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By S. M. Runke

The purpose of the work described in this publication was to determine, on a pilot-plant scale, the practicability of concentrating low-grade bauxite deposits to render them suitable for the extraction of alumina. In 1941, when it became apparent that the United States might soon be drawn into war, the government, through its various agencies and bureaus, began to stimulate and increase production from domestic reserves of bauxite, which is the principal raw material for the production of aluminum. This activity, which was centered in Arkansas, where 95 percent of the domestic reserve is situated, reached peak production when enemy submarine warfare greatly hindered imports from foreign sources. During this period the average domestic production in Arkansas rose from approximately 300,000 long wet tons to something over 6,000,000 tons in 1943.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. F. Coulter

THE Flin Flon concentrating and metallurgical plants (Figure 1) of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., Limited, lie adjacent to the town of Flin Flon, on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, 400 miles northwest of Winnipeg. Since the start of milling operations in 1930, over 50 million tons of ore from the Flin Flon mine have been treated in the concentrator. During the past few years, newly discovered orebodies have been brought into production and their ores processed at the company's main metallurgical plants. All these properties are within a 75-mile radius of Flin Flon and have aided substantially in augmenting plant metal production as well as retarding depletion of ore reserves in the Flin Flon mine. •Current satellite producers are the Schist Lake, Coronation, and Chisel Lake mines. The Schist Lake mine, located 3 ½ miles southeast of the main plant, is a copper-zinc producer. It was brought into production in 1954. The

Jan 1, 1962

By A. S. Choudhary

Most of the coal reserves in India are of drift origin and have very poor washability characteristics and a high level of near gravity materials. At least 30 new coal wash plants are expected to be set up in the next 5years.In such a scenario, adequate sampling followed by sink float test work for washability analysis becomes very critical for designing these new plants. For coal sampling purpose, stipulations of different standards are sometimes formidable and on the border of ?impracticality?; sometimes are self contradictory in terms of gross sample weight vis-a-vis minimum number of particles required in each size fraction and in each relative density fraction and also the minimum mass in the latter. Validation of the generated data is another important aspect of washability analysis. These issues can easily be addressed by using straight forward mathematical relationships, well known RR plots and by using simple MS Excel tool, etc.

Sep 1, 2012

By Song Yongxue

During the design and operation stages of a block caving project, a large amount of research and development work has been undertaken in the Tongkuangyu Copper Mine. This paper presents the research achievements from these studies, including a rock mass quality evaluation method, cavability prediction, fragmentation evaluation, caving mechanisms, a computerised production scheduling model and the optimised draw control system. The main features of the block caving system in the Tongkuangyu Copper Mine are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2000

By Alvaro Lucio

The continuous increase of the fuel oil price compelled CV3D to look for an alternative fuel. Charcoal was selected as the alternative energy source. This paper justifies its selection, describes charcoal properties, the methods for using charcoal in the pelletizing and shows the results of the in-plant tests.

Jan 1, 1982

By Snehamoy Chatterjee, Sanjay Kumar Palei, Smarak Das

Machine manufacturers’ recommendations on maintenance strategies of capital-intensive draglines are not always based on real data and therefore lead to losses from downtime. This paper proposes a preventive maintenance strategy for a dragline deployed in an opencast coal mine based on reliability-centered maintenance and failure-mode-effects analysis using real operational data. Reliability-centered maintenance replaced a cluster of critical failure components of the dragline while satisfying two specific conditions: (i) the components should be replaced at the earliest mean time to failure (MTTF) within the group and (ii) the time taken to replace all the parts should be equivalent to the maximum downtime within the group. Estimated threshold weightage factor identified twenty-six critical failure components for the preventive maintenance strategy, and clustering of components divided them into nine groups. In a group, the loss that is expected to occur by replacing some of the components before their failure, and the gain by reducing the overall maintenance downtime, has been explained through a cost-benefit analysis. The total net profit generated is calculated as US$200,178. This clustering activity also led to a reduction of annual downtime by 231 h, whose approximate market price as equivalent coal production costs $295,365.

