow helps disperse the remaining oxide layers as was originally exemplified in blacksmith hot forging of layered sword blades and in bellldie welding of wrought iron tubes. The presentation critically compares the utility for various materials and configurations of simple pressure, ultrasonic application, diffusion, explosive, rotary and linear friction and friction-stir processes. Diffusion bonding (primarily Ti) with light cleaning, low pressure, little distortion in protective furnace atmosphere contrasts strongly with the heavy upsetting in friction welding, or complex alloy mingling and substructure variations in friction stir joints.

Jan 1, 2011

By Kenneth Blower

This paper gives a detailed coverage of the ore flow through the primary crusher, cobbing plant and concentrator, including equipment sizes, recoveries, reagent consumptions and product descriptions. Special features, such as rubber chutes, rubber-lined mills, pebble-mill grinding, steam-hooded filters and process control instrumentation, are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1968

By A. Navarra, C. Arrancibia, R. Yañez, C. Acuña, F. Valenzuela

"Discrete event simulation (DES) is a suitable framework to evaluate and optimize the dynamics of sulphide smelters. In particular, iron-nickel-copper-cobalt sulphides undergo continual oxidation within a roasting or smelting operation, followed by batch oxidation within the converting operation, thus producing iron-free Bessemer matte (or blister copper, in the case of copper smelters); this semi-finished product undergoes further processing to produce nickel, copper and cobalt products, and to recover precious metals. The juncture between continuous smelting and batch converting is often an appropriate focus for the earliest phases of DES development, since it is typically a major bottleneck within nickel and copper smelters; later phases may include increasing levels of detail for auxiliary unit operations, as well as plant logistics. Moreover, DES can support matte-slag chemistry, including Gibbs free energy balances to determine the iron speciation within the slag. DES is therefore capable of linking the fundamentals of oxidation reactions to the intricacies of plant dynamics.INTRODUCTION Discrete event simulation (DES) is gaining acceptance within the extractive metallurgy community, as a technique that quantifies the system-wide performance of metallurgical plants under conditions of uncertainty (Wheeler & McGinty, 2015). In particular, over 90% of smelters that process nickel-copper-cobalt sulphides and copper sulphides exhibit similar semi-continuous dynamics (Crundwell et al., 2011b; Schlesinger et al., 2011b), in which the converting aisle produces batches of material that are sent for further processing (Figure 1). Thus the tools and practices that are developed for a specific sulphide smelter are often relevant to numerous other smelters.The juncture between continuous smelting and batch converting has long been a focus for discrete event simulation (Welgama et al., 1996). Nonetheless, the broad acceptance of DES in nonferrous smelters has been hindered by interdisciplinary barriers that divide industrial and metallurgical engineers (Navarra et al., 2016; Noorossana et al., 2012); this divide has been less severe in steel plants (Hollocks, 2006). In recent years, DES has been used in copper smelters to analyze crane-and-ladle motions (Coursol et al., 2009a), reverts production and consumption (Noorossana et al., 2012), and innovative control systems (Herrera et al., 2016); additionally, DES models have accounted for shutdowns and random breakdowns to provide realistic assessments of copper smelter capacities, thus guiding equipment upgrades (Campbell et al., 2013; Coursol et al., 2009a). All of these studies feature a Peirce-Smith converting aisle similar to Figure 1 that, under normal operations, constrain the smelter throughput, and are thus a bottleneck (Campbell et al., 2013; Navarra et al., 2016)."

