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By D. G. Champion

"A comparison of diesel engine power ratings with in-service capability, and the selection of unit size and total number of units are discussed in the paper. Engine specific fuel consumption and its evaluation in relation to manufacturers' tolerances and equipment load factors is reviewed along with the suitable plant layout. The potential for heat recovery is discussed in connection with simple and operable recovery systems f or exhaust and cooling circuits. Maintenance standards as related to improved reliability and reduced fuel and operating costs are also outlined. IntroductionDiesel generators are used in Canadian mining operations to provide electrical power for "" base- load"" requirements in some instances and for ""stand-by"" or ""emergency"" power in almost every producing mine in the country . There are over 300 mines in Canada of which only a handful have to generate their own electricity. Only one or two mine s enjoy access to a hydroelectric site. Consequently, the diesel engine is the principal prime mover because of its high efficiency relative to other prime movers in the size range in question.The author has been associated with several “base-load” plants in addition to participation in numerous projects requiring emergency diesel generators. Records indicate that engine performance in term s of reliability and efficiency lags behind other industries where the diesel engine is used more extensively, such as the shipping industry which is able to make a more prudent selection of original equipment and enjoy easy access to highly skilled operating and maintenance personnel. It is hoped that the contents of this paper will be of value to Canadian operators of diesel generators, in the generation of prime power or applications for back-up power."

Jan 1, 1986

By W. Dan Hausel

"Hundreds of diamonds have been found in the United States. The majority of the discoveries occurred during the 19th century as a by-product of placer gold mining. Most of these early diamond finds have no known source, and in many cases are situated in areas unfavorable for diamond exploration based on current models that require kimberlite or lamproite to be emplaced in a stable Archean craton or Proterozoic craton margin.Diamonds have also been recovered in situ from lamproite at Murfreesburo, Arkansas, from kimberlite in the Lake Ellen region of Michigan, and in several kimberlites in the Colorado–Wyoming State Line district. Unverifed reports also suggest that diamonds may have been recovered from other related intrusions at a number of localities in the United States.IntroductionTo date, diamonds have been recovered in situ from kimberlite in the Colorado–Wyoming State Line district and from a kimberlite in Michigan. Additionally, diamonds have been recovered from lamproites in Arkansas. Diamonds have also been reported from kimberlite in Kansas, and from peridotite in New York and Maryland. However, these latter reports have not been verified."

Jan 1, 1995

By C. Okay Aksoy

In Turkey, the increasing demand for lignite has necessitated an increased emphasis on both lignite production and recovery. This emphasis has resulted in a gradual increase in the application of the retreat longwall mining method for both its product recovery and productivity benefits. Also, in order to maximize the recovery of the natural resources and to increase total production, it is necessary to take advantage of underground reserve before abandoning the mine. This means that at the end of the life of the mine, the main drift safety pillar and the shaft pillar will generally be extracted. This investigation a preliminary study of the stability of the main drift and the shaft at the Hustas Mine as the safety pillars are extracted. In this study, field surveys belonging to the underground colliery of Hustas Co. in Soma have been investigated with the help of LAMODEL working under the Laminated Displacement Discontinuity principle for the models calibrated as a results of physical model and finite element analyses. The convenience of Laminated Displacement Discontinuity Analysis has been researched in such studies. The results out of the models have been coherent with the previous studies.

May 1, 2004

By J. Mosher, G. Banini, J. Hollow, A. Villanueva

Prior to installation of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) at PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) a series of laboratory tests were carried out to determine the design parameters and also determine key performance indicators (KPIs) for the industrial unit. The design parameters derived from the lab test work were then scaled up to estimate the industrial capacity of the HPGRs to be installed. These parameters include specific power draw, specific throughput, and specific force, rolls speed, product size distribution and wear rate of the rolls. This paper compares the performance of the scale-up procedure against the installed industrial size HPGR. Overall, the specific throughput of the industrial size HPGR is higher by a minimum of 30% compared to the expected scale-up value. As a result of the high specific throughput, the specific power draw and grind sizes are below the scale-up expectations in the commercial application. The impact of these factors also contribute to a lower than expected wear rate on the industrial rolls. Installed rolls achieved a service life in excess of 18,500 hours relative to the target of 6,850 hours predicted from the laboratory testing.

