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By Ramon LaRusso, Frank Wheby, Richard Acker

Field investigations and office studies were used to develop criteria and cost parameters related to the geologic aspects of the proposed project. These results were employed in optimization of layouts and comparison of alternative schemes, leading to selection of the recommended program. Study of project features included the development of subsurface shafts, tunnels, and mined storage areas, and the utilization of existing surface quarries. These project features were proposed for construction within the bedrock units underlying Chicago. Principal geologic considerations included bedrock structure, stratigraphic sequence of units, rock competence and uniformity, and requirements for aquifer protection. All geologic factors were interrelated with other project considerations such as surface hydrology, hydraulics, and urban setting. Data for analyses was acquired through an exploration program conducted intermittently between 1967 and 1971, in addition to that already available through numerous explorations and well constructions in the project area. The exploration program included seismic surveying, core drilling, geophysical borehole logging, and water pressure testing of boreholes, and water well drilling and testing. Extensive laboratory tests were conducted on core samples. The data formed the basis of studies enabling the formulation of preliminary design and siting criteria resulting in construction cost evaluation.

Jan 1, 1997

By Y. V. Swamy, B. Bhoi, H. S. Ray

Low-grade manganese ores with low Mn/Fe ratios can he enriched through selective carbon reduction of iron oxide to magnetite followed by magnetic separation o f the magnetite. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to assess the preferential isothermal reduction of pure M1702 and Fe2O3 using solid carbon. This was followed by reduction of a synthetic analogue of composition comparable to an actual low-grade ore (i.e., Sandur manganese ore, Sandur, India). The carbothermic reduction of the manganese ore converts the hematite and goethite minerals to magnetite (Fe3O4), with the magnetite then going into the magnetic, fraction. The resultant nonmagnetic ,fraction becomes depleted of iron with an enhanced manganese content. These results show that it is possible to reduce the iron from 22% to 5.85%, thus increasing the Mn/Fe ratio from 1.52 to 6.2 with a manganese recovery of about 50%. The recovery was, further improved by grinding the magnetic fraction to -75 µm.

Jan 1, 1999

By D. B. Spears

The sillimanite group includes the aluminosilicate minerals sillimanite, kyanite and and alusite, all of which have the same chemical composition (Al2SiO5). This discussion also includes the closely related mineral, mullite(about Al6Si3O15), which, although rare in nature, is produced artificially for industrial use. All of the minerals in this group have a low coefficient of thermal expansion and high corrosion resistance. This makes them desirable for refractory applications, especially in the steel and foundry industries. Other uses include electrical insulators, abrasives and household ceramic products. The minerals in the sillimanite group decompose with an irreversible expansion at temperatures between 1,300° C and 1,600° C (2,372° F and 2,912° F). Sillimanite and and alusite have relatively small expansion on decomposition (4 percent to 6 percent) and, therefore, can be used as aggregates in refractory products. Kyanite’s expansion on decomposition is large (18 percent). So it is sometimes used to balance shrinkage of other materials such as clays in refractory mixtures. For applications requiring high-temperature volume stability, mullite is more desirable. As an additive, mullite improves resistance to creep and corrosion, and imparts thermal and electrical insulating properties.

Jan 1, 2005

By S. K. Palm

The commercial life of a mineral product can be long, but like hitech electronic and software products that soar in sales one day to become obsolete and forgotten a few months or years, mineral products have a life cycle. They are invented, commercialized and eventually decline and disappear from commerce. Diatomite and perlite are produced from mined minerals, but almost none of the products in these industries spring from the earth in finished form. Straight calcined diatomite was invented over 100 years ago and flux calcined diatomite just a few years later. The expansion properties of perlite were discovered and first exploited about 75 years ago. Some applications for diatomite have disappeared or currently face competition from newer products. Dry cleaning was once the second-largest application for diatomite but disappeared over 30 years ago. Both the beer and wine filtration markets for diatomite face increased competition from membrane filters. A pipeline of new, proprietary products is critical to the future of the industry.

Mar 2, 2022

By A. L. Anderson, J. T. Rybock

KEECO has developed the Silica Micro Encapsulation (SME) technology for the treatment of acidic, metal-laden waters. Utilizing a silica-based chemical formulation that entails chemisorption and micro-encapsulation of heavy metals in a permanent silica matrix, encapsulated particles settle quickly and are effectively isolated from the surrounding environment, producing a stable sludge that is characteristically non-hazardous. In a number of independently-verified pilot and full-scale applications (including the Bunker Hill Mine, Leviathan Mine, Wheal Jane Mine, and Meldon Quarry), SME has been proven highly effective. The technology has been featured in a number of mining publications and selected for innovative technology awards.

