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By C. Geier

Previous mine incidents show weaknesses in mine rescue preparedness from poor training in decision making, leadership and incident command center (ICC) protocols. Computer simulations offer a larger range of training opportunities for mine rescue teams focusing on exploration and communications. The mine rescue simulator developed by the Colorado School of Mines and Rite Solutions Inc. utilizes four computers for the instructor and team, with the instructor monitoring the team?s progress. As the team explores, it relays information back to the Fresh Air Base, which then reports to the ICC. This forces a three-step communication procedure, enhancing the team?s overall communication skills and developing ICC protocols. The simulator is decision-based, demanding team decisions be made quickly. Upon completion, teams commented positively. Generally, participants said that the simulator is useful for learning how to communicate and make decisions during mine rescue emergencies. This mine rescue simulator improves team training, providing effective communications practice with an easy setup and no production interruption.

Feb 1, 2014

By Gabriel K. Nzulu, Lars Hultman, Per Eklund, Martin Magnuson, Abu Yaya, Prosper M. Nude, Hans Högberg

This study aims to identify individual elements and to gain an understanding of the surface reaction mechanisms, as well as the properties of precipitated pyrite particles observed during the hydrothermal formation of an ore deposit. A combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), air annealing in a furnace, scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was applied to investigate the crystal structure and identify the individual elements, permanence, transformation and chemical/electronic properties of such pyrite.

Jun 1, 2024

By Roy Norcross

For the past few years Caro's acid has been used for the treatment of cyanide containing slurry effluents, providing a feasible alter­ naive to other slurry treatment processes including !NCO SO2 / Arr and ferrous sulfate. Presently, mines using Caro's acid gen­erate their own Caro's acid onsite making a relatively low quali­ty product. It was at this point where we, at Degussa Corporation, decided to focus our efforts on engineering a Caro's acid genera­tor capable of cost effectively producing a high quality Caro's acid solution, thus reducing operating costs significantly. Caro's acid or peroxymonosulfuric acid is not a new chem­ical nor is it new to Degussa. The product was named after Heinrich Caro (1834-1910), a German chemist who first described its synthesis and its oxidizing properties in 1898. Degussa has been producing the potassium salt of Caro's acid as the triple salt, 2KHSO5 - 2KHSO4 - K2SO4, called Caroat®, for over 30 years. Caroat® is used for household and denture cleansers, as a bleaching agent in dish washing detergents, in printed circuit board etching and for cyanide destruction in the plating industry. From our experience in producing Caroat® Degussa developed its new Caro's acid based DegOX™ technology for the treat­ment of cyanide containing effluents from gold and silver mines.

