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By Sean Gallagher

Background. There is currently little information regarding factors associated with specific modes of motion segment failure using a fatigue failure model. Methods. Thirty-six human lumbar motion segments were fatigue tested using spinal compressive and shear loads that simulated lifting a 9 kg weight in three torso flexion angles (0°, 22.5°, and 45°). Twenty-five segments failed via fatigue prior to the 10,000 cycle maximum. These specimens were visually inspected and dissected so that the mode(s) of failure could be determined. Failure modes included endplate fractures (classified into nine varieties), vertebral body fractures, and/or zygapophysial joint disruption. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine whether certain morphometric variables, amount of motion segment flexion, disk degeneration scores, and/or loading characteristics were associated with the occurrence of specific failure modes. Findings. Results indicated that stellate endplate fractures were associated with increased posterior shear forces (P < 0.05) and less degenerated discs (P < 0.01). Fractures running laterally across the endplate were associated with motion segments having larger volumes (P < 0.01). Endplate depression was more common in smaller specimens (P < 0.01), as well as those experiencing increased posterior shear force (P < 0.05). Zygapophysial joint damage was more likely to occur in a neutral posture (P < 0.01). Interpretation. These results suggest that prediction of failure modes (e.g., specific endplate fracture patterns) may be possible (at least for older specimens) given knowledge of the spinal loads along with certain characteristics of the lumbar spine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Keywords: Lumbar spine; Endplate fractures; Zygapophysial joints; Morphometry; Disk degeneration; Motion segments; Aging

Jan 1, 2006

By S. G. Hardcastle, C. K. Kocsis

Ventilation is an expensive prerequisite for underground mining. Current mining trends, including increasing depth and mechanization and more stringent health regulations would generally dictate that more air volume is required in order to provide good working conditions underground. However, any increase in the mine’s intake airflow can produce a disproportionate increase in power consumption and hence operating costs due to the cubic relationship between the sup-plied air power and the airflow (Power a Flow3). Furthermore, forecasts of significant increase in energy prices and new commitments with regard to reductions of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions, determined the mining industry to look into developing new concepts, design tools and incorporate the latest mining technologies in order to lower capital and operating costs while meeting commitments regarding GHG emissions. The advances in computing power and modelling software now make it possible to design, model and schedule a mine from opening to closure. A developing trend is to design and plan the mine by means of orebody modelling software, followed by using discrete-event simulation techniques to predict production rates and evaluate various operating scenarios throughout the life of the mine. The authors are currently evaluating how such process simulators could be adapted in order to forecast the need for materials or a specific resource, and one of these would be the mine’s “life-cycle” airflow demand as a function of scheduled production rates and mine operating characteristics. Further to this, based upon the mine’s life-cycle airflow demand schedule, the ventilation system could then be designed using a mine ventilation simulator. This new design approach would integrate in parallel the development of the ventilation system with the current mining conditions, therefore, heading towards “develop-as-you-go” as opposed to developing the system for final requirements with high upfront costs. This new ventilation system design criteria would also incorporate the use of the “ventilation-on-demand” technology, which will further lower development and production costs and implicitly, the mines’ GHG emissions.

Jan 1, 2004

By Edward H. Williams

IN the middle of the eighteenth century John Frazier and wife, Sarah Ingraham, removed from Boston, Mass., to Philadelphia, Pa., where he was held in such esteem that we find him one of the Committee which arranged the ball at Washington&apos;s inauguration. Their son John. Nalbro Frazier, was prosperous in his mercantile career and fortunate in his wife, .Anne West; who was an important personage in the early life of Professor Frazier. This cultured lady brought into the family an atmosphere of religious enthusiasm, of thoroughness and: of unity of purpose. Her son, Benjamin West Frazier, inherited her traits and displayed them during a. short and active life. Like his father, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was a member of the firm of Zimmerman, Frazier & Co. In their interests he lived for a short- time in Montevideo, and on his return married Isabella Zimmerman, a daughter of the head of the firm. Their happy married life was cut short by the death of Mrs. Frazier shortly after the birth of the subject of this sketch which, occurred October 3, 1841. Mr. Frazier did not long survive her, and left his orphaned sons to, the care of his mother, from whom he had inherited a lovable and deeply religious nature, an : artistic temperament and a capacity for thorough work. Whatever of these traits fell by inheritance to these children were strengthened by the influence of their grandmother, and. the purity of mind, the delicacy of sentiment, the refinement of honor, which characterized. Professor Frazier, are due to Anne West Frazier, and are generally present in the characters of all of gentle blood who have been under the sole and immediate influence of a mature and refined woman. Professor Frazier was educated at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, and passed thence through the University of

