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By Earl G. Hoover

For most geologists and miners the term "asbestos" refers to a group of highly fibrous silicate minerals that readily separate into long, thin, strong fibers of sufficient flexibility to be woven, are heat resistant and chemically inert, and possess a high electric insulation and therefore are suitable for? uses where incombustible, nonconductive or chemically resistant material is required. The United States Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) specifically refers to the naturally occurring minerals chrysotile. amosite, crocidolite, termolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, and actinolite asbestos as "asbestos" if the individual crystal fragments have the following dimensions; length -greater than 5 micrometers, maximum diameter -less than 5 micrometers, and a length to diameter ratio of 3 or greater. Since asbestos has been identified as one of the ten most carcinogenic substances (a cancer causing agent) it has become, for many government regulatory agencies, a major issue concerning banning emissions to the environment.

Jan 1, 1978

By Alfred C. Lane

WE recently received from Professor A. C. Lane, Emeritus Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, Tufts College, Mass., and a Corresponding Member of this Institute, a very interesting account of some recent developments in radioactive methods of determining the age of minerals and, therefore, of the rocks in which they occur. It deals in particular with studies of the minerals of certain pegmatite dykes on the Huron claims and Bear claims in southeastern Manitoba, which, the results indicate, are among the oldest rocks of the earth's crust. The following article presents a non-mathematical summary of Professor Lane's paper . . It will be noted that he is anxious to obtain suitable samples of certain minerals and rocks for further age studies. We hope some o our members may be able to supply him with the material he needs. It may be well to explain briefly how the age determinations are made. Uranium is continually breaking down, or disintegrating in successive steps through radium, etc., to a final product which is lead (uranium-lead), and the rate at which this change takes place is known. Minerals containing uranium will therefore contain lead also, and the lead-uranium ratio mul-tiplied by a certain factor (approximately 7 ,600) will give the age of the mineral in millions of years. Thorium also disintegrates at a known rate to give lead (thorium-lead) as a final product, and the age of a mineral containing thorium can thus be calculated from the lead-thorium ratio. Thorium breaks down more slowly than uranium. In unit time, one gram of thorium produces about as much lead as 0.36 grams of uranium.-ED.

Jan 1, 1938

By G. M. Behrend

"AbstractMeasurement and control systems in minerals processing plants are usually well thought out and designed. The criteria and design parameters have been interpreted correctly.However, these systems often fail to perform satisfactorily or break down altogether as a result of in-plant conditions which are unpredictable and over which the instrument systems designer has no direct control. The foresight necessary to anticipate the problems and allow for them in the systems design can only be generated by experience.This paper lists the most common of these problems and offers practical methods for their solution. It then follows with an analysis of instrument installation practices and comments on special points that need watching.Finally, instrument maintenance is discussed with a view to achieving good maintenance at the best possible economy.Good MeasurementGeneralTHE MINES and mineral processing plants of the nineteen seventies, after decades of sensible caution, have now committed themselves to extensive automatic control. X-ray analyzers are freely specified. Sample acquisition systems are efficient and automated, computers are reliable and relatively cheap, and computer control systems in conjunction with the new analyzers are operating in a good many plants and are proving to be profitable.The sight of shift foremen and floor operators assembled in front of a TV-tube and taking a computer data display as gospel truth is quite common now, and yet was quite unthinkable only ten years ago."

Jan 1, 1977

By Edward J. Harvey

Joplin, one of the most famous zinc mining camps of a bygone era, is today experiencing a healthy growth in manufacturing enterprises. Manufacturing requires water, and knowledge of its availability and quality often is the main factor in location of industry. For this reason in January 1964, on the suggestion of the former State Geologist, Dr. Thomas R. Beveridge, a study of the water resources of the Joplin District was undertaken as a cooperative effort of the Missouri Geological Survey and Water Resources now under the direction of Dr. William C. Hayes and the U. S. Geological Survey. The project area is in southwestern Missouri on the Springfield Plateau and is bordered on the west and north by the Osage Plains of Kansas and Western Missouri, (fig. l). Upland altitudes rise from 900 feet above sea level in the west to 1400 feet in the east. The countryside is rolling to moderately hilly and much is excellent farmland.

