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By John E. Udd

"For decades, writers have expressed concern about impending shortages of professionals for Canada's minerals industry. Even under the present difficult economic circumstances, it is anticipated that the supply which will be available will not be adequate to meet the requirements in certain key areas including mining and petroleum engineering. It is evident that, unless further initiatives are taken, shortages will exist for some time.In this paper, the writer reviews information which relates to both the demand for, and the supply of, persons with advanced-level education in minerals-related disciplines. In particular, a summary is made of the information regarding supply which has been collected by the CIM General Committee on Education for many years.In concluding, the writer expresses some personal opinions regarding imbalances between demand and supply and offers some recommendations for future actions.IntroductionLast year, in a paper which was presented at the Annual General Meeting of the CIM in Calgary, the writer presented a review of the situation regarding professionally educated manpower for the minerals industry, and concluded that indications were that the gap between demand and supply was widening and that the situation could be expected to continue. Since that time, the deterioration of the nation's economy has caused an appreciable reduction in demand. Simultaneously, a further annual survey by the CIM has shown that the numbers graduating in certain specializations, notably geology and some of the technologies, are rising very rapidly. One of the great concerns of educators at present is that adequate opportunities may not exist for all of those who are now graduating.The danger of the present situation, then, is that a momentary lack of opportunities may cause potential students to choose alternative careers . Because of the lead-time which is involved, it is very possible that this could result in greater shortages during a period of economic recovery or expansion. Action must be taken to ensure that adequate numbers will be attracted to the industry, and this applies particularly to those who have already made the career decision and who are enrolled in minerals-related programs."

Jan 1, 1982

By F. K. McKean

Introduction The present paper may be considered as a sequel to a paper, A Process for Cleaning Molybdenite .Concentrate, which was presented by the author at the annual meeting of the Institute last year. In that paper, a description was given of the laboratory work leading up to the adoption of a new process for treating complex molybdenite ores of the Molybdenite Corporation of Canada. A bare outline of mill performance with the new flow-sheet was included. With this writing, the purpose is to describe the highly interesting work of translating laboratory experience into mill practice, to show what changes were required in design to put the scheme on an operational basis, and to point out the gratifying improvements in mill products which resulted from the new procedure. The process has been placed in operation at the La Corne mine of the Molybdenite Corporation of Canada. This mine was operated during the war by Wartime Metals Corporation, and, earlier, by the Molybdenite Reduction Company, which installed a small plant. The property is situated on the highway from Amos to Val d'Or, Quebec. The claims held by the Company are at the boundary between La Corne and Vassan townships.

Jan 1, 1947

By H. P. Kang, Y. J. Feng

The hard roof in underground coal mines is generally considered as a main cause that induces disasters in working faces and entries, such as rock burst and windblast. Hydraulic fracturing technology is an effective approach to weaken hard roof to reduce ground pressure and control rock burst. The state and achievements associated with hydraulic fracturing technology applied in Chinese coal mines are summarized in this paper. Theories related to hydraulic fracturing are of the essence in fracture design to determine the fracture initiation and propagation pressure and predict the geometry and the characteristics of hydraulically induced fractures. Initially, theory of elasticity was employed to determine the breakdown pressure for a vertical borehole where the rock medium is assumed to be elastic. However, porosity and pore fluid have an influence on the borehole breakdown pressure, and then the poroelasticity theory was applied. Arbitrary deviated boreholes in practice are rather common and the maximum tensile stress criterion was employed to determine borehole breakdown pressure. The effect of natural crack in the rock medium on the initiation pressure has been taken into consideration through fracture mechanics. Meanwhile, considerable achievements have been made on hydraulic fracturing tools and equipment, and a set of mature hydraulic fracturing technologies for hard roof control are available. Some comprehensive investigations on the hydraulic fracturing for hard roof weakening are presented, and successful field applications in the Jincheng and Luan coal mining districts are introduced. Finally, the unsolved problems related to hydraulic fracturing are also put forward.

