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By J. Hallowell, M. Conley, R. Cook

Inflatable friction rock bolts (IFRBs) are often considered temporary ground support due to their susceptibility to weakening from corrosion. The effective service life of an IFRB can be difficult to estimate due to the multitude of factors that affect the rate of corrosion. Some mine sites have experienced several-year-long service lives of IFRBs without issue, while others experience corrosion-related falls of ground only weeks after installation. The most common industry method of assessing bolt performance is by pull testing the fixture. However, due to the IFRB’s ability to mobilize its full tensile capacity with less than 2 feet of anchored length, corrosion along the bolt at depths greater than 2 feet from the collar cannot be identified using this approach. Alternatively, reinflation testing is a simple and non-destructive method of evaluating the condition of an entire bolt length for breaches in the bolt wall. This can be particularly useful when assessing the extent of corrosive conditions within a particular mining area where instabilities have already occurred and the condition of nearby bolts is unknown, or when re-entering historic mine workings which have not been monitored.

Feb 1, 2023

By L. Dison

There are many potential uses in gold mining for an initially stiff element of backfill that will yield at a predetermined load and maintain that load to beyond a compression of 30%. Such elements could be used as yielding rib pillars, as replacements for more conventional supporting packs, as con- fining bulkheads for mass backfill, as supports to provide lateral constraint, and load-carrying augmentation to overloaded rock pillars. The paper describes a system of reinforced cemented backfill that can be used to provide the above requirements. The necessary characteristics of the reinforcing and the cemented tailings are described together with the method of design to obtain a predetermined stiffness and yield load. The load-compression characteristics of the reinforced tailings elements are described and the effect of changing various of the design parameters is demonstrated.

Jan 1, 1988

By R. R. Kallu

The current 120 psi seal design and evaluation practices are mostly based on simple analytical solutions. Considering the simplistic assumptions and limitations involved in simple analytical solutions and practical difficulties involved in conducting conventional full-scale explosion tests for evaluating 120 psi seal designs, there is a need for developing new scientific methods and engineering practices for design, analysis and evaluation of mine seals.

Jan 1, 2010

By Dale Preece, Vanessa Berg

This paper presents a two-pronged vulnerability analysis approach for treating minimally reinforced concrete (RC) structures subjected to explosive events. This work was motivated by a heightened interest in homeland protection involving both malevolent and accidental explosions and the need for assessment of critical facilities subjected to an explosive detonation. The first part of the analysis approach employs the commercial 3-D Eulerian-Lagrangian hydro-code AUTODYN, while the second part of the analysis employs Single-Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) methods, each predicting the dynamic response of the minimally RC walls, slabs and columns to explosive loading. The concrete is treated with the newly developed RHT (Riedel, Hiermaier, Thoma) constitutive model, which accounts for failure mechanisms in brittle materials. Predictions from AUTODYN are verified using the equivalent SDOF reinforced concrete code, SPAn32, developed by the US Army Corp of Engineers and agreement between the results indicates a high level of accuracy in both methods of analysis, allowing for accurate predications of airblast-structure interactions and failure mechanisms.

Jan 1, 2004

By R. A. Walker, G. Scheltgen, T. Javorsky, G. Blackwell

"Recent engineering advances in open pit rock mechanics have resulted in improved pit wall slope design and improved operating procedures in the event of a major wall instability. At the other end of the spectrum, on the scale of single bench failures, considerable discretion is left to the mine operators as to how potential problems are handled. The usual alternatives are either to operate with caution beneath potential hazards, or try to bring the unstable rock down. In specific cases it may be advantageous to attempt to stabilize rock structures for reasons of access and operating safety.A t the Brenda Mines open pit a prominent structure on the north wall had caused recurring bench-scale wedge failures when exposed on each mining level. In spite of operating precautions a shovel was hit by a rockfall causing significant damage. The first section of this paper describes the investigative, design, and stabilization methods which permitted subsequent mining beneath the structure to proceed without incident. Emphasis is placed on the personnel and equipment resources available at the mine site which were used to minimize costs and which would be available at most operating mines.The second section describes an ongoing research project that utilizes radio telemetry to transmit slope monitoring data. As part of this project the wedge structure was instrumented so that it could be continuously monitored with the aid of a computer. The application demonstrated the potential of 'micro- chip' technology to remote data collection and processing as related to rock structure monitoring, slope stability and safety."

