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By Constantin D. Pitis

?Demand-side measure" means a rate, measure, action or program undertaken to conserve energy or promote energy efficiency?? (BCUC, 1996) In actual economical environment, business sustainability requires high-efficiency technological processes. That is why the efficiency concept has to be present at all levels of industrial activities. Nowadays, some purchasing decisions are still driven predominately by the purchase price, in spite of the evidence that such price represents up to 5 % to 7 % of the total costs of ownership with full consequences of energy efficiency and the impact on total ownership costs. The paper presents essentials of converter types and basics of the Global Efficiency (GEff) Concept that has been promoted over the last few years in South African industries (Pitis et al., 2006/7). GEff concept is proven as a useful tool used on price-efficiency decisions. Theoretical and technical aspects of this concept were substantiated with case studies. First part presented in this paper will describe how GEff concept was used on price ? efficiency decisions when single input or direct converters and systems (considered as low value equipments) have been replaced. Besides the impact of energy savings and new innovative developments, the paper suggests general other benefits of: ? Technical and economical performance improvements and competitiveness of mining corporations to international standards; ? Defusing incipient energy crisis in the sector; ? Improving environmental conditions; ? Creating new job opportunities in mining sector. Proposed concept in this paper could be further developed as models of improving companies? corporate energy policies.

May 1, 2010

By P. A. C. De Ruiter

The Lower Cretaceous salt deposits of the Gabon Basin and Congo Basin were said down on ton of an Burly Cretaceous Lato Jurassic, continental graben fill that represent!) the rifting phase of the Afro-American continent. The salt 13 characterized by high percentages of potash and magnesium salts and the scarcity of sulphates and carbonates. The salt probably originated from a brine that was already enriched in high-soluble salts before entering the Gabon Congo basins. Their low-solubility equivalents are found in the Cuanza Basin of Angola. Commercial mining of the potash salt is only possible in those onshore areas where it is essentially undisturbed, shallow and of the right chemical composition. These conditions are net in Congo where the Holle mine produces from rich sylvinite deposits.

Jan 1, 1978

By R. V. Peche

Since 1952, Bond’s equation has been used as a standard to predict the specific energy of grinding for a given duty. The Bond’s equation considers that the exponent is constant for all conditions. Hukki, in 1961, pointed out that the exponent is a function of the particle size, and concluded that the Bond’s equation applies successfully for an intermediate range of sizes; out of this range the Bond’s equation leads to high error as demonstrated in this paper. More recently, in 2004, S. Morrell presented a new formula in which the exponents vary with the feed and product size. This paper is based on Hukki’s approach and presents a new general formula, in which the exponent varies only with the feed particle size. This new equation has been proven in 82 observable cases in Peru and other countries around the world, involving ball mills and vertimills in different configurations over a wide range of feed and product sizes, work indices and mill diameters; in most cases, the predicted value has an error less than 10% with regards to the observed value and no need for any correction factor. Keywords: Grinding, specific energy, particle size, work index, variable exponent

Jan 1, 2020

By C. S. Gibson

"MOST of the mines in the Province of Ontario in Canada are multi-level operations in steeply dipping veins; yet there is an appreciable number whose de-posits are relatively flat-lying, ranging up to 45° inclination.The veins vary in width up to several hundred feet and may or may not be branching systems. The depths of mines range from a few hundred to 8,000 feet, approximately. The primary products of the underground group are asbestos, gold, silver, cobalt, copper, nickel, iron, uranium, talc, fluorspar, gyp-sum and salt.There are a few open-pit mines. The majority are temporary in type because, as the outcrops are removed, mining is continued be-low surface. Primary products of the open pits are copper, nickel, iron, magnesium and nepheline syenite.The industry as a whole employs about 50,000 persons, approximately 60 per •cent of whom have dust-exposure occupations. The definition of a dust-exposure occupation and the requirements for •dealing with same are set forth in The Mining Act of Ontario.Results of extensive and continuing studies on the incidence and progression of silicosis have been reported periodically for years past, in annual reports of the Mines Accident Prevention Association of Ontario and in papers presented at Conferences sponsored by Mcintyre Research Foundation of Toronto, all of which have been published. The information provided therein proves the effectiveness of the means being used to prevent silicosis and allied disorders."

