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By T Mattiske

The Fimiston Open Pit (commonly referred to as the æSuper PitÆ) is a part of the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd (KCGM) operation in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. KCGM manages the Fimiston Open Pit, the Mt Charlotte underground mine, the Fimiston Mill and the Gidji Roaster for its Joint Venture Owners, Newmont and Barrick Australia. KCGM produces up to 850 000 ounces of gold per year. The KCGM operations are located on the historical Golden Mile on the outskirts of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, about 600 kilometres east of Perth Western Australia. This traditionally underground mining centre has been worked since 1893, yielding in excess of 50 Moz of gold from ore with an average head grade of 10 g/t. This represents approximately ten per cent of the gold produced in Australia and one per cent of the gold produced in the world. The Fimiston Open Pit is essentially an aggregation of what were known as the Judd, South, Paringa, Croesus/Eclipse, Central, Brownhill, Drysdale, Morrison, North and Horseshoe pits into one continuous large-scale operation. The old Fimiston Underground Operations (included the Main, Croesus, Chaffers, Lake View, and Perseverance shafts) were also located within the area of the Fimiston Open Pit. The underground operations closed in 1992 due to high mining costs.

Jan 1, 2002

By B. B. Letson

The heats of formation of lithium chloride and lithium oxalate were determined with the aid of a Bureau-developed, glass Dewar-type solution calorimeter which uses thermistors as its temperature sensing element. Values obtained at 298.15° K were -98.38 ± 0.54 kcal/mole for lithium chloride and -329.02 ± 0.79 kcal/mole for lithium oxalate, using graphite as the standard state for carbon.

Jan 1, 1965

By John Nagy, Austin R. Cooper, Murray Jacobson

Data obtained in the Bureau's study of dust explosions of 313 elemental metals , alloys , catalysts , and ores comprising 54 types of material are summarized . Information is given on ignition temperature , spark energy for ignition , minimum explosion concentration , explosion pressure , rate of pressure rise , and in some instances , the admixed inert dust and oxygen concentration in an atmosphere required to prevent ignition of dust dispersions . The effects of particle diameter on explosibility and pyrophoricity are also discussed .

Jan 1, 1964

By Yingbao Yang, Jinyue Liu, Yonggang Wei, Bo Li

Due to the depletion of copper ore with high-grade and low impurity contents, the raw materials for copper smelting exhibit low copper contents and high impurities. High-impurity elements lead to the poor performance of the final copper product; thus, the removal of impurity elements during the oxygen-enriched copper smelting process is crucial. In this study, based on the production of high-grade matte, the occurrence states of impurity elements (such as As, Pb, and Zn) are analyzed in the input and output materials of the oxygen-enriched smelting process, and the phase transformation mechanisms of impurity elements are revealed during the oxygen-enriched smelting process. The effects of temperature, Fe/SiO2 ratio and oxygen concentration on the distribution behaviors of impurity elements in dust, slag and matte and the removal rates of impurity elements in matte are clarified. The results show that the impurity elements mainly exist as As4, As4S4, As2O3, Pb, PbS, PbO, Zn and ZnS in dust, as FeAsO4, As2O3, FeAsS, PbSiO3, Zn2SiO4 and ZnFe2O4 in slag, and as As, FeAsS, PbS, PbO and ZnS in matte. High smelting temperature, low Fe/SiO2 ratio and low oxygen concentration are beneficial for improving the matte grade and the removal rates of impurity elements Pb and Zn in matte. Low smelting temperature, low Fe/SiO2 ratio and high oxygen concentration are beneficial for removing impurity element As in matte.

Aug 8, 2023

Gold heap leach operations often process low grade ores with little margin for cost increases. The advantage of heap leach operations is the considerable savings in both capital and operating costs. This paper looks at an alternative pH modifier to lime in the heap leach process, namely bauxite waste mud or red mud. The red mud can contain trace amounts of gold and was found to be an excellent source of slow release sodium hydroxide for long-term pH modification. Column cyanide leaches showed that 25 kgt-1 of red mud provided a higher pH and longer pH modification than 0.25 kgt-1 of lime. Contaminants leached from the red mud hampered the adsorption of the aurocyanide complex onto activated carbon.