May 28, 2020

By Paul A. Rittenhouse

First of all, I want to thank John Dunlap for asking me to this AIME meeting in Denver. I was first introduced to Denver and The Rocky Mountains more than ten years ago and immediately decided it was one of the most attractive spots in the world. I've come back many times since and still welcome any opportunity to return, even if it means I have to prepare and give a paper on potash. When John Dunlap gave me this assignment, he told me that the program would include papers on the geology of potash, papers on new discovered potash deposits and new mines and asked me to discuss potash from the commercial point of view. He also asked me to include a supply/demand outlook for potash. However, one thing he did not mention was "how far into the future he wanted me to look" and it seems to me the time element is a crucial factor to you who are both geologists and miners as well as to me. In your case, you have to look far enough into the future to give you time to explore, find, evaluate, develop, and bring into production a commercial deposit. My mining associates and friends don't agree on how long that takes but it's probably somewhere in the range of eight to fifteen years. But, they all agree on one thing and that is that the time required is continually getting longer. Now my time problem is just the opposite. It is "relatively" easy, and I stress relatively, to identify and evaluate the importance of the various factors that impact on both the supply of and demand for a commodity such as potash if the time period is today. It gets a little tough if one has to project into tomorrow or next week or next month. And when we start talking in terms of a year, five years or ten or fifteen years, things really get sticky and the old crystal ball becomes mighty cloudy. But we economists and forecasters are not known for our temerity so let me get on with the job at hand and take a look at the world potash supply/demand outlook.

Jan 1, 1978

By Rossiter W. Raymond

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 1910.) THE death of Professor Blake removes the oldest of American economic geologists and mining engineers, and deprives this Institute of one of its, earliest and most illustrious members. To many of us it brings a personal loss also, the loss of a friend. William Phipps Blake was born June 21, 1826, in New York City. -His father, Elihu Blake, was a surgeon-dentist of eminence, a direct descendant of William Blake, who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1630. He was prepared for college at private schools in New York, and entered the Sheffield School of Yale, where he was graduated as Ph.B. in the chemical course, class of 1852, the first graduating-class of the institution. In the same year he became chemist and mineralogist of the New Jersey Zinc Co., and chemist of chemical works at Baltimore, Md. In 1853, lie started the Department of Mineralogy of the World's Fair at New York City. In 1854, 1855 and 1856, he was mineralogist and geologist of the United States Pacific Railroad Surveys of Williamson, Pope, and Whipple, and for the War Department at Washington. His writings, during this period comprise reports on the geology and mineralogy of California and other parts of the Southwest, and constitute well nigh the earliest scientific accounts of the regions described. One of them. was a translation of the Resume and Field Notes of Jules Marcou, of Whipple's expedition. From 1856 to 1859, he was engaged in explorations of the geology and mineral deposits of North Carolina, :and other parts of the country. In 1859, he became editor and proprietor of The Mining Magazine. This was a monthly periodical, founded in 1853 by W. J. Tenny, who conducted it until 1858, when it passed into the hands of Thomas McElrath, a New York publisher, and appeared in May of that year as The Mining and Statistic Magazine, with the name of

Sep 1, 1910

By M. F. Boos

The Portland beryl-mica district, Middlesex County, Conn., comprises three deposits investigated by the Bureau of Mines in 1943. The Gotta-Walden deposit is in a pegmatite dike 4 to 20 feet thick, which cuts gneiss and schist. In general, the hanging wall is rich in mica and beryl with some feldspar, quartz, and garnet. The central core is usually high in quartz and feldspar, with relatively little mica and beryl. The footwall comprises quartz and feldspar, with varying amounts of mica and some beryl. The beryl crystals range in color from green to almost golden and have a maximum diameter of inches. Results of surface trenches indicate a beryl content of 0.81 percent for the pegmatite. A small production of beryl, feldspar, and scrap mica has been made from the deposit.

Jan 1, 1949

By Víctor Barrientos

El presente trabajo es un estudio realizado donde se determina la pérdida de ingresos de una empresa minera, producto de la detención de camiones y cargadores frontales en una faena minera a cielo abierto. El cálculo de esta pérdida de ingresos se realiza a través de un modelo que estima el volumen del movimiento de roca de la mina y los ingresos que este genera en función de la disponibilidad y rendimiento de los camiones y cargadores, y su interacción conjunta.

