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By C. W. Owings

"PURPOSE OF REPORTThe safety and efficacy of permissible storage—battery gathering locomotives are becoming recognized more and more in coal mines. The great mobility of this type of haulage equipment is due to the fact that no trolley wire and bonding of rails are needed; hence wherever there is track and adequate ventilation to dilute properly any dangerous gases, the storage—battery gathering locomotive may go. As coal near the outcrop or the surface is mined out, coal farther from the outcrop or deeper in the ground must be mined, and gassiness of the coal bed often increases under these conditions. The use of electrical equip¬ment capable of giving off arcs or sparks while operating near or at the coal faces constitutes a serious explosion hazard. Often, it is uneconomical or impracticable to use animal haulage, and locomotives must be employed. The operator should consider the safest and most economical unit; permissible equipment is the answer to this problem, and storage—battery locomotives are the only permissible electric haulage units.A comparison of permissible storage—battery locomotives with cable—reel locomotives of the latest enclosed ""explosion—tested"" type has been made at the Keystone No. 1 mine of the Houston Collieries Co., at Keys one, W. Va. The information and data contained in this publication were obtained by the writer during an inspection of haulage at this mine.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe writer is indebted to P. C. Thomas, vice president and general manager, the Koppers Coal Co., operator of the Keystone mines, who granted permission for making the study. W. A. Wilson, general superintendent, Houston Collieries Co., arranged for the investigation and for obtaining the data. C. E. Zuspan, chief electrical inspector, and J. C. Newman, division electrical inspector, accompanied the writer underground and assisted materially in obtaining information and data upon the haulage methods and performance of the locomotives. The assistance or general mine Foreman Pierman and of mine foreman White is gratefully acknowledged."

Aug 1, 1931

By M E. Watson

Minimising dilution and ore loss is an important part of ensuring profitability of a gold mining operation. White Foil open pit gold deposit is a low-grade deposit and therefore managing ore quality is a high priority. Ground movement through blasting can displace ore and waste boundaries up to 10 m from their in situ location and therefore requires stringent ore movement monitoring and adjustment. There are currently only two options for monitoring blast movement – utilising visual targets (commonly lengths of polypipe) but this has widely been replaced by electronic blast movement monitors (or BMM). Regardless of the technology used, the basic principle is to compare the pre- and post-blast locations of the targets to determine the movement of the rock mass during blasting, which is then used to determine the final location of ore and waste boundaries.The Blast Movement Technologies (BMT) BMM system has been used at White Foil since June 2014. The system has been effective and reliable during that time; however, the annual cost of using the BMM system is greater than other monitoring alternatives. As such, the open pit geology team conducted a study comparing the BMM system against the conventional polypipe technique. The objective was to quantify the profit and loss that would occur based on the ore block transformations from both methods. Eight blasts were selected where polypipes were installed in additional holes adjacent to the BMM monitoring holes. The resulting movement vectors from the respective methods were used to create post-blast ore blocks by transforming the in situ ore blocks. While polypipe is a cheaper alternative, the BMM system tracks ore and waste boundaries more effectively resulting in better quality control, enhanced ability to minimise dilution and ore loss thus maximising profit. For these eight blasts, it is calculated that the BMM system resulted in A$664 978 extra profit through a reduction of ore loss. The total cost of a yearly BMM package was recovered in the first two blasts of this study. The primary reason for the difference is that polypipe had a poor recovery rate of 32 per cent compared with 92 per cent for BMM at White Foil. Therefore, the data used to transform the ore blocks was less representative, resulting in inaccurate post-blast ore block boundaries when using polypipe.CITATION:Watson, M E, 2017. Blast movement monitors or polypipe? A study into cost-effective blast movement monitoring at White Foil gold mine, Western Australia, in Proceedings Tenth International Mining Geology Conference 2017, pp 433–440 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 20, 2017

The accurate estimation of ore reserves along with capital and operating costs are two key components to the successful outcome of any feasibility study. In recent years, there have been many project failures caused by improper estimation of ore reserves. The accurate estimation of ore reserves for any deposit relies heavily on understanding its geology and underlying assumptions unique to the estimation techniques being used. The assumptions unique to commonly used traditional and geostatistical reserve estimation technique will be reviewed. The shortcomings of the estimation techniques and their possible impact on a given project's economic outcome will be discussed. The latest developments in geostatistics in overcoming existing reserve estimation problems will be presented.