Jan 1, 1965

By Robert Boutilier

For more information on what the social licence means, see the following: Joyce, S. and Thomson, I. 2000. Earning a social licence to operate: Social acceptability and resource development in Latin America. The Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin, 93(1037) Nelson, J. and Scoble, M. 2006. Social License to Operate: Issues of Situational Analysis and Process. Vancouver, BC: Department of Mining Engineering, University of British Colombia. Thomson, I. and Boutilier, R.G. 2010. The Social License to Operate In P.Darling, (Ed.), SME Mining Engineering Handbook: Littleton, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. Much of what has been written and said about the social license to operate focuses on what the company has to do or not do. But the social license is a two-sided relationship. We also need to look at what the community has to do, or not do, in order to be capable of issuing a social license that is meaningful.

May 1, 2010

By Larissa Rodrigues de Carvalho Rocha, Mauro Vivaldino Fernandes, Beatriz Fausta Gandra

A composição química do gás redutor afeta, de forma marcante, sua difusividade através do leito e a capacidade de redução da carga metálica. Associado a isto, o cenário econômico e ambiental indica a necessidade de se buscar cada vez mais elevada produtividade dos altos-fornos, com baixo consumo de combustível e menor emissão de CO2. Para tanto, as empresas têm buscado operar com elevada taxa de injeção de carvão e, em casos de política favorável, intensificar o uso de gás natural em altos-fornos. Nestes casos, a quantidade de material reduzida via H2, em comparação ao CO, é aumentada. No presente trabalho, são apresentados os resultados de ensaios em amolecimento e fusão (A&F) de dois tipos de granulados, de um tipo de pelota e de um sínter industrial, utilizando-se como redutor um gás com diferentes teores de H2 (0% a 12%). Verificou-se que, para o granulado, não há uma tendência definida. Embora um maior teor de hidrogênio possa favorecer a redução, isto não refletiu em melhor permeabilidade do leito. No caso da pelota estudada, houve leve tendência de melhora nos parâmetros avaliados quando se tem o gás mais rico em hidrogênio. No entanto, seu desempenho em A&F foi muito aquém daquele esperado para este tipo de carga, uma vez que apresentou elevada resistência à permeabilidade associada à baixa redutibilidade até o início do amolecimento. Para o sínter, foi identificada evidente melhora nos aspectos de redução e de permeabilidade do leito.

Oct 1, 2019

By Anderson William Henrique Satini

A redução do preço de minério de ferro aliada ao aumento das restrições ambientais para licenciamento de áreas para disposição final de rejeito vêm impondo a necessidade de se aumentar a eficiência dos processos de concentração mineral. Dentro desse contexto, realizou-se esse trabalho com o objetivo de avaliar a viabilidade técnica de se flotar o atual rejeito final da planta de flotação da Usina Central de beneficiamento da Mina Casa de Pedra, a fim de aumentar a recuperação mássica e metálica da planta de concentração. Examinando os resultados dos ensaios laboratoriais de flotação, realizados com a amostra do atual rejeito final da concentração, foi possível constatar uma redução de 62% nos teores de ferro do rejeito flotado. Além disso, as análises estatísticas revelaram ser dispensável a dosagem suplementar de reagentes para flotar esse material.

Aug 16, 2017

By Achyut Kumar Allady, Praveen Arumughan

NCHRP Synthesis 418 (2011) entitled, “Developing Production Pile Driving Criteria from Test Pile Data” details the occurrence of dichotomy between pile Skin resistance and pile Tip resistance mobilizations at different times for different hammer blows during pile driving operations. With increasing usage of High Strain Dynamic Testing (HSDT) the engineering community started paying more attention to this occurrence of dichotomy resulting in overdriving, pile damage, increased claims, and loss of time. To overcome the dichotomy limitations of HSDT, NCHRP recommends, “the use of superposition to combine the back-calculated tip resistance from a blow on initial drive or from redrive with the back-calculated skin resistance from the early blows at the beginning of restrike”. However, the current practice of external mounted gauges and signal matching for a single blow are unable to evaluate independently the Skin resistance and Tip resistance to achieve the goal of determining the optimum Total Pile Capacity using the superposition. This paper discusses advancements of science and technology with sensors embedded at the pile top and pile tip, the data collected is analyzed by the state-of-the-art FDOT Method to determine Skin and Tip resistances independently for every blow. Independent Tip and Skin resistances each with a Resistance Factor can be summed up to obtain optimum Total Pile Capacity. Additional benefits of determining independent Skin and Tip resistances include obtaining lost skin capacity due to scour, due to pre-drilling/preforming and uplift tension capacity. Furthermore, the benefits of embedded sensors include increased quality control/quality assurance through 100% testing, accelerated construction, life cycle monitoring and asset management.