Jan 1, 1989

By J. P. De Carvalho, R. Dimitrakopoulos

An actor-critic reinforcement learning approach is presented to improve the production of an industrial mining complex by defining shovel allocation and adapting the short-term plan given grade-control decisions. Blasthole data updates the simulated orebody models, which are input into a stochastic grade-control method based on a spatially constrained clustering approach that minimizes the profit-loss function. These aspects are embedded in a discrete-event simulator that defines the material flow from faces to processors. A case study at a copper mining complex shows the methods’ ability to adapt to new information, improving the quality of the material feed and increasing cash flow by 23% compared to a baseline case.

Jun 25, 2023

By F. Reyes, M. Hilden, G. Forbes, M. Yahyaei

Since AlphaGo defeated the best human player in the game of Go in 2016 - something thought to be an impossible achievement - machine learning, deep learning and reinforcement learning have caught the attention of scientists, the media and the general public alike. This recent development in machine learning (let us remember that neural networks have been available for decades now) opens new possibilities in the areas of modelling and process control. However, little has been reported in the minerals processing industry about these new possibilities and opportunities. This paper presents and introduces the topic of reinforcement learning and the different platforms that allow its implementation. The paper shows the consequences of using reinforcement learning for the specific area of process control and optimisation. As an example, the authors present the use of reinforcement learning for the control of a SAG mill closed with a pebble crusher using industrial data from an operation. A comparison with advanced model-based process control is provided, showing the benefits and shortcomings of reinforcement learning as a new control and optimisation technique. Keywords: Reinforcement learning, deep learning, process control, process optimisation

Jan 1, 2020

By Zainelabdin Khalid Zainelabdin Elfaki

The influence of partially replacing cement with marble waste on the workability and compressive strength of concrete bricks was investigated. Three replacement percentages, 10%, 20% and 30% weight marble waste, were used with different curing times of 7, 14 and 28 days. Two specimens were prepared for each percentage and curing time. For this study, marble powder from the Mining House Company in Saudi Arabia was used. It was observed that the replacement of cement in Concrete brick with marble waste enhanced the loading strength and the workability of the prepared concrete bricks. It was also observed that 20% replacement of cement with marble waste was the best replacement percentage compared to the other replacement percentages tested. Marble waste from manufacturing companies, either in powder, sludge or slab form, has negative impacts on the environment. In contrast, reusing marble waste has both economic benefits (i.e., selling the marble waste) and lessening the need for raw resources.

Jan 1, 2014

By Mauricio Terceros, Martin Achmus, Freddy Lopez

The massive use of deep foundations had a remarkable influence in the building industry in the 20th century. Piles and micropiles made possible to erect thousands of civil structures around the world, changing quintessentially the urban and rural landscapes. Especially in urban areas, the ongoing development requires not only new infrastructure, but also to increase the capacity and/or to extend the serviceability of existing structures (buildings, bridges, etc.). Factors such as the change of use of existing facilities or the requirement to comply with updated building regulations confront Civil Engineers with the question, whether to tear down and build new structures, or to reinforce the existing structures from their foundations. Micropiling has enabled designers to come up with technical feasible solutions to retrofit the existing deep foundations, making the structural reinforcement a real option, even under considerable changes in the loading conditions. The following article presents an overview of an intervention project, where micropiles were designed to reinforce the original pile foundation of an existing building, enabling it to be reused with a different structural function. This paper will focus mainly on the analysis of the interaction between the existing piles and the reinforcing micropiles, especially in terms of settlements’ compatibility. Finally, the adopted solution, with its correspondent design considerations and execution process will be presented.

