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By Thomas Fraser, David R. Mitchell

THE primary purpose of the loading plant is to transfer the finished product from the preparation machines to the railroad car, truck, or barge in which it is to go to market. Secondary purposes of the loading plant are: to prevent excessive degradation of sizes during loading, to reduce segregation as much as possible, and to prevent excessive quantities of very good or off-grade coal from entering any one car. Nonuniformity of consignments is one of the chief sources of com- plaints by consumers and coal merchants. A properly designed loading plant will do much to reduce complaints and ensure uniformity, not only from shipment to shipment but also in each individual consignment along the length of the car and in cross section. DEGRADATION IN STORAGE, LOADING AND SHIPMENT The object in loading is not only to handle the coal without breakage and segregation, but also to produce a well-trimmed load that will ride to its destination without spillage or breakage en route. The small sizes present in a car of prepared coal as received by the purchaser consist-of: missed small sizes not screened out in the preparation plant, breakage during loading, and breakage caused by handling en route. For domestic sizes of anthracite shipped from the Pennsylvania anthracite field to Atlantic coast cities, the dealers' lass because of breakage in loading and shipment amounts to from 2 to 5 per cent and for anthracite shipped to Middle West cities, the loss is 8 to 9 per cent. This difference is in part because dealers in the Middle West rescreen their coal more thoroughly than is usual in the East. One dealer handling Illinois No. 6 coal shipped from southern Illinois mines to Chicago reports an average size loss of 10 per cent when lump coal is unloaded with a fork. This runs as low as 5 per cent for carefully loaded coal and as high as 15 per cent for carelessly loaded coal.

Jan 1, 1943

By Charles Maier

PART I DENSITY AND ENERGY CHANGES IN COLD-WORKED COPPER IT has long been supposed that when crystalline materials are com-minuted the energy used in the production of increasingly smaller grain sizes is not entirely dissipated as heat but that a certain portion is "stored" as a part of the internal energy of the material. This portion usually has been called the "surface energy" of the particles. The practical interest of the Bureau of Mines in this subject in connection with the energy requirements of crushing processes has led' to the author's attempt to measure the "stored" energy in finely divided calcite by heat-of-solution methods1. The experiments on calcite showed that "storage" of energy could not be proved for this material, because fine grinding caused a lack of chem-ical homogeneity evidenced by loss of carbon dioxide and subsequent adsorption of water on the surfaces of the calcite particles. When thermochemical correction was made for composition changes the cor-rected heat of solution was less for fine material than for coarse. Con-tinuation of the experimental work into the problem of comparing work and heat in the deformation of metallic crystals, where the calorimetric difficulties were less, showed, however, that in the case of copper and aluminum a real discrepancy between work and heat could be shown. Similar results had previously been obtained by Farren and Taylor2 and Hort3 and more or less simultaneously with the author's work by

Jan 1, 1936

By Arnulf Muan, R. E. Johnson

Equilibrium CO2 /CO ratios of a gas phase coexisting with selected oxide phase assemblages of the system CaO-"Fe0"-SiOz and vnetallic iron have been determined at 1080°C. The data obtained are used to calculate activity-conzposition relations for metasili-cute, orthosilicate, and CaO- "FeO" solid solutions, and to determine a new value for the free energy of formation of C&S&0,. The metasilicate solution is practically ideal, whereas large deviations from ideality exist in the othe,r two solid solutions. BECAUSE of the geochemical and metallurgical importance of the oxides CaO, "FeO", and SiOz, the system CaO-"FeO"-SiO2 has been the subject of several experimental studies during the past 30 years. Following the delineation of phase relations at liquidus temperatures by a group of investigators at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1933,1 Chipman and associates in the early forties2,3 determined activities of FeO in liquids of this system. Since that time, many attempts have been made to interpret the data of Chipman et al. in terms of the constitution of the silicate liquids and the interaction parameters among the various constituents of the system (see for instance papers by Richardson4 and by Flood and coworkers5). One of the assumptions made in some of these interpretations4 is that the binary silicate systems CaSiO3-FeSiO3 and CazSi04-Fe2SiO4 mix ideally in the solid state. The objective of the present study is to provide experimental data on activity-com position relations in solid solutions of the system CaO-"FeO"-SiO2. Such data will contribute toward an understanding of the thermodynamics of silicate solid-solution phases in general, and will serve specifically to confirm or refute some of the assumptions made in interpreting liquid slag behavior. PREVIOUS WORK Phase relations in the system CaO-"FeO"-SiO2 in contact with metallic iron were determined by Bowen, Schairer, and Posnjak,1 and additional phase-equilibrium data for this system have been presented by Allen and snow.' A reproduction of the most up-to-date phase diagram for this system is shown in Fig. 1.7'8 Of particular interest in the present investigation are the relations among the various crystalline phases slightly below the lowest solidus temperature in the system, as shown in Fig. 2. The present work will be concerned primarily with some of the composition

