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By M. Holmes, R. Molnar, E. Norton, K. Baxter, J. Riordan

The Boleo Copper-Cobalt-Zinc-Manganese Project of Baja Mining Corp. is situated adjacent to Santa Rosalia on the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. The El Boleo ore is a mixed oxide-sulfide deposit with major values in copper, cobalt, zinc and manganese. The metallurgical process designed to treat the El Boleo orebody involves a sulfuric acid leach in seawater using oxidative and then reductive leaching to maximize metal extraction. The leach solution is separated from the barren solids via counter current washing through a series of high rate thickeners. Copper is recovered using conventional SX-EW processing as cathode. Zinc and cobalt are extracted from the copper SX raffinate after iron and aluminum precipitation. The CSIRO DSX solvent system (Versatic® 10 and LIX® 63 mixture) are used in this extraction. Manganese remains in the DSX raffinate and is recovered by soda ash addition as a high quality manganese carbonate precipitate. Zinc and cobalt are acid stripped from the loaded DSX solvent. Zinc is then re-extracted away from cobalt using Cyanex® 272 extractant and stripped into a highly concentrated strip liquor (+100 g/L Zn) and directed to either a spray dryer or a granulator for production of zinc sulfate monohydrate. The zinc solvent extraction raffinate, containing cobalt, advances to another SX circuit using Cyanex® 272, for the recovery of cobalt as cobalt cathode. In this paper, the detailed results from bench and integrated pilot plant testing for zinc recovery from the El Boleo ore will be described. The results of this testing are currently being used to engineer the commercial plant at El Boleo.

Jan 1, 2008

By Arthur B. Yates

"The nickel deposits of Sudbury, discovered in .1885, have probably commanded as much attention as any single group of orebodies in the world. They have been the major source of the world's nickel supply since 1903, when their production first surpassed that from the Pacific Island of New Caledonia. From 1903 to 1914 the production from New Caledonia remained essentially constant, whereas that from Sudbury increased from 13,000,000 to 50,000,000 pounds a year. After 1914 the production from New Caledonia gradually dropped to about 4,000,000 pounds in 1919, where it remained until 1923. During these years the Canadian production increased steadily and since 1923 has gone up at an amazing rate to a peak of over 280,000,000 pounds in 1941. Meanwhile the New Caledonia production increased to about 10,000,000 pounds until the pressure of war raised it to roughly 14,000,000 pounds a year.The Sudbury deposits, because they have been the source of 80 per cent of the world supply of nickel, because of their economic importance to the world of metals, and because they are geologically unique in their occurrence, structure, and genesis, have attracted foremost consideration and the literature relative to their geology is voluminous. This is particularly true in regard to genesis.There is a significant and interesting parallel in time between the advancement of the science of economic geology and the great expansion of the nickel industry. The controversies regarding the fundamental classification of orebodies into generalized types were in full swing during the height of the development and expansion of the great nickel mines, and the Sudbury deposits, being the most important and the only ones of the sulphide type extensively developed, have been the chief source of information in regard to this type. The observations and the conclusions drawn thereon from numerous studies of the various mines of the district have not only influenced, but are the essence of, this chapter of the science."

Jan 1, 1954

By F. A. Forward

Introduction The main line of ascent in the development of the nickel industry may be traced back through the International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited, to its earliest antecedents, the Canadian Copper Company and the Orford Copper Company. Mining geology is but one aspect of the overall development of this organization, and the stress it has placed on geology grew according to the need. In the early days, intensive geology was not required because ore supply was not one of the main problems of this or any of the pioneer companies. The difficulty then was to find economic methods for reducing the ores to nickel and copper, and markets for absorbing nickel in the face of a limited demand from consumers heavily prejudiced in favour of the New Caledonia product. "Very early in the history of the region it was patent to everyone that to share in the full benefits of the industry the same individuals or company must control the whole of the operation necessary to manufacture the finished product' (1, p. 45). These conditions were fulfilled for the International Nickel Company in 1902 when the Canadian Copper Company (incorporated 1886), with its ample ore supply, took the initiative to merge its interests with those of the Orford Copper (Refining) Company (incorporated 1887) to form the new company which, with reorganizational changes, emerged as the producer of the overwhelming bulk of the world's nickel. The Mond Nickel Company, Limited, entered the field in 1899 with a refining process, and over a period of years acquired ore through purchase of mining properties. This Company operated successfully and independently until 1929 when its assets were joined with those of the International Nickel Company in order to permit the most economic exploitation of the Frood-Stobie orebody in which both Companies were interested.

