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By Robert A. Gault, T. Scott Ercit, Mehmet F. Taner

"Abstract -Vanadium mineralization occurs in oxide-rich horizons within the layered gabbro zones of the upper parts of the Bell River Complex, Matagami, Québec and the Lac Doré Complex, Chibougamau, Québec. The vanadium-rich horizons are well defined on the ground and in aeromagnetic surveys by their high magnetic susceptibility; consequently, magnetic susceptibility can be an indicator of vanadium mineralization. The main oxide minerals are ilmenite and titanian magnetite, containing 20% to 70% of volume and the ratio of titanian magnetite to ilmenite is relatively constant, ranging from about 1:1 to 2:1. Their sizes are less than 5 µm to greater than 1 mm to 2 mm, occurring as coarse- to medium-grained subhedral crystals intergrown with cumulate silicate minerals (plagioclase, pyroxene, etc.). Electron microprobe analyses indicate that the ilmenite grains are mineralogically and compositionally homogeneous and have low V contents (average 0.18% equivalent V2O5). In contrast, the titanian magnetite grains are inhomogeneous, consisting of trellisworks of ilmenite lamellae in Ti-poor, V-rich magnetite [less than 2 wt% TiO2, and 1.41% equiv. V2O5 (1.16% V2O3) for 20 analyses]. Thus, the magnetite is the principal ore mineral of vanadium; it hosts vanadium in the form of V3+, not V5+, as is commonly and erroneously reported. We have also devised a flowchart for the beneficiation of vanadium-titanium ores. Sommaire - La minéralisation de vanadium se trouve dans des horizons riches en minéraux oxydés de la partie supérieure des zones de gabbros lités des Complexes de la Rivière Bell, Matagami, Québec et du Lac Doré, Chibougamau, Québec. Des horizons riches en vanadium ont été bien définis sur le terrain et dans les levés aéromagnétiques par leur susceptibilité magnétique élevée; conséquemment, la susceptibilité magnétique est l’indicateur directe du contenu en vanadium. Les principaux minéraux oxydés sont l’ilménite et la magnétite titanifère, contenant 20% à 70% du volume et le rapport de magnétite titanifère à ilménite est relativement constant, allant d’environ 1:1 à 2:1. Leur dimension varie de 5 µm à plus grande que 1 mm à 2 mm, apparaissant sous forme de cristaux subidiomorphes, de grains grossiers à médiums, intercroissant avec la gangue silicatée (plagioclase, pyroxène, etc.) de la texture de cumulat. Les analyses à la microsonde électronique montrent que les grains d’ilménite sont minéralogiquement et chimiquement homogènes avec un faible contenu en V (moyenne 0.18% équiv. V2O5 ). Contrairement, les grains de magnétite titanifère sont hétérogènes, contenant des lamelles d’ilménite en "trellisworks"; ces grains sont pauvres en Ti et riches en V pour la portion magnétite de la magnétite titanifère [surtout contenant moins de 2 wt. % TiO2, et en moyenne 1.41% équiv. (1.16% V2O3) pour 20 analyses]. Ainsi, la magnétite est le principal minerai de vanadium; elle renferme du vanadium sous forme de V3+ et non de V5+, tel qu’il a été communément et à tort rapporté. Nous avons aussi défini un "flowchart" pour la bénéficiation des minerais de vanadium-titanium."

