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By J. Cayouette, . Blatter, P. Cousin

The Laronde mill was commissioned in 1988 and has been treating the Laronde Perim ore since 2000. The Laronde plant, situated in the Abitibi region of Quebec, has experienced mill expansions to accommodate 7500 mtpd and to recover gold and silver as well as important amounts of base metals (Cu, Zn, Pb). Ten sequential metallurgical and environmental processes are responsible for metals recovery and process viability. Over 200,000 ounces of gold, 4,5 million ounces of silver, 7000 tonnes of copper, and 78,000 tonnes of zinc are produced annually. In 2008, the Goldex plant began trucking high wade (35-45 Wt Au) pyrite sulphide concentrate (TCGO) for gold extraction at a newly constructed treatment plant, increasing gold output at Laronde by 40,000 ounces. In 2009, the high gold wade Lapa ore processing facilities were annexed to the Laronde plant increasing output by 120,000 ounces of gold. TCGO and Lapa productions are forecasted until 2018 and 2015 respectively, with known reserves of each mine. Today, up to 140 permanent employees run and optimise the Laronde plant operation. As a result, Laronde has intricacies intrinsic to a large and varied operation. The paper will outline the metallurgical highlights, challenges, and future outlook related to the treatment of each ore type (Laronde, TCGO, and Lapa)

Jan 1, 2011

By T. R. Kostecki, J. Hirschi

"Analytical engineering design is based upon a trial-and-error iterative and deterministic process. Within this process, the engineer obtains some estimated values, plugs them into de facto closed-form equations, and receives output, which is expected to be a single number that serves as the basis for the design. This number is typically a factor of safety, or some other equivalent strength-stress ratio. This provides the engineer with a quick and relatively quantitative design methodology. This can create problems however, because in mining applications, the actual in situ system is highly variable, complex and often chaotic, which can lead to potentially incorrect conclusions that result in unsafe designs. A more appropriate and reliable approach is a probabilistic analysis for engineering design. This process is used widely in civil and other engineering disciplines, but is often overlooked for applications in coal mine design. Additionally, it seems the amount of past studies using this approach, especially in coal mine design, are rather limited. Considering how the probabilistic approach can account for uncertainty in parametric values and how unpredictable a mining design can be, the authors believe that this approach has potential in mining. This paper will focus on a summary of past studies related to probabilistic analysis in coal mine pillar design and provide recommendations for future work that could improve design reliability. INTRODUCTIONFeasibility and fundamental design procedures for excavations often start with an assessment of mine openings, pillar design, and the surrounding structure by using a deterministic approach with closedform solutions (ex. Bienawski, Obert-Duvall). These are reliable methods, but designers know that the inputs in these closed-form solutions are estimates at best and do not incorporate any degree of uncertainty. This is therefore not an optimal design procedure.A more appropriate design should incorporate some uncertainty because of the chaotic and variable nature of geology and mining conditions in general. In an attempt to account for uncertainty, a probabilistic approach can be adopted, which accounts for deviations in variables and provides a more optimum design solution. By applying a probabilistic approach, a designer can look at multiple failure scenarios at the same time instead of using the same deterministic design over and over."

