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By Henry P. Cole

A comprehensive review of published research was carried out to identify methods for teaching and assessing critical but nonroutine skills needed for coping with emergency situations. Specific methods for assessing critical skills proficiency in aviation, medicine, organization management, the military, and other industrial/technical workplaces are described. The potential application of these methods for teaching and assessing (1) critical first aid and (2) self-rescue and escape skills to underground coal miners in annual refresher training is explored. Research and development activities that may improve mine health and safety training are suggested. Most of these research and development activities were completed later in the project. This additional work is reported in the project technical report #2 and the final report. The research reported in the present document was completed in 1984 -85. Many of the initial findings reported in this document are updated in the later project final report.

Jan 1, 1988

By X. Q. Cao

As the second largest phosphate resource in the world, Chinese phosphate ores generally grades with low of P2O5. The presentation of beneficiation test on the low grade of phosphate rock in this paper may be used for a reference for development and utilization of the similar reserves. The ore is a marine sedimentary phosphate rock containing low grade of P2O5 and high content of MgO and R2O3; The banded structure shows its suitability for heavy medium separation. The laboratory heavy liquid testing results indicate that as specific gravity of the heavy liquid is 2.85 g/cm3, a rougher concentrate assaying 28.71% P2O5 could be obtained while the rougher tailings contain only 4.47% P2O5. When the combined process with heavy liquid separation followed by direct & re-verse flotation is employed to treat the feed containing 21.15% P2O5, 3.79% MgO, 1.86% Fe2O3, 3.66% Al2O3, 23.75% A.I, and specific gravity of heavy liquid is 2.84 g/cm3, the optimum mesh of grind is 67.5% minus 200 mesh, a phosphate concentrate contained 32.51% P2O5, 0.48% MgO, 0.81% Fe2O3, 1.69% Al2O3 can be produced at a yield of 55.24%. The concentrate P2O5 recovery is 85% with which quality comply with the Class A specifications for production of phosphate fertilizer.

Jan 1, 2014

By Chen Feng

Compared to widespread successful deployment of robotic manipulators for repetitive and hazardous tasks in related industries such as manufacturing, the construction industry has achieved relatively limited benefits from robotics and soft automation. Unlike manufacturing, where robotic solutions benefit from the structured layout of the environment (e.g., factory assembly line), construction robots face unique challenges that arise from the rugged, dynamic, and unstructured environment of the work site, as well as the uncertainty and evolving sequence of occurring on-site events. This challenges any intended construction robots to not only replicate basic human motion, but also be capable of sensing and adapting to environmental changes, and making decisions based on the evolving state of the environment. Building upon recent advancements in robotic mapping, computer vision, and object recognition, the authors propose to introduce autonomous behavior at the basic task level for on-site construction robots to address these challenges in a flexible and extensible manner. This paper reports the outcome of the first phase of this research - a structured methodology for improved design and development of basic task automations - and focuses on algorithms developed for mobile robot navigation and relative pose estimation. The algorithms are implemented on a prototype mobile robotic platform, and evaluated in several experimental scenarios.

Aug 1, 2013

By H. L. Liu

With the exploitation of mineral resources, valuable minerals are more and more finer and poorer. Priority reclaiming liberation grind particle under rough grinding, will help to pervert loss of melts, raise dewatering efficiency of concentrate, reduce consumption of reagent. And it is propitious to reduce energy consumption and raise the utilization rate of resources. With the feature of coarse particle?s desorption and deposition, CLF flotation machine has special pulp circulating way, which is not only apply to treat coarse particle but also normal size particle. The paper advanced the history, the design principle, the structure feature and the application of CLF flotation machine.

