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By Balmer Neilly

FOR some reason or other, Mine Taxation has never been a popular subject for discussion in meetings of this kind, and it has never received the study and consideration its importance demanded. By way of explanation, two reasons may be suggested. In the first place, the computation, adjustment, and final payment of taxes, have been looked upon in most cases as a Head Office chore. Secondly, since taxes represent an uncontrollable cost item, they have been treated as an added rather than an inclusive factor in calculating unit costs. Perhaps because I am half Irish, and therefore resent taxation of all kinds, perhaps because I am half Scotch, and am therefore concerned with the results, I have always taken a keen interest in this subject. Moreover, by some peculiar set of circumstances, I have been a participating party in many, perhaps I can say most, of the discussions on this subject that have taken place between the Governments and the representatives of this industry during the past thirty years. Looking backward, certain very definite impressions remain. Political considerations have never had any part in these discussions. Views have been exchanged upon the frankest possible basis, and, when we disagreed on some particular detail, we agreed to disagree, and followed through in harmony and? good faith. We, as an industry, have refrained from importuning and fault finding in ways that might be considered as petty or selfish, and it is only upon occasions such as this, where conditions necessitate action, that we lay our troubles before the powers that be. The Ontario Mining Tax Act was drafted by men who were earnest and practical as to purpose, and that Act has stood the test of time. It is, in. truth, a mode! Act, for it has been copied in its general clauses by both Quebec and the Dominion of Canada. We all know that, when a machine is running smoothly, we should leave it alone. The same is true of a well designed, easily applicable, taxation measure, and our present difficulty with respect to this Act arises out of an amendment made in 1916. In that year, you will remember, the Dominion imposed a wartime Income Tax Act. It was described as a wartime necessity and it was intimated t:1 at with the end of hostilities its application would be restricted and finally cancelled. The rate of taxation was modest, and when the Ontario Government was asked that the Dominion Income Tax be allowed as a deductible item, they readily acquiesced. This was looked upon as a temporary arrangement.

Jan 1, 1943

By George Kellock

In presenting this paper for discussion at the Western Annual Meeting to be held in Edmonton, it is with the idea of creating a full and general discussion by the mining men in the Province as to the best way to eliminate, or at least hold down to a minimum, the dangerous coal-dust which is made in mining pitching seams in our Alberta mines by the chute method. Also, an alternative method is outlined, whereby the percentage of lump-coal mined can be increased, and the mining costs reduced-although the paper does not go into any detailed consideration of costs. The general trend of mining practice and lay-outs is at present towards mechanization, and the results being accomplished by the substitution of machines for manual labour are fully justifying the changes. In the technical mining journals, there are published from time to time papers dealing with a variety of methods of mining, which are descriptions of actual operations, and a great deal of interesting and valuable data is given as to the comparative values of the different methods, insofar as the percentage of grades of coal produced, the cost of production, etc., are concerned; but the mechanical methods described in these papers are nearly always suitable only for flat seams, or seams with a very low inclination.

Jan 1, 1929

By Jun Dai

Based upon research findings from several countries, the combination of microwave and mechanical means to break hard rock holds promise for the future. To achieve this goal, it is essential to understand the laws governing strength reduction of hard rock, such as granite, induced by microwave irradiation. Two aspects to consider are: 1) laws associated with the tensile strength of hard rock after microwave irradiation and 2) the sensitivity of different types of rock strengths to microwave energy. In this study, granite with a range of tensile strengths was exposed to microwaves for various time periods to compare the response of rocks with different strength values exposed to the same microwave irradiation. In addition, a method based on hotspots is presented to explain the mechanism by which granite strength is reduced by microwave irradiation. Granite extracted from Qinling Mountain in Shaanxi Province, China is used in the research. ?50 × 50 mm cylindrical granite specimens were exposed to microwaves at a specific power level. The strength values of the heated granite specimens were compared with those of unheated specimens. Through the comparison and analyses, relationships were determined between 1) reduction in granite strength and microwave irradiation time period, and 2) granite strength and sensitivity to a given energy of microwave irradiation. Finally, a mechanism to explain the experimental results is proposed. Research findings will aid in the design of a microwave + machine rock-breaking system for use in rock breakage in underground mines at depth and for future mine applications on earth and other planets. In addition, the experimental approach could be used to test other rock types to further our understanding of rock damage induced by microwave irradiation.

