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By C. Geier

Our national interests are best served by having well-trained first responders available for rapid response to emergency situations in underground mines. However, recent mine disasters have indicated that focused training on hazard recognition, decision making, leadership, and incident command center protocols needs to be incorporated into a comprehensive training plan for all personnel involved in a mine rescue. Currently, there are very few training opportunities for the mining professionals responsible for making the crucial decisions needed during a mine emergency. With recent technical advances, it is now feasible to use a computer-based simulator to train mine rescue personnel for mine emergencies in their mine or any other mine at a convenient location without interrupting normal mining operations. This simulated environment teaches underground search and rescue procedures, communications, and decision making based on real-time information and hazard recognition. Since 2010, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) has offered computer simulated mine rescue training using an incident command center (ICC) directed towards enhancing decision making and communication skills. To support this training, CSM partnered with Rite Solutions, Inc. to modify, enhance, and create simulation software for mine rescue applications. The focus of this partnership is to modify existing simulation technology to address the unique nature of underground rescue operations, make it applicable to any underground operation, create generic scenarios, and develop customized computer simulations, including scenarios, for specific sites. Need The CSM mine rescue computer simulator helps mine rescue teams train for mine disasters where they would be deployed for the rescue and recovery of a mine. It provides additional, readily accessible opportunities to train without affecting mining operations. While the simulator lacks the physical demands of a rescue situation, it is very effective for teaching mine rescue procedures as rescuers seamlessly walk through the process and work out issues before going underground. The mine rescue simulator also introduces students to coordination through an ICC which stresses the use of effective communication and hones decision making skills. Most of the mine rescue teams participating in this study had never trained with an ICC controlling the actions of the mine rescue team making this an extremely valuable training opportunity. In addition, the mine rescue computer simulator allows instructors to modify mine rescue scenarios and tailor the scenarios to each team?s individual needs resulting in a more versatile training experience. The goal is to ensure that all teams receive the maximum benefit from each training session.

Feb 27, 2013

Integrated Utilisation of Desulfurisation and Skimming Slag

Sep 13, 2010

Gold was first discovered in the Shotover by Thomas Arthur in 1862. He left his job as a shearer and soon there were up to 3000 miners working over the length of the river. Some parts were extremely rich and a few early miners recovered as much as 300 ounces in a day. From these early days of hand working the operations progressed through to hydraulic elevating once water races and pipes were installed after the Skippers road was completed about 1890. The riverbed was worked in paddocks with .the gravel being sluiced to a central suction which elevated the material over a sluice box. Use of this system continued intermittently through until 1977 when Joe Schieb retired û the last of the hydraulic miners. Many bucket ladder dredges worked on the lower Shotover near Big Beach where the Sew Hoy family recovered a lot of gold. Just after 1900, at least three worked further upstream, one on the beach where Shotover Jet now operates and one further up below the Moonlight. All the sections for this were transported in over the Moonlight Track and the boiler, steam engine and bucket ladder are still sitting at the edge of the river. up near Maori Point a dredge operated from Dredge Slip upstream. Records are poor on these dredges but they all suffered from the frequent floods and large boulders which damaged the bucket line. The last dredging attempt was about 1930 when a suction dredge was constructed on Maori Beach. This failed as seems to be normal for most suction dredging ventures. The river can drop to very low levels in the middle of a dry summer, and in winter when the water is tied up in the mountains as ice and snow. During 1863 when heavy rain melted snow in the high country, the river rose 35 feet overnight and drowned many miners camped on the banks. The ever present risk of flooding dominates the method of working and plant design.

Jan 1, 1987

By J. -M. Rescoussier

Due to Important settlements inducing major structural damages, the western part of the Grand Littoral shopping centre has been closed in 1997. The present paper describes the project of underpinning including not only micropiles under the structure of the building but also a reinforcement of the soil located between the shopping centre and the edge of the embankment surrounding the western part of the shopping centre. The aim of this reinforcement is to reduce existing horizontal movements to allowable values.

