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By Y. Luo, S. S. Peng

Based on the concept of slope-stability analysis, a formula for determining an important parameter required in the mathematical model for the prediction of mining subsidence in hilly terrain is proposed. The slope geometry and the physical and mechanical properties of the soil at the surface of the natural slope can all be considered in the formula. Incorporation of this new formula into an existing mathematical model provides an integrated approach for the study of ground movement in hilly regions.

Jan 1, 2000

By Bjørn Nilsen

"INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND Weakness zones or faults containing clay-rich gouge represent one of the most challenging rock mass conditions to be encountered during tunneling. In Norway, such conditions count for a large part of the rock support costs, and in cases where the rock support has been insufficient, serious instability and cave-in have in many cases been the result. Most commonly, such cave-in has occurred after water filling of hydropower tunnels, but in some cases it has also occurred in tunnels under excavation and in completed “dry” tunnels. To avoid instability, two important requirements have to be fulfilled: 1) The location of the weakness zone and its character have to be identified in time. 2) The rock support has to be sufficient to withstand the loading caused by the zone. An incident which really brought the problems related to swelling clay into focus was the cave-in at the Hanekleiv road tunnel in 2006. Here, rock fall from the roof as shown in Figure 1 occurred unexpectedly about 10 years after the tunnel was completed. Fortunately this happened at a time with very little traffic, and nobody was injured. This incident emphasized the significance of the issue of swelling clay, although it was found to be caused also by gravitational collapse of the clay-rich gouge material of the weakness zone, and not related to swelling only (Nilsen et al. 2007).In this paper, main focus will be on discussing the characteristic features of swelling clay, test procedures which are being used for characterizing swelling clay, and the reliability of the results from testing for use in support evaluation and design in conditions with swelling clay. It is generally well known that swelling clay may cause considerable pressure on support elements, but quantifying this pressure for reliable analysis and design of rock support is still a great challenge."

Jan 1, 2016

By B. Akwasi Osei

The lack of metrics to assess clamshell formation dredgeability limits the ability of engineers to predict the dredgeability of compact material and increases the risks associated with clamshell selection. Research is needed to develop metrics for predicting clamshell dredgeability. The objective of this paper is to evaluate possible metrics to predict the dredgeability of compact aggregates by hydraulically actuated clamshell dredges. Data on cylinder pressures and displacements, motor current, bucket tilt and cycle time (CT) were collected from a dredge. Work done and motor energy, potential metrics, were computed and their suitability in predicting dredgeability evaluated. Data analysis shows that; there is no correlation between tilt angle and work done or motor energy; a low correlation between CT and work done, and a strong correlation between CT and motor energy. Work done is a better measure of formation dredgeability, than motor energy, as it shows lower variability. However, in difficult digging conditions, work done alone does not accurately predict dredgeability. This work shows that, it is feasible to use cylinder pressures and motor signals data to predict dredgeability.

Jan 1, 2010

By James K. Gowans

The Red Dog Operation is located in northwestern Alaska at Latitude 68°, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 50 miles inland from the Chukchi Sea. The orebody was acquired by the NANA Regional Corporation, (an Alaska Native Corporation established by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971), in 1980 in their land selection. In 1982 Cominco American and the NANA Corporation signed a development agreement and Cominco Alaska Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cominco American, was formed to manage the Red Dog Project. An extensive exploration program in 1980 -1982 outlined a mineral inventory of 85 million tons, at a grade of 5.2% Pb, 17.1 % Zn, and 2.4 oz/ton Ag, which makes the Red Dog the second largest deposit ever discovered. Broken Hill, in Australia, is the only zinc orebody which was originally larger than Red Dog. The design of the facilities is to process 2.1 million tons of ore annually, which will produce 560,000 tons of zinc concentrate, 100,000 tons of lead concentrate and 50,000 tons of bulk lead/zinc concentrate.

