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By R. W. Bartlett

Hydrometallurgical processes for copper flotation concentrates avoid the SO2 emission problems associated with smelting, but they require oxidation of copper to obtain solubilization during leaching. The resulting copper ions must be reduced to metal, which normally requires large amounts of energy or energy equivalent reagents such as hydrogen or iron. The conventional reduction method is electrowinning which is labor intensive and involves 35 to 40% of both the entire operating and capital cost of the better hydrometallurgical processes. There is considerable incentive to reduce the cost and energy required for producing copper ions from solution. Furthermore, it is thermodynamically possible to do this using sulfur contained in the concentrate itself. In fact, the thermodynamic potential of oxidizing sulfur from S+4 to the S+6 state is greater than required to reduce cupric ion to metallic copper.1 Realization of this potential in a practical process would significantly reduce the cost of hydrometallurgical processing of sulfide concentrates because sulfur would become a cost-free reducing agent. An apparently practical method is to use SO: and HSO3 ions, obtained by ammonia scrubbing of SO2 from a concentrate roaster gas, to reduce leached copper to metal in an autoclave. This reduction step is the Jumau 1907 A series of steps, including sulfite reduction, constituting a crude flowsheet was suggested by Parker in 1976.3 The present paper describes a detailed complete. sulfite process flowsheet based on materials and energy balances, discusses the chemistry, and discusses further work that is required to develop this process. Process materials, utilities costs, and energy requirements are projected to be unusually low because of the utilization of sulfur from the concentrate. Process Description The sulfite reduction process requires a copper concentrate containing approximately as much sulfur on a weight basis as copper. For those few concentrates that are deficient in sulfur, additional sulfur can generally be obtained by allowing more pyrite to float in the concentration process. The process steps, shown in [Fig. 1], are (1) a fluid bed roast of the concentrate, (2) a leach of the roaster calcine using recycled barren liquor from the reduction autoclave, (3) scrubbing of the SO2 gas with ammonium sulfite liquor to produce ammonium bisulfite, (4) reduction and precipitation of copper in an autoclave by combining part of the SO2 scrubber effluent (SO5

Jan 1, 1980

By H. R. Drullard

TO obtain the best results from hammer drills, close attention must be paid to two factors in drill maintenance, which are of equal importance; one is lubrication, the other is the shank. With the exception of stoping drills, most modern rock drills require both oil and grease. The oil ports are in the lubricator, on or behind the hammer cylinder; the grease port for the lubrication of the chuck sleeve and rotating mechanism is on the chuck end. Ordinary machine oil is not adapted to rock drills; a heavier more gelatinous oil such as castor machine oil or liquid grease should be used. The lubricators should be filled once for every 12 or 14 ft. (3.5 to 4 m.) of hole drilled. Grease guns should be used to fill the port in the chuck end once a shift; a medium (No. 3) grease is well adapted to this purpose. Hard grease must not be put into the lubricators, as it will not flow through that part. Contrary to the popular belief, oiling a machine once or twice a shift does not provide sufficient lubrication; the drills should be oiled once for every 12 or 14 ft. of hole drilled. The rotating handle of a stoping drill is an oil reservoir and is provided with a port for oiling. The rotating handle is packed with wick-ing, or similar material, which causes the oil to feed slowly from the handle to the other parts of the machine. Stoping drills require oil at least twice a shift; lighter oils than castor, such as Arctic Ammonia, may be used. Drills used in shaft sinking can be oiled satisfactorily by placing a good-sized, drop, sight lubricator on the station above the sinking operations and connecting it with the air-line supplying the sinking drills. If this lubricator is properly filled and adjusted, a uniform oiling of the sinking machines will be effected without the necessity of oiling the drills individually. The grease end should be filled at the station or surface before each drilling period. The shift boss should see that the machines are greased and also that the lubricators at the station function properly. The life of the air-drill hose is somewhat shortened by this method, as oil attacks the inner tube; but as some oil is always present in the compressed air, this is not a serious objection to the method.

Jan 1, 1922

By Michael Shaughnessy, O&apos

The outstanding features of the Coloinbian situation for the year 1929 were legal and political. The passage of Law 84 and the promulgation of the Regulatory Decree 150 were recounted in the review for 1928, as was also the Presidential proclamation suspending this law and its accompanying decree until decision could be reached in the suits filed against them before the Supreme Court and the Council of State. Early this year the Minister of Industries, Jose Antonio Montalvo, announced the appointment of a commission of foreign experts to aid in drafting a new petroleum law. He requested all of the foreign experts employed not to consult with the oil company representatives in Bogota, and these experts were therefore shut off from receiving any suggestions from those who had actually operated in the country and knew the conditions under which operations would take place. It was to be expected that the provisions of a law suggested under such circumstances would not meet operating conditions satisfactorily. The specific objections are stated in O'Shaughnessy's South American Oil Reports (April, 1929). An especially qualified commentator observes that one of the curious provisions of the proposed law was the high royalty on gas—5c. per 1000 cu. ft. of gas produced. There was also a provision requiring 20 per cent. of the stock of the company operating in Colombia to be offered for sale to Colombians. The bill failed to pass Congress in the closing hours of the session. The Supreme Court, in the meantime, handed down its decision on Law 84 of the previous year and Regulation 150 covering the enforcement of that law. Contrary to expectation, the majority opinion of the Court practically affirmed the constitutionality of both the law and the regulatory decree, with the exception of Article 20 and parts of Article 21 of the decree which referred specifically to the registration of private properties. At the time the suit was filed against Law 84 and Decree 150 the operation of these measures was suspended by the Executive. Law 84 and its Regulatory Decree 150 still remain suspended as the Council of State has not yet brought in a decision upon the questions raised in the suits instituted by the various companies against the law and decree, and at the moment of this writing it appears unlikely that such a decision will be reached by that body.

