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By Matthew D. Meyer

SMART, an association of surface mining companies formed in 1995 to develop a coordinated approach to technology development for the mining industry, has recognized the need for the establishment of a worldwide database that continuously collects mining equipment data and provides metrics related to productivity and cost. Under the auspices of SMART, Syncrude Canada, Suncor Energy and Albian Sands Energy (three oil sands mining operations located in northern Alberta) have established a pilot project for mine benchmarking. This presentation will include a review of the pilot progress including: ???Data gathering techniques: means of collection and storage, proposed practice for data control and normalization, access to data/reports and format for data. ???Reports/analyses for individuals, across groups, within the total industry pool and publicly. ???Security and confidentiality of information belonging to identified parties. ???Sharing of best practices among members. SMART has identified two key deliverables to ensure success of the project. First, data supplied from surface mines must be validated and normalized to common definitions and then analyzed to provide participating companies with regular reports that allow them to understand their position and resultant opportunities to achieve world-class performance. This model maintains granularity of the data for each operation that can then be recombined into standard comparisons or specific indices as required. The general categories of: operating delays, maintenance downtime, standby, and scheduled downtime, have been used to frame comparisons. Second, participating companies are looking to go behind the indices to identify and share best practices that distinguish particular operations. The spirit of cooperation between the companies involved in the pilot project is meant to be a model for future expansion of the benchmarking project.

Apr 1, 2005

By D. A. Sloan

"THE FIRST COMMENTATOR that I will call on is Mr. W. G. (Bill) Brissenden, Vice-President, Mines, Noranda Mines Ltd. Bill, would you care to comment.W. G. BRISSENDEN ...Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I spent some time reading the four papers that were presented here, yesterday evening, and decided that the four to six minutes that I had been allotted for this afternoon were going to be pretty tough to meet. It's a very big subject and I just hope that I will be able to stay within my time limit. As has been so aptly demonstrated by the members of our panel here this afternoon young men in growing numbers continue to be attracted to careers in the mineral industry, especially to careers in mining engineering. Now from 80 the point of view that the profession may have regained its status this is indeed welcome news. However, perhaps all of the members seem to have the suspicion that the number of mining engineers that the industry can absorb is a much lower figure than previously forecast. It is said that technical school graduates are now occupying some of the jobs once considered the private preserve of the mining engineer and also that mining engineering undergraduates are having trouble locating summer employment. If these interpretations of mine are correct then we are now confronted not only with our old dilemma - whither the mining engineer - but also with an urgent need to solve it. We cannot allow our profession to become once again an undesirable one in the eyes of our youth because if we permit such a thing to happen a second time the profession may never recover."

Jan 1, 1972

By W. A. Lang

"I.-IntroductionAn attempt bas been made in this paper to provide a basis for appraisal of the future of the coal briquetting industry in Alberta by outlining the processes used for briquetting various ranks of coal, by specifying the requirements of a briquetted fuel, by indicating .the status of the industry in the United States, by giving developments in Western Canada, by assessing costs of processing, and by discussing briquetting researches in progress. Much of .the detail bas been omitted since this might mask, rather than reveal, the more important phases of the problem. Reference will be made when possible to published articles where many of the details can be obtained.It should be stated at the outset that, in the writer’s opinion, there are three possible developments in Alberta as regards briquetting: (a) an expansion of the briquetting of the fines of • non-coking and coking coals of semi-anthracite, and of low and medium volatile bituminous rank; (b) the processing of the fines of high-volatile C bituminous coals; and (c) the upgrading of the lower rank high-moisture sub-bituminous coals. Details of the chemical and physical properties of these coals can be obtained in publications of the Research Council of Alberta (1, 2), and of the Fuel Research Station, Bureau of Mines, Ottawa (3).Semi-anthracite and low and medium volatile bituminons coals occur in the mountain areas of Alberta, where, during the upthrust of the Rocky mountains, the coal beds served as the sliding surface. This resulted in the coals being; crushed and consequently they contain a h1gh percentage of fines. In some cases they are high in mineral matter and require to be cleaned before being processed. However, the cleaning of fine coal is both difficult and costly. Both the amount of fines present in the mine-run coal and the amount of mineral matter associated with the coal have increased through the introduction of mechanized mining and through the recovery of coal by stripping operations."