Jan 1, 1960

By P. T. Brooks

Semipilot scale tests were made to demonstrate a newly developed electrorefining process which could be extrapolated to commercial scale in producing high-purity nickel and cobalt from crude nickel metal and high-grade ferronickel. The new process comprises application of solvent extraction techniques to remove and separate cobalt and iron from nickel and the electrodeposition in diaphragm cells of pure nickel and cobalt from chloride-based purified electrolyte. Using water insoluble organic amines, the solvent extraction operations enabled production of commercial-sized nickel and cobalt cathodes of higher purity than that of commercial electrolytic metals. The solvent extraction operation for separation of cobalt from nickel was made simpler than the conventional method. Furthermore, the solvent. extraction operation for iron removal made possible the electrorefining of ferronickel without the prohibitive loss of nickel resulting from the method ordinarily used for iron removal.

Jan 1, 1970

By S Wellink, D Chalmers, D Adermann, C Martin

The practice of recording blasts for quality control purposes has been conducted for several decades. However, at the low frame rates of a standard video camera, essential data is frequently missed as it occurs when the shutter is closed between frames.The use of high-speed video for the research, development and monitoring of the performance of blasting procedures is a well proven but under-utilised practice.The recent development of low cost, easy to use high-speed digital cameras and user friendly software can deliver a capability into mine management as a day-to-day production tool that can greatly improve blasting performance and reduce costs.Digital high-speed video and image analysis software can accurately quantify each blast. Analysis of the images can facilitate the identification of causes of variance from design, geology changes, errors in blast practice and areas of poor performance. The use of high-speed video greatly enhances the audit and review processes so that future blast design can be quickly and appropriately modified to deliver improved blasting performance and reduced costs.The three videos demonstrate the differences between standard video and high-speed video and the detail that can be obtained from them. These videos of open cut blasts can be used to identify blast performance variances. Capturing images at 1000 frames per second allows the analysis on a millisecond timescale where detonator timings, fragmentation, venting, fume generation and flyrock can be accurately identified.CITATION:Adermann, D, Chalmers, D, Martin, C and Wellink, S, 2015. High-speed video – an essential blasting tool, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 471–476 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By Lynn B. Hales

Unfortunately, the term "control" has a negative connotation in the minds of many of our operating plant personnel. Whereas the opposite is true of those associated with research and technical centers in our industry. The magnitude of this difference in opinion and actual experience has often proved to be a major factor influencing the success or failure of process control applications. Through the years, many plant people have endured a number of unsuccessful attempts by "outside" people to "optimize" their plants; and these experiences have proved to have had quite a callousing effect on them. On the other hand, in many plants, successful process control efforts have made firm allies of the operating personnel, and have increased the number of metallurgical people who are well qualified and experienced in process control. The instrumentation industry, computer industry, and the mining industry's ability to quantify what is really happening in our processes have grown and developed rapidly since the first control efforts were made in the 1930's (1). Because of this-,: new control opportunities are becoming increasingly more feasible and older well established ones are becoming even more practical and necessary with regard to the economic s of our industry.

Jan 1, 1979

By Eugene C. Spilker

Cross country belt conveyors are becoming the preferred method of bulk material handling in the industrial complex. Installed cost, maintenance, reliability, simplicity and operating expense enhance this choice, especially when faced with rising cost and questionable availability of liquid fuels. Conveyor flights are getting longer, faster, and higher in capacity, and are being installed in rugged terrain. Rights of way are often difficult to obtain. All these considerations lead up to design aspects well beyond those for in-plant conveyors. This paper points out some of the aspects that lead to the successful design of a cross country belt conveyor system.