Jan 1, 1968

By Earl W. Palmer, Cyril Stanley Smith

A study of the precipitation-hardening of copper steels1 led the authors to investigate malleable iron containing copper, for the low-carbon ferritic matrix in malleable iron should lend itself admirably to precipitation-hardening. It was soon found that in addition to rendering malleable iron susceptible to improvement by precipitation-hardening treatments, copper has another potentially useful effect as an accelerator of graphitization. Brief mention of these effects was given in a general paper by Lorig and one of the present authors2; the present paper gives further details on the graphitization and precipitation-hardening effects only. After the completion of this work a paper by L. Lykkin3 appeared, confirming the authors' conclusions regarding graphitization. Material Used After some preliminary heats had been made in the laboratory to determine the effect of copper, several castings from commercial air-furnace heats were obtained, and data from these alone are given here. Part of the metal was poured directly and part was treated in the ladle with the desired amount of copper before pouring. Green-sand molds were used, each holding two tensile test pieces of the form adopted by the Malleable Iron Research Institute, or two bars for graphitization studies, 5/8 in, in diameter and 9 in. long, fed through two enlarged sections equidistant from the middle and ends of the bars. Risers of suitable size insured sound castings. Tensile tests were made on the castings after commercial mallealleizing and after special heat treatments to be described. The analyses of the white irons are given in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1935

By Cyril Stanley Smith, Earl W. Palmer

A study of the precipitation-hardening of copper steels1 led the authors to investigate malleable iron containing copper, for the low-carbon ferritic matrix in malleable iron should lend itself admirably to precipitation-hardening. It was soon found that in addition to rendering malleable iron susceptible to improvement by precipitation-hardening treatments, copper has another potentially useful effect as an accelerator of graphitization. Brief mention of these effects was given in a general paper by Lorig and one of the present authors2; the present paper gives further details on the graphitization and precipitation-hardening effects only. After the completion of this work a paper by L. Lykkin3 appeared, confirming the authors' conclusions regarding graphitization. Material Used After some preliminary heats had been made in the laboratory to determine the effect of copper, several castings from commercial air-furnace heats were obtained, and data from these alone are given here. Part of the metal was poured directly and part was treated in the ladle with the desired amount of copper before pouring. Green-sand molds were used, each holding two tensile test pieces of the form adopted by the Malleable Iron Research Institute, or two bars for graphitization studies, 5/8 in, in diameter and 9 in. long, fed through two enlarged sections equidistant from the middle and ends of the bars. Risers of suitable size insured sound castings. Tensile tests were made on the castings after commercial mallealleizing and after special heat treatments to be described. The analyses of the white irons are given in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1935

