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In the mile-high city of Denver. Colo., the mining industry's political adjunct, The American Mining Congress, held its annual meeting, September 27-30. The Honorable Maurice H. Stans, in what became the keynote address of the meeting, spoke of a "common interest in a basic reality of 1970, a reality involving ecology, energy, raw materials and natural resources.”

Jan 1, 1970

Schedule of Events

Jan 8, 1950

Though the mining industry is beset with problems-a broad slump in metal prices, a rash of acquisitions and takeover attempts, rising capital costs, and an aggressive Canadian energy program-there was an under-current of optimism at the 1981 AMC conference that's been missing at industry meetings in recent years. The industry anticipates a turnaround in the 1980s, buoyed perhaps by the new spirit of cooperation from the Reagan administration. For the first time in years, it appears that Washington and the mining industry share mutual goals for developing the nation's resources. A number of prominent Reagan officials were on hand during the three-day conference in Denver, September 28-30, to reassure conferees that restrictions plaguing energy and minerals development would be eased. Interior Secretary James Watt and other government speakers promised cooperation in bringing balance to federal public lands policies, a review of regulations that have hampered the industry, and prompt action on domestic minerals policy. Daniel N. Miller, Jr., assistant interior secretary for energy and minerals, said, "It is our intent to dismantle the overhearing bureaucracy that has stifled mineral and energy exploration. We know that Interior's rules have shackled the mining industry in recent years, and we know that those rules must be eased." Miller noted that the administration will not permit mining on national park lands or wildlife refuges, but added that "we must assess a variety of uses of public lands ... we will restore lands to multiple use where practical." EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch assured industry representatives that the administration intends to work within environmental laws and with Congress to review and revise water, soil, and air pollution policies. "We have a strong commitment to see that there are major mid-course corrections" of air regulations, Gorsuch said. Support from these "new friends in Washington" will be crucial in light of the serious problems pressuring the industry. Copper prices have plunged to almost three-year lows and prices for molybdenum, gold, and silver have slumped. Earnings are down and today's high interest rates prevent a quick turnaround. Companies are on edge after the recent takeovers of Kennecott, St. Joe Minerals, and Texasgulf Though the companies may benefit from the major injection of capital that large energy firms can provide, many observers fear the new parent companies won't be willing or able to survive the cyclical metal markets. Arco and Gulf Resources, for example, have been criticized for closing Anaconda's Montana copper facility and the Bunker Hill unit in Idaho, respectively. Canada's national energy program has brought additional pressure on the industry. This policy, which emphasizes Canadian majority ownership of the country's energy sources, resulted in acquisition of Texasgulf's Kidd Creek lead-zinc-silver complex by Canadian and French interests. In response, the American Mining Congress adopted two resolutions on takeovers. One calls for the US government to review laws regulating tender offers and takeovers "to better ensure that principles of fairness and sound investment policy govern such transactions.'' The other asks the government to demand "fairness and reciprocity" as a basis for US policy governing international trade in minerals and investment relations with other countries. AMC's shopping list included four other priority goals, aimed primarily at the Interior Department: • Prompt implementation of Interior's efforts to bring order and balance to rules governing access to public lands for exploration and development. • Statement by the President of a comprehensive and coherent domestic minerals policy. • Amendment of the Clean Air Act to remove impediments to productivity and barriers to economic development that are not necessary to essential goals of the act. • Development of new approaches to better achieve worker health and safety in the most cost-effective manner without penalizing productivity. Almost 6000 mining industry executives attended the 1981 convention-the largest in AMC's 84-year history. As in years past, the conference offered a wide spectrum of presentations-nearly 100 papers in 26 sessions-ranging from commodity forecasts to the latest technical achievements. New Administration Stockpile Goals The minerals availability session included a presentation on management of the minerals stockpile by Paul K. Kruege r of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Krueger notes that rather than providing incentives for development of a domestic raw materials industry, the government has "a history of providing disincentives to industry." In mining industries, he adds, the rate of productivity growth has been -6% over the last six or seven years. Krueger feels there will be a major change under the Reagan administration. In March 1981, FEMA began the first purchase program for the national defense stockpile in over 20 years. The stockpile is sadly out of balance, Krueger adds. Stockpile materials are