May 1, 2022

By G. P. O’Malley, A. N. Nikoloski

One of the most promising options for extraction of copper from low-grade chalcopyrite ores by heap leaching, however, chalcopyrite is refractory and suffers slow leaching kinetics and poor overall extraction due to formation of a passivation layer on the particles. The solution composition is believed to strongly affect the formation of this layer. This paper examines the effects of the major cationic species of Fe3+/2+, Mg2+, Cu2+, and Al3+ and the anionic SO42− species in acidic ferric sulfate media with a composition simulating recycle heap leach conditions. It was found that altering the sulfate, iron or aluminium concentration had significant effect on the copper extraction, the concentration of copper slightly influenced the extraction, and the amount of magnesium had no appreciable effect. Also, iron and aluminium caused a change in the sulfate concentration, and the sulfate ions had the greatest influence on the extraction of copper under recycle leach conditions

Jan 1, 2023

By N Dube, K L. Sandvik, C Mutevhe

Trojan Nickel Mine is the largest producer of Ni, Cu and Co in Zimbabwe. The mine has operated a nickel flotation concentrator and base metal refinery continuously since 1969, creating 28 million tonnes of sulfide bearing tailings, five million tonnes of permanent waste rock and about seven million tonnes of smelter slag. Exposure of the sulfide bearing minerals renders them susceptible to oxidation in the presence of water and oxygen, resulting in acidic solutions with elevated concentrations of total dissolved solids, sulfate, metals and residual flotation chemicals in various waters draining from the mine site. These pollutants pose a direct threat to the environment and human health, and understanding their deportment and behaviour in the various waste streams is essential in the mineÆs environmental objectives to prevent or minimise adverse impacts arising from its operations. A geochemical assessment of the pollutants was carried out to compute a mass balance between the major sources of pollution and the distribution and fate of pollutants in waste streams from the mine site. Waste rock, tailings, surface water, ground water and sediments were sampled, tested and analysed. Mineral composition and water chemistry data show that geochemical reactions are responsible for the release of pollutants from waste rock, tailings and plant spills. Drainage from the mine area is near neutral due to buffering by magnesium carbonates in the fine fraction of the tailings. The natural wetlands that exist downstream of the waste rock and tailings dams are effective in reducing metal loadings to water courses. However, solutes and heavy metals are occasionally released to surface and ground water, when their concentrations peak during the dry season. The results demonstrate the necessity to understand the natural chemical processes that characterise the distribution of pollutants in nature and how such knowledge can be used to develop cost effective methods to remediate pollution in the natural environment.

Jan 1, 2006

By Walter R. Storms, Jerry W. FAUST

This paper, which describes mining methods and costs at the Kearney zinc-lead mine, is one of a series being prepared by the Mining Division of the Bureau of Mines on mining practices, methods, and costs in varicus mining districts of the United States. The Kearney mine, which is owned by the New Mexico Consolidated Mining Co., a subsidiary of the Peru Mining Co. (Illinois Zinc), is situated a few miles southeast of the town of Hanover, in the northwest corner of sec. 27, T. 17 S., R. 12 W., in the Central Mining District, Grant County, N. Mex. (Figs. 1 and 2.) This report presents a brief history of the district, describes the geology, and outlines methods of prospecting and exploration, including eampling and estimation of tonnages and values. Development and mining methods are explained, and transportation, ventilation, drainage, safety measures, and organizatich are described. The wage scale and mining costs comprise the concluding sections of the report.

