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By G. A. Kordosky

The literature contains several references to the influence of copper solvent extraction reagents on crud formation, but, there is disagreement as to whether the reagent has an influence on crud generation. The results of three pilot plant campaigns, where crud generation was studied as a function of the copper solvent extraction reagent, are reported. These pilot plants were run at operating copper solvent extraction plants using the aqueous solutions being treated by the commercial copper solvent extraction plants. Two of the pilot plant studies showed that the copper solvent extraction reagent had a significant influence on the extent of crud formation while the other pilot plant study indicated the copper solvent extraction reagent had a lesser influence on crud generation.

Jan 1, 1996

By Howard E. Banta

From Alaska to Florida and California to Maine, the National Forest System (NFS) is host to unprecedented levels of prospecting and development. The NFS is large (191 million acres), geologically attractive from the mineral standpoint and relatively unexplored. Significant recent finds and developments involve silver, gold, platinum group metals, molybdenum, cobalt and phosphates. Exploration and development are closely regulated, but most of the NFS is open. The Forest Service endeavors to be a good host to the mineral industry, but increasingly is asked or forced to delay or disapprove mineral projects to protect the environment.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. B. Lantz

Low Froude Number (Fr) theory* predicts that stably-stratified fl& around a terrain obstacle will divide into a lower layer passing essentially horizontally around the obstacle and an upper layer passing essentially over the obstacle. The prediction was formulated by Sheppard (1956) and Drazin (1961) and confirmed experimentally in the towing tank model d experiments of Hunt et a1 (1978) and the atmospheric full scale experiments of the US EPA Complex Terrain Model Development Program (1982- 1985). The US EPA Complex Terrain Dispersion Model, currently under development, employs the layering principle with the flow in each layer calculated independently by potential flow (PF) theory after the layer thicknesses are established according to a simple function of Fr, i.e., Hc /H = 1 - Fr where Hc is the dividing streamline freight and E is the obstacle height. Use of PF theory in the CTDM is attractive because numerical solutions can be obtained simply and economically, as compared to lengthy Navier-Stokes (N-S) solutions, but realism is sacrificed in creating a surface of discontinuity between the tm layers and eliminating the effects of shear and gravity in each layer.

Jan 1, 1986

By R. Bhaskar

The control of respirable dust in mines has been given paramount importance due to the health and safety implications associated with fine dust. The understanding of the temporal and spatial behavior of dust has been recognized as essential for increasing the efficiencies of the existing control techniques and for developing new control strategies. Mining-related studies in this area are, in general, limited. They are also mostly experimental. Some mathematical and computer analyses have been attempted. In this paper, first a review of the mathematical studies performed in the last three decades in this area is presented. Second, a mathematical model for analyzing dust flow in mines is proposed. The model takes into account a number of factors affecting dust transport. It incorporates varying dust generation source strengths and dispersion, deposition, and coagulation of dust in mine airways. Finally, application areas for the model are discussed. A computer program based on the mathematical model has been developed. The program will output the dust concentration in the mine atmosphere as a function of time and distance from the source. The amount of dust deposited on the sides, roof, and floor of the airway is also determined.

Jan 1, 1985

By Gregg A. Swayre, Roger N. Clark, Stephen J. Sutley, Kathleen S. Smith

Imaging spectroscopy is a relatively new remote sensing tool that provides a rapid method to screen entire mining districts for potential sources of surface acid drainage. An imaging spectrometer known as the Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) measures light reflected from the surface in 224 spectral channels from 0.4 - 2.5 µm. Spectral data from this instrument were used to evaluate mine waste at the California Gulch Superfluid Site near Leadville, Colorado. Here, the process of pyrite oxidation at the surface produces acidic water that is gradually neutralized as it drains away from mine waste, depositing a central jarosite zone surrounded by a jarosite + goethite zone, in turn surrounded by a goethite zone with a discontinuous hematite rim zone. Leaching tests show that pH is most acidic in the jarosite and jarosite + goethite zones and is near-neutral in the goethite zone. Measurements indicate that metals leach from minerals and amorphous materials in the jarosite + goethite and jarosite zones at concentrations 10 - 50 times higher than from goethite zone minerals. Goethite zones that fully encircle mine waste may indicate some attenuation of leachate metals and thus reduced metal loading to streams. The potential for impact by acidic drainage is highest where streams intersect the jarosite and jarosite + goethite zones. In these areas, metal-rich acidic dace runoff may flow directly into streams. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates (U.S. EPA, 1998) that mineral maps made from AVIRIS data at Leadville have accelerated remediation efforts by two years and saved over $2 million in cleanup costs.