Jan 12, 1981

“The mining industry can do more to alleviate world poverty, hunger and human misery, more to close the widening gap between advanced and developing nations and more to achieve international peace and understanding than any other single force in the world," Charles W. Court, Minister for Industrial Development, Western Australia, told the American Mining Congress audience at the opening session of the 1969 Mining Convention, October 19-22, San Francisco. Australia, he pointed out, is a shining example. In 1971, 60% of U.S. mining investment overseas will go to Australia and other parts of Oceania, an increase of 42% over a year ago. Australia has capitalized on world needs, its own rich resources and good investment climate. Developing nations can and should do the same, but they mix emotion with nationalism, often frightening away foreign investment which could breathe life into dormant and backward areas, said Court.

Jan 12, 1969

Seattle offered sunny, dry weather to about 2500 mining men who assembled September 10 to 14 for the 1961 American Mining Congress. The impact of snappy sessions on national mineral policy, state of the industry and foreign competition (to name only a few) was somewhat overshadowed by enthusiasm of conventioners for salmon fishing. This lordly fish, which mysteriously runs to its hatching place to spawn and die at this time of year, was not cooperating with the anglers in Puget Sound. However, this did not prevent consuming ample amounts of the deliciously prepared Quinault salmon at the "Potlatch" celebration.

Jan 10, 1961

Two sessions during the recent AMC Mining Convention in Los Angeles, September 23-26, served to update industry personnel on the status of health and safety regulations in the US. As reflected by the American Mining Congress resolution on mine safety and health, "Based on experience with the federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 and the federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, (AMC) does not believe that laws designed to force compliance with regulations through the imposition of criminal or civil penalties will result in safer mines. (AMC) feels that the government's participation will be much more productive if greater emphasis is placed on research, training, and inspections aimed primarily at assisting operators and employees in recognizing and eliminating hazardous conditions and practices.

Jan 11, 1979

By Mark G. Colwell, Russell Frith

"An Analytical Model for Coal Mine Roof Reinforcement (AMCMRR) has been developed. AMCMRR utilizes a Factor of Safety (FOS) approach, which is commonly used in all forms of engineering. The starting point in the development of AMCMRR was an existing analytical roof behavior and roof support design methodology/model, originally developed by Colwell. This technique was used successfully in the Australian underground coal industry for roof support evaluation and design prior to and during the course of the research project, and when used, it was essentially calibrated on a site by site basis.It has long been recognized that bolts and longer tendons can modify the behavior and load bearing capacity of the reinforced roof via the concept of beam building. The break-through in developing AMCMRR was combining the original analytical model with a comprehensive database (associated with Australian collieries) to effectively quantify this reinforcing effect, and this in turn provided the ""platform"" by which this analytical model can be calibrated for the entire Australian underground coal industry.This paper focuses on the application and use of AMCMRR and the analyses undertaken to quantify the reinforcement beam building offers to the immediate roof. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that a combined empirical and analytical approach is currently the most practical way of developing credible geotechnical design tools for the Australian or any other underground coal industry.BACKGROUNDBy the start of 2006 the ALTS (Analysis of Longwall Tailgate Serviceability-Colwell et al., 2003) and ADRS (Analysis and Design of Rib Support-Colwell, 2006) design methodologies were being routinely and widely used within the Australian underground coal industry. As a result of their success, Colwell Geotechnical Services commenced a research project entitled, ""The Future Development and Integration of ALTS & ADRS for Improved Underground Roadway Design. "" The project (which became known as the ALTS 2006 Project) was funded directly by several of the major coal producers as well as individual Australian collieries."

