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By E. M. Schern

The Morenci/Metcalf porphyry copper mining operation, located in southeastern Arizona, currently processes approximately 100,000 tons of ore per day and has copper ore reserves estimated to be in excess of one billion tons. Functional groups within the Geology Depart¬ment (currently staffed with six professional and two support personnel) include mine geology, project geology, and hydrogeology. The primary task of mine geologists is daily preblast bench face mapping with grade and mill amenability estimates. Auxiliary duties include detailed in-pit metal distribution evaluation, mineragraphic work and flux quarry geology. Project geologists conduct explora¬tion and preliminary development projects both within and outside the Morenci district and provide support to ore reserve block modeling and geotechnical work performed by the Morenci mine engineering group. Hydrogeologists handle exploration for and development of groundwater' resources and groundwater flow modeling, mine dump leach solution penetration and recovery evaluation, and tailing dam water reclamation.

Jan 1, 1983

By E. Lovera

Social attention to environmental aspects, steadily increasing in European Countries, has been leading to a stricter regulation of many productive activities. Among them, mining and quarrying sectors have been often censured for their potential and real impacts on land and environment. Referring to dimension stone exploitation (also the terms ornamental stone or natural stone are here used as synonymous), quarries are often concentrated in extractive basins, where the resource is localized with suitable quality and quantity: this fact has sometimes raised critical environmental situations. Nevertheless, dimension stone quarrying represents in Europe a traditional and important economical activity, source of wealth and employment. Moreover, many natural stones take on a ?cultural? value and may be considered as ?classic?, as they have been exploited since antiquity and are element of the architectural heritage of many Countries. The sector relevance demands the research of a sustainable balance between social-economical needs and environmental protection. Actually, very restrictive environmental protection policies have led to severe limitations to quarrying activity, but the results do not seem to be completely positive in terms of sustainability: on the one hand, closing-down stone quarrying activities imposes a shrinkage in local, social and economical development; on the other, quarrying activity is pushed towards developing Countries, environmentally un-protected, simply moving and putting off to next future the problem. The challenge of the sustainable development of quarrying sector ? recently explored in the European Commission?s communication ?Promoting sustainable development in the EU non energy extractive industry? (COM-2000-265) ? should be achieved through a positive link between theoretical statements and practical effects: sustainability indicators may be an effective instrument to assess and monitor the environmental performance of the industry. The paper refers to the development of specific ecological criteria and indicators, which can be useful to measure and predict the eco-efficiency of a dimension stone quarry, finally pointing out where improvement efforts have to be focused.

Jan 1, 2003

By John J. Mancini

Elastomeric liner products have been used for over two decades in a wide variety of uses including pond liners, hazardous waste barriers, dam face rehabilitation and mining applications. Asphalt blended with polymers is enjoying renewed interest in the engineering community because of its durability, high yield attributes, fewer CQA steps due to seamless installation, and ease of installation and repair. As in other lining technologies, advancements in polymer chemistry and improvements in installation techniques have had dramatic impact on the quality of fluid-applied asphalt (FAA) membranes. Membrane 6, man­ufactured by Deery Oil, Inc. for over 16 years is a hot-applied polymer modified asphalt membrane that can be applied to a variety of substrates in a reinforced configuration or installed directly on an asphalt surface. By blending thermoplastic polymers with asphalt, very favorable stress/strain characteristics can be achieved (Chambers, 1980). Typically the membrane will yield under rel­atively low stress and also exhibit high elongation capability. In service applications where puncture resistance is a concern, fluid applied asphalt materials have the flexibility and com­pressive strength under heavy loading that leach pad designers may find attractive. Additional security is achieved if long term service life is important as in the case of radioactive waste con­tainment. The Department of Energy selected Membrane 6 over seamed liners for a surface barrier that must isolate and contain radioactive waste for 1000 years. Asphalt has a long history of use as a water-stop material and it is believed that this natural construction material combined with SBS polymers will per-form for a millennium. (Freeman, 1994) The process of installing Membrane 6 varies according to job size and the type of surface to be protected. Lining applica­tions on compacted substrates require the membrane to be applied to a scrim cloth (fig 1). Some early pioneers in FAA technology neglected this step and therefore never achieved per­formance levels that satisfied regulatory guidelines. The scrim provides a cohesive surface that promotes membrane flow while achieving high impermeability (2Xl0 '11).