By R. S. Mateer

Linear programming on desktop computers is commonly used to optimize coal blending proportions. The objective function is usually the cost of the blend. The constraints consist of materials and heat balances as expressed as linear functions of the blend. This is illustrated in Example 1. Inclusion of a sulfur compliance constraint in more complex because the maximum permitted sulfur percentage is not a pre-specified constant. Rather, it is a function of the calorific power of the blend itself. The current limit of 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million Btu may be expressed as: [Sulfur Max%= 0.6 . Hl10,OOO with H in Btu/lb.] A proper constraint equation may be formed by defining for each coal a function that is the difference between the actual sulfur percentage and the maximum sulfur percentage. This may be regarded us an excess sulfur percentage. For Coal A of Example 1. this would be: [ Sulfur Excess%=0.5-0.6 13,000/10,000=-0.28] This value would be used as the coefficient of the weight proportions of this coal in the blend. The complete constraint equation would then be the sum of such terms for each coal set less than or equal to zero. This is illustrated in Example II. [ ]

Jan 1, 1995

Monitoring systems can have numerous uses in the mine. They can aid in the efficient management of the mine by providing environmental trend data, production and maintenance control, and communications. In some cases, they can provide justification to petition the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) fog a variance of one of the mandatory safety standards. They may also increase the gross revenues of the mine by increasing the amount of coal produced or increase profits by reducing the cost of producing that coal. No single system will satisfy the requirement of all mines. Some may require simple hard-wired status-reporting systems; others, multipurpose computer-based systems that collect, analyze, and store data and perhaps control some mine functions. Even though systems vary in complexity, they are all composed of three functional components. The first component is sensors that measure the environmental or production parameters and produce an electrical signal that is fed into the telemetry. The second is telemetry devices that receive the signal from the sensors and transmit it in either analog or digital format to the third com¬ponent, analysis and display equipment. This equipment receives the transmitted signal and either stores it for later analysis or displays it. The analysis-display equipment ranges from simple strip chart recorders with preset alarms to computers, cathode-ray tubes (CRT's), and line printers that can also provide production reports. 4.2 Uses of a Mine Monitoring System A list of potential uses for mine monitoring systems, including both production-related functions and those related to health and safety, was used to develop a questionnaire. It was presented to representatives of the mining community to determine their current monitoring priorities. The responses indicated that the industry's priorities fall into the following two categories: First priority- Production and haulage Maintenance Second priority- Ventilation Communication Fire monitoring Personnel The survey shows that production-oriented systems were the most appealing to the questionnaire respondents. Since even small improvements in production efficiency and maintenance can have a large financial impact, the desirability of monitoring systems that focus on these areas is understandable. The results are summarized in table 4-1. The function that scored 100 was viewed as the most beneficial monitoring function.

