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Population growth, social inequality, pollution, global warming, poverty, overexploitation of natural resources and biodiversity loss, are a few examples of the many challenges facing the world today. Sustainable development is about meeting these challenges and improving the standard of living for the benefit of the maximum number of people. These issues concern governments, communities, environmental and social action groups and individuals all over the world. Business too, has a fundamental role to play in delivering sustainable development. In particular, sustainable development is becoming increasingly recognised as a critical issue for the oil and gas industry to address and act upon. BP is committed to positively respond to the challenges posed by the objective of sustainable development.

Jan 1, 2002

By J Temos

This paper outlines a number of immediate practical approaches to continuous improvement in environmental management in the minerals industry. It puts these into context with longer time-frame step-change approaches whose gestation may take a decade. Examples of improvements and approaches are drawn from WMC operations.

Jan 1, 2002

By A Reid

The Late Archaean of South AustraliaÆs Gawler Craton contains significant potential for gold resources. The main targets of interest are migmatised gold style systems of which the Challenger deposit is the best known example. This deposit is one of the lower cost gold producers in Australia due to the high-grade, low-tonnage nature of the mineralisation. Structurally controlled, metamorphosed deposit styles are also possible throughout the Archaean of the Gawler Craton, including occurrences within reactivated shear zones. More typical, lower metamorphic grade orogenic gold styles are also possible within greenstone host sequences identified in the central and southern parts of the Gawler Craton.

Jan 1, 2007

By D Craw, S Clearwater, S Hammit, C Smith

Prior to rehabilitation, plant cover on quartz gravel overburden at Wangaloa coal mine was highly patchy. Stabilisation techniques have since considerably altered the condition of the main overburden yet deposits in the east and west remain largely intact. On the eastern overburden, three distinct zones of revegetation have naturally developed: Zone 1 represents a dense plant cover, Zone 2 a patchy cover and Zone 3 a sparse cover of isolated plants. Aerial photographs show much of the eastern overburden was deposited between 1940 and 1960s. Yet we found that the temporal scale of deposition did not wholly account for the differences observed in vegetation development. To investigate other influential factors, we set up 12 study plots using four replicates in each vegetation zone. The diversity and density of plants in each plot were measured to quantify the degree of vegetation development. Samples from the substrate in each plot were collected using soil cores to a depth of 10 cm. Cores were analysed for indicators of nutrient availability, metal content and physical composition. We found that substrate chemistry varied between individual study plots, but showed little difference overall along the vegetation gradient. Substrate physical differences were much greater. The ratio of coarse quartz pebbles: fines was considerably higher in Zone 3 than other zones, and within zones where plants were not growing. Bulk density also increased successively from Zone 1 - 3. We found clear evidence for the reversed stratigraphy of excavation superimposed over the time scale of deposition, and the corresponding nature of fine particles. The rate of revegetation was therefore highly dependent upon the substrate composition of the last surface deposit from the dumping truck. Our data suggests an optimum ratio exists between inert coarse material and a fine matrix for progressive natural vegetation development on mine substrates.

Jan 1, 2004

Applicaton of Agricultural Residues from Pyrolysis in Flotation of Black Coal

Sep 13, 2010

The results of precious metal exploration carried out by Amoco Minerals New Zealand Limited over EL 33-137 in the Longwood Range, Southland, are described. Widespread gold and platinum in alluvial deposits on the perimeter of the range and anomalous gold in stream sediments on its southern and south western flanks indicates that the precious metals were probably derived from erosion of the mafic rocks of the Longwood Complex.

Jan 1, 1983

Flotation of Smithsonite by Using Siloxane Cationic Surfactants as Collectors

Sep 13, 2010

By E V. Kislov

"An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation. The Northern Baikal Ni-Cu province is located in Buryatia, south-east Siberia, and geologically is part of the Baikal-Muya volcano-plutonic belt. It is known for numerous PGE-Ni-Cu-bearing mafic-ultramafic intrusions of Neoproterozoic age formed in various geodynamic settings. All these deposits can be regarded as a single Ni-Cu ore cluster located near the Kholodninskoe Pb-Zn deposit, which is ready for mining. In addition, there are less studied, small dyke-like bodies with sulfide mineralisation that formed in a rift setting and may be enriched in Ni, Cu and PGE. Individually, the known bodies are of poor commercial value by their resources, but their close spatial association (<30 km) may make these PGE-Ni-Cu deposits economic in the future. This extended abstract seeks to provide a geological framework of the North Baikal Ni-Cu-PGE province, specifically at the north-eastern Synnyr rift hosting numerous small subvolcanic bodies with Ni-Cu sulfide mineralisation. Some small subvolcanic bodies contain industrial level Ni-Cu deposits (Shanuch, Cabanga-Musongati, Voisey’s Bay, Jinchuan, etc).CITATION:Kislov, E V, 2015. North Baikal region Ni-Cu deposits , in Proceedings PACRIM 2015 Congress, pp 297–302 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 18, 2015