Jan 1, 2014

By Massimilinao Svetina

In 2010 Danieli & C. S.p.A. put into operation a new Pickling Tandem Mill in Cremona (Italy) at Acciaieria Arvedi, the last Pickling line coupled Tandem Cold Mill (PLTCM) in Europe. The plant was tailor-made to suit the specific requirements of this customer; a very broad range of sizes and grades (IF to AHSS as well as DP and TRIP1000) including ultra-thin hot band can be processed, achieving a total capacity of 1.6 Mt/y. The Danieli & C. S.p.A. Turboflo® process was selected because of its proven efficiency and ability to handle ultra-thin gauges at speeds exceeding 400 mpm in the pickling tanks. All the equipment, i.e. pickling section and rolling mills was provided with the last generation of Danieli market-oriented technologies. Danieli & C. S.p.A. - with the support of Arvedi and feedback from the field - is continuously improving its technical design solutions and optimizing plant operations.

Aug 16, 2017

By Yuan She, Qihang Liu, Keng Wu, Hailiang Ren

By observing different coal char’s microstructures and microscopic morphologies during the coking process, the characteristics of COREX coal char’s microstructure and properties were analyzed. MCRI and MCSR were used to respectively describe the reactivity and the strength after reaction of coal char, with those of BF’s coke for reference, and then the physical meaning of MCRI and MCSR were given. MCRI and MCSR were determined by the composition of coal char. For the two kinds of COREX coal, the formula to forecast the hot performance of coal char was set up by making a multiple linear regression between the hot performance and microstructure of the coal char at 1100℃, and the predictive values of coal char’s hot performance at 600℃, 800℃ and 1000℃ coincided well with the measured values.

Jan 1, 2015

By T Kojovic

"The index A*b, determined from the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) drop weight tester (DWT) results, has become well-known in the mining industry as a reliable measure of ore hardness in impact or crushing, having the inferred units of t/kWh. This index evolved from a long history of comminution studies at the JKMRC, including the development of the now superseded JKTech twin-pendulum, the industry standard JK Drop Weight Tester (JKDWT) and the faster alterative JKMRC rotary breakage tester (JKRBT). A reduced version of the DWT, the semi-autogenous grinding mill comminution test (SMC test®), also provides estimates of the A*b though the testing of only one particle size at five specific energies. Experimental determination of A*b using the above devices/tests requires samples, with sufficient mass, to be sent to designated laboratories, registered to conduct such tests. This protocol is fine for bankable and commercial testing, where material characterisation data is used in conjunction with machine specific data in modelling and simulation, and power based calculations. However, for comparative testing, where results are required at the time of sampling (eg for plant troubleshooting or spot-surveys), or for rapid ranking of geometallurgical samples, these existing tests simply do not provide a timely, viable and cost-effective solution. In order to address this critical void in the realm of comparative testing, a new device has been developed, exploiting a central feature of single particle impact testing – that the A*b can be reliably estimated using one precise low energy test. This device, for which a patent is currently pending, called the HIT (Hardness Index Tester), has been precision engineered to allow users to break narrowly sized fragments at a set specific energy, in a safe and easy manner. The manufacturing materials have been chosen carefully to ensure compatibility with the intended use and portability to any site, whilst minimising cost. The device is supplied with a novel quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) feature, to ensure that the targeted potential energy is consistently delivered. The product from the HIT breakage test can be quickly sized using a single screen to determine the mass per cent undersize, from which the A*b index is calculated directly at site – eliminating the need to send the raw data off-site for analysis. On presized fragments, a single test using 20 fragments takes less than five minutes to complete, and the results are immediately available. The HIT is currently being tested at a major mining laboratory in the US and the results to date have proved it can deliver on all fronts. This paper describes the new prototype device, which offers users a low cost in-house mechanism for estimating the A*b at any mine site, with potential applications on fragments up to 25 mm from drill core, blast chip rejects or the grinding circuit feed. It also outlines the results of field tests carried out by an objective third party mining group and compares the results with those from current industry standard tests conducted on the same material.Citation:Kojovic, T, 2016. HIT - a Portable Field Device for Rapid Testing at Site, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2016, pp 9–16 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Oct 10, 2016

