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By Zhen Y. Y, Cook A, Jell J. S, Fleming P. J G

Remapping of the Burdekin Basin has resulted in subdivision of the three interfingering basin-wide megafacies previously recognised in the Early to Middle Devonian Fanning River Group. Eleven carbonate and siliciclastic facies are now identified within the three megafacies, representing coastal plain, shoreline, nearshore, and shallow marine shelf depositional environments. The facies reflect two phases of a major transgression. An initial phase, in the Early Devonian, was confined to the far north of the basin, whereas a second, main phase, resulted in the encroachment of the sea from the east or southeast in the Middle Devonian.The proposed depositional model begins with the drowning of a coastal plain and the transgression of shoreline and nearshore facies between granitic and metamorphic headlands and/or islands. This was followed by the deposition of a patch reef and fringing reef complex including stromatoporoid and coral bioherms, biostromes, and oncolitic, crinoidal, and brachiopod-dominated banks/shoals, together with foreslopes and submarine channels, carbonate rubble deposits and terrigenous sediments. Sedimentation during the peak of the transgression was dominated by sheltered carbonate shelf facies, the maximum, flooding surface being recognisable across most of the Burdekin Basin. Progradation of muddy and sandy nearshore bay and shoreline facies soon followed, terminating carbonate deposition.

Jan 1, 1990

By K Ellis, B Lumsden

A full-scale statistically-based on/off plant trial of a new flotation conditioning technology designed to improve fine mineral recovery was undertaken to determine whether the recovery of selected fine sulfide minerals can be increased. The technology is selective for certain sulfide minerals only, including chalcopyrite and sphalerite. The technology has been shown to selectively aggregate the fine chalcopyrite and sphalerite minerals giving increased flotation recovery. The plant trials have shown an increase in the mineral recovery, without decreasing selectivity. Size by size recovery shows a significant increase in the fine (

Jan 1, 2005

By Thomas CG, Armstrong GJ, Lynch KS

A small glass walled pot grate has been used to simulate drying of iron ore pellets in a travelling grate plant. This equipment has enabled the effect of decreasing grind and de- creasing pellet bulk density on plant production to be quantitatively predicted. These predic- tions are compared with plant experience. The use of the laboratory simulator in comparing the effect of various additives on plant production is also described and substantial improvements in both the goethite and free-water drying periods are predicted.

Jan 1, 1972

By M Pyle, R Ch, T Vizcarra, ramohan, G Lane, G Ballantyne

Preconcentration, through gravity separation (Wallace et al, 2015), magnetic separation and particle size (Clout, 2013), has been used in many historical projects to convert low grade material into ore. More recently, pre-concentration technologies such as bulk sorting (Kurth, 2017), screening (Bearman, 2014) and coarse particle flotation (Vollert et al, 2019) have also demonstrated their ability to progressively reject waste through the value chain. These technologies can not only deliver stepchange improvements to the economics of mining operations, but can transform the environmental and social aspects by minimising water and energy consumption and significantly reduce the quantity of fine tailings produced. However, implementing progressive waste rejection requires technologies and approaches to be combined and applied in the right way to capture the value. From a technical perspective, progressive waste rejection introduces challenges related to the orebody, equipment performance, engineering and understanding the value chain from the resource through to final product. From a management perspective, the key issues are related to people and processes, in particular; motivating the business, challenging the paradigms, and introducing new ways of operating within the constraint of existing management structures to manage risks and minimise lost opportunity costs. This combination of technical and management issues means that progressive waste rejection is a complex undertaking for mining companies, yet the reward for the business and other stakeholders is potentially high and should not be ignored. This paper presents how progressive waste rejection can offer step-change improvements to the business case for high and low grade greenfield and brownfield projects based on case studies completed by Ausenco. The paper then outlines different implementation approaches from concept studies to execution to address the various technical and management challenges outlined above.