By D Brouwer, P Wild, B Belle

Due to the steep geo-thermal gradient in Bowen Basin area, as underground coalmines reach increased depths of extraction, the Bulk Air Cooling (BAC) requirements will increase as opposed to cooling the workplace using the ventilation means alone. One such mine has already been using a 4 MW surface BAC plant for the last six years to manage the working temperatures with reduced cooling efficiency as the mine expands. Due to the horizontal nature of the longwall mine layout, distances from the working face to intake shafts are rapidly expanding to over 6 km as opposed to the vertical mine layout of a hard rock mine. To improve the positional cooling efficiency, reduced panel pressure differentials, improved rib emission gas management, and intake dust management, small diameter intake shafts were located on the inbye end of production panels and halfway up the development panels with localised mobile small BAC plants. This paper summarises the results of extensive underground data of this innovative cooling concept for development and retreating longwall face heat management compared to a larger remote BAC plant.CITATION:Belle, B, Brouwer, D and Wild, P, 2017. The use of mid-panel ventilation shafts to improve positional cooling efficiency in a Bowen Basin longwall mine – a case study, in Proceedings Australian Mine Vent Conference 2017, pp 217–224 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 28, 2017

Ledcap Pty Ltd has developed two software tools for assisting in the determination of life-of-mine (LOM) trucking requirements. The first tool generates haul paths and the second calculates truck travel time over these paths. The two step approach allows the paths to be viewed and if required edited, to better represent the actual site haul routes.The first tool automatically creates haul paths between the mine bench and the dump. To do this the user supplies a master haul route and a scheduled block model. The master haul path and the block model are interacted to create multiple haul routes, one for each pit/dump bench pair in each scheduling period. Each path carries with it a record of the scheduling period it represents and the dry tonnage hauled over the path in that period.The second tool calculates truck travel time over the path. Data from the manufacturer's rimpull and retarder curves are used to calculate accelerations and speed over each segment of the haul path. As the paths are derived from digitised representations of mine haul routes the path f les often have over a hundred segments. This detailed representation of the haul route allows the software to automatically adjust speed for different radius corners and accurately simulates the changing accelerations over the gradient changes that occur in real life mine ramps. Rolling resistance can be specified at a global level, at a segment level and at a period level. This allows rolling resistance to be changed seasonally as well as spatially.Life-of-mine trucking studies attempt to calculate an accurate answer from extremely variable inputs. This paper will detail the features of the two software tools and how the tools provided in the software can assist the mine planner to have greater confidence in their life-of-mine trucking requirements and the subsequent production capacity inputs to their scheduling calculations.

Dec 6, 2010

The design of a mine should aim to optimise the market value by maximising revenues whilst minimising costs. In open pit mining, the nature of the extraction technique translates this objective into the maximum recovery of reserves while minimising waste extraction subject to technical, economical and safety constraints. Since the introduction by Lerchs and Grossman, in 1965, of a model that is now considered a classic in the area, open pit design has reached a level of maturity and acceptance by industry. These models are being used on a regular basis by designers and planners.This paper proposes a new alternative model for open pit design. It is based on genetic algorithms (GA) and exploits a reduction of the number of decision variables of the more traditional techniques. The novel approach provides more flexibility than traditional models; it can also be extended to consider planning problems that traditional open pit design models are not capable of handling. The algorithm has been designed for two dimensional problems and tested in a simple instance. The results obtained in this simple test are encouraging and are a good supporting argument for the development of a GA model capable of handling three-dimensional (3D) instances. The model presented in this paper is just a first step towards a full GA to solve the pit design problem and it is believed that novel tools like the one presented herein could become great allies in tackling challenging problems in open pit design, an illustration of such a challenging problem is presented and discussed.

