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Virtual Reality (VR) simulations are excellent tools for training, education, simulation of abnormal and dangerous conditions in mines and solving complex problems. Although the concept of VR has been around for nearly half a century, it has taken recent advances in hardware and software to bring this technology to within the budgetary reach of ordinary users and researchers. VR is now successfully being used in the minerals industry for: data visualization, accident reconstructions, simulation applications, risk analysis, hazard awareness and training. The Institute of Sustainable Minerals Industry, Advanced Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality Research Group (SMI-VR) at the University of Queensland, established in late 2000, has been involved in developing VR applications for the minerals industry in conjunction with various research centres. This paper illustrates the benefits of using advanced computer graphics and VR techniques in the minerals industry with some examples of applications developed.

Jan 1, 2003

By J. J. Stacey

Large mining companies generally follow the distributed ownership corporate model, with a board of directors responsible for decisions that affect both shareholder value and stakeholders of the company. The board is simultaneously responsible for setting the culture and values of the corporation, which drive performance and priorities. Companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) commit to sustainable development in various ways, either by virtue of implementing the King Code of Governance 2009 (King III) and/or through their own public reporting on social and environmental matters. Many mining companies make public statements regarding their support for environmental stewardship, ethical behaviour, and fair treatment of communities. It is a local, regional, and indeed, global phenomenon that companies fail to deliver on these statements. Research was carried out through the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa in 2007, and followed up in 2012, regarding directors? understanding of sustainable development issues, the relative priorities, what is needed for ?radical change? to effect sustainable development, and what enables or constrains the latter. Pertinent findings of both surveys are presented in this paper, and it is suggested that ?on-the-ground? performance may be indicative of the nature of leadership and decisions in the topmost ranks of the company. The results indicated that environmental concerns fall consistently below social issues. Financial capital ranked most important, and while environmental issues are recognized as being of strategic concern for the long-term, they ranked as being the lowest importance of all ?Five Capitals? (Financial, Manufactured, Social, Human, and Natural). Social capital ranked second lowest, with black economic empowerment being the only high-priority social issue. There is also evidence that certain companies within the mining sector fail to recognize their absolute dependence on natural resources. Much is made in academic and popular literature of the need for a new type of leadership for the radical shift to sustainable development: at company level this implies therefore a new type of director. The research found that only 14 per cent of directors felt that board decisions are consistent with their personal values; while intentions are strong to behave ethically and serve sustainable development, actions to give effect to these intentions lag significantly. Respondents indicated that the top impediments to courageous leadership for sustainable development related to personal issues of maintaining the image of being a director, fear of appearing weak, fear of being a lone voice, and bowing to board-colleague peer pressure.

Jan 1, 2014

By P. C. Schutte

Ergonomics is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. Despite the fact that the application of ergonomics principles can make a major contribution to the management of significant occupational safety and health risks, ergonomics is currently applied on a limited scale in the South African mining industry. The objective of this paper is to provide a perspective of ergonomics, the main aim being to create a point of departure for the development of strategic objectives to enhance existing health and safety initiatives through the application of sound ergonomics principles. Two of the major consequences of poor ergonomics, namely work-related musculoskeletal disorders and worker fatigue, and possible means of introducing ergonomics into the South African mining industry, are discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. I. van Drunick