Nov 10, 2020

By D M. Brady

Underground coal mines in Australia have embraced the use of various inertisation techniques both proactively and reactively. The use of such techniques can have a significant influence on ratios and trends used to monitor the status of the underground environment. Whilst control strategies should never be ignored in favour of preserving the integrity of ratios, the influence and significance of the changes likely to be seen should be anticipated and understood for reliable interpretation of the situation. This paper looks at the influence inertisation techniques can have on results and subsequent interpretation.CITATION:Brady, D M, 2013. The influence of inertisation techniques on gas interpretation, in Proceedings The Australian Mine Ventilation Conference , pp 259-264 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 1, 2013

By Cunningham J. C

JUST prior to the war the Broken Hill South Ltd: raised, on the average, 6628 tons of ore per week, all of which was crushed and treated in the 4-section gravity mill and the slime flotation plant, for the recovery of lead concentrate carrying silver. The sandy residues from that treatment were railed to the treatment plant of the Amalgamated Zinc (De Bavay's) Ltd. for the recovery of zinc concentrate by flotation, on the joint account of both companies. Subsequent to that-since 1916-approximately 1000 tons of old dump slime were also treated weekly for the recovery of lead and silver as slime-lead concentrate.PLANT CAPACITYUnder this programme the Babcock and Wilcox boiler plant of 8 boilers was taxed to such an extent as to call for the installation of two additional boilers, each of 2690 sq. ft. of heating surface and 55 sq. ft. chain-grade area.The electric generators and the air compressors of the old powerplant were also loaded to their maximum capacity. In view of the fact that the old power-plant had been added to from time to time since 1901, and that further extension was notpossible, and as it was not, moreover, an economical arrangement, the whole question of power generation was reconsidered. The considerations that determined the installation of entirely new plant were as follows:(1) The need for more compressed air for underground work and more electric current for the extension of the slime-flotation plant for the recovery of zinc, as well as lead, as slime concentrates. Provision of additional power was also deemed advisable for the...

Jan 1, 1921

By Mantsevich M, Ivanov V, Volkov V, Ponomarov G

A new ecologically promising technology for the copper-nickel ore benefication using insert gases and pyrrhotite depression is under consideration. The finely dispersed nickel-containing sulphides and the pyrrhotite are easily oxidised during the process of flotation resulting in deterioration of selectivity and valuable component loss in the tailings. One of the ways to improve the benefication is the flotation of easily-oxidising minerals in an inert atmosphere. In the experiments nitrogen was taken as the inert gas supposing that in the industrial scale operations nitrogen generating, as a by-product of the oxigen production. will be used (Rybas et at, 1989). The most wide-spread mineral in the Norilsk rich sulphide copper-nickel ores is pyrrhotite containing iron, sulphur, nickel and platinum group metals. Up to 30 per cent of the pyrrhotite sulphur is recovered into the nickel concentrate causing the high sulphur dioxide emission in the further pyrometallurgical process of nickel production. This is the reason why the problem of the pyrrhotite removal during the ore concentration should be solved, the critical factor of the problem being the lowest possible nickel content in the pyrrhotite. According to the data of the geological and mineralogical mapping the nickel content in the pyrrhotites of rich ores varies from 0.3 to 1.8 per cent, with the mean value equal to 0.6 - 0.8 per cent. This assures the technological and economical effectiveness of the low-grade pyrrhotite removal during the flotation process.

Jan 1, 1993

By Hammond J. R, Ward T. A

The Tom Price orebody, in the Hamersley Ranges of North West of Western Australia, is mined by Hamersley Iron Pty. Limited. The orebody is a folded sequence of hematite and shale bands capped with goethite, with a con- sequential variable iron content. The overall grade is below that required to yield spec- ification product, necessitating selective mining, 'Zone Plans' based on geological structure have been developed to yield forward information on material types and grades. Short and medium term mine plans - the initial stage of quality control - are based upon these 'zone plans'. Blasts are laid out to break to the grade boundaries, thus minimising dilution, and the samples taken from the blasthole cuttings provide blast grades. Blending of shovel out- put from different blasts forms the operational basis of grade control. Shales, being more friable than hematite, produce fines that are lower in iron grade than lump. Quality control in the mine centres around maintaining the target fines grade, compensation being applied in the mine if the fines grade lies outside the target range.