By J. Janzen

The cost to supply ventilation may exceed 40% of the total mine energy cost for underground mines and is often higher for deeper mines. The goal of Ventilation-on-Demand (VOD) is to ensure that the required quantity and quality of air is supplied to underground mining crews and diesel equipment at the least energy expenditure (minimum cost). A VOD system may include control of surface fans (Supply & Exhaust), underground booster fans, auxiliary fans and automated regulators/dampers to regulate the flow of air with more control elements providing more value. Strategically located Air monitoring stations measure air quantity and quality and provide feed-back enabling control. The modular design involving controls, intelligent instrument and intelligent motor control centres coupled with a communication network allows the quick installation, commissioning and expansion of the system as the mine develops. The result is a very robust, flexible system while reducing maintenance costs and spare parts. This paper discusses the impact of sensors, installation and commissioning on advanced controls and provides solutions for in-field applications.

Aug 1, 2013

By Q. J. Liu

The flotation circuit and the reagents of the all-sliming flotation about low grade and hard operation on zinc oxide ore are researched in the paper. The results indicated that there are many types of zinc minerals in this ore, and the composition is very complex. They include hemimorphite, smithsonite, hydrozincite and so on. The ore is seriously sliming. In light of the ore properties, three kinds of flowsheets have tested. They are gravity concentration (cleaning tables), flotation, combined process of gravity concentration and flotation. The test showed that the recovery of zinc is only 17.08% in the gravity separation. In combined process of gravity separation and flotation, the recovery of zinc concentrate is close to 70%. But the flow-sheet is complex and hard to control in the production. The floatation circuit is feasible. In the test, it pay attention to investigate the new combined reagent which is used in selective all?sliming flotation process. The effects of slime are eliminated by the multi-loop treatment of middling. In flotation, the final recovery of concentrate is 88.76%; the grade is 29.50%. The recovery of physical ore is 93%; and the recovery of -10mm fraction is more than 65%.

Jan 1, 2014

By Jun Li, Lin Chen, Tian-zu Yang, Wei-feng Liu, Wan-da Bin

"The Chinese bismuth production accounts for more than 80% all over the world in 2011. The main raw materials of bismuth smelting are bismuth concentrate and by-products of Cu or Pb smelting process. Many traditional methods of bismuth smelting in china was reviewed in this paper, such as reverberating furnace smelting, blast furnace smelting, fire-refining, ferric chloride leaching-hydrolysis, slurry electrolysis, and so on. But all the traditional pyrometallurgy or hydrometallurgy process have such shortages of low recovery, poor environment, and high cost. Therefore new technologies are introduced into the smelting process of bismuth concentrate, such as low-temperature alkaline smelting and side-blown bath smelting with oxygen-enrichment. These technologies have got great progress on energy saving, emission reduction, and friendly environment. Finally the development direction of new technology on bismuth smelting was prospected.IntroductionAs a green metal, bismuth has a wider applications, just extending from the traditional medicine, metallurgical-chemical engineering, low-melting alloys, solders, catalyst, and electronics to cosmetics, flame retardant, storage battery, semiconductor, supper conductor and nuclear energy etc[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. This will increase the production of bismuth and promote the development and progress of bismuth smelting technology. At present, The major bismuth-product countries are China, Mexico, Peru, KZ, Bolivia and Canada etc, and China are dominating. A survey from the USGS[8] showed that Chinese bismuth production were 12,500 tonnes and got 80% of the world's in 2011. Thus the technology of Chinese bismuth smelting have a great representativeness."

Jan 1, 2013

By E. DeLilia

For the past 30 years, surface mines have moved toward more highly mechanized, automatic systems that continuously mine overburden and ore to in-crease productivity, lower operating costs and minimize manpower needs. To achieve these goals, mine operators must be involved in every step of the machine procurement process. Several factors are involved in making the machines operate economically and efficiently: ? Prudent engineering. ? Proper planning. ? Realistic feasibility studies. ? Effective specification. ? Thorough training of the mine personnel.