Jan 1, 1950

By I. Haskett

ABSTRACT The Redwater pool, in north-central Alberta, was discovered in October, 1948, and at the end of 1950 was about 85 per cent developed. Production is from a Devonian coral limestone reef and is found at an average depth of 3,150 feet. The pool has an estimated .productive area of 37,000 acres, and a maximum oil zone thickness of slightly over 200 feet. Wide variations exist in both type and values of porosity, with the average value determined for the reservoir being 6.16 per cent. The total stock tank oil in place is about 1.24 billion barrels. The crude has a saturation pressure of 485 psig, com-pared to the original value of 1,050 psig for the reservoir, and the principal recovery mechanism so far has been the natural water drive. Cumulative production to January 1st, 1951, has been about 15.5 million barrels. These withdrawals resulted in a reservoir pressure decline of slightly over 100 psi. Predictions of future behaviour indicate that the water drive will not be of sufficient magnitude to maintain the reservoir above saturation pressure past 1953, and that, with natural depletion, the pool will be produced largely by a solution gas drive. Pressure maintenance by water injection has been considered and the possibility of raising the pressure to the original value of 1,050 psig is also discussed. INTRODUCTION WITH the discovery of the Lewduc pool, early in 1947, the Devonian limestone became the major geological formation contributing to Western Canada's rapidly growing petroleum reserves. Redwater, discovered in October, 1948, is now the largest known Devonian pool in Canada, with a recoverable reserve estimated at approximately 500 million barrels. Until recent years, the knowledge of the nature and characteristics of this type of limestone reservoir has been comparatively limited.

Jan 1, 1951

By R. S. Douglas

Introduction The operations of The Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, L1mited, have always been concerned with the mining of low-grade copper ores. In the fifty years of this Company's existence, nearly 60,000,000 tons of such material has been successfully mined and treated. During these years, many changes in mining practice took place. However, at Copper Mountain, due to the large tonnages of very low grade material, it was realized that something more than changing mining methods would have to take place if these low-grade orebodies were to be mined at a profit and the Company and. its employees enjoy many years of successful operation and employment. Production costs were mounting commensurately with rising taxes and the increasing cost of supplies, labour, freight, and smelting, while the value of the product on the market was not increasing in price to compensate for the higher costs of production. A survey of the mineable ore in 1944 indicated that, of the 12,000,000 tons in the reserves, only 3,500,000 tons was now profitable ore. This reduction in the commercial ore reserves was a serious matter, as it meant that the mine had only two years of life at the profitable shipp1ng rate of 4,800 tons per day. Further, the location in the mine of the orebodies making up the 3,500,000 tons was not suitable for such high production.

Jan 1, 1950

By N. H. Grace

"IntroductionDURING the past half century, the economy of Western Canada was largely centred on agriculture. However, the impact of World War II has led to an acceleration in the development of a variety of natural resources so that, today, Western Canada is experiencing great industrial development. Consequently, the availability •of low-cost energy assumes prime importance. In the final analysis, industrial growth and expansion are intimately linked to the energy resources.Coal ReservesHas Western Canada adequate coal reserves to meet the present accelerating demand for power in the days that lie ahead? This question must be answered before detailed consideration can be given to the probable patterns •by which various energy sources in Western Canada may be expected to meet the expanding demand. Figure 1 indicates the extent and distribution of the Canadian coal reserves, the data having been prepared by Dr. B. R. MacKay for the Royal Commission on Coal in 1946 (1). The amount of readily recoverable coal is listed as one-half the quantities shown on the chart. It is interesting-to note that upwards of 90 per cent •of the Canadian coal reserves .are located in the three most westerly Canadian provinces. It has been estimated that the coal reserves, at the present rate of mining, would be adequate for about 3,000 years. Consequently, it may be concluded that the coal •reserves in Western Canada •are indeed adequate to meet tremendous energy demands for many centuries. When the oil and natural gas have been exhausted, the great coal reserves will still be available."

Jan 1, 1953

By C. H. G. Bushell, G. Brown, C. J. Krauss

1N FLOTATION, copper sulphate is used universally for the activation of sphalerite and marmatite and, to some extent, for the activation of other minerals. The copper activated surface readily adsorbs standard collectors such as the xanthates and dialkyl dithiophosphates whereas untreated zir~ sulphide does not. With the host of reagents available, making a mineral float is seldom difficult. The problem is to achieve selective flotation. In zinc flotation, the great value of copper sulphate results from its ability to activate zinc sulphide preferentially to gangue minerals. At the Sullivan Concentrator of The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited, the most abundant gangue mineral in the lead-zinc ore is pyrrhotite, and the zinc mineral is marmatite of somewhat variable zinc to iron ratio. For this Cominco study, selectivity between marmatite and pyrrhotite was therefore the most interesting aspect of copper sulphate activation.