Jan 1, 1996

By Bruce Kennedy, Charles Bruce

MINERAL EXPLORATION 'The Function of Exploration Mineral exploration aims at locating the presence of economic deposits and establishing their nature, shape, and grade. As all ore bodies are finite, exploration is essentially the lifeblood of the mining industry. It is divided into two phases, reconnaissance and target investigation. It involves geological mapping, geophysical prospecting (aerial and ground or both), geochemical surveys, prospect drilling, and/or exploratory under-ground workings. Successful exploration is followed by development drilling, mine development, and eventually operation. In underground mining, the term "ore" is applied rather loosely to metalliferous rock that can be profit- ably mined, but nonmetallic industrial minerals and energy related materials constitute a large and growing portion of the tonnage extracted by underground methods each year. It is appropriate, therefore, to consider exploration as the search for any useful substance occurring in the earth or in the oceans that is of sufficient value as to volume, grade, chemical and physical com- position, and location as to make extraction by mining commercially profitable for the investment required. The Selection Process The search for ore includes hundreds of mineral commodities. The more successful exploration organizations tend to restrict the search to the mineral commodities for which they have strong exploration expertise and which have a high probability of being concentrated in areas open to exploration and development in sufficient volume, grade, and proximity to the surface to warrant the large expenditures of risk capital in finding an ore body. Special expertise is needed to engage in mineral exploration and development for the extended periods required for success. Individual prospectors continue to discover mineral occurrences, but it generally takes an organization with strong financial resources to carry the exploration process forward to the point of developing "ore." Still greater corporate resources in the form of management, engineering, and sales capability are needed to develop an ore body into an operating mine. In the past, companies other than those engaged in mining rarely conducted exploration, since they lacked the technical skills and know-how to bring a mine to fruition. A notable trend in recent years has been the success of other resource-oriented firms, such as petroleum companies, that have not only acquired the necessary skills to engage in exploration for hard minerals, but are doing so on a far more intensive scale than known in the industry heretofore. The desire to diversify from increasingly regulated oil and gas, the potential for the discovery of a bonanza, and the large scale of mining projects for these capital-intensive firms are the attractions. US government and certain international organizations, such as the United Nations, have fielded sizable exploration programs in the past decade on behalf of Third World countries wherein many of the world's higher grade deposits and scarce mineral resources are located. The level of overall mineral exploration in the industry is, regrettably, closely geared to the business cycle. Accelerated search during the periods of strong demand, shortages, and high prices, together with the long lead times necessary to develop mineral finds, often creates surges in supply which invariably are followed by a collapse in prices. The trend is, therefore, to exploration funding by larger better-endowed firms having the staying power to weather the cyclical nature of mining. Tax incentives, tariff policies, and other incentives have a decided impact on the level and nature of exploration. Surface mining regulations and environmental forces have fostered a renewed interest in under- ground development despite the lower average costs of surface mining. Spiraling inflation has caused mining costs to outpace prices for many mineral substances. Organizations increasingly are directing their search away from high- grade but limited tonnage occurrences toward low-grade disseminated bulk tonnages amenable to mining on a vast scale. Mining continues, therefore, to grow even more capital-intensive with half-billion-dollar mine-mill- smelter complexes now commonplace, compared with the hundred-million-dollar projects of a decade ago. Reconnaissance Exploration Having elected to search for specific mineral commodities, the exploration company narrows its focus to a reconnaissance of those regions offering the best potential. A working hypothesis which is constantly up- dated concerning the geologic controls for ore occurrence guides the search. The possibilities for discovery are best in areas of existing mines and known ore bodies, where the probabilities are high for additional ore occurrences. In such areas, published data on the trends and geologic controls of known mineral occurrences aid the search. Even in some remote territories, a variety of geologic data is available to the explorationist. The major sources of basic geologic data are the libraries of the US Geological Survey (USGS), the state geological surveys, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), the US Bureau of Mines, and various institutions such as Colorado School of Mines. Overseas, virtually all of the countries have their own geologic survey groups which are associated directly, or indirectly, with their respective ministries of mines. The objective of reconnaissance exploration is to narrow the search by pinpointing target areas having interesting mineralization. These favorable areas are then investigated in detail to delineate potential ore bodies.

Jan 1, 1982

By G. W. R. Kuzyk

The Underground Research Laboratory (URL) , a major geotechnical research facility, is currently being developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) , 120 km northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The URL is part of the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program, which is assessing the concept of nuclear fuel waste disposal in a vault deep in stable plutonic rock of the Canadian Shield (Simmons, 1986). Comprehensive geotechnical research and development activities are being carried out in conjunction with excavation? and construction of the underground facilities.

Jan 1, 1989

By W. P. Blacutt

A financial-economic model incorporating physical, market and policy variables has been developed for mining investment in Bolivia. Additional risk criteria emanating from political instability, new mining legislation, recent environmental regulations and a new minerals taxation system are accounted for and are integrated into the investment decision model. Results of the model indicate that geologic and market variables have the dominant effect on the investment-worth function. Among policy variables, exchange rate and taxation policies have the most significant influence. Depreciation allowance for infrastructure development has negligible weight in the investment-worth function. The business structure of the firm considering investing in the Bolivian Polymetallic Project, is found to be an instrumental factor in the investment-worth outcome.

Jan 1, 1995

By A. S. Azman

In collaboration with Kennametal Inc. and corry rubber corporation, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a drill bit isolator to address noise overexposures associated with roof bolting machines in underground coal mines. NIOSH laboratory studies confirmed that the drill bit isolator reduces noise during drilling. Field studies were needed to confirm that a noise reduction could be obtained under working conditions and that the device was sufficiently durable. This paper reports results of field tests of the device conducted at five underground coal mines. Noise reduction was assessed by comparing the operator?s noise exposure during drilling with and without the drill bit isolator. Durability was assessed by recording the number of holes and total feet drilled with each bit isolator until either the test period ended or the device failed. The results from these tests showed that the device is an effective noise control in a mine environment. The field-tested drill bit isolators provided a noise reduction of 3-5 db(A). Of nine devices tested for durability, five exceeded 610 m (2,000 ft) drilled and two exceeded 762 m (2,500 ft) drilled before failure. Durability issues found in the field tests led to final production optimizations that have resulted in a commercially available product for drilling with 35-mm- (1.3-in.-) diameter roof bits and hexagonal drill steels.

