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By L Barrere, J P. Sykes, A Trench, R S. Davies

Western Australia (WA), alongside Brazil, has remained at the forefront of the global seaborne traded iron ore market for over 40 years. Despite this apparent stability and strong market position, WA continues to face strong external international supply-side competition, mainly from Brazil, but also periodically from often marginal, non-traditional sources of iron ore. Additionally, WA iron ore supply has undergone significant decadal change internally, both of an evolutionary (brownfields expansion) and revolutionary nature (major new greenfields projects). Since 2006, a new generation of WA-focused iron ore explorers, developers and producers have emerged.The majors, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, have expanded mine production to record levels and the Roy Hill project is now approaching nameplate capacity. Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) is, however, the largest new market entrant of the last decade, delivering upon their vision of becoming the ‘new force in iron ore’. Unlike most of the other new WA market entrants, FMG’s operations are substantive. Most of the other smaller, new WA iron ore miners have struggled during the period of falling prices, though it is worth noting that collectively they have made a material supply-side impact during the price boom – typical of marginal supply. Finally there have been some contributions from new magnetite projects, however, the delivery and economics of these projects have not met expectations.In this paper, we touch briefly upon the key global market changes of the last decade, namely China-driven demand growth and the changes to the pricing mechanisms for iron ores – before reviewing the rise in WA iron ore supply in response to these markets. We finish by focusing on the most significant WA-focused supply-side development of the last decade, the rise of FMG as a major new supplier and the strategic situation that facilitated its rise. The unprecedented China-led rise in iron ore prices felled many traditional barriers to market entry into an oligopolistic industry, allowing many new market entrants (in WA and around the world). However, the downturn in iron ore prices resurrected these barriers to entry, with only FMG (thus far) breaking the entry barrier with significant scale. Difficult corporate decisions have been forced upon the smaller WA iron ore miners who, in some cases, will now struggle to further expand, or indeed continue to operate in the longer run.The changes that have taken place over the last decade of WA iron ore production hold insights for other emergent mineral commodity exports from the state. Successful market entry, even when industry barriers are high, does not always require an immediate low-cost production assumption alongside a strong balance sheet. FMG could see a new market, within an established commodity market, target an appropriate and new product at it, overcome temporarily-felled barriers to entry in infrastructure and finance, then innovate and aggressively cut costs ensuring it was behind the barriers to entry when they rose again after the price boom.CITATION:Barrere, L, Trench, A, Sykes, J P and Davies, R S, 2017. New generation Western Australian iron ore – strategic insights far beyond the Pilbara?, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 375–386 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

By Ivo Dreiseitl, Kondratenko. Anatoly

"The second prime area within the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization exploration area named H22 was delineated in 2013 with the goal to ensure sufficient nodule reserves for profitable mining operations and processing.The knowledge base for area H22 has been obtained from archive materials. The geological situation can be characterized as follows: the sea bottom is represented by tectonic blocks oriented in a sub-meridional direction. According to swath mapping, the depressions (troughs) are contoured at depths of 4500-4600 m while the tops of horsts occur at 4300-4350 m. Volcanic relief occupies 6% of the H22 area; in the eastern part a multicone volcano was detected. Its area at the base is 153 km2. The maximum height of a cone above the base is 850 m. The crystalline basement composed by tholeiitic basalts of late Oligocene age is covered by about 100 m of sediments. Semi-consolidated to consolidated calcareous nanofossil sediments of the Marquesas formation are deposited on the basement. Higher up in the profile sediments of the Clipperton formation occur. They are represented by unconsolidated siliceous (Radiolaria, Diatom) ooze. Sediments containing calcium carbonate have not been detected. Where opaline silica (or CaCO3 if any) content is below 5%, the sediments belong to zeolitic clays or red pelagic clays. Grain size composition of the seabed and the near-seabed sediments in H22 classifies them into clayey silts."