Jan 1, 1948

By H. C. Gunning

Introduction The invitation to contribute a discussion on some of the broader features of the mineral deposits of our Cordillera seemed acceptable enough when presented several months ago. More mature consideration has impressed upon me the difficulty of making any constructive or very helpful contribution in the short time available and with my limited inspiration. Dr. Lang deserves our real gratitude for his general paper of nineteen pages at the beginning of the Volume. Into it, with the help of two diagrams and seven tabular summaries, he has packed a lot of useful information and has analyzed along several lines the data of the Volume's twenty-eight detailed papers on our mines and camps. He has added additional facts from his own knowledge of the region. I am sure that, like myself and the whole fraternity, he feels especially grateful to the eleven company geologists who found time to contribute detailed descriptions of mines they have studied. The Regional Situation With the Jubilee Volume and two recent publications of great value from the Geological Survey, we are more up-to-date on Cordilleran geology than we have ever been. But I would like to emphasize that we still have but fragmentary information. Brief study of G.S.C. Map 932A will illustrate this. Our knowledge of the Rocky mountains is limited to two narrow sections along the main railway lines, a somewhat larger area from the border north along the Mesozoic coal-bearing basins, and some reconnaissance along Peace river and the Alaska highway. There is some additional information on old maps, particularly those by G. M. Dawson, but it is very much of the 'exploratory' type. The other mapped areas are chiefly in the accessible region south of 'fifty-one', in the central part adjacent to and spreading north, recently, from the Canadian National railway, and along the edges of the Coast Range.

Jan 1, 1950

By Jun Wang, Bo Zhang, Wenqing Qin, Guanzhou Qiu, Xiaozhen Ma, Key Lab of Biohydrometallurgy of Ministry of Education, Fen Jiao, Central South University, Yansheng Zhang

"Arsenic contained in minerals sulphides such as enargite and tennantite can represent not only a significant penalty element in base metals production, but also a disadvantage to the environment through producing the toxic emissions to the atmosphere. The achieving separation of arsenic bearing minerals either at an early stage in floatation or from the floatation concentration is significantly beneficial to the economic. However, there was no feasible commercial method of separation at the flotation stage because of its similar flotation properties with many other copper sulphides. In this work, the selective floatation of enargite from copper sulphide concentrate containing maily covllite, chalcoctie, bornite and enargite was investigated. A low arsenic concentrate with As 0.2%, Cu 22% and a high arsenic bulk concentrate with As 7.65%,Cu 33.65% were obtained. It was indicated that Ca(ClO)2 is the effective depressor and the optimum floatation condition was obtained. Most enargite could be floated at pH 11 and controlling the pulp potential at 290 mV SHE. Furthermore, the arsenic removal from the high arsenic bulk concentrate by hydrometallurgy methods was study. The results showed that the reaction temperature and the concentrations of NaOH were the most important variables affecting the rate of arsenic removal. A low arsenic concentrate with As 0.24%, Cu 37.80% was obtained in the optimum leaching condition.INTRODUCTIONArsenic is mainly produced as a by-product of base metals smelting, in particular copper concentrate. China has imposed an upper limit of 0.50% arsenic for concentrates entering (Long et al., 2012). Arsenic amount of copper concentrate within 0.40% has also been imposed in China, and above which will be introduced about 50 RMB penalties per ton for each 0.10% increasing by smelters now. Therefore, it is necessary to remove arsenic from the copper concentrate.In copper concentrate, arsenic is mainly in the form of arsenopyrite (FeAsS), enargite (Cu3AsS4) or tennantite (Cu12As4S13). There are two types of arsenic in the separation of copper and arsenic: arsenopyrite and arsenic bearing copper mineral. It is easier to separate arsenopyrite from the copper sulphide by flotation in comparsion with the separation of enargite or tennantite from non-arsenic copper minerals (Pineda et al., 2015). The main difficulty in the separation of arsenic copper mineral from non-arsenic copper sulphides is their extremely similar floatability, which depends on the fact that tennantite and enargite contain high copper content (Pineda et al., 2015)."