Jan 1, 1994

By F. J. Sotiuo

Variability of the quality of phosphate ore feed to the flotation plant has been of great concern for the industry. This variability sometimes resulted in 10% to 50% decrease of P2O5 recovery, a reduction of P2O5 concentrate grade and/or both due to depression of the system. For this investigation, samples of refractory ore and easy-to-float ore were obtained from the same mining area in Central Florida; and then submitted to bench flotation tests using fatty acids (FA). To understand the cause of difference in flotation behavior of these apparently similar ores (grade, mineralogy, and physical appearance), bulk and surface characterization studies were conducted. Based on the results of characterization studies and bench flotation tests on both refractory and easy-to-float samples, it was possible to determine FA surface coverage. It was found that the surface coverage for the refractory ore was between 6.9% and 9.8%, corresponding to 0% and 80% recovery, respectively; whereas the easy-to-float ore showed surface coverage of 17.2% (89% recovery) to 24.6% (98% recovery). Since size analysis, surface area and pore size measurements showed small differences, it was thought that the surface coverage differences could be caused by the ad-sorption of natural compounds onto the phosphate ore surfaces, depressing the system. SEM, EDS, and Leaching and Solvent Extraction (LSX) studies were performed on the phosphate ores to demonstrate the proposed mechanism. This paper summarized our characterization studies, flotation results, and findings. The study showed that the new identified compounds were responsible for the flotation behaviors of the Florida refractory phosphate ores.

Jan 1, 2014

By B. R. Boardman

Project Environmental Approval is a multi-faceted issue. From a mining perspective, it is a costly item because of avoidable time delay. The government perspective is that the approvals are a necessary part of meeting departmental requirements to ensure that the wellbeing of other uses of the environment is maintained. This paper outlines some of the problems inherent in the environmental approvals process and makes recommendations to both the proponent and government about improving the efficiency of the process.

Jan 1, 1978

By M. S. Prasad

In earlier work it has been shown that paper filler clay products can be obtained from primary kaolin deposits of Minnesota. The objective of the current work was to reduce silica and iron contaminants and to maximize kaolin recovery to higher value products suitable for paper coating. This results in achieving a finer and cleaner product conforming to paper coating specifications. Cationic flotation and high gradient magnetic separation were used to remove free silica and iron, respectively, while attrition grinding and ultrasonics have been examined for particle size reduction. The results of this work are presented and discussed particularly with respect to application-oriented product properties. Budgetary estimates are presented for a 200,000 ton/year processing plant based on the process flowsheet developed and optimized by the study.

Jan 1, 1991

By J Miedecke

A metalliferous mine has operated at Storys Creek from the 1890s to 1979. Storys Creek drains from a pristine catchment and National Park and remains as the most degraded stream from historic mining in north-eastern Tasmania. It has been the subject of public concern since the closure, particularly at times of high rainfall such as existed in 1985 and 1986. The mine is located on the banks of the creek, which flows into a major river, the South Esk River, which is one of TasmaniaÆs largest rivers and important for recreational fishing and water supplies. For much of the life of the of the operations tailings were directly discharged into the creek, and in latter years stockpiled or very close to it. Little rehabilitation was carried out at mine closure. The result was erosion and subsequent deposition on the banks of the creek downstream. Direct emissions of adit water and the consequential emission of contaminated ground water to the creek continue to affect water quality. Contaminant loads discharging from the mine and tailings comprise 70% of the metal load in the catchment and are by far the largest single source. Acidity data suggested that the introduction of systems to introduce alkalinity could be effective in ameliorating the residual acid drainage impacts in the Storys Creek catchment. After a period of investigations and trials which proved their effectiveness, treatments adopted have included the following: relocation of tailings to a constructed and clay capped disposal area and rehabilitation of tailings area; crushed limestone addition to stream flows; crushed limestone addition to creek banks and exposed tailings; sealing of a drainage Adit; and construction of an anoxic drain to generate alkalinity to surface waters draining to old mine workings. These innovative treatments have resulted in a marked improvement in water quality draining from the area. The anoxic drain is believed to be one of the few, if any, which has been constructed to have generated high levels of alkalinity from clean waters and offers a solution to the clogging problems experienced in such drains in the past. Similarly, the use of crushed limestone in an active stream has proved effective in buffering acid drainage and removing metals from solution.