Sep 1, 1905

By E. J. Roberts

The theory is developed that the tons ground through a given mesh per day in a wet ball mill is proportional to the percent plus that mesh in contact with the balls and the net power applied to the balls at this point. A grindability test is described. DURING the course of a study of the fundamentals of classification in 1937, the need for a more basic understanding of the action of a ball mill became acute. Unless one knows how classification affects grinding, one cannot hope to effectively improve on classification. The methods of evaluating grinding efficiency that depend on surface developed were studied but soon discarded for two reasons: 1. There was no apparent method which could be generally used to give a reliable figure for the actual new surface developed as a result of grinding. Subsequent papers have not changed this conclusion. 2. The practical evaluation of grinding in the main ore dressing applications was in terms of the percentage retained on a screen which passes 90 to 99 pct of the material and not in terms of surface area. The Probability Theory With the background of our experience in the field of closed-circuit grinding, together with the papers of Lennox,1 Gow,2 Gaudin,8 Fahrenwald,4 Coghill, and others, the approach of the theoretical physicist was then tried. The thought was somewhat as follows: When one grinds in a ball mill, a given expenditure of power leads either to a certain number of point to point blows per hp-hr or to a certain distance of line contact per hp-hr, depending on whether the action of the balls is considered to be cascading or rolling. It is also assumed that the balls actually come together on each blow or during the roll. Then a volume of slurry will be covered per minute which is some function of the size of the particle being considered (see fig. 1). All particles coarser than this size will be reduced through this size. This volume of slurry contains a certain weight of ore, depending on the percent solids and the density of the solids. If we fix the percent solids and the density of the solids and let w be this certain weight of ore in the volume covered, then, in mathematical terms, what we have just postulated is, w —— 8 hp (a) dt If W is the total weight of ore present in the mill, then we can write. W w/8 hp (b) W dt and if C is the cumulative percent plus the size chosen at the start of the time interval dt, w w c/dt W 8 hp x c (c) wc But wc/100 is the weight plus the size chosen which at 100 wc the close of time dt is finer than that size, and W is the decrease in the percent plus of the whole mass of ore or —dC. Then, —W dC/dt 8 hp x C. (d) In other words, the mesh tons ground through a given size per unit of time is proportional to the hp and the percent plus the mesh. A crude analogy would be to picture a 1-ft-wide steam roller going down the road at 1 ft per sec. If we place one egg on the road per square foot, one egg will be smashed per second. If we place a dozen eggs per square foot, a dozen eggs will be crushed per second. Similarly, if all the particles in w are plus the mesh, i.e., C=100, we should have a maximum rate of reduction. If only 10 pct of them are plus the mesh (C=10), we would have only one tenth the maximum rate; if only 1 pct are plus the mesh, the balls have a hard time finding anything to work on. This is where the term "probability theory" comes from. The chances of the balls crushing a particle through a given mesh depends directly on the concentration of particles coarser than this mesh in the general pulp in the mill. Giving W the units of tons and dividing equation (d) through by W, we obtain -dC hp ----- = k---— C [1] dt ton where k is a constant for any one size of particle, density of solid and moisture content of pulp. Eq 1 is the rate equation for a first order reaction and says that the rate of decrease of the percent plus a given mesh with time is directly proportional to the hp per ton applied to the body of ore and to the percent plus the mesh in the ore mass as a whole. Since it is a differential equation, it only

