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By D. Stone

"The Beal Mountain mine near Anaconda, Montana, is an interesting case history of a mine that has continued operations despite several large pit wall failures over a period of approximately 10 years. The largest event involved some 3.9 million tons of rock that has moved steadily at a rate of about 0.05 ft/day since 1992. This paper documents the geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring programs implemented at Beal to provide the company with a comfortable baseline that supported ongoing operations. The success and failure of a variety of stabilization measures will be discussed, along with typical instrumentation responses for several significant events. The success of Beal Mountain serves as a good model for mines faced with serious geotechnical challenges."

Jan 1, 2002

By Michael Stuart Parsons

The haulage cycle is the sequence which a haulage vehicle must first arrive at the loading area, then turn around and reverse into position. Once it is loaded, the vehicle leaves and travels to the unloading area, where again it must turn around and back up to unload. The cycle is repeated over and over again. The Vector Neutral truck is a rubbertired, self-propelled hauling vehicle designed such that it eliminates the requirement to turn around and back-up to either load or unload. Vector Neutral Truck Cycle: 1.) Travel from the load station to the dump station. 2.) Stop and dump load. 3.) Travel from the dump station to the load station. 4.) Stop and load. The Advantage is in the Difference: 1.) Shorter distance traveled. 2.) Fewer brake and steering actuations. 3.) Easier to automate. 4.) Easier to adapt for remote control operation.

May 1, 2003

By R. W. Nice

"The Similkameen Mining Company property is situated about 9 1/2 miles south and west of Princeton B.C. Owned and operated by Newmont Mining Corporation, mining is presently taking place in the Ingerbelle pit. At 15,000 tpd of 0.50% Cu ore the Ingerbelle pit is sufficient for about 8 years. Another 8 years ore supply is available from the old Granby workings of the Copper Mountain property which operated from 1927 to 1957.The pit operations commenced in late 1970 with the concentrator starting in March 1972. Designed and built by Bechtel Corporation under the supervision of Newmont the concentrator's design was based on single-stage crushing and single-stage modified autogenous grinding. The modification was installation of a crusher to crush the critical size build-up. The description of the operation follows.CRUSHERThe primary crusher is an open pocket Allis-Chalmers. 54"" x 74"" gyratory. The basic closed side setting is 8"". The crusher is fed from one side with 100 ton Electra-haul trucks. The crusher pocket discharges to a 96"" wide conveyor belt, then to a 48"" conveyor system including a stacker belt. The crushed product is piled on a stockpile with a capacity of about 30,000 live tons. This stockpile feeds the concentrator."

Jan 1, 1975

By Dave Shook

A Mineral Processing facility in Montreal has recently implemented a leading-edge intranet solution for monitoring the performance of plant operations, and providing condition-based maintenance. This innovative multi-faceted software implementation incorporates: web-delivered plant information systems; area-wide control loop performance assessment (using sophisticated algorithms to evaluate poorly performing controllers); and integrated alarm management functions. The system has enabled a project to improve plant operations through better process control. Maintenance technicians, engineers, supervisors and managers all can see the performance of the controllers, and the performance of the plant itself, through webdelivered graphics and reports. Information is combined from many sources, real-time, historical, relational and analytical, to provide a complete picture of plant operation. The web-based solution centralizes the administration of user access, and simplifies the deployment of several different kinds of information to many desktops. It is an extensible system that allows users to create and share their own web pages and data views. The paper will discuss the solution architecture and the improvements the I.T., operations, maintenance, and engineering groups have experienced, and overall benefits to the facility.

May 1, 2002

By A. E. Hilder

Introductory The following pages present the results of field investigations, laboratory and commercial tests, drilling, surveying, and preliminary development of the refractory clays which have been discovered recently in the township of Kipling, at the foot of Long rapids on the west side of the Mattagami river about 57 miles north of Kapuskasing and approximately 7 miles north of Smoky Falls, the terminus of the privately owned railway operated by the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company, Kapuskasing (see Figure 1). Investigations on the clays of northern Ontario have been carried on over a period of seven years by officers of the Ontario Department of Mines, and I am indebted to the information published by that Department in reports by W. S. Dyer and A. R. Crozier, as well as?by Professor R. J. Montgomery, of the Ceramic Department, University of Toronto. It was, in large measure, the data given in the 37th, 38th, and 42nd Annual Reports of the Ontario Department of Mines that led me to make a personal investigation of the Mattagami River clays, with the result that we now have a commercial undertaking that will develop eventually into an industry of considerable importance in supplying the central manufacturing districts of Canada with refractories that heretofore have been largely imported from the United States. An extract from the 42nd Annual Report of the Department, Part III, 1933, page 75, reads as follows: "As for the refractory clay, the deposits are undoubtedly very large, but what is urgently needed is a deposit near the railway under sufficiently shallow overburden for recovery by stripping'. Having previously made an investigation of the clays adjacent to the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario railway, and these clays proving unsuitable, I turned my attention to the outcrops of refractory clays on the Mattagami river, first reported by Keele in 1919. This area offered possibilities within the economically permissible distance from rail transportation.