Jan 1, 1930

By Lawrence Addicks

Some three years ago the smelter connected with the Chrome, N. J., refinery of the United States Metals Refining Co. found itself embarrassed by constantly increasing piles of unsmelted blast-furnace flue dust. The charge was fine and 10 to 15 per cent. of it was blown over into the flue. Sulphur was at that time too scarce to make the sintering of the finer part of the charge attractive, and raw-ore smelting in a reverberatory with a partly oxidized charge was not to be thought of. A great many schemes were considered, including leaching, blowing into the converters, and briquetting, the problem finally narrowing down to blast roasting and nodulizing. It was found by experiment that blast roasting would not yield a satisfactory sinter without the addition of coke dust or sulphide fines to augment the fuel value of the flue dust, and on this account, together with the low first cost of a kiln, the latter was decided upon. A couple of tons of flue dust were tried out in the experimental kiln in the laboratory at Yorktown, Va., of J. H. Payne, who acted as consulting engineer in this connection. This kiln was approximately 2 ft. in diameter and 20 ft. long and was fired with fuel oil. A run of several hours yielded excellent nodules. The ki1n showed no tendency to build in and form "nose rings" and gave a fuel consumption of 50 gal, of oil per ton of flue dust. There was no indication of any stack loss. The roasting was strongly oxidizing. A study of what full-size kilns were doing on cement clinker and on nodulizing pyrites cinder indicated that a 60 by 6 ft. kiln would certainly not consume over half of the oil per ton of flue dust shown on the test and as fuel oil at that time was selling around 2 1/2 c. per gallon it was decided to let it go at that. A 60 by 6 ft. kiln was decided on, as that size is standard in cement practice, although fast being replaced by much larger ones with their greater fuel economy, and as it fitted in the building space available. A 6-in. brick lining brought the net diameter down to 5 ft. The inclination

Jan 1, 1915

By K. H. G. Ashbee, J. W. Heavens

One consequence of the distribution in orientation of Bragg diffracting planes in an elastically bent foil is that simultaneous diffraction occurs from ±g pairs, where g is the reciprocal lattice vector to a diffracting plane. If such Bragg contour pairs are indexed, then the variation in orientation with respect to the incident electron beam is known. This note describes a construction by means of which Bragg contour pairs may be indexed by inspection. Referring to Fig. 1, the Ewald sphere radius is l/h, where is the wavelength of the electron beam, and the half spacing of first-order reciprocal lattice planes is l/d, where d is the corresponding spacing in direct space. The angle subtended by the zero and first-order planes at the center of the Ewald sphere is a = sin-' Thus, to represent a pair of first-order Bragg contours on a stereographic projection, measure ±a from, and along the normal to, the zero-order plane. The traces of the required Bragg contours pass through these points and parallel to the zero-order trace. In practice, it is desirable to enlarge a stereographic projection of the zero-order planes before making the construction. As an example, a stereographic projection of first-order Bragg contours up to line 27 for an fcc crystal is given in Fig. 2; if required, higher-order contours can easily be added. Fig. 2 is, of course, a map of first-order Brillouin zone boundaries. One use of this construction is the measurement of large elastic fields in electron microscope specimens. Fig. 3(a) shows a pattern of Bragg contour pairs due to lattice distortions near a large precipitate. This particular example is of a T-phase precipitate in Hidu-minium 54 (A1 + 6 wt pct Cu, 0.5 wt pct Mn). Foil buckling is produced by annealing during observation and may be evidence for evaporation from the precipitate.' Comparing Figs. 2 and 3(0), it is evident that the axis of high symmetry in Fig. 3(a) is [lll]. The strain in a bent foil is approxinlately t/2r, where / is the foil thickness and ? the radius to which the foil is bent. From the projections of grain boundaries and of helical dislocations, it was estimated that ( - 3000A, and values for ? were obtained from the