Jan 1, 2000

By J. K. Borchardt

The use of statistical design to optimize deinking process design has been studied for the flotation deinking of newspapers. The interactions of two variables are often important in determining flotation deinking efficiency. The interactions can be synergistic or antagonistic. These interactions would not be discovered using the traditional method of varying one parameter and holding the other variables constant. An experiment design in which two or more process parameters are varied simultaneously is required to identify these interactions. A considerable number of conclusions could be drawn about the relative importance of process variables on ink particle size distribution, ink removal efficiency, and flotation yield loss in a flotation deinking process. However, these findings could be influenced by the deinking surfactant and the ink chemistry.

Jan 1, 2001

By Taghi Sherizadeh, Kutay E. Karadeniz, Dogukan Guner, Samuel Nowak

Underground mining environments bring occupational health and safety issues with some severe dangers such as mine disasters like explosions. During such events, miners might escape using main access openings, or find a safe haven like refuge alternatives (RAs) to wait and be rescued and evacuated to the surface. In this paper, RAs are explained with their early and current applications. A classification as permanent and portable is explained depending on the conditions and their abilities. This classification is followed by the utilization and survivability of RAs with the requirements and recommendations of the main mining countries. Based on the utilization and survivability constraints, basic human requirements, waiting for a rescue team, and the required physical specifications of RAs during the events are analyzed in detail for various countries with their regulations. Among these, the specification, resistance to the explosion, is discussed in particular, and the studies in the literature are examined in terms of structural deformation. The highest deformed zones, the beneficiation of reinforcing steel components such as stiffeners, and the simulation approaches are investigated through this review.

Sep 24, 2022

By R. L. Grayson

Focusing on relationships between severity measure versus productivity and other factors, this paper presents a comprehensive study of injuries for U.S. underground coal mines in 1996 by mine size. Based on analyses of data, generally the larger the mine, the more productive it is (in tons per employee-hour), but the more severe is its injury experience (r = 0.65). Within very large, large, and medium mine sizes, however, the more productive the mine, the less severe is its injury experience (r =-0.43, -0.36, and -0.26, respectively). For small and very small mines, a more deeply nested analysis is required to understand relationships. Other interesting relationships and comparisons are presented.

Jan 1, 2000

By Christos Roumpos, Philip‑Mark Spanidis, Francis Pavloudakis

Coal mining operations are large-scale, long-term frameworks of high complexity. Mining organizations accumulate, develop, and leverage knowledge from diverse scientific and technological fields as a result of these operations. Both practical experience and existing literature indicate that knowledge management (KM) methods within the mining industry primarily target solving immediate technical challenges and operational requirements. However, they are not commonly regarded as strategic tools to enhance the performance and competitiveness of mining companies. Empirical evidence from the Greek mining industry suggests that the management of available knowledge is intricate, less effective, and dysfunctional. This paper presents a methodology based on the principles of quantitative research (QNR), collaboratively conducted with a group of mining experts, to assess the KM landscape in the Greek mining industry. The methodology involves a structured data collection framework using questionnaires, subsequent statistical analysis, a discussion on critical methodological aspects, and an interpretation of results focusing on key aspects useful for planners and designers of KM systems in the mining industry. Finally, the paper concludes by summarizing the methodology’s outcomes and proposing further perspectives for research.