Jan 1, 1991

Power cable costs are only a small part of total mining costs. So many mine operators consider power cable failure and resultant downtime as part of the cost of doing business. But, viewed in terms of lost production, these costs can be quite significant. Now one company, Cablec, seeks to cut cable costs by upgrading the polymer compounding process used to make cable insulating and semiconducting materials. Cablec is the leading manufacturer of electrical power cables in North America. And with about a third of the market, Cablec is the largest supplier of power cable to the mining industry in the United States. To improve its products, Cable has entered the polymer compounding business. In July, it began producing insulator and semiconductor polymer compounds at its plant in Indianapolis, IN. "This new facility provides a quantum leap over conventional compounding methods," said Harry C. Schell, Cablec's president and chief executive officer. "The Cablec polymers plant is producing a dramatically higher standard of polymer compounds that provide significantly higher levels of performance and improved life cycle costs for power cable." Cablec faces tough foreign competition in the wire and cable business. Competing on price alone is difficult, particularly when foreign producers are state subsidized. So Cablec feels the best way to compete is to establish new quality production standards. The company's new polymers plant is one way to do this. By increasing purity control and uniformity in polymer compounding, Cablec says its power cables will last longer and fail less often. A typical medium voltage cable consists of a conductor, conductor shield, insulation, insulation shield, metal shield, and jacket. The conductor shield and the insulation shield are conducting polymers. Contaminants and imperfections can occur within the insulation, at the conductor shield/insulation interface, or at the insulation shield/ insulation interface. Over time, these contaminants and imperfections can decrease the electrical strength of the cable or cause premature cable failure. The effort to minimize the number and size of any possible contaminants begins with pure polymer compounds mixed in a clean facility. However, most power cable manufacturers manually handle raw materials, use ethylene/propylene (EP) in bulk bales, and mix polymercompounds in open Banbury mixers. The quality and uniformity of polymer compounds is also impacted by temperature variations in the mixing process. This results in wide gradations of product consistency from batch to batch and ultimately contributes to power cable failure. Cablec says the improved polymer compounds from its state-of-the-art plant will be the purest and most consistent insulating and semiconducting materials available. The plant itself RCA spent $18 million to build Cablec's Indianapolis plant. RCA used the facility to mix specialty polymer compounds used to make video disks. RCA had two considerations in mind for the plant, cleanliness and uniformity of the compounds. However, when the video disk market failed to materialize, RCA sold the 46.5 dam 2 (50,000 sq ft) plant to Cablec for $3.1 million. Cablec invested an additional $3 million for modifications and increased production capabilities. Today's replacement cost for such a facility is estimated at $30 million. Cablec says the plant will set a new standard for performance and be economically difficult to duplicate anywhere. One of the essential elements of the plant's clean process environment is the air intake system. It filters contaminants greater than 2 um, less than one-fiftieth the current industry standard. All material handling and conveying areas in the facility are air-locked. This keeps out contaminants such as smoke, dust, and pollen. Banks of pneumatic pumps move polymer components through the system and continually filter the air. The plant also has a backup air intake system. No process downtime due to pump failure here. From the time raw material enters the plant, it is stored, transported, and processed in filtered air by an airtight stainless steel system. The stainless steel resists rust and corrosion. This further eliminates the danger of contamination from paint or rust particles in the conveyance network. A computer system allows a single operator in a central control room to monitor every aspect of the compounding process from air quality to line speed. The computer

Jan 12, 1988

By R. Kramer, A. Habibi

"Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) measurements were taken at Tronox’s Westvaco Trona mine in Wyoming. Both shift-average and real-time monitoring using Elf pumps and Airtec analyzers, were used. The mine’s underground transportation fleet consists of more than 250 diesel-powered vehicles. A vehicle monitoring log tracked fleet usage during the test; logged data consisted of vehicle type, direction of travel, and time. The log was used in analysis to determine the DPM spread rate, of normally operating equipment, in the different entries with respect to vehicle location. Airflow velocity measurements at the stations were taken during the survey. The survey results also identified vehicles with higher emission rates. An ECOM gas and a MAHA DPM analyzer, both located in the mine’s underground emission shop, were used to obtain various vehicle emission rates. The correlation of the workshop and field measurements was investigated with regard to the machine activity, fuel usage and atmospheric conditions. The results were used to identify and execute a ventilation project to reroute 45% of diesel shop air back to intake entries, by interlocking an automated door and a regulator. The result is reduced DPM downstream. INTRODUCTION DPM has been classified as a potential occupational carcinogen by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rule governing DPM exposures in metal and nonmetal mines cites total carbon (TC), a summation of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) obtained by NIOSH Method 5040, as a surrogate for determining DPM exposures (Noll, 2006). MSHA personnel use the 1973 sampling criteria outlined by the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) for collecting compliance-based respirable and inhalation samples in metal/nonmetal mines. Instrumentation developments are allowing improved real time monitoring of ventilation parameters. DPM is within the aerodynamic particle size range of the samplers used for respirable and inhalable dust measurements. If a sampler used by MSHA to collect inhalable or respirable dust samples in underground metal/nonmetal mines was used to collect DPM, both the DPM and mine ore dust would accumulate on the sample filter (Noll, 2006). To comply with the requirement and lower the DPM exposure, mines are implementing a variety of control technologies such as emission based maintenance programs where adjustments or repairs are performed on the vehicles (McGinn, 2000)."