Jan 1, 2012

By Martin Wacker

Cameco Corporation, on behalf of a joint venture, is preparing surface and underground facilities at their northern Saskatchewan property in preparation for the future operation of a high-grade uranium mine. The Cigar Lake orebody is situated about 430 metres below surface at the unconformity between metamorphic basement rocks and flat lying sandstone. Major technical factors influencing the mining method selection include ground stability, control of ground water, radiation exposure and ore handling and storage. A decade-long test mine program resulted in the selection and validation of ?jet boring? a non-entry mining method. Cigar Lake?s jet boring mining method involves several major steps; artificial ground freezing of the orebody and surrounding rock, TBM (tunnel boring) type development of access crosscuts below the orebody, installation of cased pilot holes upwards through the ore, and ore extraction using a rotating high pressure water jet within the pilot holes. The resulting cavities are surveyed and backfilled with concrete. The ore slurry will be processed underground and pumped to surface. This paper discusses the jet boring mining method in general terms and includes highlights of the Cigar Lake test mine program completed in 2000.

Apr 1, 2005

By R. M. Graves, C. B. McKenzie, D. Barbour, D. W. Desnoyers

"The prospective Tulks volcanic belt hosts five significant massive sulfide deposits, Tulks Prospect, Tulks East, Jack's Pond, Daniel's Pond and Victoria Mine, as well as numerous showings and indications throughout its 70 km outcrop length. Regionally, the 498 Ma sequence consists dominantly of felsic pyroclastic rocks and flows with interbedded mafic volcanic units and finegrained sediments, commonly graphitic. Contemporaneous granitoid rocks occur in the south half of the belt. Rocks usually display a strong NE-SW, steeply dipping, penetrative foliation and other shear-related high-strain fabrics. Facing directions are normally northwest, although there is local evidence of folding. Sulfide bodies and their alteration systems are deformed and shape-modified in the style of ambient strain.The Tulks, Tulks East and Jack's Pond prospects appear to occupy a similar stratigraphic level, on or near the contact between a thick felsic pile and an overlying broad, conductive package of graphitic sedimentary rocks. All are pyritic deposits with well-developed footwall alteration systems. The Tulks prospect comprises four polymetallic lenses totalling 750 000 t. Three lenses constituting more than 6 000 000 t of sulfide mineralization are indicated at Tulks East but only the 210 000 t ""B"" lens contains significant base metals. Jack's Pond consists of a very extensive, zoned alteration complex in which four lenses of massive to semi-massive pyrite + chalcopyrite are known. The central part of the system, characterized by Mg chlorite and carbonate, is enveloped by pervasive sericitization and capped by intensely silicified and pyritized volcanics. The sulfide lenses are interpreted as part of the footwall zone and are beneath that part of the system most likely to hostpolymetallic massive sulfides.Daniel's Pond differs from the other prospects in such fundamental ways as metal content, associated alteration and structural setting. The deposit comprises strongly tectonized, Ag-rich, Zn-Pb mineralization distinguished by a pronounced Ba-As-Sb signature. Mineralization is confined to a narrow, north-south high-strain zone which separates unstrained mafic volcanic rocks to the east from well-foliated felsic rocks. The deposit lacks an extensive alteration halo and at its north end is associated with a lens of barren, undeformed massive pyrite.The Victoria Mine deposit, the most cupriferous of the five, is related to a moderately dipping structure that separates well-foliated Tulks volcanic rocks from an overlying, less deformed volcanic sedimentary sequence that may be as young as 462 Ma. The structure is also the locus of black chlorite, dolomite and quartz alteration. Structurally remobilized precursor sulfide mineralization is one possible source for the deposit."

Jan 1, 1993

By Z. D. Hora

has been no commercial production of either perlite or pumice in British Columbia. Several promising occurrences are known to exist but their development has been delayed due to difficult access and / or remote locations. The Empire Valley perlite deposit is located 120 km east of Clinton. The deposit appears to be a flat-lying volcanic flow 50 to 70 m thick that is part of an Eocene rhyolite and dacite volcanic assemblage. The Francois Lake perlite deposit occurs on the north shore of Francois Lake where perlite is part of a rhyolitic volcanic sequence. The exposure of perlite is about 13 m thick and is considered to be Eocene or Oligocene in age. The Uncha Lake perlite deposit is located about 5 km south Industrial Minerals in Canada of Uncha Lake. Perlite appears to be intercalated with porphyritic rhyolite flows that are comparable to those at Francois Lake. Showings are widespread but poorly exposed and thicknesses are unknown. The Mount Meager pumice deposit is located in the Lillooet River valley at the base of Plinth Mountain. Coarse pumice agglomerate forms a large talus slope that is undercut by the river. Unsorted, angular fragments up to 50 cm in diameter are intermixed with up to 30 per cent of sand and silt-sized particles. The exposed zone is about 200 m long and 50 m high; it is being considered as a source of lightweight aggregate.