Sep 1, 2015

By Bruno Deves Flores, Guilherme Liziero Ruggio da Silva, Eduardo Osório, Anderson Azevedo Agra, Jamile Guarda, Antônio Cezar Faria Vilela, Anderson Nicolodi

Na literatura são descritos basicamente dois modelos de relações entre resistência mecânica e parâmetros microestruturais: (1) relações entre parâmetros microestruturais médios do coque e índices de ensaios mecânicos e (2) quantificação dos poros mais críticos a resistência mecânica, a partir de determinados critérios que levam em conta o tamanho e a forma dos poros. Nesse trabalho coques laboratoriais produzidos a partir de carvões com propriedades distintas foram caracterizados pela associação das técnicas de microscopia ótica e análise de imagens. Os principais modelos da literatura de relação entre resistência mecânica e parâmetros microestruturais foram avaliados. Foi demonstrado que nenhuma das relações estudadas conseguem descrever o comportamento mecânico de coques produzidos a partir de carvões de alto teor de componentes inertes (>40%). A partir desses resultados duas novas abordagens foram realizadas a fim de obter modelos que contemplem tais coques: (1) introdução de uma nova relação entre resistência mecânica e os parâmetros microestruturais e (2) um novo critério de classificação das regiões derivadas de componentes inertes como críticas a resistência mecânica.

Oct 1, 2019

By P S. Jaitawat, M Sarim, M P. Roy, P K. Singh, A Joshi

Mining is being carried out using the sublevel open stoping method at the Kayad underground mine. The mine will ultimately reach a depth of 390 m. Kayad village is only 100 m (horizontally) from the underground mining areas. As a result, blast-induced ground vibration is one of the major issues for the residents of the village. This paper deals with the process involved in optimising blast design parameters at the development face blast, slot raise blast and ring hole blast to control blast-induced vibration within safe limits while ensuring improved production, productivity and safety. In total, 1041 development face blasts, 110 slot raise blasts and 52 ring hole blasts were conducted, and 2612 vibration data were monitored in the village at different locations. Initially, electronic delay detonators were used, with an emphasis on controlling vibration in the surface structures. Subsequently, shock tube (Nonel) initiations were used as the blasting faces reached lower depths. A comparative study was also performed for both the initiation systems. The orebody width generally varied from 3.1 to 7 m, and ring hole designs were optimised accordingly. The number of holes in a ring was up to seven and the depth was up to 23 m, depending on the size/width of the orebody. The ring blasts were performed with 64–340 kg of emulsion cartridge explosive and detonated with explosive weight per delay of 10.92–17.16 kg. Extensive experiments were performed and blast-induced vibrations were controlled in the village. Deck blasting (ie up to four explosives decks) was used in a blasthole and the explosive charges were separated by delay detonators, which helped to control the vibration in the village. The actual detonation time of each deck was recorded by monitoring the in-hole velocity of detonation of the explosives, and the charging patterns were optimised accordingly to get the desired blast results.CITATION:Roy, M P, Singh, P K, Sarim, M, Jaitawat, P S and Joshi, A, 2015. Blast design and vibration control at Kayad lead-zinc underground mine, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 533–544 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By Victor Hugo Pereira Moraes e Oliveira

A indústria petrolífera demanda tubos com resistência mecânica e tenacidade à fratura cada vez maiores. Estas propriedades, determinadas pela microestrutura, são modificadas completamente na soldagem. Este trabalho avaliou a formação de constituinte MA na ZAC de grãos grosseiros, reaquecidas ou não intercriticamente, de junta de topo circunferencial para tubos de aço API 5L X100 desenvolvido para águas profundas. Simularam-se com elementos finitos e em sistema Gleeble ciclos térmicos de soldagem com diferentes aportes de calor para processo FCAW. Foram feitas análises com microscopia ótica e eletrônica de varredura, além de medidas de microdureza. A morfologia do constituinte MA, cuja fração foi maior nas simulações com o maior e o menor aporte de calor e mínima para o aporte de 2,0 kJ/mm, foi muito alterada pela temperatura máxima simulada. A simulação da soldagem mostrou ser bastante complexa, e vários fatores críticos que afetam a tenacidade das juntas soldadas foram analisados por meio de simulação computacional.

