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By Robert McIvor

The following is a summary of the Robert H. Richards Lecture on “Learning and Good Fortune on the Road to Discovery” presented at the Mineral & Metallurgical Processing Division (MPD) Awards Plenary Session on Feb. 23, 2026 during the MINEXCHANGE 2026 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, UT.

Mar 1, 2026

The industrial might of the Bowen Basin is primarily the result of Utah Development Co.'s work- which has opened up the Blackwater, Goonyella, Peak Downs, and Saraji mines; built the Hay Point port; and is now developing the Norwich Park mine.

Jan 1, 1977

By John S. Lagarias

When ore bodies are faulted or mill feed turns refractory, mining managers and engineers act vigorously to convert imminent failure into eventual success. The recent proliferation of onerous "environmental" regulations and restraints is likewise a threat to successful mining enterprise, in some ways more insidious and dangerous than the problems presented by natural obstacles. The regulatory burden has become so heavy that a pall of pessimism covers much of the mining enterprise. In this paper we frankly recommend a Pollyanna approach, making not just "the best of it" but directing the whole environmental process: first, to improve our planning, engineering, and operating procedures; and, second, to demonstrate the need for modification of laws and regulations which are intolerably burden-some to both the mining industry and the public. It is customary for government officials and environmentalists to point out how great are the new environmental regulations and how successfully these have improved the natural environment in particular and the quality of life in general.

Jan 1, 1978

By Tegner C. Johnson

Just a few years ago, my company was referred to as the Marion Steam Shovel Company. Though we still make shovels, both two and eight-crawler types, the eight-crawler stripping shovel appears to have been replaced by the walking dragline for overburden removal and in some cases for the mineral as well. The walking dragline appeared in the coal fields in the early 1930's. It is popular because it can cope with overburden depths in excess of 100 ft and with blasted sedimentary rock, all at an O & O (ownership and operational) cost of ±10[c] per bank cu yd (bcy).

Jan 10, 1974

By Zoltan F. Oszter

Feeding bulk solids from bins or bunkers sometimes poses a problem to the materials handling engineer. The paper describes, by practical examples, how material flow can be improved on existing installations, and how difficult-to-handle materials can be successfully drawn from storage and fed to fully automated process systems. The examples illustrated are based on actual experience with projects designed for the mining and metallurgical industry. Maintenance costs, where available, are also indicated.

Jan 1, 1966

By Mark Roberts

Automation, data analytics and optimisation are key trends in the mining industry. Doing more, and better, while expending less resources targets KPIs around efficiency and productivity. With the explosion of data, the next step is to develop an optimal level of processes and systems to harness this data to support value-in use decisions. Typically, significant amounts of resources and effort are invested to develop realistic simulation models. However, models are frequently not integrated with existing systems, and therefore are underutilised. When we consider the specialised process of blasting, integration with upstream and downstream processes is a significant driver to realise sustained improvements and value. The application of genetic algorithms and cloud computing to solving complex mining problems has advanced over the last 15 years, in particular with mine scheduling. Genetic algorithms are unique in that they support true multi-objective optimisation, utilising population-based methods to present trade-offs between multiple solutions. Secure in-cloud processing speeds up the processing, with results delivered in timeframes that are not feasible with desktop computing.

