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By S. M. Smouse

Total world energy consumption is projected to continue its strong growth of recent years. Because coal is the most abundant fossil fuel, it will likely remain an important energy source, particularly for power generation, into at least the early years of the next millennium. Clean coal technologies are available today that can economically reduce air pollution, primarily SO2 NOx and particulates, and for the higher efficiency technologies, CO2, from power generation. U.S. Department of Energy analyses show that the adoption of clean coal technologies could decrease carbon emissions worldwide while creating a strong export market with attendant creation of jobs in the U.S.

Jan 1, 1998

By Paul L. Russell, Charles O. Hook

While the oil shale resources of the US are becoming increasingly known, few people in this country are aware of the extensive worldwide occurrence of this resource. Two recent international conferences* confirmed the growing worldwide interest in oil shales, both as future and current energy sources. The 1981 conference noted the difficulty in characterizing worldwide oil shale resources because of lack of common terminology in reporting both assay value and resource potential. Assay value is variously reported as: •US gallons per short ton; •Imperial gallons per metric ton; •Liters per metric ton; •Liters per cubic meter; •Weight percent oil; and •Volume percent oil. Oil shale resources are variously reported in barrels, short tons of oil shale, metric tons of oil shale, and cubic meters of shale oil. Worldwide petroleum shortages sparked interest in alternate energy resources including oil shales. While petroleum supplies appear to have stabilized, at least for a while, high costs are affecting the balance of payment index of many countries, resulting in a continued search for local energy resources. Kerogen is the organic constituent of oil shale and may be the most abundant form of hydrocarbon on earth, possibly exceeding coal occurrences and far more abundant than naturally-occurring petroleum resources. Oil shale, by one name or another, is widespread and is known to exist in more than 38 countries (Table 1). Oil shale industries have existed in at least 14 countries at one time or another. Many predated the Drake oil discovery in Pennsylvania in 1859, and most were unable to compete with natural oil; these operations either converted to its use or closed. At the present time shale oil is being produced on a commercial scale only in the USSR and in China. Only very rough estimates of grade and quantity are available for most of the worldwide shale occurrences since only a few deposits have been thoroughly explored. The Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming is an exception. For many years this oil shale deposit has been described as the largest single concentration of hydrocarbon material in the world. With increasing world interest, larger deposits may yet be found. In 1965, the US Geological Survey published an in-place world oil shale estimate. This study, while made some 16 years ago, is still a reasonable order-of-magnitude estimate. Although exploration and evaluation are underway and a few oil shale deposits have been appraised, information on which to evaluate most worldwide oil shale occurrences has improved little since 1965. Table 2 presents an order-ofmagnitude estimate of in-place world oil shale resources. Total US resources and Green River Formation

Jan 1, 1982

By M. C. Manderson

Phosphate rock is a naturally occurring mineral which, in upgraded form, is important to both agriculture and industry. Phosphate rock normally must be upgraded before it can be assimilated and used. Most of this upgrading is now carried out by chemical means, largely through the reaction of a strong inorganic acid (primarily sulfuric acid) with the phosphate rock to remove major impurities and to produce soluble phosphate. A less important but yet still commercially significant conversion method involves the thermal reduction of phosphate rock at high temperature in an electric furnace to produce elemental phosphorus. The elemental phosphorus is then converted to usable end products. This conversion route is a more costly method than the chemical route, but it has the advantage of being able to produce chemically pure phosphorus derivatives. On the other hand, the use of phosphate rock for agricultural application-primarily for use as a plant nutrient ingredient for fertilizer -does not require the same level of purity. As a consequence, the chemical method of phosphate rock upgrading is the predominant technique for producing phosphatic fertilizers.

Jan 1, 1977

By P. A. Rittenhouse

Reserves of potash are more than adequate to meet future world demand for this primary fertilizer nutrient. The bulk of both reserves and current production is located in only a few countries. Recent attention has focused on potential development of smaller reserves to supply local markets in developing areas of the world. However, most new capacity in the next decade will be built in countries with large current production and reserves. The paper reviews current and future projects that will add to the world supply of potash.