Jan 1, 2010

By Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório, Flávia Paulucci Cianga Silvas, Bianca Medeiros, Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa, Ivo André Homrich Schneider, Daniella Cardoso Buzzi, José Roberto de Oliveira

"AMD is one of the main problems associated with mining activities and the techniques used in their treatment may be the biosorption. The aim of this work was to study the rice husk as a biosorbent for the AMD treatment keeping constant: pH (2.6), biomass concentration (1g.L-1), temperature (25°C) and agitation (175rpm). And varying the contact time of 5, 20, 60 and 240 minutes. Rice husk samples will be characterized before and after the biosorptives tests through analysis of SEM and IR. The micrographs indicate the occurrence of micro-precipitation and changes in biomass physical structure. Since the infrared spectra indicate changes in functional groups present in the biomass before and after the biosorptives tests. AMD synthetic solutions will be analyzed by ICP in order to quantify the metals concentration captured by biomassIntroductionThe preoccupation for the environment has led the industry in general, to treat their waste. As the only industrial activity is increasing, the pollutants generated must undergo treatment processes aimed at reducing pollution, and therefore, less aggression ecosystems.In mining there is waste water with accumulation of heavy metals, and these are harmful to health of living beings, thus being one of those industries responsible for some pollution of the environment. These wastewater in contact with oxygen to generate an acidic water is called acid mine drainage (AMD). This aqueous solution has a pH below 3 and varieties of dissolved metals. When this solution comes in contact with water, generates a series of environmental problems, so there is a need to recover the metals present in the DAM."

Jan 1, 2012

By Carl P. Maronde, William P. Barnett, Patricia A. Rawls

The commercial deployment of advanced fine-coal cleaning technologies depends on cost-effective approaches for efficient separation and ancillary operations in handling, dewatering, drying, and transporting coal fines. As a result of two solicitations under the High-Efficiency Preparation component of the Department of Energy Coal Preparation Program, several projects were initiated for testing and evaluation of emerging technologies and equipment that address operational difficulties associated with coal fines. This paper will update the status of those projects and discuss how the technologies they represent can ameliorate some problems associated with coal fines in today's preparation plants.

Jan 1, 1995

By Olga K. Karakasi, Angeliki Moutsatsou, Ioanna Kavallari

"The present study focuses on the amelioration of the behaviour of high calcium fly ash (HCFA), investigating its application in a new environmental field: oil spill clean up. High calcium fly ash is a by-product of electric power plants, produced annually in large quantities, whose greater amount is landfilled. Some of its properties, such as its chemical and mineralogical composition, its fine particle size, its porosity, floating ability and hydrophobic character make it an attractive material for this purpose. Researches showed that when added to an oil spill, it forms a semi-solid phase, which allows the quite total removal of the oil, but it is not stably retained on the surface. In order to ameliorate its floating ability, the decrease in its specific gravity by mixing with a lighter material is investigated. In the present study the mixing with two materials, already used in oil spill clean up, sawdust and a polymer, has been examined. Addition of 15-25% w/w sawdust to HCFA results in a material with better performance than HCFA or sawdust alone: it has a satisfactory floating ability and allows total removal of oil. Addition of the polymer, however, has resulted in no significant amelioration of the oil sorption behaviour of HCFA, probably because no affinity between HCFA and polymer has been achieved.IntroductionCoal fly ash is a by-product of coal combustion in electric power plants, produced worldwide in huge quantities, approximately 500 million tones annually. High calcium fly ash (HCFA) is classified to class C presenting a (Al2O3 + SiO2 + Fe2O3) > 50%. The production of lignite fly ash in Greece comes up to 13 million tones annually, of which only 12% is used in construction applications, the other being landfilled [5, 6].Besides its limited application worldwide as a construction material, research is focusing on the development of new environmental applications, such as waste stabilisation and solidification, soil and water environmental improvement [9, 12]. For the application of fly ash in further environmental fields several chemical modifications have been applied, in order to improve its properties. Extensive research has been focused on the conversion of both coal and lignite fly ash to zeolite and its further application in environmental field, such as the uptake of inorganic (heavy metals and ammonium [8, 11]) or even organic compounds (methylene blue [15]) from waste water streams, or the use as molecular sieves, to adsorb water molecules, SO2 and NH3 from gas streams, due to the high cation exchange capacity and porosity of the produced zeolithic material. Furthermore, lignite fly ash has been combined with sodium silicate solution, prepared by treatment of rice husk ash, and tetrapropylammonium bromide, to synthesise hydrophobic zeolite ZSM-5 [4]."