Jan 1, 2017

"Ore deposits containing rare earth elements normally contain small amounts of the radioactive elements thorium (Th) and/or uranium (U). These are the naturally-occurring isotopes U238, U235, and Th232 (and associated decay-series daughter products) that are ubiquitous in nature, and that contribute a small percentage of the natural background radiation exposure encountered by humans. The presence of these radioactive materials in the ore deposit creates potential hazards to human health and the environment that must be dealt with properly in the mining, processing, and refining of the ores, as well as management of waste streams and residues. This paper presents an overview of the environmental and safety issues associated with U and Th, with particular emphasis on rare earth mining, processing, and refining projects; the regulatory approaches followed to ensure that rare earth deposits are developed, operated, closed, and decommissioned safely; and the development of information during the project predevelopment work and permitting processes that feed into the design, operation, and closure of tailings impoundments and milling/separation/refining facilities. Case studies will be presented subject to the availability of relevant public information. INTRODUCTIONNearly all ore deposits containing economically-recoverable rare earth minerals also contain small amounts of the radioactive isotopes for the elements thorium (Th) and/or uranium (U) and their associated radioactive decay products. Therefore, the handling and management of these materials in mining and mineral processing operations must be performed so that workers and the environment are protected from harm from Th and/or U (and their radioactive decay products), just as they must be protected from any other potentially harmful constituents present in the ore or introduced in processing. Examples of these might include ores with high sulfide content, which may pose a risk of acid rock drainage, or chemicals used in ore processing and metals production.The purpose of this paper is to present information on how rare earth mining and processing projects with ores containing Th and/or U can be developed, operated, and decommissioned safely according to applicable regulations intended to protect worker health & safety and the environment.It should be noted that some countries are considering developing Th as a feedstock for producing nuclear energy, which could have some effect on future development of rare earth ore deposits. To avoid confusion, that issue is not discussed in this paper."

Jan 1, 2012

By N. Musee, N. Kornelius

This study presents a neural network approach to modelling the liberation of gold bearing ores. A complete mineralogical analysis of unmilled and milled ores, including gold deportment and gangue content are used as inputs to a self-organising neural net which generates order preserving topological maps. The arrangement and shapes of these clusters are coupled to unmilled free gold data to predict gold liberation in milled ores (absolute error: 4.2%). Moreover, the self-organising maps were diagnostic of the quality of data used, indicating that the relationship between particle size and gangue material content requires further investigation.

Jan 1, 2005

By Zhong Zhang, Xijia Wu, Prakash C. Patnaik

"The integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) aims to provide life cycle management decisions for military platforms and their propulsion systems with reduced life cycle cost and increased operational readiness and safety. Among all the issues of IVHM, understanding the physics of failure and predicting lifetimes of the critical components are at the core: the decision makers have to know when and how components may fail in order to plan ahead. The difficulties to tackle failure problems lie in determining the material response to cyclic and dwell loading in a hot and/or corrosive environment, which all combined to induce multiple deformation and damage mechanisms, resulting in mix-mode failures. Decisions on component replacement (material substitution) and mission planning must be based on quantitative knowledge of the failure physics to mitigating the risk. This paper addresses the critical failure issues including creep, low cycle fatigue (LCF), thermomechanical fatigue (TMF); and presents a mechanism-based approach to life prediction. The mechanism-based approach, by its physics, is widely applicable over the entire operational spectrum of both structures and engines, and therefore is suitable for IVHM purposes."

Jan 1, 2015

Mining companies around the globe have long struggled with the need to ensure that earth moving equipment is designed to be operated and maintained under all site conditions without causing harm to people. Incident and accident data from a range of sources clearly identify mining equipment related issues as major causal factors. One Australian source, the NSW Department of Primary Industries? International Mining Fatality Database Project Report (2008) noted that ?Approximately 77% of mining accidents resulting in a fatality have? involved equipment?. The largest number of fatalities were associated with trucks; the next with LHDs. Many of the technical advances in equipment design over the past few decades have not been matched by advances in the human factors design of mining equipment, resulting in a ?design vacuum? that must be filled prior to commissioning new equipment. This ?design vacuum? is generally filled by local dealers. They retrofit equipment according to customer requirements to mitigate risks that have not been designed out by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Mining companies have been frustrated by lost time and additional costs associated with this need to retrofit ex-factory designs. Some companies have attempted to address the problem by negotiating company or site-wide ?solutions? to equipment designs, but this has not simplified or clarified the issue from the point of view of the equipment manufacturers. A number of mining companies operating in Australia first discussed the concept of a joint customer approach to improve the Human Factors design of earth moving equipment at the factory level in 2004. They agreed that a new approach to engaging with OEMs was needed; one that would define the ?Problem?, in other words, the basis of the risks, rather than dictate the ?Solution?. The Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table (EMESRT) was formally established in 2006 by six global mining companies to establish a process of engagement between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and mining customers.

