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By W. L. Dare

Tri-axial strains in pillars, created by pillar robbing, were measured in an experiment at the Dysart No. 1 uranium mine near Grants) New Mexico. At this mine, room-and-pillar stoping is used on the advance, and pillars are recovered on the retreat. The are deposit is, for all practical purposes, horizontal. Measuring devices were installed in pillars approximately 90 to 200 feet from the break line, and strains were recorded over a 4-to 6-week period. The measurements indicate that, in general, the algebraic magnitude of vertical strains increased, and the horizontal strains decreased, in turn, indicating that vertical (or near vertical) loads on the instrumented pillars lessened as pillars were recovered.

Jan 1, 1962

By J. C. Thornley

Service failures of seemingly conventional galvanized bolts, in normal operation, on transmission towers in New Brunswick have been found to be the result of hydrogen cracking. In both these cases, similar failures elsewhere can be avoided by suitable clauses in the purchase specifications. In the first case described, the manufacturing procedure was responsible for strengthening and embrittling a standard, soft, constructional steel. In this case, a fracture mechanics analysis predicted critical crack depths for final fracture very similar to those found in practice. This case reveals an apparent cooperative connection between hydrogen embrittlement and strain ageing in plain carbon steels. In the second case described, the steel was simply a high strength steel which should not have been made into galvanized bolts.

Jan 1, 1979

A recent Evening Post Headline read 'Officialdoms Inertia Risking Millions in Growth Strategy'. The article beneath that headline outlined the difficulties encountered by the Government's growth strategy projects and included the paragraph 'public efforts by Government to brush up communication of the widespread nature of its growth strategy is believed to have been matched by efforts in private by some ministers to overcome their frustration at the constant delay while reports and paper work are moved between departments and through the system'. The article went on to point out that these delays could cost New Zealand millions of dollars in lost overseas exchange savings. We as responsible citizens should be appalled or at least concerned that such costly delays should or even could occur. But those on the outside of the system who spend much of their working life prodding, reminding, pleading, cajoling, even begging, the bureaucracy should be excused a smirk or a smile or even a good belly laugh. The Minister is usually a part of the bureaucracy passing judgment on someone else's proposals. This time the Government has plans of its own. Plans which it wishes to see implemented as rapidly as possible and even with the assistance of the precautionary National Development Act with its 'fast track' provisions those plans have got bogged down in the bureaucratic machine which this Government has done as much as any other to create. In the circumstances, the thought of Her Majesty's Ministers frustrated at the constant delay while reports and paper work are moved between departments and through the system is not unpleasing.

Jan 1, 1982

Strategic Branding ? In 2006 Explore for More was created ? By industry, for industry ? Cohesive approach to career attraction ? Defines industry and employers of choice Career Kits ? Positive impression of mining: ? before seeing the brochure 31% ? after seeing the brochure 83% ? Likely to consider a career in mining: ? before seeing the brochure 12% ? after seeing the brochure 23% MARS ? Mining Attraction, Recruitment, and Retention Strategy (2007-2010) ? Attract, recruit and retain a skilled workforce ? Increase participation of under-represented groups ? Dispel myths and misconceptions of the mining industry ? Inform and educate Canadians of career opportunities ? Promote and build upon industry best practices in workforce planning

May 1, 2009

By Robert A. Bauer, Paul B. DuMontelle

In 1985, participants of the multi-year Illinois Mine Subsidence Research Program conducted surveys of subsidence effects on crop production from current high-extraction mining methods, selected a site to characterize the profile, strain, fracture development in overburden materials and changes in aquifers produced by subsidence from high-extraction mining, characterized floor materia1 s in three mines, and established bibliographic reference and data base files. The Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals and Twin Cities Research Center of the U. S. Bureau of Mines are coordinating State and Federally funded research.

Jan 1, 1986

The stability of paste fill bulkheads forms an integral part of a successful paste fill system. Bulkheads are constructed at the draw points of open stopes to contain paste fill while the initial pour cures and forms a consolidated plug. Mobilization of uncured paste fill as a result of a bulkhead failure can lead to significant consequences, including endangering the safety of personnel, property damage and production losses and delays. The loading conditions in the paste fill and the resultant lateral loads on the bulkheads are complex and are dependent on many factors. This paper presents a case study of several paste fill bulkhead failures; the results of an in-situ pressure monitoring program to ascertain the pressure loads, and the subsequent paste fill bulkhead evaluation.