Sep 1, 2014

By G. Kallfa P. Geo

Exploration at both Greenfields and Brownfields stages entails business risks of different nature and success rates. Greenfields exploration is exceedingly assumptive and the success rate of exploration or return on investment is low because exploration is an inherently risky business. Brownfields exploration on the other hand is less risky, as the geology is better understood, but generally speaking since the larger ore bodies close to surface have already been found the return is lower. In addition, most exploration at the Brownfields stage is generally more expensive due to extensive use of drilling. Surface geology mapping and expensive drilling have been key technical contributors to most exploration programs over the last two decades. However, as client expectations, logistics, target depths and complexity of exploration programs increase, there has been a growing emphasis on using geophysical techniques to complement other methods. Integration and optimization of various geoscientific disciplines is becoming more important in successful exploration programs of the future to reduce exploration risks, successful integrated exploration requires putting reliable geophysical parameters and correspondent petrophysical property contrasts into an assumed or conceptual geological model. This paper discusses a new multi-parameter geophysical methodology finalized in a unique conceptual geologic model which can be used either as a root model in grassroots exploration or as an efficient tool in Brownfields exploration to successfully find satellite orebodies of almost any size. The application of a new multi-parametric geophysical approach to Brownfields exploration is illustrated with examples from Manitoba, including a past producing nickel sulphide deposit in Lynn Lake and the Reed Copper deposit, currently in development.

May 1, 2013

By N. T. Mirafuente

The device called "Dynastat" which is described in this paper provides in situ borehole measurements of dynamic and static parameters for use in a wide range of design applications. In the dynamic mode, the Oynastat allows measurement of shear and compressional wave velocities. From these velocities in situ dynamic Young's modulus and other dynamic elastic parameters can be calculated. In the static mode, the device allows measurement of load versus deformation from which in situ static Young's modulus can be determined. Information on in situ horizontal stress fields can also be estimated from the load deformation curves. In both mining and civil engineering applications, in situ measurements of material properties are indispensable for accurate evaluation of design problems. Laboratory dynamic and static test measurements in comparison to in situ measurements are often misleading due to difficulties in obtaining undisturbed samples and in accounting for effects of discontinuities, etc., for mass properties. The authors contend that among in situ borehole measurements, the method employed with the Dynastat is the most accurate and detailed technique of measurement. The Dynastat employs the crosshole method of shear and compressional wave velocity measurements and also performs as a borehole jack to obtain load-deformation relationships of materials at exactly the same location at depth in boreholes.

Jan 1, 1976

By Kevin A. Foo, Murray D. Bath, John H. Canterford, Arnaldo Ismay

There is no doubt that the dominant future source of gold will be the so-called refractory ores, especially those with gold in a pyrite/arsenopyrite matrix. Minproc Engineers is taking an active role in establishing detailed design criteria for a number of apparently competing processes. This involves generating a detailed understanding of the metallurgy involved, systematic pilot plant testing, and the application of advanced engineering technologies. This presentation outlines the approach adopted by Minproc as well as the design criteria for several current projects.

Jan 1, 1989

BULLETIN 177. The decline and ultimate production of oil wells with notes on the valuation of oil properties, by C. H.- Beal. 1919. 84 pp., 4pls., 80 figs. BULLETIN 179. Abstracts of current decisions on mines and mining, reported from September to December, 1918, by J. W. Thompson. 1919. 166 pp. TECHNICAL PAPER 214. Motor gasoline; properties, laboratory methods of testing, and practical specifications, by E. W. Dean. 1919. 33 pp., 2 figs. TECHNICAL PAPER 219. Combustion and flue-gas analysis, by U. S. Fuel Administration. 1919. 12 pp., 5 figs. TECHNICAL PAPER 223. Cost-keeping for small metal mines, by J. C. Pickering. 1919. 46 pp. Only a limited supply of these publications is available for free distribution. Publications should be ordered by number and title. Applications should be addressed to the Director of the Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C.