Jan 1, 1984

By Abdurrahman Tosun

It is very important for after blasting processes that muck pile fragmentation is predicted and controlled during blasting. Therefore, a significant research effort has been devoted to the development of mathematical equations that predict the value of average muck pile fragmentation. The specific charge parameter used in all of these equations is determined as the ratio of the total mass of explosives used to break a volume of rock. The length of blast surface and the row number of the blasthole are ignored in the calculation of the specific charge. However, in a blasting operation, blasthole geometry may result in additional material being impacted by a blasthole. This is due to effect shares of in both end sides of blastholes and the back region of blasting surface. In this study, a total of 14 blast tests, 8 at the first quarry and 6 at the second quarry of the Bati Anadolu (Western Anatolia) Cement Factory, were performed. In each study area blast tests were designed in the same direction continuously to provide stable structural properties of the rock. Therefore muck pile fragmentation depended on only specific charge values for each blast tests. Specific charge values were calculated according to both an average blasthole and also the total volume of material occurred as a result of blasting for each blast tests. During loading until the end of blasted material the front, the back, the arm off and the bucket off pump hydraulic pressure values occurred in hydraulic pistons of the loader were determined with a lot of data received for each blast tests. After that the relationships between specific charges values obtained according to two different methods and hydraulic pressure values of the loader were established with two correlations. The relationships between specific charges values obtained according to the total volume of material occurred as a result of blasting and hydraulic pressure values of the loader occurred as the best results especially the blasting operations that have the total length of blasting surfaces are short.

Aug 1, 2013

By Juergen Antrekowitsch, Stefan Steinlechner

"Waelz oxide from steel mill dust recycling is usually sold to the primary zinc industry, where it is first charged to the roasters to eliminate the remaining fluorides and chlorides. This limits the overall amount of secondary materials which can be used because of different operating problems in the roasters. Another option, in the case where the halides are low, would be direct leaching with low or medium concentrated sulphuric acid. Unfortunately, because of the carryover of some steel mill dust, iron is also present in the Waelz oxide, reaching contents up to 5 wt.%. Since the objective is to treat the solution more or less directly by electrowinning, with only a few simple preliminary purification steps, iron in the solution is a very important factor. Various trials have been done to investigate the dissolution behavior of the iron contained in the Waelz oxide. Although the zinc extraction should reach a maximum, all other elements, especially iron, should be low. This paper describes the results of our research in this area and offers possible options for Waelz oxide utilization. There is also a focus on how other elements, present in the material, influence the dissolution behaviour of zinc and iron, and whether a loss of zinc is unavoidable, if low iron dissolution is required.INTRODUCTION One of the most important secondary zinc resources is the zinc oxide originating from steel mill dust recycling. For the treatment of high zinc containing steel mill dusts, the Waelz kiln process is the so called “best available technology” and it dominates the industry, with roughly a 90% market share. The product Waelz oxide contains mostly zinc oxide, but it also contains lead compounds and halides due to evaporation with the zinc. In addition, it contains iron and some slag compounds due to mechanical carry-over. The presence of halides limits the use of the material as an alternative concentrate for primary zinc electrowinning. Such halides can be reduced to a certain extent by washing and/or solvent extraction (see following chapter). Although lead is not troublesome and theoretically represents a second recoverable valuable metal, iron is unwanted and causes additional problems during leaching. Even though Waelz oxide is generally a highly welcome input material in primary zinc metallurgy, due to its high zinc content, it still contains halides, and in the majority of cases, the oxide must first be treated in a roasting process. Different circumstances, like accretion formation because of the lead and halogen compounds as well as unwanted cooling effects in the roaster, limit the amount of Waelz oxide which can be substituted for the primary concentrate. Another, even more limiting factor, is the allowable concentrations of chlorides and fluorides in zinc electrowinning, the last step in the primary zinc processing route (Ruetten, 2011)."