Jan 1, 2002

By E. G. Baglin

As part of an effort to decrease U.S. dependence on imports of critical and strategic metals, the Bureau of Mines investigated three leaching methods for extracting the base metals and recovering platinum-group metals (PGM) from matte prepared from Stillwater Complex flotation concentrates. Because of a limited supply of natural material, synthetic matte of composition similar to matte prepared from natural concentrates was used to devise the extraction sequences. The validity of the sequences was verified with matte prepared from Stillwater concentrates. In two-stage matte leaching, first-stage H2S04 leaching extracted 99 pct of the nickel and iron from the matte but negligible amounts of copper and PGM. Second-stage oxidative leaching with Fe2(S04)3 or FeC13 solubilized more than 98 pct of the copper and no precious metals. Sequential leaching, in which acid and oxidizing lixiviants were added sequentially to the matte without an intervening filtration step, extracted 99 pct of the Fe, Ni, and Cu. A roasting-leaching technique, in which the residue from first-stage leaching was roasted between 360° and 500° C before a second leaching with H2S04, solubilized 98 pct of the copper. The three leaching methods yielded high-grade PGM residues containing more than 98 pct of the PGM in the matte.

Jan 1, 1982

By Hans Korfmacher

Product take-back regulations implemented in Europe have presented significant challenges to the consumer electronic product and battery industries. Initially companies established single compliance organizations within individual Member States. These programs met business needs but were inefficient and costly. They were protected from pressures of marketplace competition and could not leverage economies of scale. In order to address these problems P&G, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Electrolux conceived a pan-European compliance organization to collect waste electronic equipment Europe-wide. This organization, called the European Recycling Platform (ERP), operates in competition with existing national compliance systems. Since 2005 ERP has collected 800,000+ tons of waste electronic products and delivered millions of dollars in cost savings. This presentation reviews the steps needed to establish successful competitive collection organizations that provide sustainable recycling at the lowest cost.

Jan 1, 2010

By Parviz F. Rad

This Bureau of Mines report reviews laboratory and in-mine techniques for determining mechanical properties of coals, with special emphasis on the relationship between these properties and the minability of coal. An extensive bibliography is included.

Jan 1, 1973

By Enrique Fernández

INTRODUCTION The high speed rail link between Madrid and Asturias, in the North of Spain, has encountered in the Cantabrian range the biggest challenge of the whole line, a very deep tunnel, 25 km long through a foreseen difficult geology. This tunnel was divided in the following four lots for construction: ¦Lot 1: Pola de Gordón- Folledo. L=10,7 km ¦Lot 2: Folledo-Viadangos. L=4,166 m ¦Lot 3: Viadangos- Los Pontones. East tube. L=10,4 km ¦Lot 4: Viadangos- Los Pontones. West tube. L=10,4 km. Dragados S.A. leading a JV was contracted to design and built the Lot 2 on the captioned Pajares High Speed Railway Tunnel. The Lot 2, comprising the middle third section of the 25 km long tunnel has an additional challenge: the construction of one access from the surface to allow it own construction. Feasibility reports and preliminary design do not foresee the use of TBM due to the risk of squeezing ground at the deepest area of the tunnel. On the other hand, conventional NATM excavation of the twin tunnels and ancillary works, including access shafts were against the expected construction schedule by the client, due to the poor ground foresee at the early stage.

By H. L. Jessberger

In recent years piled raft foundations of multi-storey buildings on weak soils have generated much interest and discussion. By taking account of the effects of each component of the system - the pile group and the raft - it is possible to reduce the settlements and inclinations of the system and to have an expedient load distribution on the piles and the raft. Thus the structural design of the foundation can be optimised.

Jan 1, 1991

By S. E. Olsen, K. Tang

The complex heterogeneous equilibria associated with the production of manganese ferroalloys have been simulated by employing recently developed thermochemical databases. The non-ideal Mn-Fe-Si-C alloy and the MnO-SiO2-Al2O3-CaO-MgO-FeO slag system have been modelled separately by the compound energy and cellular model. A large number of experimental thermodynamic and phase-equilibrium data were used to evaluate the model parameters for the liquid and solid Mn-Fe-Si-C phases. In addition to the liquid metal phase, solid mixture phases occurring in the Mn-Fe-Si-C system have also been studied. Over 500 measured equilibrium data have been utilised to verify and calibrate the model calculations. The paper will present typical simulation results, from activities of components to multicomponent heterogeneous equilibria. Good agreements can be obtained for many important technological parameters such as carbon solubility, phase relations and equilibrium diagrams, element distribution as function of temperature and slag composition etc. Application of the present models to the silicomanganese production will be demonstrated in this paper.