Jan 7, 1919

By R. E. Muller, L. G. Martin, J. M. Stonehouse

Erratic distribution of values in free gold ore bodies presents severe problems in sorting material in large scale open pit mining. However, an intense program of modern blasting techniques and less than modern gold panning results in good sorting at Houston International's Manhattan mine. Blasting technique is important. If the sample location cannot be relocated because of blasted material movement, information acquired while drilling is useless. So short benches are critical to minimize dilution. Though not very accurate, panning allows for rapid analysis. The more accurate fire assay does not provide the needed speed. Panning can be fairly accurate and errors made are mostly on the low side. Samples of mixed and broken stockpile material are used as checks on pit procedure and to develop stockpile content in¬formation. Added tonnages discovered offset the higher labor costs of this careful sorting technique. The mine is located in central Nevada's Toquima Range in the small mining town of Manhattan, 322 km north of Las Vegas. The mine has four epithermal stockwork ore bodies that are mined in two pits. The mine problem was that conventional ore control was not separating ore from waste. Assays of 6-m blast-holes were used on 5-m centers. The blastholes were relocated by stadia survey after blasting. Holes assaying above the cutoff grade were flagged and mined as ore. This system is practical and useful in high concentration ore bodies or in evenly disseminated mineralization. But it was not practical at Manhattan because of large gold particles and small ore pocket sizes. Ore pockets were often missed when drilling a grid area for blasting. Also, large gold nuggets made assay results unreliable. The probability of a nugget being contained in an assay charge is small. So most results were low, compared to actual grades mined based on stockpile samples. When a nugget found its way into a fire assay charge, the result would be far higher than the actual grade of material represented. In addition, disturbance by blasting created problems in relocating ore. Because of these problems, the grade control program was intensified in September 1979. It successfully separated ore and waste in blocked out ore areas and located more ore in "waste" areas. Known reserves mined to date have increased up to 50% on some benches. The methods used are modern blasting techniques, detailed assaying, and traditional panning of samples collected from active mining faces. These methods allow mining flexibility, to match the variable mineral occurrence in ore bodies. The united effort of the geology and engineering departments has been important to the program's success.

Jan 12, 1980

By Y. C. Kim

To generate a most profitable, ultimate pit limit is generally the first step in mine design. This paper presents a new graph theory oriented, optimum ultimate pit limit design algorithm which will maximize the total undiscounted net profit. This algorithm performs much better than the well known Lerchs-Grossmann algorithm, in terms of the reduction in computation time and computer memory requirements. This algorithm operates on many directed trees in a graph, where each vertex in a tree represents a block in the mine model. The formation of each directed tree is based more on the ore-waste support concept than the geometry constraints alone. The general procedures of the algorithm, programming considerations and two case study results are discussed in the paper.

Jan 1, 1992

By Daniel W. Mageau, Larry W. Applegate, Aaron K. McCain

"An innovative method of ground freezing was successfully tested to create a “dry” excavation condition for a new building foundation at a site in downtown, Miami, Florida. The subsurface conditions in Miami generally consist of very porous, weak limestone and sand with groundwater near the surface. Water flow through these materials can be very high. Dewatering is extremely restricted in Miami so deep below-grade structures are rare and expensive. A new, innovative method to allow deep excavations in dry conditions without dewatering involves the creation of a thick, temporary, frozen soil plug below the planned excavation depth across the entire site to cut off vertical groundwater flow during construction. Frozen soil is impermeable and very strong and has long been used for temporary structural and water-tight shored walls. Using the same proven principals, frozen soil plugs are very effective at cutting off water from the bottom of the excavation as well as resisting upward buoyant forces. This new freezing method can be used for fairly deep excavations in new building construction supported on deep foundations. The building piles act as temporary anchors for the frozen plug to resist very high upward buoyant pressures until the permanent structural slab is completed.IntroductionUnlike other Cities, below grade basements are rare in Miami. The few basement foundations constructed have utilized a cumbersome and expensive method of excavation and shoring involving underwater excavation, tremie slabs, and commercial divers. The key issue for underground construction in this area of the country is the vertical flow of groundwater through the base of the excavation. To deal with this issue in the past, the contractor first installed all of the building piles and the perimeter shoring walls. Then, interior sheet pile walls are installed to create small manageable excavation pits. Each pit is then excavated through standing water “in-the-blind” and around the buildings support piles. The final excavation, interior struts, and inspection is performed by commercial divers. Finally a thick foundation tremie slab is poured under water. This method could be successful but proved to be time consuming and expensive. In addition, some building piles were occasionally damaged during the under-water construction process."