Jan 1, 2016

"During the development of a mining project, samples are taken for metallurgical tests. The sample can be a composite sample made of material from a selection of various drilling products or a sample from a mining test. It can be also a sample from an existing plant in order to investigate process enhancement. This sample can represent several tonnes of material which are analysed and split for use in various tests.In the current case, a composite sample of gold ore is dedicated to a Gravity Recoverable Gold (GRG) test. The properties of interest are the head grade of gold, the size distribution of the material, and the gold assay per size class. The sample is mixed and a sub-sample is taken to measure the feed properties: the size distribution and the gold assay per size class. The remaining material of the sample is subject to the first stage of concentration using the laboratory Knelson concentrator. The concentrate is analysed in its entirety, while a sample of tailings is taken for the same analysis. The remaining part of tailings is subject to grinding to feed the second and third stages of concentration. Similar sampling is performed at each stage.The concentration performances are analysed in light of these measurements. But what is the accuracy of the measurements of the properties? Pierre Gy’s theory of sampling, associated with a heterogeneity model built using the GRG test results, will answer this question. The current paper presents, through a real example, the calculation of the errors of the measurements of size distributions and gold assays performed during the GRG test. The uncertainties of the concentration performances and liberation size estimate are then calculated and their impact on the results interpretation is analysed.INTRODUCTIONDuring the development of a mining project, samples are taken for metallurgical tests. The sample can be a composite sample made of material from a selection of various drilling products or a sample from a mining test. It can be also a sample from an existing plant in order to investigate process enhancement. This sample can represent several tonnes of material which are analysed and split for use in various tests. In order to take into account the ore variability in terms of gold deportment, it is recommended to perform variability studies (Dominy, Murphy, & Gray, 2011, Dominy, 2013) using samples representing various horizons or years of production. But for a given ore type, it can be necessary to perform many tests with different operating conditions (Brochot, 2012a). In that case, the variability of the samples is not due to the heterogeneity of distribution of the deposit, but only on the heterogeneity of constitution of the primary sample. The level of confidence associated with the estimated performance parameters is directly linked to the overall error (including sampling error) of the measurements performed during the tests."

Jan 1, 2016

By Dan Zou, Ji Chen, Deqian Li

"Bayan Obo mixed RE concentrate is the largest RE source in the world. RE elements occur dominantly in bastnaesite and monazite. This paper describes a clean and green technique for processing Bayan Obo mixed rare earth (RE) concentrate. A two-step oxidation method can lead to the effective recovery of REs, thorium (Th), fluorine (F) and phosphorus (P). Ce has a property of valency change, enabling the separation of it from other RE(III) elements. Making use of the interactions of cerium (IV) (Ce(IV)), F and P, a new extraction system was created to separate Ce(IV) effectively from other RE(III) while recovering F, P and Th by complexing F and P following the oxidation of Ce(III) to Ce(IV). The method includes two parts. Firstly, bastnaesite is oxidized by air roasting and sulfuric acid leaching. And then a first leach liquor containing Ce(IV), F and P is obtained. Secondly, monazite was converted into REhydroxide through alkaline attack and then Ce(III) in the RE-hydroxide was oxidized into Ce(IV) by wetair oxidation. After sulfuric acid leaching the oxidized RE-hydroxide, a second leach liquor is obtained. The two parts of leach liquor containing Ce(IV), F and P are then extracted by Cyanex923 to obtain CeO2, CeF3 and CePO4 based on the complex of Ce(IV) with F and P. The raffinate was further extracted by the primary amine N1923, and Th-product was recovered as ThO2. The RE elements recovery yield during the whole process is greater than 92%. The new technique not only provides a new way for Bayan Obo RE ore utilization, but also avoids resource waste and environment pollution.INTRODUCTIONRare Earths (REs) refer to lanthanides, including scandium and yttrium. Owing to the similar structure and property of RE(III), it is difficult to separate them from each other, especially for the adjacent elements. According to the United States Geological Survey, in 2010, the whole world has about 142 million tonnes of rare earth reserves. In that, China ranks the second with 22% following Brazil which ranks first with 32% (Cheng, 2011). There are three main RE ore types in China with about 80% mixed ores in Bayan Obo, 10% bastnaesite ores in SiChuan and ShanDong province and 2.9% ion adsorption ores in Southern China. Bayan Obo mixed RE concentrate consists of bastnaesite and monazite. The concentrate contains CeO2/_REO of 50% and there are 7–8% F, 4-6% P and 0.2–0.3% Th."