Aug 1, 2013

By W. J. Weymark

"The Gregg River project is located 40 kilometres southwest of Hinton, Alberta, adjacent to and east of Jasper National Park. This metallurgical coal mine has been developed as a joint venture between Gregg River Coal Ltd. (a subsidiary company of Mana/ta Coal Ltd.) and seven Japanese companies. This 200-million dollar project consists of a conventional truckshovel open-pit operation and a coal preparation plant rated at 2.14 million tonnes of clean coal per year. Mining operations started in October 1982 with plant start-up following in April 1983. Introduction This paper is an overview and update of the Gregg River project, a metallurgical coal mine being developed as a joint venture between Gregg River Coal Ltd. (a subsidiary of Manalta Coal Ltd.) and seven Japanese companies. The Gregg River Coal leases cover 3440 hectares and are located 40 kilometres south of Hinton, Alberta, adjacent to and north of Cardinal River Coal Mine (Fig. 1). This 200-million dollar project consists of a conventional truck-shovel operation and a coal preparation plant rated at 2.14 million tonnes of clean coal per year. A total of 31.5 million tonnes of clean metallurgical coal will be sold to the Japanese over a fifteen-year term. At present, mining operations are ahead of schedule and the plant started up on schedule in April 1983. Access and Climate An all-weather road, Highway 40, connects the minesite with Hinton (the nearest commercial centre) and a Canadian National Railway (C.N.R.) spur line connects the minesite with the C.N.R. main line in Edson. Hinton is accessible by road chartered airline and rail. ' ~h~ rug~ed and varied topography in the area creates large vanations m temperature and precipitation over short distances. The region is characterized by precipitation throughout the year long cold winters and short cool summers. The mean temperatur~ of the area range from a low of -14°C in January, the coldest month, to a high of 12°C in July, the warmest month. Long-term precipitation data indicates a mean yearly precipitation of 870 mm of which 620Jo occurs during the summer months."

Jan 1, 1985

By J. Jara

Oxygen, ozone and air were evaluated in the oxidation of ferrous iron in the presence of hydrochloric acid ranging from 0.1 to 4 M HC1. Stoichiometric coefficients were determined through mass balances of gases and ferrous titration. The molar ratio ferrous to ozone increases from two at 0.1 M HC1 concentration to six at 4 M HC1. For oxygen the same ratio is constant and equal to 2 and it is in agreement with other works. The stoichiometric coefficient of hydrogen ion was not defined due to the effect of hydrolysis of ferrous and in particular ferric ion on measuring acid concentration by titration with sodium hydroxide. Agitation, gas flow and pressure contribute in the utilization of gas. A technique to compare the gas efficiency at several conditions is discussed and it is based on the relationship between oxygen and ferric during time. There is a strong compromise between gas efficiency and ferrous conversion. Oxygen efficiency decreased with time due to ferrous depletion. The gas efficiency ranged from 3 % (low level of agitation) producing 25 g Fe(III)/h to 12 % at 1000 rpm with 60 g Fe(III)/h converted. At 405 kPa absolute the oxygen efficiency was in the range of 80 % producing 300 g Fe(III)/h. The replacement of chlorine with oxygen to enrich molybdenite concentrates by reducing copper to less than 0.2 % was evaluated. Oxygen can be employed in batch or continuous operation and it can treat molybdenite concentrates with high variation of copper content. The dissolution rate is mainly controlled by oxygen addition in which utilization of oxygen plays an important role. Improvement on safety and environmental conditions is feasible by using oxygen instead of chlorine gas. The economics indicate good opportunities to implement oxygen without significant modifications to the actual circuit and enough benefit when oxygen is well used.