May 1, 2007

By M. K. G. Vermaak

There are practical indications that flotation recovery of palladium bismuth tellurides is poor. This work tested whether this can be caused by a lack of interaction of the collector with the telluride. Impedance measurements, voltammetry and Raman spectroscopy were performed to determine the interaction of dithiocarbonate collectors (KEX) with Pd-Bi-Te. Impedance measurements showed lower capacitance values in solutions containing KEX, indicating the formation of a continuous surface layer. Anodic and cathodic polarization diagrams show the mixed potential to be higher than the reversible potential of the xanthate-dixanthogen equilibrium reaction; hence the formation of dixanthogen on the surface is possible. Electrochemically controlled in situ Raman spectroscopy did indicate the presence of bulk diethyl dixanthogen on the surface. Raman spectroscopy has confirmed the co-presence of xanthate with dixanthogen, indicating that xanthate retains its molecular integrity when it adsorbs on the surface of the Pd-Bi-Te. As a result, the mineral surface is expected to be hydrophobic and alack of collector interaction with the mineral is not the reason for the low PGM recoveries experienced. Keywords: Raman spectroscopy; Pd-Bi-Te; ethyl xanthate; platinum flotation; Great Dyke; Pd-bearing bismutho-tellurides and moncheite.

Jan 1, 2004

By Claude MacDonald, John H. Ashburn

"IntroductionIndustrial growth and technological change over recent years had been accompanied by two major sources of concern to management and employees: (a) increase in occupational injury and illness and the resultant costs involved; and (b) equipment damage and breakdowns in concentrated production lines causing more extensive loss potential.Due to economic factors, management attention has focussed more on production and quality than on safety, health and related loss potential sources. As a result , occupational safety and health activism has grown, government legislation of compensation and occupational safety and health standards have progressively developed and stronger liability attitudes have been taken by courts of law.To improve efficiency and allow development in more competitive markets, rising labour costs, equipment costs and safety related financial losses have dictated that attention be given to conservation of all resources. Conservation of resources, people, equipment, material and environment, can no longer be addressed in isolation but must be managed integrally with production and quality. To this end, systems have developed utilizing sound management principles applied with equal intensity to production, quality and loss potential"

Jan 1, 1987

By D Craw, S Clearwater, S Hammit, C Smith

Prior to rehabilitation, plant cover on quartz gravel overburden at Wangaloa coal mine was highly patchy. Stabilisation techniques have since considerably altered the condition of the main overburden yet deposits in the east and west remain largely intact. On the eastern overburden, three distinct zones of revegetation have naturally developed: Zone 1 represents a dense plant cover, Zone 2 a patchy cover and Zone 3 a sparse cover of isolated plants. Aerial photographs show much of the eastern overburden was deposited between 1940 and 1960s. Yet we found that the temporal scale of deposition did not wholly account for the differences observed in vegetation development. To investigate other influential factors, we set up 12 study plots using four replicates in each vegetation zone. The diversity and density of plants in each plot were measured to quantify the degree of vegetation development. Samples from the substrate in each plot were collected using soil cores to a depth of 10 cm. Cores were analysed for indicators of nutrient availability, metal content and physical composition. We found that substrate chemistry varied between individual study plots, but showed little difference overall along the vegetation gradient. Substrate physical differences were much greater. The ratio of coarse quartz pebbles: fines was considerably higher in Zone 3 than other zones, and within zones where plants were not growing. Bulk density also increased successively from Zone 1 - 3. We found clear evidence for the reversed stratigraphy of excavation superimposed over the time scale of deposition, and the corresponding nature of fine particles. The rate of revegetation was therefore highly dependent upon the substrate composition of the last surface deposit from the dumping truck. Our data suggests an optimum ratio exists between inert coarse material and a fine matrix for progressive natural vegetation development on mine substrates.

Jan 1, 2004

A wide-ranging base of jig data was collected from various types of commercial jigs in 9 coal preparation plants in China, and a complete data analysis was made. It was found that the sharpness ofseparation was very variable, which demonstrates the complex interplay of the many factors which influence jig performance. Tests showed that there exist optimum frequency ranges in each compartment of a jig. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that the sharpness of separation is most sensitive to the intake fraction ofthe air cycle, the frequency, and the feed rate. By means of non-linear curve fitting techniques and statistical analysis, several mathematical models were developed to describe both partition curve and the jig performance, for simulation purposes.