Jan 1, 1995

By David A. Orava, Richard C. Swider

"The technical knowledge and practical experience accumulated by industry and others in abating acid mine drainage (AMD) is being proactively applied at every phase of the mine life cycle. This paper traces the mine life cycle from exploration to post closure monitoring and maintenance, and reviews AMD abatement measures that have become an integral component of exploration and mining activities.Attention is increasingly being given to evaluating AMD potential as part of exploration work, and studies related to project feasibility and design. Mining, mineral processing, and waste management options are selected taking into consideration their suitability to inhibit AMD. These inhibition measures are typically committed to in closure plans submit-ted at the permitting stage. Mines are operated and decommissioned, often progressively, as planned and in accordance with environ-mental protection policies."

Jan 1, 1996

By Betty L. Gibbs

A company must have an organized approach to effectively sort through the profusion of available software and hardware and find the programs and equipment which fit defined needs. The selection process must build a complete compatible system which includes hardware and software. The methodology presented in this paper helps identify some of the more important considerations. The steps needed for an organized approach to software/hardware selection are: •All involved staff should contribute to an assessment of current computer capabilities and projection of future needs. •Alternatives are analyzed to determine what software and hardware is available and how selections may possibly be merged into the existing computer system. The evaluation process focuses on details of program capability and hardware compatibility. Analysis must be done to determine how closely individual programs fit the established requirements. The final decision is often a balance of needs between program capabilities and hardware availability. Any programs selected must be able to run on existing and newly purchased hardware. Any additional hardware selected must be capable of meshing with the available computer system.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. Y. Kim

This paper presents a novel action recognition method for observing human workers using interactions between actions and related objects on an internal construction site. This method can be used to measure work rates for labour productivity monitoring. This monitoring is critical because the performance of a construction project is significantly impacted by labour productivity. However, construction sites are generally crowded with a large number of workers and objects. Such congestion disrupts the accurate, automatic recognition of construction workers? actions. This congestion is one reason that existing automatic action recognition studies of construction areas mainly focus on workers? actions themselves. However, the crowded conditions mean that sites could offer a great deal of clues that could be used for automatic action recognition. According to psychological studies, interactions clearly take place between human actions and related objects, such as between hammering and a hammer. Humans use these interactions to recognize actions or objects more accurately. On the construction site, workers, materials, tools, and equipment are carefully planned out ahead of actual construction. The categories of workers and objects are pre-defined and, as noted, specific interactions define relations between worker actions and objects. In this paper, the interactions are limited to human workers and their hand-held objects. Action recognition results can be combined with hand-held object information to improve recognition accuracy. With the limited interactions, experiments in this paper show a significant improvement in action recognition. This paper describes the utilization of these interactions to improve construction action recognition accuracy based on human skeleton data and 2D color video from Microsoft KINECT sensor.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. Bezama

For over a decade European countries have addressed contaminated sites by developing technologies for managing both polluted soil and groundwater. This development has not only been driven by health and environmental aspects, but also because of economic pressures, as the remediation and redevelopment of derelict areas can be a meaningful alternative to undeveloped areas for the establishment of new industrial, recreational, housing and service locations. In most developing countries, however, the subject of contaminated sites is a new environmental issue that authorities have recently started to deal with. Among these countries, Chile has just started to prepare the country's legal context as well as to foster the formation of research and investigation groups that will deal with the exploration, investigation and management of contaminated sites. That requires a comprehensive technical, scientific and legal support in this stage. Goal of this article is to present the state-of-the-art technologies for site remediation currently applied in industrialized countries, in order to identify the most interesting approaches that can be implemented within the Chilean situation, especially considering the influence of the copper mining industry on the soil and groundwater quality of the environment surrounding their production facilities.