Jan 1, 2015

By Z. Ren, M. Tomlinson, E. Asselin

"Organic carbon blinding is a common, yet often partial, solution to the reduction of preg-robbing. A quantitative method to assess the extent of adsorption of a given blinding agent is presented herein. The adsorption of several blinding reagents on various carbon samples is quantified using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). EIS results showed that kerosene is more strongly adsorbed on carbon than sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), while SLS can hinder the charge transfer process of the oxygen reduction reaction on the carbon surface more effectively. The effectiveness of SLS is pronounced when its concentration is higher than 100 ppm. Raman spectra are presented for selected carbon samples: as the area ratio of the disordered peak to the graphitic peak increases, blinding agent adsorption increases.INTRODUCTION The presence of naturally occurring constituents in gold ores may adversely affect the extraction of gold in cyanide leaching since the gold cyanide complex, Au(CN)2–, can be adsorbed by these constituents (M. Adams & Fleming, 1989; Afenya, 1991; Miller, Wan, & Díaz, 2005). Such ores are known as “preg-robbing”. Preg-robbing behavior may arise from natural carbonaceous materials in the ore (M. Adams & Burger, 1998). In the past decades, a number of pre-treating methods have been developed for refractory carbonaceous ores (Arriagada & Osseo-Asare, 1984; Beer, 1994; Dunne et al., 2007; Jiang, Liu, Xiao, & Yang, 2012; Kohr, 1997; Kulpa & Brierley, 1993; Menne, 1992; Menne & Revy, 1994; Moyes & Houllis, 2010; Petrie, Craw, & Ryan, 2005; Simmons, 1996). The method known as blinding is one of the most effective and economical pre-treatment methods (M. D. Adams & Burger, 1998; Albert, 1923; Darrow, 1924; McQuiston & Shoemaker, 1975; Van den Berg, 2000). Blinding, also referred to as blanking or passivation, uses a chemical reagent to passivate the preg-robbing carbon by selective absorption or wetting (Bas, Altinkaya, Yazici, & Deveci, 2012; Brierley & Kulpa Jr, 1993; Dunne et al., 2012; Van den Berg, 2000; Yang, Qian, Song, & Dong, 2013; Yen, Amankwah, & Choi, 2008; Zhou, Jiang, & Choi, 2014). Organic reagents, which selectively adsorb on the surfaces of activated carbon and “smother” the surface, have been used for blinding carbonaceous matter in gold ores prior to cyanidation. Two comprehensive studies by Abotsi and Osseo-Asare and Adams and Burger have been published on this topic (Abotsi & Osseo-Asare, 1986; M. D. Adams & Burger, 1998)."

Jan 1, 2017

By F. K. McKean

THE task of establishing a new corrosion testing laboratory is more difficult than it need be because there is very little information on the subject available in the literature. Many articles describing tests and results may be found, but a wide search will unearth only passing remarks on the different types of equipment that may be selected for accelerated corrosion tests. An article describing some of the apparatus needed in a corrosion laboratory should be of help to those interested in building a new unit or in making additions to an old one. In May of this year, the writer was given the assignment of equipping a laboratory for general corrosion testing, to form a part of the new Physical Metallurgy Research Laboratories of the Department of Mines and Resource~ at Ottawa. With the help of senior members of the staff, along with what could be gathered from other sources, a list of necessary equipment was compiled and a plan for arranging it in the rooms was decided upon. Where possible, the apparatus was constructed in the excellent machine shops at the disposal of this Department, while the rest was placed on order with the manufacturers.

Jan 1, 1945

By Clifford S. Gibson

A year ago a paper (1) was presented at the Annual Western Meeting of the Institute regarding silicosis in Ontario mines. It described the whole problem as we see it and discussed the means of prevention. The work and aims of the Technical Silicosis Research Committee of the Ontario Mining Association, and of the Committee's field engineer, were fully described also and it is suggested that reference be made to this paper in order to have a better understanding of the observations which are presented now. These observations enlarge upon parts of the dust control measures already discussed and tell of general progress in the past year. They concern fifty properties, the majority of the operating mines, which vary in size from the hopeful prospect to established producers yielding 11,000 tons of ore daily. Most of these are gold mines; a few copper-nickel. The ores range from heavy sulphides to siliceous materials and they are mined by many methods from varying types of deposits. The majority of the latter are steeply dipping and all are found in Precambrian host-rocks. Up to the present, die greatest depth to which mining has penetrated is 6,400 feet.