Jan 1, 1961

By Ralph W. Edie

"IntroductionTHE GOLDFIELDS AREA in northern Saskatchewan has be-come important in recent years because of numerous discoveries of pitchblende. The area is underlain by rocks of Precambrian age and, because of metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration, the geology in the vicinity of the pitchblende deposits is exceedingly complex and presents a challenge to all geologists •working in the district. This paper is a contribution to the geological literature of the area and presents a description of rock types, supplemented with petrographic, chemical, and spectrochemical data.Field work in connection with this paper was carried out during the summers of 1948, 1949, and 1950 while the writer was employed as assistant geologist for the Crown Corporation, Eldorado Mining and Refining ( 1944), Limited, Gold-fields area. Laboratory work was undertaken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the winter months of 1949-50 and 1950-51 and extended through the summer of 1951.With the exception of SiO2and FeO, all of the new analyses ( 1) presented were carried out by quantitative spectrographic techniques under the supervision of Dr. L. H. Ahrens at M.I.T. Many of the techniques have only recently been developed at that Institute and detailed laboratory procedures have not yet been published."

Jan 1, 1952

By P. Scinto, P. Hudson

"Modern day ore bodies are becoming increasingly harder, more abrasive and lower grade. The Mako deposit is located in Senegal and consists predominantly of primary mafic and felsic lithology that are both very competent and very abrasive ores (Axb < 30, BWi >20 and Ai >1.0). The deposit was initially discovery in 2010 and the Toro Gold management team fast tracked the Mako Project through development and into production to achieve its first gold pour in January 2018. The comminution circuit comprises primary crushing single stage SAG milling with recycle crusher (1oCR SS-SAC). The mill reached design throughput and grind size seven weeks after first ore. The Mako project marks another successful international application of single stage milling, which represents a simple and easy to operate comminution circuit for small-to-mid size projects with a low capital cost. This paper describes the ore interpretation, comminution modelling, grinding circuit selection and design, as well as an overview of the commissioning and ramp-up of the mill.INTRODUCTION The Mako Gold Project is operated by Toro Gold Ltd., which holds a 90% interest in the project. The project is located in south-eastern Senegal in the Kedougou region, close to the Gambia river and township of Mako. The Mako deposit lies in the “Kenieba Window” of eastern Senegal and western Mali, which hosts a number of gold mining operations and development projects. The Mako Gold Project has an estimated life of 8 years with overall recoverable gold estimated at 924 koz. The process plant is designed to treat 1.8Mt/a of ore and produce 128 – 143 koz of gold per annum. Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd (Lycopodium) was appointed to provide feasibility studies and EPCM services for the greenfield project. Forming part of consultancy services provided by Lycopodium, Orway Mineral Consultants (OMC), a subsidiary of Lycopodium, was involved in the design, commissioning, ramp up and ongoing post commissioning support of the comminution circuit."

Jan 1, 2019

By W. A. Gow, G. M. Ritcey, M. C. Campbell

"Uranium is a unique commodity. It is both a metal and a fuel, It has both commercial and military uses. It yields ""clean energy "" but presents environmental concerns. All of these factors have an impact on the commerce of uranium.Being a metal, uranium is extracted from ore like many other metallic minerals. As a fuel, it is subject to the vagaries of energy commodity market forces. The history of uranium in the first nuclear weapons has led to nation al governments carefully controlling production and sale of uranium. The spectre of radioactive contamination of the environment adds further to the public concern over the disposal of low-level radioactive wastes from uranium processing and use.There have been a number of excellent reviews on the commercial aspects of the uranium industry. In this discussion, these aspects will be briefly summarized to provide a general picture of the strengths of the Canadian uranium industry and the pressures to which it is being subjected currently. The principal thrust of this paper will be to outline Canada&apos;s resource strength and to identify some factors which will affect Canada&apos;s ability to continue holding a sizeable share of the world uranium market."