Jan 1, 1935

By E. Laatio, W. McKay

"History of Tara Mines Ltd.Tara Exploration and Development Company Ltd. was formed in Canada by Irishmen in 1953. The discovery of an orebody approximately six miles from the historically famous Hill of Tara in County Meath was a wild dream . Nevertheless this dream became a reality. Tara Mines Ltd. was formed, and the mine developed some 35 miles northwest of the City of Dublin in the Irish Republic.Tara's original drilling program indicated a zinc-lead orebody of approximately 60 million tonnes grading at 10.1% Zn and 2.6% Pb. The terms of the mining lease stipulated that the Irish government would acquire 25% equity interest in the operation. The mine was thus owned 75% by Tara Exploration and Development Company Ltd. of which the principal shareholders were Noranda and Northgate, together with 25% being held by the Irish government. The mine was purchased in March 1986 by Outokumpu Oy, a Finnish mining and metallurgical company, and together with the 25% government stake are the current owners. Outokumpu Analysis on Tara Mines Ltd.Upon ownership Outokumpu carried out a comprehensive analysis on the operation and came to the following conclusions :1. Tara had a good orebody;2. Tara had a skilled, capable, stable workforce;3. Tara's concentrator and processing equipment was adequate to meet requirements;4. Tara's mobile equipment fleet was too old and too numerousin numbers; and5. Tara had too many employees, both staff and hourly paid .With ore reserves of approximately 50 million tonnes and at a planned extraction rate of 2.6 million tonnes it meant that the mine had a lifespan of approximately 20 years. To be a viable operation into the future, the mine had to become more efficient. Operating costs and manpower levels had to be dramatically reduced."

Jan 1, 1989

By J. O. Marsden

Over the past decade, the copper industry has been through an extended downturn followed by several years of sustained high copper price. A number of new technologies have been developed over the past 10 years aimed at reducing costs by decreasing energy, labor, and materials requirements, or by increasing metal recovery. The energy intensity of different copper extraction routes and different technologies varies considerably and this has a significant impact on the economics of extraction. Based on average ore grade materials, the total energy for the extraction of copper typically varies from about 24-26 MJ/lb (6.7-7.2 kWh/lb) for the mining, crushing, milling, flotation, smelting and refining route to about 14¬16 MJ/lb (3.9-4.5 kWh/lb) for the mining, crushing, heap leaching, solution extraction and electrowinning route. New technology developments are providing opportunities for significant reductions in energy consumption for copper extraction, representing energy savings up to 20-25% in some cases. In addition, in many cases, these new technologies have introduced environmental, safety and health benefits over the incumbent technology. Some of these technology developments have been more successful than others, and many hold great promise for application in the coming decade. This paper provides an overview of the technology developments that have occurred, and explores the underlying reasons behind successful implementation.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. Lazareck

"XPotential Products Inc. has developed technologies to convert auto shredder residues and other forms of plastic waste into useful products such as posts suitable for retaining walls and parking curbs. The technology is competitive provided low-cost plastic waste is available, and could have applications throughout the world. The paper describes the technology used and illustrates the various processing steps. Development of the TechnologyPresently, state-of-the-art auto shredding yields approximately 75% ferrous and non-ferrous metals and approximately 25% by weight of auto shredder residue (ASR). Advances in metal shredding and non-ferrous metal separation technologies turned XPotential Products Inc.’s attention to ASR as a potential revenue source, or at least a means to markedly reduce the cost of disposal. This abundance of nuisance ASR was, in the company’s view, a potential resource as derelict autos and white goods were similarly perceived 40 years ago. As owners of General Scrap & Car Shredder Ltd. in western Canada, XPotential faced significant disposal costs for four shredders. This journey began over 10 years ago and took many twists and turns until a final course of action was chosen. The recovery of the metallic portion of vehicles and white goods has reached technological maturity and attempts to add value are now achievable only in very small increments."