Jan 1, 2018

By S. J. Mitchell

An analysis of bolting reinforcement of several large [approximately 18 m (60 ft) cube] pillars was performed. The many overcoring stress profiles in pillars at the mine were used to produce generalized stress distributions at various stages in pre- and post-failure. A complete stress-deformation curve was estimated from this data. The effect of pillar bolting on the load-deformation behavior was extrapolated from the observed unbolted behavior. Bolting can increase pillar strength by up to 10 percent. The effect of bolting on general mine stability was examined with a short computer analysis. The computer model was calibrated against measurements performed at the mine, and produced good agreement between measured and modeled stresses. The analysis indicated that bolting increases the bolted pillar safety factors in the event of additional pillar failure by a small amount (approximately 5 percent). Progressive pillar failure is unlikely, because arching transfers most load from yielding pillars to large unmined abutments rather than to the smaller panel pillars.

Jan 1, 1984

By S. J. Mitchell

An analysis of bolting reinforcement of several large [approximately 18 m (60 ft) cube] pillars was performed. The many overcoring stress profiles in pillars at the mine were used to produce generalized stress distributions at various stages in pre- and post-failure. A complete stress-deformation curve was estimated from this data. The effect of pillar bolting on the load-deformation behavior was extrapolated from the observed unbolted behavior. Bolting can increase pillar strength by up to 10 percent. The effect of bolting on general mine stability was examined with a shoW computer analysis. The computer model was calibrated against measurements performed at the mine, and produced good agreement between measured and modeled stresses. The analysis indicated that bolting increases the bolted pillar safety factors in the event of additional pillar failure by a small amount (approximately 5 percent). Progressive pillar failure is unlikely, because arching transfers most load from yielding pillars to large unmined abutments rather than to the smaller panel pillars.

Jan 1, 1984

By J. -M. Rescoussier

Due to Important settlements inducing major structural damages, the western part of the Grand Littoral shopping centre has been closed in 1997. The present paper describes the project of underpinning including not only micropiles under the structure of the building but also a reinforcement of the soil located between the shopping centre and the edge of the embankment surrounding the western part of the shopping centre. The aim of this reinforcement is to reduce existing horizontal movements to allowable values.

Jan 1, 2002

By Gregory Molinda

NIOSH has recently completed a study of the interaction between polyurethane (PUR) and coal mine roof in order to determine the mechanism of reinforcement, in both highly fractured rock and unfractured rock. Four case studies of PUR rein­forcement are presented. At a West Virginia site, a borehole camera revealed the location of roof voids and guided the PUR injection. By injecting polyure­thane into a zone from 0.6 to 1.8 m (2?6 ft.) high in the roof, a roof beam was created and ongoing intersection falls were halted. In another highly fractured roof in a western Pennsylvania mine, a total of 5.8 cm (2.3 in.) of rubbleized rock was found in a zone up to 3 m (10 ft.) into the roof. Untargeted PUR injection filled approximately 1/2 of the fractures. These two case studies showed that it is not necessary to fill up 100% of the void space to create stability. In the other two field sites, polyurethane was injected into weak, but unfractured roof. Post-injec­tion video monitoring showed that weak bedding planes were hydraulically wedged open and polyure­thane injected along bedding. The reinforcement value of this injection method is limited because of the wafer-thin layer of PUR introduced along bedding, and the lack of a PUR ??webbing?? which would serve as a structural framework to provide strength. It was determined that video inspection prior to PUR injection can aid in identifying the fracture zones to target, and minimize ??blind?? pumping and loss of PUR.