Jan 1, 2015

THE Institute assembled in the library of the Sheffield Scientific School at 8 o'clock, Tuesday evening, February 23d. Prof. G. J. Brush greeted the members present on behalf of the Government of the Sheffield School in a few words of cordial welcome, to which President Raymond responded. Dr. Raymond then delivered an address on the History of the Relative Values of Gold and Silver. The Council presented, through the President, a list of names of persons duly proposed for members and associates, with recom¬mendation for election. The following gentlemen were unanimously elected: *Prof. George J. Brush, - New Haven, Conn. *Prof. Oscar D. Allen, - New Haven, Conn. *C. Constable, - New York City. *Leven S Goodrich, - Oxmoor, Jefferson Co., Ala. *Charles J. Nourse, - Columbia, Lancaster Co., Pa. *J. W. Mickley, - Hockendauqua, Pa. *Hugh Alex. Crawford, - St. Louis, Mo. *General Ario Pardee, - Hazleton, Luzerne Co., Pa. †N. W. Lord, - New York City. †J. Holme Maghee, - New York City. *George E. B. Jackson, - Portland, Me. *Charles W. Watkis, - Salt Lake City, Utah. *Charles E. Hall, - Philadelphia. *Charles J. Duval, - San Francisco, Cal. †tJoseph Gorlinski, - Salt Lake City, Utah. *Alfred Wartenweiler, - Salt Lake City, Utah. †Wilmot J. Bowen, - Salt Lake City, Utah. *Joseph Stokes, - Trenton, N. J. †Jason P. Brown, - Boston, Mass. *William Davis Hartshorne, - Bethlehem, Hunterdon Co., N. J. *Henry Williams, - Spanish Bar, Clear Creek Co., Col.. *Robert Forsyth, - Chicago, Ill. *S. T. Wellman, - Cleveland, Ohio. *H. C. Walton, - Chicago, Ill. *Andrew Roy, - Columbus, Ohio. *James H. Rittenhouse, - Providence, Pa. * Members. † Associates

Jan 1, 1875

The Institute assembled in the library of the Sheffield Scientific School at 8 o'clock, Tuesday evening, February 23d. Prof. G. J. Brush greeted the members present on behalf of the Government of the Sheffield School in a few words of cordial welcome, to which President Raymond responded. Dr. Raymond then delivered an address on the History of the Relative Values of Gold and Silver. The Council presented, through the President, a list of names of persons duly proposed for members and associates, with recommendation for election. The following gentlemen were unanimously elected: *Prof. George J. Brush,. .. New Haven, Conn. *Prof. Oscar D. Allen,. .. New Haven, Conn. *C. Constable,.....New York City. *Leven S Goodrich,.... Oxmoor, Jefferson Co., Ala. *Charles J. Nourse,.... Columbia, Lancaster Co., Pa. *J. W. Mickley,.....Hockendauqua, Pa. *Hugh Alex. Crawford,. ..St. Louis, No. *General Ario Pardee,. .. Hazleton, Luzerne Co., Pa. N. W. Lord,.....New Pork City. J. Holme Maghee,.... New York City. *George E. B. Jackson,. .. Portland, Me. *Charles W. Watkis,.... Salt Lake City, Utah. *Charles E. Hall,....Philadelphia. *Charles J. Duval,.... San Francisco, Cal. Joseph Gorlinski,.... Salt Lake City, Utah. * Alfred Wartenweiler,. .. Salt Lake City, Utah. Wilmot J. Bowen,.... Salt Lake City, Utah. *Joseph Stokes,..... Trenton, N. J. Jason P. Brown,.... Boston, Mass. *William Davis Hartshorne,. . Bethlehem, Hunterdon Co., N. J. *Henry Williams,.... Spanish Bar, Clear Creek Co., Cot. *Robert Forsyth ,....Chicago, Ill. *S. T. Wellman,.....Cleveland, Ohio. *H. C. Walton,.....Chicago, 111. *Andrew Roy,.....Columbus, Ohio. *James H. Rittenhonse,. .. Providence, Pa.