Jan 1, 2015

By A. Hayatdavoudi, D. Chitila, F. Boukadi

"Shale oil and gas have provided a tremendous boost to energy production in the United States even though the characteristics and behavior of shale are yet to be fully understood. Hydraulic fracturing is often applied to horizontal shale wells to stimulate production. This experiment seeks to determine effects of cyclic variable temperature, water vapor and exposure time on shale micro fracture propagation. We used 22 small Pierre shale specimens and subjected them to aforementioned conditions. Fractures developed in 19 specimens. Combination of high temperature and high water vapor generated the largest number of micro fractures on the specimen surfaces.INTRODUCTIONShale oil and gas have contributed immensely to energy independence in the United States. Most if not all shales depending on their total organic content (TOC) and their clay content bear the promise of being a source rock. For example, the Eagle Ford shale play, located in south Texas, is one of the key contributors to the recent rise in oil and gas production in the United States. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published in 2014, states that monthly oil production from Eagle Ford wells increased from 340 barrels per day (bbl/d) in January 2009 to nearly 1 million bbl/d in June 2013. Natural gas production has also increased at a similar rate over the same period, from 5.8 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to nearly 4,000 MMcf/d (EIA, 2014).According to the railroad commission of Texas (RRC) 2014 published information, the Eagle Ford shale play is an important play because it produces gas and more oil than other shale plays in the United States. It is an organic-rich play with carbonate shale percentage in the 70% range in south Texas and the shale content increases moving to the northwest. High carbonate proportion renders this play brittle and suitable for hydraulic fracturing treatments."

Jan 1, 2015

By W. Pietsch

For a number of reasons, solids entering and leaving facilities for the treatment of minerals are becoming increasingly finer. Such materials pose problems throughout processing. Solids featuring small particle sizes tend to dusting, result in losses and segregation, exhibit various storage, transportation, and metering problems, and fine particulate effluents can not be easily captured, used and/or recycled. Sustainable mineral processing must minimize the exploitation of natural resources and avoid the need for disposal of wastes. The first requires the use of lower quality raw materials and upgrading, which typically results in the production of fine grained concentrates, and the latter encourages the recycling of wastes and byproducts or efforts to investigate them as sources for secondary raw materials or other beneficial applications. To overcome the difficulties associated with fine particulate solids, size enlargement by agglomeration is necessary. The resulting products have free flow characteristics, do no longer dust or segregate, and are sized and shaped as required for optimum processing. In addition, agglomerated materials may be engineered to feature desirable structure, composition, and a number of related, improved properties. Such engineering may be applied for the modification of fine run-of-mine and up-graded minerals as well as the production of secondary raw materials from by-products or wastes. By the interdisciplinary application of size enlargement by agglomeration waste-free processing of minerals becomes feasible.

Jan 1, 2004

By A. C. Ross

"The paper will deal with non-destructive testing in general, and its advantages to those responsible for the maintenance of wire rope. An outline of the main features of the M.D. 6 Defectograph will be given, and the method of operation and results obtained will be described.The instrument will accommodate ropes at 7 /16-to 2 %-inch diameter at reasonable speeds, and is capable of detecting the most minute defects in even the largest-diameter wire ropes."

Jan 1, 1969

By J. D. R. Neilsen

The objective of the research conducted and presented herein was to determine the effect of pre-established free gas saturation on the sweep efficiency of an isolated inverted five-spot well pattern. The investigation concluded that the ultimate recovery of an isolated inverted five-spot may be slightly increased by establishing a free gas saturation prior to water flooding; however, of more significance is the extreme deviation of the pattern's performance after water break-through from that commonly obtained from developed well patterns. The rapid "water-out" characteristic common to both linear floods and floods conducted in developed well patterns was not evidenced in the isolated inverted five-spot. Instead, the wells continued to produce oil long after breakthrough until ultimate areal sweep efficiencies of four, five, and six hundred percent were obtained prior to the water-oil ratio becoming excessive.