Mar 16, 2024

By F. Heivilin

If the past is the key to the future, we will have ?tough? times maintaining Industrial Mineral reserves we have and proving new reserves around our plants and in new locations. The tough times will come from resources being more difficult to find, more hoops to go thru to make them Proven or Probable reserves. As always, Industrial Minerals require competitive quality, location, and costs. Since in most cases the market has suppliers, you will have to take away customers from their present supplier. This may take years or not happen even with lower cost higher quality raw materials. To determine the finished cost for a new deposit you need to design, determine capital costs, and operating costs for a new plant . Stripping, mining, hauling, processing, and transportation costs are part of the equation. After satisfying that your costs are in line you will need to do production tests to make sure the process works on the ore. You may want to complete permitting before purchasing the property. If you are new in the business you will have to prove you can deliver the right quality, the right quantity, on time consistently year after year at lower cost to take away a customer. Without being in the market this will be hard. The cut off grades to enter a market may be much lower than sale indicates because a competitor often lowers the price to keep you out of the market. We have many more items to check before the new deposits can be put on reserves. Our old reserves will require drilling to check for new products and prove that they do not contain items that would make them unusable for our product line or cause permitting problems. Archeological checks, wetlands, more water discharge testing, county zoning, and endangered species are among many items that have been added to mine permits. There will be more. A 4-6 page mining permit becomes 30-300 pages and consists of 5-15 permits, any of which might be a fatal stumbling block. It is not guaranteed that we can mine what we have on reserves. We may fight and lose. Oil-Dri?s loss in Reno and LaPort?s in England are examples where permitting failed. The NOx, sulfur, and carbon problems are just starting. Dioxin is in the background requiring monitoring on food products to Europe. What other anions, cations, endangered species, and land types are going to be problems in the future are guesses now. What new products are we going to have to test for and cause out of balance reserves? If there are none we probably won?t be here. We are competing for land use with ?Endangered Species?, wetlands, farming, forestry, cities, roads, and hunting. We?ve mined the best quality, low overburden, easiest to mine and process raw materials. The price of land and taxes are increasing. Old royalties are 2-3 times the present acre value instead of 8-10 times the property value when leased. Land taxes are up. It was and is best that we get the land in Fee Simple Title. This isn?t always possible. However, plants are closing and people have overlooked, made mistakes in drilling or interpretation of deposits. These may be opportunities. China is eating up high quality ?Industrial Minerals ?which have caused prices to rise. We may need to change our cutoffs? in terms of smaller pit sizes and higher overburden ratios. This is money in the bank. Overburden ratios and other items increasing cutoff costs need to be rethought. Suddenly doubling cutoff ratios for overburden and decreasing pit sizes are good alternatives to looking elsewhere where we might not be able to mine for a number of reasons. The higher prices make them competitive, especially when a competitor goes out of business. However, our low overburden ratios and short hauls around our plants are not safe from new roads, condemnation by county or city governments (N. J.), zoning changes (Reno, FL., CA, and environmental regulation changes (Buffers GA, MS). New roads ?Interstates? can take reserves, increase hauling distances and reduce tons per load. Let?s combine the Refractories, fullers earth, and bentonite industries and use the last 40 years as a guide to the future looking for problems and opportunities. Some or most of the following will apply to other minerals. WHERE DO WE LOOK? First, on our own properties, those next to our properties and on properties near our competitor?s plants. Where the profit margin has increased, the distance from the plant and thickness of overburden we can use is increased. The thickness of clay is decreased. For new locations we pick the ideal location and look at deposits and closed or open operations in ever increasing distances away from that location. We need to be aware of: 1. Increased transportation costs a. Access to Roads -Backhauls b. Haul with doubles and triples c. Railroads - Loading on sidings - Ability to get switches - Cars/backhauls versus rates 2. Cost of building a new plant 3. Cost of infrastructure 4. Cost of repair or new equipment when purchasing an operating or shutdown plant. 5. Local, state, and federal mine and environmental permitting. When exploring around an established operation expect that property acquisition, drilling, mining, stripping, and hauling costs will be greater due to them having second, third, or even fourth the pick of the deposits. I found this in New Jersey looking for refractories and around Quincy, Florida looking for attapulgite. You may be able to get some better properties because the operating company has angered some land owners, their drillers missed the clay, or the property wasn?t available when they were actively exploring for reserves. You may have some product lines your

Jan 1, 2009

Environmental conflict management approaches and procedures have been used to successfully address and resolve a variety of issues, problems, and conflicts related to the extraction of natural resources. Companies in the mining industry have been involved in a range of controversies over planning, siting, permitting, environmental, and enforcement issues. Through the use of conflict resolution case studies, this paper will present approaches and procedures that can help companies and other involved parties to successfully manage and resolve differences in a mutually acceptable manner.