Jan 1, 1985

On Feb. 16, 2012, the Polish coal mining company Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka S.A. set the world record for daily production from a plow-equipped longwall, with an output of 24.4 kt (26,900 st) of coal from a single face. The company commissioned the first Cat longwall system at its Bogdanka Mine, near Lublin in eastern Poland, in March 2010 and within six months had raised the bar to nearly 17 kt/d (18,700 stpd) of cut coal. Since then, Bogdanka has continued to increase its daily output with a plow face that began mining in the new 7/VII/385 panel last October, taking the world record to new levels. In addition to the record output achievement, the plow face advanced more than 27 m (89 ft) at a 1.63-m- (5.3-ft-) cutting height. ?We thought this achievement would be impossible for any shearer in seam heights as low as this,? said Zbigniew Stopa, vice president of Bogdanka.

Jan 1, 2012

By Leslie S. Halasz

This paper describes the techniques implemented at Randfontein Estates to develop twin-haulages at 'high speed'. An operation which culminated in the world record advance for twin-end multiblast cyclic development in hard abrasive quartzites. A major expansion project was planned for the mine, with the sinking of a third twin-shaft system (to be known as Cooke No. 3), to raise the level of ore production from 3 500 000 to 5 000 000 tonnes per alumm. Subsequent redesign of the proposed shaft system as a single 9 m brattice wall shaft took place, reducing the planned shaft sinking period by 12 months and saving an estimated R 250 000 (U.S. $ 330 000) in sinking costs. The advancement of the Cooke No. 3 Shaft sinking and development programme necessitated a rapid excavation schedule for two interconnecting twin-haulages from the existing Cooke No. 2 twin shaft complex to provide a second means of egress. An early holing between the two shafts would provide significant financial and technical benefits. Pre-development and equipping of shaft pillar excavations would enable a rapid shaft production build up and blocking out of at least one year's ore-reserves.

Jan 1, 1983

By George D. Tikkanen

The world supply of zinc and lead is reviewed. The nature of zinc and lead deposits, production constraints, current production and reserves, new developments, possible future developments, and closures are considered. Lead sup- plies for the future are adequate. Zinc supplies are expected to tighten in the longer term due to growth in zinc consumption and orebody depletion.

Jan 1, 1986

By John Drew Ridge

Tables showing world trade in metallic mineral raw materials during the years 1953 through 1957 have been prepared for the following twenty-one commodities: alumina, aluminum, bauxite, chromite, copper concentrates, partly refined and fully refined copper metal, iron ore, pig iron, iron and steel (simple shapes), lead concentrates, lead metal, manganese ore, mercury metal, nickel ore, concentrates, and matte, nickel metal, raw pyrites, sintered pyrites, tin concentrates, tin metal, zinc concentrates, and zinc metal. In each instance, the amounts given by the importing country were used except when statistics from the importing nation were lacking, incomplete, or misleading. To show the considerable divergence between importing and exporting country totals for the same years, the complete mercury table is given and, in parallel columns, shows the comparable tonnages of importers and exporters. Tables for the other twenty commodities are presented in summary form. The data of the concentrate tables are used with those of the corresponding metals as a basis for a discussion of trade in concentrates versus trade in metals. The data of all twenty-one tables provide the basis for testing the thirteen rules governing international trade in metal raw materials which I first published in Mining Engineering for July 1955. Because the 1953 through 1957 data are far more complete and considerably more extensive than those on which the 1955 rules were based, it was found possible to deduce five additional rules and to modify three of the original thirteen appreciably. The full text of the eighteen rules is given.