Jan 1, 2016

By M. Labrie, H. L. Gibson, G. Doiron, J. J. Watkins, D. H. Watkinson

Abstract -The Corbet deposit is one of 17 proximal Cu-Zn massive sulfide deposits located. within the Noranda Cauldron which occurs within the core of the Noranda Volcanic Complex. The deposit is located at the top of the F1avrian Formation, the lowermost formation of the 3000 m thick Mine Sequence; the deposit has yielded 2.75 M tonnes of ore grading 30Jo Cu, 0.96% Zn, 2.06 g/t Ag and 1.0 g/t Au. The multi-lens Corbet deposit formed within a 250 m wide crater that occurs within a localized breccia pile. The Corbet breccia pile was constructed by explosive magmatic and hydrovolcanic eruptions localized along the south flank of a larger andesitic shield volcano that formed during the waning stages of F1avrian volcanism. The breccia footwall of the deposit allowed unfocused and widespread hydrothermal discharge that resulted in the development of a large area of chlorite and fringing sericite alteration that exceeds, by six times, the size of the sulfide lenses and represents a significant exploration target.

Jan 1, 1993

By L. A. Wrigglesworth, A. S. Dadson

The orebodies of the Giant Yellow-knife mine occur in zones of schist, in an assemblage of typical Precambrian greenstones which form part of the Yellowknife Greenstone Belt. One of the most interesting problems at the mine concerns the fold-like attitudes assumed by the schist zones. The internal structure of the zones and orebodies provides much evidence of folding. A logical conclusion would be that the zones represent a single horizon which has been folded and drag-folded in the ordinary course of mountain building. However, surface mapping, and correlation of certain marker horizons, in underground work, indicate a homo-clinal succession of steeply dipping flows. If this concept of the geology is correct, the zones must cross-cut the regional strike at a small angle and, in the over-all aspect, the regional dip at a large angle. A mechanical interpretation of the zone structure is presented as a suggestion for the present until new evidence is found.

Jan 1, 1959

By J. D. Wilkins

"Ore outcrops were first discovered in the area in 1911. Following various periods of exploration by private interests and Cominco Limited, the Coast Copper Company, Limited property was brought into production in August 1962. Subsequently, Cominco explored the adjacent Quatsino Gold Mines property and is currently developing, and producing from, what is now known as the Benson Lake Mine.The Benson Lake Mine was developed using a conveyor-equipped decline and trackless LHD equipment. The operation produces 800 tons per day of copper-iron ore, copper being the main product. Copper and iron concentrates are trucked 25 miles to storage and shiploading facilities near Port McNeill to await shipment to Japan."

Jan 1, 1971

By S. Amira

The corrosion behavior of high pressure die-cast and thixocast AXJ530 magnesium alloys has been investigated in 0.05M NaC1 solution at pH 6.0 using potentiodynamic polarization tests, electrochemical noise (EN) technique, electro-chemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning reference electrode technique (SRET). The behavior of die-cast and thixocast specimens were compared using each of these techniques and the results discussed. Further tests have been carried out with die-cast AZ91D alloy to better compare and interpret the results. Experiments indicate that the thixocast specimens of AXJ530 alloy have a better corrosion resistance than those of die cast alloy in neutral solution.

Jan 1, 2006

By H. Itou

A mechanism of scorodite formation at ambient pressure was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Several types of iron arsenate were obtained from Fe/As solutions (Fe/As = 1.0 and 1.5) at pH values of 1.0, 1.25 and 1.5 at 95°C. Amorphous FeAsO4.xH2O was precipitated from solutions having a higher mole ratio of Fe/As at pH l.5, even after 9 hours. A few micron sized particles were observed by SEM, but these proved to be agglomerates of 10-50 nm amorphous FeAsarxH2O particles when observed by TEM. This means that supersaturation of the solution causes the acceleration of nucleation of iron arsenate hydrate. Crystalline scorodite was obtained from a solution in which the Fe/As mole ratio was unity, at pH l.0 and pH 1.5, after 3 hours. Almond-type crystalline scorodite particles were observed by TEM and most of them showed high crystallinity. The addition of scorodite seed material enhanced the crystallization. Amorphous FeAsO4.xH2O, however, was observed at the surface of the seeds during the early stages of precipitation. It is postulated that crystalline scorodite is not directly precipitated even on crystalline scorodite seeds, but requires a certain time to crystallize on the seed material.