May 1, 2009

By Atsuki Sado, Akira Ueno, Kazuaki Takebayashi, Kunio Watanabe

The Saganoseki Refinery of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd., Japan, introduced the ISA 2000® process in 2006 to improve product quality and productivity. After resolving various technical difficulties associated with the process, a current density of 325 A/m2 and electrolytic copper production of 234 000 tons per year were realized in 2018. In recent years, Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery has promoted treatment of recycled materials in addition to copper concentrates. Accordingly, the amount and type of impurities charged to the smelting process have tended to increase. In the electrorefining process, impurities such as nickel and antimony cause anodic passivation and formation of suspended solids, respectively. Although these undesirable phenomena can be avoided by controlling impurity concentrations in the anode and electrolyte to appropriate ranges, this also limits the choice of recycled materials that can be processed by the smelter. To achieve both stable operation of the electrorefining process and flexibility in treatment of recycled materials in the smelting process, Saganoseki Refinery improved the capacity of the impurity recovery processes during 2016 to 2018. This paper describes the expansion of the purification plant to remove and recover nickel and antimony. INTRODUCTION The Saganoseki Refinery of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd., Japan, introduced the ISA 2000® (wax- less permanent cathode method) in 2006 to improve product quality and productivity. Since then, the refinery has gradually increased current density, and has been committed to establishing stable operation and high productivity via various improvements related to the electrolyte filtration and additive management systems. Figure 1 shows the trends of current density and current efficiency at the refinery. Although the current efficiency temporarily dropped when the current density was raised to 322 A/m2, it consistently exceeded 97% thereafter. At present, stable operation at 325 A/m2 has been achieved and continues.

Jan 1, 2019

By R. Kumar, A. K. Verma

"In this paper, an anisotropic shear behavior of rock joints is investigated under constant normal load condition (CNL). The natural rock joint roughness is transferred to artificial rock samples using room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicon rubber. Artificial cylindrical rock joint samples (90 mm diameter and 50 mm height) are made by mixture of cement, sand, and water in the ratio of 1:1.5:0.45 (by weight). Direct shear tests are conducted on these samples in twelve directions at 30º apart at four different normal stresses (250kPa, 500kPa, 1000kPa, and 1500kPa). Thus, 48 samples are tested in laboratory. Test results shows that the peak shear strength (?) of rock joints is anisotropic in nature due to change in morphological features in particular shearing direction. Joint roughness coefficient (JRC) is determined in each shearing direction by trial and error method using Barton’s model (1973). Further, cohesion ( c) and angle of friction ( ? )of joint surface in each direction is determined. Finally, a relationship between angle of friction ( ? ) and joint roughness coefficient (JRC) is developed. Experimental shear strength and Barton’s shear strength is compared and it is found that effect of anisotropic decreases with increasing normal stress. INTRODUCTIONRock mass is generally composed of discontinuity which refers collectively to joints, faults, bedding plane and folds etc. ISRM (1978) defined joint as a line of break of geological origin along which there is no visible displacement. Joint is three dimensional discontinuity which composed of two matched/mismatched surfaces. The presence of joints in rock mass plays an important role to define its overall shear strength, deformability behavior, in-situ stresses and hydro-geological properties. The shear strength of rock joints is important in the design of near surface/ deep geotechnical works (mining excavation, dam foundation, power plants, underground caverns, and slopes).In last 40 years, many constitutive models are developed to predict shear strength of rock joints under CNL conditions (Patton 1966; Landanyi and Archambault 1969; Barton 1973; Goodman 1976; Barton and Choubey 1977; Plesha 1987; Desai ad Fishman 1991; Amadei and Saeb 1992; Maksimovic 1992; Wibowo et al. 1993; Huang et al. 1993; Amadei et al. 1998; Indraratna 2000; Homand et al. 2001; Wang et. al. 2003; Samadhiya et. al. 2008; Asadollahi and Tonon 2010; Ghazvinian et al. 2012). These constitutive models have limitations to predict shear strength of rock joints in one direction. Till date, among all constitutive models, Barton (1973) model is widely used in practice due its simplicity. It includes parameters such as joint roughness and joint compressive strength (JCS) to quantify joint surfaces."