Jan 1, 1960

By Charles Kimbell, L. Nahai, E. Shekarchi

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY World mineral trade during 1960 to 1984 has shown substantial changes both in value and tonnage. Although fuel commodities dominated total mineral trade during this period, this paper will focus attention primarily on nonfuel minerals. Brazil and Australia, modest producers of iron ore in 1960, have become dominant producers and exporters, together accounting for about half of major iron ore exports in 1984, far surpassing traditional export suppliers such as Sweden. Australia has also become the largest producer and trader of bauxite and alumina, and worldwide alumina trade has increased at the expense of bauxite trade. Similarly, shipments of ferroalloys have increased more than shipments of ores such as those of chromium and manganese. Canada, retaining its first rank in world export of zinc, has become also the leading source of potash and sulfur in world trade, and South Africa has been the dominant factor in chromite, manganese and their respective ferroalloys. Developing countries' share of world copper trade has increased, with Chile maintaining first rank, but developed industrialized countries have continued to dominate production and trade of lead and zinc. Phosphate, sulfur, and potash have been the principal crude nonmetallic minerals traded worldwide. Looking to the near future, dramatic increases in export of iron ore, phosphate, potash and sulfur are not envisaged. Bauxite exports will continue to decline relative to alumina but at a slower rate than in the recent past. Zinc concentrate will continue to be exported but lead will be traded more as metal than as concentrate. For iron and steel, there will be some production shift from traditional producers to certain developing countries and recently industrializing developing countries such as Brazil, India, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan. In the following sections dealing with specific commodities, it should be understood that information is presented only on the major forms of each commodity that move in trade, and only for a selected group of countries for each commodity or major form of each commodity. Thus, totals shown or mentioned generally represent only the totals of figures presented here and do not include estimates for minor forms of material or for countries that are not listed. However, the data provided is regarded as sufficiently complete to reflect major patterns and trends, and exclusions are there- fore not seen as affecting conclusions that may be drawn from the material provided. FUEL AND NONFUEL TRADE Values of Fuel and Nonfuel Trade The value of world export trade in major mineral commodities (ores, concentrates and scrap, crude minerals, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, nonmetallic minerals and mineral fuels) in 1983, the latest year for which comprehensive data are available, was reported by the United Nations in May 1985 to have totaled over 514 billion current U.S. dollars (Table 1). This was 79% of the historic record high of nearly $649 billion ,current dollars set in 1980, but almost 18 times the current dollar value reported for 1960. [1/] The value of these 1983 exports in constant 1960 dollars was $164 billion (Table 2), only 66% of the record 1980 high of almost $250 billion, and only about 5.7 times the 1960 dollar level.

Jan 1, 1986

By John W. King

reserves are exploring to increase them.. Uranium exploration projects are known to be active or planned also in Guayana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Uruguay in South America; in the UAR, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, and Somali in Africa; and in Greece, Iran, Pakistan., Indonesia, and New Zealand. The above list, to which several might be added makes a total of at least 43 nations actively interested in exploration for nuclear raw materials. As we consider the distribution of the world's uranium resources, it is interesting to note that roughly one third of the total occurs in deposits that are economically dependant upon another product. The very large reserves of South Africa could not be produced for uranium alone, but gold has carried a sufficient part of the total cost that uranium can be recovered profitably. Approximately 40 percent of the US reserves, or 120,000 tons, are estimated as by-product recovery from porphyry copper and phosphate operations, but these reserves are not presently in production. The remaining two thirds of the world's uranium reserves have been sought, developed, and produced primarily for their uranium content. Those deposits are estimated to contain 613,000 tons of uranium oxide recoverable at less than $10 per pound. Nearly half of that uranium occurs in unmetamorphosed sandstone hosts, mostly of late Phanerozoic age--the Colorado Plateau type. About 30 percent is contained in the quartz pebble conglomerates of southern Ontario, Canada, and 20 percent is in magmatic-related deposits--veins, contact deposits, mineralized breccias, etc.

Jan 1, 1969

By Yves Picot

Construction of new installations was recently completed in the Port of Tubarao, Brazil, With this expansion the port, operated by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), has become the largest iron ore port in the world, with an annual throughput capacity of 60 million long tons. GROWTH OR IRON ORE EXPORTS Since its formation CVRD has steadily increased the shipment of iron ore to overseas markets. Starting with less than 100,000 tons in 1942, the yearly export volume grew to 1,500,000 tons in 1951, 5,000,000 tons in 1961 and 25,000,000 tons in 1971. The number of different grades of ore also increased during this period. Production of high grade pellets, starting in 1970, further increased the number of ore products to be shipped. In the same period the size of ore carriers increased twenty-fold to over 250,000 DWT.