Dec 6, 2010

By S Hapugoda, A Poliakov, E Donskoi, L Lu

A significant amount of metallic iron in the world is produced in blast furnaces from iron ore pellets. To control the quality of pellets and to optimise pellet production, characterisation of both green and fired pellets is required. Optical image analysis (OIA) allows identification of different minerals, binder, remaining fluxes and porosity within pellets.For proper identification of the mineralogy, porosity and texture in pellets a high magnification is required, therefore each individual image covers only a very small portion of the pellet. At the same time the characterisation of pellets requires that the whole pellet is represented as a single object, so the size of the resulting overall image at high magnification can make it difficult to handle. A solution to this problem has been implemented within the CSIRO OIA package Mineral4 by combining images at different levels. Namely, to average out local irregularities, individual frames can be stitched during imaging into larger MosaiX images. Mineral4 further combines these MosaiX images into a single panorama image of the whole pellet.The proposed procedures allow the calculation of mineral and porosity spatial distributions, local gradients and abundance graphs based on the distance from the centre of the pellet. The ‘Pellets’ module of CSIRO OIA software also allows for characterisation of large irregularly shaped particles of lump ore and sinter.CITATION:Poliakov, A, Donskoi, E, Hapugoda, S and Lu, L, 2017. Optical image analysis of iron ore pellets and lumps using CSIRO software Mineral/Recognition, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 583–592 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

By P S. Datta, V N. Misra

Higher bed height up to 680 mm, including 30 mm hearth layer of sized return sinter and high suction below the grate bars up to 1400 mm WG have resulted in increasing the productivity to a level of 33 t/m2/day and reduced coke rate to a level of 46 kg/tonne sinter. The ferro-wastes like blue dust, flue dust, mill scale, collection from dust catcher and gas cleaning plant, etc have been successfully added in charge mix to produce quality sinters. In this paper, brief description of the work done at Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR) in last few years and two case studies are discussed including the successful development of pan sintering units.

Jan 1, 2002

By Y Zhuang, S La Brooy

The selection of the optimum process route for a new project has traditionally consisted of investigating existing options and ranking them in terms of cost, technical risk and environmental acceptability. With the current focus on sustainable development other factors now need to be considered. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the process options can be used to extend the assessment in terms of their potential for earning renewable energy credits and in judging their ability to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions. A rigorous life cycle assessment is demanding in terms of setting the baseline for comparisons and evaluating the elements that make up the emission profiles of the process options. However, a simplified LCA can provide a useful tool for comparing different process options. This approach can be combined with traditional assessment criteria to rank the options available to the project. GRD Minproc has been intimately involved in executing LCA calculations for different municipal waste treatment options. This paper applies a similar LCA methodology to investigate the greenhouse gas implications for different options for copper processing. The process options considered are:concentrator û sale of concentrate to smelter, concentrator û on-site mini smelter, and concentrator û leach SX/EW. The paper then goes on to consider the operating cost implications that could arise with the introduction of carbon taxes or carbon credits and how these might impact on the future choice of flowsheet.

Jan 1, 2002

By P Meehan, R McAree, Z Guan

Equipment maintenance is 30 - 50 per cent of the operating costs for a typical mining company. While this is substantial, its importance is beyond its significance as a cost heading. Modern mining requires large amounts of investment in capital infrastructure and equipment to produce a product sold at a low unit cost. To stay competitive, such a business has to focus on full realisation of its capital investment, ie sustained production at high levels. Maintenance plays an essential role in achieving this goal. Mining companies typically use a mix of breakdown or corrective maintenance, planned maintenance, and some condition-based maintenance. The share of breakdown maintenance has been coming down through more effective planned maintenance and better condition monitoring tools. Planned or preventive maintenance (PM) is playing an increasingly important role in todayÆs mining maintenance. This is the suite of inspection and repair/replacement actions performed at scheduled time intervals as part of a preplanned activity. The activities are scheduled well in advance and, usually, the current wear-state of the machine is irrelevant. For example, the replacement of a major gear may have been planned 18 months in advance; replacement is carried out when the time comes regardless of the actual condition of the gear. The PM costs are significant and include direct cost of parts and labour as well as the opportunity cost of lost production while the machine is under maintenance. It is important to identify the optimum PM effort because over-maintenance should be avoided as much as under-maintenance. A new concept called severity-based maintenance is introduced in this paper. We have seen that measuring equipment ageing in mining merely by counting the engine hours is a very imprecise way of planning and scheduling maintenance because the damage accumulated in one hour varies enormously from operator to operator and with changing pit conditions. We recommend continuous monitoring of duty on all major equipment. This is feasible without having to fit out the machine with an army of sensors because most of the physical sensors required by dutymeters are already installed and maintained as part of the existing performance monitors. While the investment is modest, the potential benefits are huge and can be grouped under three headings:Immediate benefits will come from providing operators with direct feedback on the effect of their behaviour on machine health and training them to use this feedback to correct their operating style. The equipment can operate closer to the limits of capacity, producing more without unduly sacrificing the availability by monitoring and controlling the severity of the operation, ie the duty on the machine. Longer term benefits accrue from establishing correlations between actual time to failure data and measured equipment duty and using these correlations to optimise maintenance effort as well as planning new equipment purchases and warranty conditions.