Jan 1, 1996

By Hans Svensson

INTRODUCTION The Alimak method of raising (Fig. 1) was intro¬duced in 1957. Because of its flexibility, economy, and speed, it soon became the most used system of raising in the world. With the same unit, raises of various areas, inclinations, and lengths can be driven. Air-motor¬-driven raise climbers normally are used in mines with short raises (Fig. 2). For longer raises electric or diesel-¬hydraulic drives are used. The Alimak raise climber is designed entirely in ac¬cordance with the instructions of the Swedish Board of Industrial Safety (Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen). There are good margins of safety concerning the breaking strength of the material and the raise climber comprises safety devices and features that practically eliminate the risks of accidents. The drive gear of air-driven climbers is equipped with an air-operated brake which is automatically activated when air for the motors is shut off. There is a safety device which activates automatically at overspeed and a speed-regulated brake for descent by gravity, by which the raise climber can be taken down to the bottom of the raise in case of cutoff of the air supply. The raise climber climbs along a pin rack welded to a guide rail which also comprises pipes for air and water. The guide. rail can be extended by using 1- or 2-m (3.2¬or 6.4-ft) sections as the driving progresses. Each guide rail section is bolted to the rock wall by special expan¬sion bolts of Alimak design. Men ride up to the face in the cage, traveling com¬fortably and easily while material is transported on the platform. There is no dangerous climbing up ladders. The men are well protected during ascent and arrive in good condition at the face. The greatest advantages of raise climber systems are flexibility and versatility. The equipment provides a comfortable working position in vertical as well as in¬clined raises of any area and length. The direction may

Jan 1, 1982

By Harald F. Solberg

A preliminary study of the performance of a 4-inch Krebs cyclone at near rope conditions and different feed slurry temperatures was completed. Results suggest that temperature influences the x50c size which, in turn, did not depend upon spigot diameter. The bypass correction to a reduced efficiency equation incorporating the concept of a critical size xo was a function of fractional water recovery to underflow and may depend on feed size and feed percent solids. Further experimentation is required to develop an accurate model at near rope conditions.

Jan 1, 1981

By Robert D. Deister

The Buick Concentrator represents state-of- the-art technology in automated digital process control operation utilizing a centralized computer. The process control strategies implemented at Buick are no longer new to the industry but the successful application of these developments is still rather unique in North America. Productivity improvements, determined to be a direct result of the process control developments, are the primary topics of this paper. Emphasis is placed on metallurgical benefits including both lead and zinc recoveries, lead concentrate grade and reductions realized in reagent consumptions, operating costs and personnel. The productivity improvement discussion is preceded by a concentrator description and a brief history of the process control development at Buick. Current control strategies and future applications are presented afterward.

Jan 1, 1985

By Randolph E. Scheffel

Mill design and project execution are very demanding and interactive processes requiring the dedication and cooperation of many parties. The development philosophy which lead to the successful completion of Ranchers Exploration and Development Corporation's Escalante silver mill is reviewed. The project spanned 25 months from initial feasibility studies to start-up with the major construction effort requiring only 4 months. Mill performance for the second and third months after start-up, as well as fiscal 1983, is compared against the design parameters. Capital and operating costs are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By Arnaud Colson