Jan 1, 1951

By E. J. Roberts

The theory is developed that the tons ground through a given mesh per day in a wet ball mill is proportional to the percent plus that mesh in contact with the balls and the net power applied to the balls at this point. A grindability test is described. DURING the course of a study of the fundamentals of classification in 1937, the need for a more basic understanding of the action of a ball mill became acute. Unless one knows how classification affects grinding, one cannot hope to effectively improve on classification. The methods of evaluating grinding efficiency that depend on surface developed were studied but soon discarded for two reasons: 1. There was no apparent method which could be generally used to give a reliable figure for the actual new surface developed as a result of grinding. Subsequent papers have not changed this conclusion. 2. The practical evaluation of grinding in the main ore dressing applications was in terms of the percentage retained on a screen which passes 90 to 99 pct of the material and not in terms of surface area. The Probability Theory With the background of our experience in the field of closed-circuit grinding, together with the papers of Lennox,1 Gow,2 Gaudin,8 Fahrenwald,4 Coghill, and others, the approach of the theoretical physicist was then tried. The thought was somewhat as follows: When one grinds in a ball mill, a given expenditure of power leads either to a certain number of point to point blows per hp-hr or to a certain distance of line contact per hp-hr, depending on whether the action of the balls is considered to be cascading or rolling. It is also assumed that the balls actually come together on each blow or during the roll. Then a volume of slurry will be covered per minute which is some function of the size of the particle being considered (see fig. 1). All particles coarser than this size will be reduced through this size. This volume of slurry contains a certain weight of ore, depending on the percent solids and the density of the solids. If we fix the percent solids and the density of the solids and let w be this certain weight of ore in the volume covered, then, in mathematical terms, what we have just postulated is, w —— 8 hp (a) dt If W is the total weight of ore present in the mill, then we can write. W w/8 hp (b) W dt and if C is the cumulative percent plus the size chosen at the start of the time interval dt, w w c/dt W 8 hp x c (c) wc But wc/100 is the weight plus the size chosen which at 100 wc the close of time dt is finer than that size, and W is the decrease in the percent plus of the whole mass of ore or —dC. Then, —W dC/dt 8 hp x C. (d) In other words, the mesh tons ground through a given size per unit of time is proportional to the hp and the percent plus the mesh. A crude analogy would be to picture a 1-ft-wide steam roller going down the road at 1 ft per sec. If we place one egg on the road per square foot, one egg will be smashed per second. If we place a dozen eggs per square foot, a dozen eggs will be crushed per second. Similarly, if all the particles in w are plus the mesh, i.e., C=100, we should have a maximum rate of reduction. If only 10 pct of them are plus the mesh (C=10), we would have only one tenth the maximum rate; if only 1 pct are plus the mesh, the balls have a hard time finding anything to work on. This is where the term "probability theory" comes from. The chances of the balls crushing a particle through a given mesh depends directly on the concentration of particles coarser than this mesh in the general pulp in the mill. Giving W the units of tons and dividing equation (d) through by W, we obtain -dC hp ----- = k---— C [1] dt ton where k is a constant for any one size of particle, density of solid and moisture content of pulp. Eq 1 is the rate equation for a first order reaction and says that the rate of decrease of the percent plus a given mesh with time is directly proportional to the hp per ton applied to the body of ore and to the percent plus the mesh in the ore mass as a whole. Since it is a differential equation, it only

Jan 1, 1951

By G. M. Hutt

Introduction The major development of industrial minerals in Manitoba has been in building materials. &apos;The building-stone industry is developed far beyond the needs of the Province, and the well known Tyndall limestone is marketed over a wide area throughout the other provinces to Canada. Similarly, gypsum and gypsum products are produced in excess of local requirements and are exported to adjacent provinces. The crushed-stone, sand and gravel, limestone, and lime industries are sufficiently developed to supply the needs of the Province and, notably in the case of lime and lime-stone, there is a surplus for export to the adjacent provinces and to the United States. The manufacture of common brick is well established, but for face-brick and other clay products the Province is dependent largely on importations. Production of silica-sand will increase as Canadian markets become available through recognition of the utility value of the Black Island sand as foundry-sand and for other purposes. There is some possibility of the export of feldspar, of lithium ore and concentrates, and perhaps of salt. A considerable part of the Province has not been seriously prospected for industrial minerals and it may be expected that, as time goes on, other deposits of non-metallic minerals will be discovered and opened up, especially as the prairie provinces become more industrialized. At the present time, there is some activity in the southern part of the Province based on gas and oil indications. Whatever may be the outcome of this work, it should yield valuable information concerning the geological structure of the area.

