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By Mirjana Boskovic

LKAB’s Kiirunavaara Mine is a sublevel caving iron-ore mine located above the polar circle in northern Sweden. The mine has been proclaimed seismically active since 2008 after a magnitude 3 seismic event, according to Swedish National Seismic Network (SNSN). At that time the Kiruna Mine did not have mine-wide seismic system. Since then, the Kiruna Mine experienced several damaging seismic events of which the largest one on the May 18, 2020. The magnitude, based on the moment tensor inversion results on data from the SNSN as well as seismic stations in Finland and Norway, is estimated to 4.2 ± 0.2 moment magnitude. The seismic event on the May 18, 2020 was located in the middle of the one of the productions areas and caused the major damage in the mine, damaging several kilometres of drifts on six mining levels, some of them beyond the practical repair. These damages affected four of ten production areas on several levels, some more some less. Luckily, no person got injured from the seismic event and the very long aftershock series. An important part in the whole process after the seismic event was information flow and decision-making process. It was very important to keep workers and community informed as that contributed transparency of decision-making and decreased the speculations. Resuming the production in the damaged areas in the safe manner, very soon become main focus for the mine management. It was obvious that not only rehabilitation of the areas is needed to resume the production. It was A MUST to understand the factors behind the seismic event and its mechanism to be able to avoid same situation and prevent seismic event of similar size. Mine engineers had to think outside the box to find the solutions to ‘rescue’ every drift that they could to be able to make good enough base for continued mining of the area. The paper describes actions taken in a very complex process of recovering the area that we from the beginning thought need to be abandon. Seismological analyses of the event on May 18, 2020 and past activity in the area, damage mapping, detailed studies of structures and geology, numerical modelling as well as engineering judgement were used as base for all our decisions how to proceed in attempt to restore mining of the area heavily damaged by 4.2 moment magnitude seismic event, in a safe way.

Apr 26, 2022

By Wilmer McInnis

MOLYBDENUM, one of the more versatile alloying elements in modern metallurgy, was first isolated by Hjelm in 1782. The pure metal is silvery white and softer than steel. It melts at a higher temperature than all other metals except rhenium, tungsten, and tantalum. Molybdenum, a member of group V of the periodic table, chemically exhibits valences in stable compounds of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. It is a strong carbide-forming element, and much of its alloying effect in steel is imparted through the formation of carbides. Molybdenum occurs in nature only in combination with other elements. The most common occurence is molybdenite (MoS2), which is widely distributed throughout the world; the few known commercial deposits are the major sources of molybdenun1. The other commercially important mineral, wulfenite (PbMo04), was a major source of molybdenum in the United States during the early part of the 20th century, but with exploration and development of the world-famous Climax molybdenite deposit during the World War of 1914-18, molybdenite soon became the world's major source of molybdenum. In recent years, virtually no wulfenite has been mined. Many copper deposits contain minute percentages of molybdenite; and, since the inauguration during the early 1930's of the recovery of molybdenite as a byproduct of these deposits, they have been an important source of molybdenum.

Jan 1, 1957

By A. T. Coumbe

This compilation of statistics covering competitive fuels consumed for heating of residential and commercial buildings is in response to numerous requests for data of this nature to show the relative changes in the demands for the different fuels in recent years. The figures presented cover the amounts of various fuels ant electric energy reported as used for heating dwellings and commercial buildings. However, the totals for gaseous fuels and electricity necessarily include amounts consumed for both cooking and lighting purposes, as these associated household uses could not be readily broken out. [ ] SOURCES OF FUEL AND POWER STATISTICS Liquid fuel: Mineral Market Reports of the Bureau of Mines covering annual Pales of fuel oil and kerosine. The fuel oil figures include grades 1 to h, reported as sold for space heating. Kerosine and grade 1 fuel oil delivered as range oil ore also included. Gaseous fuel: "Gas Facts" published by the Bureau of statistics of the American Gas Association. Thin source was used as It is believed that the data shown are representative of the actual market