Jan 1, 2004

By Tom Ireland, Tony Rock

The proposed 1.83km long twin bore A3 Hindhead road tunnel planned for contruction in 2008 is being delivered under a Highways Agency Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contract. The proposed construction methodology is progressive mechanical excavation of a horseshoe shaped tunnel with shotcrete installed close behind the face using robotic spraying equipment. The tunneling medium is a ‘soft rock’ sandstone for which there was little previous tunneling experience, requiring extensive geotechnical investigations and an innovative approach to lining design. A 240m long portal section though sandy material utilising a steel pipe umbrella is also required. This paper describes the development of the tunnel planning and design including the most recent developments in UK road tunnels, and the innovation included in the ‘permanent’ primary lining design.

Jan 1, 2007

By Yanjie Liang

Elemental sulfur and volatilization kiln slag(VKS)containing heavy-metal produced by smelter factories were used to produce sulfured building material. The effects of heating mode, material proportion (MSulfur:MVKS), size of waste particles and ratio of aggregate to filler(A/F) on the mechanical properties and leaching toxicities of solidified stuff were investigated. The optimal conditions for the solidification are stepped heating mode, 3:7 ratio of MSulfur to MVKS, particle size less than 150µm and 3/17 ratio of A/F. Under the above optimal conditions, the compressive strength of solidified stuff rises to 35 MPa, and water absorption is down to 4%-6%.Furthermore, when NaOH is applied as an additive in the process of solidification, the 2+concentrations of most heavy metals except Pb have reached the national leaching toxicity standard. The results of X-ray diffraction reveal that sulfured solidification is caused by the physical encapsulation rather than chemical transformation.

Jan 1, 2010

By Charles Findlay

As one of its projects for degasification of major panels of coal prior to mining within them, the Bureau of Mines conducted methane emission studies during development of a set of three headings 1,800 feet in a major coal panel (2,700 by 3,500 feet) which had been completely isolated by sets of main headings for 12 months in the Federal No. 2 mine (Pittsburgh coalbed) in northern West Virginia. Similar emission studies were conducted in the development of two sets of main headings in virgin coal areas nearby. Comparing the two sets of data indicated that the isolated coal panel had been degasified by approximately 70 percent.

Jan 1, 1973

By L. R. Stace

Arguably, one of the most significant technological breakthroughs that had been experienced during the period when British Coal was the major coalmine operating company in the UK, the use of rockbolts as principal support in underground roadways brought with it the need to re-assess the technical knowledge, management controls and legislative frameworks associated with the support of mine workings. Following a major roof fall in a roadway supported principally using rockbolts in which fatalities occurred, the process of the design of rockbolted support and the systems and procedures that had been put in place to control its use in the UK were further reviewed. The paper discusses the outcome of these reviews, and how the incident initiated a major new interest in strata control research in the UK against the background of the fragmentation of the ownership of the mines following the sale of the former British Coal assets at the end of 1994, together with the proposed introduction of new strata control legislation in 1996.

Jan 1, 1996

The recovery by flotation of some complex uranium minerals such as brannerite and davidite is described. Anionic reagents used for flotation of iron and titanium oxides' are suitable. If care is taken, to emulsify the reagents the slime fractions may be satisfactorilytreated.INTRODUCTIONUranium ores are usually treated by direct leaching with acid or alkali according to the nature of the gangue materials. Concentration of the uranium minerals prior to leaching is not commonly practised because of the earthy nature of most uranium minerals and the difficult mineral dressing problem they pose. Some of the harder complex oxides such as davidite and brannerite are amenable to flotation. This is fortunate since they usually require an expensive, strong acid treat~ent to dissolve the uranium. Flotation tests were commenced in 1949 by officers of the South Australian Department of Mines stationed at Adelaide, first in the School of Mines, then in the University of Adelaide and finally in Departmental mineral dressing laboratories at Thebarton. Separation of daviditefrom Radium Hill and Mount Victoria ores, brannerite from Crocker's Well ore, and secondary uranium minerals from Myponga ore was attempted.The development of the flotation reagents to separate the oxides from silica and the silicates is first described, then some of the results obtained are presented as tables.DEVELOPMENT OF FLOTATION REAGENTSThe davidite at Radium Hill is associated with iron and titanium oxides, qu;a,rtz and biotite as replacement deposits in shears. The davidite, rutile,' ilmenite and hematite usually occur in segregations from nut size to masses of several pounds. They are associated as a complexity of...