Jan 1, 2007

By O. P. Garg

Based on improved methods of collection and analysis of geotechnical data, slope angles have been steepened in some mines of the Iron Ore Company of Canada at Schefferville, Quebec. This paper describes the slope design case history for Fleming NO.3 mine and illustrates the application of modern techniques. The new design has resulted in significant financial savings due to a reduction in required waste stripping.

Jan 1, 1978

By M. T. Shehata, R. W. Revie, M. Elboujdaini

Environmentally assisted cracks in linepipe steels are initiated either as a result of stresses in combination with environmental effects, as in stress corrosion cracking (SCC), or as a result of trapped hydrogen in the steel, as in hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC). To understand better the mechanism of the crack initiation process, key metallurgical and environmental elements that can affect the cracking phenomena were investigated and are reviewed in this paper. The complexity of both cracking phenomena results from the dependence of SCC and HIC on multiple metallurgical, mechanical, and environmental parameters that may all influence both crack initiation and propagation; e.g., composition, microstructure and non-metallic inclusions in the steel, applied stress, water chemistry in the field, and ionic concentrations in the groundwater near the pipe surface to name a few for SCC. In addition, for HIC phenomena, one can add the concentration of H2S in the fluids transported in the pipe as well as concentration of CO2, pH, etc. In this paper, cracking of linepipe steels is analyzed critically, with particular attention to the crack initiation process. The paper is divided into two parts: The first part covers SCC and the second covers HIC.

Jan 1, 2005

By M. Aushouri, S. H. Mansouri, N. Aminizadeh

A thermo-chemical model of the Peirce-Smith copper converter in blowing the copper stage has been developed to predict the molten temperature. The key assumption of the model was that white metal and gas phases in the converter were in thermal and chemical equilibrium. In this model, the chemical reaction of white metal and oxygen was accomplished completely. So long as sulfur existed in the bath, the generation of Cu2O was frozen. The reaction rate was considered to be constant and controlled by the reacted sulfur. The converter temperature was calculated by heat balances over time. The model was validated by a detailed comparison with measured industrial data. A good agreement was obtained. The converter temperature depended on process parameters such as oxygen efficiency, molten emissivity and oxygen enrichment.

Jan 1, 2007

By Laxman M. Amaratunga

Laboratocy flarmnability tests were perfonned on dust samples from Fraser Mine in a 1.2 L Lindenburg horizontal tube furnace to detennine the percentage of sulphur oxidized during ignition. The explosion pot ential of sulphide dusts depends on their degree of spontaneous oxidat ion, which was measured by the quantitative analysis of so2 gas released during ignition. Test results indicated that dusts with low sulphur content could exhibit a higher degree of oxidation than a sample with high sulphur content. txlst characterisation using image analysis techniques suggests that the structure and the texture of dust are important factors influencing the explosibility of sulphide dust at ignition temperatures. Therefore for safe mine operations% sulphur content cannot be considered as a reliable single index that could be used to predict the potential of a sulphide dust explosion. Physical, chemical and mineralogical characterisation of dust plays an important role in the detennination of suitable indices for the prediction and prevention of sulphide ore dust explosions.

May 11, 1988

By Rafic Moubarac

FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester) equipment has been used in different and several applications during metals processing and extraction, and the hydrometallurgical process. Case histories of such equipment will be shown of major projects worldwide.

Jan 1, 2015

By J. M. Carr

The history, geological setting and local geology of the Magnum vein system, 100 miles west of Fort Nelson in northeastern British Columbia, are described. The system comprises a number of quartz-ankerite veins, mineralized with chalcopyrite and lesser pyrite, occurring in a steep northeastly zone of deformation and subsequent dike intrusion within otherwise little-deformed Precambrian sedimentary rocks. In April of 1970, Churchill Copper Corporation began producing copper concentrates in a 750-tpd mill fed from the Magnum mine.