1 Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Let me first thank you for welcoming me to this international congress. I?ll have the pleasure to explain to you how the Lafarge group works on its quarry rehabilitation. I will deal with the way quarry rehabilitation has affected all branches of the group trough a global approach. 2 Quarries often are a subject of controversy dividing those are for and those who are against. My purpose is rather to examine where factors of progress lay and how in a quarry such as Lafarge we can include quarry rehabilitation, which is so fundamental dimension of our process. 3 - 4 As these two photos of French quarry show taking into account the environment in the quarry industry has been a recent preoccupation. In less than a century rehabilitation has a dramatically evolved in a positive way. Consequently our group integrate an ecological dimension in its activity. It?s an ethical question as well as a personal view of our role as a responsible industrial group. 5 My presentation is built around 4 points: I?ll begin by explaining why it?s our responsibility to rehabilitate quarries. I?ll go on to fill you in on the method of the project. After that I?ll outline the expected results. Finally I?ll talk about the rest of the project and the way we can ensure this know how.

Jan 1, 2002

By John Wiebmer

Six industry trends will have significant effect on the way mining equipment is designed and supported in the years ahead: 1. MINING IS MIGRATING TO LESSER DEVELOPED PARTS OF THE WORLD The global recession of the early 1980's drove down commodity prices and intensified cost competition. This caused a fairly dramatic trend in mining away from higher cost operations in developed countries to richer, lower cost deposits in developing countries. Miners operating in lesser developed parts of the world will place higher value on rugged, durable designs that can live in more difficult and sometimes abusive conditions. They need engines and power train systems that are more tolerant of a wide variation in fuel quality and oil specifications. They'll require machines that are simpler to operate, simpler to maintain, simpler to troubleshoot and simpler to repair. And they'll require creative means of support in getting technical information, parts and components to remote operational sites. Mining equipment in the future will be more durable and simple than it is today, and product support will grow in importance as purchasing criterion. 2. THE MINING INDUSTRY IS CONSOLIDATING An intense amount of corporate acquisition and industry consolidation activity is occurring, to the point that today just 50 mining companies account for 55% of the western world non-fuel mineral production. Consolidation will continue, leading in the future to an industry structure weighted heavily toward a few key global mining houses.

Jan 1, 1993

By E. L. Fidler, T. E. Finch

Wayne Anderson Regarding the technical paper by Thomas E. Finch and Edward L. Fidler, "Recovery of Stray (Thin) Seams in Western Coal Mining." I would like to comment on this subject. In western Canada, most strip mines encounter thin seam coal or rider seams. Although the paper addresses the problems and costs associated with the recovery of this coal, it does not take into account what the savings are. Without looking at the savings, the "Total Objective" is of course not clear. I feel that in a stripping operation the mine can spend per ton (of the thin seam) up to their dragline stripping costs per ton to recover a rider seam or thin seam. The reasoning behind this is simply that this is the price the mine will have to pay to expose an equivalent amount of coal without the recovery of these thin seams. If the mine can recover a rider seam or thin seam for less than the dragline operating costs per ton, a savings will be realized. By recovering a thin seam or rider seam, the life of an ore body is extended by that amount of coal not thrown away. In addition, the cost of land acquisition, associated permits, capital, and reclamation will be reduced as more coal is delivered for a given area. When the above points are considered, the recovery of these thin seams can be very profitable and indeed worth recovering.

Jan 11, 1982

By W. de Moura, R. Fueyo, M. M. Botz, J. C. Scola

The Cerro Vanguardia mine is an AngloGold Limited operation in southern Argentina that includes multiple open pits and a hybrid Merrill-Crowe and CIL circuit to recover gold and silver from oxide ore. Operations were commissioned at the site in 1998, which included a plant in the metallurgical circuit to recover cyanide from mill tailings. The cyanide recovery plant was initially configured to process tailings slurry and achieved greater than 90% cyanide recovery from tailings containing about 600 to 800 mg/L WAD cyanide (as CN). The cyanide recovery circuit was operated in this manner for approximately eight months, during which time the consumption of sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide was relatively high, leading to high rates of scale formation in the acidification tank and stripping towers. In July 1999, several piping changes were made in the cyanide recovery system to permit its operation with clear solution, which reduced the sulphuric acid consumption and eliminated scale formation in process equipment. The cyanide recovery system currently operates with a two-stage counter-current decantation (CCD) circuit which provides clear solution for processing in the cyanide recovery plant. The cyanide recovery efficiency now averages about 90% to 92% from solution containing about 350 mg/L WAD cyanide (as CN). Recovered sodium cyanide now accounts for about two-thirds of the total cyanide added to the leaching circuit. This paper presents a description of the cyanide recovery plant and details regarding its current operating efficiency.