Jan 1, 1962

By L. Garrigues, M. Jarvis, M. Halhead, O. A. Bascur

"Large variability of ore types, escalating variables operating costs and increased throughput require large investment in sensors and systems in mineral processing operations. Mining and mineral processing plants collect and manage more data than a small city with much in real-time. The data is changing rapidly as internal and external conditions evolve. As corporations buy and sell assets, and reengineer their staff, the structure and tools that were used to understand this data is lost. This results in significant deterioration in the ability to maintain a smart operation. When data is recognized as a critical asset and managed as part of an infrastructure, it become a key enabler to help transform the entire operations. In many situations, all partners in business collaboration—such as join ventures, contract manufacturer, expert service providers, and operations and maintenance companies—need access to production and asset data. The emergence and maturation of Cloud technologies make it possible to easily connect the plants to external equipment suppliers and operational support service.This paper will share examples of how mineral processors have adopted new data strategies such as self-service business intelligence, cloud computing and internal/external collaboration.INTRODUCTIONOne of the main challenges in mineral and metallurgical processing plants is effective energy and water management. The lowering of ore grades requires higher throughputs while the ores are getting more complex with variable mineralogical compositions. Electrical energy supply is becoming a restriction in many countries. Rising water management costs has a direct impact on the profitability of the operations. Grade recovery versus energy consumption in copper production for both open pit and underground mines has been described by Fuerstenau (2001). Comminution uses over 55% of the energy to produce nonferrous metals while other operations require much less energy (Nelson, Richins, & Lelinski, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2016

By Anthony J. Deevy

"Abstract -The Magino gold mine is located 45 km northeast of Wawa, Ontario. There was limit­ ed gold production in the Iate thirties. The present operation was officially opened in October 1988 and produced gold until September 1992. It was a 635 tonnes per day, decline-accessed mine, with ore coming from several small blast hole and shrinkage stopes.The host for the gold is the Webb Lake granodiorite stock which was intruded into the Goudreau Lake Deformation Zone. This east-northeast-striking deformation zone overprints the generally east­ west-striking isoclinally folded metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, which make up the east end of the Michipicoten greenstone belt. The ore-shoots are controlled by dextral delatancy associated with the Goudreau Lake Deformation Zone. Shearing, bleaching and silicification accompanied the gold emplacement."

Jan 1, 1994

By R. J. Young, S. J. Tennant, A. D. Drummond

"Gibraltar Mines is located on the western slope of Granite Mountain, 230 air miles north of Vancouver, B.C. and 38 miles north of Williams Lake, B.C. There are four mineable zones within the copper-molybdenite deposit: Gibraltar East, Gibraltar West, Pollyanna and Granite Lake. Open-pit reserves are 358 million tons which average 0.37% Cu and 0.016% MoS2 at a 0.25% Cu cut-off. The Granite Mountain pluton is one of the several Jurassic-Cretaceous intrusions which outcrop along the east side of the Fraser River fault system between Williams Lake and Prince George, B.C. The original Granite Mountain quartz diorite has been metamorphosed by a cataclastic deformation which foliated the rock on a regional scale. Attendant to the development of the foliation, the rock was saussuritized such that the present mineralogy is compatible with that of the greenschist facies. The presence of garnet-bearing assemblages is explained by a restricted increase in water pressure. Pre-mineral intrusive phases within the saussuritized quartz diorite are: (1) leucocratic quartz diorite, (2) aplite and (3) quartz-feldspar porphyry. A late chloritized hornblende dacite dyke is post-mineral. Quartz-feldspar porphyry and leucocratic quartz diorite are locally present on the inner sides of the Gibraltar East, Pollyanna and Granite Lake pits. Their presence suggests a core around which occurs an elliptically shaped sulphide-bearing stockwork. The stockwork, which comprises four ages of vein development, is imposed on and partly controlled by the regional foliation of the samssuritized quartz diorite."

Jan 1, 1973

By C. J. Edmonds, R. Bland, W. C. Ferguson, R. Whitehead

"In 1969, the Environmental Science Division of James F. MacLaren Limited received authorization from The International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited to carry out a water quality monitoring program in the Lake Shebandowan region of Ontario, where a new base metal mining and milling complex was expected to go into operation in 1972. The objective of the program is to establish base-line water quality characteristics. Fully realizing their corporate responsibility to minimize the effects of the proposed activities on the environment, Inco decided that it would be desirable to establish a program by which any change in the quality of environmental waters will be detected before detrimental conditions ensue, permitting prompt corrective measures to be taken. The program has been in progress for over two years. The waters are sampled and analyzed four to six times per year. Sampling stations are located in Lake Shebandowan and on the adjacent Gold Creek - Matawin River system. On-site analyses and measurements are made of flow, dissolved oxygen, temperature and pH. Samples also are collected for later analysis in the laboratory. These samples are analyzed for a wide range of chemical and biological characteristics. The paper discusses the extent of the sampling program, the techniques utilized and the value of such programs in maintaining the quality of the environment."