Jan 1, 1953

By Matthew S. Sanchez, Richard J. Lee, Matthew D. Zock, Drew R. Van Orden

"Current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) risk models and asbestos fiber counting techniques for monitoring airborne exposures treat all fibers as being equivalent and ignore the effect of dimension on toxicity. While this may have been appropriate when modern analytical methods were not available, the measurement world is now fully capable of making the appropriate distinctions. The importance of width as a determinant of carcinogenicity has been recognized for nearly 30 years within the published literature. Stanton,1 in a landmark study of a suite of fibrous materials, found that durable mineral fibers with widths less than 0.25 mm and lengths longer than 8 mm were causally associated with the induction of tumors. Pott,2 in a later study, postulated a fiber toxicity model that agreed reasonably well with the Stanton findings, but extended the concept to include varying toxicity as a function of length and width. Wylie et al.3 reanalyzed samples used by Davis et al.4 and found that tumor generation was strongly and inversely correlated with fiber width. Crump5 testified increasing fiber length was correlated with disease occurrence. Lippman6 reviewed a number of studies and suggested that mesothelioma was closely associated with long, thin fibers. Berman et al.7 published a risk model, which found that disease was correlated almost exclusively with fibers longer than 40 mm and width less than 0.25 mm. Recently, Loomis et al.8 reanalyzed textile mill samples and found that aspect ratios greater than 40:1 were highly correlated with disease. Incorporation of width into risk models has been limited by the availability of data from operating asbestos plants and, in particular, the observation of an asbestos plant for which there is no observable mesothelioma. There have been only limited studies published on the dimensions of asbestos fibers, with a few serving as the primary references in other literature.9_13 A rare opportunity to collect detailed concentration and dimensional data of airborne crocidolite from an operating asbestos-cement plant using modern analytical procedures arose, providing a chance to supplement the existing literature on airborne fiber dimensions. The asbestos-cement plant is located in the eastern end of Cochabamba, Bolivia along Highway 4. Cochabamba is a relatively large city located in the Andes Mountains, approximately 250 km southeast of the capital La Paz. The city sits in a valley that runs east-west with mountains to the north and south. The crocidolite used in the products made at this facility is mined in central Bolivia, approximately 75 km northwest of Santa Cruz. The crocidolite is a fibrous magnesioriebeckite 14 (blue asbestos). Crocidolite fibers from Bolivia were the subject of prior reports suggesting the fibers are generally longer and thicker than crocidolite from Australia or South Africa.9 At the cement plant, the run-of-mine crocidolite was first pulverized using a hammer mill and then sieved on vibratory sieves to produce fibers of limited size ranges for use in the cement. The sieved crocidolite is mixed with other components, including recycled cement product, to produce a slurry that is vacuum filtered into sheet form. The sheets are then manually molded into a corrugated shape, air dried, and sawed (using circular saws) to accepted dimensions. The sawed sheets are cured in soaking pits for 28 days before being shipped to the consumer. Prior to shipping, the sheets are finished by a light hand sanding followed (at customer request) by applying one or more coats of paint. A detailed description of the cement plant and the industrial hygiene results can be found in Van Orden et al.15"

Jan 1, 2012

By B. Bag

Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are used in the flotation of iron values present in iron ore. Among the several fatty acids, oleic acid and its sodium salt are widely used. To substantiate the flotation results, the quantum chemical calculations of a few such acids have been carried out by adopting the semi-empirical AM1 method. These acids have been further optimized in the presence of an iron atom. The electronic interaction of the polar carboxylic head group of oleic acid with the iron atom is higher compared to the other acids. The numerical results support the flotation behavior of iron ore with oleic acid. Key words: Iron ore, Flotation, Fatty acids, Quantum chemical calculations, Semi-empirical AM1 method