Jan 1, 1984

By Lok W. Home

INTRODUCTION Today, raise drilling (boring) has become the stan¬dard method of raising throughout the Western world. It is estimated that the majority of raise footage com¬pleted in 1977 was accomplished by the raise drilling method. Extensive replacement of the drill and shoot system by mechanized raise drilling has occurred be¬cause users have recognized one or more of the follow¬ing advantages. In a direct cost per meter comparison, mechanized raise drilling is economically more attractive than drilling and shooting. Mechanized raise drilling offers improved personnel safety over the drilling and shooting method. Mechanized raise drilling is a faster and more predictable method for excavation than is drilling and shooting. The raise cost per unit of length becomes less as the raise length increases, offering greater flexibility in the overall design of mines. Mechanized raise drilling provides a substantial reduction in labor requirements. 6) Mechanized raise drilling improves the working environment. 7) Mechanized raise drilling improves the rock in¬tegrity of round, unblasted raises. Increasing acceptance of the raise drilling technique is enhanced by continuing equipment development. Today, a wide range of machines and capabilities is available, machine drive systems have been improved, reliability has been increased, and cutter technology is being improved quite rapidly. Table 1 lists the four major manufacturers of raise drilling machines, cutters, and reamers, together with the approximate number of machines that each company had in operation at the end of 1977. Although Reed and Smith are major suppliers of reamers and cutters, they do not manufacture the drilling machines. Four or five other relatively minor suppliers have built machines, reamers, and cutters for raise drilling, but they did not have a substantial num¬ber of machines in the field at the end of 1977. MACHINES FOR MECHANIZED RAISE DRILLING There are three principal arrangements for making machine-bored raises. They include the use of standard raise drills, reversible raise drills, and blind-hole or box¬hole raise drills. Standard Raise Drills The standard raise drilling machine is set up on one mine level or on the surface, and a pilot hole is drilled from that level or surface to a level below. When the pilot hole has been drilled, the raise then is reamed back from the lower level to the upper level or the surface. This arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 1. Reversible Raise Drills The reversible raise drilling machine is set up on a lower level of the mine, and a pilot hole is drilled up¬ward to a higher level. The raise then is reamed back from the upper level to the lower level. This arrange¬ment is illustrated in Fig. 2. The machines used for this type of raise drilling normally are capable of being used as standard raise drills. Blind-Hole or Boxhole Raise Drills The blind-hole or boxhole raise drilling machine is set up on a lower level of the mine, and a full diameter raise is bored to a higher level without the use of a pilot hole. This type of machine is illustrated in Fig. 3. Drill Recommendations If access to upper and lower mine levels is equal, the standard raise drill should be used. The complexity of the equipment and associated handling procedures for boxhole drilling far outweigh any mechanical advantage or reduction in the number of operations, provided that access to an upper level is available. If there is good access to a lower level but only limited access to an upper level, the use of a reversible raise drill should be considered. If there is no access to an upper level, a blind-hole or boxhole raise drill is the only practical mechanized system. MACHINE SELECTION There are six major considerations in selecting a machine for raise drilling. These include operating range, cutter loading, machine structure and main¬tenance, drill string configuration, drive system, and automated controls. Operating Range As shown in Table 2 and Figs. 4 through 6, raise drilling machines are available for a wide range of hole sizes. Standard raise drill ratings range from raises of 0.9 m (3 ft) diam and 120 m (400 ft) length up to raises of 3.5 m (12 ft) diam and 900 m (3000 ft) length. Boxhole raise drilling machines are available for raises ranging from 0.9 m (3 ft) to 2 m (6 ft) diam with lengths up to 90 m (300 ft). Table 2 lists, among other criteria, the torque and thrust of typical machines; torque and thrust are the main criteria for analyzing the capacity of a machine. The raise sizes shown in Table 2 assume a condition of medium hard to hard rock formations and optimum cutter loading. The recommended raise size for a given machine can be exceeded when raising softer rock formations or when the operator is willing to accept a lower level of performance; the performance is related directly to the 1093

Jan 1, 1982

By E. C. Carris

THE particular field of application of machines utilizing air cur¬rents as the primary separating medium is in the cleaning of the fine sizes of bituminous coal. Approximately 12,000,000 tons of bituminous coal were cleaned by air machines during 1940. They have not found any application for cleaning anthracite. Since the development and introduction of the first successful com¬mercial pneumatic oscillating machine for cleaning bituminous coal in 1916, by the Sutton, Steele and Steele Co., Dallas, Texas, and the Ameri¬can Coal Cleaning Corporation, formerly of Welch, W. Va., four other successful pneumatic coal-cleaning machines have been developed and introduced to the American coal-mining industry: 1. Peale Davis: "Pneumo-Gravity" machine, 1924. 2. Arms "Concentrator," oscillating table, 1924. 3. Heyl and Patterson oscillating table, 199.7. 4. "Stump Air-Flow," pulsating air jig, 19391. Out of these five developments only the Sutton, Steele and Steele, or American Oscillating, and the Stump Air-Flow Jig remain on the market. They are the predominating pneumatic coal-cleaning machines in use in the United States. HISTORY OF AMERICAN TYPE SEPARATOR The first successful American machine, the CJ table (Fig. 1) was developed by the Sutton, Steele and Steele Co. The SJ table was the first standard model designed specifically for the cleaning of coal. It was installed in the original Crane Creek plant, owned and operated by the American Coal Co. at McComas, West Virginia. This plant was designed by The Roberts and Schaefer Co., Chicago, Ill., working in cooperation with the American Coal Cleaning Corpora¬tion, which had taken over the patent rights and sale of the pneumatic separators. Eight machines were installed in this plant. They were known as the type SJ. They were 60 by 84 in., the short dimension being the width of