Jan 1, 2016

By Gary P. Marshall, Jeffery S. Thompson, Robert E. Jenkins

The effectiveness of the new DuPont Passivation Technology in eliminating acid generation from iron sulfides is presented. Passivation is achieved by treatment with a dilute basic perman­ganate solution. This treatment produces a thin impervious layer of iron/manganese oxide on the sulfide surface, providing a bar­rier to the environment so that the sulfide is not available for undesirable reactions such as the production of acid.

Jan 1, 1998

By Deepak Malhotra

Is operator training necessary for optimization of flotation plants? The answer is obvious-Yes. The author suggests a three-phase program for operators when new plants are built or new crews are hired in existing operations. Case examples are discussed to illustrate the benefits of operator training.

Jan 1, 1999

By Christian F. III Baiz

Introduction A new mining agenda is before us. Born of government policies and world economies, the years ahead will show reduced growth. Metals, mining, and most other natural resource industries are inflation dependant and capital intensive. For these, a long period of contraction of outmoded and costly capacity will evolve. In some cases, this will be supplanted by new, lower cost capacity. But this will occur only if the cost of production - including cash operating and debt service costs - comes in at or below current market conditions. The industrial outlook for metals mining can be characterized as bearish. A US bank economist said mining companies planning their five-year forecasts should take current market conditions and straight-line them to the end of the decade. With low growth and low inflation, the real price of metals will remain flat or decline slightly. As a result, capital funding will be problematic. The low-cost producer will succeed. That means only the producer with low cash costs and low principal and interest costs per unit of production, will succeed. Gaining a perspective One must look back 30 years to see the evolution of the capital markets, for metal mine financing. This period can be divided into two economic periods. The 1950s were a time of stable economics. Mining companies earned and reported good profits. They had good corporate creditworthiness. In essence, mining companies of the 1950s were highly self-reliant. When equity infusions were needed, they were easily obtained. Financial management kept long-term debt low. Fixed rate, long-term financing was readily available in the long-term bond markets. The commercial banks of the 1950s were rarely used by the mining industry. When necessary, mining companies went to the banks for short-term financing - the kind that was needed for working capital requirements. Changing rhythms In the old rhythm there was an orderly market. Even into the mid-1960s, 75% of world annual copper production was controlled by eight companies: two in the UK, one in Belgium, and five in the US. During times of poor market demand, these producers would control supplies to the market. They took their losses out of retained earnings. Capital was easily restored during the ensuing good times. The new rhythm called for copper to be an economic means to a political end. Third World copper producers brushed aside the market fundamentals of commodity economics. Yet, the political solutions of these countries - their lack of response to the market - have seldom achieved their original objectives. Each commodity has its own old and new rhythm. Aluminum may have a similar rhythm, coming 10 to 20 years later than copper. By the late 1960s, changes were occurring. Inflation was on the rise. Ore reserve quality was falling. As a result, capital expenditures were necessary to maintain existing output. These costs created an increase in corporate leverage, thus adding to inflation and rising interest rates. Indicators A comparison of the gross national product (GNP) deflator index, consumer price index, and the metal mining deflator index is instructive. (Fig. 1 and Table 1). With 1972 equal to 1, note that the metal mining deflator reached its lowest point in 1967. From that point, the metal mining deflator has accelerated severely for 16 years. Only two minor downturns occurred during the business recessions of the mid-1970s and the early 1980s. In essence, Fig. 1 shows that while GNP has grown modestly, a miner's dollar in 1972 would require $3.48 in 1980. This is an almost 17% compounded growth rate over that eight-year period. Beginning in the late 1960s, for the first time in mine financing, the risk of success shifted from the corporate balance sheet to third parties. Limited-resource financings were taken up by banking syndicates that accepted certain of these risks. The lender needed to be well acquainted with the types of risks to be evaluated. These include resource quality and quantity, construction and completion, capital and operations costs, market risks, force majeure, and political and exchange rate risks. Project financings became the basis whereby mining companies were able to maintain their borrowing capacities. In essence, the lender was willing to share some of the project risk while only receiving lenders' returns on these investments. Over the last two decades, mineral project financings have become highly complex transactions involving multicurrency, multi-