Jan 1, 2009

By M. Saghaeian, R. Hejazi, A. Dehghani Ahmadabadi, M. Zare

"In the most iron ore beneficiation plants, reverse flotation is the best method for removing silicate gangues from final iron ore concentrate. Many previous studies show, if the major portion of impurities include quartz minerals, the flotation process is simple, but if iron silicates are dominant, reverse flotation is so complicated and mostly not very effective. In this study which was performed on the Sangan iron ore concentrate, the performance using of reverse flotation and magnetic flotation separator for elimination of silicate gangues from the magnetic iron concentrate was investigated. The operational parameters for reverse flotation are considered as: collector and frother types and dosages and also modifiers. But for magnetic flotation separator parameters were magnetic field intensity as well as overflow and underflow water rates. Results showed that reverse flotation has not a significant effect on the elimination of impurities. Because of the silicate gangues of Sangan concentrate including a mixture of quartz and iron silicates (amphibole, pyroxene and feldspar), so downgrading of the SiO2 content for the flotation concentrate was rather low and only average reduces of 20.60% were possible. But the findings of using magnetic separator was more satisfactory. Results of the weight recovery, iron grade and also SiO2 and S grades of final concentrate were better with magnetic flotation device. So at the best and optimum condition, we could reduce 51.01% of the total silicate (SiO2~ 2.19%) along with 74.66% of sulfur content (S~ 0.076%) and concentrate weight and Fe recoveries of 92.04% and 94.51% respectively, final Fe grade of 68.73%.INTRODUCTION Chemical/traditional flotation is one of the most effective methods for separating valuable particles from waste minerals, which is used in most mineral processing industries. In the iron ore processing industry, the major impurities present in iron ore concentrate include sulfur, silica and phosphorus (Bruckard et al, 2015), which are often carried out by reverse flotation methods for the removal of sulfide and oxide impurities (Donald, 1967: Araujo et al., 2005: Ma, 2012)"

Jan 1, 2018

By A. L. Coello Velázquez

The subject of this paper is particle population balance models (PBM) that describe mineral impact crushing behavior; it is mainly concerned with the selection and fragmentation distribution function due to their importance in this context. The data obtained by Datta (1999) by applying impact pendulum testing to single limestone particles, used by Austin (2002, 2004a and 2004b) to obtain the principal parity of fragmentation functions, were processed in order to compare them with the results of other authors, such as Nikolov (2002 and 2004) and Vogel and Peukert (2003 and 2005) so as to increase knowledge of impact crushing. From this data it has been possible to obtain the performance models of the principal parameters of fragmentation function, thereby reducing the number of experiments necessary to model the impact crushing process. The authors also propose a simplification of the selection function model posited by Austin (2002).

Jan 1, 2011

By C. Ortuglio

The effect of cracking by increasing the free space above the charge on the composition and yields of the volatile products from carbonization of Pittsburgh-bed coal and one industrially used blend from Eastern United States and one from Western United States was investigated with the BM-AGA carbonization apparatus. Increasing the free space above the charge from 1 inch to 3 inches, to 6 inches, and to 9 inches resulted in lower tar yields and increased gas and light oil yields. Anthracene and naphthalene yields were increased; quinoline and benzene insoluble fractions of both the tar and pitch increased considerably with increased free space, although the carbon content of the tars and pitches increased only slightly. Increased cracking, occasioned by the increase in free space, resulted in a decrease in the yields of tar acids, tar bases, neutral oils, olefins, aromatics, and paraffins and naphthenes. Gas composition was relatively constant; hydrogen and methane tended to increase and ethane decrease. Results of the investigation are being used to design a unit to upgrade the volatile products of carbonization by cracking the hot products as they leave the carbonization chamber.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. A. Bradbury

N. A. Degerstrom, Inc. has constructed and operated a processing plant approximately five miles north of Soda Springs, Idaho for processing a byproduct phosphate treater dust from Monsanto's elemental phosphorus plant, also located in Soda Springs. The plant is designed to produce agricultural-grade phosphoric acid, gallium, and silver. The design capacity of the plant is 54.4t (60 st) of treater dust per day, which can produce 16,326t (18,000 st) of phosphoric acid, 6,600 kg of gallium, and 6,033 kg (194,000 oz.) of silver per year.