Jan 1, 1973

By R. Burns, A. I. A. Salama, M. W. Mikhail

"Large amounts of oil sand tailings are produced in the Fort McMurray area, including sand, clays, and misplaced bitumen. The objective of the present study (as part of the overall engineered tailings program) is to select and evaluate the role of hydrocyclones in removing most of the solids from the tailings slurry and producing an underflow product containing about 75% solids.Multistage cyclones were evaluated in pilot plant tests. Slurry feeds with different percents solids and increasing ratios of superfines (–44 µm) were used in testing multistage cyclone circuits. A two-stage Linatex separator circuit gave high recovery to the underflow of 98.8% to 99.6% by mass with the desired high solids content in the underflow of 73% to 75% by mass. Changes in feed solids content (20% to 50%) had little or no influence on cyclone underflow recovery and solids content. The keys to achieving such results were the apex control mechanism and operation at relatively low feed pressure (<60 kPa for 23 cm F cyclone) when the feed solids content was high. Increasing superfines above 7% by mass in the feed resulted in a significant reduction in the recovery to the underflow, probably due to the heavy medium generated by excessive amounts of clays in the cyclone. Pilot plant results were better than those predicted by available cyclone simulation models in terms of recovery and solids concentration in the underflow.Increasing cyclone diameter from 23 cm for the Linatex separator to 51 cm for the Krebs cyclone appears to have little or no effect on size cutpoint."

Jan 1, 1997

By Noel W. Kirshenbaum

Difficulties and costs of transport markedly affect Canadian mineral producers because of distance from markets, weather conditions and rugged terrain. The chemical and physical nature of sulphide concentrates presents additional difficulties in handling and transport, resulting in higher costs which are ultimately borne by the mineowner. Troublesome properties include the thixo-tropic character of wet concentrates, freezing, susceptibility to autogenous heating, and fine particle size causing spillage and dusting losses. Canadian mineowners and shippers must contend with these problems and with stringent regulations governing the maritime shipping of concentrates. A "systems approach," in which complementary techniques in materials preparation, handling and transport are integrated, could reduce freight costs and losses for those selling concentrates, facilitate operations for those carrying and handling them and, in some cases, improve metallurgical processes in smelters receiving them.

Jan 1, 1969

By J. Lui

Inco Copper Cliff Smelter commissioned two new Inco flash furnaces in 1991/1993 as part of its S02 abatement program. Each flash furnace is equipped with a fluid bed dryer. The ~ 12 wt% water content in the concentrate filter cake, flux, reverts and sludge is removed in the fluid bed dryer. The dry solids are discharged from the dryer together with exhaust gases into the baghouses where they are separated. The dry solids are transferred to four storage bins. In September 2003, for the first time since startup in 1991/1993, a large amount of elemental sulfur accumulation was discovered on the walls, roofs and floors of the outlet side of the baghouse chambers. Several baghouse fires were experienced during cleaning and conducting maintenance work in the elemental sulfur contaminated baghouses. Laboratory scale test work at the Inco research lab was conducted to understand the mechanism. A plant solution to minimize elemental sulfur formation was implemented with success. This paper summarizes the efforts to understand and minimize elemental sulfur formation in the baghouse chambers.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. C. Loretto, H. A. Simons

The paper discusses how, in the routine testing of ores, insufficient communication between the laboratory and the design personnel can lead to misunderstanding or misinterpretation of test results and consequent design errors. A number of examples are given together with suggested modified interpretations and the resulting dollar savings indicated by these new interpretations.