Jan 1, 2000

By H. Marshall Farrier

In the past few years the world petroleum industry has increasingly felt the weight of changes in the principal economic factors affecting pro¬fits. As a result of, these changes, it has been necessary for many oil companies to acquire certain new facilities in order to strengthen their competitive positions and thereby protect their tremendous investments in crude oil reserves, pipe line facilities, refining operations, and marketing outlets. Principally these needs have been met by new capital outlays. A supplementary, method of acquiring needed facilities, however, has been to obtain existing facilities through complete or partial acquisition of other companies.' properties. It is this method of meeting competitive pressures with which this paper is concerned. This paper presents a statistical breakdown of the mergers and acquisitions which occurred in the oil industry between January 1, 1954, and October 1, 1959, showing the frequency' with which certain types of properties were acquired in each of the years studied. In addition, it discusses the principal economic conditions which stimulated many of these property trans¬fers, comments on the effects of these mergers on the consuming public, and indicates the types of, mergers and the rate at which they may be expected during the next three or four years. The basic data upon which the statistical analysis presented in this paper is based were taken from several published sources. Obviously they are somewhat incomplete because not all mergers and acquisitions were reported However;, a careful search was conducted through, The Wall Street, Journal, The Oil and Gas Journal, Potroleum Week, and The Oil Daily with the result that the data should be reasonably complete and comparable for each of the years studied, It is believed, therefore, that the statistical analysis which' follows provides a reasonably accurate indication of the general trend in mergers and acquisitions during the period studied.

Jan 1, 1960

By Marcus Digre

The autogenous grinding method has been progressively employed in mineral dressing plants during the last 15 years. The term has been used with somewhat different meanings (1), (2), (3). In this paper the author will use it in the most restricted way, for processes where run-of-mine ore (rock) in one step is reduced to a grind product by the action of the ore itself without any other grinding media present. The pebble grinding process where the major part of the ore enters the mill as finely crushed product which is ground further with selected coarse ore pieces acting as grinding media, is not considered autogenous grinding. Processes where a minor amount extraneous media as steel-balls is added to supplement an autogenous mill charge will be called semiautogenous. Other terms need also to be defined. "Mill charge" will be used about the active part of the mill content which performs the grinding, that is the steel balls in ball grinding and the coarse ore pieces in pebble and autogenous grinding. The interstitial nearly finished material is not included in the term "mill charge", and for the wet grinding operations is called the "mill pulp' The term "pebble" will be used for any rounded ore or rock piece in the mill charge whether it is an autogenous or a pebble grinding operation.

Jan 1, 1970

By D. J. Pandelis, W. J. Schlittler

Auxiliary Equipment pumping systems to support primary, secondary and regrind grinding circuits will be the primary focus of this paper. Every grinding system is unique and requires special design considerations for proper application of pumps to transport mill discharge. To satisfy the majority of applications, a new series of pumps has been developed by Svedala, known as World Class Pumps. Selection of these newly developed pumps for each type of grinding circuit will be presented. Specific components of selection are materials of construction, piping system, classification method, material characteristics and slurry characteristics. Both horizontal and vertical pump applications will be reviewed with emphasis on rules of pump piping and sump design.

Jan 1, 1999

By A. Navarra, F. Mucciardi, H. Marambio, R. Parra, F. Oyarzún

"Discrete event simulation (DES) is an appropriate framework for the plant-wide analysis of copper smelters. These smelters apply a common set of chemical reactions: copper-iron sulfides are blasted with oxygen-enriched air, sending the iron into a slag phase and the sulfur into the offgas. Moreover, conventional copper smelters exhibit similar operational dynamics: a smelting furnace operates continually, feeding into an alternating set of converters that produce batches of blister copper. The thermochemical and operational commonalities of copper smelters are integrated within the DES framework. This serves as a common basis to begin evaluating the system dynamics of individual smelters. For complex problems, the simulation framework should be developed in phases, incorporating feedback from different personnel who have complementary perspectives. Sample computations are provided in this paper based on the Hernán Videla Lira smelter, whose production is constrained by meteorological conditions. IntroductionWorld copper production is approximately 18.5 million t/y (Brininstool, 2015), worth $80 billion a year. Out of this total, 75 percent comes from the pyrometallurgical processing of sulfide minerals (Fig. 1), which occurs in copper smelters. The remaining 25 percent is from the hydrometallurgical treatment of oxides and complex ores (Rotuska and Chmielewski, 2008), which uses solvent extraction and electrowinning.The current paper describes the pyrometallurgical processing, recognizing that the underlying thermodynamics and kinetics are well known (Degterov and Pelton, 1999), with the notable exception of minor element transport, such as arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), bismuth (Bi), silver (Ag), gold (Au). The latter is an ongoing area of research, as smelters are faced with increasingly complex ores (Devia, Wilkomirsky and Parra, 2012; Swinbourne and Kho, 2012). This paper focuses on the system dynamics of copper smelter operations, which has received considerably less attention than the chemical thermodynamics and kinetics.Smelter engineers and managers may contribute to the sustainability of their plant by improving their understanding of operational system dynamics. Indeed, we have prompted smelter improvement projects (Navarra, 2016; Navarra et al., 2016; Navarra and Mendoza, 2013) simply by adapting methodologies that are commonly used in other sectors. These previous works incorporate principles from computer-integrated manufacturing (Groover, 2000) and theory of constraints (Dettmer, 2007), featuring the use of discrete event simulation (DES)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Ashis Bhattacherjee, Rahul Upadhyay, Nearkasen Chau, Aditya Kumar Patra, Dhanjee Kumar Chaudhary