Jan 1, 1971

By G. M. Humphrey

It is a great honour and privilege to be here in this distinguished company of the outstanding men in the mining industry and the political life of Canada. I fully recognize that I am so honoured as a symbol of the combination of American and Canadian leaders in industry who are partners in the sponsor-ship of the Quebec-Labrador iron-ore mining development which we are undertaking, and as such I want to express our great appreciation of the co-operation and assistance we have met on every hand in Canada, and the genuine friendliness and never-failing courtesy which we are always accorded. We are quite aware that it springs primarily from the very high regard in which our partner and sponsor, Jules Timmins, and our other Canadian associates are held. Their high standing among you is well known and we quite naturally fall heir to the benefits of the great esteem in which you hold them. Jules Timmins and his long-time associate, John Knox, were the original inspiration for our participation in this venture. It was their enthusiasm and vision which caught our interest and led to our joining with them in the years of exploration and search which have brought us to the threshold of this great development where we stand today. So much has been written of the details of our exploration and plans for future development that it would bore you for me to review them further here, but there is a phase of this development, and an extremely important phase of it, which I think has passed almost unnoticed and which it may be well worth while for me to bring to your attention this evening.

Jan 1, 1951

By Y. Béliveau

Emission of perfluorocarbon gases, CF4 and C2F6, produced during anode effects from aluminum electrolytic cells are a significant part of the total equivalent CO2 emitted by aluminum plants. With the current concerns about global warming, the reduction of these PFC gases is a key issue in reducing greenhouse gases for a smelter and achieving GHG emission agreement goals. This paper will present the approach taken by the Alcoa vertical-stud Soderberg plant in Baie-Comeau to reduce GHG emissions generated during anode effects and close emission gaps with other Alcoa Soderberg plants. The approach has been to adapt the existing technology in place at the Baie-Comeau Soderberg plant. PFC emissions were lowered by reducing both the anode effect duration and frequency through different methods. Examples of change include: implementing skimming practices and wider side crust break area for better alumina dissolution in bath, increasing the ratio between reacted and pure alumina, reducing the time to declare anode effects in the potrooms, implementing best work practices and finally educating the workforce on the importance of reducing PFC emissions.

Jan 1, 2007

By F. Richards

"The property of the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company; Limited; is in the Wells-Barkerville district of Cariboo mining division. It consists of a group of 106 Crown granted mineral claims and fractions; and extends for over 6 miles along what is termed the Barkerville gold belt. The main portal and mine camp are half a mile south of Wells; which lies at the northeast end of Jack of Clubs lake and is reached by a 55-mile motor road from Quesnel; the northern terminus of the Pacific Great Eastern railway.Gold-bearing quartz veins were discovered on the surface in various parts of the property by different prospectors as far back as 1877, but the work that led to the formation of the present company was performed by Al Sanders in the year 1926. Sanders dug trenches and drove small adits on quartz veins containing gold above what is now known as the Sanders zone. Very little underground work has been done beneath the earliest known discovery-the B.C. vein. The Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Company was formed in the autumn of 1926. The total production of gold from its beginning in 1933 to the end of 1944 has been as follows:"

Jan 1, 1954

By Ltd Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Co., Shi Yunliang, Luo Yunbo, Chen Jun, Liu Miaohua, Xiao Jinxiong, Long Yan

"A refractory lead-zinc oxide ore located in Yunnan has hundreds of tons of metal reserves, which is hard to be recovered effectively by conventional oxide ore beneficiation methods. In this study, by sulfidation roasting of raw-ore, sulfide deposit is formed on the surface of the lead-zinc oxide ore, and then the roasted ore is processed with bulk flotation. The test results indicate that a bulk concentrate with grade of 7.85% lead and 34.24% zinc, recovery of 79.13% lead and 79.04% zinc, respectively, can be obtained by using conventional sulfide ore flotation method.The sulfidation process shows that pyrite in the raw ore releases S firstly, then S reacts with PbO and ZnO to transform into PbS and ZnS. When the mole ratio of sulphur:zinc is 0.59, the surface of smithsonite is covered with a layer of zinc sulfide. When the mole ratio of sulfu:zinc rate is 1.47, entire simthsonite particle is transformed into zinc sulphide. Thus the transformed particles can be recovered by flotation without complete sulfidation.INTRODUCTIONWith the increasing demand for zinc and decreasing of zinc resources, people pay more attention on development and utilization of zinc oxide ore. However, zinc oxide ore has wide range mineral kinds, complex mineral composition, disseminated fine-grained particle size, and high content soluble salt, so current study results about the zinc oxide ore with conventional flotation are not satisfactory. So far, process dealing with zinc oxide ore includes: sulfuration (Na2S)-flotation, direct flotation with fatty acids collectors, metallurgical methods, in which sulfuration flotation is the most widely used method. The basic principle of sulfuration flotation method is firstly roasting oxide ore with vulcanizing agent, and then recovering the sulfurated oxide ore with flotation, which is similar with recovering nature sulfide ore by using conventional collectors such as amines and xanthate."