Jan 1, 1993

By Ricardo dos Santos Oliveira

Devido ao grande aumento da concentração de gases do efeito estufa, a criação de uma energia limpa tem sido um desafio para a ciência e as indústrias. Após identificar possíveis soluções para este problema uma alternativa seria a utilização de biomassa vegetal com capacidade térmica como fonte energética redutora no processo de redução do minério de ferro em altos-fornos. Este trabalho teve como objetivo utilizar capim elefante (Pennisetum purpureum) e carvão mineral na injeção de finos pulverizados pelas ventaneiras de altos-fornos nas siderúrgicas a fim de reduzir custos da produção de ferro gusa e reduzir a dependência de combustíveis fósseis no processo. O capim elefante é uma fonte renovável e de rápido crescimento que através da fotossíntese captura o CO2 da atmosfera, reduzindo a poluição causada pelos altos-fornos. Para simular a injeção dos materiais estudados foi construído na Escola de Minas - UFOP um modelo de partículas de combustão para analisar as amostras. Outras técnicas são utilizadas para caracterização como combustão, calorimetria, análise de gás, análise química imediata e elementar. Assim, em teoria, esta pesquisa mostra que o capim elefante misturado com carvão mineral através de sua injeção em altos-fornos mostrou-se viável em termos metalúrgicos e ambientais.

Aug 17, 2017

By Anderson Azevedo Agra

O Pó de Aciaria Elétrica (PAE) é um resíduo sólido gerado durante a fabricação de aços em usinas com Forno Elétrico a Arco (FEA). Esse resíduo contem quantidades apreciáveis de metais, tais como ferro e zinco, tornando sua reciclagem interessante não só do ponto de vista ambiental como econômico. Assim, esse trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a autorredução de misturas de pó de aciaria elétrica e coque verde de petróleo (CVP). Para isso, misturas e pelotas de PAE:CVP, com variados teores de redutor, foram submetidas a ensaios de autorredução em termobalança e, na forma de pelotas autorredutoras, numa retorta aquecida em forno elétrico vertical. A redução das amostras foi analisada a partir da perda de massa das misturas. Além disso, a redução das pelotas autorredutoras foi observada através de análises de difração de raios X. Nestas análises foi possível verificar decomposição da Franklinita e a redução dos óxidos de Ferro e Zinco.

Aug 17, 2017

By Jéssica Dornelas Silva

Diferentes mecanismos podem atuar e governar a deformação plástica de uma liga metálica. Estes mecanismos são fortemente dependentes de características como composição química, estrutura cristalina e energia de falha de empilhamento. Com o objetivo de se avaliar o comportamento do aço inoxidável duplex UNS S32304 quando submetido a esforços trativos e considerando a importância desta informação durante a conformação mecânica, este trabalho estudou a influência da taxa de deformação sobre as principais propriedades mecânicas medidas no ensaio de tração. Para a realização deste estudo, corpos de prova de tração foram usinados a partir de chapas do referido aço laminado a frio com espessura final de 2,5mm. Cada conjunto de 3 corpos de prova foi submetido às taxas de deformação de 7x10-4 s-1, 7x10-3 s-1 e 4x10-2 s-1. Por meio da análise dos resultados, observou-se uma diminuição na ductilidade e um aumento no limite de escoamento com o aumento da taxa de deformação. Entretanto, o limite de resistência não variou de forma significativa nas diferentes taxas estudadas.