Jan 1, 2003

By M. Lahtinen

Traditionally, there have been three main methods for iron removal in the hydrometallurgical production of zinc. These methods are atmospheric precipitation of jarosite or goethite and pressurised precipitation of hematite. Jarosite precipitation is without doubt the leading and the most commonly used technology for iron removal. However, jarosite precipitation has some drawbacks, such as a low iron content (and, thus, high residue volume), high moisture content after filtration and often a high zinc content. These features make any environmentally acceptable way of using or disposing of jarosite more expensive, as compared to hematite and goethite. The importance of environmental regulations has grown in the zinc industry during the last decade, which will have an increasing effect on new investments. Hematite has several advantages over jarosite, such as a high iron content, low moisture and low zinc content. An important advantage of hematite is that it is suited for further use in the cement industry. However, until now the need for autoclave equipment has limited the spread and implementation of hematite precipitation in the zinc industry. Outokumpu Technology Oy has recently developed an alternative method for iron removal, which is the atmospheric precipitation of hematite. A patented method for precipitating hematite at atmospheric pressure is presented and compared with conventional methods for iron removal. The process conditions, the quality of the hematite precipitate and the environmental aspects are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2006

By George E. Cook, Peter C. Levick, Francis M. Wells

"Relationships are established between the peak current of a pulsed, rectangular current waveform and the pulse current duty cycle under conditions of constant arc power. By appropriate choice of these interrelated parameters, it is shown that the arc pressure may be varied over a wide range even though the arc power is held constant. The methodology is suggested as a means of countering the effect of gravity in 5-G welding, while maintaining constant heat input to the weld. Combined with appropriate penetration sensors, the methodology is additionally suggested as a means of controlling penetration. IntroductionBoth low frequency pulsation (typically 0.1 - 20 Hz) and high frequency pulsation (> 100 Hz) are often used with GTA welding. Benefits derived from pulsing include improved weld quality and better process control.Advantages cited for low frequency pulsation include claims that the total heat input to the weld is reduced, the weld bead size is reduced, weld penetration is increased, grain size is reduced, porosity is reduced, weld distortion is reduced, thinner materials can be welded successfully, and the tolerance of the welding process to material and production variations is improved (1-16). With respect to the latter, pulsing aids control of weld bead penetration by increasing the tolerance to component dimensions and joint fit-up. It also reduces the sensitivity to disparities in heat sink, and it helps to reduce distortion in thin section material or distortion attributable to poor clamping. In certain materials it can reduce the sensitivity to surface oxides and to cast to cast compositional variations (16). Low frequency pulsation is also useful in welding thick materials mated by a prepared groove. In these applications the low frequency pulsation is used to obtain proper sidewall fusion as the tungsten electrode is weaved from one side of the groove to the other. In this case the weld current pulsation is synchronized with the cross seam weave pattern, such that the high current pulses occur at each sidewall. This type of low frequency pulsation has proven particularly useful in welding with narrow width groove designs (17-21). Finally, Ecer (22) has shown that the pulsed current arc is more stable against magnetic disturbances than an equivalent constant current arc."