Jan 1, 1910

Jan 1, 1903

By O. H. Hahn

I have lately had occasion to conduct a campaign at the works of the Empire City Company, in Railroad District, Elko County, Nevada, which, if not highly satisfactory, was at least very interesting in a technical point of view, and which I therefore think worthy of communication to the Institute. The lead ores in this district occur in lenticular masses along and near the contact of crystalline limestone with a dioritic porphyry, and consist of argentiferous carbonate of lead and galena, the latter occurring in solid blocks, or in ribbons running through the limestone. Associated with these are silicate, carbonate, and suboxide of copper, and brown and calc-spar. Adding to this, that the proportion of galena in the ore is small, and that no iron pyrites exists in the district, it is at once evident that the ore-mixture is difficult to treat. For a successful reduction by smelting, it would be necessary to introduce into the charge: 1. The proper quantities of sillphur-bearing ingredients, to effect a complete separation of copper and lead; and, 2. Sufficient silica and iron oxide, to form with the lime and magnesia of the ore, a slag of the required fluidity. The first condition could be fulfilled only very imperfectly, there being no iron pyrites in Railroad, nor in the surrounding districts. The nearest occurrence is in Battle Mountain, whence a supply could not be procured in time. The second condition, i. e., the addition of iron ore and quartz, was easily complied with, there being an abundance of these materials in the vicinity. The furnace of the Empire City Company, is a small shaftfurnace, with an area of hearth of six square feet, and is supplied with blast by a NO. 4 Root blower. In spite of this small size the furnace smelted during this campaign, which lasted 31 days, an average of 28 tons of ore, and 13 tons of fluxes, together 41 tons of charge, per twenty-four hours. The following tables give the complete data in regard to the smelting process, and the results obtained:

By L. I. Hewes, Joseph W. Roe

A graphic solution of Kutter's formula for the flow of water has been worked out by Dr. L. I. Hewes in connection with his course in Graphic Computations, given in the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, which may be of interest to those who deal with canals, flumes and streams. 1.811 0.002811 , 41.66+ -n+-S- I Kutter's formula, V= - n 0 .00281 78- 1+(41.66 + 0.00281)7B781 is probably the most accurate of those proposed determining the flow of water. But it is extremely cumbersome, and if many calculations are to be made their solution becomes drudgery. The purpose of this chart, Fig. 1, is to furnish a rapid solution, sufficiently accurate to be well within the limits of the observed data. The chart consists essentially of three parallel scales, one for the mean velocity, V, one for the hydraulic radius, R, and one for the slope; a diagonal line, not graduated ; and a set of curves for the various values of n, the factor which involves the na-

Jan 1, 1910

By James E. York

At a meeting of the American Society for Testing Materials at Atlantic City, June, 1908, Dr. C. B. Dudley, in his presiden-tial address,' showed the vital necessity of not only making a steel rail as good as in the past, but of making it considerably better in order to meet the present and prospective requiremeuts of railroads. Doctor Dudley requested the co-operation of all who from personal experience could give information that would result in bringing about the production of a steel rail that could be relied upon to meet the present requirements. I have had considerable experience in the practical manufacture of steel of almost every grade, during the past 40 years, and I shall suggest changes that will bring about the results desired. Doctor Dudley has had a long experience as chemical and metallurgical expert for the Pennsylvania railroad, but he frankly admits that up to the present time both he and other metallurgical authorities lack the practical knowledge of steel-making that is necessary to state correctly the reasons for the unreliability of the steel rails now produced. The necessity is self-evident for more positive practical knowledge on the part of these experts of what is possible and what is impossible regarding the practical manufacturing of steel rails from the ingot to the finished product. Chemical knowledge in steel-making is far ill advance of what it was years ago, and might be said to cover every requirement (in that department) for producing reliable steel. The study of the metallography of steel has been of great value, also the physical testing of steel, but this knowledge will only de-