Jan 1, 2012

By K. Lagnese, C. Robinson, S. Muddasani

"Mine water generated from underground coal mining operations contains both dissolved and particulate solids. Dissolved solids primarily consist of sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chlorides and sulfates. When discharged to a receiving stream without treatment, these constituents create a potentially toxic environment for aquatic life. A case study is presented to discuss how a centralized treatment plant treats mine water from six locations to meet discharge limitations for chlorides. Located in West Virginia, this facility consistently achieves less than the NPDES permit limitation of 218 mg/L chlorides in the discharge while generating almost zero liquid waste. The dissolved solids concentration in the influent ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 mg/L, with chloride concentrations of 1,000 to 2,000 mg/L and sulfate concentrations of 2,000 to 6,000 mg/L. The mine water is treated using advanced treatment technology to produce clean water for discharge or reuse. The treatment process comprises aeration, softening, filtration, reverse osmosis, RO reject softening, evaporation, crystallization, final effluent remineralization and sludge dewatering. The solid waste generated in the treatment process is landfilled on site. The leachate is sent back to the facility’s thermal treatment process. Because no liquid waste leaves the property, this plant is termed a “Zero Liquid Waste” (ZLW) facility. INTRODUCTION The advanced water treatment system was built to meet a new 218 mg/l regulatory limitation imposed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for chlorides discharged to surface waters. The system is designed to treat a maximum flow of approximately 5 million gallons per day (795 m3/h) of mine water. The treatment process utilizes reverse osmosis (RO) membrane treatment to achieve the effluent criteria, and evaporation and crystallization technology to manage the RO concentrate from the water treatment process. As a result, the system produces clean water for discharge while generating zero liquid waste. The effluent water can be used for industrial purposes or discharged to a receiving stream. A Water Impact Index (WIIx) study indicated that discharge of this high-quality water into the Monongahela River watershed may improve the water quality for downstream water users. The waste produced in the treatment process, including softening sludge and salt, is disposed of in an on-site landfill."

Jan 1, 2015

By C. M. Jones

Cyprus Sierrita Corp. has developed a training program that has led to several significant improvements in safety performance and productivity. Truck productivity has increased 6% as measured by truck cycle times. Increased skill levels and awareness on the part of the mine's operators are due to the new training effort. Costs associated with productivity training have been about $185,300. This includes program development and execution costs, as well as lost productivity during the training itself. These costs are offset by $1.9 million in savings attributable to the increased skill levels of technicians due to the training effort. Cyprus Sierrita is a subsidiary of Cyprus Amax of Englewood, CO. The company operates a copper and molybdenum mining and processing facility south of Tucson, AZ, near the town of Green Valley. The Cyprus Sierrita operation produces about 109 kt/a (240 million lbs/ year) of copper, 11.3 kt/a (25 million lbs/year) of molybdenum, 31.1 t/a (1 million oz/year) of silver and 1.8 t/a (4,000 lbs/year) of rhenium. The opera¬tion employs 770 people at the site. About 200 of these employees work in the mine operations. Mining at Sierrita uses standard open-pit techniques. Crews of 43 people rotate on 12-hour shifts. Hourly technicians are nonunion and do not use rigid job classifications to define pay. Rather, the system is designed to pay employees for what they are able to do. Administering this effort requires that training opportunities are provided to those people who desire them. Successful training opportunities al¬low people to gain skills. The more skills an employee can demonstrate, the higher his or her "tech level." A technician's pay is commensurate with his or her tech level. Much of Sierrita's training in past years concentrated on building basic

