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By F Schoenbrunn, T Laros

Deep paste thickeners have been proven capable of consistently producing medium to low slump material for disposal without the need for filters. However, proper design of the entire system is critical for a paste project to be successful. Some of the factors that must be carefully considered in design of a paste system include thickener sizing, tailings impoundment design, underflow pumping, and control system.

Jan 1, 1998

Between, 1980 and 1984, the demand for non- ferrous metals in the free world grew annually by 1.5 per cent for copper, 0.4 per cent for lead, 1.4 per cent for zinc, and 2.5 per cent for nickel. The growth rate decreased substantially compared to the rate experienced before 1980, and was far lower than the GNP growth during the corresponding period. The main reasons for this are considered to be 1. resource-saving efforts by industrialized countries resulting from the first and the second oil crises, 2. saturated demand for durable consumer goods, and 3. substitution of non-ferrous metals by new materials such as optical fibers.

Jan 1, 1986

The demand for minerals will grow strongly to satisfy the needs of an increasing world population for materials and energy. The technical problems involved in producing these minerals will be daunting and the engineers who will have the responsibility for designing and controlling the mineral production processes must have a high level of skills. This will place a heavy responsibility on the education system. A small number of large, well equipped university departments dedicated to mineral processing and having a close working relationship with the mineral industry, and an international orientation, will be much better placed to meet the needs than a large number of small ill-equipped departments which find it difficult to remain viable in modem universities. Courses in mineral processing must be designed to meet the scientific and technological needs of industry and full use must be made of innovative educational techniques such as video conferencing in delivering the courses. The concept of a major international network of major mineral processing departments which is designed to make best use of scarce academic resources is important and should be considered by the International Committee of the IMPC.

Jan 1, 1993

The paper focuses on how rock bolts are loaded in different rock masses, as well as in pullout tests. Three analytical models for rock bolts are presented in brief, one for bolts in continuously deformed rock masses, one for bolts in blocky rock masses, and one for bolts in pullout tests. The bolt models are used to interpret measurement data for rock bolts from three sources and to help specify the modes of axial load in the rock bolts. It is found that in continuously deformed rock formations fully coupled rock bolts have only one axial stress peak. The position of the axial stress peak moves towards the far end of the bolts with increasing rock deformation. In blocky rock masses several axial stress peaks may appear in the rock bolt. The position of this kind of axial stress peak does not change during the entire loading process. For rock bolts in pullout tests, decoupling of the interface always occurs first at the loading point. The decoupling front moves towards the far end of the bolt with an increase in the applied pull load.

Jan 1, 2000

Obtaining correct assays for gold determinations relies on the correct methods being chosen and the assayer being made aware of the mineralogy of the sample and its general origin. Usually when a geologist or metallurgist obtains "incorrect" gold assays the problem can be traced to poor communication between the geologist or metallurgist and the assayer.

Jan 1, 1986

By Niemann G

The paper addresses certain mining provisions of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the development of Mining agreements negotiated pursuant to Section 43 of the Act. Difficulties for miners and Land Councils alike arising out of the operation of the Land Rights Act will be discussed. Possible scenarios for the resolution of these difficulties will be proposed.

Jan 1, 1984

By A Boeing

Rock-breaker automation and remote operation improves the safety and efficiency of mining operations. This paper 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 rock-breaker 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 per cent 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 site’s overall throughput.CITATION:Boeing, A and Douglas, E, 2014. A remotely operated robotic rock-breaker with collision avoidance for the mining industry, in Proceedings 12th AusIMM Underground Operators’ Conference 2014 , pp 131–136 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Mar 24, 2014

Synthetic seismograms of reflectivity method and some field records available are studied to detect the amplitude anomalies at the interface of the gaothermal reservoir the gas and/or oil boundary, and the underground tunnel. The first arrival of PO wave on the P-SV record are weak and emergent while those of P wave only rotated with respect to an incident angle are clear. This can, be explained by means of the energy loss of P-SV wave conversion. The primary reflections of P waves about depth fade away as compared to SH waves which do not perform any conversion, although they hold high attenuation in the fully saturated fluid layers. Reflection of comparable strength is present at the P-wave and S-wave... boundaries, but gas-saturated zones correlating with P wave bright spots do not show equivalent attenuation anomalies. Thus the comparative technique of P-SV wave and SI i wave records is very useful to indicate the strong amplitude anomalies at the boundaries of sealing targets.