Jan 1, 2000

By John W. Welty

Volcanic activity occurred during six periods of Arizona's geologic history. Precambrian volcanism occurred in two pulses at 1.8-1.6 billion years (b.y.) ago and at 1.2-1.1 b.y. ago. Volcanism occurred again in mid-Jurassic and Laramide (Late Cretaceousearly Tertiary) time. Volcanic rocks from these times are not used commercially in any significant quantity. Middle and late Cenozoic magmatic activity covered large areas of Arizona with voluminous volcanic rocks. During the mid-Tertiary magmatic pulse, explosive silicic magmatism, with eruption of areally extensive ash-flow tufts, covered large areas in the Basin and Range Province, while the Colorado Plateau remained largely unaffected. Basalt eruption also occurred during and immediately after silicic volcanism, leading to compositionally diverse suites of volcanic rocks. Late Cenozoic volcanism occurred throughout Arizona and was dominated by wide-spread eruption of basalt flows with local cinder-cone clusters and siliceous volcanic deposits. Perlite deposits near Picketpost Mountain in northeastern Pinal County account for the bulk of the industrial uses of mid-Cenozoic volcanic rocks. Other perlites of presumed middle Tertiary age are present in central, southeastern, and western Arizona, but to date remain unexploited. Arizona Fire Agate is a valuable gem material and is associated with volcanic rocks of middle Tertiary age. Basaltic rock of this age also is utilized in the manufacture of rock wool for insulation. Late Cenozoic volcanism produced most of the industrial-quality volcanic rocks. Basalt, cinder cones, and materials of rhyolitic composition are commercially exploited by municipal and Federal agencies and private industry for aggregates, road conditioners and maintenance materials, asphaltic concretes, cinder block construction, pozzolans, and landscaping. These deposits are generally confined to the Flagstaff and Springerville areas. A famous peridot gem locality is associated with late Tertiary basalts at Peridot Mesa on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. Important products derived from altered volcanic materials of late Cenozoic age include clay and zeolite. Arizona's volcanic-rock sequences are still incompletely known, particularly in central and western Arizona. The potential for recognition and exploitation of important new deposits of useful volcanic materials is high.

Jan 1, 1987

By Reginald E. Reid

Mining on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered lands is affected by Federal laws and regulations requiring the mining industry to plan for the environmental consequences of surface disturbance. Regardless of the requirements for obtaining a claim, permit, lease or contract to mine, a notice or a mining and reclamation plan will be submitted and an acceptable environmental document must be prepared prior to mining. A bond may be required based on the results of the environmental evaluation, public interest and the operator's past history of compliance. In several areas, Federal requirements are different from California's requirements under their Surface Mine and Reclamation Act (SMARA). Therefore, the BLM is negotiating with the State in order to work out problem areas of responsibility and duplication of effort.

Jan 1, 1984

By William G. Pariseau

The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of the various approaches that can be utilized in the study of mine subsidence phenomena. Attention is focused upon the rational selection and use of laboratory models. Broadly interpreted, mine subsidence is the deformation of the rock mass enclosing the mine. Depending upon a number of factors, the movement of the subsiding rock mass may be such as to disrupt gas and water lines or other buried utilities, to damage surface structures such as buildings and bridges, to dislocate streams, roads, and rail lines, to aggravate acid mine drainage and fire problems, and to generally mar the landscape. It is clearly a problem that no mine manager can safely ignore. It is also a problem that will grow with the general population increase. In the following, a summary review of past and present approaches to subsidence studies is given. The possibilities of duplicating subsidence phenomena in laboratory models are examined, and an analysis of a particular type of model is presented. Some preliminary results obtained from a model of the particular type analyzed are then discussed.

Jan 1, 1968

By David Butts

Completion of a railroad to the high Tibetan Plateau in Central China has now made it economical to exploit its mineral reserves. Lead and zinc mines are now being established. A potash plant to produce 40,000 tons per year KC1 is now in operation. Plans to produce 200,000 tons per year by 1987 are being implemented. Pilot drilling for oil and natural gas have proved up reserves. Slaughter houses are being constructed to ship yak, mutton and beef from the endless grasslands on the plateau. Research Centers in Xining and Golmud have been completed for the sole purpose of increasing technology and exploitation of the Tsaidam Basin and surrounding area.

Jan 1, 1984

By R. G. Graber

Field testing of GPS mining applications has confirmed the technical and operational viability of GPS for precise, centimeter-level positioning in harsh taconite environments. GPS hardware has provided consistent availability exceeding 90%, with precision in certain applications of ± 0.07 foot at 95% confidence levels. Despite these technical successes though, challenges persist in achieving effective GPS integration. These challenges include the acceptance of new job tasks by mine personnel, the capacity of typical mine data communications infrastructure and the need to design GPS interfaces for new mining equipment.