Jan 1, 2016

By Shuai-Jun Li, Xia-Ting Feng, Xian-Jie Hao

"The anisotropy of rock is of great importance to the rock engineering. To investigate the anisotropic character of slate, the rock samples of slate under different confining pressures and bedding plane angles was conducted on the MTS. The results indicated that the relationship between bedding plane angle and elasticity modulus, friction angle, cohesion and strength was shown as U pattern. The minimum value of them is located from 30°to 45°.In addition, the elasticity modulus and Poisson's ratio increase with the increasing confining pressure. The slate behaves brittle failure both in the uniaxial and triaxial compression. The failure pattern of uniaxial compression is generally tension failure, and triaxial test usually shows shear failure. The failure angle decrease with the increasing of confining pressure.INTRODUCTIONThe anisotropy of rock is that loading in different orientations the rock has different mechanical properties. The anisotropic property of rock is always an important problem in rock engineering (Hoek E. & Brown E. T., 1980). J. C. Jaeger (1960) first presented that transverse strength criterion for sliding fracture on joint surface. Later he revised rock parameters to anisotropy empirically for isotropic Mohr- Coulomb criterion. His main idea is revising cohesion according to loading direction (J. C. Jaeger, 1971). Then, many scholars study a lot on transverse strength criterion. E. Z. Lajtai (1969) considered the influence of connecting rate in all directions in joint groups for shear strength in intact rock; R. Mclamore and K. E. Gray (1967) referenced the theory of J. C. Jaeger. They not only revised cohesion also revised friction coefficient. Y. M. Tien (2000, 2001) made further study on the influence of connecting rate in joint group to transverse strength. R. Nova (1980) studied on the variation of strength when rock specimens in triaxial pressure and complex stress paths. O. Cazacu(1998) put forwards a new anisotropic strength criterion for analyzing rock strength. S. Pietruszczak(2000) introduced fabric tensor for characterizing inner seismic structure and he built an anisotropic strength criterion containing the invariants of stress tensor and seismic fabric tensor."

Jan 1, 2015

By A. F. Abd El-Rehim

The behavior of both transient and steady state creep of Al-4.5 wt% Cu and Al-4.5 wt% Cu-0.1 wt% In alloys was investigated using a constant stress where torsional oscillations of different frequencies and shear strain amplitudes were operated at various working temperatures. An augment in both transient and steady state creep rates was observed by increasing both frequency and shear strain amplitude of the applied oscillations. The mean values of the activation energy of both alloys for both creep stages were found to be equal to that quoted for dislocation intersection mechanism.

Jan 1, 2006

By D. Berkley

The competitive pressure, the increasing energy costs and the environmental regulations impose substantial challenges to the definition of power plants serving industrial facilities. Primary mining and metallurgical facilities have even greater challenges because they are often located remotely, where the fuel supply can be a problem. The absence of a power grid imposes challenges on the reliability and quality of the electrical energy supply. In addition, the facilities usually require thermal energy too, not only electricity. This paper outlines these types of issues that have to be considered when defining a cogeneration plant integrated with a remote located industrial facility. It is addressed to the ?users? of cogeneration facilities rather than to ?generators.? The focus is on analyzing various site-specific design considerations to pre-screen the feasible cogeneration alternatives and minimize the number of options to be analyzed from the economics viewpoint. This approach could substantially reduce the engineering effort and schedule during the feasibility phase of the project. Part 1 of this paper (Berkley, 2003) provides a basic understanding of cogeneration plants of various types to establish a common language. Part 2 outlines and analyzes specific issues that could be of help in the definition of cogeneration installations for remotely located industrial facilities, with a focus on mining and primary metallurgical plants.