Jan 8, 1985

By Randal J. Barnes

Computer based techniques for solving the Ultimate Pit Limit Problem have appeared in mining literature since the early 1960's. The majority of papers pertaining to this subject can be partitioned into one of two categories: discussion of the pros and cons of a particular algorithm, or a case study presenting specific applications of an algorithm. Subsequently, there has a1 so been considerable debate concerning the best techniques between, essentially, two camps: those favoring the moving cones techniques, and those favoring the techniques which yield true optimal pit designs. The purpose of this paper is not to add to this debate, but rather to present a few new ideas (partially a new look at an old idea), which can be easily implemented to noticeably improve any ultimate pit limit approach independent of the particular algorithm used. These ideas fall under the heading of "bounding the optimum" (Barnes and Johnson, 1980).

Jan 1, 1982

By T. Wohlford

Due to the increases available base of scientific knowledge, increased independent review required by worldwide security exchanges, and the need for accuracy in characterizing mine water resources, it has become necessary to produce a more accurate hydrologic balance. This presentation provides a critical review of the steps and tools to compile a complete hydrologic review of a mine property. The forces of regulation, increased scientific analysis, better tools, and stakeholder expectations have created a perfect storm of accuracy demand. Ausenco has developed protocol to achieve the desired end.

Feb 23, 2014

By M. Board, C. Alexander, M. Ramström, W. Johnson

"Hecla - Lucky Friday is an underground mine that has been in operation for 75 years and produces from depths over 2.3 kilometers (7,500 ft) below the surface. Technical issues at this depth include high rock temperature and seismicity. The use of new innovative mechanization is being examined for ore production. Principal advantages of mechanization are the reduced exposure of personnel, reduced seismic triggers, and increased efficiency. Lucky Friday has partnered with Atlas Copco to design, build, test, and deploy a mechanical miner for primary ore production. We will discuss the background, concept, development and deployment strategy for a mechanical miner. BACKGROUND The Coeur d’Alene mining district in northern Idaho was first discovered over 130 years ago and has been the most prolific silver producer in the US. The Lucky Friday mine of Hecla Mining Company (Figure 1) is the oldest (76 years) and deepest mine in the district, producing approximately 725 tonne per day (800 tons per day) from narrow, vertical lead-zinc-silver veins. Cut and fill stoping is currently employed at depths to about 2.3 km (7,500 ft) below ground surface, making it one of the three deepest mines in the western hemisphere. The #4 Shaft, a winze collared at approximately 1.8 km (5,900 ft) below surface and extending to a depth of nearly 2.9 km (9,600 ft), was recently completed to exploit the high-grade 30 Vein, whose resource has been identified to at least 3 km (9,700 ft) in depth.As with other deep mines worldwide, a number of challenging engineering issues occur, including: high in situ rock stress, squeezing ground, seismicity, high in situ rock temperature that requires refrigeration, diesel equipment that generates diesel particulate matter (DPM) requiring high ventilation airflow rates, and long travel times for worker transport to mining areas."

Jan 1, 2018

By J. P. Ducarme, J. L. Carr, C. C. Jobes

"An average of 1.2 fatalities occur per year in underground coal mines in the United States when a miner is struck or pinned by a remote-controlled continuous mining machine. Proximity detection technology provides a means to prevent these types of accidents by disabling all machine motion when a miner is in close proximity. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have developed the intelligent Proximity Detection (iPD) system, which continuously tracks the position of miners near the machine and disables only those machine motions that could cause a pinning accident. This system, previously demonstrated using non-permissible proximity detection hardware, has now been shown to be effective when implemented using an MSHA-approved system as a platform. Performance tests have shown accuracy, repeatability, and stop zone identification to be comparable to or better than the system demonstrated with non-permissible hardware. INTRODUCTION Underground coal mining room-and-pillar operations typically use Continuous Mining Machines (CMMs), such as the one shown in Figure 1. When CMMs first became available, they were operated from an on-board operator’s compartment that protected operators from roof falls and other hazards but severely restricted visibility and subjected them to machine vibration and high levels of dust and noise. To solve these problems, remote controls were developed to operate CMMs. Now CMM operators are free to position themselves for best visibility of each mining task and are no longer subjected to the rough motion of the CMM during mining operations or the dust and noise generated by the machine. However, this technological advance removed operators from the protection afforded by the operator’s compartment and exposed them to the hazard of being struck or pinned by the CMM or other large moving machines."