Jan 1, 1974

By A. Tew

The Ernest Henry copper-gold project is located in North West Queensland, Australia and commenced production in late August 1997. Utilising a philosophy of selecting the biggest proven equipment available Ernest Henry at full production will treat 9 Mtpa through a single grinding line over a 15 year mine life. 350.000 tonnes of concentrate a year will be produced, containing 95,000 tonnes of copper and 120,000ounces of gold. The two mills recently commissioned at the Ernest Henry Copper/Gold Mine are a 10.4m x 5.1m (34 ft x 16.75 ft) SAG Mill and a 6.1m x 8.4m (20 ft x 27.5 ft) ball mill. The mills have a power draw of 11 MW (14745 hp) and 5.5 MW (7373hp) respectively. While the SAG Mill is not the largest SAG Mill in the world, it is the largest shell-supported SAG Mill in the world. The Ernest Henry mills epitomise the new standard design of large grinding mills. The design was introduced more than 20years ago and has been further developed from extensive experience with grinding mills and the need to produce a design, which overcomes the recognised problems of large mills. The result is a design with the potential to be used for mills up to the largest for which machine tools can be found to fabricate and machine them. currently approximately 15m (48')overall diameter.

Jan 1, 1999

The Ernest Henry copper-gold project is located in North West Queensland, Australia and commenced production in late August 1997. Utilizing a philosophy of selecting the biggest proven equipment available Ernest Henry at full production ¥ill treat 9 Mtpa through a single grinding line over a 15 year mine life. 350.000 tonnes of concentrate a year will be produced, containing 95,000 tonnes of copper and 120,000 ounces of gold. The two mills recently commissioned at the Ernest Henry Copper/Gold Mine are a 10.4m x 5.1m (34 ft x 16.75 ft) SAG Mill and a 6.1m x 8.4m (20 ft x 27.5 ft) ball mill. The mills have a power draw of 11 MW (14745 hp) and 5.5 MW (7373 hp) respectively. While the SAG Mill is not the largest SAG Mill in the world, it is the largest shell-supported SAG Mill in the world. The Ernest Henry mills epitomize the new standard design of large grinding mills. The design was introduced more than 20 years ago and has been further developed from extensive experience with grinding mills, and the need to produce a design, which overcomes the recognized problems of large mills. The result is a design with the potential to be used for mills up to the largest for which machine tools can be found to fabricate and machine them, currently approximately 15m (48') overall diameter.

Jan 1, 1999

The Putnam Coal Mine, at design capacity, will be the third largest underground bituminous coal mine in the world and will feature the world's longest single flight belt conveyor. Construction is now in process; initial mining will commence in early 1969 and design capacity will be reached in 1971. I'm Jerry Workman, Assistant Mining Manager for the Coal Group of the Mining and Metals Division of Union Carbide Corporation, and I am acting as Project Manager for installation and start-up of the Putnam Mine. The Putnam Coal Mine reserves are located in south-central West Virginia and contain approximately 27,000 acres of prime Pittsburgh No. 8 coal; reserves are sufficient to support a 3.5 MM tons per year operation for over 30 years. The mine portal area is located some six miles inland from the Kanawha River. The river loading facility is located approximately 156 miles by way of river from the market.

Jan 1, 1968

By B. R. Waples

Sometimes a project is born easy, sometimes a project has a hard time being born. Probably every project can say we had tremendous problems to overcome and they would all be right. This project had all things happen to it. Born easy, a hard time after being born, there were tremendous problems to overcome but here it is, a major copper project, a major operation, and a new source of copper for Mexico and the world market. La caridad is an ore body located in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It is at an elevation of 1,200 meters above sea level and the nearest major city is Hermosillo, the capital city of Sonora. Hermosillo is located approximately 270 kms (about 168 miles) to the southwest of la caridad. North of la caridad, 130 kms (about 81 miles), is the U.S. border town of Douglas, Arizona, which has a sister city on the Mexican side of the border -Agua Prieta.

Jan 1, 1979

By Clement K. Chase, Manuel Lastra, George M. Potter

Heap leaching for gold-silver recovery in the western United States has been widely applied. Advantages, disadvantages, and requirements of the method are discussed, as well as heap building, recovery systems, agglomeration applications, and safeguards against freezing. A list and review of current heap leach operations world-wide are presented, together with obvious opportunities for application of this innovative technique in new areas.