Jan 1, 2006

By M. Al-Khawaja, F. Hassani, F. Mucciardi, N. Razavinia

"In today’s economy many industries are becoming aware of the need to recover some of the waste heat they create. Industrial processes release, on a global scale, over 100 tera-Joules (i.e. 1014 J) of waste heat annually. The recovery of waste heat can lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and it can also provide a financial benefit which can be obtained by converting some of this excess heat to electricity. At McGill, a research program has been initiated so that low grade waste heat (temperature between 100ºC and 300oC) from process off-gases found in pyro-metallurgical industries is captured and concentrated by using heat pipes and then converted to electricity by a mechanical engine. This paper illustrates the 3 C’s process (capture, concentrate and convert waste heat to electricity). It also provides some preliminary experimental data. INTRODUCTIONThe problematic climate change caused by the use of fossil fuels, the rapid depletion of global reserves and the catastrophic consequences of nuclear power generation call for renewable and safe, resources of energy, for both man and the environment. Extensive researches in the production of energy from renewable sources and improvements in efficiency of current technologies can help us to reverse this trend.The greatest advantages of using renewable energies are that they don’t deplete and they also contribute to a green environment. On the other hand the disadvantage of using these resources is that the energy available from renewable sources is much less concentrated than that provided by fossil fuels and nuclear energy. This makes renewable energy less attractive for large scale industrial uses in most cases. A key target for society for the 21st century is the production of energy from renewable sources at a cost that is competitive with fossil fuels. Fossil fuels represent a concentrated form of energy; usually it is referred to as high grade energy. Nonetheless, there is a vast supply of alternative energy. The sun, wind, water and biomass were the first to be explored. While these are all valid options that warrant concerted efforts and large investments, there is another source of energy that typically is produced by manufacturing industries. This energy is often referred to as low grade waste heat. Most of this energy is simply vented to the environment through the stream of off-gases. In the future it will be necessary to capture and convert some of the low grade heat to a valuable form such as electricity if we are to improve on the efficiency of energy usage."

Jan 1, 2012

By Charles G. Kemsley

IN January, 1939, Dome Mines, Limited, purchased a few bars of an alloy drill-steel for the purpose of testing its fatigue resisting qualities as compared with those of a straight carbon-steel then in general use at the mine. A steel of the following analysis was selected: Carbon 1.00% Sulphur 0.022 Chromium 1.26 Silicon 0.17% Phosphorus 0.028 Vanadium 0.1 Manganese 0.32% Molybdenum 0.30 This steel has a tensile strength of 180,000 lb. per square inch and a Brinell hardness of 380, as compared with a tensile strength of 114,000 lb. per square inch and a Brinell hardness of 230 for the standard carbon drill steels, in the as rolled' condition. The result of this test showed that about five times as many runs could be obtained from the alloy steel before failure from fatigue. It was therefore decided to replace gradually the one-inch quarter-octagon carbon steel, then in use, with seven-eighths quarter-octagon alloy steel. In January, 1940, six machines was placed on the seven-eighths steel and this was gradually increased until now (March 15th, 1941) fifty per cent of the steel being used is alloy steel. An O'Donovan furnace is used at the Dome for heat-treating their carbon drill-steel. In this furnace, a magnet withdraws the steel when the critical temperature has been reached, and the operator then places the steel in the quenching tank. Not being able to use this furnace for the alloy steel, the management felt that some means should be developed to determine the quenching temperature without depending upon the operator's judgment of the correct 'colour'. With the assistance of the Canadian General Electric Company, a radiation-type vacuum thermocouple pyrometer was adapted to this purpose, with excellent results; in fact, with this instrument no previous experience in hardening is necessary and results are remarkably uniform.