Jan 1, 2008

By Carlos Villachica León

Dado que el mayor problema de relaves se genera por la retención de agua, el tamaño de las partículas es el parámetro funcional en el procesamiento de minerales. En ese sentido, el presente propone una estrategia de concentración de minerales polimétalicos bajo el enfoque de flotación selectiva. La propuesta "Flotación y Relleno" permite obtener leyes y recuperaciones similares. junto con relaves de granulometría notablemente más gruesos que el obtenido con sistemas tradicionales de flotación, de forma que se cubre las necesidades del relave almacenado en superficie y a menos del 10% del correspondiente al sistema.

Nov 1, 2012

By Karl W. Mote, R. K. "Ivan" Urnovitz

One of the Northwest Mining Association's guide-lines is: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." Another way of saying this is, simply, "when the road curves, don't refuse to turn." Our industry has been roundly criticized for living in the old political world, and, I believe, justifiably so. Until about 20 years ago, members of both houses of Congress deferred to specialists among their members for mining legislation. This was true for all public lands and natural resource issues, and were referred to as the mining bloc, or the timber bloc, or the ranching bloc. We felt safe, and to a large degree, were safe in the sense that western members of the US House of Representatives and of the US Senate understood the need for multiple use of public lands, and the need for the natural resources they supply. They also knew what it takes to stay in business and how to create the economic atmosphere that encourages private industry to find and provide the natural resources. Almost daily, members of our industry bemoan the destructive effects that current regulations, let alone new proposals, are having on American industry. And, there are some intriguing aspects for us to ponder. First, the specific complaint about the government is not regulation per se, but rather that the rules or policies don't make sense. We recognize that few understand our industry, but we have assumed that the government will rely on people experienced and knowledgeable in the area being brought under government controls. There was a time that this assumption was valid, but it is no longer true since we have entered the era of the professional regulator. Much like the MBA who believes that a professional manager can manage anywhere, the new breed of regulator sincerely believes that process is the key to developing effective regulations or programs. They reason the process virtually assures that all the pertinent facts will inevitably come to light and, after receiving appropriate considerations, will result in the proper decision being reached and implemented. Unfortunately, following the process also allows politics to play a new and greater role than ever before, since information based on what can only be called weird-science can now be presented to the professional regulator and accepted as fact. Regulators do not have the background to question the basic tenets of the conclusion being presented to them. To add insult to injury, testimony from people in the industry involved, intended to set the record straight, is too easily discounted as being merely self-serving. A second aspect is that the question of why the associations aren't doing more to stop poorly conceived legislative and regulatory proposals, or to counter the ever-increasing influence of the selfappointed public interest groups is being increasingly discussed. This is occurring despite the fact that there is a higher level of involvement and closer cooperation between the various associations than ever before. This raises a most important question: where are we going wrong? In the last 20 years or so, major changes have taken place. A new philosophy, taking advantage of the public's recognition of need to protect our environment, has swept through the nation, resulting in a whole new body of law enacted to assure environmental protection. We all acknowledge the need to prevent undue degradation during the course of mineral development, and we all consider ourselves to be responsible stewards of the land, because we live and work in the outdoors and know the importance of environmental protection. The changes in the federal statutes apply now to every aspect of mineral discovery, development, and production, and assure adequate reclamation of lands when we are done. Along with the positive changes, are a constant barrage of attempts to stop public land use, or stop mining, or stop any new economic development, ostensibly to "protect the environment," but often reflecting a hidden agenda of social reform. These types of extreme, irrational, and just plain impossible proposals are everyday occurrences, but we have not geared up to challenge all the proposals which could end mining. Instead, we did what we always had done. The road turned, but we didn't. And we wondered why those who had always protected mining weren't doing their job, and why we were having such limited success in reining in the regulators. The Congress had changed, the public demands had changed, the recognition of importance of natural resources had