Jan 1, 1998

By Robert N. Pratt

The rapid acceleration and sweeping consequences of what we have all come to characterize as "the ecology movement" has marked a period of serious trial and challenge for the mining industry. It has blossomed into a major factor in our daily business and added a significant new dimension to the problems we must meet and overcome as businessmen. It has become an important new consideration at a time when we must continue to cope with our traditional problems such as rising costs, competition at home and abroad, and the always vital necessity to continually develop new and better technology to produce more minerals more efficiently and more economically. The body of law embracing environmental quality control grows each day, becomes more complex and offers more contradictions. And there is little relief in sight. The requirement to comply with sound environmental regulations -- or challenge unrealistic legislation -- has placed a major burden on the private sector. The economic significance of enacted and proposed environmental regulation is pressing management in the mining industry to some hard decisions -- basic day-to-day business decisions and decisions which acknowledge the undoubted long-term effects of the new laws.

Jan 1, 1973

By Atta Ur Rehman, Kwame Awuah-Offei

This work evaluates the effectiveness of similitude theory in predicting the draft of a rubber tire loader’s bucket during initial penetration. The work uses 1:16 and 1:8 scale models of an 18-t capacity load haul dump, scaled with the Buckingham Pi theorem, to evaluate the prediction of draft and penetration under different operating and different dynamic conditions. We hypothesized that the observed relationships between draft and longitudinal penetration and the operating and dynamic conditions will hold true for an upscaled model. Similarly, we hypothesized that the results of experiments conducted with the smaller scale model should predict the draft on an upscaled model.

By P. Legast

Serpentinite minerals are available in large quantities from asbestos mining activity. The granular or fibrous serpentite, at temperatures greater than 700°C, will recrystalize into olivine, forsterite and enstatite. These minerals have been used and studied for decades and are environmentally safe. The thermal process changes the composition and properties of the original mineral. Therefore, the substitution of the original mineral cannot simply be made and the applications for these new synthetic minerals need to be redeveloped. The two original mineral forms allow a wide range of new synthetic raw materials which can be adjusted to specific applications or custom needs.

Jan 1, 1993

From a gathering storm of climate change based legislation that could potentially overwhelm the mining industry, to the nuts and bolts of mineral processing and just about everything in between, about 100 mining and mineral processing professionals heard it at all at the 60th annual Colorado MPD Meeting April 22-24 at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO. With a sweeping agenda under the banner ?What in the world is new in mining and metallurgy? attendees were treated to four sessions and 21 presentations that covered the range of mining industry issues. Bill Reid, president, chief executive officer and director of Gold Resources Corp., spoke about his company?s El Aquila gold project in Mexico. With five projects in Mexico, Gold Resources Corps. is aiming to become a low-cost gold and silver producer. Its flagship property, the El Aguila gold project, is a high-grade gold and silver property with significant base metal credits of copper, lead and zinc. Production of the El Aguila project was targeted for mid-2009. Reid said that three high-grade deposits have been discovered at the El Aguila project. They include the high-grade ?manto? style El Aguila openpit deposit, the El Aire high-grade polyme-tallic vein system, which is underground, and the underground La Arista high-grade polymetallic vein system. The project is located 120 km (75 miles) south-east of the capital city of Oaxaca, Mexico. Reid said the property has yielded several exceptional gold and silver surface samples, including a 36-g/t (1.1 oz/st) gold sample and a 3,100-g/t (90 oz/st) silver sample. Other properties that Gold Resource Corp. has are:

Jul 1, 2010

By Harry Perry

The decline in coal production has been slowed somewhat in recent years, mostly because of the industry's own remarkable success in holding the line on costs, and partly as a result of advances achieved through industry and government research. Nevertheless, the decline has continued. This downward trend combined with the increased productivity of labor through mechanization that has been necessary for coal to retain even its present competitive position, has resulted in a serious reduction in the number of miners required and large scale economic dislocations in mining communities. For coal to regain a more favorable position it must either expand existing markets by reducing the cost of the delivered product and thereby compete more effectively with other fuels or develop new uses that will require large tonnages of coal. New markets involving several million tons, which would look extremely attractive to most other United States industries--including the organic chemical industry--would do little to alleviate the coal industry?s depressed economic conditions, While such small new markets would be welcome, an industry producing over 400 million tons per year must look to large tonnage outlets for solutions to its long range economic problems.