Jan 1, 1986

By P. Roman, L. Daneshmend

"During the last decade, mining companies have been overwhelmed by technological solutions to perceived problems. This is particularly true with information technology where rapid advances have resulted in a professional climate characterized by technomania — the perception that failure to adopt emerging technologies will result in a loss of competitive advantage. This paper describes the applicability of structured analysis and design techniques as an appropriate methodology for integrating emerging technologies in the mining industry. The potential of this approach to improve overall mine effectiveness through improved communication and co-ordination between operations and maintenance is discussed. IntroductionA strong working relationship between the operations and maintenance departments in both open pit and underground mines is fundamental to the overall success of the mining endeavour. Unfortunately, for many mines, this characterization is far from accurate. Short-range production targets dominate the day-to-day management of the mines. This can be seen in Bostwick and Buchanan’s (1993) report on American Barrick Resources efforts to achieve an aggressive 415 000 tpd mining program at their Goldstrike operation in Nevada. When production managers do not meet their quotas, the finger is often pointed at maintenance. As a result, a confrontational culture can develop between the two organizations, resulting in a lack of cooperation that exacerbates the problem. Historically, production planning has taken priority over maintenance planning. This is reasonable since production is the primary purpose of the mine with maintenance serving in a support role. This basic relationship remains intact today. However, the trends toward mechanization, increasing levels of automation, and larger equipment, have resulted in increased reliance on the equipment used in the mine. As a result, downtime costs now go well beyond the direct labour associated with the repair of the machine. Lost production costs due to downtime resulting from failed equipment are becoming an increasingly important factor in determining a mine’s overall economic performance."

Jan 1, 2001

By Leonard Sugin

Recent changes in the field of ore and bulk commodity handling has forced a reevaluation of previously conceived notions. When vessels were small, and sources of raw material were reasonably close to areas of need, the role of the shipping terminal was of secondary importance. Now terminals must be built to take advantage of the economic benefits of the supercarriers. The shipping rates of the 80's will not be determined by the 60,000 DWT or even 150,000 ton capacity bulk carrier, but rather by the supercarriers in the 250,000 DWT class or larger. When the Suez Canal was closed, the shipping industry took a hard look at the economics of the large bulk carrier. Naval architects overcame the problems and successfully designed large supertankers, which today are plying the seas in excess of 350,000 DWT. Orders have been placed for tankers of 480,000 DWT. The shippers of dry bulk materials are now coming to similar conclusions about the economics of supercarriers. As of today, over 40 orders have been placed for vessels in the 250,000 DWT class, representing an investment of over 11/2 billion dollars, and many more are being considered. These vessels are being designed as combination ore/oil (0/0) or ore/bulk/oil (OBO's) carriers. The oil industry has seen the need for terminals which can accommodate these supertankers. The dry bulk shippers, and particularly ore shippers, must now act.

Jan 1, 1972

By Louis J. Mittoni

"It is well known that gas injection systems can exhibit a wide range of dynamical behaviours, ranging from linear periodic bubbling through to highly complex turbulent jetting. Recently, it has been observed that an important intermediate regime exists under certain system conditions, where the dynamics are complex in nature yet predictable for short time periods. This paper reviews the evidence to support the above hypothesis, and discusses the invariant quantitative measures such as density, return maps, Lyapunov exponent and dimension which may be used as pattern recognition features in a mOnitoring and control strategy.INTRODUCTIONThere has been a great deal of research on the submerged injection of gases into liquids. This interest is primarily due to the large number of applications in the pyrometallurgical and chemical engineering industries. Gases are typically injected into liquids to achieve goals such as heat and mass transfer, or physical mixing and agitation. Only recently though has the possibility of using the evolution of the gas dynamics as a probe to internal system conditions been raised [1, 2].At very low gas injection rates and small upstream chamber volumes, gas normally disperses in the form of stable bubbles of constant volume [3]. With increases in gas flow rate, the dynamics become more complex, bifurcating into double bubbling, multiple bubbling and complex coalescence behaviour. Irregularities measured in pressuretime series acquired upstream of the injection port under these complex conditions have usually been treated as bothersome noise or contamination to be filtered from the signal and ignored in the analysis. These irregularities, however, may contain physically interesting and useful information on the system from which they were produced if the system may be classified as deterministically chaotic [4]."