Jan 1, 1968

NAME AND OBJECT. SEC. 1. This Institute is incorporated under the Membership Corporation Law of the State of New York ; its corporate name is AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS; and its objects are such as are stated in its Certificate of Incorporation. ARTICLE II. MEMBERS. SEC. 1. The membership of the Institute shall comprise four classes, namely (1) Members ; (2) Honorary Members , (3) Associates , and (4) Honorary Associates Only Members and Associates residing within the United States of America, Republic of Mexico and Dominion of Canada shall be entitled to vote at the meetings of the Institute. SEC. 2 All Members, Honorary Members, Associates and Honorary Associates of the American Institute of Mining Engineers as the same existed on the day of the incorporation of this Institute, are Members, Honorary Members, Associates and Honorary Associates, respectively, of this Corporation SEC. 3. The following classes of persons shall be eligible for membership in the Institute, namely, as Members and Honorary Members, all professional mining engineers, geologists, metallurgists or chemists, and all persons practically engaged in mining, metallurgy or metallurgical engineering ; as Associates and Honorary Associates, all persons desirous of being connected with the Institute who, in the opinion of the Council, are suitable. SEC 4. Every candidate for election as a Member or Associate of the Institute must be proposed for election by at least three Members or Associates; must be approved by the Committee on Membership, as prescribed in the By-Laws ; and .must be elected by the Council. Not less than three-fourths of the votes cast shall be necessary to an election Every person so elected shall become a Member or Associate, as the case may be, upon payment of his first dues as herein-after prescribed Each candidate for Honorary Member or Honorary Associate, must be recommended by at least ten Members or Associates ; must be approved by the Council ; and must be elected by ballot at a meeting of the Board of Directors by the unanimous vote of all the Directors present ; provided, however, that the number of Honorary Members and Honorary Associates shall not at any time exceed twenty SEC. 5. If any person elected a Member or Associate does not, within sixty days after notice of his election, accept the same and pay his initiation fee and dues for the current year, his election may be cancelled at the discretion of the Council.

Jan 1, 1910

By B Ilich, M Brad, R Brandli, E MarT

The Wirtgen surface miner was investigated for application to the Cloud Break iron ore deposit since it can selectively mine thin seams and there is no requirement for drilling and blasting or primary crushing as the surface miner cuts and breaks the rock to secondary cone crusher feed size. A physical metallurgical study of the surface miner run-of-mine (ROM) from Cloud Break was conducted to better understand the product size distribution, amount of -31.5 +6.3 mm lump produced, lump stability and physical metallurgical quality compared to conventional drill and blast techniques. Since the Cloud Break mine was not in production, the lump product from crushing and screening of surface miner ROM was compared with product simulations using traditional premining physical metallurgical processing techniques including drop testing of PQ diamond core. Drop test conditioning is widely used in the iron ore industry to simulate blasting, crushing and screening at the mine and subsequent product degradation during handling from mine to port to predict both the amount of lump product on ship and the size distribution of the fines and lump. The size distributions of surface miner ROM for hard, medium and friable ore types show very tight size distributions with very little above 100 - 150 mm, about 60 per cent of the distribution between 75 and 6.3 mm, with less below 1 mm compared to conventional drill and blast ROM. Crushing, screening and drop test conditioning of the surface miner ROM produced more lump in equivalent ore types compared to drill and blast techniques or their breakage simulation using PQ diamond core. The higher lump yield from the surface miner was also confirmed by pilot scale crushing of some 7400 t of surface miner ROM from the Cloud Break trial pit. The lump produced from surface miner ROM was quite stable and showed similar low degradation characteristics to lump simulated from drill and blasting techniques. Product size distribution simulations using conditioned crushed lump from 1 m diameter Bauer hole samples were found to compare well with processed PQ core samples and surface miner product from trial mining at Cloud Break. The Bauer sample method is therefore considered to be a very useful close simulation to actual lump production, although the lump yield is lower.

Jan 1, 2007

By H. H. Wright

In many fields edge water is one of the most important factors governing the production of oil. Possibly this fact is not appreciated by many producers except in so far as it may bring about a loss in production from wells drilled on the flanks of structures. In the light of artificial flooding as practiced in New York and Pennsylvania, and of the beneficial effect of natural water-flooding on many wells and leases in the Mid-Continent and elsewhere, it seems reasonable to suppose that very few phases of the petroleum industry hold greater promise for future benefit than the study and control of the natural water drive. Rate of Water Encroachment The rate of movement of water in artificially flooded areas has been referred to as so many feet per unit of time, usually from an injection well toward surrounding producing wells. This definition is vague when used in reference to the movement of natural edge water, inasmuch as such factors as sand thickness, steepness of dip and horizontal extent arc not considered. In the ultimate analysis, only the vertical component of movement affects the production of oil in the natural drive, and in order to define the rate of water encroachment more exactly, such a term as acre-fect per unit time might be used. Thus, where one well is located to each 10 acres a vertical movement of 5 ft. in the water level in a year would be defined as an encroachment of 50 acre-feet per year, and where one well is located to each 20 acres, as 100 acre-feet per year. Such a definition as this is entirely arbitrary, but it takes into consideration to a certain extent the influence of well spacing, and consequent sand drainage, on the rate of water movement. The rate of movement is considered to be an important function of water encroachment, for it is believed that the efficiency of recovery by natural water flood depends a good deal upon the rate of movement. In general, rapid encroachment is thought to effect a poor recovery because of the differential in favor of the movement of water through a sand body and the consequent tendency to trap oil in the sand. Slow movement, on the contrary, is thought to bring about a partial displace-