Jan 1, 1964

By Neal Cochran

I consider it a distinct privilege to be afforded the opportunity of discussing the program of the Office of Coal Research. The principal activities I will be discussing are concerned with projects that fall in the utilization area. I will, to be sure, touch on other activities of the Office of Coal Research but am not equipped to discuss these activities in great detail. Research activities of the Office of Coal Research are conducted on a contract basis with commercial, academic, and non-profit institutions. We do not operate any laboratories of our own but we do maintain a very small staff for technical and administrative supervision of our contractors. We have consistently attempted to interest outstanding, creative, and practical research organizations in our program. We are constantly seeking the imaginative new idea that will materially reduce the cost of mining coal, transporting it, or will process it into a more convenient and useable form. In assessing proposals and in developing our program, we search for the improvements that will develop large-scale new uses for coal or coal products or those that support these new uses.

Jan 1, 1963

By Ing Newton Amegbey, Joseph Afari Idun

Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (Gh) Ltd., the leading gold mining operation in Ghana is embarking on a major rehabilitation and expansion programme to increase gold production. A new southern ventilation district was targeted for this programme, and the ventilation system was to be reviewed in order to cope with increased production. The southern ventilation district was previously ventilated by booster fans. This arrangement was however, inadequate to solve the problem of the need to reduce smoke clearance time of the production areas, and to generally improve the underground ventilation conditions. Fan maintenance costs increased with the number of fans installed in the booster fan arrangement, and the fact that the fans were installed underground made maintenance difficult and took longer time. It became necessary to consider the installation of a new main fan on the surface. This paper gives an overview of the ventilation systems of the southern ventilation district of the mine before and after the new main fan was installed. The field tests carried out on the fan to ensure that it complied with supplier's specifications are described, and the new system analysed to see it's effectiveness.

Jan 1, 1993

By Robert W. Miller

There are many problems faced by ventilation engineers in deep underground mining operations, not the least of which is controlling miner exposure to radon gas and its daughter products. Radon gas is commonly found in uranium mining operations, but may also be present in other deep metal mines. For example, tin mines in England, iron ore mines in Sweden, gold mines in South Africa, and molybdenum mines in the U. S. have potential radon exposures. This is because uranium and accompanying radium ore are ubiquitous to the earth's crust albeit at low levels. The fact that the activity represented by one WL can be caused by a relatively low concentration of radon gas increases the difficulty of control. Since the source of the radon gas is usually widespread throughout a mine, local exhaust ventilation is not a viable control schema. The technique used to control exposure is then dilution ventilation and, in fact, huge amounts of air must be moved in order to reduce potential exposures to an acceptable level. An interesting comparison can be made of ventilation rates in different types of mines. It is estimated in modern coal mines, which are generally acknowledged to have high rates of ventilation, that about eleven tons of air are moved for each ton of ore mined. A typical operating uranium mine may have ventilation flows of 14-15 tons per ton of ore mined. This provides an idea of the scope and importance of ventilation in modern mining operations where radon is a hazard. Further pressure is put on ventilation engineers by the steady downward trend in exposure limits set by national and international standard setting agencies. Much of this tendency toward lowered standards is based upon longitudinal mortality studies of miner populations. Another important factor is the limited number of experienced miners available in the labor pool. For optimum production, it is important to have as many experienced miners underground in each shift as possible. However, the average daily exposure in a U. S. mine must be less than .3 WL to permit the miner to work underground for a full year. The ventilation system then must provide enough uncontaminated air to maintain the WL below the .3 TTL level to maximize production efficiency and minimize personnel turnover and the problems associated with it. Ultimately, the goal of the ventilation engineer and health physicist is to protect the working miner from harmful exposures based upon currently acceptable standards. U. S. Federal regulations require that in uranium mines all active work sites must be monitored every two weeks if they measure above .1 WL. Areas that have .3 WL ratios or higher must be monitored on a weekly basis until five consecutive weekly samples show the level has dropped below .3 WL. Also, exposure records must be kept for all individuals exposed to levels exceeding .3 WL. These requirements provide a strong economic incentive to have a ventilation system that minimizes exposure of any personnel. A good ventilation system requires careful planning, operation and backup in order to fulfill its mission of providing adequate clean air. Its proper operation also requires coordination with production personnel so it can be adapted as new areas in the mine open up and old areas are sealed off. The ultimate indicator of ventilation efficiency to control radon daughter exposure is, of course, monitoring working levels. Historically, this has been done using the Kusnetz, Tsivoglou, and Rolle's methods, among others. These methods all require cumbersome equipment and tedious calculations to obtain the measurements that results in WL. More important, however, they require a significant time lag between sampling and counting, typically 40-90 minutes. This time lag is, in fact, what can cause significant economic losses due to unnecessary downtime as well as high WL exposures. In a typical mining situation, a sampling technician using the Kusnetz method takes a sample, moves to the next location and takes another sample and so on. Forty to ninety minutes after the first sample, the technician will stop, run the activity count on the filter and calculate the WL. The technician may be one-half mile away or several levels removed from where the first sample was taken when it is counted. If the WL ratio is high the technician must then backtrack to the sample position. There are then two options. If the sample area is a working stage, it can be shut down or a second sample can be taken. If the first alternative is chosen; i.e., shutdown and correction of the ventilation, then another sample must be taken, followed by a forty minute wait for results. If the ventilation adjustment didn't correct the problem, then the whole process must be repeated with a minimum of forty-five minutes per sample cycle when using the Kusnetz method. It has been estimated from operating uranium mines that the cost per hour for downtime on a production slope is about $1,50O/hour. The time lag between sampling and resultant data can be very costly. If the second alternative is chosen to verify the first reading, the miners may be unnecessarily exposed to high levels while waiting for the result. Clearly, such a sampling system can be markedly improved by eliminating the excessive time lag between sampling and analysis.