Jan 1, 1996

By D R. Seaman, B Adamson, F Burns, B A. Seaman, P Manton

The Telfer concentrator, located in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia, consists of a dual train gold/copper operation processing ore from one underground and, currently, two open pit mines with differing mineralogy. The flotation circuit of each train was designed to operate in several modes depending on the feed mineralogy. The majority of ore mined at Telfer is processed in a sequential mode where copper minerals are first floated into a saleable copper concentrate followed by the flotation of an auriferous pyrite concentrate which is treated in an on-site hydrometallurgical plant (carbon-in-leach (CIL)). Gold is recovered as a gravity product within the primary grinding circuit, to the copper concentrate, and to a lesser extent, the CIL circuit.Since Telfer was re-opened, with a new concentrator, in 2004, the processing plant has struggled with poor copper concentrate grades, partially due to the excessive entrainment of non-sulfide gangue minerals in the copper flotation circuit and, more recently, due to composite copper particles produced when processing ore from a supplementary satellite pit that has not previously been processed through the new Telfer concentrator. Gold recoveries in the CIL circuit have also been below industry standard. This paper presents the implementation of recent changes made to the circuit to address these performance issues. The reconfiguration of the circuit has involved the installation of the following major equipment items: two ISAMillsÖ in ultra-fine grinding applications (one in the copper circuit and one in the pyrite circuit), two Jameson Cells to improve fine gangue rejection and a bank of 5 + Outotec TC30s to recovery copper and gold from the reground pyrite stream. The equipment was purchased direct from vendors and an engineering firm contracted to design and install the multi-vendor reconfiguration upgrade.CITATION:Seaman, D R, Burns, F, Adamson, B, Seaman, B A and Manton, P, 2012. Telfer processing plant upgrade - The implementation of additional cleaning capacity and the regrinding of copper and pyrite concentrates, in Proceedings 11th AusIMM Mill OperatorsÆ Conference, pp 373-382 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 29, 2012

By W. G. Brissenden

"ALTHOUGH I SHOULD FIRST REVIEW the state of the mining art as it is today, because of the shortness of time I will confine myself to a re-view of the more important advances in that art which have been made in the past two to three decades. Then, a look at the opportunities and the challenges which now present themselves will be more meaningfulFirst, some of the more impor-tant developments in underground mining:(1) The recognition that good ventilation, visibility and working conditions are essential preliminaries to efficient production has resulted in their incorporation as a matter of practice in modern mine planning. (2) The introduction of the car-bide bit and the re-introduction of the airleg drill, and the resulting sharp rise in productivity, were early postwar developments. (3) The recovery of the coarser fraction of mill tailings for use as mine backfill also is an important cost-reducing development of recent years -and this has led to cemented backfill, which, al-though more expensive, meets certain specific needs and has tremendous potential. (4) Great strides have been made in improving explosives' materials and explosives' accessories. Millisecond-delay electric blasting caps, which improve fragmentation and reduce the seismic effect of blasting, and the development and •application for underground use of explosives are but two among many such improvements. (5) Trackless mining methods, using quarry-type equipment in some instances and specially de-signed low-headroom trucks, loaders and carrier-mounted drills in others have been successfully applied. (6) Dual-purpose load-haul units are now in use loading and hauling from open stope drawpoints, and smaller versions of this type of unit are in use in cut-and-fill and other types of stopes."