Jan 1, 1941

By W. F. Scott, K. L. Somerville

"This paper outlines the development and inplementation of functional training at the Thompson Mine of Inco Metals Company, Manitoba Division. This training is an extension of similar methods implemented throughout the company to meet safety and health and productivity objectives. It consists of the orientation to the mine, induction in the basic mining skills, and specific training in drilling and other skills in the mine. Initial results indicated a positive effect on the safety performance and proficiency of the mine workforce.IntroductionThe primary mining method at the Thompson Mine is mechanized cut and fill, with secondary recovery of pillars by undercut and fill . These methods require a workforce of about 900 hourly operating employees to obtain capacity production of 6500 tons of ore per day.Historically, turnover of mine employees has been high and large numbers of new recruits are introduced to the mine every year. These men are recruited primarily in Manitoba, but also from distant areas of Canada; most of the se people have no previous mining experience.Training has always been an important component of mine operations. Mine supervisors and experienced miners have committed an appreciable amount of time and effort to training these new recruits. As well, training efforts have been directed toward upgrading the skills of experienced workers.Recently, a growing awareness of the significance of this training effort and its impact on accident frequency, productivity, turnover and other important parameters of the mine operation has led to a review of training methods. The training program described in this paper has resulted from this review."

Jan 1, 1981

By Jr. Fackler

The ionization potentials of gaseous Group 11elements are similar, with Au(0) being 1.5 eV greater than the next highest member of the group, Cu(0). The ionization potentials are all very much greater than the alkali metals, making these ?coinage? elements rather unreactive to chemical oxidation. Ionization from the first oxidation state shows a different pattern, with Ag(I) being the most difficult of the Group 11 ions to lose an electron. Gold(I) is noble and only normally oxidized in the presence of strongly coordinating ligands such as thiols or cyanide. Gold(I) compounds are 2-, 3- and 4- coordinate, with 3-coordinate species generally showing visible photoluminescence under UV excitation. Dinuclear Au(I) compounds with strongly coordinating S or C ligands can be oxidized to form isolable metal-metal bonded Au(II) compounds which are often readily isolable. Many have been structurally characterized. T he ease with which electrons are lost from closed shell dinuclear sp ecies (with anti-bonding M-M interactions) increases when metalmetal bonded compounds are formed. T his observation was made by our group with oxidative-addition studies of dinuclear gold(I) ylide complexes. It was superbly demonstrated recently by Cotton?s group who reported the isolation and characterization of a dinuclear closed shell transition metal species which is more readily oxidized than cesium. Trinuclear Au(I) pyrazolates, TR(pz), carb eniates, TR(carb), and benzylimidazolates, TR(bz), are well known and undergo electron loss through oxidative addition forming Au(I,III) mixed valence species and ultimately trinuclear Au(III) species. Au(II) species are absent from isolation in these oxidations. These carbeniates and benzylimidazolates also are excellent bases for metals ions such as Tl(I) and Ag(I). The acidic, neutral trinuclear compound [Hg(C6F4)3]3 also interacts with these bases. We have also shown that the neutral organic pi acids C6F6 and TCNQ form stacked pi-acid pi-base products with the trinuclear Au(I) compounds. In this paper, the structure of the octafluoronaphthalene acid-base product will be described. It displays a feature not observed previously in that the product is photoluminescent with a bright yellow emission. The 3.5 ms lifetime is very long and reminiscent of the long lifetimes observed by Balch for the stacked methyl,methoxy Au(carb). The electrochemical oxidation of tetragold(I) clusters, [Au4(form)4] have been studied in 0.1 M Bu4NPF6/CH2Cl2 at Pt working electrode at different scan rates. Three waves are obtained at 0.75, 0.95, and 1.09 V vs Ag/AgCl at scan rate 500 mV/s. The potential of the three reversible waves is independent of the scan rate in the range 50 mV/s to 3 V/s. The current at the third wave is larger than those at the first two waves. These tetranuclear species app ear to be effec tive catalyst precursors for the oxidation in air of CO. Introduction. The electronic structural relationships of the coinage elements and the alkali metals are similar in the sense that each have a [closed shell]ns1 configuration, yet their ionization energies (Table) and chemistries are clearly vastly different. The Group 11coinage elements have an underlying nd10 level immediately below the ns1 level. Unlike the alkali elements, ionization leaves the filled d electron shell the next accessible for further ionization. The coinage elements are all relatively ?noble?, much less reactive to environm ental conditions than the alkali metals. With the coinage elements, oxidation becomes very much dependent upon the types of ligand s availab le to bo nd to the ionized state.