AngloGold Ashanti Metallurgy has recently been involved in the successful installation of intelligent, expert control systems on the milling circuits. The benefits of expert systems in these highly interactive circuits are obvious. Existing comminution tools, which have been developed and can now be incorporated into online control, include improved modelling techniques and understanding, robust and competent simulation methods, sampling techniques, and optimization methods. The minerals processing industry has seen the benefits of predominantly research-based centres turning their focus to commercial applications of comminution circuit modelling packages, which in turn can be utilized within expert control systems. Expert mill control has been successfully installed at AngloGold Ashanti South Africa?s Mponeng and Kopanang Gold Plants. Expert control has also been installed at AngloGold Ashanti?s West African Sadiola Mine operation. The implementation of the systems has produced a number of positive outcomes. Plant surveys usually result in the identification of sub-optimal areas, and the control philosophy is then configured to ensure that these areas (along with the entire circuit) are optimized and maintained. Outdated PID loops have generally resulted in oscillatory control with large amplitude deviations from set-point. Significant improvements in SAR Metallurgy operations have been realized, firstly through achieving stability in the load and cyclone control, and secondly through online identification and implementation of optimized set-point conditions for mill mass, discharge density, etc. Soft sensors are configured to accurately estimate parameters that were historically not measurable, viz. breakage rate, mill load condition, onlinekWh/t-75 microns, mill discharge density and cyclone overflow grading. The Mponeng Plant system achieved circuit stability and improved overall grind. The Plant was able to pay back the control installation after 3 months, based on the additional recovery obtained from the finer grind. The system at Kopanang Plant has also resulted in enhanced plant recovery as a result of a finer grind and a lower residue gold content. The payback for this system was calculated at approximately 6 months. AngloGold Ashanti Metallurgy is currently expanding the installation of expert control to its other operations. It is also evaluating the performance of various suppliers of advanced control systems.

Jan 1, 2005

By E. Ringdalen

Keywords: Pyrometallurgy, research, Norway, SINTEF, NTNU The Norwegian Ferro-alloy Industry and the model for research cooperation between SINTEF, NTNU, and the Norwegian ferro-alloy industry is presented as an introduction. The research within pyrometallurgy is illustrated by examples from characterisation of Mn-ores and characterisation of carbon materials. Examples from studies of reaction mechanisms in laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments are presented, in addition to an example of industrial off-gas measurements. Education possibilities at NTNU are also described.

Jan 1, 2011

By T. Wettainen

Malmberget town is located in northern Sweden, approximately 70 km north of the Arctic Circle. Parts of the town overlie more than 20 iron orebodies, consisting mainly of magnetite with smaller quantities of haematite. The mine is operated by the mining company LKAB. Mining started in the 17th century, but not until the railway to the coastal city of Luleå was completed in 1888 did large-scale production commence. Around 1920, mining proceeded underground and today sublevel caving is the only mining method used. Sublevel caving causes subsidence of the ground surface, and buildings and residential areas have been relocated due to the mining activities for more than 50 years. The number of seismic events accompanied by strong ground vibrations is now increasing. In 2008 the mine received a permit from the Environmental Court of Sweden to increase production to 20 Mt of crude ore per year. A prerequisite for the permit was that the mine conducts a number of investigations regarding the environmental impact on the residents of Malmberget. One of these investigations concerned how seismicity will change as production increases and what measures could be taken to reduce inconvenience to the town residents. Today the mine possesses an extensive seismic monitoring system with more than 180 underground and surface geophones. For this study, eleven seismically active volumes in Malmberget mine were identified, and for each of them, a yearly future maximum magnitude interval was estimated based on the current production plan. Relationships between historical seismic events and measured ground vibrations in the town of Malmberget were established, and future ground vibrations caused by expected seismic events were estimated using a probabilistic approach. The outcome was the number of intervals of expected ground vibration per year and per monitoring point. Possible measures to reduce inconvenience for the town residents include blast restrictions, sequencing, and possibly preconditioning. The ultimate long-term solution is an almost complete relocation of Malmberget town. This process has recently been formalized and LKAB is taking an active part in realizing this goal.

Jan 1, 2014

By H. Preßlinger, H. Hiebler, K. Klepp, W. Posch, M. Mayr

It was investigated in which form sulphur is bonded in ladle slags. For this purpose, the mineralogical phases of the ladle slags were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated by means of a microprobe. This slag characterization allowed reconstructing the bonding of sulphur into the phases of the ladle slag. Moreover, the reaction process with regard to the ionic theory as well as the structural formula for the mechanism of sulphur bonding were discussed. The bonding of sulphur into calcium aluminate slags is determined by the sulphide ion content in the slag as well as by the ratio of (CaO)/(Al2O3). Calcium sulphide separates only if the slag contains a large number of sulphide ions. When Ca12Al14O33is separated, the sulphide ion is successively integrated into the lattice. The crystal lattice of Ca12Al14O33is characterized by an open, three-dimensional anionic network composed of aluminium-oxygen tetrahedrons linking the edges. In this network, large interstitial spaces are formed, which may be filled with calcium ions on the one hand and statistically with a free oxygen or sulphide ion on the other hand. Key Words: ladle slag, structure, phases, calcium sulphide, calcium aluminate, desulphurization