Jan 1, 1981

By Jan M. Andersson

This paper will discuss the background information about rock cutting tools used for soft ground excavation, their history and evolution. A brief review of the current state of the art manufacturing technology will be presented and some parameters related to the material used in the drag and conical type pick cutters and their impact on their life and performance will be explained In addition, the selection procedures for choosing the right bit for excavation of a particular geological formation will be reviewed A set of guidelines will be provided for initial selection of the tools for various machines and rock formations. The methods for estimation of the tool life in various materials and the influencing parameters along with limitations of the rock cutting tools will be discussed as well.

Jan 1, 1998

By Richard L. Ranich, Frank F. Aplan, J. B. Hiskey, Robert S. Thompson, B. J. Scheiner

Acidic waters typified by acid mine drainage, copper dump leach solutions and steel pickle liquors will typically contain SO4-2 and cations such as Fe+3, AI+3 and for the pickle liquors, sometimes Cr+3. These acidic waters will often react with limestone, present naturally or introduced for purposes of solution neutralization, to form reaction - inhibiting coatings of gypsum and gelatinous, metal hydroxide precipi¬tates. The coating thickness, as a function of pH, was quantified for both reactive (calcite, limestone) and non-reactive (quartz, barite, fluorite) minerals, and the data were related to the hydroxy species diagrams and to solution turbidity measurements. Coatings were found on the reactive minerals at a lower bulk solution pH than on the non-reactive minerals.

Jan 1, 1993

By M. C. Mound, L. Fradette, C. Colbert

Metallurgical Accounting in the mineral processing industry transforms accumulated process data, including flow rates and assays, into a coherent information format. This is used to rapidly provide production reporting and key performance indications. A fully comprehensive and coherency of available data must be a component of any system expected to accomplish reconciliation in the mass balancing process. Quality issues are thus improved with such desired methods via a mass-balancing engine utilizing the results of measurements acquired by various on-line sensors, analyzers, and sophisticated laboratory equipment. Metallurgical Accounting, when accomplished through such an engine, provides high value information in a simple, straightforward, and simplified manner. Exceptional utility is then transparently available to authorized personnel for access to metallurgical accounting reports, production reports, mass balance results, performance indicators, and so on. This paper discusses how such information can be used to "drilldown" into each result set by consulting the data hierarchy to evaluate and validate calculations and input data used to produce the specific results being queried. The power of such a system resides in the full and true integration of all production and laboratory data. What is integrated are the data thus acquired via a single user interface, a single database, a single configuration tool, etc. From this comes the derivation of contextual information and its maintenance. It is possible to reduce metallurgical accounting and production reporting from possibly hours or even days to a matter of minutes. The result is maximization of information reliability and availability from masses of otherwise discrete and difficult to access key data.

Jan 1, 2003