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By G. J. de Korte

Dense-medium beneficiation of fine (minus 0.5 mm) coal is not a new concept and has been used in South Africa previously. The dense-medium fine coal plant at Greenside Colliery operated for almost 18 years and, despite proving a difficult plant to operate, did succeed in producing a fine coal product with a low ash content of 7%. No other beneficiation process available could achieve this. Dense-medium beneficiation of fine coal was also used in other countries, of which the plants at Homer City in the USA and Curragh in Australia were the best known. The first application of dense-medium cleaning of fine coal was, however, at the Tertre plant in Belgium1. This plant was built in 1957. About nine years later, a second fine coal dense-medium plant was built at the Winterslag Mine, also in Belgium. According to reports, this plant operated satisfactorily for a period of some 17 years.

Jan 1, 2002

The Taupo Volcanic Zone inNew Zealand and the Philippine Mobile Belt in the Philippines are characterized by active subduction, active volcanism and high seismicity. The main factors affecting characteristics of geothermal systems in both countries are: tectonic setting, source magmas, maturity of the systems, and depth to the degassing magma body. Within New Zealand, geothermal systems are grouped into arc- and rift-type. Fluids in arc-type systems contain high amounts of volatiles (<20%), with high CO2/Cl, CO2/He, and N2/Ar ratios. Mantle-type volatiles predominate in rift-type systems. Philippine geothermal systems are largely arc-type, the topography is rugged, leading to the separation of water and vapour upflows, as opposed to the overlap found in New Zealand. The relatively shallow depths of degassing magma bodies in the Philippines results in steeper geochemical gradients, leading to higher proportions of arc-type magmatic water (>40%) and higher Cl contents (3000 - 10 000 mg/kg), Maximum temperatures are also higher, reaching up to >400¦C. Arc-type alteration assemblages in New Zealand and the Philippines are similar. Because Philippine geothermal systems are less mature, have higher temperatures and steeper geochemical gradients than New Zealand ones, advanced argillization is more widespread occurring down to depths of 2000 m. Mineral phases are more varied due to the active input of magmatic waters and the formation of vapor conditions at depth, forming P04-, B-, Li-, Ce-, F-, and Cl-bearing minerals at high temperatures. In the Philippines, high temperature magmatic-hydrothermal to contact metamorphic assemblages containing biotite, amphiboles and pyroxenes are relatively common, but rare in New Zealand.

Jan 1, 1995

By Leon Maday, Robert Robinson, Judy Cochran, Don Davis

Over the past 20 years, several soft-ground tunnels have been successfully completed in the Seattle area. These tunnels were built using design-bid-build contracting methods, and have benefited from advancing technologies in exploration, design and construction methods. Owners have utilized various contractual means to share some of the risks that are inherent to tunneling projects. This has helped to foster a competitive bidding environment and to resolve issues related to unanticipated underground conditions in a fair manner. This paper presents case histories of tunnels constructed by King County and the Washington Dept. of Transportation that illustrate a common approach to design and construction issues. The common thread is successful project completion with minor cost changes under the design-bid-build contracting method. Lessons learned from these projects are being applied to the upcoming King County Brightwater Project tunnels, Sound Transit’s Light “Link” Rail tunnels and other tunnel projects.

Jan 1, 2005

By E. Lammer

"Underground mining processes are dangerous. The design of mining equipment, which is able to cope with the hostile underground environment, is a challenge for all machine manufacturers. Presupposition for realizing the vision of SANDVIK for zero harm for working with SANDVIK equipment is the installation of the appropriate processes. Into the product engineering and product development processes of Sandvik Mining and Construction, a specific "Product Safety Process" has been integrated, where all safety related activities like identification of all life cycle hazards, risk management and safety verification / validation are planned, performed and documented. Product safety shall be „designed into" the products. Therefore, specific research activities have been started, to address the safety and health related topics for the development and for the engineering of SANDVIK mining machines."

Jan 1, 2011

By Timo Kankaanpää

Keywords: Solvent extraction, dispersion, phase separation, CFD The liquid-liquid dispersion phases are separated by gravity in a solvent extraction settler. This separation step is made more effective by picket fences. The picket fence geometry and its physical placement have a significant effect on the separation process, because the purpose of a fence is to smoothen and control organic-aqueous dispersion flow in the first part of the settler and achieve a deep and dense dispersion layer in the front end of the settler resulting in a clean phase separation. In this study, physical phenomena in the solvent extraction process and phase separation in a solvent extraction settler with and without picket fences have been examined using a commercial CFX software package. It can be concluded that the used CFD-approach proved to be a complementary tool for optimizing and designing the solvent extraction settler.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. Lin, M. J. McPherson

When a large area of open gob collapses suddenly, a windblast is produced that can cause considerable damage throughout the infrastructure of a mine. In a few cases, the windblast has been accompanied by ignitions of methane and/or coal dust. This paper describes the conduct and results of laboratory tests involving the compression of mixtures of air, methane and coal dust under a falling weight and while allowing controlled escape of the mixture. The transient responses on pressure and temperature sensors were recorded. In addition to an analysis of those records, the paper highlights those conditions in which ignitions occurred.