Jan 1, 2015

By Brendan Demich, Brendan Macdonald, Timothy J. Orr, Jason Navoyski, Jennica L. Bellanca, William J. Helfrich

Recent advances in computing, rendering and display technologies have generated increased accessibility to virtual reality. Virtual reality allows for the creation of dynamic, high-fidelity environments to simulate dangerous situations and test conditions and to visualize concepts. Consequently, numerous products have been developed, but many of these are limited in scope. Therefore, U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers developed a virtual-reality framework, called VR Mine, to rapidly create an underground mine for human data collection, simulation, visualization and training. This paper describes the features of VR Mine, including mine generation, simulated networks, proximity detection systems, and the integration and visualization of real-time ventilation models.

By Dan Walker

The success of the heap leaching process for extracting precious metals from low grade ores in many cases depends on successful agglomeration of clay fines. This paper relates the development of a new agglomera­tion agent, named Leachit, that has demon­strated an ability in some ores to decrease leaching time. Data from a commercial test­ing laboratory is presented to illustrate a comparison of leaching efficiencies with other agglomerative agents, such as lime and portland cement. Conclusions will point out certain advantages of Leachit to the heap leaching gold recovery industry.

Jan 1, 1992

By N. P. Titkov

This paper presents the results of laboratory and pilot plant investigations for the development of efficient methods of beneficiating hematite ores from the Krivoi Rog, Kursk Magnetic Anomoly, Olenogorsk, and other localities. The tests included gravity, magnetic (in a high intensity field), flota¬tion, and magnetizing roasting methods. It was possible to develop efficient beneficiation methods depending on the mineral composition of the ore and degree of dissemination of ore and gangue minerals. The paper shows the relationship between the iron silicate and quartz content of the ore and the technologic indices of the various beneficiation methods. Some of the conclusions based on these investigations and the technical and economic computations related to the cost of one ton of pig iron produced from concentrates obtained by the various beneficiation methods are: 1. If the hematite ore is not disseminated uniformly, it is expedient to use a combined gravity and flotation process. Ore particles up to 50 am. in size are beneficiated by gravity (heavy suspension, jigging, and others) and yield a lump concentrate. The middlings from this process are recrushed and floated; 2. Finely disseminated hematite ores, containing small quantities (less than 5 percent) of iron silicates, are most effectively beneficiated by flotation. Anionic (sulphate soap, tall oil emulsion with various foam depressors) as well as cationic collectors may be used. Depending on the mineral and chemical composition of the ore, it is possible to obtain concentrates containing up to 65 percent iron with an extraction up to 94 percent; 3. Finely disseminated, mixed hematite-magnetite ores may be beneficiated by flotation or a magnetic separation-flotation process; 4. Finely disseminated hematite ores, containing large quantities of iron silicates and earthy hematite ores are most efficiently beneficiated by the magnetizing roasting method. This method will yield concentrates containing up to 68 percent iron with extractions up to 90 percent. Although beneficiation by the magnetizing roasting process is costly, it will nonetheless, when employed on this type of ore, yield the least expensive pig iron.

Jan 1, 1960

By S. Klein, M. McLeod, K. Johnson

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) delivers water to the San Francisco Bay Area through an aqueduct system extending from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the East Bay. This aqueduct system, the Mokelumne Aqueducts, are comprised of three 82-mile long steel pipelines. The portion of the aqueducts crossing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is recognized to be vulnerable to seismic and flooding hazards. Previous studies evaluated alternatives for mitigating these hazards and increasing the reliability of the aqueducts for the next 100 years. The preferred solution involves construction of a 16.5-mile tunnel across the Delta and re-routing the existing aqueducts through this tunnel