Jan 1, 1943

By S. K. Kawatra, H. Haselhuhn

"In many mineral processing applications it is necessary to know the isoelectric points of the various minerals in the ore to properly perform flotation and other mineral separations. However, current zeta potential analysis technology used to determine the isoelectric point of a particle suspension cannot deliver the isoelectric point of each individual mineral, just an average of the mineral system. Traditionally, individual isoelectric points have been gathered by testing pure, synthetic minerals. These values can vary widely depending on the mineral synthesis procedure and the water quality used during the isoelectric point analysis. A more robust approach for determining the actual isoelectric point of a particular mineral in a mixture of minerals is needed. This paper details a method for determining the isoelectric point of an iron oxide mineral in a siliceous iron ore. The method uses a laser scattering particle size analyzer and a pH electrode to determine the pH at which the liberated mineral particles begin to flocculate as pH is decreased. The pH at which the average particle size rises dramatically is the isoelectric point of the mineral with the highest isoelectric point in the ore. This measurement technique was used on natural hematite, goethite and siderite ores as well as a synthetic mixture of pure silica and pure hematite. The results for synthetic hematite mixtures were comparable to literature values.IntroductionRecently there has been an increased interest in the processing of low-grade iron ores (Bolen, 2014; Carlson and Kawatra, 2008, 2011, 2013; Halt et al., 2014; Halt and Kawatra, 2014; Haselhuhn 2012, 2013; Haselhuhn et al., 2012a, 2012b; Kawatra and Halt, 2011; Liu et al., 2014; Manouchehri, 2014; Sandvik and Larsen, 2014; Semberg et al., 2014). The zeta potential of iron ore minerals is a very important and often overlooked aspect of iron ore mineral processing. Zeta potential is the charge at the shear plane of a surface in an aqueous environment (Carlson and Kawatra, 2013). Many ores consist of a variety of minerals differing in zeta potential. This property of a particle surface in water is responsible for either keeping the particles dispersed from each other or flocculated to each other. This is important during many operations such as flotation, desliming and thickening. Zeta potential is primarily a function of the pH of the water and the mineralogy of the particles, though certain ions within the water can also have a significant impact (Haselhuhn, 2012). Consider the following situation: silica (SiO2) particles and hematite (Fe2O3) particles are suspended in an aqueous solution. These two types of minerals have drastically different zeta potentials throughout the pH spectrum (Esumi et al., 1988). In alkaline conditions, both types of particles exhibit negative zeta potentials and will tend to disperse from each other. In acidic conditions (between pH of 3 and 6), silica has a negative zeta potential while hematite has a positive zeta potential, so these surfaces will tend to be attractive to each other and the particles will flocculate and settle. This phenomenon is visually described in Fig. 1. The pH at which the two minerals begin to attract to each other, or destabilize, is near hematite’s isoelectric point. The isoelectric point is defined as the pH at which the surface has a net zero zeta potential (Carlson and Kawatra, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2015