Jan 1, 1955

By S. K. Oraee

Most management decisions at all levels of the organization are as directly or indirectly depends on the circumstance of future. With regard to predict the future events in the process of decision-making plays a main role, therefore, forecasting is very important for every organizations and institutions. There is a variety of methods to predict time series. In general, these techniques can be divided as following: statistical, artificial intelligence and analytical techniques. Two of the most common methods for time series prediction is autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods, these methods are the subset of statistical and artificial intelligence techniques respectively. In this paper, a hybrid model of ARIMA and ANN models are employed to predict the number of fatal injuries in the USA underground coal mines. This research showed the result of hybrid model is better than split model.

Jan 1, 2011

When the Mining Bill came before the Victorian Legislature not so many months ago, the question arose whether mining managers required education, and to what extent. Some members of the House expressed themselves in a way which appeared to leave the impression that mining managers would be all the better if they were not brought up in a scientific school.To try and prove what we owe to science I will give a short history of colonial mining from the earlier period to the present time and compare results.I believe I am right in saying that South Australia is the pioneer colony in mining and to her belongs the credit of not dnly being the first mining colony, but also that her beginning turned out so successful, as the history of the Burra Burra copper mine will testify. At about the same time a little galena mining was carried on nearer to Adelaide, but as this did not prove a success and was only worked by tributing parties, little notice was taken of it.

By K Williams, W Chen, J Miller

The flow function of an iron ore material governs its flowability characteristics in material handling chains within the resource industry. A uniaxial compression test is able to obtain a flow function more rapidly comparing to the Jenike direct shear test; nevertheless, the results often exhibit lower rankings using the former method. This study aims to investigate the fundamental stress states within the test specimen that lead to this phenomenon, and to introduce a new uniform density specimen preparation method for a uniaxial compression test, in order to achieve comparative flow functions as for a Jenike direct shear test. The minimisation of the wall friction effect and achievement of the critical state when preparing a uniaxial specimen are explicitly discussed. Experimental investigations on flow functions of a suite of Australian iron ore samples were conducted using both the uniform density uniaxial compression test and the Jenike direct shear test. Results from both methods were found to be comparable, providing the specimen exhibits cohesive flow behaviours. The outcome of this research enabled development of a rapid and reliable flow function testing method for cohesive iron ore materials.CITATION:Chen, W, Williams, K, Roberts, A and Miller, J, 2017. Rapid and reliable flow property testing – a modified uniaxial approach, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 149–154 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

By J. C. Schneider, G. Van Weert

Hydrochem Developments Ltd. has developed and put into full scale operation a novel type of vertical flotation column incorporating a multiplicity of mechanically agitated stages. Characteristics of this flotation column include a low height to diameter ratio, high upgrading factors and the possibility of modifying geometry and operation to specific flotation requirements. A commercial unit is currently handling up to 100 tpd rougher concentrate at Dickenson Mines Limited, Balmertown, Ontario. Design parameters and plant performance will be discussed.

Jan 1, 1988

By L. D. Haig

"The Texada Mill is a unique iron operation producing High Grade sinter iron concentrate and a by-product copper, gold, silver concentrate. The plant is complex and extremely flexible to handle the many varieties of ore. Two iron concentrates are made and blended. A coarse iron concentrate from primary grinding and a fine concentrate after rougher flotation to remove all the sulphides.All the tailings from iron processing are collected, dewatered, reground and floated for additional copper recovery.The entire milling operation has been carried out in all sea water for seven years and mixtures of sea, fresh, and reclaimed water for ten years prior to that.A very stable float results from the use of sea water at the natural pH8. Reagent Consumption is lower and Metallic Corrosion of mill liners and grinding media is actually less than local fresh water or mixtures of fresh and sea water.Marine growth in pipe lines can be periodically removed by violently bubbling high pressure air up through the water filled mains.Location:Texada Mines is located on tide water on the west side of Texada Island 100 miles northwest of Vancouver, B. C.The Island is served by a 30 car ferry, tug and barge and a scheduled air service from Vancouver to a company maintained air strip near the mine.The climate is moderate with about 30 inches of rain during the winter and relatively dry summers."

Jan 1, 1974