Jan 1, 2004

By D. E. Gorse, R. G. Anderson

"Indusmin's history dates back to 1937 when they developed the Blue Mountain Nepheline Syenite deposit at Nephton, Ontario, and began supplying material for the glass, fiberglass, paint, ceramics and rubber industries.Since then, as a subsidiary of Falconbridge Nickel Mines, Indusmin has expanded the Nephton operation, diversified into the aggregate quarries for the construction industries, with operations at Acton and Halton, Ontario, established silica plants at St. Canut, Quebec and Midland, Ontario, to supply the glass, carbide, ceramics, cleanser and concrete products industries, and the purchase of a foundry, Fahramet Limited, Orillia, Ontario, supplying steel and alloy castings to the mining, construction cement and petrochemical industries.Indusmin also has a Technical Resource Centre and Head Office facilities in Toronto.As this paper deals with Indusmin's experience with dust abatement, and although dust control is a concern at the Nephton, St. Canut and Orillia plants, we will be confining this paper to the experience gained at the Badgeley Quarry and Midland plant of the Ontario Silica Operation."

Jan 1, 1980

By Robert B. Parsons

"Canada's mining industry has reason to celebrate the federal government's budget which was tabled on February 26, 1986. The budget contains an important proposal to improve the flowthrough share rules by effectively eliminating the investor's liability to third parties. This proposed rule change and other important budget proposals are the subject of this month's edition of Tax Notes. IntroductionWhile Finance Minister Michael Wilson's February 26, 1986 budget received a mixed reaction from business and labour leaders, the budget was mainly ""good news"" for the mining industry. A long-standing bugaboo in the flow-through share rules will be cleared up, a permanent set of rules will be installed for the tax treatment of Northern allowances, and limited partnerships will apparently be able to continue to serve a useful role in financing exploration programs. Flow-Through SharesThe present rules which apply to an investment in flow-through shares are structured in such a way that the relevant Canadian exploration expense (""CEE"") must be incurred by the investor, and not by the issuing corporation. Obviously, in the case of most flow-through share issues, this requirement that the investor incur the CEE poses a practical problem-the investor typically does not have the expertise or organization to incur the CEE. As a result, an integral part of most flowthrough arrangements is an agreement whereby the investor appoints another party (usually the issuing corporation) as his agent to spend the flow-through funds on CEE on his behalf. Although the issuing corporation might consequently be the party which actually spends the flow-through share funds on CEE, nevertheless the legal structure is such that the investor is the ""principal"" who is incurring the CEE. As such, the investor is legally responsible for any third-party claims with respect to the exploration program. Third-party liability might arise, for example, in the case of property damage, personal injury, environmental infractions, and so on."

Jan 1, 1986

By Abdelkabir Maqsoud

Different management options and rehabilitation strategies are available for mine wastes that produce acid mine drainage (AMD). One of them consists in building a cover with capillary barrier effects (CCBE) on the tailings to limit the availability of oxygen, an essential component of the chemical reactions leading to the generation of AMD. Prior to cover construction, a monitoring strategy must be established to evaluate the response and performance of the cover system. The key parameters to monitor should include matric suction and volumetric water content in the CCBE, oxygen flux (and/or oxygen concentration) through and below the cover, and the main meteorological parameters for the impoundment. In this paper, different techniques available to measure the targeted parameters are described and their main properties are given. Recommendations (based on existing cases) on the location and the number of monitoring stations and on the measurement frequency for each monitored parameter are also proposed.

May 1, 2007

By B. Krysa, J. Qiu

The zinc pressure leach plant at HBM&S's operations is now in its fifteenth year of operation. Current pressure leach operation is steady at a concentrate processing rate of around 26.5 tonnes per hour. A new cellhouse with a design capacity of 124,000 tonnes per annum and the capability of expansion of up to 154,000 tonnes per annum was commissioned in July 2001. The potential to expand the capacity of the pressure leach circuit and associated processes, as well as the purification circuit and casting plant, to meet the maximum capacity of the cellhouse has been investigated. This paper reviews current operation of the zinc plant, as well as the possibility of a capacity increase without major process modifications or major capital expenditures.