Jan 1, 1968

By Zhangm Zeqiang, Manman Lu, Hanquan Zhang, Hong Yu, Jintao Fu

"Pelletizing is an important technique in the ironmaking industry. Artificial and natural magnetites are materials that are widely utilized in the iron ore pelletizing process. In this work, the pelletizing characteristics of these two types of magnetite have been investigated in detail. The obtained results shown that in contrast to natural magnetite, the artificial magnetite concentrate exhibits stronger hydrophilicity, lower electronegativity, larger specific surface area, and rougher surface. In addition, the green pellets produced from the artificial magnetite concentrate are characterized by a higher compressive strength as compared to that of the pellets obtained from the natural magnetite concentrate. However, the shock temperature of the artificial magnetite pellets around 255 C is significantly lower than the threshold specified by the industry. The balling characteristics of the material obtained by mixing 20% of the artificial magnetite concentrate with 80% of the natural magnetite concentrate are considerably improved with respect to those of the individual components.INTRODUCTION Pelletization is an essential process of the ironmaking industry in China. Since the pellets produced from iron ore exhibit high mechanical strength, good particle granularity, and uniform shapes, pelletizing high-grade iron ores with good metallurgical reducibility can lower the coke ratio, improve their technico-economic index, and reduce the cost of processing pig iron in blast furnaces[1, 2]. Presently, high-grade magnetite is a material utilized for pelletizing various iron ores across the globe. However, its natural deposits have been depleting rapidly in recent years; as a result[3], China’s dependence on the foreign high-grade iron ores exceeded 70% in 2009 and reached the level of 87% in 2016. Hence, possible methods for the efficient cultivation of limonite, siderite, hematite, and other refractory minerals that correspond to low-grade, finely sized, inhomogeneous, and scattered iron ores have attracted significant attention [4, 5]. In particular, magnetization reduction roasting and magnetic separation techniques, which are widely utilized for obtaining high-grade artificial magnetite, represent effective ways of processing iron ores that can alleviate the scarcity of natural magnetite resources [6, 7]. The artificial magnetite produced by magnetization reduction roasting exhibits different characteristics as compared with those of natural magnetite (including the degree of hydrophilicity, surface potential, specific surface area, and other surface physicochemical properties[8-11], which significantly affect its pelletizing behavior. In this work, the surface characteristics of artificial and natural magnetites are investigated in detail, and their effect on their pelletizing properties (such as green ball strength, heat stability, and pelletization rate) are examined."

Jan 1, 2018

By P. Leeuw, H. Mtegha

"The aim of this paper is to enhance the understanding of the nature of mining input technologies in the South African mining industry. In the context of this research, mining inputs refer to input technology into the activities in mining engineering fields, which include mining-related production activities, rock engineering, mine ventilation, and mine transportation (handling of personnel, material, broken rock, and pumping). Input technologies in supporting fields such as geology, other engineering disciplines, human resource, procurement, finance, as well as downstream fields that include metallurgy, and marketing of minerals, were disregarded.The mining input technologies were divided into 12 nodes, and data from a sample of 150 first-tier mining suppliers was analysed. It was found that, in general, there is a high local content in mining input technologies, particularly as regards technical support services, artefacts, and machine technologies. This points to the presence of mining-induced backward linkages in the South African mining industry. The majority (83%) of companies that provide input technologies into mining are located in Gauteng Province, and relatively few are found in provinces where mining is concentrated such as North-West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Free State. IntroductionSouth Africa is well endowed with minerals, with more than fifty different minerals being mined throughout the country. For this and other reasons, mining is one of the crucial pillars in the South African economy and its importance is well documented (Robinson and von Below, 1990; Creamer, 2010; Department of Mineral Resources, 2015). In 2013, South Africa was the largest global producer of chromium, ferrochrome, platinum group metals (PGMs), and vermiculite and the second largest global producer of antimony, manganese, titanium, and vanadium (Chamber of Mines of South Africa, 2014). In 2013, the mining industry contributed 6.7% to South Africa’s GDP and was the fifth largest sector in the economy, as shown in Figure 1."