Jun 1, 1949

By R Yang

This paper presents a fragmentation model for large production blasts in an open pit or underground environment. The paper shows that the particle velocity is directly related to pressure, strain, and strain rate and so it can be considered as driving force and mechanism of rock fragmentation. This is supported by the fact that a vibration with a larger peak particle velocity (PPV) generates larger disturbance in rock and so finer fragmentation or more blast damage than a low PPV. The crack distribution in rock from impact is based on findings from previous researchers (Seaman, Curran and Shockey, 1976; Liu and Xu, in press). The fragmentation size is calculated at three-dimensional grid points within a blast. The fines and oversized blocks are calculated explicitly – the fines generated close to blastholes and big blocks far from boreholes are modelled naturally. The multiple blasthole fragmentation (MBF) model takes surveyed irregular geometry of the free face of a blast as the calculation boundary. The MBF can model fragmentation with over one million grid points. Examples of the model’s field comparison are also included.The PPV at a calculation grid is estimated based on the same approach used for the near field non-linear vibration model (Yang and Scovira, 2007). The method is based on the dominant charge for a calculation grid point, non-linear charge weight superposition within a charge and from multiple charges, strain wave broadening, and amplitude attenuation with distance from a charge segment. The blasthole confinement affected by earlier firing charges is also taken into account.The MBF model inputs from blast design, such as: location and orientation of each blasthole, stemming length, blasthole diameter, multiple decking, bench height, initiation sequence, etc. It models the effect of the delay and its scatter in each blasthole on fragmentation and has a statistical modelling capability for geological random variation on attenuation of particle velocity wave. The wave reinforcement due to instantaneous waves arriving or diminishing cooperative contribution due to long delay intervals between charges is also simulated.The results are displayed in 3D volumetric plots, contour of fragmentation in cross-sections, and size passing curves for a whole blast or a region of the blast.CITATION:Yang, R, 2015. A multiple blasthole fragmentation model – its concept, formulation, capability and field comparison examples, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 177–186 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By Thomas F. Kerr

The La Quinua mill at the Yanacocha mine in Peru has a thickened tailings storage facility that is contained entirely within an active heap leach pad. In this respect, it is unique and unprecedented in the mining industry and provides the operator, Minera Yanacocha S.R.L. (MYRSL), with certain cost, land-use and closure efficiencies. The combined design requires that the leach ore embankments retaining the tailings provide the same high level of stability and security required of major tailings dams. Contrary to standard tailings dam construction, the leach ore in these embankments is placed in thick, uncompacted lifts so that they maintain adequate permeability for leaching. The resultant loose structure makes static and dynamic liquefaction a critical issue, and the key design principle for avoiding a liquefaction related failure is to keep the ore that is saturated or very near saturated when under leach well removed from the outer faces of the embankments and contained behind large unsaturated structural shells.

Sep 14, 2009

By P Marlow

Raiseboring is an attractive method of constructing shafts, being safe, fast and comparatively cheap. But this means back-reaming through weathered ground. However in the gravels and weathered near-surface rocks typical of the Western Australian goldfields, back reaming large diameter shafts through to the surface is risky and conventional sinking from surface has normally been required.An alternative construction approach has recently been used to stabilise the weak surficial materials and allow raiseboring through to the surface. The method is based on first installing rings of non-contiguous reinforced bored piles around the shaft perimeter, for temporary support, then back reaming shafts at full diameter through to the surface. Immediately after the reaming head is removed, the weak exposed materials are supported using remotely sprayed fibrecrete.The method has been successfully applied to four shafts since July 2007; 3 m and 4 m diameter shafts at Trident Mine, a 3 m diameter shaft at Wattle Dam and a 4.5 m diameter shaft at Athena Mine.Bored pile layout designs have varied from eight to 24 piles, of diameters 120 to 270 mm, in one or two rings. In one case, the top 10 m of the proposed shaft was pregrouted. Subsequent surveys have confirmed that fallout occurred in some shafts, out to the ring of piles, implying that the piles inhibited collapse.The practical implementation of the method was not always easy and many valuable lessons have been learnt. This paper documents key aspects of the method and the critical elements for its application.

Mar 21, 2011

By A. N. Brown

The Hendrik van der Bijl Memorial Lecture is arranged annually under the auspices of the Pretoria Engineers Liaison Committee. This is a multidisciplinary Committee with representatives from eleven societies and associations, and serves the interests of engineers resident in the Pretoria area. Coal preparation The Japanese Organizing Committee of the 11th International Coal Preparation Congress is now busy making the necessary arrangements for the Congress, which is to be held in Tokyo from 22nd to 26th October, 1990.