Jan 1, 1931

By Albert Hoskinson

PROGRESS on the earth depends to a large extent upon the rapid inter-change of ideas and commodities between the various nations of the world. The smooth flow of commerce, by which these ideas and com-modities move, is accelerated by accurate and complete maps of the various land and water areas of the earth, The production of accurate maps depends upon a complete knowledge of the figure and dimensions of the object to be charted, therefore a knowledge of the shape of the earth is a prime necessity for accurate charting purposes. Gravity observa-tions were first undertaken to aid in determining the shape of the earth so that the geodetic surveys of its land and water areas might be more accurately connected to form an undistorted map. A large part of the earth's surface is water and it is therefore necessary to get gravity values at sea as well as on land before a complete and accurate figure of the earth can be determined. Dr. F. A. Vening Meinesz, of Holland, was the first scientist to perfect a pendulum instrument that would accurately measure gravity at sea. He had previously developed a multiple pendulum apparatus for measur-ing gravity upon swampy and unstable land areas in Holland and it was therefore quite natural that he should adapt the instrument to give accurate results upon a still more unstable support, the surface of the sea. His instrument as perfected gives satisfactory results when mounted in gimbals on any vessel where the roll and pitch are not more than about 5° and where the vibrations from rotating machinery and wave action are not large enough to cause the pendulums to shift on the knife-edges. This degree of stability can be obtained on surface craft only in protected waters or on very calm days. Therefore, Dr. Meinesz mounted his instrument in a. submarine so that he could submerge below the disturbed surface waters and get the desired stability in nearly any kind of weather by simply diving to greater depths. Most of the gravity-at-sea work has been done with a Meinesz instrument and a very large number of the observations have been made by Dr. Meinesz himself. He has occupied nearly 1000 sea stations and probably has traveled as many miles by

Jan 1, 1938

By J. R. Long, T. R. Graham, R. S. Dean

FOLLOWING the development of elec¬trolytic manganese production by the Bureau of Mines, an extensive program was planned to study the character of this high-purity product and its possible utilization in various alloy combinations. Previous work reported in the literature concerning alloys containing substantial amounts of manganese dealt largely with material prepared from relatively impure grades of the metal, and in many instances the impurities thus introduced did not permit true evaluation of manganese as an alloying element. One phase of the Bureau's program included a general review of the system and the establishment of the physical properties of copper-manganese-zinc alloys, using electrolytic manganese, and with particular emphasis directed to com¬positions within the alpha solid solution area. A number of reports of the work on alloys in this system, giving specific data concerning the equilibrium system and some of its alloys, have already been published. One study1 established the alpha solid solution area at various temperature levels and composition ranges up to 50 pct manganese. Other investigation reports presented the properties of selected alloys; namely, a 65 pct copper, 10 pct manganese, 25 pct zinc alloys' a sensibly white manganese brass composed of 70 pct copper, 20 pct manganese, 10 pct zinc,3 and a series of alloys with a constant copper content of 60 pct and 5 to 25 pct manganese, balance zinc.4 In these reports tensile properties as influenced by cold-working and subsequent annealing were given in detail. Additional data are now available on other alloys of the alpha region up to 50 pct manganese, and these, together with previously published information, are sufficiently complete to establish the relationship between properties and composition for this portion of the ternary system. The present report is a summary of the tensile properties of wrought alloys in the form of sheet and rod stock. The summary is necessarily limited to data for only one condition of cold-work and a single annealing temperature, since a complete exposition of all the data available would be too extensive for this presentation. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a reasonable approximation of the tensile properties in other conditions of cold-working and annealing by a correlation of the data previously presented on specific alloys and the data given here.

Jan 1, 1947

By Janne Kytökari

Controlling a wide range of minerals processes with single control system is an ordinary way to operate in mines all over the world these days. However the potential of these systems is not yet fully recognized nor utilized. The key issue is to manage the information in a way that enables automating the day-to-day tasks, quality control and safety functions. At the same time it provides means for optimization and constant improvement of processes creating a working environment where the system helps employees to do their key tasks instead of searching, modifying, and transmitting the huge number of information arising every day. The distribution of control system nodes enables the other processes to run heedless of a problem occurring in one of the sub-processes. Also the control room can be in remote location such as in large city removing the need to travel substantially long distances to plant sites every day. When all essential information is brought to the same place there is less risk for a mishap to happen due to information breaks that are often the cause of them. One of the biggest single reasons that result in production losses are break downs of machinery usually caused by normal wear, misuse, incorrect utilization rate etc. For this reason it is important to measure the condition of machines using vibration measurement and diagnostics. By moving from failure or time-based maintenance towards predictive or performance maintenance generates eventually a steady and predictable process but also results in significant long term savings. The mineral process at Talvivaara mine is based on bioheapleaching, whereby metals are leached from ore as a result of bacterial action. Bioleaching is a fairly new technology used in metals recovery. Therefore it is important for the mine to collect and analyze data from different stages of the minerals process. Talvivaara mine?s Metso DNA system has integrated machine condition monitoring and information management. These are not only necessary but also crucial in environmental conditions where the outside temperature can drop below -35°C, where ice and snow dominate the landscape and impact the equipment for four months a year and where distances between equipment can be up to 7.5 kilometers. Keywords: DCS, analyzer, machine condition monitoring, automation, remote communications, optimization, mining, metso DNA, Talvivaara