Jan 1, 1973

By S Munn

Today, it can be said that the majority of mines utilise communications equipment in one form or another. Either for communications between staff making their day-to-day operations more efficient, or for emergency communications, as well as linking computer based mine management systems, and providing remote control over complex mobile and fixed machinery. With the advances in technology now available, we are moving into the next generation of mine communications equipment, using digital communications in the underground mine environment. It is a proven fact that an efficient underground mine communications system can help maximise production, by providing major gains in areas such as equipment and manpower utilisation, staff and vehicle tracking, reaction times to break downs and emergencies. In this paper we will describe some of the facilities that are currently available, as well as what will soon be available to mining and tunnelling companies around the world.

Jan 1, 1999

IT is intended in this paper to present in broad outline to the members of the Institute a short account of the conditions and operations that constitute what is, variously known as Subterranean Warfare, Military Mining, or Tunnelling. Realizing ,the magnitude of the operations, and the varied and minute details met with in them on,the Western Front, it is the writer's intention to confine these notes to operations carried out by the First Australian Tunnelling Company. In so doing there is no wish to detract from the very fine records of the Second and Third companies it is to be hoped that members of the Institute (or others) who were with these companies will write accounts of their doings-the former in the water-logged areas to the south of Armentieres, and later in the sand-dunes at Lombardzee, and the latter in the chalk area of the Lens coal...

Jan 1, 1920

By H Park, L Wang

Froth flotation is one of the most widely used beneficiation processes for fine and ultrafine coals and minerals. Maintaining optimal metallurgical performance in industrial flotation operation is still a challenging task owing to the lack of an effective tool to diagnose the flotation performance in realtime. For this purpose, a number of flotation performance monitoring systems with different working principles have been developed to provide instant feedback for process control and optimisation. In this paper, for the first time, five different flotation performance monitoring systems were systematically compared through an on-site trial in a coking coal flotation plant in Queensland, Australia. The monitoring systems were used to measure (i) gas holdup, (ii) overflowing froth velocity, (iii) overflowing froth height, (iv) air recovery and (v) drag force exerted by overflowing froth, in an industrial flotation column and the outputs of these systems were collected simultaneously at a wide range of operating conditions. For each monitoring system, the best regression model describing the correlation between the system output and the flotation performance was selected from various regression models (eg linear, quadratic, power-law and logarithmic) using the Akaike information criterion (AIC). A comparison of the coefficient of determination (R2 ), residual sum of squares (RSS) and measuring accuracy at 95 per cent confidence level of the best regression models of these monitoring systems suggested that the drag sensor outperformed the other systems at a wide range of flotation operating conditions. The superior performance of the drag sensor was attributed to its distinctive design that enabled intimate sensing of variation of the overflowing froth properties. Furthermore, the drag sensor had the ability to monitor feed ash content variation when the other operation variables were set almost constant.

Aug 24, 2022

Methane predrainage from coal seams in the Western Area of the U.K. has been practiced over the past decade. The differing reasons for the practice include the controlling of gas emission rates in coal headings required to win out coal faces and also the need to control the gas emission rates in the roadways of retreat faces in order to comply with the statutory requirements. There are some similarities with predrainage experience in the Bulli Seam NSW. The several case studies highlight the varying conditions in the Western Area coalfield where the use of predrainage was Required.

Jan 1, 1982

By K Biegaj, S C. Dominy

A high-nugget effect and presence of coarse gold characterises many styles of gold mineralisation. The effective sampling of these deposits is often difficult because of the relatively low concentrations involved and erratic nature of the gold or other minerals. Geometric and/or metallurgical complexities often compound this effect. Underground development, in-fill drilling and bulk sampling/trial mining are generally required to delineate Ore Reserves. Similarly expensive definition strategies often apply to surface mining in complex orebodies of gold and other minerals, including precious stones. Development, particularly winzing is a historical technique that was used to gather geological, grade and metallurgical data during underground and near-surface exploration. It permits access to the mineralised structure below the surface datum to determine viability. Winzing has always been considered an arduous and dangerous task. Modern winzing technology has led to the development of the Mobile Supersucker – essentially a giant vacuum cleaner with underground and surface capabilities. By the elimination of shovel-loaded blasted winze material into a kibble and hoisting, this system permits safe and highly efficient winzing activities, and allows the collection of bulk samples for grade and metallurgical evaluation, as well as access to the mineralisation for geological and geotechnical mapping. Bulk samples from horizontal development have long been collected to help define mineable grade via pilot processing. However, when defining blocks below current development, there has been over-reliance on ineffective ‘small sample’ drill data. The Mobile Supersucker permits the development of winzes and off-winze sub-levels. These provide critical information to a mine technical team when trying to justify capital to go deeper or commence or deepen an existing open pit. CITATION: Biegaj, K and Dominy, S C, 2018. Lowering risk in complex mineralisation: application of mobile supersucker development, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 113–115 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