Jan 1, 2008

"Decreasing gold-in-ore grades is one of the main drivers of poorer productivity and rapidly escalating unit costs. Grinding costs, water use and reagent consumption are all intimately related to the ore grade processed. Various pre-concentration technologies have been developed that can be applied at various stages of crushing prior to ore grinding. This paper will review the amenability of ores to coarse particle barren gangue rejection for fine crush sizes in the pumpable particle size range (i.e., particles between 5 mm and 0.3 mm in size). The liberation of oxide gangue achieved during crushing is evaluated by proxy using sink-float analysis and the deportments of gold, sulfur, and arsenic into sinks and floats are monitored. Amenability of gangue rejection by continuous gravity separation is evaluated after various crushing modes (vertical shaft impact crushing, cone crushing, and HPGR crushing). The potential to identify coarse particle mineral association and liberation using three-dimensional x-ray computed tomography will be discussed.INTRODUCTIONThe aim of research in this area is to explore some of the attributes which make some ores amenable to preconcentration, or rejection of a significant component of the feed mass to tailings at a coarse liberation size. Characteristics such as ore type, mineralogy, breakage pattern, particle shape, and liberation characteristics may need to be examined to identify amenability to pre-concentration amenability.It is intended to focus on continuous gangue rejection in the pumpable size range (0.3–5.0 mm) as this remains one of the key opportunities to reduce processing costs through a combination of techniques including screening (for mineral differentiation rather than size classification only) and gravity separation (using jigs). This is to be contrasted to conventional preconcentration as performed with automatic ore sorters."

Jan 1, 2016

By Carla Da Corte, Kagisego Letsoalo, Ashma Singh

Banded Iron Formations (BIF) are sedimentary rock formations ranging in age from 0.8 to 3.8 billion years and consist of alternating layers of silica and iron. The thickness of the alternating layers varies between and within deposits, with this lithology forming approximately two-thirds of South Africa’s future low-grade hematite resources. The production costs for South African iron ore producers are approximately double that of the largest iron ore producers, namely, Brazil and Australia. This in conjunction with volatile commodity prices, necessitated a cost-sensitive beneficiation strategy for low-grade hematite to sustain the industry and extend life of mine. A BIF sample grading at 44% Fe and comprising predominantly of hematite and quartz with minor amounts of magnetite and goethite was subjected to three fines gravity processing routes to establish the amenability of this sample to beneficiation. To provide flexibility for iron ore producers who still have high-grade resources available, two product grades were considered, namely a 60% Fe product for further blending or a 63% Fe product for direct sales.

May 12, 2023

The Committee on Nominations, begs to submit the following as its nominees for the respective offices indicated, for the year beginning February, 1920. For President and Director: HERBERT HOOVER Palo Alto, Calif. For Vice-President and Director: FREDERICK LAIST, Anaconda, Mont District 5 SEELEY W. MUDD, Los Angeles, Calif District 6 For Directors: W: M. CORSE, Mansfield, Ohio District 3 A. S. DWIGHT, New York, N. Y District 0 R. M. CATLIN, Franklin Furnace, N. J District 1 C. H. CLEVENGER, Washington, D. C District 9 W. A. CARLYLE, Ottawa, Can District 11 POPE YEATMAN, Chairman, Committee on Nominations.

Jan 12, 1919

By V. V. Lvov, L. S. Chitalov

"The purpose of the research is intensification of physico-mechanical ore properties determination for ball grinding processes in comminution circuits. The research presents comparative studies aimed at intensification of Bond Ball Mill Work Index (BWi) determination, such as testing technique of Ahmadi and Shahsavari, Berry and Bruse, Gharehgheshlagh, Horst and Bassarear, Kapur, Magdalinovich. The subject of the research is a test procedure of apatite-nepheline, copper-nickel, gold-sulfide and iron ores for the Bond ball mill index. The Bond Ball Mill Work Index for the material firstly was determined by standard Bond test methodology. Two the most promising testing techniques - Ahmadi and Kapur testing techniques - were modified. For the Ahmadi technique it was proposed to pay attention to the circulating load, which should be stabilized on the value of 250% as fast as possible. Two methods were put forward to quicker stabilize the circulating load. For the Kapur technique it was proposed to use empirical coefficients, which is determined especially for the apatite-nepheline, copper-nickel, gold-sulfide and ores. The modified Ahmadi and Kapur techniques require no more than two cycles of ball grinding to determine BWi (while normally 6-8 cycles are required) and less than 5 kg of initial feed. The suggested modified Ahmadi and Kapur techniques allow to intensify the physico-mechanical ore properties determination for ball grinding processes and BWi test costs considerably, which makes them useful for mass sampling and monitoring strength properties of ores entering a concentrating mill. INTRODUCTION When designing concentrating mills, the choice of the technological scheme for ore pretreatment, particularly the type, quantity and size of the main process environment, the determination of optimal grinding conditions and the calculation of equipment load are carried out by preliminary studies of grinding in semi-industrial or laboratory-scale plants. Semi-industrial tests on full-scale plants provide the most reliable information for calculating specific loads for equipment. However, this requires a significant amount of ore samples, a high labor costs and the pilot plants. Thence the most researchers performed grinding tests with small laboratory equipment using small ore samples."