Jan 1, 2004

By J. F. Dresser

Managing environmental compliance at a complex facility has the potential to bring a high degree of personal and professional satisfaction to both the corporation and the individuals responsible for day-to-day operations. The decade of the 1990's, however, has seen the emergence of a nationwide trend of aggressive federal and state civil and criminal enforcement for environmental violations. This trend, spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Enforcement, has the potential to place the corporation, its corporate officers, and compliance personnel at collective professional risk, as well as a growing tendency to place accountability on individuals. Management of environmental compliance has been anecdotally compared to a shooting gallery at a carnival, with the following exception: At the shooting gallery, successfully hitting nine out of ten targets usually brings a reward and recognition of shooting skill; hitting nine out of ten environmental compliance expectations not only brings agency consternation and negative publicity, but the "gallery" will likely shoot back with stiff fines and possible criminal allegations. Faced with the challenges of the new environmental compliance shooting gallery, corporations and professionals are often left asking themselves, "How do we (or more appropriately, can we) win at this game?" This paper examines recent federal enforcement statistics and offers several suggestions for coping with the responsibility of managing environmental compliance in the 1990's.

Jan 1, 1992

By Tommy B. Thompson

The Cripple Creek diatreme-intrusive complex is known primarily for its vein telluride-gold ores. It is also known for the great vertical range of its major veins - >990 m (>3250 ft). Not as well-documented, however, are the ores dispersed into the wallrocks adjacent to veins, the ores associated with hydrothermal and tectonic breccias, or mineralized zones within fluvial, lacustrine and volcaniclastic rocks de- posited within the diatreme complex. The ore-gangue minerals were precipitated from oxidized, alkaline fluids that yielded an abundance of carbonate, sulfate and oxide minerals along with minor base metal sulfides and precious metal tellurides. Wallrock alteration is limited adjacent to veins and is more extensive within hydrothermal and tectonic breccias. Cripple Creek background The Cripple Creek district has a spectacular production history. More than 653 t (21 million oz) of gold were recovered between 1891 and 1959. Early published accounts documented the principal production from narrow- sheeted vein systems (Cross and Penrose, 1895; Lindgren and Ransome, 1906; Loughlin, 1927; Loughlin and Koschmann, 1935). Production also came from spectacular open-space fillings within the Cresson diatreme, also known as the Cresson “blow-out” (Patton, 1917; Patton and Wolf, 1915). Beginning in the mid- l96Os, more modern studies were initiated by the US Geological Survey (USGS) (Gott et al. , 1967, 1969; Kleinkopf et al., 1970) and by universities (Lane, 1976: Dwelley, 1984; Trippel, 1985; Thompson et al., 1985; Saunders, 1986; Birmingham, 1987; Eriksson, 1987; Nelson, 1989; Wood, 1990; Seibel, 1991).

Jan 1, 1992

By Philip U. Santacroce, James H. Meinholz

INTRODUCTION The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), is a special purpose sub-regional agency that provides collection and treatment services for sanitary wastewater for an area of 420 square miles (1088 km2) in 27 municipalities in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metropolitan area. During its almost 75 years of existence, it has constructed 464 km of intercepting sewers, the majority in tunnel, and two sub-regional secondary wastewater treatment plants. The present program, the $1.7 billion Milwaukee Water Pollution Abatement Program, was started in 1977 and developed from ongoing internal planning, the Federal Clean Water Act and court judgments. Elements of the Program include improvement and expansion of the two treatment plants; rehabilitation of older in-place sewers; building new interceptors and relief sewers and providing capacity for high volume storage in approximately 32 km of deep, large diameter rock tunnels; reducing combined sewer overflow; and disposal/utilization of the solids that remain after the treatment process. The construction phase of the Program accounts for $1,105,900,000 within 335 separate construction contracts, 211 let to date, and covers a span of 15 years, starting in 1979 and running through 1994. Conveyance System construction cost is estimated to be $650,000,000 or about 60 percent of the total. Through December 1986, in terms of dollars, the total construction program is about 38 percent complete with Conveyance at 34 percent complete.