Jan 1, 1998

By Gonzalo Bernstein, David G. Meadows, German Naranjo, Edgardo Tapia

"During the last decade Antofagasta Minerals’ Los Pelambres Mine has dramatically increased its ore throughput following the fast initial phase ramp up through a series of planned incremental expansions. The original 85,000 mtpd, two SAG line plant was commissioned in 1999 and rapidly exceeded nameplate tonnage in only a few months. Following this, the inclusion of a pebble crushing circuit resulted in throughputs in excess of 114,000 mtpd and a recent, final third line SAG and ball mill addition have taken the plant to over 175,000 mtpd even with increasing ore hardness and changing ore feed characteristics. The progressive changes are described in this paper together with how the technical challenges have been met.INTRODUCTIONMinera Los Pelambres is a world class copper-molybdenum operation located in the Salamanca area in Chile, in region four, approximately 500 km north east of Santiago, the capital of Chile. In the late 1990s Antofagasta Minerals developed the Minera Los Pelambres project in Chile at an investment cost of approximately $1.3 billion USDs. The project construction was successfully led and completed by Bechtel Corporation in 1999 and within a matter of months the plant was already exceeding the nameplate capacity of 85,000 mtpd. In 2001 a pebble crushing circuit was added to raise the capacity to 114,000 mtpd. In the early part of 2003-2004, it was recognized that the hardness profile was changing with depth and that in order to maintain the plant capacity additional power would be needed in the SAG mills together with upgrading of the primary crusher. In conjunction with these changes a fifth ball mill and a second primary crusher station would also need to be installed. A further detailed engineering study and evaluation was initiated by Minera Los Pelambres. This was lead by Bechtel Corporation with major design contributions from FLSmidth and Siemens in order to establish the re-powering requirements for the SAG mills. These re-powering changes together with the inclusion of a pebble crushing circuit took the plant to up to 125,000 mtpd even with harder more competent ores. Finally in the last two years an additional grinding line has been added to take the capacity to consistently over 175,000 mtpd. The third line was installed in a record time of 256 days. A schematic of the current comminution circuit, discussed in this paper, is shown in Figure 2."

Jan 1, 2012

By Navid Bahrani

Overview ? Case history of footwall slab failure ? Procedure used to build a finite element model ?? Pre- and post- mining topography ?? Slab geometry ?? Excavation stages ?? Input parameters ? Finite element modelling results ?? Unloading-induced displacements (magnitudes & directions) ?? Calibration of overall model using measured prism displacements ?? Shear stresses and displacements along the base of slab ?? Factors of safety at different stages ?? Effectiveness of rock bolts ?? Staged or unstaged model? ? Conclusion

May 1, 2008

By Paul Ransom

Sullivan Production and Present Value ? Mined 150 million tonnes ? 6.0% Pb, 5.5% Zn, 2 opt Ag, + Sn, Cd, In ? May 2006 Value + US$43 Billion ? 50% of metal from first 37% (55MT) of tons ? True original size ~ 110-120 Mt @ 17%Pb+Zn ? 30MT unconsolidated fill + HW cave

May 1, 2006

By P. D. Soares, H. R. Bullis, R. A. Hureau

"Echo Bay's Lupin Operation has produced more than 2.15 million ounces of gold since start-up in 1982. The mining method used to the£ present time has been longhole open stoping using trackless equipment. Because direct measurement of the open stopes has not been possible until recently determining the exact quantity of unplanned dilution in previously mined stopes has not been possible. Estimates of dilution hove been mode using comparisons between production tons and grades against ore reserve tons and grades.This paper discusses tracking of grade and tonnage measurements from reserve estimation through production. Comparisons between estimated and actual tons and grade are presented~ along with a brief description of methods used at the Lupin operation to control dilution."

Jan 1, 1994

By Ramesh Subramanian

Overview Background / History Undergraduate Programs Mining Engineering Chemical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Graduate Programs and Research Student Enrolment (2002 -) Future Plans

Oct 1, 2010

By Nitin Bhavsar, Kaushik Vakil, Lakshmikanth Reddy, Sanjay Sarkar, Tathavadkar. Vilas, Bhavin Desai, Raghavendra Adiga