Jan 1, 1990

By A G. Dempster, N Barnett, J Oh, S Saydam

NASA’s Artemis III mission is expected to return astronauts to the surface to explore and sample the lunar volatiles by 2026. These volatiles are anticipated to provide scientific insights as to how the Moon was created and economic value to off-Earth operations. These same volatiles can pose health implications to astronauts and Earth based personnel handling lunar regolith samples. Using Australian, USA and NASA airborne contaminant exposure limits and the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) measurements of lunar volatiles in the Cabeus crater ejecta, the minimum mass of lunar regolith that can be safely handled by humans on Earth and in spacecraft can be calculated. This analysis determined a 0.15 grams pure sample of Cabeus crater regolith within a cubic metre of air has enough volatiles to exceed safe working conditions, and 14.9 grams of pure Cabeus crater regolith per cubic metre of air can impact human life. The intent of this analysis is to assist safe handling and exposure calculations for the safe handling procedures of lunar regolith containing volatiles.

Sep 1, 2024

By M Manefield, G Bournival, S Ata

Asteroids contain an abundance of valuable resources such as: nickel, cobalt, gold, platinum and rhodium. Whilst the consumption of mineral resources on Earth continues to deplete, meteoroids have the potential to become a significant source of minerals. Even though the minerals content of asteroids may be relatively high, the valuable minerals are more likely to be only a small portion of the total ore present in the main body. The ores must, therefore, be processed to extract the metals of interest from the waste. Existing terrestrial technologies rely on manipulating the physical and chemical properties of minerals. The application of these techniques to asteroids processing, however, is not straightforward due to the presence of different conditions such as zero gravity and lack of water in space. This paper discusses potential separation and extraction techniques that can be used for processing of asteroids.CITATION:Ata, S, Bournival, G and Manefield, M, 2015. Resource recovery in space, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 275–280 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

By Davey P. T, Tsambourakis G

Mineralogical analysis of supergene sulphide ore recovered from areas close to the underground workings at the abandoned Mutooroo (South Australia) mine shows that the original sulphide minerals have undergone substantial alteration. The cause of this alteration is believed to be contact with the highly saline, acidic mine water. The copper is now present as a sulphide that can best be described as a copper- and iron-delicient chalcopyrite, CuxFeyS2, where in most cases x < y. The values of x and y vary from point-to-point within each grain.Leach tests under a variety of conditions show that dissolution of the copper from the supergene sulphide ore can be readily achieved, particularly when compared with the behaviour of Mt Isa chalcopyrite concentrate. For the supergene sulphide ore, an increase in the acidity and the iron(lll) concentration of the leachant re ults in an increase in the rate of copper dissolution.The results are briefly discussed in terms of the experimental in-situ leaching operation at Mutooroo, South Australia.

Jan 1, 1986

The granitoid rocks in Burma can be subdivided into three main belts viz. (1) Eastern Granitoid Belt, (2) W-Sn related, Central Granitoid Belt and (3) Porphyry Cu (Au)-related, Western Granitoid Belt. The W-Sn related, central belt Granitoids were interpreted to have generated during the continent-arc collision and the Porphyry Cu(Au)-related, western grantioid belt was emplaced in a magmatic-volcanic arc above an east-dipping subduction zone. INTRODUCTION Major tectonic domains of Burma Burma region can be subdivided into N-S trending (6) major tectonic domains from west to east (1) Arakan Coastal Strip as ensimatic Foredeep (2) Indo-Burman Ranges as Outer Arc or Fore Arc (3) Western Inner-Burman Tertiary Basin as Inter-Arc Basin (4) Central Volcanic Belt (Central Volcanic Line) as Inner Magmatic-volcanic Arc (5) Eastern Inner-Burman Tertiary Basin as Back-Arc Basin and (6) Shan-Tennasserim Massif as ensialic, Sino-Burman Ranges (Bender, 1983). The Sagaing (transform) Fault and Shan Boundary Fault form as a tectonically significant boundary between Eastern-Burman Basin (Back-Arc Basin) and continental,