Jan 1, 2018

The opening session was held on Tuesday evening, October 23d. Mr. J. F. Lewis, on behalf of the local committee of arrange ments, made a short address of greeting to the members assembled, and then introduced Gov. A. H. Holley, of Lakeville, Conn. Gov. Holley addressed the Institute as follows: Gentlemen, we give you cordial welcome to a mining, manufac turing, and agricultural country, of which we are not a little proud. We welcome you as an association, and as individuals. We invite you to an inspection of our resources, and to our methods of im proving them. We appreciate the results of your efforts in past years, and we anticipate good from your advice and counsel in the future. You are in the vicinity of some of the oldest mining and manufacturing operations in iron in our country. It will be our pleasure to conduct you to a mine which was worked for more than a half century before our country achieved national inde pendence, and to point out to you the spot where the products of this mine were wrought into cannon and shot during the progress of our Revolution. We can show you also a far larger area of mining country than was supposed to exist in this vicinity at that early day. There are, within a radius of thirty miles from this spot, ten mines at least that have been extensively worked, and there are as many more that have been occasionally worked, with a fair degree of success. All the mines that are wrought to any extent produce excellent qualities of iron, while many of them in various combinations produce as good material for the manufacture of steel, car wheels, axles, and many other purposes, as can be found in ally country. The old Salisbury iron retains its reputation for tensile strength unsurpassed, when made entirely from the ore of the old mine. The progress that has been made in the development of these mines since the days of the pickaxe, when the product was trans ported in pounds upon horseback, to those of the steam-engine, which now moves hundreds of tons per day, presents, indeed, a

Jan 1, 1879

By E. P. Jennings

The abundance and value of the tellurium minerals of Colorado is well known, but, as yet, few analyses have been made of them, and I offer these as a small contribution to the chemistry of these valuable ores. 1. Native Tellurium.—The specimens from which the analyses of this mineral were made are from the " John Jay" Mine, Boulder County, Colorado, where it occurs in quite large masses, though mixed with more or less silica and iron pyrites. It is usually a finegrained, tin-white mineral, but sometimes occurs in distorted, hexagonal prisms in cavities in the quartz. Before the blowpipe it gives the reactions for tellurium, sulphur and iron; by cupellation, it yields a small amount of gold. An analysis of a coarsely crystallized specilnen gave the following results : Specific gravity, 5.10.5. Tellurium,.........68.40 Gold, :.........1.36 Iron pyrites,........24 92 Ferric oxide,.....4.37 Silica and silicates,........11.54 Silver, lead, and mercury,... traces. 100.59 Deducting the pyrites, iron oxide and silica, we have for the con]position of the mineral: Tellurium,..........97.78 Gold,.......... 2.27 100.00 Or, considering the gold to be in combination with tellurium to form sylvanite, we have : Nativc tellurium,........96.50 Sylvanite (An, Te3,),........4.50 100.00

Jan 1, 1879

By N. S. Keith

Some time ago, a firm engaged largely in the manufacture of copper sulphate, applied to me for information as to the practicability of obtaining the copper from their mother liquors by means of electricity ; having reference, more especially, to obtaining the electric current from some magneto-electric or dynamo-electric machine. The mother liquors were the result of several solutions of commercial scrap copper, containing impurities, the quantity of which