Jan 1, 1972

By John C. Leighton, C. O. Brawner, Doug Stewart

"Despite the availability of established, sophisticated methods for planning and designing stable slopes in rock, comparatively little attention is usually paid to the problems of carrying out the excavation. Blasting should be carefully planned to obtain optimum fragmentation as well as steep, stable working and final pit walls. The principal difficulty facing a blast designer is the lack of prior information about the many critical blasting characteristics of the rock mass. The common practise of trial-and-error lasting will eventually lead to a suitable program, but must be repeated time after time in variable geology. This frequently results in many blast-damaged slopes. Recent research indicates that monitoring drill performance will yield a Rock Quality Index which correlates to a Powder Factor value. The drilling can provide a continual supply of data, reflecting changes in the rock mass which enables the selection of an economical powder factor.IntroductionWhen planning to excavate a large-scale rock slope, engineer s will generally spend considerable effort to produce a safe, feasible and economical design. Much time will usually be spent on the field map ping, &apos;structural geologic studies, surface and subsurface hydrology, determination of strengths and effective friction angles of discontinuities, and finally checking stability with the aid of mathematical and analytical models. If the rock cut is to be along a transportation corridor, the prime justification for this time and effort is to produce a clean, stable slope which will be safe for those travelling or working beneath it. For the walls of an open-pit mine, there is the additional economic incentive to maintain the steepest stable slope angle for the minimum stripping ratio (Stewart and Kennedy)."

Jan 1, 1982

By W. H. Patterson

The history and experience of early companies in the Islands is illustrated by the typical transactions of Trans-Western from 1959 to date. Trans-Western had entered into farmout agreements with companies strong enough to carry out at least the required minimum exploratory work and then such development as might be warranted. The farmee companies were required to make deposits to guarantee work performance during the first period of validity, i.e. the first 3 years of the 12-year life of the permits, and at the rate of 5 cents per acre. At that time, a good deal of geology was available, as a result of extensive exploration that had been carried on by the Geological Survey of Canada and other geological enterprises, with field parties travelling over and camping on all of those Islands. Trans-Western's farmees then selected, from Trans-Western's priority on 13.5 million acres, what they believed were the lands most prospective of producing large oil and gas discoveries, and, having the right to trim off acreage which they considered less prospective, thereby reducing the acreage of Trans-Western and its farmees to in excess of 5.5 million acres. The farmees then commenced a 3-year program carrying out geological exploration to the required minimum of 5 cents per acre, and with some permanent and many mobile camps.

Jan 1, 1969

By W. A. Jankola, M. T. Martin

"The world&apos;s first zinc pressure leaching plant at Cominco&apos;s Trail operations started production in 1981. Sullivan zinc concentrate is leached at the rate of 190 tpd in a four-compartment autoclave at elevated temperatures and oxygen pressures to produce a zinc sulphate solution and elemental sulphur. Zinc extraction exceeds 98% and sulphide to elemental sulphur conversion exceeds 95%.The sulphur is recovered from the discharged slurry in the underflow of a hydrocyclone, and is upgraded as a flotation concentrate. The concentrate is dewatered, melted and filtered to produce a polished sulphur product of better than 99% purity. An alternative sulphur recovery process employs an unique sulphur separation method that recovers over 90% of the sulphur in the molten state. The remaining sulphur is recovered by flotation following flash discharge of the slurry. The product slurry containing the zinc sulphate solution and the iron-lead residue joins the existing roast-leach zinc plant for purification and zinc electrowinning.IntroductionIn 1981, Cominco Ltd. commissioned the world&apos;s first commercial zinc pressure leaching plant at their Trail operations in British Columbia. As part of a $700 million modernization and expansion program for lead and zinc started in 1977, the company installed the first o f two autoclave trains.Prior to pressure leaching, zinc production was closely tied to acid and fertilizer production. Sulphur dioxide produced from roasting the concentrates had to be converted to sulphuric acid. Thus, any expansion of zinc operations with the roast-leach technology would have required extensive modifications to the acid and fertilizer plants as well as to the roasters. Zinc pressure leaching, on the other hand, offered a one-step dissolution of zinc from the concentrates with high extraction, and production of elemental sulphur. The associated dust and sulphur dioxide generated in the roasting process are both eliminated from the working environment of the pressure leach facility. The flexibility allowed by producing elemental sulphur, and the opportunity to break the sulphuric acid link for about 25 per cent of the targeted 272,000 tonnes per year zinc production was very appealing. The process was successfully demonstrated at a pilot plant in 1977(1-6)."