By D. A. Elgillani, S. Atak, D. A. Rice, M. C. Fuerstenau, R. B. Bhappu

Quartz and feldspar cannot be floated with sulfonate at any pH; spodumene floats over a narrow acid pH range, while beryl responds moderately over a broad pH range. After wet-grinding in a steel mill, beryl, quartz, and spodumene float well with sulfonate below about pH 7, whereas the improvement in the response of feldspar is not so marked. A mechanism by which iron can be adsorbed on these minerals is presented. Also, the responses of leached, natural, and wet-ground beryl to amine, sulfonate, and oleate flotation are shown and related to the measured zero-points-of-charge of these materials. Earlier work with leached beryl showed that good flotation could be obtained with alkyl aryl sulfonate over a rather wide pH range using a Fagergren flotation cell.' When a similar response was observed with leached quartz, it was decided that unintentional activation was being obtained from the metallic components of the Fagergren cell. To obviate this difficulty, a microflotation cell was designed, and an experimental technique was devised. These have been described elsewhere. Experiments conducted with the small cell showed that leached quartz could not be floated at any pH with any sulfonate addition,3 which is in agreement with the observations of Kraeber and Boppel.4 Similarly, it was also found that leached beryl responded to sulfonate flotation only over a narrow pH range rather than the broad range reported earlier.1 This early work,1 however, revealed the important effect that wet-grinding in a steel mill has on the flotation response of certain silicates. That is, it was found that quartz and especially beryl floated well over an unusually wide pH range after wet-grinding in a steel mill. Microcline, however, floated poorly below pH 4, even though wet-ground under the same conditions. The work of Eigeles6 on adsorption of oleic acid on leached quartz and iron-contaminated quartz at constant pH is in agreement with these flotation data. Other research has shown that ferric iron, added as a salt to the system, functions as an activator in the narrow pH range in which Fe +++ iron hydrolyzes to its hydroxy complexes.3,5 These phenomena indicate that iron functions differently in flotation systems depending on its method of introduction. The object of this paper is to determine the mechanism by which iron is adsorbed on certain minerals, the mechanism of collector adsorption after iron abstraction, and the role that Fe++ and Fe+++ assume in the selective separation of these minerals. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND METHODS Sodium alkyl aryl sulfonate, mol wt 450,7 pure potassium oleate, and pure dodecylamine were used as collectors. All other chemicals were reagent grade in quality, i.e., n-amyl alcohol as frother; HC1, H2SO4, and KOH for pH adjustment; and ferric chloride as activator. Conductivity water, made by passing distilled water through an ion exchange column, was used in the experimental work. All minerals used in the investigation were hand-picked specimens. Sample Preparation: Each of the minerals was crushed through 8 mesh, and the product was divided into two groups, one to be ground dry and the other wet. Dry grinding was accomplished with an alumina mortar and pestle. The product was dry-screened to 48 x 150 mesh, cleaned magnetically, deslimed in conductivity water, and dried. Preparation of the samples by wet-grinding involved grinding a 200-g charge of the mineral (-8 mesh) at 60% solids with natural water in a mild steel rod mill for four minutes. This charge was then wet-screened immediately with natural water to 48 x 150 mesh, dried, and cleaned magnetically. Some experiments were also conducted with leached beryl and quartz. These products were prepared by leaching the sized sample (48 x 150 mesh) with concentrated HC1 with a percolation technique until no iron could be detected in the leach liquor. Following this step, the sample was rinsed with conductivity

Jan 1, 1967

By George W. Sears

In preparing this symposium, our ambition was to elicit authoritative expression of opinion concerning important selected phases of the industry from men active in it. Responses to requests for contributions were gratifying, especially so in view of the short time available. The generous and cooperative spirit of the industry as a whole is amply evident. Responses were received from the following, who are therefore the true authors of the paper: W. G. Adamson, General Manager of the pershin; Quicksilver Co., Lovelock, Nev.; Dudley Baird, Vice President, Pacific Foundry Co., San Francisco; Walter W. Bradley, State Mineralogist of California; W. D. Burcham, General Manager of the Brewster Quicksilver Consolidated, Terlingua, Tex.; William Forstner, San Francisco; H. W. Gould, of H. W. Gould & Co., San Francisco; Marcus Hulings, General Manager of the Chisos Mining Co., Terlingua, Tex.; Frank J. Katz, Chief Engineer, Division Mineral Statistics, United States Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C.; Lloyd J. Lathrap, Superintendent, Nevada Quicksilver Mines, Inc., Lovelock, Nev.; W. R. Moorehead, General Manager, New Idria Quicksilver Mings, Inc., Idria, Calif.; F. W. Oakes, Jr., Terlingua, Tex.; C. N. Schuette, San Francisco. Brief Economic History of Quicksilver in the United States Quicksilver ore was first discovered in the United States at what was later the New Almaden mine in California, in the year 1824. Production also began here, but not until 1850, when it was stimulated by the active demand caused by gold-mining operations. Prospecting for quicksilver was active, high-grade ores were found and ample production lowered the price from $100 per flask in 1850 to about half that figure for the greater part of the next 10 years. During the succeeding decade, many new quicksilver mines were found; production increased at a time when the local demand diminished, so that most of the product was exported. The third decade of quicksilver mining in the United States witnessed the development of the pan amalgamation process, particularly in Com-stock silver-mining operations. A suddenly increased demand sent prices soaring, the all-time peak of quicksilver production followed, and the highest price was soon replaced by the lowest one on record. Huge quantities of quicksilver were exported between 1870 and 1880 and exports continued in decreasing measure for three decades to 1910. In