Jan 1, 1991

By R Shelton

The Big Wainihinihi River and tunnel are located on the western side of the Southern Alps of New Zealand within the active Alpine Fault zone, which marks the boundary between the Pacific and Australian Tectonic Plates. The tunnel was built over 100 years ago to supply water for gold mining, but it now conveys water from a high-energy intake to a canal that supplies three of TrustPower’s hydro-electric power stations with a combined installed generating capacity of 10 MW. Part of the tunnel passes through an unstable 50° schist slope, which fi rst suffered a wedge failure in the 1929 Arthur’s Pass Earthquake and was reinstated in the mid-1970s for hydro generation. In 2008, TrustPower’s monitoring system showed that the wedge failure had remobilised and that urgent remediation was required.Harker Underground Construction (Harker) was awarded a design-build contract to restore the tunnel to service by tunnelling a new central section. Their geotechnical engineers, Peters and Cheung, reviewed the tunnel’s stability and proposed a new, safer tunnel alignment, deep behind the failure wedges. This work was based on their failure model, cost-benefit studies, and engineering geology completion mapping at the time of re-opening.Construction innovation was an important factor in ensuring the project’s success, as were detailed geological and geotechnical information, a robust methodology, strong client relationship and planning. To suit the varying rock conditions and restricted space, Harker combined a traditional drill-and-blast method with light-weight modular steel sets and timber supports to reduce construction costs and mitigate support risk. To make material handing easier in the tight conditions, a special electric locomotive was designed and built and blasting confi gurations were adapted to suit varying rock conditions in the highly fractured schist.The isolated site meant interesting and unexpected challenges, particularly communications and resources (both human and material). Despite that, the project was completed within budget, on schedule, and with no lost-time injuries.

Mar 8, 2011

By Fabio J. Esper, Guillermo R. Martín-Cortés, Francisco R. Valenzuela-Díaz, Cassio P. Carvalho, Giorgio Grotti, Reginaldo B. Santos

"Rejected sands from smelting metallurgical process because contain lead and others heavy metals are a problem to dispose as waste in all the countries. A procedure that is being proposed for it is to incorporate it on common clay bodies in the fabrication of structural ceramic products as bricks, blocks and roof tiles. The main goal of this paper is to present the results obtained with mixtures of sands from smelting metallurgical process with common clay from Jundiaí, São Paulo, Brazil. Preliminary incorporation tests (1,0% in weight) were made with hand formed spherical samples. With the higher compression strength of the spheres after drying and firing (950ºC) experiments on bricks production were made for quality technological test. Seven hundred hallow blocks containing 1,0% waste were produced and presented ceramic properties similar to those without sand incorporation. Introduction In last the fifteen years the LMPSol - Raw Materials & Non-metallic Solids Laboratory – Metallurgic Eng. & Materials Depto. – Polytechnic School - University of São Paulo comes studying the possibilities of incorporate industrials waste materials to the production of bricks and other products of construction aiming at to remove pollution products of the environments and to user the properties of the same ones in the structural ceramics products. Examples are the study of the influence of rejected steel furnace dusts in structural ceramic [1], another example is the main subject of the present paper: use of rejected sand from smelting metallurgical process in the production of bricks an other products of structural ceramics. Antecedents More or less one year ago, specialist and members from the direction board of METALÚRGICA GROFE LTD. Company contacted researchers and professors of the LMPSol – PMT – EPUSP seeking for a solution to their concern with the disposal of rejected sand from smelting metallurgical process."