Jan 1, 1985

By G. Cailletaud, I. Guillot, D. Larouche, R. Martinez, D. Massinon

The precipitation of Al2Cu particles in a 319 T7 aluminum alloy has been modeled. A theoretical approach enables the concomitant computation of nucleation, growth and coarsening, based on an implicit scheme using the finite differences. The equation of continuity is discretized in time and space in order to obtain a matricial form. The inversion of a tridiagonal matrix allows us to determine the evolution of the size distribution of Al2Cu particles at t + dt. The fluxes of solute in-between the boundaries, as well as the ones at the boundaries, are computed in order to respect the conservation of the mass of the system. The main results of the model are compared to TEM measurements. Simulations provide quantitative features on the impact of the cooling rate on the size distribution of Al2Cu particles in good agreement with the TEM measurements. This metallurgical model is integrated into FEA software in order to perform mechanical computations. This kind of multiscale approach allows new perspectives to be investigated in the process of designing cylinder heads. It enables a more precise prediction of the microstructure, its evolution as a function of continuous cooling rates and its impact on the integrity of the structure.

Jan 1, 2015

By William Petruk, J. R. Schnarr

The behaviour of minerals during flotation of a fine-grained pyrite-rich base metal ore was investigated by studying the feeds. concentrate and tailings from every flotation cell in the mill of Brunswick Mining and Smelting Corp. Ltd. Bathurst. New Brunswick. The samples were analyzed for Zn, Pb, Cu. Fe, Ag. Sb, Sn, Bi, In. Hg, Mo and As. Mass balances were computed and recoveries of all metals from each cell. from each circuit and from the mill were calculated. The percentages of sphalerite. galena and chalcopyrite occurring as free grains in each product were determined with an image analyser, as were size analyses for free mineral grains and middling particles, and compared with screen analyses. The results show that the behaviour of minerals is defined much better by the recovery of free mineral grains than by the recovery of elements. The recovery of free sphalerite in the zinc circuit is 96 wt %, whereas Zn recovery from the same circuit is 88 wt %. the difference being due to unliberated sphalerite. The recovery of free sphalerite from the mill feed is 88 wt % and Zn 78 wt %. The recovery of free galenafrom the mill feed is 88 wt % and Pb 64 wt %. The recovery of free chalcopyrite is 75 wt % and Cu 45 wt %. Size analyses show that more sphalerite and chalcopyrite can be liberated by regrinding. but the galena is so fine grained that regrinding would not necessarily improve liberation. Silver occurs mainly in tetrahedrite and galena; the main loss in the tailings is due to large (+ 26 um) and small (-1 um} free and unliberated tetrahedrite grains.

Jan 1, 1981

By A. Roy MacLean

"In the Maritimes, there are twelve coal areas. From east to west, these include the Sydney coal field, the St. Rose - Chimney Corner, Inverness, Mabou, Port Hood, Pictou, Colchester - Debert, Springhill, Joggins - Chignecto, Beersville, Lake Stream, and Minto. The first eight are in Nova Scotia while the remaining four are in New Brunswick.In all these areas, the coal was formed during the Carboniferous period, which existed some 300 million years ago. However, within this period not all coal formation took place during the same time. There were three main intervals, which occurred at the time that the Riversdale, Cumberland and Pictou groups were laid down (Hacquebard, 1970). The oldest coals are those of the Riversdale Group. These coals were of rather limited extent, and only a few mineable seams are present, particularly at St. Rose -Chimney Corner and Port Hood. From these two areas only 2 M tons have been extracted, and 'measured' resources of 7 and 9 M tons respectively remain. The Cumberland Group coals are confined to Cumberland County and include the coals of Springhill and Joggins River Herbert -Chignecto. Some 43 M tons have been removed and only 7 M tons of 'measured' coal remain, with an addit10nal 39 M tons of 'inferred' resources. However, there are additional resources at Springhill, which will be discussed in more detail in a later section. The coals of the Pictou Group are the youngest and the most abundant, both in actual number of seams and in regional distnbution. These coals were formed during the Westphalian C and D, a time during which the main coal deposition in Europe also took place. Here belong the coals of the Sydney, Inverness, Mabou, Pictou, Debert, Beersville, Lake Stream and Minto fields. Their total production amounted to 469 M tons or 91 % of the Maritime total of 514 M tons. The remaining resources of all Pictou Group coals have been calculated at 254 M tons of 'measured' coal and 949 M tons of 'inferred' coal. As can readily be seen, the bulk of both past production and remaining resources occur in the Sydney coal field. The Sydney figures represent 73% of total production, and 87% of total 'demonstrated' resources in the Maritime Provinces. Next to Sydney, the Pictou coal field has been the greatest producer, with 59 M tons; it also has the second largest 'measured' resources, amounting to 25 M tons. However in terms of 'inferred' coal resources, the Mabou coal field, ~ith 140 M tons, ranks second to Sydney."