Jan 1, 1930

The future of the United States (US) mining industry will be affected greatly by recent coal mining disasters. These have resulted in new legislation which will have an impact on mining economic costs as well safety and health of miners. This paper discusses the changes that new legislation and regulations are making to the industry and current research that is producing technologies to make mining safer and will likely impact the future of mining.

Jan 1, 2008

By Barry James

"This paper discusses past and current energy use patterns in the mining and manufacturing sectors of the industrial minerals industry. Information is presented on the primary energy input types as purchased by the industry, the quality and form of the energy actually required by the various production processes, and the residual form of this energy, either embodied in the product or rejected in gaseous and liquid waste heat streams. With the continuing concerns about the availability of energy combined with the rapidly increasing cost of energy as a production input, the reduction of energy usage through improved efficiency will undoubtedly be an increasing priority for the industry during the 1980s. Reduced energy consumption through investment to improve energy efficiency appears to be advantageous from both the corporate and national perspectives.IntroductionEnergy, like labour and materials, is one of the basic production input s to the various mining, processing and manufacturing production stages in the industrial minerals industry. Energy costs, as a percentage of total production costs, have been well above the average for industry in Canada, accounting for more than 50 cents out of every dollar in the most extreme cases. Consequently, energy has always been a relatively important management concern in the industrial minerals industry.The energy supply and price situation in Canada and internationally has been changing rapidly since 1973, following a long period characterized by declining real energy prices and an abundance and wide choice of energy supplies. It is generally accepted that energy prices will continue to increase rapidly, and that there will be uncertainties about the long-term continuity of supply of some energy types. In essence, a period of relative stability has been replaced by a period of relative uncertainty. In such a changing situation, a reassessment of the role of energy as a production input is appropriate.The following sections outline some of the effects of the changing energy scene on the industrial minerals industry. These effects are dealt with primarily in terms of energy costs, because, in most circumstances, a change in the cost of energy as a production input is the end result of both energy price and energy supply changes."

Jan 1, 1981

By S. Crewdson

Vertical hoisting of materials using hoists and skips is common in the Mining Industry. These systems have a number of drawbacks, one being limited hoisting capacity at medium depths. FKC-Lake Shore and Metso Flexowell have been developing and installing vertical belts for medium depth shaft applications for many years, progressively going deeper whilst increasing belt capacity. The latest development from Metso the Pocketlift® belt advances this technology allowing higher tonnages to be lifted from greater depths. The design, manufacture, installation and operational experience of a 1818 tonnes capacity, 273 meters vertical lift Pocketlift® system at the White County Coal Pattiki 2 mine is the subject of this work.

Jan 1, 2003

By Larry G. Twidwell, Jannette L. Chorney, Bryce D. Ruffier, Katelyn M. Lyons, Daniel W. Gaede, Ryan J. Foy, Jerome P. Downey

The Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at Montana Tech is investigating various methods of extracting and refining rare earth elements from mineral ores and concentrates. As part of this research, an elevated temperature “roasting” process has been evaluated as a means of converting the rare earth elements contained in various matrices to bromides as a pretreatment step in preparation for downstream rare earth element extraction and recovery operations. Laboratory and bench-scale experiments have been performed to assess the effects of varying temperature (150 to 400° C), time (1 to 4 h), and the ammonium bromide to rare earth oxide molar ratio (6 to 24) in the roaster charge. The results show that nearly complete bromination of the rare earth oxide is achievable when the roast is performed under optimum conditions.