Jan 1, 2016

By Y. M. Shneerson, I. V. Fomenko, M. A. Pleshkov, E. A. Ospanov, A. A. Shakhalov, S. S. Naboychenko

Low-grade copper concentrates (with copper content less than 20%) often contain impurities such as arsenic, zinc, lead, mercury, antimony and bismuth. The pyrometallurgical treatment of such concentrates is associated with several problems, which will ultimately affect the cost and the quality of copper cathodes as well as by-products. SRC Hydrometallurgy proposed a complex hydrometallurgical technology which allows the removal of impurities and the enrichment of low-grade copper concentrates to a quality which will be more suitable for pyrometallurgical processing. Laboratory batch tests and pilot plant results for the pressure leaching steps are shown in this paper. The key parameters of the leaching steps were determined and optimized. The quality of possible by-products were also determined. The developed flowsheet includes two pressure leaching steps: pressure oxidation (POX) and hydrothermal alteration (HTA). Both operations are carried out at 170°C with subsequent flotation of POX and HTA residues and recovery of copper, zinc and lead into separate concentrates for further processing. The development of the flowsheet was based on the Balkhash Zinc Plant (Balkhash, Kazakhstan), which had been non-operational since 2009. The developed flowsheet for processing of low-grade concentrates will utilize 80% of the existing equipment of the Balkhash Zinc Plant, thus leading to a significant reduction in required capital expenditure. INTRODUCTION As the age of copper mining operations advance, copper grades continue to diminish and impurity levels increase. Therefore, copper producers are forced to look for new innovative hydrometallurgical technologies which are able to handle low-grade raw materials and solve problems associated with impurities in an economically justifiable way. New technologies allow to extract valuable components selectively and to process low-grade concentrates which had previously been marked as non-technological and economically unviable. Hydrometallurgical technologies for processing of copper-containing materials can be divided into two main categories: chloride and sulfate (atmospheric, autoclave and bacterial) based technologies. Since the 1970s, many autoclave techniques for the processing of copper-containing materials have been developed and implemented (Naboichenko, 2002; Dreisinger, 2005; Habashi, 2009; Shneerson, 2011). The mineralogical composition of the ore (or concentrates), geographical location of the deposit, distance from industrial areas, availability of existing treatment facilities, availability of skilled labor, cost of electricity and cost of neutralization are some of the factors which are usually considered when the appropriate technology is selected (Halbe, 2002).

Jan 1, 2019

"Adopted in 2003, theses guidelines are intended to assist the Qualified Person(s) in the planning, supervision, preparation and reporting of mineral resources and mineral reserve estimates. The report is divided into two broad sections “General Guidelines” appropriate for most metals and “Guidelines Specific to Particular Commodities” for potash, industrial minerals, uranium and coal. “These guidelines are reference in the Companion Policy of NI 43-101 with a statement that a qualified person classifying a mineral deposit as a mineral resource or mineral reserve should follow them.”Executive SummaryThe following is a summary, in table format, of the main elements of the Estimation Best Practice Committee's report ""Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practice Guidelines"". While the summary table is provided for convenience, the Committee recommends that the report be read in its entirety and the table summary not be used as a stand alone document. These guidelines are not intended to be either prescriptive or exhaustive. They do not preclude innovation. Preamble: These guidelines have been prepared by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) led Estimation Best Practices Committee. They are intended to assist the Qualified Person(s) (QP) in the planning, supervision, preparation and reporting of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve (MRMR) estimates. All MRMR estimation work from which public reporting will ensue must be designed and carried out under the direction of a QP in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and related forms. A QP is defined in NI 43-101 as ""an individual who is an engineer or geoscientist with at least five (5) years of experience in mineral exploration, mine development, mine operation, project assessment or any combination of these; has experience relevant to the subject matter of the mineral project and technical report; and is a member in good standing of a professional association"". Disclosure of MRMR estimates is to be made in accordance with industry standard definitions approved by the CIM (the CIM Standards adopted by the CIM Council in August 2002) which have been incorporated by reference into NI 43-101."