Feb 24, 1997

By Vladimir Admek, Paul W. Jeran, Michael A. Trevits

It has' been found that lithological conditions over the Pittsburgh Coal bed cause the subsidence coefficient to vary within the area of the subsidence trough. This precludes the use of European developed predictive models, which are based upon a constant subsidence coefficient. Regression analysis of the distribution of subsidence coefficients from 11 Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, longwall panel studies on the location relative to the edge of the panel has yielded a third degree polynomial equation. This equation has been incorporated into a BASIC computer program for use on a personal computer that allows users with no previous knowledge of the theory of subsidence to predict vertical movements over typical longwall panels in the Northern Appa1achian Coal Basin.

Jan 1, 1986

By Akihide Hosokawa

The void growth and coalescence in model materials involving a pre-existing three dimensional void array (i.e. multiple layers of a void array) was studied by X-ray computed tomography (XCT) coupled with in situ tensile deformation. To reduce the recording time, a new technique called fast tomography was employed. The model materials used in this paper were fabricated by the combination of an ultra-short pulsed laser machining system and a diffusion bonding technique, and two different types of arrays were prepared namely, FCC 1 and FCC 2 type array. This methodology allowed the authors to capture the entire process of growth and coalescence events of a void array embedded in the metal matrix. The failures in the both materials involved internal necking and shear localization. One of the highlights of this paper is that the plastic strain at the onset of void coalescence was measured for each model material. These values are in fact the adequate values to be compared with the coalescence strain predicted by existing void coalescence models such as the Brown and Embury model, the Thomason model and the Pardoen and Hutchinson model. The comparison suggested that the Brown and Embury model underestimated the coalescence in neither of the current model materials, while the Thomason model and the Pardoen and Hutchinson model showed a quite good agreement with the result for FCC 1 material. On the other hand the result from FCC 2 material agreed with none of the models probably due to the geometry of the void array that is not compatible with the existing models.

Jan 1, 2010

By R A. Lynch

The state-of-the-art in cave seismic monitoring is reviewed, with the latest developments in active seismic monitoring included. Seismic monitoring systems are routinely used by most of the world’s block and panel caving mines to track the cave initiation and progression. The current best practice is to use the cloud of seismic event locations as a proxy for cave growth somewhere below. Problems with event location reliability due to seismic ray bending around the (unknown) cave are side-stepped by using sensors installed above the cave. However, the aseismic gap – the (unknown) distance between actual cave back and seismic event cloud – currently hinders reliable estimation of cave geometry.Velocity inversions using the passive seismic data are inexpensive and should be undertaken more routinely. The straight-ray methods should be used with caution, as the underlying assumptions are invalid in caving environments. The double-difference method is more correct for the caving situation, and there have been some promising results published. Constrained geometric inversions make a lot of sense, but have yet to be demonstrated successfully.Two active seismic source have recently been developed for use in the caving environment: a piezoelectric source for ranges up to a few hundred metres and a pneumatically-powered source for ranges up to a kilometre. These sources produce signals on standard mine seismic sensors that can be used to measure seismic velocity variations down to 0.01 per cent resolution. This allows the cave progression to be monitored by measuring tiny changes to seismic velocities as the rock above the cave is fractured and destressed.CITATION:Lynch, R A, 2016. Active and passive seismic monitoring of cave front evolution, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 217–224 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By F. H. Buchella, J. F. Buchanan

The San Manuel copper deposit is located about 45 miles northeast of Tucson. The concentrator, smelter, administration building, and other plant facilities are located about seven miles southeast of the ,nine area at the new town of Sari Manuel as shown on Figure 1 (Sketch).