Jan 1, 1980

By R. E. Hershey

1. Reserves were estimated for three coal beds: Lantana, Sewanee, and Richland. 2. Known measured and indicated reserves for all beds, based on a minimum thickness of 14 inches and on 1,800 tons per acre-foot of coal in place, are estimated at 34 million short tons as of Januray 1, 1954. Of this total, 15 million short tons represents coal 28 inches and more thick. Areas in the beds were omitted from the estimate because available data relative to the bed characteristics were insufficient to permit making an estimate conforming with the definitions of measured and indicated coal adopted for this study. Should future drilling or development prove reserves in these areas, such reserves should be added to the total estimated reserves determined by this investigation.

Jan 1, 1956

By C. A. Cole

This work consists of research in cable fault location and the construction of four field-test units based on the research. Swept-frequency sounding of mine cables with RF signals has been the technique most thoroughly investigated. The swept-frequency technique is supplemented with a form of moving target indication (MTI) to provide a method for locating the position of a technician along a cable and relative to a suspected fault. Separate, more limited investigations involved high-voltage time domain reflectometry and acoustical probing of mine cables. Particular areas of research included microprocessor-based control of the swept-frequency system, a microprocessor-based fast Fourier trans-form for spectral analysis, RF synthesizers, transmit-receive switches, RF receivers, cable dispersion-compensation techniques, low-voltage multielement display systems, and techniques for injecting or recovering RF energy through cable walls in support of clamp-on fault locators.

Jan 1, 1982

By E. D. Gardner

This paper is the third of a series of three on placer mining in the western United States. The first paper4 discusses the history of placer mining in the Western States and the production of placer gold, geology of placer deposits, location of placer claims on public lands, sampling and estimation of gold placers, and classification of placer-mining methods, together with hand-shoveling and ground-sluicing. The second papers deals with hydraulicking, sluice boxes and riffles, recovery of gold and platinum from placer concentrates, treatment of amalgam, and marketing of placer gold. The discussion of sluice boxes and subsequent subjects in the second paper applies to all forms of placer mining. The present paper treats of dredging and other forms of mechanical handling of placer gravels, and drift mining.

Jan 1, 1934

By W. L. Saunders

(New Haven Meeting, February, 1909.) This paper deals specifically with heading-driving as distinguished from the broader term tunnel-driving. A heading is a pilot or path-finder for the main tunnel. Some headings are complete tunnels in themselves; that is, conditions at times warrant driving a heading the full diameter of the proposed tunnel. A tunnel 10 ft. in diameter might be driven to advantage through a single heading, provided the nature of the material admits, but it usually pays to drive rock tunnels of large diameter through the heading-and-bench system. Much de-pends upon the material, as in soft ground tunnels of much larger diameter are driven in a single heading. In mines, the tunnels, drifts, cross-cuts, adits, etc., are usually of small diameter, hence the driving of headings applies to completed tunnels in minim-work, except, of course, in cases like drainage-tunnels and main entries leading into coal-mines, where conditions call for tunnels of large diameter, approximating those driven for railway-service. In building aqueducts the tunnels are driven from 6 to 8 ft. in diameter up to 15 or 20 ft., while in railway-service the dimensions vary from 18 to 30 ft. in diameter. There is no department of rock-excavation so difficult as that of heading-driving. This work. also belongs to the most expensive class in rock-excavation. A heading is driven .directly in the solid. There are no lines of lesser resistance towards which to direct the energy of the blast, but. the material must be blown out by main force. The completion of the heading simplifies all the rest of the work of excavation. It is easy, for instance, to enlarge a heading either from above, below or oil the sides, by breaking towards the open face through holes approximately at right angles to the axis of the heading; or the enlargement sometimes takes place by holes driven outside

Apr 1, 1909

By Orlando Martino

This regional report covers the mineral industries of Canada and 40 countries and areas in Latin America and the Caribbean Basin. Also included is a brief description of the mineral potential of Antarctica. The Latin American region encompasses an area twice that of the United States. Latin America and Canada have a rich and diversified endowment of mineral fuels, metals, and industrial minerals. Tables 2 and 3 provide a summary view of the importance of Latin America and Canada's output of its major mineral commodities in world mineral supply in 1989 and 1990.