Jan 1, 1998

By George W. Land

For the year 1985, the U.S. coal industry produced 881 million tons of bituminous coal and lignite. Domestic consumption amounted to 814 million tons. The electric utilities consumed 689 million tons, almost 85 percent of total consumption, over 78 percent of production. In May, 1986, the NCA forecast that with moderate growth rate averaging 1.9% per year from 1985 through the year 2000, production could reach 1,176 billion tons and domestic consumption 1079 billion. The estimate for electric utilities indicate 924 million tons for the year of 2000, about the same percentage of production and consumption as now experienced. Before we consider the main topic of this paper, the cost of using high sulfur coal, let us examine the coal use patterns of the last 25 years, the changes in those patterns and consider the reasons for those changes. Table I shows those changes.

Jan 1, 1986

By Robert M. Cox

A thorough geological engineering investigation is required before surface lands overlying abandoned underground mines can be safely recommended as building sites. The major problems confronting the geological engineer are assembling accurate geologic and mining information and developing an accurate rock mechanics model of the situation. A successful investigation requires a combination of technical expertise in rock mechanics and engineering geology tempered with practical engineering judgment. The results of a good study are not always favorable to the prospective builder.

Jan 1, 1975

By H. R. Green

The design of slurry launders has usually been based on strictly empirical concepts. An examination of the most common procedures reveals that they do not account for many of the variables that are recognized as Significant for slurry transport. These may include flow rate, volume concentration of solids, solids specific gravity, solids size distribution particle shape, launder geometry, and roughness of the wetted surface. It was decided to develop a design procedure, which would accomplish two things: First: Take into consideration most of the known significant variables and systematize the procedure to assure consistent results. Second: Provide a rational basis for examining and utilizing operating data to refine and improve the system. To accomplish this, it was necessary to develop a basic design concept. This concept has been developed through a complex development history, and yet still appears workable and technically sound. That concept may be outlined as follows: First: The solids transport velocity is the fundamental basis for slurry launder design. Second: The stream configuration, hence the launder size, is integrated with the solids transport velocity so that the actual stream velocity exceeds the solids transport velocity. Third: The launder slope is that which will achieve the required actual stream velocity. It was originally planned to utilize a series of charts and nomographs for the design procedure. A nomograph, based on data given in Taggart's Handbook of Mineral Dressing (1), was developed to determine the solids transport velocity. The velocity thus determined was used with Manning charts to determine the launder slope .and configuration as though the fluid were water. It was planned to utilize a "slope adjustment factor" to increase the slope to compensate for the apparent viscosity of the slurry. All attempts to develop a suitable correction factor failed. This failure was principally due to the complex relationship of viscosity to the required slope. It was then decided to revise the entire approach. Specifically, the present procedure is based on the Darcy-Weisbach flow equation, which is rationally preferable to the Manning equation. The Camp (2) equation is used for the solids transport velocity. The necessity of reference to the Moody curves for the Darcy friction factor is avoided by using the Colebrook and White (3) equation. The resulting mathematics require iterative solutions for several of the unknowns.

Jan 1, 1978

By P. Holman

I would like to start this paper by looking back about twenty years to see where we have been in the mining industry. We will also look forward a bit and talk about what lies ahead. Here is what has happened to the world economy since the 1970s. Economic growth was strong in the early 70s, but slipped into a recession in the middle of the decade. Then, after a fairly decent recovery recession struck again in the early 80s and since then growth has been rather sporadic. All in all, it has been a real roller coaster ride. There will continue to be plenty of ups and downs in the world economy in the future.

Jan 1, 1993

By R. Z. Pyrih

Uranium tailings at Cotter Corporation's Canon City, Colorado Mill were moved to a double-lined impoundment, but uranium and molybdenum salts remaining in the fractured bedrock underlying the old tailings ponds seeped into groundwater. Fluor Daniel GTI recommended an in situ geochemical fixation remedy, flushing Best Sulfur Products' calcium polysulfide reductant into the subsurface with clean water. Residual metals became immobile, trapped in the bedrock. Fluor Daniel GTI designed and implemented the process on ten acres with high metal concentrations. Cotter is operating and monitoring the system, which can be expanded to "hot spots." The original remediation time was estimated at less than five years.

Jan 1, 1998

By Kevin Phelan, Gary Johnson, Peter Sperring

The vast majority of tailings in the Western Australian Goldfields are deposited in purpose-built storage facilities. At mine-sites with open-pit mining operations there is also the requirement to mine and stack large volumes of waste rock, usually into surface waste dumps. As these dumps have typically 30% of their gross volume present as voids, there is the potential to use this void space for the storage of tailings. The concept of co-disposal is to store the tailings material in the void space of the waste dumps, eliminating the need for a separate tailings storage facility. Dominion Mining Limited have been investigating the possibility of using co-disposal as a means of tailings storage. Laboratory testwork has been used to understand some of the issues associated with the concept, and assist in the design of an on-site demonstration of the concept. Co-disposal offers a number of potential advantages, and despite a number of practical hurdles to overcome, considerable economic and environmental benefits could be realised if this concept can be demonstrated on a commercial scale. The major advantage of such a system is to remove the need to build, operate and rehabilitate a separate tailings storage facility. Rehabilitation can be incremental throughout the mine life as the co-disposal site will be virtually indistinguishable from a current waste dump in both size and form. Other potential advantages include more stable waste dumps, less land area disturbed on the project site, and better water recovery from the tailings.