Jan 1, 1993

By S. Yaw Amponsah, E. Ben-Awuah, P. M. Takouda, P. Eme

Mining production scheduling is the process of determining the sequence of block extraction over a period of time that will yield the maximum net present value for a mining operation. The block extraction sequence needs to occur under certain resource constraints which presents an NP-hard problem that is computationally intractable and complex to solve for large scale problems using exact mathematical models such as Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). In this paper, we used a metaheuristic optimisation model based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve the production scheduling problem. The problem definition and resource constraints are formulated using a mining specific GA that enforces block extraction precedence and mining capacity constraints through a normalisation method. A case study is implemented with the GA model, and the results and computational time are compared with that of a MILP model with CPLEX solver which is based on a branch-and-cut algorithm.

Sep 1, 2021

By Zhengde Pang, Xue-wei Lv, Guibao Qiu, Chenguang Bai, Zhiming Yan

As a result of the consumption and the rising cost of raw materials for ironmaking, steel producers have increased their utilization of low-cost, low-grade raw materials such as high alumina iron ore. The effect of Al2O3 and the Al2O3/SiO2 ratio on the viscosity, surface tension and sulfide capacity of the CaO–SiO2–Al2O3–MgO–TiO2 blast furnace slag system were studied in the present work. At a fixed CaO/SiO2 ratio of 1.20, 9 mass pct MgO, and 1 mass pct TiO2, the viscosity increases with an increase in Al2O3 content at a range of 16–24 mass pct, and decreases when the Al2O3 is higher than 24 mass pct. Increasing Al2O3/SiO2 from 0.47 to 0.92 causes a slight decrease in viscosity of the slags and has an opposite effect when Al 2O3/SiO2 is more than 0.92. The surface tension increases with increasing Al2O3 content at a fixed Al2O3 content and Al2O3/SiO2 at a fixed CaO content. The desulfurizing capacity decreases with increasing of Al2O3 content, while increases with increasing Al2O3/SiO2 at a fixed CaO content.

Mar 1, 2018

By L. M. Luckevich

Gypsum is a product from the neutralization of sulfuric acid by lime or limestone. This paper will discuss specifications for gypsum used in wallboard, cement and agriculture and the factors affecting its utilization potential. Process conditions during the neutralization which enhance or inhibit utilization potential will be included. In addition, this paper provides a technical and economic perspective of the gypsum industry in North America with a view to the factors affecting the utilization of synthetic gypsum in traditional applications. Current production and consumption of natural and synthetic gypsum in Nonh America are described and the impact of their differences on utilization options are discussed.

Jan 1, 1996

By C. E. Augustine, B. A. Landry, P. Nicholls

"Wien bituminous coal is burned in a hand-fired up-draft boiler used for heating purposes it has a decided tendency to produce smoke. A design of furnace and a method of firing and attendance that are satisfactory for fuels low in volatile matter, as anthracite or coke, are not necessarily Satisfactory for bituminous coals. It is therefore becoming common practice to use a special design of furnace for bituminous coals, in order to facilitate the combustion of the volatile matter and soot. This is done by (1) providing a larger combustion space to give more time for the combustion, (2) construction that will produce a better mixing of the gases and secondary air supplied over the fuel bed, or (3) keeping the gases at a higher temperature by preheating the secondary air, as may be done by surrounding them with refractory surfaces, or causing them to pass through a fuel bed of hot coke. A furnace may be built to use any or all of these methods of smoke prevention.In Bureau of Mines Technical Paper 303, Blizard5 and others give tests on a large heating boiler when burning coke, anthracite, and bituminous coal. Certair alternative furnace arrangements were used, but there was no material change in the furnace design for the various fuels. Since that time the manufacturer has made modifications in design to adapt it for use of bituminous coal, and additional tests have been made to determine how this change affected the production of smoke and the efficiency of the boiler."