Jan 1, 1987

By Borsaru M, Wylie AW

A neutron irradiation technique has been developed which is suitable for the determinat- ion of the iron and aluminium content of iron ore fines (-6 mm particle size) on a moving rubber conveyor belt. The determination of iron entails measure- ment with a NaI(Tl) gamma ray detector of the characteristic prompt gamma rays (7.64 MeV) due to thermal neutron capture in iron, while the determination of aluminium is based on thermal neutron activation analysis. For the latter a second detector must be placed down- stream to monitor the 1.78 MeV gamma radiation emitted after activation of aluminium. Although conveyor speed has no effect on the Fe measurement, it has an adverse influence on the aluminium signal, and the belt speed should not exceed 0.1 m/s if good accuracy is required. Static trials on a 460 mm rubber conveyor belt with constant ore geometry indicate that for iron an accuracy of ¦ 1.2% Fe (2a) can be achieved for crushed run-of-mine ore at

Jan 1, 1978

By P Ireland, S Mitra, G Evans, A Wang, M M. Hoque

This work presents an experimental study of flow dynamics in a bubble column system (crosssection: 100 mm × 100 mm) using a non-intrusive optical technique with targeted application in a novel REFLUX™ Flotation Cell. The study had two aims – measurement of the bubble size distribution (BSD) and local energy dissipation rate in the system due to bubble motions over a low range of gas flux varied from 0.02 to 0.08 cm/s without impairing the visibility of the system. A central bubble plume was generated by injecting compressed air through a sintered glass distributor in quiescent liquid. Highspeed shadowgraphy imaging was performed to determine the BSD in the presence of surfactant (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) concentration ~ 10 ppm). The BSD exhibited a unimodal shape at different locations of the column for all gas flux cases. A non-intrusive particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was used to quantify the flow field generated by the bubble motions, which was used to estimate the local energy dissipation rate. The local energy dissipation rate exhibited an increasing power-law dependency on the gas flux.

Aug 24, 2022

By Gardner CE

Uranium occurrences and the probable Australian reserves are discussed and the recovery and processing methods used in treatment plants at Radium Hill and Port Pirie, S.A., Rum Jungle and Moline, N.T., and Mary Kathleen, Qid. are reviewed. The broad aspects of the application of nuclear power in Australia are then considered, and those factors of greatest significance are highlighted. It is these factors that are most likely to dictate the future role of nuclear generation in Australia. In commenting on private industry applications, the paper emphasises that each case must be considered on its own merits, and a warning is given that general statements can be misleading. In the long-term situation nuclear power is considered to be capable of playing a leading role and the discussion covers desalination and high load industries although short term applications appear difficult to justify. In non-power applications for nuclear energy reference is made to isotopes and the uses of nuclear devices in mining and civil engineering with a pertinent comment on safety.

Jan 1, 1970

An examination has been made of the rate and extent of removal of carbon from scrap metal charges when the melt is exposed to atmospheres which are reducing or oxidising with respect to FeO at unit activity. The mechanisms of decarburisation of molten Fe-C-S- P-Mn-Si alloys with H2/CO/H20/C02 gas mixtures with controlled compositions at high or low concentrations of carbon in the melt in the presence and in the absence of sponge iron, in both slag free melts and in the presence of various slag forming additives are discussed. A significant quantity of carbon can be removed from the metal during the melting stage and under optimum conditions, a high percentage of metal recovery and low carbon can be obtained after exposure of melt to the above gas mixture with controlled compositions. The presence of ferrous oxide provided by poorly reduced ore in the charge and the use of controlled atmospheres facilitated the removal of carbon to very low level during the melting period.