Jan 1, 1993

By J. W. Miller

An investigation was begun by the Bureau of Mines in 1948 to determine the preparation characteristics of American coals. Results of the investigation were planned to be reported on a county basis and from the data developed, to determine: (a) Which coals either as mined or after beneficiation by conventional preparation are suitable chemically under present standards for producing metallurgical coke. (b) Which coals require special and more intensive treatment in preparation than is now practiced. (c) Which coals cannot be considered potential sources of metallurgical coke regardless of preparation. This report is one in a county series that describes the preparation characteristics of the coals of Mingo County, W. Va.

Jan 1, 1956

By Ebrahim Ghasemi, Mohammad Hossein Kadkhodaei, Mosareza Jalilian

Entry-type mining methods, such as cut and fill method, play a significant role in underground mining, and they are still suitable methods for extracting deposits with irregular shapes and with weak host rocks. In these mining methods, the stability of the open spans is important for improving worker safety and increasing ore recovery. This study focuses on the application of six data mining classification methods, namely multinomial logistic regression (MLR), classification and regression trees (CART), logistic model tree (LMT), decision tree (J48), multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), and gene expression programming (GEP), in order to develop predictive models for stability assessment of underground entry-type excavations. For this purpose, a database containing 399 case histories of entry-type excavations from seven Canada underground mines was used. These models predict the stability status of entry-type excavations based on two input parameters, dimensions of the span and rock mass rating (RMR). The performance of developed models was evaluated using six performance metrics namely accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SE), precision (PR), Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC), area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), and performance index (PI). The results showed that all developed models can be used to predict the excavation stability, but the comparison of models indicated that the J48 model provides the highest performance with ACC = 0.900, SE = 0.869, PR = 0.922, MCC = 0.835, AUC = 0.891, and PI = 4.417. Thus, the proposed J48 model can be applied to identify the susceptibility of span instability in the entry-type mining, and if instability has been predicted, the necessary measures, including the use of suitable support systems, can be considered to reduce the casualties resulting from span instability.

Feb 26, 2024

By David A. Heitman

The Buick Concentrator is a highly automated operation which utilizes a process control system for continuous monitoring and control. The process control system development, installation, and application to the concentrator grinding and flotation circuits are presented in this paper. The design and implementation of analog field sensing instrumentation, a continuous on-stream X-ray analyzer, grinding and classfication circuit controls, and a recent digital process control system utilizing a centralized computer are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the project planning and installation of the digital control system including a presentation of future plans for continuing application of computer control.

Jan 1, 1982

By Henry G. Granger

NOTHING in this paper is to be understood as even suggesting a moment's suspension of the splendid work now going forward on the Isthmus of Panama, except so far as it is related to the proposed locks. All the work already done, and all material purchased or ordered, would be available for the plan herein proposed. The situation and the problem concerned may be summarized as. follows : The scheme of a lock-canal through the Isthmus of Panama was adopted, as is well known, on two principal grounds-namely, the greater expense of a sea-level canal, and the longer time required for its construction. Of these, the latter is believed to have been the more influential. But further developments have diminished the weight of both, so that a reconsideration of the question is warranted. It is the purpose of this paper to advocate such a reconsideration-emphasizing the importance of certain objections to the lock-canal not mentioned or not duly appreciated in the report of those members of the International Board of Consulting Engineers who favored this form; showing the nature and bearing of the new facts developed; and, finally, proposing a combination of well-known methods and apparatus, which would, in my judgment, effect the construction of a sea-level canal in less time, and perhaps at no greater cost, than will be required for the remaining work on the lock-canal. I. OBJECTIONS TO A LOCK-CANAL. 1. Earthquakes. Two centuries ago Panama is said to have been destroyed by an earthquake. In 1882 a rather violent earthquake was felt at the southern end of the Isthmus. In 1898 I felt a slight shock near the present border-line of Colombia. In 1900 I felt three shocks at Quibdo, the head of navigation of the

Jan 1, 1909

By P Bergin, J M. Galvin, J Harris, J Li, P Kirsch, M Shi, B Hebblewhite, B Whittaker, R Mitra, D Sprott