Feb 6, 2023

By G Lumley

Gold miners have been underperforming the price of gold for a number of years. So why has the æmarketÆ undervalued our gold miners relative to what they have been mining? The low valuation ascribed to gold mining companies is largely attributable to their profit performance. In the period since 2006 the price of gold in A$ has risen about $900/oz, but the real cash margin (operating cash costs + cost of finding and/or acquiring deposits + the cost of bringing them into production) has only risen about A$100. Rising operating costs are a major part of this reduction in real margin. Energy and labour costs have risen more than the inflation rates across a number of countries as have taxes, royalties, etc. There are however, more significant contributors to the rising cost base. Firstly, in 2006 the average gold grade was 2.0 g/t; today it is 1.3 g/t. Secondly, strip ratios (for surface mines) have increased by 19 per cent during this time. Open cut mining equipment unit output across the world has dropped by 26 per cent during 2006 - 2012. Finally, costs have risen by 55 per cent during this time period. Consequently, there is now 3.8 times more mining cost required to produce an ounce of gold from surface mines compared with 2006. The decline in gold grade looks to be a permanent trend as does increasing strip ratio if output is to be maintained. Costs will continue to rise although cost control will be necessary. Reversing the decline in equipment performance and closing the gap between median and best practice provides the hope for a sustainable reversal of cost increases. The current gap between best practice and median performance has grown to 112 per cent for mining trucks, 168 per cent for excavators and 169 per cent for front end loaders. Closing this gap is the potential for a more profitable future. For most gold mining companies improving mining efficiency is not an option; it is an imperative.CITATION:Lumley, G, 2013. How many gold mines will inefficiency kill?, in Proceedings World Gold 2013 , pp 267-276 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 26, 2013

By N. G. Johnson

ALL of us are only too familiar with the fact that first the defense program, and finally the war, required vastly increased production from existing sources, and the discovery and development of new sources of minerals and metals. For this vast program, the explosives industry was well prepared. I use the term "well prepared" to cover all the phases of explosives service, which include formulation, design, manufacture, distribution, and application.

Jan 1, 1944

By M Pyle, R Ch, T Vizcarra, ramohan, G Lane, G Ballantyne

Preconcentration, through gravity separation (Wallace et al, 2015), magnetic separation and particle size (Clout, 2013), has been used in many historical projects to convert low grade material into ore. More recently, pre-concentration technologies such as bulk sorting (Kurth, 2017), screening (Bearman, 2014) and coarse particle flotation (Vollert et al, 2019) have also demonstrated their ability to progressively reject waste through the value chain. These technologies can not only deliver stepchange improvements to the economics of mining operations, but can transform the environmental and social aspects by minimising water and energy consumption and significantly reduce the quantity of fine tailings produced. However, implementing progressive waste rejection requires technologies and approaches to be combined and applied in the right way to capture the value. From a technical perspective, progressive waste rejection introduces challenges related to the orebody, equipment performance, engineering and understanding the value chain from the resource through to final product. From a management perspective, the key issues are related to people and processes, in particular; motivating the business, challenging the paradigms, and introducing new ways of operating within the constraint of existing management structures to manage risks and minimise lost opportunity costs. This combination of technical and management issues means that progressive waste rejection is a complex undertaking for mining companies, yet the reward for the business and other stakeholders is potentially high and should not be ignored. This paper presents how progressive waste rejection can offer step-change improvements to the business case for high and low grade greenfield and brownfield projects based on case studies completed by Ausenco. The paper then outlines different implementation approaches from concept studies to execution to address the various technical and management challenges outlined above.

Nov 10, 2020

By Arthur P. Nelson

In opening, I want to thank the program committee and members of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME for the opportunity to speak to you. Various chapters of AIME this past year have expressed interest in the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act. We want to see that interest continue, because the reason for the legislation was the safety and health of the industry's workforce. The Department of the Interior was directed by the Congress to administer the provisions of the Act and is therefore held directly accountable for the success or failure of its intent. We intend to see it succeed. Among other things, the Act does provide for education and training under Section 15. This provision has been implemented and is expanding. However, the responsibility of my office is inspection and enforcement and that is my subject today.