Aug 17, 2017

By Ana Carolina Abrantes de Souza

O objetivo deste trabalho foi a obtenção de microestruturas diferenciadas, em um aço baixo carbono com microadição de Molibdênio e Nióbio laminado a quente, após submetê-lo a diferentes meios de resfriamento antes e após a temperatura de interrupção de 600°C (que simulava a temperatura de bobinamento). A evolução microestrutural e mecânica foi avaliada com o auxílio de técnicas de microscopia óptica e microscopia eletrônica de varredura, testes de dureza Vickers e tração uniaxial, somado a determinação das temperaturas de transformação de fase em um analisador termomecânico (TMA). De acordo com os resultados, meios de resfriamentos mais severos foram mais efetivos em proporcionar um aumento da resistência mecânica associado a decréscimo da ductilidade pela formação de fases mais dura e aumento da acicularidade da ferrita.

Jul 30, 2018

By Duberney Hincapié-Ladino

O presente trabalho estuda os parâmetros de permeabilidade de hidrogênio de um tubo API 5L X80, e uma chapa de aço grau X80, onde a principal diferença está na composição química, o primeiro contém 0,07%C e 0,04%Nb e o segundo 0,04%C e 0,102%Nb. As amostras foram cortadas com espessura de aproximadamente 1 mm, lixadas e recobertas com um filme de níquel, em uma das faces. Nos ensaios de permeabilidade foi utilizada uma célula modificada tipo Devanathan-Stachurski, com a solução A da norma NACE TM0284, com injeção de H2S no lado de geração e 0,2M NaOH no lado de detecção. As curvas de corrente em função do tempo obtidas passaram por tratamentos matemáticos (método tlag), permitindo a obtenção dos parâmetros de difusividade aparente, concentração máxima de hidrogênio e número de traps (sítios de ancoramento). Tais parâmetros mostraram-se iguais para os dois materiais. As curvas foram normalizadas e modificadas de maneira a eliminar o efeito da espessura das amostras. Estas novas curvas foram comparadas com o modelo teórico da segunda lei de Fick. A comparação evidenciou que o procedimento inicial para a obtenção dos parâmetros de permeabilidade mostra-se eficiente e vantajoso por apresentar maior praticidade. Pôde-se concluir que a semelhança no comportamento dos parâmetros de permeabilidade foi devida às similaridades nas suas microestruturas. Os resultados obtidos no presente trabalho evidenciam que o tipo e quantidade de traps nestes materiais são determinados pela microestrutura.

Aug 17, 2017

By Thiago Vieira Lopes

O mercado siderúrgico atual encontra-se cada vez mais competitivo e exige das empresas esforços na diminuição do custo de produção para que seus produtos mantenham atratividade no cenário global. A incorporação crescente de produtos siderúrgicos oriundos da Ásia no mercado ocidental obriga as indústrias encontrarem alternativas de diminuição de custo de produção, as rotas para que tal objetivo seja alcançado geralmente estão ligadas ao aumento do rendimento metálico e diminuição no tempo de processamento dos produtos. O equipamento gargalo na linha de laminação a quente da CSN, é a cadeira reversível da laminação de desbaste, R2, e pequenas reduções de tempo no processamento de placas são responsáveis por incrementos elevados na produtividade da laminação. Visando ampliar a competitividade da CSN no cenário siderúrgico foi criada uma função, chamada RM-NECK, no modelo matemático do laminador que classifica todos os materiais gargalo desbaste por grau, espessura, largura, número de fornos de reaquecimento e comprimento de placa, permitindo assim, a diminuição no tempo de processamento na zona do VE2/R2. O estudo evoluiu para um verdadeiro trabalho em equipe, envolvendo especialistas da manutenção e operação e, consolidando anos de experiência no desenvolvimento de um algorítmo inteligente o suficiente para reduzir o tempo de processo observando os princípios da teoria das restrições.