Jan 1, 1987

By Changwoo Lee

Under drastically deteriorated situations, diesel equipment was introduced to some of local coal mines, aiming at higher productivity and better safety. To accommodate various diesel equipment in conventionally developed mines, mining system itself had to be modified; much larger trackless haulage ways were excavated. Possible health hazards of diesel not taken into account at the beginning become a serious concern and effective control measures are being searched for. The purpose of this paper is to study the diffusion characteristics of diesel exhaust in local coal mines. One of the parameters affecting dispersion of diesel contaminants is the coefficient of turbulent diffusion. Since CO2 is known to be closely correlated with other contaminants such as CO, NO, NQ, SO2 and RCD, it was chosen as a tracer gas in a series of dispersion experiments. A large diesel passage as well as a conventional track haulage way were the sites for the experiments. Rectangular dispersion pulses were generated for 30 ~60 seconds and CO2 concentrations were recorded at several locations 50~190 m downwind. The diffusion coefficients calculated graphically vary between 0.10~0.48 m2/s at both haulage ways. The results are analyzed to find any correlation with the air velocity and the distance from the disperser. Skobunov's empirical formula is applied to the experimental data for comparison and the relationship between Reynolds number and Ex/Dp/sci0.4 Sc1…

Jan 1, 1995

By J. Schleifer

On short term, planning techniques require more details to ensure feasibility, giving importance to operation constraints and use of available resources. In GUEMASSA (Morocco), the ore mass is mined by cut-and- fill method. Correct organization requires to forecast a few weeks ahead the schedule of blocks to be mined, in order to respect ore quantity and grade constraints. While operating constraints are tackled, feasibility is assumed with an average production capacity suggesting that resources will be available. In ST-SALVY (France), scheduling operations is not possible if not considering account resource allocation. In any stope within the vertical vein zinc deposit, the cut-and-fill method enables to mine each horizontal slice according to various strategies, de- pending how to use manpower and equipment, and selecting among predefined scenarios known as realistic. For KOFFIEFONTEIN (South Africa), the kimberlite pipe is mined by a sub-level-stoping method. To achieve the production target, precise organization over one month is obtained, using on& resources when available and respecting all mining rules. This combined operation scheduling and resource allocation is called sequencing. While following the BONANZA concept, providing a planning- retrieval process, sequencing offers more. Very detailed, it is possible to check the impact of resource parameters and mining rules. The sequencer, like a simulation platform, enables expertise. Each sequencer must be tailor-made to fit to each specific mine. The next challenge is to produce a generic environment.

Jan 1, 1996

By Valcana Stoyanova

The distribution pattern, abundance variations and types of polymetallic nodules and associated megabenthic communities in area covers more than 60 000 km2 laid out in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is presented. Our observations are based on data from 158 boxcore stations collected during the cruise of the Interoceanmetal (IOM) in 2004 on board of RV Yuzhmorgeologiya. Although those polymetallic nodules for two decades been subject to prospecting and exploration studies carried out by IOM, the knowledge of megabenthic communities and their distribution pattern within nodule field was extremely limited. With purpose to evaluate the relationship between polymetallic nodules and associated benthic megafauna, an comparison analyze was carried out in respect to their composition, types, abundance across the studied area owing into account the local particular feature of bottom topography. It is suggested that the nodule-bearing seafloor supported more diverse fauna (higher number of morphotypes) than the nodule-free areas. Moreover, based on correlation between types of nodules and associated faunal morphotypes frequency the apparent relationship is considered. The most abundant megafaunal taxa (between 68 ? 92%) is essentially associated with the occurrence of the diagenetically growth nodules type (D-type and its D1-subtype); the role of the H and HD nodule-types was variable. In respect to the bottom topography, the highest diversity in the structure of megafaunal communities was recorded in the gently undulating plains and on the horst slopes, thus the highest nodule abundance occur on the topographic slopes.