Jan 1, 1973

By Neville Rockhouse

This paper examines the interrelationship of conducting full risk assessments in the context of the coal mining industry and under the framework of the Health's Safety in Employment Act 1992. In the context of Occupational Health's Safety, Risk Management is a holistic management process that can be used by individuals working in all organisations and from all industries. The Australian New Zealand Standard 4360: 2004 defines a Risk as being; The chance of something happening that will have an impact on objectives. This definition is followed by several notes that include: a risk is often specified in terms of an event or circumstance and the consequences that may flow from it, risk is measured in terms of a combination of the consequences of an event and their likelihood, and risk may have a positive or negative impact. For the purposes of this paper, the above definition will be adopted. This paper examines the newly expanded approach of the fully documented risk management process in the New Zealand coal mining industry. This is done in the context of the coal mining regulations but more importantly by using the framework of the Health & Safety in Employment Act 1992. This legislation under Section 6 requires all employers to, Take all Practicable Steps to prevent harm coming to employees while at work and to others who might be at or in the vicinity of a workplace. When the term 'all practicable steps' is studied, one can clearly see that such steps should be the same steps taken that a prudent and reasonable person would have taken given the same type of circumstance. Due to the fact that in New Zealand parliament made statutes is administered by a Government Department, means that their breaches will be heard before a judge in the District Court. Under the Westminster System of Justice, a basic dictum of that court in matters relating the occupational health and safety is that a breach needs to be satisfied to a specific standard. That standard is, 'Beyond a reasonable Doubt'. One of the primary benefits of adopting a proactive approach to risk management is that if the industry were to adopt similar approaches, then this mythology could be seen as an industry standard. As such, the approach carries the same status in a court of law, as that of an Approved Code of Practice.

Jan 1, 2007

By W. R. Middagh, R. M. Garvey

"Phosphate rock is shipped by boat from Florida to Vancouver, B.C., where it is unloaded and stored in a 50,000-ton silo. It is shipped from Vancouver in 100-ton hopper cars in 80-car trains to Fort Saskatchewan. Both the ship and the hopper cars are on a back-haul with potash. The rock cars are unloaded at Fort Saskatchewan at a rate of approximately 4 cars per hour. The rock is stored in three concrete silos, 40 ft in diameter by 110 ft high, which hold 18,000 tons of recoverable rock with 2,000 tons dead space. The rock is reclaimed from the silos by gravity and fed to the phosphoric acid plant by remotely operated conveying equipment.Problems encountered in the operation include scheduling the rock shipments, contamination of the rock with potash, and handling the 80-car trains both in Vancouver and Fort Saskatchewan."

Jan 1, 1968

By V. Castranova

"A pneumoconiosis is best defined as the accumulation of dust in the lungs and the tissue's reaction to iu presence. Thus, silicosis is the name given to the fibrotic disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of dust containing silicon dioxide, primarily in the free crystalline form. Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), which was originally thought to be a variant of silicosis, results from inhalation of coal mine dust that usually contains relatively small amounts of free crystalline silica.HISTORYSilicosis is the older and more well known of these mineral pneumoconiosis. In contrast, CWP was not recognized as different from silicosis until the pivotal work of Collis and Gilchrist. 26 They noted that coal trimmers, i.e., special stevedores who leveled coal in the holds of ships at the Cardiff and Swansea docks in Wales, developed identical nodules on the chest radiograph to those of underground miners. The difference was that these men had never worked underground and that the coal was washed before it was loaded into ships; thus, it was unlikely that these men were exposed to silica. Gough54 examined the lungs of coal trimmers who died and found that the histologic appearance of the pulmonary lesions was distinctly different from the whorled nodules seen in silicosis. Gough,"" and subsequently Heppleston,"" then showed that the lung lesions in coal trimmers were similar to those in underground coal miners and different from those of classical silicosis. Nagelschmidt 78 analyzed the mineral content of miners' lungs that became available at autopsy. These studies caused him to propose a scheme in which the relative proportions of silica, other minerals, and/or coal deposited in the lungs determined the type of pulmonary response which develops, i.e., classical silicosis, mixed-dust disease, or CWP."