Aug 17, 2017

By Johne Jesus Mol Peixoto

No reator RH, a otimização do fluxo recirculatório de aço entre a câmara de vácuo e a panela é a chave para promover as reações de refino. Neste trabalho, foram utilizados água e solução de cloreto de zinco (ZnCl2) como fluido similar ao aço para investigar a taxa de circulação no modelo a frio de um reator RH em escala 1:7,5. A taxa de circulação foi determinada utilizando o método de pontes de Strain Gages. A técnica PIV foi utilizada de modo a calibrar e validar os resultados. O aumento da vazão de gás de 30l/min para 120l/min resultou na elevação da taxa de circulação para ambos os fluidos. Cálculos preliminares demonstraram que há grande diferença nas condições de arraste de escória entre os sistemas água/óleo e ZnCl2/óleo.

Aug 17, 2017

By Mariano de Córdova

A operação dos altos-fornos com injeção de carvão pulverizado ou gás natural requer uma alta qualidade do coque. Para um custo mínimo do coque, mantendo a qualidade necessária, a escolha de carvões e a formulação da mistura é um tema muito importante. Uma ferramenta amplamente utilizada para o design de misturas é a modelagem, precedido pela caracterização de carvões e seguido de teste no forno piloto. Neste trabalho, revisa-se o desenvolvimento dos modelos, com base la literatura pública. Três etapas cronológicas são levadas em conta, desde os anos sessenta até a atualidade.

Aug 17, 2017

By Jorge Madias

Los hornos eléctricos de arco han sido motivo de una aplicación dinámica de nuevas tecnologías en lo que va de este siglo. La preparación de la chatarra y el uso de materiales de carga alternativos han dado lugar a la concepción de nuevos equipamientos y experiencias en todo el mundo. Surgen nuevos conceptos para el precalentamiento de la chatarra, superando las limitaciones de mantenimiento y ambientales de los conceptos iniciales y mejorando su performance energética. El aporte de energía química para la fusión supera sus límites año a año, requiriendo el desarrollo de equipamiento capaz de una acción rápida y precisa con grandes caudales de gases y sólidos inyectados. Existen nuevas herramientas para eliminar los riesgos de seguridad en la plataforma del horno, haciendo uso de sistemas de enfriamiento más seguros y duraderos, robots, automación de la operación del agujero de colado, y puertas de escoria controladas desde el púlpito.

Aug 17, 2017

By Lukas Pichler

The market trend of advanced high strength steel (AHSS) with demand for higher strength products is increasing continuously. The inline cooling technologies have established as the most powerful metallurgical tool to achieve these demands. However, the cooling capabilities of existing hot strip mills, plate and Steckel mills are often not adequate to generate high cooling rates and the cooling accuracy required for the production of AHSS. Hence there have been many developments for an intensive, highly flexible accurate homogeneous cooling technology. Considering the wide variety of strip and plate geometry, Primetals Technologies have developed Power Cooling Technology for strip and introduced MULPIC®4 Technology for the plate production. In this paper we shall discuss these enhanced technologies that provide the inline cooling requirement with examples from the recently commissioned machines.

Aug 17, 2017

By H. S. Auvil

[Coals of low-volatile rank cannot be coked without admixing large proportions of high-volatile cod in the used type of byproduct-coke oven, because they expend excessively and. exert side thrust, which ruins the oven wells. Some medium-volatile coals also give trouble. Since high-rank coals produce a strong, blocky coke, it is desirable to have the rank as high as practicable, particularly in the manufacture of foundry coke. Accordingly, it has become the practice to mix or blend high-volatile shrinking coals with as much low-volatile coal as possible and still have a mixture that mill not deform the walls or cause difficulty in pushing the coke. Occasionally, the safe limit of low-volatile cool has been exceeded and ovens have been damaged. It is desirable, therefore, to have a reliable method of determining the expending tendencies of mixtures before they are charged into the ovens. Furthermore, coal changes somewhat in its properties as mining progresses, end therefore, mixtures found to be safe at one time may cease to be so subsequently, particularly if nearly the maximum allowable percentage of low-volatile coal is being used. ]

Jan 1, 1938