Gold and platinum group metals (PGM) do not dissolve in sulfate electrolyte from anode during electro-refining of primary copper. The PGM form solid ‘slimes’ which accumulates at bottom of the electrolytic cell. Typically, 8 to 10 ppm silver is present in copper cathodes, which is equivalent to almost 2% of silver loss during electro-refining. The silver can be cemented with cathode copper as soon as it is dissolved into the electrolyte from anode or during entrapment of slime particles in cathode. Over a period of time, the concentrates grade has deteriorated and change in type & amount of impurities in concentrate has resulted in higher silver loss during refining process. Therefore, an in-depth investigation was carried out in both fire- and electro-refining processes to understand the root causes of higher silver loss in copper cathodes. The detailed characterization and the plant data analysis were carried out. The results of study revealed that higher silver loss in 3rd crop cathodes as compared to 1st and 2nd crop cathodes from same anode. In anode silver was present in two forms, dissolved in copper (solid solution) and in slime phases such as Cu2-xAgxSeTe. SEM-EDX study of anode cross section confirmed higher silver and oxygen content in central region (core) of anode as compared that in both air and mold sides. This is due to non-uniform cooling of anode which was confirmed by the solidification modeling. Higher concentration of oxygen & silver at core of anode rised Ag+ concentration in electrolyte and slime particles during 3rd crop. The results of study were used to optimize the anode cooling process and also electrolyte chemistry to reduce the silver loss. The details of study carried out are discussed in this paper using the results of modeling, characterization and experimental studies. INTRODUCTION In the electrolytic refining of copper, fire refined copper anodes are used as raw material. Anodes contains copper of the range 99.5 to 99.6%, rest being the impurities. Hence, the purpose of the refining is (1) to remove the impurities so that final cathode conforms to the LME specifications and also (2) to recover the precious metal from the anode copper. When anode is dissolved, most of the impurities reports to the anode slime settled at the bottom of the cell, and rest dissolves in the electrolyte. Dissolved impurities remains in electrolyte and are removed during electrolyte recycling. However, sometime dissolved impurities and slime particles get entrapped in cathode due to disturbances in operational conditions. Metals dissolving in the electrolyte are the elements such as Ni, Co, Fe, Zn. The electrode potential of As, Sb and Bi being close to that of copper, these elements partly dissolve in the electrolyte. Noble metals like Ag, Au, Pt and Pd are generally insoluble and are thus expected to report to the anode slime. A small amount of the sliver content from the anode is dissolved in the electrolyte. Because the dissolved silver electroplates on the cathode at a smaller applied potential than copper, the cathode typically contains up to 8 ppm of silver. This is referred to as ‘silver loss’ in cathode (Cooper, 1987). Fortunately, silver is a rather benign impurity in copper due to its electrical conductivity being higher than copper. However, higher silver loss in cathode is loss of revenue for Copper smelter due to significant difference in their LME price.

Jan 1, 2019

By G. K. Lee, Whaley. H., F. D. Friedrich, I. C. G. Ogle

"IntroductionCurrent coal combustion activities at the Canadian Combustion Research Laboratory (CCRL) reflect the increasingly important contribution that coal is expected to make in meeting our future energy requirements and in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Widespread use of coal will, however, be heavily dependent on the ability of conventional and emerging combustion systems to cope with the disruptive conflicts caused by variations in fuel quality, on requirements for better equipment availability .and on the implementation of progressively more stringent environmental constraints.To minimize these conflicts, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada has embarked on a systematic sequence of research, development and demonstration- scale (R, D and D) initiatives to stimulate the utilization and competitiveness of thermal coal in both domestic and export markets through a number of complementary in-house projects and external contracts, considered to have short- to intermediate-term benefits to industry and society.Many of the in-house projects are funded in part by industry, whereas the external contracts are either fully funded (100070 government funding) or jointly funded (50% government - 50% project proposer).External contracts and shared-cost projects are an important adjunct to the CCRL in-house effort on coal combustion, because research data can be more effectively transferred to industry and because the commercialization of novel combustion systems can be accelerated significantly."

Jan 1, 1980

By Boyd Davis, Vladimiros Papangelakis, Douglass Duffy, Michael Carlos

"The processing of lateritic saprolite in hyper-concentrated magnesium chloride brines offers several potential advantages for the hydrometallurgical production of nickel. An aggressive HCl-MgCl2 leach at atmospheric pressure can significantly reduce magnesium dissolution, and offers the ability to recover HCl and MgO by a less energy intensive process than conventional techniques via the formation of magnesium hydroxychlorides. Inevitably, the high chloride concentration renders iron fully soluble during leaching and thus requires subsequent iron control and disposal steps. Experimental measurements coupled with OLITM modeling were conducted to investigate the behaviour of iron in concentrated magnesium chloride brines, in terms of chemistry (nature of iron species) and solubility limits. The solubility of ferric chloride in magnesium chloride solutions of concentrations and temperatures relevant to this process was controlled by a previously unreported solid phase: 2.5FeCl3·MgCl2·7.5H2O. Iron precipitation tests on synthetic leach solutions without seeding indicate a metastable akaganeite precipitate which transitions to hematite upon equilibration. Magnesium chloride solubility in ferric chloride solutions was also investigated to allow the simulation of a ternary phase diagram for the MgCl2-FeCl3-H2O system, in order to determine process conditions that avoid unwanted chloride precipitation.INTRODUCTION In the search for more economical processes to treat lateritic saprolite for nickel production, chloride hydrometallurgy has been increasingly investigated. While High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) can frequently economically treat lateritic limonite, the presence of saprolite negatively affects process economics. The higher magnesium content of saprolite increases acid consumption, because magnesium sulphate, unlike iron and aluminum sulphates, does not hydrolyze in HPAL. This soluble magnesium decreases the sulphuric acid strength by an amount greater than the amount of acid stoichiometrically required to leach magnesium, which must also be disposed of or recovered (Jankovic, Papangelakis, & Lvov, 2009). Due to these issues, pyrometallurgy is most commonly employed to treat lateritic saprolite, via the Rotary Kiln-Electric Furnace (RKEF) process; this process uses a rotary kiln to dry and partially reduce nickel and iron oxides before sending the calcine to an electric furnace for smelting to produce a ferronickel product for the stainless steel market. Although the problems encountered during hydrometallurgical processing are avoided and nickel recoveries are high, high capital and energy costs prevent the application of this process to lower grade lateritic saprolite deposits (De Bakker, 2011)."