Jun 1, 1929

By Arnold K. Reese

It is not the purpose of the writer to set forth in these notes anything new or surprising in blast-furnace practice, but simply to lay before the Institute the somewhat unusual results obtained during a period of six consecutive months, ending April 30, 1896, at the Dover furnace of the Penn Iron and Coal Co., and to give, with these results, the conditions under which they were obtained, and all figures pertaining to that period. This plant was entirely rebuilt, on thoroughly modern and improved plans, in the spring of 1895, by Frank C. Roberts & Co., of Philadelphia.

Jan 1, 1898

By Mehdi Noori, Atefeh Azizitorghabeh, Fereshteh Rashchi, Ataollah Babakhani, Sarah Mahmoudi

The focus of this research was to evaluate the synergistic effect of bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) phosphinic acid (CYANEX 272) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA), diluted in kerosene, on the extraction and separation of Co(II) and Li(I) from synthetic sulfate solution. The results indicated that using a mixture of CYANEX 272 and D2EHPA was efficient in extracting and separating Co(II) from Li(I). The optimum ratio of CYANEX 272/D2EHPA was found to be 5:1, in which the highest separation factor was obtained (5973.23), and ΔpH0.5 was 4.10. Adding tributyl phosphate (TBP) as a modifier and increasing the temperature improved the metals’ separation rate and extraction efficiency. Thermodynamic studies were also carried out, and ΔH, ΔS, and ΔG values were computed, revealing the endothermic nature of Co(II) and Li(I) extraction by CYANEX 272/D2EHPA mixture. The conducted experiments for the McCabe–Thiele diagram showed the possibility of using two stages to extract over 99% of Co(II) and Li(I). Slope analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were employed to comprehend the Co(II) and Li(I) extraction mechanism using a mixture of CYANEX 272 and D2EHPA.

Jan 17, 2022

By A Yáñez, P Vallejos, R Grau, J Yianatos

In flotation cells, especially in large flotation units, froth management is a crucial variable that should be considered during the design phase or optimised to improve the performance of existing flotation circuits. This paper presents a simulation evaluation of the effect of launder design on the metallurgical performance of an industrial flotation circuit consisting of five TankCell® e630 (630 m3 ) cells in a Cu rougher duty. This analysis was carried out using a new industrial simulator, which was built on a wide database collected from many industrial concentrators. This tool is currently incorporated into HSC Chemistry® software and allows evaluation of the effect of launder design on mineral froth recovery, water recovery, entrainment, and other variables to be quantified. The industrial flotation circuit was evaluated under different launder design scenarios, considering an actual flotation circuit that includes TankCell® e630 cells for calibration and as a reference (baseline). Firstly, two different designs were evaluated in the full circuit: a standard launder design and a new launder technology. It was found that the new launder technology enabled improvement of the mineral recovery along the circuit, mainly for coarse particles, due to the improvement in froth mineral recovery. Next, the partial upgrade of the launder design along the circuit was analysed. Thus, the new launder technology was evaluated in the first and the last two cells of the bank. The results showed that upgrading the launders in different cells along the circuit delivered an increase in the final recovery with respect to the baseline, with a partial impact on the concentrate grade. However, these changes are less than those when evaluating the full upgrade scenario. A partial launder upgrade either in the first or last two cells of the bank showed similar final recoveries, but the latter enabled a slightly higher concentrate grade (about 1 per cent higher) to be achieved. Finally, the evaluation of launder design using the industrial simulator made it possible to estimate its effect on variables that are not commonly obtained from plant surveys, including froth recovery per particle size, collection recovery per particle size and liberation, gangue entrainment and bubble loading grade.

Aug 24, 2022

By The Staff

WE were requested to make a digest of our original grinding report, Fine Grinding Investigations at Lake Shore Mines. This digest is much easier to read than the original report, but it lacks the experimental 'evidence' found in the first report which, in many cases, is much more interesting and educational than the conclusions derived from it. In the course of rewriting the paper, we noticed several new angles on the test data which had not occurred to us previously. From the data included in the report and other tests not published, calculations were made which indicated a line of new test work. These tests, among other things, more than suggest a technique for designing the length of mills, the position and number of classifiers, and the total loads a mill should carry.