By D Andrew, G Stanway, P Mahoney, C Griebel

The iron ore mining industry is currently going through an adjustment from high to more moderate growth as China’s economy transitions from capital-intensive investment to a more services-oriented economy. We are now witnessing a renewed focus on productivity improvements and cost savings as planned expansions are completed. Despite the scale and importance that the mining industry plays in the global economy, innovation literature is generally more targeted at faster-moving industries with shorter innovation timeframes and lower capital requirements. To fill this gap, VCI set out to understand the state of innovation in the mining industry in 2014. This State of Play report aims to give an objective appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of innovation in mining. The report has three sections covering both the structure and delivery of innovation in mining:Ecosystem – focused on understanding how the iron ore mining innovation ecosystem system works, including the roles of large and small miners, service companies, researchers and governments. Our recommendations focus on what is required for the system to work well and improve the level and quality of innovation in the industry.Strategy – how do companies define their innovation strategy in relation to their corporate strategy? How are these related to prevailing global and industry trends? How do they communicate this with their business? How successful are they? These are among the questions that this section attempts to answer. Our recommendations are pitched at the executive leadership of iron ore mining and service companies.Delivery – focused on how companies develop and deliver innovation, looking at the success of different structural options, leadership and culture, partnerships and the best approaches to change. Recommendations are aimed at improving outcomes within the iron ore mining value chain, including the role that suppliers play.CITATION:Stanway, G, Mahoney, P, Andrew, D and Griebel, C, 2015. Understanding the state of innovation in the iron ore industry, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 631–646 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By R Ibarra, H Solis, G Teowee, B E. Papillon

The authors have previously described a piezoelectric-based system to measure the dynamic pressure during actual detonation in the field. This technique is used in a water hammer test set-up where a donor detonator is fired first, with the pressure sensor and an acceptor electronic detonator placed underwater in a water tank, and maintained at a fixed distance away from the donor detonator. The functioning and timing of the acceptor detonator are captured using a customised microcontroller board called the water hammer timer. Using such water hammer testing, the effect of dynamic pressure was studied as a function of the magnitude of pressure during the electronic timing countdown. Data obtained indicate there is no significant impact in the timing of the electronic detonators in contrast to what has been reported in non-electric detonators.CITATION:Teowee, G, Solis, H, Papillon, B E and Ibarra, R, 2015. Effect of dynamic pressure on electronic detonator timing, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 575–578 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

The New Southern Railway (NSR) involves the excavation of approximately 10 km of single bore tunnel from Tempe Reserve, Tempe, to Prince Alfred Park (PAP). PAP is located just south of Central Railway Station in SydneyÆs Central Business District (CBD). From Tempe Reserve the alignment takes the tunnel under Sydney Airport including the main north/south runway. Sydney Airport is approximately 8 km south of the CBD. The NSR is being constructed by a private group, the Transfield Bouygues Joint Venture (TBJV). Transfield is a major Australian contractor and the French contractor, Bouygues, is providing the soft ground tunnel construction expertise and is also responsible for the design of the concrete segmental lining. This paper sets out to present in some detail the issues involved in tunnelling under the airport and in particular under the north apron, the main north/south runway and the new elevated roadway. The paper concentrates on these three areas on the airport with an emphasis on the following. The risks involved and measures taken to minimise the risks in tunnelling under the International Terminal north apron (with Jumbo Jets parked immediately above). Secondly, settlement predictions, settlement and runway operation criteria and the actual settlements that have occurred on the main north/south runway. Finally, the criteria that was developed during the construction of the deep bored piers for the elevated roadway at the Domestic Terminal as the TBM passed through this area of construction activity.