Jan 1, 2016

By X. X. Wu, Q. Zhang, R. H. Fan, Y. J. Feng, J. D. Liu, P. Z. Zhao

In the present study, AA6016 automotive sheets with different grain size were fabricated through changing fabricating parameters, and the effects of grain size on the bendability were studied by bending test and optical microscopy. The results showed that the sheet with coarse grains exhibited poor bendability, and some micro-cracks were revealed at the surface of the bending samples. While the sheet with fine grains exhibited good bendability, and the bending samples showed smooth surface. Shear bands on the cross section of bending samples were observed. It was found that samples with coarse grains had more shear bands. These shear bands distributed in bundles, which facilitated the formation of continuous neckings and micro-cracks. However samples with fine grains had less shear bands, which distributed uniformly. The decrease of grain size could not only hinder the formation of shear bands, but also improve the homogeneity of its distribution during bending. On the other hand, refining grains could increase the amount of grain boundaries, which impede the propagation of shear bands. Hence the decrease of grain size could hinder the formation of continuous neckings and micro-cracks during bending, resulting in the significant improvement of the bendability.

Jan 1, 2015

By T. Ouellet, F. Chiesa, J. Carignan, D. Levasseur

Common practice for the preparation of permanent mold for aluminum casting is to coat the mold with a ceramic suspension to obtain a chemically stable interface with the aluminum melt. This practice serves two purposes: first, it helps the thermal regulation of the mold and second, it prolongs its life. The possibility of increasing the coating durability by applying it by thermal spray is appealing. Plasma spray of zirconium oxide based coatings was performed on H13 tool steel to study the coating’s thermal fatigue resistance. A unique dip test setup was used to characterize the thermal fatigue resistance of the coatings and of bare H13 steel. Observations of the failure mechanism bring an insight on the requirements of the coating to maximize its durability.

Jan 1, 2014

By F. Logsch, H. Pempel, J. Markowski, P. Ay

"Due to the European Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life-vehicles, from 2015 on more than 95% of car materials have to be recycled. In order to recycle the materials back into the economic cycle, it is necessary to produce products with high quality and purity.Plastic components in cars, which are coated with metals by vapour deposition or electroplating, have a wide circulation (e.g., as cladding panel or trim strip for interiors and exteriors). In the end-of-lifevehicle recycling process, these plastic-metal composites are not considered in usual technologies (car shredder) and are not separated from Automotive Shredder Residue. These parts can be separated by optical or HF-detection sorting and then introduced to a specific treatment.Experiments with a specially developed bioleaching configuration showed that the thin coatings, which consist mainly of copper, nickel and chromium, can be removed efficiently from the polymer base materials by a bioleaching solution with Acidothiobacillus ferrooxidans as a leaching agent. The solution used was produced in special fermenters with a 9K-nutrient salt media. During the bioleaching process at 35°C maximum temperature, most of the copper is dissolved and the other metals accumulate as metal sludge. The bacterial cultures based on A. ferrooxidans are robust and resilient.After a 48-hour bioleaching period while the composites were stirred regularly with ventilation, the plastic particles were completely free from metallic coatings. The metal components are separated for further use: undissolved components (mainly Ni and Cr) are separated by decantation of the solution; dissolved copper recovey is carried out by cementation of copper. The cementated solid contains ~98% Cu, along with small amounts of other metals.With the bioleaching process, good separation and re-utilization of the metallic coatings is possible. The cleaned plastic parts were prepared by compounding for new applications with injectionmoulding."