Jan 1, 1941

By Scott Turner

MY YEAR OF SERVICE as president of the A.I.M.E. came at a time when the mineral industry had suffered severely because of disturbed economic conditions throughout the world. The Institute, an integral part of this industry, had been similarly affected. Its membership and revenues decreased; it was confronted by problems of retrenchment at a time when its vigorous operation was especially important to its members, of some moment to the mining industry, and of value to the nation. Throughout the last year, the recession of activity in our industry continued with slight abatement. Your Board accordingly exercised such economy within the Institute as was possible without impairment of essential functions. It endeavored to aid in sustaining the morale of members, their sense of professional unity, and their interest in maintaining research and the interchange of scientific and technologic data upon which the progress of our industry depends. Effort was made to assist in the difficult task of finding employment for needy members; our endeavors have met with some success.

Jan 1, 1933

By C M. Stewart

Lithium battery electric powered vehicles and machines (BEVs) continue to gain traction inunderground mining use, with predictions they will dominate the underground light and heavy vehicle fleets for some mines within the next decade. There are clear advantages for ventilation systems through reduced heat output and the elimination of harmful exhaust gases and diesel particulates. However, the risks and effects of BEV fire emergencies for underground personnel and ventilationsystems are still largely in the early stages of analysis and understanding. This paper conducts an industry review of a selection of lithium battery fire incidents and research.A research paper review on lihthium fire behaviour, intensity and toxicity will be analysed and comparisons made with equivalent diesel machinery fires for context. Guidelines for mine firemodelling parameters will be offered to assist in predicting the behaviour, heat and emissions from BEV fires, and recommendations and conclusions will be drawn on the specific hazards of lithium battery fires compared to conventional diesel powered machines.

Oct 12, 2022

By Patrick Ph. D. Kennedy, Osvaldo A. Ph. D. Bascur

With the revolutionary progress in information and computer technologies, applying the latest information technologies in metallurgical complexes has become a serious challenge to both a major opportunity and a serious challenge to both management and technical teams. The emerging component and object technologies are changing the way everyone can beneficially use their computer and networks to add to their corporate bottom lines. Most mining and metallurgical plants use predictive maintenance policies based on statistical analysis and special techniques, like vibration analysis and oil and lube analysis for critical equipment. Process control strategies are installed in several metallurgical sites. All process equipment and control strategies require maintenance from local personnel at the mine. Integrated use of existing and emerging technologies is making it possible to implement an overall process effectiveness control index. This index is based on key indices such as losses due to plant availability, performance efficiency and rate of quality. The availability of real time and process history to identify the most critical part of the processing system from mechanical integrity is highlighted. An emerging plant integration paradigm is described to simplify the implementation of business enterprise resources management and distributed plant management systems.