Sep 1, 2012

By K. Huttu, A. van Wageningen

"The Kittilä underground mine in northern Finland is extracting one of the largest known gold deposits in Europe. Kittilä achieved commercial production on May 1, 2009, becoming Agnico Eagle’s first mine to open outside of Canada. The Kittilä orebodies were initially mined from two openpits – Suuri and Roura – and underground operations were added in October 2010. The pits were mined out in November 2012, so mining is now entirely underground in the Suuri and Roura deposits. Additional, small openpits will mine any remaining near-surface reserves in the future.The Kittilä Mine is located in the Lapland region of northern Finland, approximately 900 km (560 miles) north of Helsinki and 150 km (93 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. With a mine life estimated through 2034, Kittilä is Agnico’s longest-life mine.The mine’s proven and probable reserves contain 32 Mt (4.7 million oz) at 4.6 g/t (0.13 oz/ st) gold. Ore has been mined from underground since 2010. The original 3 kt/d (3,300 stpd) operation underwent an expansion project to increase the throughput capacity of the mill by 1 kt/d (1,100 stpd), starting by the end of 2014.The region around the Kittilä Mine is underlain by mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Kittilä Greenstone Belt oriented nearly vertical. This greenstone belt is similar to those hosting Agnico Eagle’s Canadian deposits in Quebec’s Abitibi region and Nunavut. At the contact point between ironrich and magnesium-rich rocks lies a 100- to 200- m (330- to 660-ft) thick structural zone known as the Suurikuusikko Trend. This trend hosts the Kittilä deposit, where multiple mineralized zones have been traced over a strike length of more than 25 km (15 miles).Most of Agnico Eagle’s work has focused on a 4.5-km (2-mile) segment of the Suurikuusikko Trend that hosts the five main zones of the known gold reserves and resources. From south to north they are: Ketola, Etela, Suuri, Roura and Rimpi.The ore at the Kittilä Mine is refractory, making gold extraction relatively difficult because the gold is generally locked inside the two main sulfide minerals – arsenopyrite and arsenic-rich pyrite. Only about 4 percent is very fine-grained “free gold” (not locked in sulfide grains) and easier to extract. Most of this free gold is found in the outer, oxidized or eroded sections of the ore."

Jan 1, 2015

By A. M. Nordale

Let us first trace a line, mentally, across Alaska and Yukon, starting at a point in the west slightly south of the delta of the Yukon river and from there continuing eastward, loosely following the 63rd parallel of latitude until we have passed beyond the eastern border of Yukon. We will make two pronounced digressions southward to include the greater parts of the Iditarod and Tanana River valleys. That visualized line roughly defines the southern boundary of permafrost. North of it lies a vast region, fully three-fourths of the area of the two territories, which includes Seward peninsula, the great Yukon River basin, and the tractless wastes of the Arctic. During some frigorific cycle in the distant geological past, the ground there was frozen to a depth of many hundreds of feet. How deep the frost actually penetrated is not known, but it has been found to exceed three hundred feet in many places. Nature afterwards provided a perfect insulating cover in the form of heavy moss and dense grass, which has protected the ground from the heat of the sun's rays during the intervening ages. This frozen condition has always been accepted as something indigenous to the North and little thought was given to -it until recently, when the United States Government and, I believe, the Canadian Government, began extensive studies of it, particularly in respect to its effect and bearing on the development of the great oilfields of the Arctic. Within this large region and but a short distance south of the Arctic circle are the three principal producing placer gold fields in the sub-arctic, whose hubs centre at Nome and Fairbanks in Alaska and at Dawson in Yukon Territory. The geological structure and history of the gold-bearing deposits of Dawson and Fairbanks are very similar and probably closely related. They are typical placer deposits produced by stream action during periods of erosion and inundation and subsequently covered with a thick layer of fine, powdery silt mixed with decayed vegetation which, locally, is termed 'muck'. The depth of muck varies from less than 10 to more than 250 feet, with the greater depth near the lateral edges of the valleys. The gravel underlying it is medium in size, well rounded, and composed mostly of quartz and schist. The proportion of sand or fines is approximately 40 per cent. No large boulders and little clay are found, for those districts, as well as that of Nome, have not been subjected to glaciation. The most common bed-rock found is either decomposed or hard schist, but infrequently it is slate, quartz, diorite, or a porphyry. The vertical concentration of the gold is invariably on bed-rock and in the lower few feet of gravel which overlie it. The horizontal concentration or paystreak is roughly parallel to the trend of the valley but does not ordinarily coincide with the course of the present stream. The width of the paystreak usually expands from a few feet at the head of a creek to several hundred feet near its mouth.