Jan 1, 1983

By Doug Harding

The Niagara Tunnel Project (NTP) is a 10.4-km- (6.5- mile-) long, 14.4-m (47.5-ft) bored tunnel that will run under the city of Niagara Falls from the Upper Niagara River to the Sir Adam Beck power station. The completed project will enhance the capacity of the Sir Adam Beck power station by adding 500 m3 /sec (17,657 cu ft/sec) of water through the tunnel. The project uses the world?s largest hard-rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) at 14.4 m (47.5 ft) in diameter to excavate the tunnel. Features of the project include the use of a high performance (HP) main beam TBM, state-of-the-art ground support and tunnel logistics systems. A continuous conveyor is used for muck transport from the TBM to the disposal area In June 2004, the Ontario government announced that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) had been given approval to proceed with the third tunnel under the city of Niagara Falls ? the first two tunnels were constructed in the 1950s using drill-and-blast techniques. The third tunnel, appropriately named the Niagara Tunnel Project (NTP), consists of a 10.4-km- (6.5-mile-) long TBM-bored, concrete-lined tunnel with a finished diameter of 12.5 m (41.1 ft). In August 2005, OPG the selected of Strabag of Austria, one of the largest construction companies in Europe, as the contractor to build the NTP at a price of C$600 million. In September 2005, Strabag selected The Robbins Co. of Solon, OH to design, manufacture and deliver a new 14.4- m- (47.5-ft-) diameter high performance, state-of-the-art main beam hard rock TBM to be used in the excavation of the tunnel. To meet the aggressive construction schedule as requested by OPG/Strabag, the TBM needed to be sup-plied as ready-to-bore within a 12-month period after the contract was awarded to Robbins.

Jan 1, 2008

By Melvin W. Kraschnewski

In 1966 Central Ohio Coal Company and Bucyrus-Erie signed a contract authorizing Bucyrus-Erie Company to design and build a 220 cubic yard dragline. This dragline would be used for stripping overburden from their coal reserves located near Cumberland, Ohio. The size of the machine was arrived at after a thorough application study of their annual coal output requirement, depth of overburden and type of terrain. The design and construction of this machine which has been designated by BECO as model number 4250-W is the title of this paper. Size wise based on machine weight the 4250-W represents an increase factor of three over our largest current dragline. Probably the easiest way of presenting a machine of this size is to build it from the bottom up.

Jan 1, 1969

By Deepak Malhotra

Comminution circuits in general account for fifty percent of capital and operating costs for a processing plant. Significant advances have been made in optimization of these circuits. One would expect a few circuits to be the favored designs for plants. Review of grinding circuits worldwide indicates that a variety of circuit designs are utilized for non-technical reasons. A brief review of circuits and reasons for their selection is given in this paper.

Jan 1, 1998

By R. D. Lama

Coal mining is one of the major sources of methane release to the atmosphere by human industrial activities and is believed to contribute to -30% of the total methane emissions from industrial activities. In 1993, world saleable black coal production, attained almost 3.5 billion tonnes from which around 65% was produced underground. Coal in underground mines can contain high quantities of methane and some deep coal seams have methane content as high as 50 cubic meters per tonne of coal. Gas is re- leased during coal mining from the mined seam and in a higher degree from the neighboring unmined seams and gas bearing strata which are fractured as mining advances. This paper de- scribes a study which was undertaken to estimate the extent of methane emissions from coal mining in the world. Measured emission related data were collected from most underground coal producing countries in the world. The data included methane flows in the ventilation system, methane flows in gas drainage system, in-situ gas content, methane utilization and coal production. More comprehensive data were collected from a range of gassy and non-gassy Australian mines. Residual gas content of samples from run of mine were also measured. Using the Australian data, mathematical expressions were established to evaluate methane emissions as a function of coal production and in-situ gas content for other mines. These emission models were then used to evaluate the emissions for the countries or coal basins without measured emission data. Trends in methane emissions from underground mining for the year 2000 and beyond were also estimated.

Jan 1, 1997