Jan 1, 2016

By Gary S. Anderson

Rajant Corporation is the global leader in mining communications systems implemented a vision to develop a wireless network that is rapidly deployed, self-powered and managed, for portable or fixed configurations ? Mobile, Portable, Self-Powered, Secure and High Bandwidth. The network configures itself allowing for very rapid deployment without the time delay and personnel typically required for set-up and configuration. Rajant?s proprietary technology ?InstaMesh®? is incorporated in a device called a BreadCrumb®. Rajant has filed several patent applications on its proprietary technology and has received trademark protection on its brand names. The BreadCrumb® uses technology which allows mining, military and first responders to easily establish internet connections at remote sites or situations where existing internet communications has been disrupted. The BreadCrumb® products are standards-based Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g compliant, ruggedized, lightweight, portable; self-meshing and the system can be established by just turning on several of the BreadCrumb® units. The Rajant Network has evolved in the ?One Network? philosophy and has been deployed by both the military and homeland defense organizations. With multiple radios, transmitting on multiple frequencies as the same time, bandwidth is doubled, the speed of the network is enhanced, management is simplified, and manageability is made easier. Rajant has partnered with world class integrators and partners, including ten CAT dealers, a world-wide mining technology company, a mining and construction software company and leading technology innovators in mining automation and operations. Recently, Rajant provided a significant network to Rio Tinto?s Iron Ore of Canada Mine in Labrador City, Newfoundland, Canada, Kennecott Utah Copper Mine, and is currently the wireless standard at Peabody Energy and several mines in Australia. These networks range from 20-250 BreadCrumbs®. The result is a meshed mobile broadband network capable of operating in a vast open pit active mining space. Simultaneous applications currently running on these BreadCrumb® networks in the mining sector consist of Caterpillar?s VIMS?s, CAESultra grade control and Aquila Drill Management Systems, Carlson Grade Control systems, Jigsaw Technologies and Modular Mining fleet management system, Ground Probe Radar, an Automatic Train Operation and various video and VoIP applications. All vendor applications have been turned off and all applications are running on Rajant?s ?One Network?.

May 1, 2010

By M. Hekmati, M. R. Garmsiri, S. M. Hosseini

"SAG/AG mills have been most common choice in grinding circuits last decades. In the most cases, at the discharge of SAG/AG mills, a trommel screen is used that is equipped with baffles to provide appropriate residence time and improve separation efficiency. Using baffles, with the resultant maintenance requirements could lead to decrease in mill availability. In this research, an innovation in the structure of baffles of a trommel is presented. The results show that using new baffles led to 67% decrease in SAG mill downtime due to problems of baffles and 80% decrease in fine particles on recycle conveyor.INTRODUCTIONComminution is a vital operation in mineral processing circuits and it helps to achieve a certain level of fineness in the ore material. About 60-80 % of the overall energy used in mining is consumed in comminution, and this is the reason that much research has been performed in this field (Kochnev, 2008).During the last decades the configuration of grinding circuits has been changing due in large part to the decrease in the grade of mineral resources and the need for large scale, energy efficient processes. The previous configuration of conventional grinding circuits was based on parallel primary circuits (mostly using ball mill), such as the grinding circuit of Sarcheshmeh concentrator plant no.1 (Figure 1). The new configuration of grinding circuits is based on using SAG/AG mills, such as Shahrebabak concentrator plant (Figure 2), sometimes incorporating new technologies like the HPGR. Nowadays, application of new configuration of grinding circuits using large SAG/AG mills up to 40 feet (Allan, Major, Flintoff, Klein, & Mular, 2006), in the minerals industry is continuing increase due to the significant reduction in capital and operating costs, and increase in the plants throughput (Banisi & Hadizadeh, 2007)."