Jan 1, 1985

By P. Lafleur

All indications point to a growing market for thermal coal in Japan as part of the country&apos;s current energy policy formulation process. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry forecasts imports of 16 million tons a year in 1985 and 40 million tons in 1990-a twenty-fold and forty-fold increase over the present level. This potential reflects Japan&apos;s over-all serious and increasing concern for security of energy supplies and its resultant need to seek alternative sources. Nuclear power will be the main alternative source, but, because it is expected that its development will be slow, imported thermal coal will assume greater importance. Canada, with large resources of all types of coal, could fill a portion of this market. Thermal coal could come from specific thermal coal developments or from metallurgical coal mines, which usually produce a certain amount of coal not amenable to coking, but suitable for power purposes. However, penetration of this Japanese market by Canadian thermal coal will depend on the resolution of a number of problems. On the demand side, siting, environmental aspects, the need for a coal unloading and trans-shipment centre, and the added cost of installing coal-fired stations could be major constraints. Although Canada has ample high-quality resources, any new development tied to the Japanese market will require improvement in prices to cover the high costs associated with transportation, the construction of new mines and the provision of new infrastructure.

Jan 1, 1979

By I. Tinto

"IntroductionEnvironmental pollution problems, caused by gases or effluents, by high noise levels or from air borne dust, are placing increasing demands of the operators, from statutory authorities, and from the general public, to adopt more stringent dust control measures. This requires that a successful plant dust control program be an integral part of any plant operation. While a successful environmental program is a key factor in maintaining productivity and good labour relations, anticipation of future environmental regulations during the plant design phase can avoid the high cost of plant upgrading, or dealing with pulmonary conditions in the work force in subsequent years.Particulate removal, conventionally called dust collection, involves the removal of coarse- and fine-particulates from the airstream. Although generally limited to that required for contro!Hng plant generated air emissions, particulate control equipment also has a wide application for air cleaning and filtration inside the plant, as well as for recovery of usable products.In the late 1950s and early 1960s the public became more concerned with the problems of air pollution. This increasing concern was stirred by an awareness of the extremes to which water pollution had progressed in many of the rivers and lakes, by increasing perception of air pollution as detected by visible smog and harsh chemical odors, by the alarming rate of increase of smog plagued cities and communities, and by specific incidents where ill health could be traced to specific episodes of air pollution. Particle size is perhaps the most important single factor affecting particulate control. Large particles (over 5 microns) constitute the major mass fraction of most sources of emission and economical control equipment dqes exist for their efficient control. However, while these larger particles frequently represent the source of soiling and unsightly smoke plumes, they are not a major health problem as they tend to settle relatively quickly, are more easily scrubbed from the atmosphere by rain, and are not able to penetrate the respiratory system. By far the most important form of particulate air pollution is the fine particulate, (below 3 microns) which is harmful to the pulmonary system. The adverse effects caused by this particulate matter on human health are for the most part related to injury to the surfaces of the respiratory system. Particulate material in the respiratory tract may produce injury itself, or it may act in conjunction with gases, altering their sites or their modes of action. A combination of particulates and gases may produce an effect that is greater than the sum of the effects caused by either individually (i.e. synergistic effect)."

Jan 1, 1989

By T. L. McCall

A short description of mining practice in the Sydney coal field in general is followed by a discussion of the operations in the No. 12 colliery of the Dominion Coal Company, Limited, as being typical of the trend in operating methods obtaining throughout the field. Development of longwall mining to the present system of three walls in line is outlined, together with a summary of the cycle of operations involved in systematic operation.