Jan 1, 2003

By Jeff Stufsky

Debt Financing ?Broad Market Overview ? Recovering due to factors including: ? Increased trust in the system ? Enhanced capitalization of financial institutions ? The need to deploy capital for profit ? Competition: ? Investment-grade bond volumes increasing dramatically, and starting to pressure banks to compete with new capital ? Term Loan B financing from insurance companies and related institutions is returning, also pressuring banks to lend ? Local country financial institution capacity in Latin America has materially increased ? Results: ? Loan capacity increasing generally across instruments, regions, and sectors ? Financial institutions/banks starting again to seek yield as pricing competition heats up ? Tenors increasing with pricing coming down more slowly Underwriting is back in play

May 1, 2010

By J. D. Templeton

A petroleum well that is not in use because it has ceased to produce oil/gas economically and dry holes are referred to as abandoned wells. Once a well is abandoned it is plugged with cement and can take anywhere from two days up to a week to cure depending on the number of plugs in the well. Since plugging a well costs capital, most wells are abandoned at the lowest possible cost and with the minimum obligations set by regulation agencies. These wells can present an enduring liability to petroleum companies. However, the depth and abundance of abandoned petroleum wells makes them an economically attractive source of geothermal energy. Geothermal energy harvested from an oil/gas well is a renewable energy source as long as it is extracted in a sustainable manner. The energy can be used to generate electricity, used directly for heating, incorporated into a water desalination process, or used by a heat pump for heating/cooling applications. In this paper we examine the possibility of extracting geothermal energy from abandoned oil/gas wells by studying the heat transfer in underground geothermal heat exchangers installed in these wells. The design configurations for the geothermal heat exchangers embedded inside a petroleum borehole can be a u-tube design or a shell and tube design (i.e. double pipe). Using in-situ gathered information from some representative petroleum boreholes, the effects of key parameters such as geothermal gradient, ground temperature values, and the flow inside of the tubes are evaluated. In order to provide a constant power production the inlet temperature can be adjusted to keep the difference between outlet and inlet temperatures equivalent. Higher differences between inflow and outflow temperatures will result in a less sustainable load put on the in-situ geothermal energy. Adding insulation to certain sections of the designs can minimize the transfer of thermal energy from the fluid to the surroundings. Insulation can also limit the thermal loss between the inflow and outflow tubes in the shell and tube design. Minimizing the energy loss of these designs leads to an increase in the outlet temperature, meaning a higher grade of heat. The sustainability of long term geothermal heat extraction is a balance between the rate at which geothermal energy is extracted and the rate at which the ground formation can replace this heat. Higher outlet temperatures can lead to a larger amount of power generation, and a higher coefficient of performance for heat pump applications.

Aug 1, 2013

By R. W. Lawrence

Sulphide is an effective reagent in the precipitation of base metals for both metal winning and environmental control. BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc. has successfully demonstrated in industrial plants that biogenic sulphide reagent can be generated cost effectively and used to win metals such as copper, zinc and nickel from low-grade leach solutions and wastewater. Commercial plants in which sulphide reagent is used to produce high quality treated effluents for discharge directly to the environment are also in operation. Operations utilizing biogenic sulphide reagent for copper recovery from acid drainage and low grade leach solutions are discussed, including those at Bisbee, Arizona, commissioned in 2004 and at the Dexing mine in China, scheduled for commissioning in 2007. In addition, a new application of BioteQ's technology for the recovery of copper from gold-cyanide solutions, and the regeneration of cyanide, utilizing biogenic sulphide in place of chemical sulphide reagents in the SART process is described.

Jan 1, 2007

By Leibniz University, D. Zapf

"The demand for gas storage operations with high withdrawal rates and operation modes different to a seasonal storage regime requires a more detailed rock mechanical consideration of thermal induced stresses in the vicinity of the caverns. This means that the change of gas temperatures during operation and the consequences of these temperature changes on the stressing of the salt rock mass must be taken into account in the rock mechanical dimensioning. Within the rock mechanical calculations a loading history, i.e. a pressure versus time dependency, has to be defined. As rock salt has a time dependent material behavior stress redistributions in the rock salt mass take place even under constant internal pressure conditions. Therefore not only withdrawal and filling periods but also the duration of phases with nearly constant internal pressure is significant for the resulting state variables. Within the paper the differences and consequences for the rock mechanical recommendations are discussed. As a result it can be concluded that recommendations with respect to minimum operation pressure as well as for maximum withdrawal rates can be answered only in connection with the respective time intervals."