Jan 1, 1934

By J. L. Moreno, A. L. Williamson, R. D. Bartlett

Large open pit mines in desert climates, such as the Phelps Dodge Morenci copper mine in Arizona, can create groundwater cones-of-depression of considerable size and stability. The hydraulic containment provided by the groundwater depression prevents migration of process solutions into the surrounding regional aquifer. Copper leach operations that fall within the groundwater depression may not require costly lining if passive containment can be demonstrated. An approach is presented in this paper that was successfully used to demonstrate passive containment. The approach includes a combination of groundwater modeling and a water balance analysis of leaching operations failing within or immediately near the open pit.

Jan 1, 1999

Objective: To help prevent squeezes, collapses, and other pillar failures through better pillar design, thereby enhancing safety for underground mine workers.

Jul 1, 1997

By J Sibbel, K Goh

A key issue facing mine managers in remote locations in Australia and overseas is that of managing a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce. Current Australian research (Sibbel, in prep) indicates that FIFO employees and their families do not differ from the general population in terms of their overall mental health and the well-being of their family relationships. However, they do face unique issues/pressures associated with the lifestyle, the impacts of which are dependent on the policies and practices of the company as well as individual coping and support mechanisms. Successful management of a FIFO site and its employees therefore requires specialist knowledge and skills beyond those of a solely residential operation. The well-being of the FIFO workforce depends on both site and individual employee characteristics, and has implications for productivity and turnover, as well as safety and health. In addition, although FIFO separates individuals and their families in time and space, the interaction between work and home must be acknowledged and taken into account. Drawing on findings from recent Australian and international FIFO research (eg Annear, Poot and Kingston, 2006; Beach, Brereton and Cliff, 2003; Brereton et al, 2006; Gallegos, 2006; Keown, 2005; Parkes, Carnell and Farmer, 2005; Sibbel, 2001, 2004, in prep; Shrimpton and Storey, 1996; Storey, 2001; Watts, 2004) this paper discusses key understandings of both the positive and negative impacts of FIFO employment on employees and their families, and provides practical management strategies as an aid to the development of best practice. Individual impacts including fatigue and loneliness, as well as family issues such as communication, continually changing roles and responsibilities and the impacts of regular parent absence are key areas which can be ameliorated by appropriate management understanding and action. A flexible framework approach is presented that is suitable for a diversity of operations, including principal and contractor workforces of different sized operations.

Jan 1, 2006

By Peter Kreisman

This paper and four other papers on the MEQB Regional Copper-Nickel Study, presented today at the 1980 SME-AIME Fall Meeting are based on four years of extensive inter-disciplinary research and impact analysis supported largely by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. This study produced over 180 technical reports, the results of which are summarized in an Executive Summary available from the Minnesota State Planning Agency, St. Paul, Minnesota. Those wishing to examine the many scientific, engineering, environmental, social or economic issues addressed by the study are encouraged to obtain a copy of the executive summary. The executive summary includes a bibliography of all technical reports produced by the Regional Copper-Nickel Study and describes the five-volume, 26 chapter Regional Copper-Nickel Study Report.

Jan 1, 1980

By J. W. Hawkins, K. B. C. Brady, K. Miller, J. Cuddeback

Remining of abandoned coal mines in Pennsylvania requires the implementation of pollution abatement and mining techniques called Best Management Practices (BMPs). Water-quality data from over 100 remining sites with more than 230 abandoned discharges were analyzed with respect to the types of BMPs employed to abate the pollution loadings of acidity, iron, manganese, aluminum and sulfate. Discharges exhibiting a significant decrease in acidity were most highly associated with sites where large volumes of alkaline materials were encountered (66.7%) or added (63.7%). The best results for iron loading were achieved with large-quantity alkaline addition (54.6%) and water handling systems (47.8%). Water handling systems (47.4%), daylighting (40.7%), and revegetation (40.2%) were associated with significantly lower manganese loadings. The decreases in acidity and sulfate loads associated with increasing the amount of alkaline material in the backfill indicates that the production of acid mine drainage can be retarded by adding large quantities of alkaline materials.