Jan 1, 2016

The dynamic breakage process of rocks by the impact of a hydraulic hammer is more complex than one normally assumes. It is even more difficult when one has to conduct the breakage under water. In such cases one does not know exactly what the surface topography and composition are at the bottom of the sea or river and, hence, it is more difficult to select the best position of the hammer before starting the hammering. Typically, an industrial hammer has a diameter of about 250 mm, a length of about 1.25 to 1.75 m and a mass of several tons. The hammer frequency can be up to 50 impacts per minute. The general principles of rock hammering can be easily summarized, but this knowledge is not sufficient to adapt adequately the method for less common rock conditions (e.g. less brittle rock, presence of vertical and subvertical fractures, etc.). That is the reason why we initiated a research project, whereby a scale model has been developed to conduct experiments in the laboratory and whereby discrete element simulations are being conducted. Both aim at a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of rock hammering. The scaled experimental model allows varying the impact energy and the static weight independently. Within the experiment, the hammer is in contact with the rock specimen under a certain confining pressure and with a certain contact pressure due to the static weight. A weight falls on the hammer, creating the dynamic action or impact; the height over which the weight falls can be varied. The penetration is recorded after each impact. After a certain penetration the test is stopped and the internal crack patterns are described. Some simulations have been conducted, allowing the modeling of individual fracture initiation and growth during the penetration of the hammer by either a constant displacement rate (using the UDEC-code) or by introducing the dynamic process (using the PFC-code). Some of the observed features in the laboratory experiments can be visualized in the simulations. However, further research is needed to allow the simulations being an adequate tool to well understand the dynamic process in laboratory experiments, as well as the in-situ behavior.

Aug 1, 2013

By G. L. Oldright

This paper is the first of a series that is to appear on smelting in the lead blast furnace. The objects of this investigation are to determine the conditions obtaining within the blast furnace by direct experimentation, and to correlate the behavior of the furnace at various times with the main factors governing the operation of the blast furnace, and metallurgical losses. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writers wish to express their appreciation to the management of the International Smelting Co. at Tooele, Utah, to Mr. J. O. Elton, the general manager, and to Mr. A. B. Young, his assistant, for their broad-gauge policy that has made possible the securing and publishing of these data. For the staff at Tooele, acknowledgments are made to Messrs. B. L. Sackett, general superintendent, Carlos Bardwell, assistant general superintendent, S. Jacobsen, blast-furnace superintendent, H. M. Rockwell, assistant blast furnace superintendent, and J. O. Welsh, superintendent of the general research, for the spirit of cooperation they manifested in carrying out this work. Mr. C. Reish, a member of the research department, was detailed by, the company to assist in this' work and his whole-hearted assistance has been found invaluable.

Jan 1, 1929

By F. E. Griffith

[Unquestionably mine fires new constitute one of the chief causes of sabotaging the effort to produce maximum quantities of mineral products essential to the prosecution of the war. This applies more particularly to coal than to noncoal mines, and presumably the main reason for this is the fact that coal production in maximum quantity is still very much a "must", while the demand for much of the product of noncoal mines has eased materially in recent months.]

Jan 1, 1944

By L O’Connor, S C. Dominy

"Geometallurgy is an important addition to any evaluation project or mining operation. As a discipline, it seeks to maximise the net present value (NPV) of an orebody while minimising technical and operational risk. It also aims to promote sustainable development and initiatives by ensuring that all stages of extraction are performed in an optimal manner from a technical, environmental and social perspective. To achieve these goals, development of innovative technologies and approaches along the entire commodity value chain are being established (Glass, 2016). Geometallurgy has been shown to increase operational stakeholder collaboration, creating an environment for knowledge sharing and improved data acquisition and interrogation, with the end result being the integration of such data into mine planning and scheduling. All of these aspects create better business optimisation, utilisation of staff and targeted and realistic key performance indicators.The mining industry faces numerous challenges including, but not limited to:declining ore gradesgeometrically and/or internally more complex depositsdeep-seated deposits, with potentially high in situ stress regimesincreasing quantities of mine waste that needs to be managed appropriatelyhigher energy, water and chemical costsprocessing of more challenging and refractory ores – textural complexitiesstricter environmental/permitting conditions – so-called ‘licence to mine’increasing demand for specialist metals (eg rare earth elements, In, Ge, Te, Rh, Se, Ga and Li)commodity market volatilitya difficult funding environment.Given these challenges, geometallurgy provides the opportunity to control or at least manage some of them.CITATION:Dominy, S C and O’Connor, L, 2016. Geometallurgy – Beyond Conception, in Proceedings The Third AusIMM International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet) 2016, pp 3–10 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Jun 15, 2016