Mar 1, 2003

By K. Sawamukai, S. Ogasawara, D. Umenai, T. Tsuruta

"Removal of cobalt, strontium or cesium ion from the aqueous solution containing each metal ion only using microorganism was examined. Arthrobacter nicotianae which had a high ability to remove cationic metal ion was used for the removal of each metal. The removal of cobalt, strontium or cesium using A. nicotianae cells was affected by the solution pH, concentration of metal ion, and cell amount. The effects of above mentioned factors on the removal of each metal and time course of strontium from the solution containing each metal only using A. nicotianae cells were reported in this paper. INTRODUCTIONRadioactive elements, such as cesium, iodine, strontium, plutonium, barium, cobalt, lanthanum, yttrium, and tellurium, were detected around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the tsunami followed.The removal of radioactive elements from contaminated sources is a worthwhile subject to investigatein terms of environmental control. Research efforts have been especially concentrated on studying microorganisms that remove uranium including bacteria (Andres et al, 1993, Hu et al, 1996, Marques et al, 1991, Strandberg et al, 1981), actinomycetes (Byerley et al, 1987, Friiss and Myers-Keith, 1986, Golab et al, 1991), fungi (Byerley et al, 1987, Galun et al, 1983a, Galun et al, 1983b,Tsezos and Volesky, 1981, White and Gadds, 1990) and yeasts (Strandberg et al, 1981, Schmate II et al, 1978).We have investigated removal and recovery of uranium from aqueous systems using microorganisms isolated from uranium mines. We identified some strains of bacteria with extremely high uranium removing abilities (Sakaguchi et al, 1996), and thus, the microbial biomass may be considered as an adsorbing agent for the removal and recovery of uranium and heavy metals present in aqueous systems around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.In the present study, we screened various species and strains of bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, and yeasts for their ability to adsorb uranium (Tsuruta, 2002). Basic features affecting uranium adsorption?co-existing cations and anions, cell amounts, pH, and the adsorption time course?by Arthrobacter nicotianae cells, which adsorbed the largest amount of uranium, were also investigated. In addition, we examined the removal of an other actinoid element, thorium ion, which may be present with uranium in refining effluents.In this paper, the removal of cobalt, strontium, or cesium from the solution containing each metal ion using A. nicotianae cells is discussed."

Jan 1, 2012

By A. Chamanara

The gross vehicle weight (GVW) of an ultra-class mining truck comprises the unsuspended weight below the struts plus the suspended empty vehicle weight, plus the payload. Theoretically, one third of the suspended total weight is supported by two front struts and two thirds by two rear struts. However, since the payload position is not fixed when placed in the truck body and varies from load to load, compounded by uneven haul road profiles, the truck structure experiences higher than normal stresses, which manifest in the reduction of the life of the truck via structural fatigue. The downstream effects are a decrease in production and increase in operational and maintenance costs. In order to control the dynamic forces causing the high stresses on the truck structure, both the haul road conditions and the load distribution in the truck body need to be investigated. The latter aspect is the prime focus of this paper. A field test has been conducted in an oil sands mine where the Caterpillar 797B trucks are loaded by a Bucyrus 495 shovel. The strut pressure readings are collected using the data-loggers on the trucks as well as the truck velocity associated with each reading. Rack, roll and pitch are the main key performance indicators (KPIs) that are calculated to study the adverse effect of an unbalanced payload and consequently the truck structure. Finally, the shovel bucket load passes within the truck body are simulated and a new method is suggested to improve the truck payload balance.

Aug 1, 2013