Jan 1, 1947

By Stewart Murray, Philip Klapwijk

INTRODUCTION Forecasting commodity markets is like predicting winners in a horse race: to get the answers right, one needs both luck and judgement. Commodity analysts bear some resemblance to racing tipsters as they try to convince interested parties that they have an inside track on which metal is going to win the great minerals race of the 1990s. Commodity analysts share some features with the gentlemen of the turf: • They influence other people in how to spend risk capital, • They don't put their own money at risk, and • If their tips consistently fail to deliver, then they end up looking elsewhere for employment. In order to find winners we need to know about the kind of race we are in and the strengths and weaknesses of all the runners. Miners are not interested in a five furlong sprint: their race is a long distance affair -- after all, the lead-times between discovery and start-up generally approach a decade for mines that will provide the staying power which leaders require in this industry. We need to look at the environment in which our commodities will be competing: in racing parlance, the going. Our equivalent is the economic background: just as some horses are at a relative advantage when the going is soft, so some commodities will do better than others if economic growth is sluggish. If we are going to pick the winners for the late 1990s, and as an industry, make the right investment decisions, nothing is more important than being able to forecast (with at least a semblance of accuracy) how and where the world's economy is going to develop in the next decade. In addressing the question of whether minerals are going to be leaders in the 1990s, this paper considers the idea that it will increasingly be the world outside the industrialised OECD that will provide the incremental growth in demand for mineral products. Economic growth in the Developing World is fundamentally different from that in the OECD, and the pattern of demand for materials in relation to economic output is much more favourable than in the OECD. If we are to forecast the future, we need to be able to understand the past, both in the boom times of the so called Golden Sixties and in the lean years that followed them. This should help us to decide whether the future is going to be like one or other of these extremes or, on the other hand, a return to normality. Having forecast the going, we can look at individual competitors. • Which are best placed to take advantage of the economic, social and industrial trends that we can now dimly foresee? • Which can resist the continued onslaught of the new materials and technologies? • Which of them will best weather the economic storms (assuming that recessions have not yet been abolished)? If we can provide answers to these questions, we will be well on our way to picking winners, i.e., the metals and minerals that will reward their owners with growing demand, steady (and high) prices leading to profits beyond the dreams of avarice.

Jan 1, 1990

By Edward F. Winter, C. E. Ruoff

A silicon solid-state array image scanner is described. This paper deals with structural and performance properties of the array which basically consists of PIN photo and gating diodes, and low capacitance isolation diodes. Each chip of the array is composed of an 8 by 9 matrix of photo detector cells; each cell contains one each of the three diode types mentioned. This x-y matrix is read a column at a time with an access delay of approximately 100 nsec per column. It is designed to detect the presence or absence of illumination within 10-mil diam image spots located on a 15- by 15-mil grid. Radiant power level of an illuminated spot is low; of interest is the range around I uw with a of 8400g Structural improvements to the original array which will result THE purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a solid state scanner exploratory development activity. The scanner is intended to sense the presence or absence of low-level illumination falling upon a matrix of 10-mil wide squares arranged on a 15- by 15-mil x-y grid pattern. The light of interest has a wavelength of 8400, characteristic of radiation emitted from a GaAs lasing diode. This wavelength matches well the spectral absorption of silicon,' thus the well-developed silicon processing technology can be applied to fabricating large integrated arrays of PIN photocells to sense the radiation. The illumination state of the cells of the array is read, one column at a time, by addressing a drive line of the particular column in question and examining the state of those sense lines which are orthogonal to the drive Lines of in greater sensitivity at various wavelengths, both above and below 8400Å, and in greater speed are presented. These include variations in diffusion depth, resistivity of N and P regions, isolation techniques, and packaging. Trade-offs between access speed, cycle frequency, and sensitivity are discussed. A packaging approach to achieving an array composed of several chips is described. Requirements on this package are: 1) maintenance of 15- by 15-mil pitch of the light sensitive cell position, therefore positional accuracy of mounted 8 by 9 cell photo detector chips; 2) maintenance of inherent high array speed even though signal levels are low through high density close proximity mounting of monolithic sense amplifier circuitry. the array. One bank of N sense amplifiers is required, where N is the number of photodiode cells in each column of the array. CELL AND CHI" STRUCTURE A photograph of a single monolithic cell is shown in Fig. 1. Each cell is composed of three junctions, an isolation junction, a logic or blocking diode junction, and a photodiode junction; all of these junctions are connected electrically by a common N region. An electrical schematic of four cells of the array is shown in Fig. 2 with the associated driver and sense amplifier circuits in block diagram form. Note the common cathode configuration of the three diodes of each cell. Fig. 3, a diagram of the cell vertical struc ture, illustrates how the electrical configuration of