Jan 1, 1961

Peculiarities of Quartz Distribution in Zinc Flotation Products and their Influence to Mineral Processing

Sep 13, 2010

By Trevor Rangasamy

Technically based guidelines for managing rock related risks associated with strip mines in South African collieries are currently vague and are to a large extent based on experience and trial and error. To date, no mine specific or universal design charts exist within the South African industry. Quantification is done on a reactive basis i.e. following reported instabilities. The conditions under which, proactive tools to manage instabilities would be practically applicable are: The design of simple easy to use charts. Designing the charts for a target audience that is primarily production management. Well organized, logical set-up of the charts that will allow for easy future refinements. Allowing for variations in rock and soil properties within the charts that would account for colliery specific and region specific variability. The factors selected for in depth investigation that were deemed to have either individually or in combination, a primary influence on the stability of strip mines are (in no order of priority): Appropriate batter angles for ?soft? materials. Surcharge loading (spoils, dumps, topographical highs) on the highwall side. Influence of the thickness of stratification on stability. Influence of moisture content on stability. Influence of the changes to the coal seam dip angle on stability. Influence of persistent ?strip long axis? parallel faults/joints on stability. Spoil stability for variations in material type. This paper provides details of the work undertaken, using principally numerical modelling techniques, to produce design charts that will allow for proactive management of rock-related instabilities on strip mines.

Jan 1, 2008

By L. Holappa

Ferroalloys like FeCr and FeMn are mostly produced in submerged electric arc furnaces. Typical of these processes is that the amount of slag is quite high. The role of slag for the process is thus essential and specific chemical, physical and electrical properties are required. Slags in FeCr process are Al2O3-MgO-SiO2 based with minor contents of CaO and CrOx. Slags in the FeMn process are principally similar, originating from silicate minerals but can have quite large composition range depending on the manganese ore and its gangue minerals. Characteristic of the FeMn process is that the slag is rich in manganese oxide up to above 30%. A common feature is that the ?ore oxides?, CrOx and MnOx in slag are not only divalent oxides but also contain some higher valent of Cr3+and Mn3+, respectively. In FeMn production conditions the slag consists mainly of Mn2+. This is a clear difference from CrOx containing slags in which both two and three valent coexist in slags in FeCr process conditions. Oxidation state of the slag depends on the ambient oxygen partial pressure and temperature in the examined process. The thermodynamics of slags in ferroalloys, production are discussed in terms of phase diagrams, activities and oxidation state of chromium and manganese oxides. Further, slag properties influencing reduction kinetics and furnace operation i.e. viscosity and electrical resistivity are discussed. Keywords: review, slags, ferroalloys, ferrochromium, ferromanganese, thermodynamics, physical properties

Jan 1, 2004

By R. F. Nielsen, R. G. Bentsen

Jan 1, 1966

By Aki Fujii, Hiroshi Dobashi, Mitsuro Matsuda, Yoshinari Kondo

INTRODUCTION The Metropolitan Expressway Central Circular Route with a total length of approximately 47 km is located outside the Inner Circular Route of Tokyo (at a radius of approximately 8 km from the city center). Sections with a length of approximately26 km, slightly less than 60% of the total length, on the east and north sides are in ser-vice. Completing the Central Circular Route (Figure 1) is expected to enable through traffic concentrated at the city center to get around, and to form a well balanced trans-port network, which will alleviate traffic congestion considerably. The Central Circular Shinjuku Route, a section with a length of approximately 11 km on the west side, is now being constructed at a fast pace. The route is being built mainly by the shield tunneling method to carry out work smoothly under a trunk highway carrying heavy traffic and to reduce adverse effects of tunneling work on residents in the neighborhood. Shield tunnels have recently been becoming longer and deeper, and no secondary linings have been used in an increasing number of cases because of the over-crowding of cities or the reduction of budgets for public works. Economical, durable and high-quality segments have been required for linings of shield tunnels. Segments are made of concrete, steel, cast iron or combination thereof. Concrete segments are generally used in shield tunnels of medium to large diameter. Concrete segments are highly durable and resistant to compression, so they are highly resistant to earth pres-sure, water pressure and jack thrust. They are, however, heavy and have low tensile strength, so they are brittle and their corners are likely to spall. Concrete segments should therefore be handled carefully.[1] The authors have developed a steel fiber reinforced highly flowable concrete segment (referred as SFRC segment) that overcomes the weaknesses of concrete segments[2] to construct economical, durable and high-quality linings. SFRC segments have been applied to outbound sections SJ51 through SJ53 of the Central Circular Shinjuku Route. Unlike conventional concrete segments (referred as conventional RC segments), SFRC segments are made of steel fiber reinforced self-compacting highly flowable concrete. SFRC segments require less reinforcing bars than conventional RC segments because steel fibers are expected to work as reinforcements. Steel fiber reinforced concrete is a composite material that overcomes the brittleness of plain concrete, and has higher resistance to bending, tension and shear than