Jan 1, 2004

By Sverre Olsen, Kai Tang

The composition of ferromanganese slag is very important as it determines the slag/metal equilibrium relations including MnO content of final slag, melting relations and slag viscosity. The slag composition is further expected to influence the process temperature. The properties of ferromanganese slags are suitably described by its basicity and A/S mass ratios. The influence of slag basicity has been discussed in the previous papers. The present paper will discuss the effect of Al2O3 on melting relations, viscosity and MnO-content of final slag. This discussion will be based on assessed thermochemical databases and a recently developed viscosity model.

Jan 1, 2007

By B. J. Kloppers, J. V. Z. Visser, C. J. Horn

"The long-term plan (LTP) in a mineral resource company is defined by the quality of the mineral resource and represents the result of a series of trade-offs to fulfil internal organizational as well as external business and legislative requirements, ensuring ultimate delivery on the defined organizational strategy.The LTP should as a whole align to a coherent and well-defined organizational strategy, working towards a clearly defined objective while still allowing a tactical response to short-term requirements of the organization. The ability to respond tactically to changes in environment, like the unprecedented five-month strike in 2014 on the platinum belt following the 2012 Marikana incident, is a measure of the flexibility of the plan given the agreed strategy.This paper describes the Lonmin process of linking company strategy with long-term planning, tactical planning, and the execution of the plan through an annual planning cycle to maximize organizational flexibility. This flexibility enables mining companies to respond to the many internal and external forces that impact on both strategy formulation and delivery of results that meet shareholder expectations."

Jan 1, 2015

By R. Dippenaar

Traditionally, iron ore has been reduced with coke in a blast furnace and the hot-metal product of the blast furnace containing carbon, manganese, silicon, sulphur and phosphorous, was subsequently refined in a steelmaking furnace. During iron making as well as during steelmaking, significant amounts of slag are produced. Two decades ago, more than 13 m tonne of blast furnace slag and 4 m tonne of steelmaking slag per annum were produced in the USA alone. It is, therefore, not surprising that many attempts have been made to re-use iron and steelmaking slags. However, these slags are not merely metallurgical waste products but, on the contrary, their compositions and physical properties are judiciously designed to optimize the operations in the respective metallurgical reactors. The variation in composition and properties of blast furnaces lags are largely determined by the gangue in the ore and ash in the coke and much progress has been made in the re-use of such slag. With respect to steelmaking slag, emphasis has in recent years been placed on hot-metal treatment before refining and ladle treatment after decarburization. The bulk removal of silicon, phosphorous and sulphur from the hot-metal product of the blast furnace by specially designed slags prior to refining in a basic oxygen furnace, has reduced tap-to-tap time, lowered cost and produced steel of much higher quality. The use of synthetic slags in ladle refining techniques subsequent to decarburization in the basic oxygen furnace has resulted in reduced hydrogen and nitrogen contents and reduced solute impurities. Moreover, inclusion shape and composition control, again by the use of specially designed slags has led to the achievement of much improved mechanical properties of the steel. In these revised process routes, slag of different compositions are produced in the variety of unit processes and hence the re-use of steelmaking slags has become much more complex. Clearly, a thorough understanding of the design and use of these different slags is a pre-requisite to the development of re-use strategies. Japanese steelmakers have spearheaded attempts to reduce slag volumes in the individual unit processes and to strive towards ‘slagless steelmaking’ by recycling slags internally. Steelmaking slag volumes have been reduced on commercial scale from about 140 kg/tonne steel to 60kg/tonne steel. Moreover, model predictions have shown that, in principle, all slag can be recycled and the phosphorous extracted to produce fertilizer. This development is of particular significance since the supply of low-phosphorous iron ores is diminishing at an ever increasing rate. Keywords: slag, environment, iron, steel,

Jan 1, 2004

Heavy mineral deposits are becoming more complex in terms of their compositional variation, particle mineralogy and size distributions, and present challenges for the operation of separation equipment to achieve the required grades and recoveries. Changes in equipment design and concepts potentially provide new opportunities for the beneficiation of heavy mineral sands deposits. The development of a framework for the fundamental understanding of separator performance issues is a first step to develop new machines. This paper will present a first step analysis of electro-static and magnetic separation machines with their application to real separation scenarios.