Dec 1, 2022

By A. Pezzuto

"Pipes are used on mine sites in a variety of applications including transport of slurry, conveying clean and processing water, and in mine dewatering. Mine waters and slurries can cause pipe wear and failures via several mechanisms (or combinations thereof) such as abrasion, scaling, and corrosion. Polyethylene (PE) pipe materials have grown in popularity over the past several decades due to their chemical and mechanical properties (e.g., inertness, flexibility, relatively low density) and low cost. While PE is generally resistant to corrosion, it is subject to abrasion. To combat this, a novel, rubber-like liner is in development. In addition to comprehensive abrasion testing, however, the liner must be evaluated to see how it performs under other conditions. Here, a brief field study is described that tested PE pipes with the new liner against traditional PE pipes to specifically assess mineral scale buildup. The study was conducted in the Reiche Zeche study mine in Freiberg, Germany in six different locations with varying water qualities and flow conditions. INTRODUCTION Water and slurry conveyance are major operations on and around mine and mill sites, from mine dewatering, to tailings transport, to water treatment processes. Conveyance systems in such applications can include great lengths of pipe materials along with pumps and monitoring instruments, and thus represent significant capital investments. Due to the variability of the physical and chemical properties of water and slurries, pipe materials are subject to a wide range of conditions. These can cause pipe wear and eventually failure leading to serious economic, environmental and social, consequences. While pressure-induced pipe failures (e.g., ruptures or ""bursts”) can be immediate, most failure mechanisms involve gradual processes. Scaling and sedimentation can present major problems for pipe systems conveying highly mineralized waters. Sedimentation generally refers to the deposition of suspended solids, such as sand, clay, silt, or organic matter onto pipe surfaces. This phenomenon can occur due to a decrease in water velocity or particle collisions with the pipe wall. Scaling, on the other hand, commonly refers to the deposition of precipitated mineral salts (including oxides and hydroxides) onto pipe surfaces. Mine waters often have extremely high ion concentrations (i.e., high dissolved solids content) due to their interaction with enormous surface areas of minerals, which are exposed during mining and processing operations (Brown and Barley, 2002). As these waters are transported, slight changes in temperature, pressure or chemistry (e.g., pH or ORP) can cause instability with respect to ion solubility such that salt precipitation begins to occur. “Seed” crystals can rapidly grow and attach to pipes, either due to local surface phenomenon near the pipe wall (e.g., which can promote coagulation) or sedimentation of the precipitated solid. Whether due to suspended or precipitated solids, as the solids begin to stick to pipe walls, “aging” or hardening processes can commence; and the build-up of scale can become self-perpetuating as the scale itself provides an attractive “nucleus” for further attachment of particles or crystal growth (Muryanto et al., 2014). Over time, scale-buildup reduces the effective pipe diameter, which can ultimately result in decreased flow velocity, clogging and, in some instances, bursting (Dirany et al., 2016)."

Jan 1, 2017

By G. W. Heunisch

The properties of Neutra-Fix® and Neutra-Ment®, two new lime substitutes for treating acid mine drainage (AMD), have been compared with lime and Allcament®, two products presently in use for AMD treatment. The two new products are basically dolomitic byproducts and produce sludges that are more compact than those from lime. Sludge settling rates are faster than lime with iron concentrations after 24 hours that comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. Material utilization and optimum pH are reported.

Jan 1, 1988

By V. Srivastava, T. Ghosh

The modeling and simulation of semiautogenous (SAG) mills have been widely used in the design and optimization of mill performance in terms of its power draw, processing capacity and product size distribution. However, these models are solved under steady approximation and do not provide any information on mill charge distribution in real time. 7KLVSDSHUDWWHPSWVWRFKDUDFWHUL]HPLOOFRQWHQWVE\VROYLQJ:KLWHQ¶V¿UVW RUGHUFRQWHQW EDVHGPRGHOLQWKH0$7/$% Simulink environment. The parameters in the model, such as breakage rate constant, discharge rate and appearance function, were estimated using process and design data collected from a gold mine operating in Alaska coupled with a nonlinear parameter estimation scheme. This model was then used to predict the dynamic responses of other key operational variables, such as mill power, bearing pressure, charge level and product size distribution. The transient response of mill behavior with respect to changes in feed size distribution, tonnage and mill feed water is also presented. This dynamic simulation approach can be used for practicing different control strategy and training purposes. The observed response of mentioned variables was validated using dynamic response data from the plant to encompass operational characteristics of SAG mill behavior.