Jan 1, 1939

By I. Murray, N. Geoffroy

"Buried pipelines, tanks and other similar equipment are almost always present on large scale industrial sites, including in the oil and gas fields. However, as the proverb “out of sight, out of mind” suggests, it is easy to overlook proper maintenance procedures and simply assume that corrosion protection measures in place are working correctly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, leading to significant environmental damage and loss of production. This paper describes several cases from various industries where buried equipment failed because of corrosion, sometimes with catastrophic results. It also presents various strategies, based on experience and new research, to help predict and prevent damage to underground metallic structures.INTRODUCTION Metallic underground structures are extremely common in industrial and commercial settings for numerous reasons. Burying pipes, tanks, wires and other similar equipment has numerous advantages: it provides significant protection from mechanical damage, frees up ground space that can be used for other purposes, requires little to no support structure and is generally more esthetically pleasing. However, this last benefit can also be considered the most significant disadvantage of underground equipment: becoming invisible and forgotten. While every engineer is aware of the importance of preventive maintenance, it is also human nature to somewhat forget about equipment that is hard to inspect and assume that everything is fine. This is unfortunately not always the case and failures in industrial settings can have extremely serious consequences. While economic aspects immediately come to mind (loss of production, cleanup cost, etc.), failure of underground equipment also results in an environmental and therefore public relations nightmare, especially in the oil and gas field. Leaks that would have been considered negligible in the past can now make national headlines and perfect reliability, while probably impossible to achieve, is now the goal of most companies. While environmental damage (real or perceived) is most often associated with leaks in the oil and gas industry, it can also affect the mining world. For example, the authors have worked on a project where a buried slurry pipeline had ruptured in the ground, causing a release of perfectly inert tailings. While the economic loss was low, the leak was reported in local media and caused a public relations problem."

Jan 1, 2017

By P. Maltais

Over the last 10 years, Computer Aided Design, Finite Elements Analysis and field testing of prototypes have enabled the cycling industry to grow and to significantly improve its products. However, today's cyclists have become more and more demanding, making these classical design approaches almost obsolete. Devinci understood that problem four years ago and fully revisited its design approach; to offer bicycle frames better suited to real life riding, one must fully know those real life conditions. In partnership with the University de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, Devinci then developed a bicycle enabling them to measure the actual load applied on a bicycle frame in real-time for real riding conditions: the instrumented bike. Today, Devinci uses its instrumented road and mountain bikes, combined with virtual prototyping and laboratory testing capabilities to develop better bicycles, faster.

Jan 1, 2006

By Lyle F. Smith

With the demand for larger diameter raises under all ground conditions and the increasing price of drill rods and operating costs, it was evident that there was a need for a raise borer with a variable-speed drive and fast-response torque limiting control. The raise boring machine described in this paper was developed after several years of market research and discussions with mine operators and construction contractors. This paper discusses the Ingersoll-Rand raise borers with the solid-state controlled DC motor drives. These machines have gained wide acceptance in the five-year period since being placed in operation and are designed to accommodate the range of raise diameters and lengths most required today.

Jan 1, 1978

By M. V. Rowley, D. D. Warkentin

With high commodity prices, tightening operating budgets and increasing disposal costs, there is an increasing interest in processing municipal waste streams, such as the ash derived from combustion processes. This paper describes laboratory development work for a process to recover metal values from the finer fractions of these wastes. The work was initially aimed at recovery of copper and the removal of lead and other heavy metals from the ash residue, but results showed gold and silver recovery to be an important objective as well. The process uses gravity and flotation as the principal separation steps, with gold recovery occurring mainly in the flotation stage. The particle size range and chemistry of the ash presented numerous challenges to developing a suitable flotation method, but an effective flowsheet was developed by separating the ash into a fine fraction and a separate slime fraction, each with a unique flotation strategy. Specialized conditioning stages and careful reagent selection have resulted in effective gold and silver recovery from a range of ash types and sources. The work has resulted in a patent being issued for a process based on this novel approach to the treatment of combustion wastes.