Jan 1, 1879

By Thomas Egleston

The copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior are composed of a series of metamorphic rocks, comprised under the names of amygdaloid and conglomerate, in which the copper and silver found with them are pseudomorphs. These rocks, generally, have Well-defined walls which cause them to separate easily. Generally, the country rock is sterile, but it occasionally rises into the copper-bearing rock, and then carries copper. Usually, the amygdaloids carry copper, and the greenstones or melaphyres which encase them do not. There is a very generally received opinion that the copper in these beds occurs in shoots. This does not appear to be proved, though the opinion seems to have some foundation from the experience of the Calumet & Heela Mine, where a body of poor rock has been left, which, on the mine map, shows a general direction. The theory may be true of that individual mine, but too little work has been done in the other mines to draw any decided conclusion. The copper is very unequally disseminated in the rock, if any given piece be taken as an example, but, if the whole copper-bearing series be considered, its distribution is uniform. It may prove that there are certain directions in which the copper has been deposited more abundantly than in others, and these may be found to correspond with certain geological causes, but up to the present time the knowledge gained is not sufficient to warrant any general conclusion. These rocks are supplemented by a series of true fissure veins, of which there are several systems, making the amount of native copper very large. Unfortunately, except in the fissure veins, known as " mass-mines," the copper is so scattered through the rock, and is in such a fine state of division, that, although it is not always difficult to mine, it is always difficult to dress it sufficiently to make it pay. The metal is so unifornily distributed throngh these copper-bearing rocks that detached pieces, called " float," are found in digging on almost any land in the country. These pieces vary from very small fragments, weighing not more than a few ounces, up to many pounds. In one instance, in making an excavation for a cellar of a

Jan 1, 1879

By T. F. Witherbee

The subject of an article in the Engineering and Mining Journal for October 13th, 1877, namely, Blast Furnace Treatment of Silicious Iron Ores,, is of great interest to myself, and doubtless to many others who hare been troubled with a seemingly unaccountable percentage of silicon in their pig iron. It is to be regretted that the author of the article did not give us complete details of his charges, and thus prevent a possibly fatal error in the very beginning of the discussion of the points raised in his communication. As it now stands, I think we will have to fall back upon the statement that, " every conceivable mixture of fluxes and ores (A and B) has been used." Let us first, in order to simplify the calculations, do with she

Jan 1, 1879

By William Kent

In a paper by Mr. Frank Firmstone, published in vol. iv, of the Transactions of the Institute, on " Comparison of Results from Open-topped and Closed-topped Furnaces," the regularity of the average grade of pig iron procluced by the furnace under different conditions is expressed by means of a curve or diagram. The object of this note is to show that the graphic method, or that of representing variations by plotted curves or diagrams, is capable of a much more extended application to blast-furnace records, making a valuable auxiliary to the " furnace hook," and that by it the practical metallurgist may obtain at a glance information concerning the variations of the furnace during long periods, which could be found in the furnace book only after a tedious search. Plate XII is a graphic record of an anthracite blast furnace for one month. The table on page 554 gives the figures obtained from the furnace book, together with a record of temperature of the atmosphere, barometric pressure, and moisture in the air, which was obtained from a meteorological observatory not far from the furnace. In the records of a furnace, two of the variable qualities are final results, viz., the quantity of pig iron produced, and its grade; all the other variables are antecedent causes which produce the final results. Of these variable callses which contribute to the quantity of product and its grade, some are partially under the control of the furnace manager, others depend upon the state of the atmosphere, and still others are accidental. Of the first class are the character of the materials charged, and their relative proportions, their mechanical conditions, as wetor dry, large or small pieces, etc., the revolutions of the engine, the heat and pressure of blast, and the distribution of the charge. Of the second class are the number of pounds of air blown into the furnace for each stroke of the engine, the amount of moisture in the air, and the condition of the chimney draughts. These vary largely with the season of the year. Of the third class is the leaking of a tuyere or a temporary stoppage. To keep a record of this kind for a whole year, it is only necessary to procure a sheet of common profile or cross section paper, about 38 inches long and 8 or 10 inches wide, with cross lines ruled about 0.1 of an inch apart. The vertical lines, or those in direction of the

Jan 1, 1879