Jan 1, 2008

By Shichang Liu, Hongli Jia, Zhaolian Wang, Maotang Liu, Ltd. Shandong Huate Magnet Technology Co., Fengliang Liu

"Introduce and promote a latest technology and equipment for magnetite. It’s featured of purifying concentrate, lowering tailing grade, high concentrate recovery rate and stable operation. HUATE® New Style Elutriation Electromagnetic Separator is an equipment to obviously upgrade magnetite. The slurry is fed into separation area through feeder. Generated by excitation coil, the working magnetic field distributes specially in separation area. Under the combined effect of the background field, excitation and demagnetic field and gravity, the mineral particles float downwards in the form of magnetic chains, and interact with the rising water. The gangue, non-magnetic particles, lean intergrowth,etc will be discarded as tailing via overflow tank and pipe. While the magnetic will be discharged from concentrate pipe. Its grade is 2%-10% higher than that of traditional magnetic separation equipment. It adopts the technologies of transformer oil cooling, alternative and uniform pulsation magnetic field controlling the tailing grade, larger drum feed-in device, more uniform umbrella scattering discharge and stabler output current, and realizes lower coil temperature raise, stabler magnetic field, more uniform discharge, effective isolation of weak-magnetic area from non-magnetic area, more obvious upgradation and recovery rate and lowering tailing mFe%. It’s more suitable to purify and thicken the high grade and ultrafine iron powder. Compared with traditional elutriation equipment, it adopts new technologies in removing impurities, operation, large-scale, process simplification, water-saving, remote control, etc. It optimizes the comprehensive beneficiation index, expands its application scope, reduces resource wastes and increases economic benefits.INTRODUCTIONMagnetite accounts for a comparatively great proportion in various iron resources. As it’s a kind of strong magnetic mineral, we must adopt the weak magnetic separation equipment in magnetic separation process to realize removing Si and lowering impurities. While it cannot do very well to use the common weak magnetic separation equipment in the final cleaning to remove Si and lower impurities. At present, the plants, adopting single magnetic separation process to realize cleaning and removing Si and lowering impurities, are in the minority. Most magnetite plants adopt the flotation separation process to remove Si, lower impurities and purify the concentrate. Though with stable indexes and high Fe recovery rate, the flotation process is very complicated, high-cost and with lots of environmental pollution. If adopting the weak magnetic separation equipment can realize removing Si, lowering impurities and the final cleaning, the magnetic separation process should be the primary choice."

Jan 1, 2016

By A. McLean, M. Barati

In this paper, examples are presented of pyrometallurgical research and associated teaching activities during the past century within the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, now the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at the University of Toronto. Throughout these years, pyrometallurgical research has been characterized by recognition of the importance of the interdependence of measurements and models as well as the development and application of sensors, for the generation, validation and practical implementation of new knowledge. The important role played in the delivery of lectures and participation in joint research by Adjunct Professors with strong backgrounds in the pyrometallurgical industry is described. Projects conducted in close collaboration with the industrial sector and opportunities for students to obtain practical experience working as teams on a "round-the clock" shift basis within an industrial pilot plant environment are outlined. These activities, together with the involvement of students in poster competitions and the presentation of papers at society conferences and technical meetings, are still vital elements in the development of pyrometallurgists equipped with the appropriate professional skills for subsequent employment within academia, government laboratories or the industrial sector.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jon A. Carlson, W. Scott Williams

The EKATI"" Diamond Mine commenced operation in October 1998. It is operated by BHP Diamonds Inc., which is a part of the Non-Ferrous and Industrial Materials Division of BHP Minerals, a business unit of BHP Company Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia. The EKATI"" Diamond Mine is a joint venture of BHP Diamonds Inc. (51%), Dia Met Minerals Ltd. (29%), Charles E. Fipke (10%) and Dr. Stewart L. Blusson (10%). In December 1993, an office was opened in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories specifically for the then Northwest Territories Diamonds Project (EKATI"" Diamond Mine) development. EKATI"" Diamond Mine is located 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife and 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada (Figure 1 ). The site is located in a remote tundra area of continuous permafrost, north of the tree line, which is part of the Canadian Shield. Wekweti (Snare Lake), a Dogrib community approximately 180 kilometres southwest of the project, is the closest neighbour. The mining area and facilities lie within the 10 960 hectares land leases held by the joint venture. The total claim block (core zone and buffer zone joint ventures) covers 344 000 hectares. To date, more than one hundred kimberlite pipes have been identified within the claims. Five of these provide the basis for the present mine plan. Total capital investment in the project is over C$700 million. At full production employment will be about 600, including employees and long-term contractors, with over 33% being Aboriginal from the Northwest Territories.