Jan 1, 1970

By E. K. C. Chanda

The best use of available reserves to give good metal recoveries relies on short term mine production scheduling.-The aim is usually to produce a plan to guide mining in specific areas that will enable mine operations to deliver the budgeted tonnes and grade to the mill and keep within the long range mine plan. Thus, short term production scheduling is an important aspect of the open pit mine planning function. Since the 60's increased attention has been paid to effective production scheduling as a means of improving the economic viability of existing mines. Hence, mine scheduling scheduling systems have been evolving rapidly during the last two decades. These systems include manual techniques, computer based simulation, mathematical programming and more recently Computer Aided Design (CAD). Some general drawbacks of the current scheduling systems are that firstly, the costs of acquiring and using them are not at all insignificant especially for small to medium sized pits. Secondly, there is an inherent trial-and-error aspect in these systems. Thirdly, they tend to be suited for specific orebody geometries, hence lacking the necessary generality. For instance, the use of computer programs for planning open pits to mine stratiform orebodies raises problems which are not usually met when massive orebodies are considered. There for, a need exists to develop simpler but effective short term pit scheduling procedures suitable for stratiform type orebodies, considering their geometry and geology. This paper describes a PC- based model designed to assist the planning engineer in optimizing the short term production schedule in open pit mines with stratiform orebodies. The model is based on a combination of linear goal programming and deterministic mining simulation. The orebody model is made up of ore and waste mining regions where winning and and/or stripping are taking place. These shovel regions form the basic planning elements in the model. This approach does not require the laborious preparation and use of a regular block model. The computer program consists of main modules: (i) Data capture - processes the raw data into the required format for mine planning. (ii) Precedence mining constraints - checks the status of each shovel .region at the beginning of a given scheduling period with regard to geometrical mining constraints such as undercutting. (ii) LP- Optimization - provides an optimal selection of ore shovel regions which do not violet geometrical constraints for mining in the period, the objective, being to maximize the contained metal equivalent in the blended R-O-M ore and at the same time to minimize deviations in grade and tonnage from the call values. (iv) Post LP-Simulation - enables the user to smooth out the LP solution in order to adjust it to a practically executable plan and simulates mining of ore and waste for the period. Shovel allocation to selected ore and waste shovel regions, unit operations and depletion of reserves are executed in this module. Preliminary testing of the model for monthly production scheduling using data from Nchanga OPen Pit on the Zambian Copperbelt indicates that it can be a useful planning tool and gives acceptable results.

Jan 1, 1992

The National Research Council was organized in 1916 at the request of the President by the National Academy of Sciences, under its congressional charter, as a measure of national preparedness. The work accomplished by the council in organizing research and in securing cooperation of military and civilian agencies in the solution of military problems demonstrates its capacity for larger service. The National Academy of Sciences is therefore requested to perpetuate the National Research Council, the duties of which shall he as follows: 1. In general, to stimulate research in the mathematical, physical, and biological sciences, and in the application of these sciences to engineering, agriculture, medicine, and other useful arts, with the object of increasing knowledge, of strengthening the national defense, and of contributing in other ways to the public welfare. 2. To survey the larger possibilities of science, to formulate comprehensive projects of research, and to develop effective means of utilizing the scientific and technical resources of the country for dealing with these projects. 3. To promote cooperation in research, at horse and abroad, in order to secure concentration of effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate progress; but in all cooperative undertakings to give encouragement to individual initiative as fundamentally important to the advancement of science. 4. To serve as a means of bringing American and foreign investigators into active cooperation with the scientific and technical services of the War and Navy Departments and with those of the civil branches of the Government. 5. To direct the attention of scientific and technical investigators to the present importance of military and industrial problems in connection with the war, and to aid in the solution of these problems by organizing specific researches. 6. To gather and collate scientific and technical information, at home and abroad, in cooperation with governmental and other agencies, and to render such information available to duly accredited persons. Effective prosecution of the council's work requires the cordial collaboration of the scientific and technical branches of the Government, both military and civil. To this end representatives of the Government, upon the nomination of the National Academy of Sciences, will he designated by the President as members of the council, as heretofore, and the heads of the departments immediately concerned will continue to cooperate in every way that may be required. THE WHITE HOUSE, WOODROW WILSON. 11 May, 1918.