Jan 1, 2002

Over recent years the trend in Australia has been towards the definitions of sustainable development which emerged from the 1992 Rio Summit of retaining a commitment to ecological integrity, but also incorporating social and economic dimensions of sustainability. Sustainable development may be seen as maintaining and enhancing:natural capital: defined as all natural resources, both environmental and those of traditional economic value; manufactured capital: made by human kind; including produced goods, infrastructure and built environment; human capital: defined as the health, well-being, intellectual capabilities and spiritual welfare of individuals; and social capital: defined as social relations and institutions within and between societies, their norms and functionality (Ameef, 2002). This paper will endeavour to assess the challenges and opportunities facing the professionals and their Institute in the minerals industry in Australia because the MMSD Global and Regional Australia Reports do not, in the authorÆs opinion, adequately address the æhuman capitalÆ input into the current or future development of the minerals industry, in particular, the sustainability of the professionalsÆ skills, knowledge and experiences in a global context.

Jan 1, 2002

Grade uncertainty can have a number of important implications for a mining operation. One of the most significant risks in not considering grade uncertainty in planning is the over or under allocation of processing or mining capacity when compared to realised grades. This could lead to wasted capital expenditure or missed opportunities to add value. This paper demonstrates a method that optimises production capacity and mining schedules in the presence of grade uncertainty. Applying this method to the case study of a nickel deposit recommended a reduction in processing capacity, an increase in mining capacity and more extensive utilisation of stockpiles than optimisations completed with traditional methods. As a result, average NPV improvements of between seven per cent and 27 per cent were gained.

Dec 6, 2010

Experimental petrology may be used to accurately constrain PTX conditions in order to calibrate and understand geologic processes. This method may be used to answer postulated questions, by recreating known geologic conditions and observing changes in the experimental charges. The purpose of this project was to determine the eutectic composition and temperature in the ternary system PbS-FeS-ZnS ¦ (Ag2S), at ambient and elevated pressures and elucidate if the sulfides of the Broken Hill orebody may have been partially molten during highgrade (granulite facies) metamorphism. The study determined the eutectic temperature and composition in the system PbS-FeS-ZnS to be 800¦2¦C and 62.5% PbS, 30.5%FeS, 7% ZnS respectively, at one atmosphere, and the eutectic temperature at 27 kbars was found to be 960¦C¦10¦C, with a eutectic composition enriched in ZnS relative to the one atmosphere eutectic. the addition of lwt.% Ag2S to the system depresses the eutectic temperature to 772¦2¦C at 1 atmosphere and below 810¦5¦C at 5 kbars. The conditions of peak metamotphism for the cental and southern areas of the Broken Hill Block, New South Wales, Australia , lie above the solidus of the PbS-FeS-ZnS-Ag2S system, strongly suggesting that partial melting occurred in the orebody.

Jan 1, 1998

The formation and distribution of gold placers in active collisional mountain belts are directly related to the tectonic, topographic, climatic and erosional constraints prevailing on either side of the orogen at the time of placer formation. In the absence of pre-existing placer deposits, these factors combine to concentrate placer development on the side of the orogen facing the prevailing winds, where most of the erosion and uplift occurs. Drainage network changes and glaciation can significantly alter placer distribution with respect to source areas within the orogen. After collision stops, placer formation will proceed on both sides of the orogen as exhumation of the mountain belt ensues. Incorporation of pre-existing placers formed on ancient mountain belts into younger placers in subsequent orogens, may be recognised by anomalous placer distribution compared to the above model. Most of the relatively young giant placers such as those inNew Zealand, Chile, Bolivia and Columbia, exhibit these general patterns. Their character and mode of formation have important implications for the formation and distribution of much older placers, such as those in South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin.

Jan 1, 1996

By D E. Gadd

Since October 1972, New Zealand Steel Mining Ltd has loaded around ten million tonnes of ironsand concentrate from single-point mooring buoys located off-shore at Taharoa on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Before the first off-shore loading system was installed a considerable research effort was applied to proving the slurry loading technique. Subsequently the system has been expanded and a new buoy, pipelines and pumping system were installed in early 1978. Since then 110 000 DWT class ore carriers have been loaded at rates of around 2600 tonnes per hour through twin submarine pipelines. This paper reviews the operation of the ship loading system and attempts to answer the question: 'If the Taharoa operation were to be planned in 1980, would the same research spending be necessary or have published research results since, made such practical tests unnecessary?'

Jan 1, 1980