Jan 1, 2002

By P. R. Stephenson

"The Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code) has been operating successfully for 14 years, and has an ancestry dating back over 30 years. Together with complementary developments in stock exchange listing rules, the Code has brought about substantially improved standards of public reporting by Australasian mining and exploration companies. The Code is regarded as a world leader in its field, and has been used as a basis for the development of resource/reserve reporting standards in other countries. The reasons for its success are varied, foremost among them being its adoption in full by the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges, and the ability and willingness of mining industry organizations to bring Competent Persons to account when necessary.The latest revision of the JORC Code was undertaken in 2002-2003, based in part on releases of upgraded reporting standards in Canada, the United Kingdom/Western Europe, and South Africa, and the 2003 edition is expected to be released mid-year. Two of the more significant changes are: the introduction of a requirement for a Competent Person to be responsible for the documentation upon which Exploration Results are reported; and inclusion in the definition of a Competent Person of a reference to “Recognized Overseas Professional Organizations” being overseas professional organizations to which Competent Persons may belong for the purpose of preparing documentation for the submission of reports to the Australian Stock Exchange."

Jan 1, 2004

By Arno C. Fieldner, Howard I. Smith, J. W. Paul, SAMUEL SANFORD.

Many mine samples of coal are analyzed each year in the laboratories of the Bureau of Mines. The analyses are made in connection with investigations relating to fuels belonging to or for the use of the United States Government, the causes of accidents in coal mines, the geologic relations of coal beds, and the character and the value of the coal and lignite in the public lands. The systematic collection and analysis of such samples in connection with fuel investigations was begun in 1904 at the Government fuel-testing plant at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and was under the direction of the United States Geological Survey for six years. Descriptions of the coal samples collected between the beginning of this work, July 1,1904, and the transfer of the fuel-testing and mine-accident investigations to the Bureau of Mines, July 1, 1910, were compiled and published in Bureau of Mines Bulletin 22.a Descriptions and analyses of samples collected during the fiscal years 1911 to 1913 were published in Bureau of Mines Bulletin 85.b The present bulletin presents analyses and descriptions of samples collected during the fiscal years 1913 to 1916. In order that the material in this bulletin may be used to supplement that presented in Bulletins 22 and 85, the same plan of geographical classification has been followed, the analyses and descriptions of the samples being grouped in alphabetical order according to the State, county, and town near which the mines or prospects sampled are situated.

Jan 1, 1918

By Michael J. Friedel

As part of an investigation aimed at mitigating the hazards caused by abandoned mine openings, the Bureau of Mines conducted a series of electromagnetic surveys in the Galena, KS, area of the Tri-State mining district. The application of monostatic ground-penetrating radar (OPR) and inductive electromagnetic methods for detecting and delineating hazardous mine openings and attendant features was demonstrated to be feasible for shallow mine workings (i.e., less than 35 ft) occurring below flat-lying areas. Accurate determinations of depth to a mine roof appeared to be limited to roughly 20 ft using the GPR method. Features such as mine voids, fractures, and zones of subsidence were located beneath the Mainstreet (State Highway 26) site using the GPR system. Both the GPR and inductive electromagnetic techniques satisfactorily located mine openings and pillars at the Hell&apos;s Half Acre site. Geophysical interpretations were supported by exploratory drilling and mine maps.

Jan 1, 1990

By Sufi Md Gulzar, L B. Roy

Rock engineering tasks like tunnelling, dam and building construction, and rock slope stability rely heavily on properly estimating the rock’s uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), a crucial rock geomechanical characteristic. As high-quality specimen are not always possible, scientists often estimate UCS indirectly. The primary objective of this paper is to assess the efficacy of long short-term memory (LSTM), K-nearest neighbour (KNN), a combination of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) with an artificial neural network (ANN), and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to estimate the UCS of sandstones from Jharia, Dhanbad, India. Point load index (PLI), porosity (n), P-wave velocity (Vp), density (ρ), and moisture content (%) are the parameters used for the present study. Finally, a comparison was made between the various prediction algorithms outputs. The findings of the study validated the effectiveness of computational intelligence methods in forecasting UCS compared to other models used in this paper. The KNN achieves overall the best results, with an R2 of 0.95 for training, 0.94 for testing, and an RMSE of 0.03 for training and 0.05 for testing.