Jan 1, 1910

By William M. Courtis

While assaying some copper carbonate ore from the Frazer claims, Similakameen, B. C., I noticed that on parting the gold button a deep orange solution was formed. The button gave off pink bands in the nitric acid, which became deep orange at a short distance from it; and as it traveled over the surface of the porcelain dish, it left a deep orange track behind. As the button brightened in the cupel, it appeared to have a bronze color; but I have since found that when amarillium is in large excess of the gold, the button is a very dark gray. The button parted easily. To the orange solution I added a salt (NaCl) solution, shook in a silver testbottle, and filtered. With H2S I obtained a precipitate, which I supposed due to platinum. However, on further tests, it did

Jan 1, 1903

By A. Eilers

Although the process to which I refer in this paper has been in successful operation for nearly five years, during which time it has been introduced, superseding all other processes having in view the same end, in almost every lead refinery in the country, no description of it, giving economical data, has ever appeared in print, nor has the process been known in its details to any considerable number of engineers beside those conducting it at their works. A discussion of this subject at the present time becomes especially interesting in view of a late publication in the Prussian ministerial organ for Mining and Metallurgy, by Dr. Wedding, in which the method of treating the zinc-silver-lead alloy by distillation, as finally settled upon at Tarnowitz, is very minutely and fully described. It is the more interesting, because in that article reference is made to the American method in an unfavorable light, while, at the same time, it is clear from the article itself, that the most important details of the process, besides the one that it is conducted in black-lead retorts, mere not at all understood. In publishing herewith the details of our American method, one of my objects is to invite comparisons between our simple and direct process and the elaborate one at Tarnowitz. In extracting the silver from work-lead by means of zinc, it is always the intention, in this country, to obtain a zinc-crust so rich in silver that the rich lead resulting from subsequent distillation

By Rossiter W. Raymond

I desire to call the attention of the Institute to an interesting experiment, which may turn out to be an indication of a valuable improvement in the manufacture of steel. As the members are aware, the addition of ordinary spiegeleisen, in the open hearth or Bessemer converter, to a bath of decarbonized iron, has a twofold object,—the recarbonization of the bath to a desired degree, and the remedy of the red shortness otherwise found to be inevitable in the final product. This red shortness is ascribed to the presence of oxide of iron in the molten metal; and it is supposed that the manganese of the spiegeleisen, uniting with the oxygen of such oxide, carries it into the slag. At the same time there is a small percentage of the manganese usually left in the cast steel, probably to the improvement of its quality. Whatever be the true explanation the effect of the manganese is acknowledged to be not only beneficial, but necessary. But the use of spiegeleisen containing high percentages of carbon limits the quantity that can be introduced, because the carbon must be limited if soft steel is desired. This inconvenience becomes so serious as to prevent the use of ordinary spiegeleisen in the manufacture of steel containing more than, say two-tenths per cent. of phosphorus; since the quality of the steel can be made tolerable only by reducing its contents of carbon in proportion as the

By R. W. Raymond

CLARENCE King born January 6,1842, at Newport, R. I. His ancestors on both sides mere New Englanders, of English blood, and among them not a few distinguished themselves in art, science, politics or commerce. His grandfather, Samuel Vernon King (partner in 1803 in the house of Talbot, O1yphant & King, later known as King $ Co.), was a pioneer in the China trade, and four of his sons succeeded him in the business. Three of the four died in the far East; and one of

Jan 1, 1903