Jan 1, 2007

By Axel Preusse

For the last 150 years, subsidence damage to the surface has been an unavoidable phenomenon associated with underground coal mining. In particular, the mechanization of mining methods in multiple seam mining and the concentration of mining activities in densely populated European metropolitan areas (e.g., Ruhr, Upper Silesian industrial region) have led to mining having a very strong influence on the earth?s surface. In both these regions, surface subsidence of more than 20m has been reported up to now in comparison to the original state. Underground coal mining in these regions strongly impairs all kinds of surface use, such as urban and industrial development, infrastructure (roads, waterways, and railways) and pipelines?without restricting the functionality of those objects to a greater extent. Demanding and, in some cases, globally unique engineering solutions have been developed and implemented for this purpose. The previously mentioned mining and industrial regions are still very strongly characterized by the (increasingly declining) coal industry and will remain dependent to a large extent and for an indefinite period on artificial drainage measures because subsidence that has already occurred is irreversible. This paper will primarily discuss the prediction of subsidence that is caused by intensive multiple seam mining and its influence on surface objects (e.g., underground pipelines). However, an approach for predicting ground uplifts due to rising mine water as a consequence of mine closures will also be described.

Jan 1, 2012

By Russell J. Foster

In this Bureau of Mines report a selection process has identified 14 nonstockpiled materials (cesium, gallium, hafnium, indium, osmium, rhenium, rhodium, rubidium, ruthenium, scandium, selenium, tellurium, thallium, and zirconium) that are linked to the continuing evolution of high-technology fields such as electronics, catalysis, and energy, and that have limiting factors associated with domestic availability. A qualitative assessment of the "potential criticality" of these materials was made through a consideration of end uses, demand trends and forecasts, production, mineral reserves, byproduct status, alternative supply sources, substitution and conservation options, and recyclability.

Jan 1, 1988

Accurately estimating load distributions and ground responses around underground openings play a significant role in the safety of the operations in underground mines. Adequately designing pillars and other support measures relies highly on the accurate assessment of the loads that will be carried by them, as well as the load-bearing capacities of the supports. There are various methods that can be used to approximate mining-induced loads in stratified rock masses to be used in pillar design. The empirical methods are based on equations derived from large databases of various case studies. They are implemented in government-approved design tools and are widely used. There are also analytical and numerical techniques used for more detailed analysis of the induced loads. In this study, two different longwall mines with different panel width-to-depth ratios are analyzed using different methods. The empirical method used in the analysis is the square decay stress function that uses the abutment angle concept, implemented in pillar design software developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The first numerical method used in the analysis is a displacement-discontinuity (DD) variation of the boundaryelement method, LaModel, which utilizes the laminated overburden model (Heasley, 1998).

Jan 7, 2020

By Rudolf E. Greuer

Two computer programs for the real-time calculation of concentration distributions in the ventilation system of underground mines were designed. They allow one to simulate the movement of fumes or other contaminants with the ventilating air, the calculation of concentrations at any given point and time, and the determination of the total contaminant exposure at different places in the mine. Multiple and time variable contaminant sources can be handled and recirculation is no obstacle. The, first program is based on an airflow distribution which has, in the input data, to be stated. The second program has been linked to in existing program for the calculation of airflow distributions. Two versions of this second program are provided to accommodate the two existing programs. Several executed examples demonstrate the program performance.

Jan 1, 1981

By Zachary Q. Maassen

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the environmental benefits of properly managing slurry waste as it is generated on site. The following projects will be used to illustrate the importance of proper onsite waste management. Project: Jet Grout Backflow Dewatering The goal was to dewater the backflow directly onsite to produce a dry, solid waste and reusable water. The backflow spoil was pumped directly to the dewatering system as it was generated. Utilizing mechanical separation equipment and flocculation polymer the waste volume was reduced by 44%. Due to the site footprint and high volumes, slurry waste removal and onsite processing were the only two feasible options. Onsite dewatering proved to be the environmentally beneficial option as it eliminated the need for slurry waste hauling and disposal. The benefits of utilizing a dewatering system are listed below: Project: Soil Mixing Spoil Recycling for Slurry Wall Construction In this application the spoils generated contain bentonite mud, cement mixture and organic ground soils. The goal of this project was to process the backflow mixture to recover reusable bentonite mud and separate the soil as a dry, stackable waste product. The treatment system replaced the traditional method of vacuum truck extraction and facility disposal. The environmental benefits of properly handling the backflow is a decrease in fresh water usage, bentonite additive reduction, and the reduction of CO2 emissions. The paper will consist of a project scope, technical equipment and process description, environmental impact reduction calculations and lessons learned for each project.

Jan 1, 2018