Heavy earth-moving machineries used in open-pit mines intensively expose the drill operators to whole-body vibration and shocks and thus to musculoskeletal disorders. The roles of an individual, machine, and rock-related factors in their exposure remain poorly understood. This cross-sectional study investigated their role among 39 drill operators from Indian iron ore mines. It shows that 70% of the operators were exposed to high levels of vibration, above the limit values recommended by ISO 2631-1. Multiple linear regression models showed that the whole-body vibration and shock exposures were strongly associated with operator’s age, drill machine model, rock’s hardness, uniaxial compressive strength, and density. The role of body mass index was close to significance (p = 0.08). Univariate analyses found that drill’s age, seat pad thickness, and seat backrest height were also strong predictors. These results help in identifying risky operators, materials and occupational situations, and in implementing appropriate prevention and intervention to reduce and monitor the exposures and health risk.

By N. S. Kim

Silver paste including nano sized particles maintains conductivity in high temperatures without forming oxide layers. In the industry, printing process produces wasted silver paste inside the cylinder and on silk-screen. Pyrometallugical silver recycling methods have environmental problems and do not extract pure silver after removing polymer and organic materials during the extraction process. In this study a simple wet process, of recycling the waste silver paste, using ammonia, was conducted. Silver ion extraction yield was increased using oxidant in the ammonia solution. Possible extraction yields, such as pH, concentration, temperature of ammonia, oxidant concentration and the extraction time. The particles that were obtained after the extraction process will be used as porous hydrophobic catalytic and applied to AI mask and hydrophobic ink. Keywords: Waste silver paste; Ammonia; Hydrophobic porous support

Jan 1, 2009

By A. J. Basu

An overview of the evolution of computerized mine planning and design has been given, emphasizing the need for a knowledge-based system for planning and design of underground coal mines. An outline for the development methodology and procedure has been provided. Problem structuring guidelines have been used to incorporate intelligence and integration to the design modules. A skeletal model for a mine planning and design expert system has been prescribed, and the development process has been documented in detail. A feasibility prototype has been developed to test the structure of the skeletal model and to ensure completeness of the design process. The feasibility prototype development and its contribution toward proto typing has been addressed in this paper. At present, prototype development is underway. The prototype is expected to be avail-able for testing and implementation in early 1991.

Jan 1, 1991

By J. Hindman, E. Moeller

Vermiculite is currently mined from shallow (less than 25 m or 80 ft) surface deposits throughout the world. The largest producers are Palabora Mining of Phalabowra, South Africa (ore stock is a phlogopitemica), Xinjiang Yuli Xinlong Vermiculite of Korla, China, and W.R. Grace of Enoree, SC (ore stock is a biotite mica). Smaller operations are in Australia, Brazil, Russia and Zimbabwe. They also produce vermiculite on a continuous basis but do not export any significant amounts of product to North America. Intermittent and poorly documented production on a minor scale is reported from Argentina, Egypt, India and Uganda. Worldwide vermiculite production in 2004 increased1.7 percent to 432.8 kt (477,000 st). North American production declined, while African and Chinese production continued to increase.

Jan 1, 2005

By Wesley W. Eckles

Microcomputer technology has begun to revolutionize petroleum engineering. Petroleum engineers' use of relatively inexpensive personal computers (PC's) is likely to continue expanding rapidly. Since 1982 SPE's Microcomputer Applications Committee has developed a Society-wide users group, a bi-monthly newsletter (MICROCOMP NEWS), an SPE Short Course, a hardware and software distribution program, and a world wide electronic network (SPE NET). The purpose of this paper is to share SPE's experience in creating a dynamic program for meeting the individual member's need in the application of microcomputers to petroleum engineering. My hope is that this will encourage other engineering and scientific organizations to provide similar programs for their members.

Jan 1, 1985