Jan 1, 2015

By P. Babak, E. Insalaco, O. Babak, P. Henriquel

"Detection of outliers is an important primary step in geomodelling. Geological datasets often contain errors due to problems such as measurement device limitations and recording glitches. In this paper, a robust Mahalanobis distance–based approach is successfully applied to particle size distributions of the Joslyn lease, an oil sands development site near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Automatic outlier detection and geological review were combined. Outliers from the Mahalanobis distance approach were compared with their respective core photographs to determine if laboratory measurements and facies classification were correct. A checking procedure for laboratory technicians is proposed.RÉSUMÉ La détection des valeurs aberrantes constitue une étape primaire importante de la modélisation géologique. Les ensembles de données géologiques contiennent souvent des erreurs en raison de problèmes tels que les limitations des instruments de mesure et des pépins d’enregistrement. Dans le présent article, une méthode robuste basée sur la distance de Mahalanobis a été mise en oeuvre avec succès aux granulométries du bail minier Joslyn, un site de sables bitumineux en développement à proximité de Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. La détection automatique des valeurs aberrantes a été combinée à une étude géologique. Les valeurs aberrantes de la méthode de la distance de Manalanobis ont été comparées avec leurs photographies respectives de carottes de forage afin de déterminer si les mesures en laboratoire et la classification des faciès étaient correctes. Une procédure de vérification pour les techniciens de laboratoire est proposée."

Jan 1, 2015

By J. Peck, M. J. Scobie, M. D. Pollitt

"IntroductionOne aspect of current research in the Canadian Centre for Automation and Robotics in Mining (CCARM) involves the automatic identification of different rock types based on particular drill performance parameter responses. In this paper, the four drill performance parameters of torque, pulldown pressure, rotary speed and penetration rate, were measured from an instrumented rotary blasthole drill during field investigations undertaken at the Fording River Mine, Elkford, British Columbia. The variations in these parameters were subsequently correlated with the corresponding rock types using the results from gamma, neutron and core logs in the same or adjacent boreholes. Work to date has sought to understand the relationships between drilling performance parameter variation and rock properties. Using the results of these studies, the present research is aimed at developing techniques whereby classical statistical pattern recognition methods are applied to drill data to permit the discrimination of different rock units. A monitoring system incorporating such a capability would greatly enhance the quality and amount of geological information on a per borehole basis while drilling. This data in tum could be used economically and directly towards explosive loading, geological exploration and reserve estimation. Background and PhilosophyThis work is an extension of equipment monitoring studies at the Fording River Mine. At this site over a two-year period, 5180 m of data was acquired on an instrumented Bucyrus-Erie 60R drill during routine production blasthole drilling. Throughout these studies, a 311mm diameter S8M Security tungsten-carbide tricone bit was used. The mine, located in southeast British Columbia, is a large-scale, open pit coal operation. The means of excavation revolves around a drill-blast-muck cycle and employs a standard shovel-truck system of transport. Four main rock types are present: sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and coal, with average compressive strengths ranging from 10 MPa to 150MPa respectively (peck 1989). However, based on the field studies, very few differences in terms of strength and compositional properties were seen between the sandstones and siltstones at the site. Therefore, they are referred to as sandstone/siltstone in all further discussions."

Jan 1, 1991