Jan 1, 1984

Violarite, (Ni,Fe) 3+x S4, is a ubiquitous secondary mineral in the supergene alteration zones of massive nickel sulphide deposits in Western Australia. It is formed by the pseudo- morphous replacement of pentlandite, pyrrhotite and/or millerite, and retains the textures typical of these precursors. Although the composition of the first-formed violarite is related to that of its precursor, supergene enrichment results in an increasing nickel:iron ratio toward the top of the supergene profile. In pentlandite-pyrrhotite ore, the replacement of pentlandite by violarite releases some nickel, which is consumed by the partial conversion of the pyrrhotite to iron-rich violarite. In pentlandite-millerite ore, on the other hand, the pentlandite, on conversion to violarite, appears to release excess iron that participates in the partial conversion of millerite to nickel- rich violarite. The characteristic textures exhibited by the secondary violarite and its replacement products in supergene and gossanitic deposits overlying massive nickel sulphide ores generally enable the original mineralogical compositions of the primary ores to be inferred.

Jan 1, 1973

By Fisher AEJ

On Sunday morning 7th November, 1976, at approximately 2-25 a.m., smoke was discovered issuing from the 1912 m long belt drift at Appin Colliery. A Clouth steel cord rubber belt approximately 940 mm in width had been installed in the drift in 1963 on the basis that no fire resistant steel cord belt was then available to operate on a single lift at the load and on the 160 gradient of the drift. Investigation showed that the belt drift was on fire and the usually downcasting drift was upcasting. Immediate fire fighting and rescue operations were instituted and the drift was sealed off. High expansion foam was pushed into the drift from the surface and the fire was brought under control. Recovery work resulted in the fire being put out and the drift open for walking traffic by, S-P0 am., on Wednesday 10th November, 1976. lie experience gained during the fire fighting and recovery operations led to recommendations in regard to future use of high expansion foam.

Jan 1, 1981

The Australian gold industry has in recent years experienced a tremendous growth period, though not to levels prevailing at the turn of the century. There are, however, a number of dynamic factors at play which collectively indicate that it would be unwise to assume that this growth will be maintained; indeed the future discovery of viable new deposits may be insufficient to prevent an industry decline in Australia.The higher gold prices of the 1980's together with technological advances, made previously worked mining centres areas of excellent prospectivity. These resources, signposted for us by the oldtimers, are being rapidly depleted. Whilst there can be no doubt that these resources can be replaced the real question is whether it is economic to explore for new deposits when it is likely that:The cost of future exploration will increase as exploration must focus on grassroot areas with few signposts. Almost by definition this primary exploration effort will be subject to a lower success ratio.The cost of future exploration will increase as new deposits will be located in more remote areas and at depth.

Jan 1, 1986

Intermontane valleys form unusual features of compressive mountain belts both in the sharp topographic break they represent and in the strike-slip displacements often associated with the valleys. Such strike-slip motion seems hard to reconcile in the actively deforming Andes where reconstructions have indicated nearly perpendicular Cenozoic plate convergence. Detailed study of a part of the Argentine Andes between latitude 31-33¦S suggests that, although strike-slip displacements may have largely created a prominent intermontane valley system, no Holocene strike-slip displacements are observed amid the relatively active compressional deformation along the mountain belt flanks. New plate reconstructions, treating the Nazca plate as two microplates separated by fractures along the Nazca Ridge, predict large components of strike-slip motion between the South American and Nazca Plates for the period from 10 to 5 Ma. These reconstructed plate motions are consistent with strains derived from recent kinematic analyses of minor faults along the southeast margin of the Puna plateau and the general timing of tectonic phases in the Andes.

Jan 1, 1987