Jan 1, 1989

By George F. Kunz, Henry S. Washington

The recently discovered occurrence of diamonds near Mur-freesboro, Pike county, Ark., was brought to our attention by Mr. Samuel W. Reyburn (Trustee for Messrs. C. S. Stifft, A. D. Cohn, August Zinsser, Jr., and himself, owners of the property), through whose courtesy we investigated the locality of the deposit. Prospecting with the diamond-drill is now in active progress; but mining operations on a large scale have not yet been ordered. Geology.—The geology as well as the petrography of this interesting locality has been well described by Messrs. J. C. Branner and R. N. Brackett,' but they did not class it as dia-mondiferous, although Branner suggested that it might be. Briefly summarized, the igneous rock in which the diamonds are found is a vitreous peridotite, forming a stock or volcanic neck, which has broken up through the Carboniferous and Cretaceous quartzites and sandstones. After an extensive period of erosion, during which an unknown portion of the neck and pre-

Jan 1, 1909

By Huijun Shao, Qiang Liu, Zhengming Yi

The increase of the proportion of high Al2O3 content iron ore fine in iron and steel enterprises has brought about a series of problems such as the increase of the viscosity of blast furnace slag and the difficulty of the separation of slag and iron. In order to solve this problem, the effect of increasing MgO content on the technical and economic index, the cold strength, and metallurgical properties of high basicity and high-alumina sinter was studied through sinter pot test. Nova400NanoSEM field emission scanning electron microscope was used to analyze sinter microstructure. The experimental results show that when the MgO content fraction in the sinter with high basicity and high aluminum increases from 1.72 to 2.49%, the vertical sintering speed decreases by 4.38mm/min, the utilization coefficient decreases by 0.51t/(m2 h), and the low-temperature reduction degradation index increases by 6.7%. When MgO content in sinter is 2.11%, drum index and reducibility index are the highest, reaching 61.93% and 86.39% respectively. Mg2+ is mainly solid dissolved in the magnetite lattice and replaces Fe2+, up to 3.64%. The generated magnesie-containing magnetite inhibits the phase transition from Fe3O4 to Fe2O3 oxidation process in the sinter cooling process, which reduces the generation of secondary hematite and is conducive to improving the low-temperature reduction degradation performance of sinter.

Jul 4, 2021

By R. A. L. Black

Between March and June 1962, the privilege of holding a Carnegie Corporation Fellowship enabled R. A. L. Black to travel extensively in the northeastern and western U.S. and in Canada, seeing mining schools, mining research establishments and a cross-section of the American and Canadian mining industry. Visits were paid to 12 university mining schools, 7 research establishments and 19 mining operations. The author had previously spent two months in Britain in a similar manner and eventually returned to his home in South Africa after a short period studying mining problem in Australia. Thus, although the following remarks are mainly concerned with the educational problems of mining in North America, a comparison of impressions of American and Canadian conditions could be made with impressions gained from first-hand experience of other mining centers in the English-speaking world. The conclusion was reached that the problems and conditions of mining, research and mining education are very similar in all areas visited.

Jan 4, 1963

By S McKnight, S Hall

Much of the research regarding the use of bacteria for the oxidation of sulfide minerals has been conducted using pure bacterial strains or synthetic minerals, often under ideal conditions, which does not reflect the conditions commonly encountered in commercially operating plants. This has also led to much conjecture as to the exact mechanism by which bacteria are able to enhance sulfide oxidation and as to which species of bacterial microflora are the most dominant. Recent advances in 16S rNA sequencing has confirmed that many of the bacterial species once thought to dominate commercial oxidation circuits were simply more willing to grow under the culturing conditions used and may only play a minor role in the oxidation process (Rawlings, 2002). Consequently this research will look at bacterial oxidation under conditions more reflective of commercial operations, focusing on the presence of organic carbonaceous material within a refractory sulfide orebody to be sourced from the Fosterville deposit of Perseverance Corporation Limited.

Jan 1, 2004

Jan 1, 1951