Oct 1, 2003

By J. Ita, F. Malekzadeh

"Multi-scale simulation in coupled fluid flow- geomechanical systems is a computationally efficient method for numerically solving large poroelastic systems. When using multi-scale methods, care must be taken in ensuring consistency when information is exchanged between systems that have a different discretization. Here a method is presented which provides consistency between the pore pressure being calculated on a fine scale fluid flow domain and upscaled to the coarser scale geomechanical domain and the pore volume change being calculated on the coarse geomechanical domain and down-scaled to the fine fluid flow domain. Central to this process is the characterization of the mechanical properties of the poroelastic system at both scales.Another advantage of the method presented here is that it is applicable to hydraulically disconnected but laterally drained (i.e. multi-porosity) layered systems as well as hydraulically connected, layered systems. Thus it can be used in geological situations where thin shale streaks or hardpans impede flow between laterally extensive, hydraulically conductive units. This is significant as the pressure evolution of such a hydraulically disconnected, laterally drained system can be very different than a hydraulically connected one as shown here. INTRODUCTIONA multi-scale treatment of fluid flow and deformation is a key enabler when simulation of poroelastic phenomena is limited by computational resources. As the spatial domain of the geomechanics model is usually larger than the fluid flow model, it is desireable to use a coarser discretization in the geomechanical model compared to the fluid-flow model. This type of multi-scale simulation requires a consistent up-scaling of pore pressure from the fine scale fluid flow model to the coarse scale geomechanical model and down-scaling of pore volume change from the geomechanical model to the fluid flow model (see Figure 1)."

Jan 1, 2015

By M. Reda

Inorganic oxidizing agents of the type MeOx-z such as Chromate, Vanadate, Tungstate, and Molybdate... etc. are widely used as corrosion inhibitor. In non acidic solution these oxidizing agent are reduced on the surface of the meta, according to OX + m e + p H20 Red + n OH" In which y = (n-m)/m. The purpose of this publication is to show that for many metals the value of y for any oxidizing agent determines the possibility of that oxidizing agent being an inhibitor or activator for the corrosion process. The inhibition efficiency for other ions such as Pertecnetate and Tellurate which have not been extensively studied can be predicted. A mathematical, equation was derived to express the relationship among the concentration of oxidizing agent, degree of retardation of the corrosion process I cord cor ° (ratio of corrosion current in the solution containing inhibitor to the base solution) , ionic strength of the solution and the coefficient y. The validity of y and the mathematical, equation were verified by many experimental, works on various metals such as zinc, aluminum and steel. Al, the above research works are based on the published research works of Prof. Mikhailoviskii (from 1979 til, 1998) from the Russian Academy of Science.

Jan 1, 2010

By David Burchell

Duckbill mining is probably the simplest method of loading coal mechanically at the face in underground mines. It is a means of reducing the amount of physical labour required to produce a ton of coal. In effect, it is merely shaker conveyor mining brought up to date with the addition of a self-loading head or 'duckbill' on the end of the conveyor line. Any mechanical device used to load coal is a means of supplanting the human muscles as the medium for getting the coal off the floor into the transportation equipment. There can be no argument with the conclusion that a man can lift so much and no more. He can load more tons of coal on a low conveyor, because the lift is less, than he can in a pit car two, three, or even four feet high. Thus it follows that, if the lifting operation is entirely eliminated, the man should be able to produce even more coal. A mechanical operation is essentially a multiplication of physical strength. Although there are various ways in which coal can be loaded at the face by mechanical means, there is, perhaps, none more adaptable than shakers equipped with duckbills. This is particularly true for thin seams and in mines having heavy, tender top conditions which require close timbering. However, as we are discussing duckbill mining, we will make no further reference to any other type of equipment. The first, and to date the only, mine in eastern Canada to adopt a system of mechanical loading at the face is the Franklin mine of the Bras d'Or Coal Company, Ltd., at Bras d'Or, N.S. An experimental Goodman shaker conveyor with a self-loading head, or duckbill, was installed in this mine in 1940. Since that time other units have been placed in operation so that, today, this mine is completely mechanized. The method of operation 1s room-and-pillar. The operation is carried on in a 42-in. seam, which lies 420 feet beneath the Sydney Main or Harbour seam in the Sydney Mines basin. The slopes bear N.25 30'E., dip 10 per cent seaward, and are about 6,000 feet in length. The physical conditions of this seam do not make it particularly adaptable for complete mechanization as it contains a large amount of foreign material, such as clay intrusions or wash-outs and iron pyrites. These clay intrusions, known locally as 'troubles', vary in thickness from a few inches to as thick as eighteen feet and usually replace the coal to the full height of the seam.