Jan 1, 2015

By Pak DL

Over the last decade computers have become an essential element in assessing the economic feasibility of mining new mineral deposits and in assisting a variety of related support functions. A broad overview is given of the many technical application areas where computers are contributing to the mining industry with reference to work being done on the evaluation of drill hole information, mineral inventory modelling, ore reserve estimation, financial analysis, process simulation, process control, workshop job scheduling, PERT applications, and com- puter aided drafting. In all these areas the computer has greatly reduced the manual effort involved in looking at alternatives. It has had a significant effect in eliminating delays in revising calculations, or rescheduling activities to incorporate new data or cater for changing conditions, while at the same time providing more accurate and prompt information for the management decision making Process.

Jan 1, 1980

By John Hanna

The Mineral Resources Institute (MRI) has developed a unique process for selective fatty acid flotation of phosphate minerals from siliceous ores. The process takes advantage of preferential adsorption and high reactivity of fatty acid collectors towards apatite over silica surfaces under slightly acidic conditions of pH 5-6.5. The process was successful in upgrading various phosphate samples from Florida and North Carolina containing 7.7-15.3% P205 and 62.3- 77.2% Insol to concentrates assaying 28.1-33.1 % P205 and 4.1-9.9% Insol with high P2O5 recovery of 81.8-92.2%. Depending on the type of silica impurities present one or more cleaning steps, with or without sodium silicate, would be required to improve the grade of the rougher phosphate concentrate.

Jan 1, 1992

By C. C. Harris

This article presents a general equation describing the xYt surface in batch grinding. This equation contains as special cases most of the relationships which have been deduced from kinetic studies. In an earlier paper an analytical solution of the integro-differential equation of batch grinding was proposed1 as a first approximation of the xYt surface.' A more general equation will be presented here, which appears to combine in a single statement many conclusions reached by experiment. A possible underlying mechanism is that the changing product fineness leads to changes in the particle crushing strength and in the probability of encounter with the crushing media.

Jan 1, 1969

By J. M. Goris

"Researchers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines are conducting research on cable-type ground supports to assess their material and support properties and to provide design criteria for implementing cable supports as a workable roof control system under various underground mining conditions. Much of this work involves laboratory assessment of the material and support properties of cable supports using both conventional and birdcage steel cables. Included in this assessment are single and double cables, effects of changes in embedment length on support strengths, water-cement ratios, use of breather tubes, and pumpability and water-bleeding properties of grouts.IntroductionSince cable supports were introduced in the early 1970s, considerable research has been conducted in laboratories and at mine sites to understand their behaviour. The U.S. Bureau of Mines began a laboratory evaluation project in 1985 at the Spokane Research Center (SRC) to study the behaviour of cables supports under uniaxial loads so that the effects of various cable support components, such as grout and breather tubes, could be identified. Other objectives were to compare the behaviour of various types of cables and grouts and to collect meaningful data for numerical analyses. Pull tests were conducted to determine how cables supports reacted under uniaxial loads and how they failed when ultimate loads were exceeded. Such data are essential for the development of numerical models for analyzing rock mass behaviour when the rock is supported with cables.Test ProgramBecause each cable support can be composed of either single or double cables as well as a breather tube, pull tests were designed to include a variety of samples containing these components. A series of samples containing a single conventional cable, a neat cement grout having a water-cement ratio of 0.45, and no chemical additives was selected as a standard (Table I). Then one component in the system, such as the presence of a breather tube, was changed, and results of tests compared to results obtained for the standard samples to determine what influence that component might have on the behaviour of the support system. If significant changes in test data occurred, they could be attributed to that one component. To control the quality of the samples, the physical condition of the cables and tubes were monitored closely, and compressive and tensile strengths as well as flow properties were determined for the grout used in each test series."

Jan 1, 1991