Jan 1, 2017

By E. J. Burrough

Coal Reserves The Crowsnest Pass coal fields form part of a greater area which comprises the Inner Foothills belt of the Alberta coal fields and the southeastern coal fields of British Columbia. The most valuable and most extensive reserves of the bituminous coals of Canada are concentrated in this?area, of which the Crowsnest Pass fields form an important part. The extent of these coal reserves together with those of the rest of Canada were recently studied by the Geological Survey of Canada for the Royal Commission on Coal of 1946 (1). Quotin from the report, it is of interest to note that, prior to this work, the most widely known, and in fact the only Canadian-wide estimates of, coal reserves of Canada available to the Commission were those prepared by Dr. Dowling in 1913 (2). At that time it was estimated that Canada's reserves of coal were over twelve hundred billion tons. The more recent estimates of mineable coal for the whole of Canada are of the order of 10 per cent of that figure and are reported. as 99 billion tons, which is further reduced to 40 billion tons on the basis of the estimation of recoverable coal. This considerable divergence in estimated reserves is explained in part by the big difference in the bases of measurements. For example, in the original report, seams of one foot occurring at a depth of 4,000 feet were included in the estimates.

Jan 1, 1951

By L. C. Johnston, J. N. Gills

This paper reviews the basic reactions of the blast furnace and the open hearth furnace, and then discusses the quarrying and sizing requirements of the limestone feed for each. Particular emphasis is placed on the lime-stone at Irish Cove, now being mined under an agreement between Scotia Limestone Limited and Dosco Steel Limited. The drilling and blasting operations are described, along with loading and haulage, plant flow, water supply, power supply and transportation facilities.

Jan 1, 1967

By K. Hawboldt, J. E. Halfyard, C. Bottaro, I. A. Harrison

"The removal of elemental sulfur from leach residues derived from massive sulfide concentrates via hydrometallurgical routes has been demonstrated in a laboratory setting by converting water-insoluble sulfur to water-soluble polysulfides. The approach was applied to leach residue from Vale's nickel hydromet demonstration plant in Argentia, Newfoundland, which contained significant amounts of elemental sulfur. This technique offers an alternative treatment protocol for residues with a sulfur component not amenable to standard flotation/hot filtration processes. The practical considerations of a proposed flow sheet will be discussed including the impact of other sulfur species (e.g. thiosulfate and sulfides) and key process variables. INTRODUCTIONPresently, large scale elemental sulfur extraction from hydrometallurgical leach residue is performed by Teck Resources using a process of sulfur flotation followed by hot filtration (Chalkley et al., 1993). As mentioned, the technique proves viable for residues derived from specific concentrations - in this case zinc - whose residues constituency is primarily elemental sulfur itself. However, problems arise when this constituency is altered as happens when, for example, a mine containing one particular concentrate is mixed or replaced with a differing concentrate from a second mine. Such cases can often strain the effectiveness of current sulfur removal processes (D'Odorico, 2004). If hydrometallurgical residue containing elemental sulfur cannot be effectively treatment by flotation, the residue is stored subaqueously as is the case in some 'grass roots' hydrometallurgical plants (those not coupled with smelting operations). Hydrometallurgical processing of concentrates involving pressure leaching is becoming increasingly common throughout the mining world, the genesis of which can be found in research performed by Sherritt in Fort Saskatchewan since the 1950’s (Ozberk et al., 1995).The investigation of elemental sulfur removal by means other than flotation includes the uses of sulfide salts (NH3S or Na2S) effecting the conversion of hydrophobic elemental sulfur to hydrophilic polysulfides. The work of Kunda et al. (1974) and Olper et al. (2007) shows that elemental sulfur can be quantitatively removed from hydrometallurgical leach residue via the formation of a mixture of polysulfides."