Controlling unwanted ground movement is critical in mining as well as many other highly hazardous environments, such as construction and tunnelling. Sharing knowledge about effective hazard management is paramount to improving health and safety and operational outcomes across industries, and some industry sectors have embraced this openness as part of the way that they do business. In 2010, the Australian Coal Association Research Program funded the RISKGATE project to build a body of knowledge for managing a broad range of hazards across mine sites, lease areas and mine infrastructure within a mine-life or product life cycle perspective (eg from exploration through to decommissioning, or design through to operation). The RISKGATE body of knowledge was assembled from Australian coal industry experts through a semi-structured bowtie analysis-based action research workshop cycle. By capturing operational knowledge from industry experts, RISKGATE serves to provide a cumulative corporate memory at a time of high personnel turnover in the coal industry.This paper presents an overview of RISKGATE topics within the geological and geotechnical domain (strata underground, ground control open cut, outburst, coal bumps and bursts, tailings dams and inrush) with a summary of individual topic structures, as well as showing the contrasts and inter-relationships between these ground management topics. The online user can access information about the causes, controls and consequences related to a priority unwanted event (ie the point at which control of energy is lost) and use this information as a prompt for the development of risk assessments, incident investigation, audits of practice/plans/procedures and for training and development.The paper concludes with a discussion of how RISKGATE can be adapted to other mining domains (eg coal outside of Australia, hard rock mining worldwide, construction, tunnelling) and the opportunity for application of this body of knowledge and the RISKGATE action research process for knowledge management in other highly hazardous environments.CITATION:Kirsch, P, Hebblewhite, B, Sprott, D, Harris, J, Li, J, Shi, M, Whittaker, B, Galvin, J M, Bergin, P, Mitra R and Williams, D, 2014. RISKGATE – shared coal mining knowledge for managing risks across ground management, in Proceedings AusRock 2014: Third Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference , pp 247–254 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 5, 2014

By T. Chmielewski

Unique mineralogical and petrological properties of black shale in the copper ore deposit of the Foresudetic Monocline (SW Poland) resulting from three lithological layers have been described in terms of its unfavorable behavior in the ore processing circuits. A concept of processing of a part of the black shale fraction from the flotation circuit of the concentrating plant by separating a by-product enriched in the shale matter was presented. This by-product represents the tailings of the first cleaning flotation and, as a hard-to-treat circulating middlings, overload the cleaning operation in the flotation circuit. It was found that the investigated by-product cannot be effectively up-graded using standard xanthate flotation. This is due to a fine dissemination of sulfide minerals in the dolomitic and clay shale particles significantly enriched in organic carbon. The content of the organic carbon is similar to that in the petrographically "pure" black shales. After a comprehensive examination of the shale by-product it was recognized that the investigated middlings can be regarded as a specific shale concentrate for individual processing. The effect of non-oxidative leaching of middlings with sulfuric acid on their further flotation was presented. It was shown that non-oxidative leaching is a selective process, in which calcium and magnesium carbonates decomposition leads to effective liberation of sulfide minerals which were finely disseminated in the hydrophilic carbonate gangue. Leaching of the flotation feed with sulfuric acid selectively decomposes carbonate minerals and consequently enhances flotation results. Saturation of leaching slurry with gaseous carbon dioxide favorably creates non-oxidative conditions and leads to a great decrease of the electrochemical potential of sulfide particles as well as hinders their solubilization. Partial carbonates leaching from middlings resulted in evident liberation of valuable minerals. Consequently, it resulted in an increase of both recovery and grade of concentrates obtained by flotation of shale by-product after non-oxidative leaching.

Jan 1, 2014

By Jason J. Ballentine

This paper presents a case study of how an asset strategy and zero based budget was developed for an existing crushing plant that had been purchased from the contract service provider by an Australian Iron Ore miner. The goal was to directly align the strategies and budget to the business goals. This however was not a simple task due to poor historical records and a general lack of information. These challenges were overcome and the benefits of a documented maintenance strategy, a justifiable zero based budget and employee engagement were realized.

May 1, 2007