Jan 1, 1986

By Ingrid Hann

The Triple Bottom Line ? Economic Sustainability ? Creation of Joint Venture companies ? Planned evaluation of other kimberlites ? Social Sustainability ? Impact Benefit Agreement and Participation Agreements ? Education and training initiatives ? Environmental Sustainability ? Environmental management ? Mine closure planning

May 1, 2008

Cessation of mining on the Bendigo goldfield makes it evident that, as the older generation fades away, knowledge of the famous Bendigo saddle reefs will be limited in the future by their written records. It is important therefore that the summarised account by D. E. Thomas (1953) in the Geology of Australian Ore Deposits should not be misleading. Fig. 6 in this article is stated to portray a cross section and longitudinal section through a series of gold shoots in the Garden Gully 300 ft. reef. The gold shoot along the capof the saddle reef is represented as extending down the east leg in a series of prongs, with the tips of the prongs about 50 ft. apart. It is the purpose of this note to indicate that this illustration can be suspected to be a diagram of the old stopes instead of a diagram of the distribution of gold in the quartz.The original sketches of Figs. 6 and 7 in Thomas' account were extracted, I believe, from the field note books of H. S. Whitelaw, years after his death in the late twenties. Whitelaw was stationed in the Bendigo office of the Geological Survey of Victoria, carrying out geological surveys of the Bendigo mines. He was there for many years before the Gold Research committee started its investigations in 1916 and he was acutely aware of the problem attached to the distribution of gold in the reefs. He had felt concern that manyauriferous reefs were being mined without adequate study and record and he decided, as he expressed it to me, to pick up what he could as he went along. There can be little doubt that the diagrams of Figs. 6 and 7 are products of this resolve.Opportunities to investigate gold occurrences at Bendigo were limited before 1916 because the field was operated by Manuscript received at The Institute 18th November, 1960.

Jan 1, 1961

By Walter G. Kutschke

Four significant soil nail wall projects in the eastern United States were recently completed with a combined area of 175,000 square feet of finished shotcrete surface. These projects required the use of innovative design and construction methods in order to address various challenges, including slide-prone back slope materials, perched water, highly erodible rock materials, curved wall alignments, very tight construction tolerances and unexpected subsurface conditions. Special focus is given to issues such as bench excavation, soil nail installation methods, shotcrete mix design, anticipated shotcrete quantities, shotcrete nozzlemen qualifications and weather conditions, in order to provide a lessons-learned database for future soil nail wall design and inspector considerations. These projects also underscore the importance of design engineer and soil nail wall contractor qualifications as well as effective communication with the owner.

Jan 1, 2007

By W Taylor, S Chen, R Haywood, M White, R West, J Ranasinghe

In March 2012 a combined BHP Billiton and Hatch team embarked on a program to improve the concentrate burner efficiency of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper flash smelting furnace. A multi-faceted approach including an analysis of the furnace using operational knowledge and first principles engineering led to the design and supply of a new central-lance (disperser). A new, patented, swirl method of introducing the copper concentrate into the furnace was developed to integrate with the existing concentrate burner. Plant trials in 2014 demonstrated an increase of nearly 10 percent in the oxygen efficiency of the furnace. The improved efficiency is expected to provide savings in operating costs and asset life extension of downstream gas and dust handling equipment.CITATION:White, M, Haywood, R, Taylor, W, Chen, S, Ranasinghe, J and West, R, 2015. Improved copper flash smelting at Olympic Dam, in Proceedings MetPlant 2015, pp 382–395 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 7, 2015