Oct 30, 2017

By G Byrne

Long-term water management is typically ignored in mine closure planning. A review of 73 mine closure plans dating from 2007 to 2013 shows that, on average, relinquishment is proposed to be achieved in 11 years. A separate review of 57 mines in actual closure shows that only five have so far achieved relinquishment with an average closure period of 14 years after production cessation. The remaining 91 per cent of sites in closure have an average closure duration to date of 21 years - and still going.A common issue among those sites in closure is water management, with a further common issue being acid and metaliferous drainage (AMD). Of the closure plans that were reviewed only one site had allowance for long-term (>50 years) of water treatment. Of the sites in actual closure 25 per cent have reported that they expect such long-term water treatment, with many acknowledging that in perpetuity treatment is probable.Clearly there is a gap between what is being allowed in closure plans and the reality of closure. There are a number of factors leading to the optimism of the closure plans, including unrealistic assumptions, pressures to reduce closure cost provisions and the technical complexity of many AMD issues.Long-term water management is a reality that needs to be acknowledged and addressed. If addressed early in the mine life cycle the impacts for mining companies can be reduced.CITATION:Byrne, G, 2013. Long-term water management - the forgotten legacy of mine closure, in Proceedings Water in Mining 2013 , pp 163-168 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 26, 2013

By D Fukuda, K Kaneko, R Kudo, J Kodama, Y Fujii, T Sasaki

"Estimation of stress state as well as elastic modulus is important for the prediction of a rock slope deformation in an open pit mine since it can strongly influence the mining-induced deformation of the rock slope. This study applies a method to evaluate regional stress state and Young’s modulus by analysing the mining-induced deformation of ground. The effect of changes in regional strain state due to tectonic plate motion can be accounted for using the proposed method. Mining-induced deformation can manifest itself as changes in ground surface geometry resulting from mining activity. There are three underlying factors that can contribute to the deformation: displacement induced by the effect of gravity displacement induced by the effect of horizontal regional strain incremental change in the horizontal regional strain. The relative displacement arising from the mining excavation at the Torigatayama limestone mine in Japan has been measured by Global Positioning System (GPS). Both the regional stress state and Young’s modulus were estimated by back analysis of the change in distance between GPS stations using a 3D finite element method. It was shown that the reliability of the estimation improved with an increase in displacement due to mining progression. It was also shown that values for Poisson’s ratios of less than 0.10 are reasonable estimates with values for Young’s modulus between about 5?GPa and 10 GPa. The magnitude and direction of the maximum compressive stress in the district surrounding the Torigatayama mine were estimated to be between -6.4 MPa and -4.4 MPa and around N25E respectively.CITATION:Kodama, J, Sasaki, T, Fukuda, D, Kaneko, K, Fujii, Y and Kudo, R, 2014. Estimation of regional stress state and Young’s Modulus of ground at Torigatayama Limestone Mine in Japan, in Proceedings AusRock 2014: Third Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference, pp 135–142 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Nov 5, 2014

"Many advances in glass technology and processing are being made and the possibilities for glass as a material in the future appear unlimited. Float glass, glass-ceramics, high-strength sheet and container glass, glass-reinforced plastics, glass for electronic equipment, aerospace glass, glass fibres, glass vehicles, glasses with selective-reflective coatings and glare-reducing glasses, to name a few, provide areas of significance at present and for the future. There appear to be great opportunities, in certain localities of Canada, to develop new sources of raw materials for an expanding Canadian glass industry.New developments in the structural clay products industry have centered around facing brick as a structural load-bearing material, prefabricated brick panels, large-sized units, isostatic pressing of sewer pipe and auto-matic settmg of brick. Fast-firing techniques, using prefired or calcined raw materials, and the development of high-strength products will result in the use of a wider range of raw materials in the whiteware and structural clay products industries.Porcelain enamel, a material used for many years in domestic appliances and for sanitary ware, now is used extensively in architecture, agriculture, water tanks, highway signs and reflectors, and in products where resistance to corrosion-plus-temperature is important. Exotic composites of ceramics and metals, and specialized ceramic coatings applied on metals by various techniques such as flame spray, plasma jet, or vapour and chemical deposition have proved useful in materials for aircraft power plants, rockets, missiles and nuclear applications."

Jan 1, 1967

By M. J. Kanda, T. R. Stacey

Thin spray-on liners (TSLs) have been used as sealants and rock support in tunnels for over 25 years. Laboratory tests have indicated satisfactory properties that can provide adequate strength, adhesion, toughness, and elasticity as part of rock support systems in mining excavations. These characteristics are, however, not always demonstrated in practice, when mine environmental conditions do not correspond with laboratory environmental conditions. The shortcomings of TSLs experienced in the mining industry have raised concerns, resulting in scepticism from some operators regarding their utilization. The research described in this paper aims to investigate TSL performance in environmental conditions similar to those experienced in mines. Brazilian indirect tensile (BIT) specimens were prepared from precast shotcrete and coated with TSLs. The specimens were then exposed to different environmental conditions for up to 112 days before BIT testing under various conditions: laboratory room temperature and humidity; saturated room temperature; and combined saturated and high temperature (50°C). Additional uncoated shotcrete and TSL BIT specimens were prepared for comparison purposes. The results of the BIT tests showed that environmental conditions have a significant influence on the tensile strength enhancement of shotcrete by TSLs. Water-based TSLs are most likely to be suitable for high humidity environments, although their performance decreases at higher temperatures. Numerical modelling of TSL-coated BIT samples confirms the potential limitations of designing TSL support based only on laboratory testing carried out under room conditions.