Jan 1, 2012

By Z. Bibak, S. Banisi, A. Ghasemi, E. Nematollahi

"The major importance of liners in grinding is their role in providing an appropriate trajectory for the charge. Since it is not possible to study the charge movement by direct observation in operating industrial mills, this task is accomplished by physical (laboratory), and/or, mathematical (software) methods. Because of the high cost and a longer time required for a physical analysis, mathematical simulations have become more common. Simulation of the effect of liner shape on the charge movement has provided a means to select a proper design based on the operational objectives and conditions. Furthermore, the liner shape changes due to wear and impact during operation, which will influence the charge trajectory. This adds more of an incentive to use simulation. These changes in liner could be predicted through liner profile measurements during operation and/or simulation. In this research, an inhouse developed DEM software called KMPCDEM © was used to simulate the charge movement in industrial plant SAG mills. A geometrical method of implementing the shell liners on SAG mills at the Sarcheshmeh (9.75×4.87 m) and the Gole-E-Ghohar (9×2.05 m) operations facilitated the software simulation. Point by point implementation of the measurements of liner profiles of these mills enabled the study to trend the change in the charge movement as the liners wear. Comparison of the simulation to a laboratory mill (1 m diameter) showed that the difference between the measured and predicted charge impact point, shoulder angle and toe angle were 6, 4 and 3°, respectively.INTRODUCTIONComminution is the most energy intensive operation constituting the major portion of operating and capital costs of a mineral processing plant. In the last decade, a vast number of research was aimed at studying various aspects of grinding with the aim of performance improvements (Davis, 1919; Mishra & Rajamani, 1990; kalala, Breetzke, & Moys, 2008). Mill liners transfer the input power to the charge and play a significant role in affecting the motion of the charge (Mclvor, 1983; Mishra & Rajamani, 1990; Radziszewski, 1997; Van Nierop, Glover, Hinde, & Moys, 2001; kalala et al., 2008). Lifters are usually used with mill liners to extend their life and to enhance the grinding and impact breakage efficiency. Mill lifters are used to raise the grinding media and ore to transfer the energy from the mill to the load (Rezaeizadeh, Fooladi, Powell, & Weerasekara, 2010)."

Jan 1, 2016

By T. Güyagüler, U. Y. Önder

"This study investigated the psychrometric properties of ventilating air in GAL coal mines. Related measurements were done in underground openings and have been arranged as input data for computer programs prepared for ventilation network and psychrometric analysis.Results obtained from network analysis have been used for psychrometric analysis of ventilating air. Changes in heat and moisture content of air in two major path s between entry and discharge of ventilating air have been investigated. Psychrometric processes occurring in the mine were determined and are shown graphically in Figures 1 and 2. Special attention has been given to determine the changes in psychrometric properties and processes involved in the faces. Results are outlined in this paper.IntroductionThe psychrometric properties of mine air are important factors to mine productivity and efficiency. Therefore, psychrometric analysis should be made for all underground mines; any undesired situation observe d could be corrected by taking the necessary precautions.The analyses were done as a case study for GAL mines, the only mechanized lignite coal mine in Turkey. In this mine, workable reserve is about 300 million tons of coal and yearly planned production is 2.2 million tons. Production is continuing from a coal measure-bed having two coal seams with average thicknesses of 1.52 m and 1.72 m respectively. A 0.85 m shale band exists between these two seams.Two full y-mechanized faces, approximately 220 m long, usually work simultaneously. All measurements, including mine gases and air velocity, are done by sensors connected to a control room by a monitoring system.In the analysis, a line diagram is utilized to described the mine on which every junction and branch is numbered."

Jan 1, 1992

By W. F. Harkness, D. Hodgkinson

"A non-destructive testing program was established at Crows Nest Resources (C.N.R.), Line Creek mining operation following an in-service fatigue failure of a front wheel spindle on a large haulage truck.This failure identified a definite need for improvements in the ultrasonic techniques used during the mandatory spindle integrity examinations. Initial investigations using common mining industry ultrasonic examination techniques showed that the smallest detectable cracks were 75 mm in length for the spindle types in service at the C.N.R. site. The Initial findings indicated that inadequate inspection technique design was the cause of the poor performance. To improve inspection reliability it was identified that improved ultrasonic techniques were required. Results using designed ultrasonic techniques were encouraging, with the detection of simulated and natural cracks 12 mm long achieved. The cost benefits associated with the extended spindle life, following the removal of these small fatigue cracks, far exceeded those of the expertise and effort necessary to implement and conduct the N.D.T. program.Introduction During 50 years of evolution, non-destructive testing (N.D. T.) has progressed from a laboratory curiosity to a well accepted and invaluable tool used in the assessment of material integrity. Unlike destructive testing, N.D.T. does not deform or render the material useless. Non-destructive tests may involve many applications, from the determination of a corrosion prevention coating thickness to the examination of a raw material for internal and external deformities.Within the mining sector, highly-stressed components will normally have been subjected to some form of non-destructive test during their manufacturing cycle. These tests are used to ensure the component does not contain material flaws whichmay be detrimental to its service performance.While the component may have assured quality when produced, deterioration by fatigue may occur during an aggressive service life. Large dynamically-loaded components such as haulage truck front wheel spindles are , in particular, prone to this service related problem."