Jan 1, 2015

By K. A. Lewandowski

Agglomeration of ore used in heap leaching allows for the immobilization of fine particles that would otherwise migrate and cause permeability problems in the heaps. For copper ore, binders are needed in order to make stable agglomerates. However, the majority of binders break down when introduced to an acidic environment, allowing fine particles to be released from the agglomerate surfaces. These particles migrate through the heap impeding solution flow, leading to a decrease in metal recovery rates. The authors have developed a series of testing procedures to determine the acid resistance of several binders. Only five binders were shown to be acid resistant in soak tests, decreasing fines migration by up to 93%, compared to tests which were agglomerated with leach solution, raffinate, as a binder. Flooded percolation column testing also showed that these binders were able to reduce the "slump" of the ore by up to 82% and increased the hydraulic conductivity by up to 90%, when compared to agglomerating with leach solution alone. The use of binders in the agglomeration of copper ore also showed no negative effects on the bacterial populations throughout a leach cycle.

Jan 1, 2007

By Yuhua Wang, Wei Sun, Dongfang Lu, Yuehua Hu, Tao Jiang

"With the continuous depletion of high-grade tungsten ores, the low-grade refractory wolframite has become an important source for the tungsten industry. However, the large-scale utilization of low-grade refractory wolframite is disappointedly scarce, it is due to leanness of valuable minerals, complex mineral characterization and use of toxic collectors.The aim of this study was to develop an environment-friendly processing flowsheet, which was used for beneficiation of low-grade tungsten ore containing 0.45% WO3 from New Brunswick in Canada, and the content of arsenic is 0.68% in this materials. The objective of beneficiation studied was to obtain a concentration containing 60% WO3 with less than 0.5% of arsenic under the condition without any flotation reagents. In this environment-friendly processing flowsheet, magnetic separation technology, classification and gravity separation technology were combined and employed. Firstly, magnetic separation was employed for the first pre-concentration process, over 95% of the feed was rejected as the final tailings, meanwhile, over 85% of arsenic minerals were removed with tailings. Secondly, gravity separation tests were employed on the classified magnetic pre-concentrate in the second pre-concentration process, a second pre-concentrate with WO3 grade of 54.32% and As grade of 5.41% was obtained. Finally, two stage magnetic cleaning were conducted on the second pre-concentrate for upgrading the second pre-concentrate, the mostly arsenic and gangues were removed from the second pre-concentrate. Finally, this novel processing achieved an effective recovery of fine wolframite from low grade tungsten ore with high arsenic. A concentrate with WO3 grade of 64.81% were obtained in new opened processing flowsheet, and As grade was less than of 0.5% in this concentrate. Furthermore, remarkable feature of this processing flowsheet is environment-friendly due to avoid using the toxic flotation reagents during the whole mineral processing.INTRODUCTIONTungsten is an essential metal and is the most widely used in industrial production such as national defense, electro-mechanical products, textile and leather sectors (Srivastava et al., 2000). Wolframite and scheelite are the main mineral sources of tungsten metal. With the continuous depletion of high-grade tungsten ores and the increasing demand for tungsten alloy, the low-grade refractory wolframite has become an important source for the tungsten industry. However, the large-scale utilization of low-grade refractory wolframite is disappointedly scarce, it is due to leanness of valuable minerals, complex mineral characterization and heavy use of toxic collectors."

Jan 1, 2016

By Paul J. Beck

The impact of mining development on the environment can be minimized through comp careful construction and accurate monitoring. Key to meeting these objectives is t information at all stages of design, development, operation and decommissioning. This paper will describe cost-effective means of gathering and managing reliable fiel groundwater flow and surface water regime within and surrounding the mine site, as localized contaminant plumes associated with mine operations, and monitoring ground quality. Recent research has led to the development of inexpensive, easy to install syst sampling/monitoring from different zones within a single borehole. Advances in elect developed small diameter probes and pumps for measuring water levels and taking wat continuous monitoring stations in remote areas can be colldeacttaeldo gaguetrosm aatnidc adlolwyn luosaidnegd from a central facility using telemetry systems powered by direct, battery or solar radio frequency, landline or cellular telephones, and satellite. Two case studies will illustrate the use of datalolgagregres sacnadl et eblaesmient rwyi dien mao nitoring sc and the use of multilevel samplers for managing a contaminant plume.

May 1, 2004