Jan 1, 2010

Mineral Resource Throughput Management is based on the extraction of the maximum potential value from an ore reserve with the emphasis to generate maximum ROI and ROR (return on reserve). A steel producing company in India implemented MRTM to significantly improve their ROI and ROR. The value chain of this company consists of their own iron ore and coal mines, ore washing plants, sinter plants, steel plants, and sales and marketing division. The target for the mines was to produce at a stable and predictable rate and at specific quality requirements. These requirements were set to improve productivity and ROI of the steel plant. The implementation constituted the alignment of the reserve potential, total production chain, human resources and management culture at the mines with the requirements of the steel plant. Many typical mining practices were challenged and changed. Production targets regarding lump vs. fines ratio, consistent product tons, quality targets such as Fe, Al content and moist, and standard deviation on the quality targets were not achieved. A reverse distribution model with release mechanisms to satisfy the demand were developed and implemented at the mines. A stable and predictable flow of mine product with quality standards well within the required standard deviation targets were achieved. The contribution from the mines to significantly improve the Net Profit, ROI and ROR of the company were reached.

Jan 1, 2007

By Ö. Erdem

The investment decision making process in the insurance and finance industries is affected by new advances such as simulation techniques. These advances have improved the discounted cash flow method (DCF). In DCF, a dynamic and flexible model construction is not possible because it does not consider uncertain conditions. Each project should be evaluated taking into account the related uncertainties because the related uncertainties determine the characterization of the project. Related uncertainties can be processed in dynamic DCF, which is applicable to both financial and non-financial industries with different kind of uncertainties, such as power generation and petroleum projects. The dynamic DCF method can estimate net present value (NPV) while managing related project uncertainties with a simulation method like Monte Carlo Simulation. The simulation method is preferred because its output is unbiased. Therefore, a more realistic financial evaluation of the project can be concluded. In spite of the improvement of dynamic DCF, this project evaluation method is not used frequently in mining industry. However, the mining industry is ideally suited to this concept because it is highly dependent on estimations such as orebody size and ore grade. During the project evaluation stage, these uncertainties can be included with the dynamic DCF method. This study aims to contribute to increasing the usage of this method in mining projects. A copper reserve in Turkey is selected as a case study to apply uncertainty assessment for the evaluation of NPV.

Jan 1, 2012

By D. Nag, J. Fernando

Hazelwood Power Mine is one of the largest open pit brown coal mines in Australia. The removal of overburden is the first step in coal winning operation. The primary aim of construction of overburden dump is to provide an effective stable working surface for stacker. The paper discusses site investigation techniques used to determine dump soil properties, stability analysis method using GALENA and GWEDGEM, results of stability analysis. The paper concludes with recommendation for a safe dumping strategy for level 2 stacker dumping.

Jan 1, 2003

By M. Ayhan

Drums of a modern longwall shearer are manufactured to include various constructional features conveying extracted material onto the face conveyor as efficiently as possible. Designing a drum with a conical shell or with reduced vane length, consequently with a stepper vane angle, is the most widely employed method in an attempt to increase loading efficiency. This study compares loading performances of two such drums, one having a conical shell with modified loading vanes, the other with a cylindrical shell with reduced vane length. Firstly, the loading performances of drums are predicted and the maximum haulage rate attainable with the drums are calculated. Then the performances of drum are compared by long-term comprehensive underground trials with coal shearers under similar conditions during the production operation of Park Termik Cayirhan coalmine in Turkey. Although higher loading performance is predicted for cylindrical drums, the in situ trials point out that Globoid drums have a slightly higher loading performance than cylindrical drums. Furthermore, the relationship between operational variables, i.e. extraction height, sumping depth, haulage rate and in situ loading performance, were investigated statistically on the basis of data gathered during the underground trials. Keywords: longwall mining, shearer drums, loading performance.