Nov 23, 2023

By Rafael de Oliveira Barbosa

O objetivo do trabalho foi reduzir a instabilidade do processo de produção da barra chata série de 1.1/2"x5/8" á 1.3/4"x1/4" no primeiro trem contínuo da linha leve de produção de barras e perfis. Esta instabilidade ocorria principalmente pela utilização de um passe quadrado onde requeria maior acompanhamento operacional e resultava em passes posteriores de menores dimensões tendo dificuldade no controle de laço em um trecho de calha com Pinch Roll (rolo puxador) em função das baixas reduções. O estudo foi realizado com auxílio de um software de laminação seguindo a teoria do alargamento de Ekelund e coleta de amostras reais das barras laminadas para verificação dimensional. Com a alteração do processo substituindo o passe quadrado que é um passe gerador de defeitos e de difícil controle operacional por um passe de borda, conseguimos melhorar sua estabilidade tendo grandes impactos positivos na qualidade superficial do produto final através também do aumento das reduções posteriores. Também conseguimos aumentar a disponibilidade do laminador com a redução das interrupções e sucatas causadas pela instabilidade do processo e reduzimos o tempo de câmbio dentro da família desta barra chata.

Jul 30, 2018

By Steve Dillingham

The explosives business by nature is providing a specialized, valued service and associated products to a variety of customers whether mine, quarry or construction related. The level of performance demanded by the customer will typically coincide with his or her individual needs. Some will seek out the skills and knowledge of a blasting expert, while the focus of others is simply on production amounts.

Jan 1, 2003

By Thomas Brunsing

The program was carried out to develop deep kerfing and core breaking techniques to be incorporated into the design of a field prototype hard rock mining machine. The field machine is designed to mine non-abrasive bedded deposits up to 20,000 psi in uniaxial compressive strength. The mining technique involves cutting approximately 2 ft deep parallel kerfs spaced 2 ft apart in either a horizontal or vertical direction and subsequently breaking out the cores so defined. The prototype machine is intended for demonstration of the technique in a quarry or equivalent field environment. The program was aimed at minimizing the required kerf width, obtaining reliable breaking within that kerf width and determining cutter blade requirements necessary to achieve a mining rate of 20 ft3/min. Full scale breaking experiments and 1/2 scale kerfing experiments were employed to evaluate the system. High strength concrete test specimens were used to simulate the rock being cut and broken. The test results indicate the kerf/break technique can achieve the desired mining rate by utilizing two 7 ft diam blades to cut 2 in. wide by 24 in. deep kerfs. A lateral load applied at the base of the kerf (base shear) was selected at the core breaking technique to be employed by the full-scale prototype machine.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. J. Dowd

1. The Pittsburgh bed is the most important bed in Brooke County and virtually the entire production of coal in the county comes from this bed. 2. Known measured and indicated reserves in all beds, based on a minimum thickness of 14 inches and 1,800 tons per acre-foot of coal in place, are estimated at 191 million short tons as of January 1, 1954. Of this total, 190 million short tons are in beds 28 inches and more thick. Areas in each bed were omitted from the estimate because available data relative to the bed characteristics are too meager to make an estimate that conforms with the definitions of measured and indicated coal adopted for this study. Should future drilling or development prove reserves in these areas, such reserves should be added to the total estimated reserves.

Jan 1, 1955

By Daniel K. Lindberg, Fiseha Tesfaye

To reduce the use of fossil fuels and increase self-sufficiency in energy, nowadays, there is an increasing interest to produce heat, power and transportation fuels from renewable resources. Solid biomass is one of the most important renewable energy sources for meeting this target. However, fouling, slagging, and corrosion threaten long-term operation availability and costs of biomass power plants. Slags accumulated on the surfaces of superheaters, which decrease thermal efficiency, often constitute a considerable percentage of complex inorganic phases. However, thermodynamic properties of the complex inorganic phases and their combined effect, which will help to deal with the slag related problems during high-temperature biomass combustion processes, are not well known. In the present paper, thermodynamic properties of K-, Ca-, and Na-based inorganic phases and their mixtures under different gas conditions are both critically reviewed and experimentally studied. The obtained results are presented and discussed.

Mar 1, 2017