Jan 1, 1987

By G. R. C. Pacheco, D. M. Fonseca, R. Neuböck, G. E. Gonçalves, W. Moulin-Silva

Degradation by sulfur gases is an important lining wear mechanism in the copper industry. SO2/SO3 gases infiltrate into the pores of the basic refractory bricks, combine with their raw materials through expansive reactions and significantly modify the bricks’ structure. This study presents a comparison of the corrosion resistance against sulfur attack of different magnesia-based refractories using a simple, low-cost and quantitative method. Recipes containing sintered MgO grains showed lower resistance to corrosion by sulfur oxides compared to basic grades containing fused grains. Chromium corundum grades were used as a reference and showed very good resistance to this corrosion mechanism under the test conditions. The novel test provided relevant results that agree with what is commonly observed during operation and in previous post-mortem studies. This tool could be very useful in selecting refractory grades for the copper industry and predicting their performance. INTRODUCTION Oxidation of matte sulfides during copper production leads to the formation of sulfur oxides, which infiltrate into the pores of the refractory lining and react with the basic oxides below 1000°C to form magnesium and calcium sulfates. This reaction is accompanied by an expressive volume increase, consequent densification of the refractory microstructure and weakening of the brick bond (Malfliet et al., 2013). Thus, corrosion by SO2/SO3 is an important wear mechanism in the non-ferrous industry and the resistance to this compound should be considered when defining refractories for this application. Previous studies on this matter include expensive and complex testing methods involving pressurized SO2 gas cylinders in order to investigate the corrosion resistance of MgO-containing materials by sulfur oxides (Gerle & Podwórny et al., 2016; Fotoyi & Eric, 2011; Fotoyi, 2009; Podwórny & Piotrowski et al., 2008). The current study was based on a test developed by Pacheco & Fonseca (2018) to assess alkali infiltration and aims to provide an evaluation method of the corrosion resistance of refractories by SO2/SO3 in a simple and quantitative manner. This novel test is useful to compare the corrosion resistance of different refractory recipes and properly select the grades that should be employed in the non-ferrous industry. A case study is provided to illustrate the damage caused by sulfur oxides in refractory linings.

Jan 1, 2019

By X. -G. Chen, A. M. Nabawy

A novel manufacturing technique for Al-TiB2 nanocomposites has been developed, in which TiB2 nanoparticles were incorporated into liquid aluminum under mechanical stirring and in the presence of a K2ZrF6 flux-wetting agent. The microstructure of the Al-TiB2 nanocomposites was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The microhardness test was conducted to investigate the strengthening effect of TiB2 on the aluminum matrix. The TiB2 nanoparticles were successfully incorporated and dispersed into the aluminum melt in the presence of the K2ZrF6 flux during mechanical stirring. In the as-cast microstructure, most nanoparticles segregated in the interdendritic regions as a result of particle redistribution during solidification. The addition of 2, 5 and 10 wt% TiB2 nanoparticles increased the composite hardness by 60, 90 and 150% respectively when compared to commercial purity aluminum, indicating that the TiB2 nanoparticles imposed a significant strengthening effect on the aluminum matrix. The role of K2ZrF6 flux agent on the incorporation of nanoparticles into aluminum melt was discussed.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. Mohammadi

Outline ?Background on the accident at the Sullivan Mine No.1 Waste Dump ?Holistic approach to understand the reason for accidents (Atmospheric) ?Specific hazards at reclamation sites ?Regular atmospheric risk assessment at reclamation sites ?Fuzzy risk assessment ?Managing risk at legacy sites

May 1, 2010