Jan 1, 2006

By A. J. Geldenhuys

This paper will focus on two topics, namely (1) an innovative process for the neutralization and partial sulphate removal of acid streams produced during coal mining and processing and (2)optimization of this integrated neutralization process by adding small amounts of synthetic organic polymers. The integrated lime and limestone process has been developed to neutralize acid mine water and to remove sulphate (to less than1 200 mg/l), magnesium and metals. Limestone and lime treatment is the most cost-effective technology for neutralization and partial sulphate removal of acidic/sulphate-rich water to sulphate levels of less than 1 500 mg/l due to precipitation of magnesium and removal of the associated sulphate fraction (through gypsum crystallization). Neutralized mine water of this quality may be suitable for irrigation. The process consists of the following stages: 1. Limestone (CaCO3) neutralization to raise the pH to 7 and CO2-production. 2. Lime (Ca(OH)2) treatment to pH 12 for Mg(OH)2precipi-tation and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) crystallization. 3. pH adjustment with CO2recovered from stage 1 and CaCO3 precipitation. Retention times of 1 hour, 4 hours and 1/2an hour were required by stages 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The sulphate level was reduced to 1 094 mg/l, which is less than the original aim of 1 200mg/l. Chemical costs associated with neutralization, using limestone instead of lime, are reduced by 69% in the integrated limestone/lime process. The overflow water from the clarifier of each of the above stages generally contains a wide variety of colloidal impurities that may cause the water to appear turbid or may impart colour. This results in very slow sludge settling rates that cause overflow water with a high degree of turbidity and colour. There are a number of successive or simultaneous stages involved in the agglomeration of particles. To get optimum neutralisation of the acid water and partial sulphate removal to below the saturation level of gypsum (i.e. 1 500mg/l), maximum sludge recovery is needed. The higher the concentration of seed crystals, the larger the surface area. Therefore, effective removal of suspended and colloidal matter from the overflow of each stage is required and can be achieved by coagulation and flocculation. The polymers PAC6 and 3095 were effectively used as coagulant and flocculant respectively. The addition of these polymers resulted in a clear overflow in each of the above stages with a very low turbidity.

Jan 1, 2003

Phase equilibria have been determined experimentally for pseudo-ternary sections of the form ?MnO?-(CaO+MgO)-(SiO2+Al2O3) with a fixed Al2O3/SiO2 weight ratio of 0.17 and MgO/CaO weight ratios of 0.25 and 0.17 respectively for temperatures in the range 1473-1673 K. The primary phase fields present for the MgO/CaO weight ratio of 0.17 include manganosite (Mn,Mg,Ca)O; dicalcium silicate a-2(Ca,Mg,Mn)O?SiO2; merwinite 3CaO·(Mg,Mn)O·2SiO2; wollastonite [(Ca,Mg,Mn)O?SiO2]; diopside [(CaO,MgO,MnO,Al2O3)?SiO2]; tridymite (SiO2); tephroite [2(Mn,Mg)O?SiO2]; rhodonite [(Mn,Mg)O?SiO2] and melilite [2CaO?(MgO,MnO,Al2O3)?2(SiO2,Al2O3)]. For the section with MgO/CaO weight ratio of 0.25 the anorthite phase (CaO·Al2O3·2SiO2) is also present. The liquidus temperatures of ferro- and silico-manganese smelting slags have been determined. The liquidus temperatures at low MnO concentrations are shown to be principally dependent on the modified basicity weight ratio (CaO+MgO)/(SiO2+Al2O3).