By William R. Barton

COLUMBIUM (niobium) and tantalum are similar refractory metals with closely related properties and uses and close association in ore deposits. Until recently both metals, particularly columbium, were essentially laboratory curiosities. However, since the beginning of World War II, applied technology, under the impetus of national security requirements, has realized many chemical, electronic, nucleonic, and missile and rocketry applications, where high temperature or corrosive environments require the use of columbium or tantalum. At the same time, advances in these fields have resulted in intensive research on the geological distribution, resources, metallurgy, and properties of these two metals; their alloys and compounds; and the development of a full-fledged columbium-tantalum industry. The future appears to promise continued acceleration in such studies and ever-increasing demand for these elements. The raw material supplies of columbium are abundant, and the extractive metallurgy of columbium is well enough advanced to assure adequate supplies of the element at reasonable prices to meet any projected demands. Although the extractive metallurgy of tantalum is similarly well developed, raw material supplies are so limited that, lacking new ore discoveries, an increase in demand to five times the 1959 level would severely tax ore-production facilities. Approximately 120 tons of tantalum and about one-half as much columbium was produced in 1959. Additional quantities are consumed as compounds or additive alloys such as ferrocolumbium and ferrotantalum columbium (55).3

Jan 1, 1962

By M. J. Scoble, L. M. Daneshmend, C. Hendricks

Paper presented at a meeting on: Artificial intelligence in the minerals sector, held in Nottingham, UK, 20 April 1993. An attempt is made to relate emerging technologies to education and training requirements by examining the nature of the Canadian mining industry's human resources. Particular attention is given to the trends evident in mine automation and their likely impact on instructional needs. The characteristics of "computer-aided instruction" systems are reviewed and related to the implementation and support of mine-wide monitoring and communication networks, which are seen as fundamental to the eventual automation of underground hardrock mines

Apr 1, 1994

By G. J. van Tonder

The use of Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT), a highly selective separation technology using specifically designed ligands (such as macrocycles), has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment process for removal of several ions that are commonly found in many hydrometallurgical circuits as well as in environ-mental treatment operations. Ions removed by MRT include base, heavy and transition metals, precious metals, halides, and alkali/alkaline earths. A MRT pilot plant run was conducted at Zincor to demonstrate the cobalt/nickel purification of zinc electrolyte, and to recover saleable pure cobalt/nickel sulphate solution. The MRT process holds various advantages, which include the elimination of a catalyst such as arsenic trioxide, conventionally used in cobalt and nickel cementation. SuperLig® 138 can be used to remove cobalt and nickel from120?170 g/l Zn-solutions at pH 1?2. The Zincor MRT application demonstrated its capability of concentrating large volumes o copper barren impure solution at low cobalt and nickel concentration levels in the feed, to small solution volumes at high cobalt and nickel concentrations. Around 99.5% of the cobalt was removed from solution with cobalt impurity levels in feed varying between 10 mg/l and 26 mg/l.

Jan 1, 2002

By D. McCarthy

Contract is a PC-based software program designed to satisfy the main features that have been identified to be lacking from cost estimation systems currently in place in the Australian coal industry. Contract was developed in conjunction with an Australian contracting company to refine the existing core structure used by the company for project evaluation. The key feature of Contract is the availability of analysis functions to explore multiple options within a contract project by altering identified variables. The ability to update project files has been incorporated into Contract to ensure that it is user-friendly and relatively simple to use. Lists of mining equipment and consumables are stored in MS ACCESS database files, along with the supplier details for each item. Each time a project is initiated there is a dynamic link to the database files and the most recent current information is retrieved and linked with the project. Contract provides an option to calculate the changes in metre unit cost as a function of the average development cost. Keywords: Contracting, cost estimation, sensitivity analysis.