Jan 1, 1995

By H. Reed

The precious metal mining industry in Nevada handles and generates a certain amount of hazardous materials and waste on a regular basis. These products range from processing material additives to wastes from laboratory testing, heap leaching, and hydrocarbon treatment and disposal. The volume of materials and wastes is dependent upon the amount of ore processed. Handling, treatment and disposal is dependent on the type of material handled and the waste generated. Owing to the health and safety concerns and due to the existing regulations that control handling and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes, the mining industry is obligated to comply with all applicable requirements for proper handling of these products. Plus, in an effort to minimize any impacts from this effort, the industry is continually looking for alternative methods to accomplish these requirements and to also minimize costs. This paper will discuss the general, and in some cases the specific conditions, by which the industry is coping with the issue and efforts to minimize any impacts from handling, treatment and disposal for hazardous materials and wastes. The subject of compliance with the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) requirements and bio-treatment of wastes and other technologies will be discussed.

Jan 1, 2001

By J. R. Brett

Utah Development Company (UDC) operates five large opencut coal mines in the Bowen Basin of Central Queensland, Australia. In total, over 20 million tonnes of coking coal are exported annually from the five mines. Typically, the coal seams dip at 5 percent, are 2 to 10 metres thick, and sub-crop some 20 to 40 metres below surface. In the main, the operations are single seam, but multiseam (2, 3 or 4 seams) operations do exist and will form an increasing proportion of the mining activities as depths increase. Draglines are used as the major stripping equipment, highwall depths currently ranging from 20 to 65 metres. Whilst project feasibilities were based on stripping to a 60 metre highwall, it is now proposed to continue opencut mining to depths exceeding 100 metres. This will entail large quantities of prestripping (ahead of the draglines) and overcoming problems associated with steepening seam dips, including haulage of coal from the pits.

Jan 1, 1982

By Klein E., Kinscher J., Lizeur A., De Santis F., Lhoumaud E.

Seismic repeaters are rarely observed phenomena in underground mines. However, recent studies in Garpenberg mine (Sweden) have demonstrated that seismic repeaters and multiplets may represent significant portion of the total number of microseismic events (> 80 %) related to excavation operations. Detailed seismic analysis, involving template matching, multiplet clustering, double-difference relocation, source parameter and mechanism estimation, and interevent time analysis, suggest that seismic repeaters represent brittle frictional parts (asperity) of creeping, planar shaped, pre-exiting structures of several meters length. It is furthermore suggested that seismic repeater occur preferentially in weak rock-mass materials (e.g. talc) associated with strengthening friction behaviors. These results may imply that postblast related stress redistribution may be governed by “silent” aseismic movements in preferentially weak rock mass materials, what questions the reliability and performance of seismic monitoring to survey stress evolution during excavation operations. However, once the seismic and aseismic coupling processes and the geological nature linked to repeater occurrences are better understood, their detailed monitoring bears also opportunities to survey and quantify aseismic post-blast stress transfer. Here we present ongoing investigations on repeater occurrences aiming at better understating on their geological and geomechanical origin. Furthermore, we try to develop advanced monitoring tools helping to quantify aseismic slip and to provide criteria for seismic hazard as asperity density and the related potential to generate larger dynamic rupture zones. For this respect a local monitoring network has been set up close to certain repeater target families. Furthermore, geological well log drilling throughout repeater occurrences as well as geotechnical strain measurements (e.g. extensometer, optical fiber etc.) are currently conducted to provide crucial information on the geological nature of repeater and to quantify and characterize background creep induced from excavation.

Apr 26, 2022

By Don Reining

The sand and gravel industry in Southern California has made a sizeable contribution to the construction development of the 15 County area in this part of the State. Facing this mineral extraction industry, in the next decade, is a problem of meeting the market demand. The question is, "how can sand, gravel and rock operations be made compatible with goals for sound and attractive community development?" Three basic principal characteristics of the land needed for this-mining industry are: 1. The land must have workable sand, gravel or stone deposits. 2. The land must be properly located for transportation purposes close to the market in order to sell the aggregate at a minimum cost. 3. The land must be zoned so that it will be permissible to mine.

Jan 1, 1967