Jan 1, 1999

By T Peglas, A de Aboitiz

The Queensland Government, via the special purpose company vehicle û City North Infrastructure Pty Ltd û is currently developing BrisbaneÆs Airport Link underground toll road and Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron).Airport Link is a predominantly underground toll road planned between BrisbaneÆs northern suburbs, the airport and the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD) frame. The Northern Busway forms part of BrisbaneÆs expanding busway network, sections of which will be jointly delivered with Airport Link. Airport Link will connect the North-South Bypass Tunnel, Inner City Bypass and local road network at Bowen Hills to the northern arterials of Gympie Road and Stafford Road at Kedron and Sandgate Road and the East-West Arterial in the cityÆs north-east. The Northern Busway is a two-lane, two-way bus-only roadway proposed to connect the existing Inner Northern Busway at Herston with Windsor, Lutwyche, Kedron, Chermside, Aspley and Bracken Ridge. Airport Link and Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) is one of the largest infrastructure projects planned in the first phase of the State GovernmentÆs South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program. The paper will provide an overview of the projects, including a discussion on the technical and environmental aspects as well as the procurement of the Airport Link as a public private partnership.

Jan 1, 2008

By Grossi M, Baiden G

This paper describes a new mine backfill method based on a newly invented binder with several years of test results from laboratory and on- site applications. The new binder has several advantages over traditional Portland and slag cement binders. One tonne of the new binder can replace two to three tonne of Portland cement when used to consolidate backfill and can result in the same compressive strength within seven days. When comparing backfill slurries of the same pulp density, the new binder attains more volume of in-place backfill mass than Portland cement because of the high crystallisation of water, resulting in tightly filled stopes. The crystallisation of the water provides for less or no de- watering in the backfill stope and easier transportation of the backfill slurry. Pastefill performance can be achieved by using pulp densities typical of a hydraulic backfill and the new binder, all the while transporting with the same ease of hydraulic fill.

Jan 1, 1998

By J Rostami, T Afshar, M Sharifzadeh

Accurate estimation of rock load and selection of types of ground reinforcement to match post-failure behaviour of rock mass are important issues to assure tunnel stability. This paper focuses on the main factors affecting rock load to evaluate the capabilities of the existing models for prediction of rock load. Rock mass properties, project features and excavation method, as well as ground conditions and stress condition were found to be the key factors affecting the magnitude of rock load. Field data from tunnels of about 37.5?km driven in several geological structures in non-squeezing ground was used in this study. An in depth statistical analysis was performed on data to find correlations between the input parameters and measured/observed rock load. A weighting system was proposed to obtain the proper contribution of each factor for estimation of rock load in tunnelling through various ground conditions. The new classification system offered predicted values for rock load that were in a good agreement with the actual field measurements. The high disturbance factor (D>0.4) was the prime factor which controlled the rock load. Rock mass quality was the second key factor influencing rock load, which could be estimated by GSI, GSIresidual , especially when combined with tunnel depth.CITATION:Afshar, T, Sharifzadeh, M and Rostami, J, 2014. Estimation of rock load for tunnels with different disturbance factors, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014 , pp 3–8 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

The tankhouse of the electrolytic zinc plant at Nordenham is operating with a very high operating efficiency of 99 per cent. This has been achieved not only by strict control of the quality of the zinc sulphate cell feed solution but also by all the improvements in housekeeping in the tankhouse developed during the past years: aluminium cathode specification, cathode stripping cycle, edge strips, copper contacts, anode isolators, cell cleaning, fittings and washing devices. During 1987 to 1992 the casting department was completely remodelled in order to improve the quality of the zinc products, the safety of the operations and the flexibility. The remodelling includes the enlargement of the area for the casting shop, the storage buildings and the five casting lines on the same ground level. New lines for alloying products and for SHG25 kg zinc ingots have been constructed. The line for galvanising products has new equipment in some parts and the other lines have been modified.

Jan 1, 1993