Nov 1, 1995

By John E. Caffrey

Mr. William. J. Montgomery in his book "Theory and Practice on Mine Ventilation stated "Ventilation is vitally important to underground mining for three reasons: First, it sweeps all workings with a plentiful supply of air and drives to the outside the smoke, gases, and contaminated air which would be injurious to the miners; second, it dilutes and renders harmless the explosive gases emitted from the strata, thus eliminating the dangerous conditions caused by the accumulation of these gases; third, it keeps the mine air as nearly as possible of the same composition as the outside air, thus giving to the miner the healthiest possible condition in which to work...." Specific methods to achieve the above basic reasons for mine ventilation were established in the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Sections 303(y)(1); (y)(2), and Section 317(f)(4) of the Act, which can be broadly described as entrapment features, are controversial and debatable in the minds of many mining engineers in their intent and method for affecting, 303(y)(1) in certain cases prohibits the use of belt haulage entries as an intake for face ventilation, This is to say that air traveling in a belt entry will be placed into the returns and not used for face ventilation, 303(y)(2) limits the velocity of the air on trolley haulage entries. The regulations, as published in the Federal Register, have set this limit at 250 feet per minute unless a higher velocity is approved by the District Manager.

Jan 1, 1972

By Simon Strong, Tim Brown, Luis Ignacio Sanz Vivanco

"One of the most significant technical and practical challenges facing the tunnel construction team on the Legacy Way road tunnel project in Brisbane, Australia was how to erect the pre-stressed precast concrete slabs to form the smoke duct in the tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunnels. An essential part of the tunnel ventilation system, the smoke duct, extends the full length of the 4.6km long twin, two lane tunnels. The vast majority of the tunnels (approx. 4.3km) were constructed using two 12.4m diameter double shield TBMs. The refurbished Herrenknecht machines broke several world records on the way to completing the tunnel excavation works in just over nine months. With the excavation complete the focus turned to solving the complex civil tunnel fit out challenges. A key component of the civil fit out of the tunnels was constructing the smoke duct in the TBM tunnels which was designed as a precast solution. The slabs which each measure 8.62m long by 2.0m wide by 200mm thick and weigh close to 9 tonne need to be erected above cast in situ corbels whilst other tunnel finishing works continue. The space proofing clearance offered by the design to the support corbels below and the precast segmental lining above was in the order of only 100mm. This paper details the events of how the Transcity JV tunnel fit out team, comprising some of Europe and Australia’s leading tunnel construction specialists, drew upon the global strengths of the existing JV member companies and the global reach of leading TBM manufacturer Herrenknecht to develop an innovative system to solve this challenging problem. This globetrotting story, which starts in Australia, visits Europe and mainland China before returning to Brisbane where it all began."

Jan 1, 2016

By S Strong, L I. Sanz Vivanco, T Brown

One of the most significant technical and practical challenges facing the tunnel construction team on the Legacy Way road tunnel project in Brisbane, Australia was how to erect the prestressed precast concrete slabs to form the smoke duct in the tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunnels.An essential part of the tunnel ventilation system, the smoke duct extends the full length of the 4.6 km-long twin two-lane tunnels. The vast majority of the tunnels (approximately 4.3 km) were constructed using two 12.4 m diameter double-shield TBMs. The refurbished Herrenknecht machines broke several world records on the way to completing the tunnel excavation works in just over nine months. With the excavation complete the focus turned to solving the complex civil tunnel fit-out challenges. A key component of the civil fit-out of the tunnels was constructing the smoke duct in the TBM tunnels, which was designed as a precast solution.The slabs, which each measure 8.62 m long × 2.0 m wide × 200 mm thick and weigh close to 9?t, need to be erected above cast in situ corbels whilst other tunnel finishing works continue. The space-proofing clearance offered by the design to the support corbels below and the precast segmental lining above was in the order of only 100 mm.This paper tells the story of how the Transcity Joint Venture (JV) tunnel fit-out team comprising some of Europe and Australia’s leading tunnel construction specialists drew upon the global strengths of the existing JV member companies and the global reach of leading TBM manufacturer Herrenknecht to develop an innovative system in solving this challenging problem. This globetrotting story, which starts in Australia, visits Europe and mainland China before returning to Brisbane where it all began.CITATION:Brown, T, Strong, S and Sanz Vivanco, L I, 2014. How the global experience and reach of tunnelling’s true multinationals helped solve a road tunnel fit-out challenge, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014 , pp 507–512 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