Jan 7, 1918

By Charles Himrod

In presenting this paper it is not intended to enter into any discussion of the theory of the blast-furnace, but simply to give the results of a number of determinations of CO and CO 2 in furnace gases, and some conclusions arrived at, and the result of an experiment made in hopes of increasing the production of CO 2. In the first table, on page 198, is given the averages of a number of analyses of gases of different furnaces, and in the second, of two stacks of different sizes under varying circumstances. The conclusions arrived at as to what influences the production of CO2 are as follows: lst,. Kind of fuel. Bituminous coal not permitting the formation of as much CO, as coke. 2d. Kind of ores. Rolling-mill cinder being much less favorable to formation of CO2 than hematite ores, magnetites probably less than hematites, but more than cinder. 3d. Length of time of contact of gases with ore. Small furnaces and too rapid driving both waste fuel by riot allowing enough time for conversion of CO into CO2. 4th. The temperature of blast. The hotter the greater the quantity of CO2. 5th. Regularity of passage of stock through the furnace. The hanging and dropping of the stock, however slight, seems to pack it more solidly in the hearth, increases the resistance to the blast, and decreases the quantity of CO2. These are the most common causes noticed which influence the production of CO2, unless we except the one that might be considered the greatest of all, the one that has spoiled so many tons of iron, and the amiability of so many furnacemen, the one most dreaded, the great unknown. It would seem a self-evident proposition that the better the contact of the gases with the ore and the less with the fuel, the greater would be the amount of CO2 produced. To prolong the contact of gas with the ore furnaces are enlarged with advantage, and pains are taken to charge the stock in such a manner as will best promote it. Still, with furnaces of most approved construction and most skilful manipulation, the gases leave the furnace so rich in CO, that not half the heating power of the fuel is obtained, and the highest

By Scott D. Long

"Abstract-Grass roots exploration has an emphasis on good precision at low (sub-economic) concentrations of an element, in order to identify "anomalies" which may lead to drilling targets. Although it is wise to have well-defined quality controls in place during early stage sampling, the control procedures at this stage tend to be rudimentary. When a deposit warrants detailed delineation, the need for accurate geological characterization and assaying of ore-grade rock must be supported by appropriate quality control procedures.As a project returns more promising results, and the likelihood of the project warranting a prefeasibility study increases, it is time to tighten quality assurance requirements and quality control protocols. Delays in instituting adequate quality control and verification procedures may lead to costly remedial actions that can also delay completion of the prefeasibility or feasibility study. Sometimes, as a project matures, the quality control and quality assurance aspects fail to keep pace with the changing nature of the work: an increasing emphasis on precise and accurate assaying of oregrade rock.A resource model is like a house of cards. The foundation of the house is the geological observations, the sampling methods and the geological interpretations performed upon those samples. Upon the sampling, which includes all the sub-sampling steps of sample preparation, rest the assay results. The quality of the assays can be no better than the quality of the sampling. Good assaying technique will preserve all biases and imprecisions introduced during sampling and sample preparation; it cannot remove them. If the sub-samples and/or assays are bad and must be redone, all the succeeding levels of the house of cards must also be rebuilt, or at least patched up.From geological observations, a geological interpretation is built, the quality of which is critical to the construction of an acceptable resource model. Geological elements are difficult to assess, and are not discussed here; they are dependent upon the expertise of the geologists involved. Geological knowledge contributes essential quality control elements to resource/reserve determinations (Sinclair and Postolski, 1999; Postolski and Sinclair, 1999).This paper consists of five sections: (1) overview of quality control protocols, (2) maintaining quality control of databases, (3) quality control of drill sampling, (4) optimizing crushing and grinding requirements, and (5) quality control of assay data acquisition."

Jan 1, 1998

By J. J. Bodmer

THE substances or materials employed in this manufacture, are the same as those used in the preparation of mortar and concrete, viz., the different kinds of lime and sand. Instead of, or in conjunction with, sand there may be used calcined clay, blast-furnace slag, clinkers or ashes from furnaces, natural puzzolana, powdered chippings from stone quarries, etc. Of the different kinds of sand, pit-sand-siliceous sand, as it commonly occurs mixed with gravel-and the sand found on the seashore, where the salt has been washed out by long exposure, whilst out of reach of the tide, may be used. The purer the above-named materials are from admixtures of clay, earth, or organic substances, the more complete will be their combination with the lime, the quicker will the manufactured brick or block set, and the more satisfactory will be the quality which it ultimately attains. For this reason, subdivided blast-furnace slag is preferable in most cases to sand, and the only sand which, in reference to setting capacity, is analogous to blast-furnace slag, is the volcanic sand occurring in different localities in North and South Wales, as an almost pure calcined silica. The lime used for the manufacture may be either slaked or unslaked. In the first case, (slaked), in order to obtain satisfactory results, the lime must be strongly hydraulic. The use of unslaked lime, however, is by far preferable. A process for using fresh or unslaked lime has been patented in England by Major-General Scott. Lime thus prepared is called " selenitic lime," and consists of a mixture of fresh (un¬slaked) lime with sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris. The gray-stone lime, for instance, found by the Medway, is mixed with from 5 to 7 per cent. of plaster, which has the effect of keeping the lime from slaking when water is added. This mixture also partakes of the nature of cement, and when used for mortar, or concrete, attains in a shorter time a greater degree of hardness than the same lime would ever have obtained after being slaked. Bodmer's process for the manufacture of artificial stone bricks consists chiefly in the use of automatic measuring, forwarding, and mixing apparatus, by means of which the materials are supplied and unite in a continuous stream, and are accurately measured. They

Jan 1, 1874