Jan 1, 1985

By Franz Xaver Spachtholz

K+S Potash Canada GP (KSPC) is part of the K+S Group, one of the world&apos;s leading suppliers of standard and speciality fertilizers and the world?s leading salt producer. Globally, the K+S Group employs more than 14,000 people. The K+S share ? the only commodities stock on the German DAX index ? is listed on all German stock exchanges. Legacy, K+S Group?s most recent project, is a greenfield solution potash mine and production plant in the south of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Therefore K+S will invest 4.1 billion CAD. With the expected commissioning in summer 2016 the company projects to reach the two-million-tonnesmark of production capacity at the new location at the end of 2017. The gradual extension of the annual capacity to 2.86 million tonnes of potash products will occur afterwards. The Legacy Project will be Saskatchewan?s first new potash mine in nearly 40 years. It is one of the world?s most economically attractive potash projects. The project will contribute to Saskatchewan?s growth through employment, tax revenues, utilities, and local partnerships. Located in the southern part of Saskatchewan?s potash belt, the deposit is too deep to be mined conventionally due to rock mechanics and high temperatures. Legacy will therefore be a solution mine. Proximity to the urban centers of Regina and Moose Jaw is imperative, with their workforces and economy, as well as access to highways, railway carriers and, most importantly in the prairies, water. With this unique project setting and mining technique, we are convinced that Legacy will be one of the most efficient, economic, sustainable and safe potash facilities in the world.

Aug 1, 2013

By Colin E. Dunn

The high mobility of gold within the plant kingdom results in detectable accumulations of gold in many plants. Concentrations vary within individuals, among species, and with seasons. From an evaluation of the chemistry of easily acce sible organs of common pecies in the northern forests, it is concluded that alder twigs (or leaves) and conifer bark scales are the vegetation components of greatest use in the earch for concealed gold mineralization. Maximum anomaly enhancement is obtained from twigs collected in the spring. Examples are given of urvey conducted in the La Ronge Domain using 1) jack pine bark (A nglo-Rouyn and Upise Lake areas) ; 2) alder twig (McLennan Lake) ; 3) black spruce bark (Rod Zone near Mallard Lake, and at Waddy Lake) ; and 4) multi-media (Tower Lake). At the latter two sites gold-bearing till is blanketed with late glacial material. Gold enrichment in the plants suggest that the roots are ab orbing gold from the underlying till. Complex processe control the uptake and retention of gold in plants. An understanding of these processes pem1its biogeochemistry to assist in locating near- urface mineralization .

Jan 1, 1986

By A. J. Ouellet, A. Coulombe, B. Salmon

The no. 7 vein system cuts the Ventures gabbro which has undergone folding and fracturing; the latter, in response to movement on the nearby Campbell Lake fault. It fills a shear fracture which pinches and swells in the upper mine levels but has a more uniform width in the lower levels. The best copper and gold grades in the upper levels occur in the widest parts of this structure. The vein is richer in quartz on upper mine levels and in carbonate on lower levels. The north wall of the vein is more affected by major and minor element wallrock alteration than the south wall. The isocumulative ci;rves for gold and copper show a direct correlation between the two metals in the upper levels and their increased concentration in the wider parts of the vein. Gold grade decreases in lower levels. A proposed structural model identifies the no. 3 and no. 7 veins as second order conjugate fractures, related to the Campbell Lake fault. The fractures pattern suggests that a conjugate system developed between these two parallel veins as a consequence of rock competence and a relatively low confining pressure.

Jan 1, 1984