Jan 1, 2003

By A. Moskowitz, L. S. Redmerski

The corrosion resistance of stainless steels can be strongly affected by surface treatments. Changes in corrosion resistance can relate to surface composition, integrity and stability of the passive film, and to surface profile (roughness). Operations producing oxidation at the surface, such as annealing, heat treating, and welding, can result in a chromium-rich scale and a chromium-depleted metal surface. In order to restore full corrosion resistance, chemical or mechanical clean-up techniques must remove not only the oxide, but also a very thin layer of metal. Laboratory and field test studies show that these factors are particularly significant in less highly alloyed steels. Annealing stainless in a reducing atmosphere (bright annealing) avoids chromium depletion, but as-bright-annealed material does not display optimum corrosion resistance in certain environments. Electro passiva-tion can be applied to improve pitting resistance without significantly changing bright surface appearance. Potentiometric studies show that electropassivated material also displays significantly greater resistance to breakdown of passivity in acid solutions. The application of special surface finishes for appearance purposes can affect corrosion resistance. Roughness is a key factor. Samples of related appearance but with different surface profiles can show significant differences in corrosion resistance. Thus nonreflec-tive stainless with a relatively smooth surface produced by a special rolling process is much superior to material chemically etched to a similar low reflectivity. THE corrosion resistance of a stainless steel is affected by other factors in addition to its bulk composition and metallurgical structure. These other factors include those relating to the specific chemical and physical condition of the steel's surface. This paper will consider certain aspects of surface condition in relation to corrosion resistance. In particular, studies will be described on the effects of oxidation encountered in heat treating or welding operations, of passivation after bright annealing, and of different surface finishes. EFFECTS DUE TO OXIDATION When stainless steels are exposed to high temperature in an oxidizing environment, as in annealing or welding, the oxides formed are relatively rich in chromium. As a consequence of oxidation, the metallic layer directly beneath the scale may be low in chromium to some very thin but finite depth.1"8 Such a change in chromium content could lower the corrosion resistance at the surface, whether or not the oxide layer is removed. Studies were performed relating to the effect of oxidation and chromium depletion produced during annealing and welding on the corrosion resistance of stainless steels. The nominal compositions of steels used in this study and others are given in Table I. A) Annealing Studies on 17 pet Cr Steels. 1) Effects of Pickling Treatments. Studies were performed to investigate the corrosion resistance of air annealed type 430 stainless as a function of the amount of electrolytic pickling after annealing. The material used in this study had been air annealed and electrolytically pickled in the mill. All scale had been removed, and yet the material showed unusually poor corrosion resistance. Laboratory electrolytic pickling studies were performed to determine whether additional metal removal from the surface would improve corrosion resistance. Electrolytic pickling was performed in a sulfuric acid bath using various conditions of bath acidity, temperature, time, and current density. The samples were then rated for corrosion resistance in a ferric chloride spot test. For this spot test, a solution was prepared by dissolving 10 g of FeCl3 . 6H2O, 5 g of NaCl, and 2.5 ml of concentrated HC1 in 200 ml of water. An area on a specimen was cleaned and a drop of test solution was placed on the prepared area. After 5 min, the drop was rinsed off and the area wiped dry. The spot was then rated between 1 and 5 by visual comparison with standard spots. The numerical rating of the standard spots can be described as follows: 1—No clouding of surface; 2—very slight clouding of surface; 3—slight clouding of surface; 4—moderate clouding of surface; 5—strong clouding of surface. A rating of 1 or 2 was considered to have passed the test, a rating of 4 or 5 represented failure, and a rating of 3 was considered borderline. The severity of etching in this test has been related to the actual chromium content at the surface.4 Etching (clouding) occurs on type 430 stainless (rating of 4 to 5) when the surface chromium content is 14 pct or less. The effects of current density and retention time when electrolytically repickling this material in 6 pct sulfuric acid are shown in Fig. 1. Increasing the cur-rent density or retention time improved corrosion resistance as measured by the spot test. Similarly, increasing acid concentration of the bath or bath tem-perature was found to improve corrosion resistance. The conditions making for improved spot ratings resulted in increased metal removal, regardless of specific pickling conditions used, Fig. 2.

Jan 1, 1970

By Wu Xueling

9K medium was used to isolate iron-oxidizing bacteria from 27 sump water samples collected from Dexing Cop-per Mine, Chengmen Mountain Mine and Yin Mountain Mine, Jiangxi Province, China. Lead acetate and silver nitrate were used to enrich metal-resistant iron-oxidizing bacteria from the above water samples. Isolate 16 was isolated from the sample taken at Dexing Copper Mine. Growth experiments indicated that when incubated under lead acetate (3,500 mg/L), isolate 16 still carried out ferrous ion oxidation, while isolate H1, a less resistant strain taken at Yin Mountain Mine, had a tolerance level of only 400 mg/L. When assayed with other metals, i.e., Ag+ (240 mg/L), Hg2+ (0.9 mg/L), Cu2+ (32,000 mg/L) and Mg2+ (22,500 mg/L), isolate 16 still carried out ferrous ion oxidation while, on the other hand, isolate H1 exhibited much lower tolerance levels, i.e., Ag+ (60 mg/L), Hg2+ (0.1 mg/L), Cu2+ (19,000 mg/L) and Mg2+ (13,500 mg/L). Based on 16S rDNA sequence data, isolate 16 and H1 were both identified as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans.

Jan 1, 2007