Jan 1, 1947

By David R. Winfield

I would like to thank you for spending the time with me today to review the FLIR PathFindIR thermal imaging camera system: It is truly an innovative safety system that has the added benefit of offering increased efficiency Our company the Winsted Group, specializes in mobile video systems that are fully customizable to address standard and unique operational requirements in a variety of industries from heavy equipment cameras to police and military digital recording systems, high end video camera systems are a hallmark of Winsted?s product line. The use of thermal imaging camera systems to enhance mobile safety is a relatively new concept as it relates to their use in both transportation and heavy equipment operation. This technology, like so many before it, has been adopted for civilian use from its military roots. The identification of enemy combatants through their heat signature has given our troops a decisive edge in military operations in total darkness Likewise, the ability to discern people and objects that give off heat is a significant step forward in collision and accident avoidance. The PathFindIR camera system that I am demonstrating today is so advanced that it cannot be exported outside of continental North America without a US government approved export license I would like to commence my presentation with a short video clip that discusses the technology associated with the FLIR PathFindIR Thermal Imaging camera systems. The video demonstrates the operational effectiveness of thermal imaging camera systems installed on a vehicle operating on the roadway at night, of course there are definite parallels to use in a mining environment, primarily the fact that lighting is limited and the chance for vision limiting dust is ever present. We are, of course more concerned with personnel safety in our mines than encountering wildlife on the roadside. From the same perspective, the transport driver is just as concerned with encountering a stalled vehicle as our mine truck operators are with other mine traffic.

Feb 1, 2008

By Derek Apela, Coralee Heske, Bunyamin Kahraman, Muhammad Adi

Effective blast fragmentation is essential in underground mining, as it directly influences downstream processing efficiency and operational expenses. This study investigates the application of Non-Newtonian Fluids (NNF) as stemming materials, presenting a novel method to enhance energy confinement, minimize environmental impact, and optimize blast performance. NNFs exhibit shear-thickening behaviour, enabling them to transition between fluid-like and solid-like states under stress, which renders them suitable for regulating explosive gas ejection during blasting. Field trials were performed by Vale Base Metals in Thompson, Manitoba, in their underground nickel mine to evaluate conventional slag stemming against NNF-based stemming in production-scale blasts. Emulsion explosives were employed, and blast performance was assessed through velocity of detonation (VOD) measurements, vibration monitoring, and AI-assisted fragmentation analysis using WipFrag. Preliminary results indicate that NNF stemming improves fragmentation, resulting in a reduction of D50 by as much as 38%, enhances energy confinement, and may decrease the incidence of hole plugging and re-drilling in subsequent blasts. This study presents an alternative to conventional stemming methods, highlighting potential advantages for enhanced safety, efficiency, and sustainability in blasting operations. Additional research and field trials are necessary to improve implementation protocols and facilitate the widespread adoption of this unique method in the mining sector.

May 4, 2025

By T. T. Ni

FOR MORE THAN 200 years, the Kochiu district of Yunnan province has been, and it still is, the hub of China's tin industry. The district produces annually from 80 to 90 per cent of that country's out-put of tin, which averages about 9,300 tons a year and places China fifth among the tin producing nations of the world. The tin ore reserves of the country are estimated (1) at 1,873,370 metric tons, of which 1,500,000 tons are in the Kochiu district. The mill of the Yunnan Consolidated Tin Corporation, described in this paper, is the only one of its kind in China. MINING AND SMELTING There are only two tin mines in the Kochiu district operating with modern equipment -the Hsin-Chang and the Lao-Chang, both owned by the Yunnan Consolidated Tin Corporation, a government company. The Hsin-Chang mine has four working levels with cross-cuts 6 ft. by 6 ft. and is equipped with steel mine cars and trucks to haul the ore. The ore is hoisted to surface in a three-compartment shaft and transferred to the mill by a 4-kilometer aerial tram. The Lao-Chang mine has two circular shafts 656 feet apart, each equipped with two cages. Haulage-ways 1,600 meters and 1,000 meters long, respectively, have been driven to the southwest from these shafts and are connected by three cross-cuts.

Jan 1, 1951