Jan 1, 2001

By F. G. Pickard

"The Strathcona Concentrator is one of three concentrators presently operated in the Sudbury District by the Nickel Division of Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited. Production commenced in 1968 at a milling rate of 6,300 tons per operating day. Milling capacity was increased in 1970 to 7,200 tons per operating day. 7he ore contains iron, nickel and copper primarily in the form of pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite, while the common gangue minerals are feldspar, quartz, mica, talc and chlorite. The primary function of the concentrators is not only to liberate sulphides from silicate gangue minerals but also to separate pyrrhotite from the more valuable minerals pentlandite and chalcopyrite.SummaryExcessive wear on steel liners and blinding of grates in a regrind pebble mill of the Hardy Concentrator was corrected by the use of rubber liners and grates. The success of these resulted in their installation as original linings In all grinding units except the rod mills at the Strathcona Concentrator. The operation of rubber liners and grates when sized mine ore was used as the grinding medium was satisfactory confirming the Hardy Concentrator experience. Problems developed when the grinding medium was changed from sized mine ore to steel balls in that blinding of the grates occurred. This resulted in conversion of the units to overflow type mills through removal of the grates. The lifter bar life was significantly increased by using higher lifter bars.Grinding PracticeOperation of a regrind pebble mill commenced in 1961 in the Hardy Concentrator. This operation demonstrated the economic feasibility of using sized mine ore as grinding medium. Problems caused by excessive wear of metal liners and grates combined with blinding of the grates were corrected in 1964 through installation of rubber liners and grates."

Jan 1, 1974

By H. C. Wade

"Description and UseDischarge liners or pulp lifters as they are sometimes called are a trough type liner used at the discharge end of the mill where ground ore passes to the trunnion.There are basically two methods of discharging pulp. The First and most common is the overflow method. Here ground ore travels from the feed to the discharge end where it exits through the discharge trunnion in an overflowing manner, hence the name ""overflow"". (See Figure I) The second method of discharging pulp is the grate method. With this method you block-off the trunnion and hold the ore inside the mill for a longer period of time. This allows only the desired size of ore out of the mill. Ore passes through the grate liners, into the Vibrathane Discharge liner, and finally down to the trunnion. Greater control of the ore size results wit1 this method as compared to the overflow method and it also eliminates reclassifying and regrinding. (See Figure 2)Types in UsePresently the majority of discharge liners in use today are rubber. (Metal insert and rubber covered) In some extremely course applications steel and nihard are used."

Jan 1, 1980

By D. Prince, G. Nollet

"Since 1994, Aur Ressources has operated Louvicourt mine, a zinc and copper mine close to Val d’Or, at a rate of 4300 t/d. Ever since the start-up of the plant, management has encouraged innovative approaches in reliability. The first of three papers will discuss the vibration monitoring program in place. The program will be described and two examples will be given: detection of a rolling bearing defect on a pinion driving the ball mill and identification of wear on the bearings of the flotation cells. Figures on the return on investment and the costs of a monitoring program will also be given.The second article will discuss the lubrication aspect. Since the establishment of a good monitoring and oil analyses, Louvicourt mine decreased its oil consumption by more than 38 000 L/yr. In addition, the company set up an oil regeneration system that restores the original properties of oil.The third article will cover the management aspect. Work organization as well as the management philosophy enabling the employes to push predictive technology to higher levels will be examined in detail. The key elements which made it possible for Louvicourt mine to position itself among world-class companies in the organization of maintenance will be discussed."

Jan 1, 2002

By D. H. Rubisov, V. G. Papangelakis

Sulphuric acid pressure leaching is the process of choice to recover nickel and cobalt from laterites with variable iron and magnesium contents. The latter influences the acidity levels required for effective leaching of nickel and cobalt, and during leaching, iron is rejected in-situ as hematite. Classical solid/liquid separation is performed via a CCD circuit, the performance of which depends upon the size and shape of precipitated particles. In this paper, precipitates obtained by acid-leaching of various lateritic feeds at 270°C are characterized using SEM/EDX and laser particle size analysis. It is shown that as acidity increases, the shape of the precipitates gradually changes from platelets to spheres, thus improving the S/L separation properties of the residue. The use of hydrogen ion concentration “at temperature,” calculated from a speciation analysis, allows the explanation of this change of morphology independently of the type of the ore feed. The possibility of precipitating magnesium sulphate “at temperature” is also discussed. In order to take advantage of this precipitation for scale reduction (as has been proposed in the past) without compromising the residue quality, [H+] “at temperature” must be controlled within an optimum range.

Jan 1, 2000

By C. Ketata, M. C. Rockwell

During the operation of a mineral processing plant, the unit processes are investigated by analyzing the data extracted by means of stream sampling. The data structure is identical to the time series form. Data analysis is a crucial step in understanding the plant performance. To control the plant performance efficiently, it is very important to avoid sampling errors, which is impossible. However, it is possible to minimize these errors. The factors influencing these errors are divided into two categories: material properties illustrating its heterogeneity, and sampler features. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of the material composition variation on sampling errors, and to compare our evaluation method with that of Gy. Note that the stream mass flowrate is assumed to be constant during the sampling process.

Jan 1, 2001