Jan 1, 1944

By George P. Demopoulos, Yan Zeng, Zhibao Li

Precipitated silica is marketed with a rising demand as reinforcing filler in the rubber industry and as a potential raw material for the synthesis of lithium-ion battery electrodes. Due to an awareness of the environmental impact of the existing processes for the production of precipitated silica, a green and sustainable process was proposed by using sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) as an alternative to sulfuric or hydrochloric acid in the precipitation reaction with sodium silicates. The use of NaHCO3 allows for better control of the supersaturation and pH to form silica with desired quality. Additionally, Na2CO3 solution as the process by-product is recyclable because it could be recovered to produce NaHCO3 by absorbing CO2. The solubility of sodium metasilicate nonahydrate (Na2SiO3·9H2O) in the Na-CO3-HCO3-OH-H2O system was measured using a dynamic method in the temperature range from 288.15 to 308.15 K. It is found that the solubility of Na2SiO3·9H2O decreases with increasing concentration of either Na2CO3 or NaOH over the investigated concentration range. With the aid of the OLI platform, a chemical model for the Na2SiO3-Na-CO3-HCO3-OH system was established with newly obtained interaction parameters of the Bromley-Zemaitis model by regression of experimental solubility data. The new model predicted the solubility of Na2SiO3·9H2O in multi-component systems with good agreement and was used to conduct a preliminary feasibility study of the new process.

Jan 1, 2015

By G. J. S. Govett

World mineral production is dominated by six countries - the U.S., the U.S.S.R , Canada, South Africa, Australia and China - which also hold most of the reserves of the world?s minerals. For the developed and centrally planned countries, there is a strong positive correlation between the mineral production of a country and its land area: there is no correlation between mineral production and land area for the less developed countries. These facts imply that, after taking due account of geological controlling factors, a country may expect to produce minerals in approximate proportion to its land are a provided that political, economic, and historical factors are conducive to mineral exploration and mining. Contrary to popular political belief in many parts of the world, the developed countries are the major source of mineral imports for the industrialized countries. Moreover, exports of ores and minerals account for a relatively small par t of world trade, and are an important factor in the export picture of only a few of the less-developed countries. The looming resource confrontation between the developed and the less-developed countries is based largely on the false premise that the industrialized countries of the world are minerals-poor and owe their wealth to cheap minerals from the less-developed countries. The data presented refute this. Geological controls are relatively minor in the present distribution of world mineral production; political and economic factors are dominant. It is argued that an expansion of world trade in minerals - based on increased exploration and new forms of finance for mining ventures - rather than cartels, price-fixing and trade restrictions is by far the preferable solution to the problem of redressing the legitimate grievances of the poor countries of the world.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. McLean, W. Q. Chen, W. Yan, M. Barati, Y. D. Yang

In order to maximally remove the harmful impurities phosphorus and reduce the loss of valuable elements from Si-based alloy for production of solar-grade silicon, thermodynamic properties of the Si-based alloy were studied. In this work a new model, the Molecular Interaction Volume Model (MIVM) derived from statistical thermodynamics, was successfully used in the Si-based and Si-Fe-based alloy. The calculation started from binary Si-Fe, Si-P and Fe-P systems, then the thermodynamic parameters of ternary systems could be derived based sub-binary systems. Using the activity coefficients of the elements in the Si-based alloys and the saturated vapor pressure of the pure substance of the components, mass fraction of P during vapor-liquid equilibrium can be calculated. The calculated thermodynamic parameters were compared with experimental data available in different publications, and it is found that the thermodynamic parameters calculated using MIVM model are in good agreement with the measured results. The calculated result shows that the mass fraction of phosphorus during vapor-liquid equilibrium of Si-Fe-P melt increases with the increasing phosphorus content and decreasing temperature. This is an important direction for experimental practice in vacuum or low-pressure EML refining of ferrosilicon for potential production of solar-grade silicon without significant vaporization loss of valuable element.

Jan 1, 2015

By H. J. H. Pieterse

Agitation requirements in oxidation autoclaves can vary widely depending on the mineralogy of the feed material and the specific process selected. Before selecting an agitation system it is important that the client specify the desired throughput, mineralogy, chemistry, kinetics, compartments, overall retention time, and the desired oxygen utilization. In selecting the agitation system, the factors mentioned above as well as oxygen solubility, oxygen mass transfer coefficients, and specific power are evaluated. Much research effort has been directed toward open tank systems for fermentation and oxidation processes. However, for high pressure autoclave oxidation processes little information is available. In this review the author&apos;s experience in the autoclave industry and some of the available literature are utilized to compare the installed power per unit volume with some of the methods proposed for open tank oxidation. Equations that appear to give results close to that experienced in the industry have been identified. Further work is required in this area to develop a higher degree of confidence in the ability to predict the power required for any given case.

Jan 1, 2004