Jul 1, 2021

By J. A. Eisele

The Bureau of Mines conducted bench-scale cyclic tests to determine the composition of recycled leach liquor in the Bureau?s proposed clay/HCl leach/ HCl sparge process for producing Al203 from clay. The data developed from these tests make it possible to synthesize leach liquors for predetermined steady-state operating conditions when conducting large-scale crystallization tests. The results of two sparge tests were compared. One was a 20-cycle test with a 36-pct-HCl concentration in the mother liquor; the other was a 10-cycle test with a 26-pct-HCl concentration in the mother liquor. The effect of impurity concentrations in the leach liquor on the purity of aluminum chloride (AlCl30?6H20) crystals was determined, but there was poor correlation between this data and results that have been obtained from miniplant-scale work.

Jan 1, 1980

By G. L. Oldright, Virgil Miller

"This paper is the ninth 4 of a series on smelting in the lead blast furnace, and the fourth on modifications brought about by the introduction of richer charges.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors wish to express their appreciation to Stanley A. Easton, Frank M. Smith, and A. F. Beasley, and to their staff for the whole—hearted cooperation that made it possible to obtain the data in this publication at the Bunker Hill smelter, Kellogg, Idaho.INTRODUCTIONIn tie account written of the conditions obtaining at the tuyere zone in the blast furnaces at Tooele (R. I. 2965) the authors gave references to articles covering (1) the effect of temperature on the equilibrium 2C0 - CO2 + C, (2) experimental work that has been done on learning the gases existing at various elevations in columns of burning coke, (3) extension of this work to the tuyere zone of an iron blast furnace, and (4) the paper itself gave similar analyses of the gaseous oxides of carbon at the tuyere zone of a lead blast furnace and showed the temperatures obtaining there. There were also references in the above paper to the literature on (5) how the lead compounds likely to be present might be ex¬pected to react. A careful study of the original articles selected as references will give a good background for the present work.The following very brief recapitulation may be convenient before considering the tuyere zone in the blast furnaces at Kellogg. The ""producer gas reaction"" (1) of course goes to the left at increasingly higher rates of speed with increase of temperature. When air is blown upward through a grate and a column of hot fine coke alone, oxygen as such penetrates from some 2 to 3 inches only, under the conditions obtaining as to the amount of surface exposed per unit volume of air. When air is blown at about 20 pounds pressure through the tuyeres in the side of an iron blast furnace into a column of coarse coke (plus furnace charge) it may penetrate for 30 inches before the oxygen is entirely used, burning first largely to CO2. Within wide limits, the rate of feeding air into the furnace has practically little effect on the composition of the gases obtaining in the fuel bed of fine coke, this being true particularly of the gases leaving the bed. Some 10.5 inches above the grate the gases contained 22 per cent of CO by volume, and a little further up the CO2 had practically disappeared. This gave the familiar three zones in both the iron blast furnace and the gas producer; in order of entry of the air, in the first the oxygen burned largely to CO2, in the second the CO2 was reduced to CO, and the third the CO2 was practically absent. In the furnaces at Tooele, conditions were somewhat erratic but the first two zones were present, there being, however, no zone in which CO2 and 02 were both entirely absent."

Apr 1, 1931

By Francis P. Sinn

LOW prices have made 1938 a difficult year for the zinc industry of the world. Particularly in the United States, output had to be radically curtailed to bring production into line with consumption. Despite these unfavorable conditions, some additional plant construction is contemplated. In Jugoslavia, through co-operation with the Government, Trepca Mines is lo build a zinc plant to produce 10,000 metric tons annually, the plant to be ready for operation in July, 1941). Cerro de Pasco is proceeding with its plans for an electrolytic plant in Peru. A pilot plant, to be ready next summer, is under construction. In eastern Canada an electrolytic plant is planned in Quebec to treat concentrates from Yoranda and other mines but no defi-

Jan 1, 1939