Jan 1, 2007

By Tim Arnold

"Justified is a show on FX that takes place in Kentucky coal country. The two main characters, a cop named Raylan and a criminal named Boyd, are adversarial to the very end, yet they manage to maintain a seemingly inexplicable bond of friendship through it all. The final episode ends (spoiler alert) with Boyd asking Raylan why that is. He responds, “If I allow myself to be sentimental, there is one thing I wander back to” Boyd responds, “We dug coal together.” Fade to black.What creates these types of bonds between friends and co-workers in mining? I don’t know about you, but many of my best friends I met in mining. Certainly the people I respect the most in this world are a part of our industry. Good, honest, honorable men and women. And I am not just talking about the leaders of our industry. I am talking about great miners who taught me how to do the right thing and also be productive.I have had the pleasure to work for some great people and the misfortune of working for some of the loudest screamers. What I consider the worst butt-chewing in my life may surprise you. I once worked for a man I respected, because he showed me respect. He went on a business trip and left some instructions. For some reason, I was able to justify to myself that they applied to everybody but me, and I disobeyed them. When he returned he called me into his office and said to me: “Tim, you pissed me off when you did that.” He said it quietly and with no anger. I had lost his respect. This devastated me more than any screaming shift boss ever could have. I learned a lot about values from that conversation.Most of us will spend more time at work than we will with our families over a lifetime. It is natural that tight bonds be created at work. What I believe makes mining special is that these bonds are so strong. They are strengthened by the incredibly hard work our miners do. They work at all hours, on holidays and in all sorts of extreme weather conditions. The physical demands of the job are sometimes exhausting. Our bonds are further reinforced because the work is dangerous. Not only does management watch out for the wellbeing of their people, but each and every one of us looks out for one another. The bonds are made tight because our people are so passionate about what they do, no matter the department or profession. Finally, they are strong because of the thousands in the industry that keep doing the right thing, every day. We make great friends in this industry because of the strength of character of our people. That is why Boyd and Raylan respected one another so much."

Sep 1, 2016

By Steven Putt

The paper presents new results from Datacloud during recent Seismic While Drilling trials in iron ore, metallurgical coal, and hard rock mines around the world. The measurements are compared with wireline geophysical logs, core data, drill cuttings, and conventional measurement while drilling (MWD) systems to validate the technology and show how the data can be used.

Feb 1, 2020

By Stefan Mede

Robot Supported Moulding—this is the name of Herrenknecht Formwork’s entry to the world of automated segment production. What had been considered impossible for a long time, has been achieved by Herrenknecht experts together with the Swiss company Marti AG: unmanned segment production on the working line. The moulds open and close autonomously with the help of a hydraulic system. A robot cleans and greases the moulds at one work station and inserts the injection sockets at another. The next step will include further automation and digital networking of all processes from production to installation in the tunnel.

Jun 13, 2021

By R. J. Gunderman

Redesigns of the operator compartments on a continuous miner and on a face haulage vehicle are described. The objective was to optimize the compartments within limitations of existing equipment and functional configurations. Both safety and production should be improved through more comfort for the operator and more natural placement of controls. Design guidelines supplied by the Bureau from a previous contract were used along with human factors analyses to determine requirements. Mock-ups were fabricated from layouts and used to refine design details. The new compartments were implemented and the machines evaluated underground. Comments and reactions to both machines were favorable.

Jan 1, 1978

By Claudio Fabbro

The increasing demand of wire rod high carbon grades for both small and large sizes are challenging the wire rod producers to enhance new technologies by combining high plant productivity and efficiency of superior quality finished products with extreme process flexibility. The possibility to change process route according to the final application of the rolled steel grade and to simplify production planning is one of the most important keys to success that distinguishes the mill plants developed by Danieli. This paper will focus on the most important metallurgical and process targets and on the in-line heat treatment technologies representing the core of Danieli know-how on high carbon grades production.

Jul 30, 2018