Jan 1, 1998

By Chu E. Ho, Alfredas Daugiala, Nicola Ebanks

"The construction of an ancillary structure for the new Second Avenue Subway Line in Manhattan, New York City involved a deep excavation in highly variable rock conditions adjacent to a fragile masonry building. The maximum difference between the lowest and highest rock elevations was about 30 feet, which posed a problem for the installation of secant piles that formed the supporting retaining wall for the excavation. At certain areas, the rock levels were higher than the top of the invert slab of the ancillary structure. To avoid disturbance to the adjacent fragile building, the secant piles were fully cased for drilling through the overburden soils and the rock sockets were formed using non-vibratory technique. This paper discusses the design and installation details of the secant pile wall and the contingency measures that were considered to mitigate the highly variable rock conditions. Monitoring of the adjacent fragile building showed that impact of pile installation were controlled within tolerable limits and safety of the building was not compromised.INTRODUCTIONThe 96th Street Station forms part of the newly constructed Second Avenue Subway Line on the East side of Manhattan Island, New York City (Figure 1). During construction of this station, several deep excavations were carried out adjacent to existing fragile buildings (Arksman et al. 2012, Grigson et al. 2016). These fragile buildings were typically four to five stories high, with a single rubble wall basement supported on timber piles or seated directly on the fill. The timber piles were often found to be in a poor condition and connections to the footings were compromised due to rotting of the timber within the zone of water table fluctuation. Several of these fragile buildings had to be strengthened and underpinned to improve the stability of the structures prior to commencement of excavation for the new subway station box (Trabold et al. 2012, Ho and Pena-Iguaran, 2013). The situation was most challenging at Ancillary Buildings 1 and 2 located at 93rd and 97th Street respectively, where secant pile walls were located merely 2 feet away from the adjacent property line, due to architectural space constraints. While mitigation of excavation induced ground movements can be controlled by the adoption of a stiff excavation support system, a more concerning factor was the uncertainty associated with the impact of the secant pile wall installation on the stability of the existing fragile buildings. This was particularly difficult at Ancillary 1 where the secant piles encountered highly variable rock levels that intruded into the excavation space. The following sections discuss the design and installation of the secant pile wall and contingency measures that were considered at Ancillary 1."

Jan 1, 2016

By H. H. Bleakney

The merit of reduction-in-area as a criterion of quality in metals is shown to lie in its influence on breaking stress, but the virtue of elongation is not easy to find. In order to assess the value of elongation, either as a measure of quality or as a guide to design, it will be necessary to separate the overall de-formation occurring in tension tests from the localized deformation associated with localized reduction in area. The obstacles to a successful solution of this problem have been shown to be more formidable than is generally appreciated, and a new solution to the problem has been suggested. This solution involves a de-vice by which an electric circuit is broken when the particular value of strain is reached that is to be taken as the point of separation between general and localized deformation. The report presents results from a number of tests on both low-carbon and alloy steels. These results indicate that the selected criterion of separation is accurately identified by the proposed method; that it

Jan 1, 1962

By Zheng-qi Guo, De-qing Zhu, Feng Zhang, Jian Pan

Iron mainly exists as the magnetite and fayalite, while copper is primarily dispersed in the form of fine matte particles in the copper slag, which is difficult to recover by conventional separation techniques. In this paper, the feasibility of an integrated technological route to improve beneficiation of copper and iron components from copper slag through the modification of molten slag was investigated, and the results shows that: the copper grade of rougher copper concentrate was increased from 6.43 to 11.04%, iron recovery from magnetic separation was increased significantly from 32.40 to 63.36%, and other evaluation indexes were changed slightly, in comparison with unmodified copper slag. Meanwhile, the grains of the target minerals in the modified slag grew considerably to a mean size >50 lm after slow cooling. Ultimately, the beneficiation efficiency of copper and iron was improved because of the ease with which the target minerals were liberated.

Mar 1, 2017

By Robert F. Chaiken

The U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted an experimental and theoretical study of coupled chemical kinetic and mass transport processes during leaching of pyrite from coal in a counterflow, "trickle-bed" column reactor. Spatial and temporal data on reactant and product concentrations were used as solutions to appropriate continuity equations, which in turn define chemical kinetic reaction rates. Data from four 180-by 30-cm column leaching experiments using coal, coal waste, and air-water and air-FeC13 lixiviants have been analyzed. The rate of leaching was found to be diffusion limited (probably by Fe3+) and not controlled by bacterial action. Rates of pyrite oxidation were found to vary with elapsed time (80 to 225 days) and followed a bell-shaped curve, sometimes with a delay before start of reaction. Maximum rates of reaction ranged from 3 to 10 (mmol/d)/L (column) for coal waste and 0.4 (mmol/d)/L (column) for coal. Reaction was 30 to SO pct complete, probably due to precipitation of product salts (e.g., jarosites), which impede transport of oxidant through the coal. An absorption-desorption model of solids leaching, which considers the role of heterogeneous porosity in solids leaching, was used to describe time-dependent leaching rates.

Jan 1, 2010