Jan 1, 2008

By S. Komar Kawatra, J. J. Carlson

"It is widely known that steel made from iron ore pellets high in phosphorus is brittle. Removal of phosphorus from iron ores such as hematite has proven to be difficult. The majority of research on phosphorus removal from hematite ores has been focused on flotation. The purpose of this study was to assess phosphorus distribution under current operations at an existing hematite concentrator and determine how efficient the plant is at removing phosphorus. Objectives included: (1) Perform a phosphorus balance at an operating plant to assess phosphorus distribution under current operations; (2) Determine phosphorus removal efficiency of each separating unit and (3) Perform a quantitative liberation analysis to determine max phosphorus removal by physical means. Liberation was quantitatively determined using wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) to separate iron ore from liberated apatite (and other nonmagnetic compounds).It was observed that 61.2% of the total phosphorus entering Plant F was rejected during current operations. The desliming process was the most efficient step at removing phosphorus (45.1% P removed), whereas the flotation step was much less effective (16.1% P removed). Liberation analyses indicated that the deslime thickener may have been more efficient at removing phosphorus than the flotation circuit due to the greater abundance of liberated phosphorus in the deslime thickener feed. The scavenger returns stream was identified as having a high concentration of phosphorus and a possible point of phosphorus removal. However, liberation analyses indicated that only 32.4% of the total phosphorus in the stream was liberated. Grinding the scavenger returns to 80% passing 5.2 µm increased the amount of liberated phosphorus in the stream to 70.4%."

Jan 1, 2014

By R. D. Alorro

Melting has become a popular pre-treatment method for municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration residues in Japan. Although the method is effective in stabilizing the hazardous organic sub-stances such as dioxin, it concentrates the heavy metals such as Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cd in a newly formed fly ash (melting fly ash). Melting fly ash is classified as a hazardous waste because of the leaching potential of these heavy metals in landfill environment. Extraction and recovery of these metals seem to be more environmentally and economically attractive than disposing the material to landfill after immobilization process. This study proposes a Carrier-in-Pulp (CIP) method as a new hydrometallurgical route to reject and recover heavy metals from fly ash. In this method, a carrier material which recovers the extracted metals is added simultaneously with fly ash to leaching solutions and is harvested from the pulp by physical separation method like magnetic separation or sieving. To demonstrate the effect of CIP method, shaking flask experiments were conducted under various conditions using NaCl solution as lixiviant and iron powder or granular activated carbon as carrier materials. In the CIP method using iron powder, more than 97 wt% of Pb and Zn were extracted from the ash to the solution phase. However, the iron powder which was harvested from the pulp by magnetic separation, recovered only Pb (more than 94%) through cementation, leaving behind Zn ions in the solution phase. Due to this problem, granular activated carbon (GAC) was considered as an alternative carrier material. Single- and multi-metal adsorption experiments using granular activated carbon were conducted as a preliminary study. Around 85% Pb and 88% Zn were recovered by GAC in the single-metal adsorption experiment, while 60% Pb and 70% Zn in the multi-metal experiment. These results showed that activated carbon was superior to the iron powder since it was able to recover both Pb and Zn through adsorption. The leaching test conducted on the residue after the CIP-Fe treatment revealed that the solubilisation of Pb was successfully suppressed to meet landfilling guidelines.

Jan 1, 2014

By Carmina Quintanar, Mario Palominos

"The mining industry is currently facing significant challenges to identify and adopt sustainable collector chemistry that effectively recover value minerals in difficult-to-process low-grade resources. These are typically characterized by complex mineralogy and the presence of significant amounts of penalty gangue sulfide minerals, especially pyrit which is a challenge to separate from value minerals at many major mine operations. Three chemical strategies for dealing with gangue sulfides and penalty elements are: a) selective flotation of value minerals while rejecting penalty minerals in the whole circuit, b) rejecting penalty minerals in an appropriate part of the circuit using selective depressants, c) using a combination of selective collectors and depressants in appropriate parts of the circuit. This paper will evaluate different strategies for dealing with those penalty elements and propose the most efficient alternative. New products and application technologies have been developed in the past 25 years by Cytec for implementing these strategies as dictated by the particular needs of a given plant. However, in recognition of the growing interest in meeting the sustainability challenges, Cytec Research and Development have been focused in the development of greener products (collectors, modifiers and frothers) and processes using FLOTATION MATRIX 100TM approach used to develop the optimal collector system for each specific ore. An overview of these new developments is given in this paper using case studies of application of selective collectors and polymeric modifiers including the newer, greener chemistries."

Jan 1, 2014