By Don Welch

Pressures for change ?Land use constraints ?Project financing ?Local communities ?Environmental issues ?Sustainability requirements ?Stricter regulatory procedures ?Technical excellence ?Reduce risk ?Impacts of failure & non-compliance

May 1, 2010

By F. F. Aplan

"The material known as coal has a highly variable composition. As a consequence, coals show a great variation in their physical and chemical properties as a function of coal rank. The situation is further complicated because the preparation engineer must deal with raw coal, as mined. This is an assemblage of coal, upwards of 30% mineral matter and, typically, several percent pyrite. The kind and amount of the mineral constituents is also highly variable from source to source. A knowledge of coal rank and source location, and the kind and amount of associated impurities, is the first step in evaluating the response of a raw coal to preparation procedures. The raw coal must first be characterized before information from one source can be extrapolated to that of another.INTRODUCTIONCoal is a black or brownish-black combustible solid, derived from a heterogeneous mixture of plant remains and associated mineral matter that have undergone chemical and physical metamorphic changes by biological and geological processes without free access to air. It is composed principally of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen with lesser amounts of nitrogen and sulfur. 'Its exact chemical and physical nature has remained poorly defined, because the term 'coal' refers to a broad range of coalified solids ranging in rank from anthracite to a variety of bituminous coals of differing volatile matter content, sub-bituminous coals, and ending with lignite and brown coals. The variation in chemical and physical properties through these ranks is massive. In summary, Luckie's (1988) assertion is apropos: ""There is no such thing as coal; there are coals"". The coal preparation engineer, and, most especially, those scientists and engineers from other disciplines wishing to work with coal, must constantly keep this admonition in mind because what is true for one coal seam is often not directly applicable to another."

Jan 1, 1989

By Richard M. Winar

In September of 1988, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) published final regulations that effect owners and operators of underground storage tanks (USTs). These regulation include stringent technical requirements for owners and operators of USTs containing petroleum and certain hazardous substances. The technical requirements effect both new (those installed after December 1988) and existing USTs and include notification; performance and operating standards; release detection, reporting, investigation; release response and corrective action; and closure requirements for out-of-service USTs. The USEPA also published final regulations regarding financial responsibility requirements for owners or operators of petroleum USTs in October of 1988. These regulations require owners or operators of petroleum USTs to demonstrate financial responsibility for the costs of corrective action and compensating third parties for bodily injury or property damage caused by releases from petroleum USTs. Like thousands of other industries, the mining industry must become thoroughly familiar with these new regulations in order to properly manage their UST systems, ensure compliance, and understand other ramifications imposed by these regulations.

Jan 1, 1990

By T Y. Dube

In this paper current net present value (NPV) based mine valuation techniques that take into account market and private risk are discussed and analysed. Potential pitfalls that arise from the application of a portfolio, market or commodity based risk metric to a mining project are identified. An alternative non-simulative framework for quantifying and factoring market and private risk in NPV calculations is proposed and then applied to a hypothetical case study in an attempt to overcome identified pitfalls. Mathematical proof that a static discounted cash flow (DCF) calculation can underestimate or overestimate mine NPV is presented, the conditions for each are outlined and the degree of underestimation defined.CITATION:Dube, T Y, 2012. How the use of market-based risk metrics can undervalue good mining projects and overvalue poor ones, in Proceedings Project Evaluation 2012 , pp 29-34 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 24, 2012