Jan 1, 2008

By G. Milojcic

The opencast lignite mines in the Rhinel and Di strict/Germany are equipped with the continuously operating bucket-wheel excavator - conveyor - spreader system. High productivity requires large capital expenditure on main mine equipment as a precondition for efficient mining. In operation, the technology employed leads to a particular cost pattern which is quite different from that of other industries. Labour, auxiliary equipment and mobile vehicles are the most important cost factors which can be controlled by the management. In this respect information processing computer systems are used for systematical and interpretable representation of operational tasks and jobs both in planning and work preparation and in recording the operational data describing the work result and the use of resources. Another aim of the project is to relieve the middle management of major part of its administrative routine work. Job-related work planning and data recording open up various possibilities of analyzing the operational procedures. This analysis shows, for example, what auxiliary machines are particularly suitable for specific tasks, and working groups can be organized so as to take account of the different skills of individual employees for the sake of an optimal work product. Computerized information processing provides the decision makers with topical information related to their respective responsibilities. The mining department of the Hambach opencast mine is the first user of the PERMAD system. Due to the favorable evaluation it has been decided to introduce PERMAD in three other mines in the course of 1992/93.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. Woods

INTRODUCTION Gaudin (1), considered that "the mechanism of mineral collection is the central problem of flotation theory". From their work on adsorption phenomena in flotation for more than fifty years (2), Gaudin and his co-workers have made major contributions to the elucidation of this mechanism, a fact acknowledged by their contemporaries in the field (e.g. (3)). Their investigations in a number of areas, e.g. demonstrating that submonolayer quantities of adsorbed collector species can induce flotation, or identifying the influence of substances which can activate or depress (1), have helped to provide the basis for and the development of a theory to account for the interaction between mineral and collector. It was established in the late fifties (4) that the presence of oxygen is a prerequisite for the flotation of metal sulfides with thiol collectors. This fact rendered inadequate the concept of simple ion adsorption being responsible for rendering these minerals hydrophobic. The requirement for oxygen has been explained (1) in terms of this species being a component in chemical reactions between the sulfide surface and the collector. Gaudin has been instrumental in identifying the products of chemical reactions at sulfide minerals (1.5), a line of work which has been continued particularly by Finkelstein and co-workers in South Africa (6). In presenting a detailed mechanism of the mineral-collector- oxygen interaction, it has often been considered that the mineral surface - must first be oxidized to a metal oxy-sulfur species which

Jan 1, 1976

By Mingju Liu

The coal and gas outburst accident on May 20, 2007 at Sihe Coal Mine is unique in that there was no or very little soft coal in the coal seam and that the coal strength was very high. The outburst also showed that there was a very high gas content of 20-30 m3/t in the coal seam nearby the outburst site. Based on the field test and observations, together with laboratory experiments, detailed analysis was conducted on the controlling factors of coal and gas outburst potential at Sihe Coal Mine. Stress data available from Sihe Coal Mine, northern China, and other parts of the world, were also taken into account to facilitate the analysis. The results shows that the stress level was not abnormal compared to other coal fields in China prone to outbursts, and that gas contained in the coal seam was the main factor that triggered the outburst. All these factors were essentially controlled by the tectonic evolution features in Qinshui Coal Basin, to the Southeast of which Sihe coal field is located. Based on the analysis, assessment of coal seam outburst potential was carried out by measurements of coal seam gas contents, observation, and detection of soft coal layers in the coal seam. The results show that outbursts are limited to only a small part of the whole coal seam and that the eastern part of coal field is not prone to outbursts.

Jan 1, 2009