Jan 1, 2004

By A. V. Roschin, V. E. Roschin

Composite ores are more often used for production of iron in connection with reserve depletion of traditional ore crude in the regions with developed metallurgy. In particular, the majority of perspective ferrum-ore deposits of the Urals are presented by titanferous magnetite ores which contain a significant amount of titanium and vanadium alongside with ferrum. Thus, the deposits of titanferous magnetites of the Southern Urals on the average contain about 20 % of Fe, 8,7 % TiO2 and 0,24 % V2O5. Due to a high content of titanium oxides it is impossible or it is inexpedient to process such ores in blast furnaces. During work just on titanferous magnetite ore refractory titanium-containing slags are formed in a blast furnace, and in case of its dilution by ores of different types the titanium due to the small content in slag is thrown out. It is often impossible to separate such ores into ferriferous and titanferous concentrates because ferrum and titanium are present in the same minerals. This work attempts to selectively reduce ferrum in solid oxide and to separate metallic iron from titanferousslag with fast fusion. Solid-phase reduction of ferrum has been carried out with carbon at temperature of 1000? 1300°?. In products of solid-phase reduction the extremely disperse mix of metal iron and only partially reduced titanium oxides have been achieved. It is impossible to separate such a mix mechanically. However, the fast fusion of the mix allowed separating it into cast iron and slag with the high content of titanium. Thus the cast iron contained less than 0,1 % of titanium, and the slag did not contain practically any ferrum.

Jan 1, 2007

Elongates are commonly used as stope support in South African gold and platinum mines. To evaluate the effect of the inherent strength, stiffness and yield variability associated with elongates, a statistical method is presented which addresses and quantifies the support performance at various levels of certainty. The analysis, which is based on a normal distribution, makes use of force-deformation curves determined from multiple laboratory compression tests on the same support type. The applicability of the method is illustrated making use of actual performance capabilities of various types of elongates. In order to ensure a high probability that support units installed underground exceed the standard support performance curve established by means of laboratory tests, the statistical mean of a suite of tests based on the same support type is downgraded. The ?correction factor? is a function of the mean and standard deviation of the test data, as well as the sample size of units deemed to control the local rock mass stability. It is shown that downgraded performance curves based on a high probability (90 to 95percent) of support units exceeding this performance level are suitable to ensure that the design of support systems will in variably meet the design criteria. In the highly discontinuous hangingwall rock mass typically associated with intermediate- and deep-level mining operations, the interaction between adjacent support units is comparatively limited (at the support spacings commonly used). Therefore, the appropriate sample size (n) of the support units controlling the local rock mass stability should be n= 1. In shallow mining conditions, sample sizes of up to n=5 may be warranted, depending on the spacing of joints and other discontinuities in the hangingwall.

Jan 1, 2001

By A. W. Bester

Paper written on project work carried out in partial fulfilment of B. Eng. (Mining Eng.) Cullinan Diamond Mine currently handles 3.2 million tons of run of ore per annum. This is done by means of an underground train system, which is located at 763 metre level. Four trains, one in each quarter of the pipe, collect ore from passes and transport it to centrally located tips in the north and south of the pipe. The ore is then split into coarse and fine fractions. The coarse fraction proceeds to the primary crushers in the north and south. Historically, mining has been performed in such a manner that an equal amount of ore has reported to each quarter of the pipe. However, the tonnage profile of the mine will change such that the ore will no longer be split equally. For approximately five years the majority of ore will report to the east and thereafter most of the ore will report to the western portion of the mine. This will continue for the remainder of the current infrastructure level?s operational life. Coupled with this is the fact that the mine is aiming to increase its annual production to 3.8 million tons. The result is that the current ground handling system cannot accommodate the additional tons and therefore alternative ground handling options have been investigated. The continued existence of Cullinan Diamond Mine relies on finding a system that can economically handle the additional tonnage. Three options were investigated. Firstly, a train option, which would be an upgrade of the current system, was investigated. Two truck options were also investigated, the first of which was a conventional truck option. The second truck option was more interesting and involved an unfamiliar Combi truck system. The truck options were investigated primarily due to the fact that the block height of the BA West (a new production block) can be increased by 15 meters if a truck option is decided upon. This would create a significant increase in revenue for the BA West project. Each of the options was assessed in terms of its physical and financial feasibility. In terms of the physical constraints, it was found that all three systems could work. Detailed financial analysis indicated that either of the two truck options would be a suitable solution. However, due to the limited information regarding the Combi truck option, it should be further investigated. This applies particularly to the actual running and maintenance costs for the equipment.

Jan 1, 2005