Jan 1, 2012

By J. Tuzo Wilson

Abstract A division of part of the Canadian Shield into provinces believed to represent former mountain belts is attempted, special emphasis- being laid upon radioactive age determinations, the relation of Archaean to Proterozoic rocks, and the structure of the Grenville province. Original data on the distribution of radioactivity within several batholiths and their connection with ore deposits are' presented. The possible growth of continents and a theory which explains the shape and distribution of the world's younger mountain and island areas are discussed and applied to the Canadian Shield in an attempt to explain how the growth and present structure came about. The relation of the major mining camps of northeastern Ontario to fault zones is discussed in the light of this theory. Introduction The valuable symposium issued by this Institute to celebrate its jubilees emphasizes the important role of major faults in determining the location of many ore deposits in the Canadian Shield. Many of these faults are known to extend for long distances. It is therefore widely appreciated that it would be of great value if the pattern, ages, and causes of these faults were better understood. This would be particularly useful if the relations of the major fault systems to petrological and metallogenic provinces and to former mountain belts could be established. Each year the volume of available data, and hence the chance of reaching a fuller solution of this problem, increases. This article is a review of the present situation. It is accordingly based almost wholly upon the work and ideas of others, which are gratefully acknowledged. Naturally, responsibility for the selection and marshalling of the data is the writer's.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. J. Goodman, P. Lafleur

This paper presents a current interpretation and projections of recent statistics on raw materials availability based on familiarity with the Canadian steel industry and its development. Problems and opportunities are recognized and discussed.

Jan 1, 1976

By J. C. White

This paper, after a brief introduction giving the history and geology of the area, deals with mining operations at the Copper Mountain mine of Gaspe Copper Mines, Limited. It discusses development operations, and then goes into the mining methods employed, covering drilling, grade control, blasting practice, loading and hauling, and the road and service machines used.

Jan 1, 1969

By H. J. Ni, M. Y. Huang, S. W. Chen

The effects of several fluxes on purification, microstructures and properties of A00 aluminium have been studied. The experimental results and analyses indicate that many cracks and large porosities exist in the surface film above the melt purified by C2Cl6 and that the film is floe and mostly composed of AhO3 and pure aluminum, which carries many carbon particles and AlCh not fully volatilized. And then over 50% of the all-melting residue is pure aluminum, which is one of the major reasons for high melting loss. Moreover, because of a mass of gas bubbles and a state of seethe, there exist many inclusions which size is under l0µm in the microstructure of A00 aluminum purified with C2Cl6 or fluxes containing C2Cl6- With this purifying method, the aluminum crystal grains are extended along the radius that was observed firstly and the average crystal size of A00 aluminum are about 100µm~150µm. In addition, small size inclusions have little affected on tensile strength and micro inclusions under l0µm have little affected on elongation.

Jan 1, 2006

By A. Boeing

Rock-breaker automation and remote operation improves the safety and efficiency of mining operations. This article presents an overview of the Rocklogic rock-breaker automation system architecture that provides collision avoidance, automated parking, and remote operation functionality. The system consists of a distributed computer control system that interfaces with sensors attached to the rock-breaker, the rock-breaker hydraulics, and the site infrastructure. We present results of an automated Transmin rockbreaker installed in a production environment at an underground Australian mine site. The system has been in production use for over 900 days during which there have been no reported collisions, and 100% adoption of the remote operation technology. As a result, Rocklogic has significantly improved the safety of rock-breaking operations and reduced the rock-breaking cycle time, thereby improving the sites overall throughput.

Aug 1, 2013

By Lionel A. York

This paper outlines the type of water-bearing formations encountered in the Prairie Sediments and describes a method for effectively sealing these zones in order that shaft-sinking operations may be carried out with safety. Details are given of the procedure for carrying probe holes ahead of the shaft bottom. These probe or grout holes are employed for establishing a series of overlapping grout covers around the proposed shaft excavation to safeguard against large inflows of water during sinking. The pattern and length of grout covers cannot be standardized, and each cover needs to be specially designed to suit the varying ground conditions. In order to provide effective protection through the Prairie Sediments, the number of holes in any one cover would not be less than 8, and possibly as many as 64 would be required in certain zones. The length of covers would vary from 100 ft. to 250 ft. Emphasis is placed on the need for obtaining accurate geological and water information from exploratory holes, drilled in the shaft vicinity, in order to effectively plan all grout covers.

Jan 1, 1964

By Alan M. Jessop

This paper discusses the distribution of frozen ground in the zone of discontinuous permafrost in relation to the pattern of surface temperature. The importance of understanding permafrost in relation to surface construction and open-pit mining operations is stressed.

Jan 1, 1972