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By M. Redfearn

"DUST COLLECTION EQUIPMENT LIST Primary Dust CollectorModular Mikro-Pulsaire - Model 2G1-96TR Capacity: 20,000 c.f.m.Bags: Total of 288; 8' x 4 1/2"" diameterMaterial: Dacron HCE feltAir to cloth ratio: 7.55/1Bags are changed every 6-9 months. Sent to A & L Services for cleaning at a cost of less than 1/3 the price of a new bag. No new bags have been required since start-up 4 years ago.Blow hack: 35 c.f.m. at 100 p.s.i.Fan: Joy Manufacturing, Model 3300, Type 4S, Backward inclined fan.Impeller: 33"" diameter36"" diameter Inlet33"" diameter Outlet at 3200 f.p.m. velocity1945Motor:,60 H.P., 1780 r.p.m.Capacity: 23,400 c.f.m.Design:,20,000 c.f.m.,•Actual:,17,500-19,000 c.f.m. depending on bag condition.Dust Slurry Agitator: Port-a-flo Model 050-350Major Maintenance:The fan was sped up from 1830 to 1945 r.p.m. and balanced at the higher speed. Several months later the impeller destructed beyond repair. A new shaft and impeller was installed, casings straightened, and bearings reused. Unit is currently running at 1945 r.p.m. No definite cause for the impeller failure has been found, although it might be attributed to improper balancing."

Jan 1, 1976

By CIM Mineral Resource

On January 9, 2018, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Council formed the CIM Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Committee (CIM MRMR Committee), which is a combination of the previous Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and the Best Practices Committee. As part of its mandate, the CIM MRMR Committee updates guidelines for use by Industry, which include the Uranium Practice Guidelines. The 2024 CIM Uranium Leading Practice Guidelines were adopted by CIM Council on November 22, 2024, and supersedes the 2003 version. The main principles and guidelines relating to preparation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve (MRMR) estimates are provided in the CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Best Practices Guidelines (MRMR BP Guidelines, as updated from time to time). The MRMR BP Guidelines provide information pertaining to metalliferous and other deposits and many sections are readily applicable to the preparation of MRMR estimates for uranium deposits. However, additional guidance is appropriate for uranium deposits due to the radioactive nature of uranium, and its amenability, in some cases, to in situ recovery (ISR) mining methods.

Nov 1, 2024

By Mafalda Arias

Most mining and mineral exploration companies? operate in remote locations, in Canada or internationally. Not knowing the cultural imprint of your team and the places where your company is active, may lead to problems. To set the foundation for a better world, it?s important to built trust and relationships inside your global team, within communities and together with stakeholders. Building the ?invisible asset? and developing intercultural awareness is an important part of leadership programs for geologists and engineers on your team, and should be a key component of your Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Why is culture important for mining and mineral corporations in their CSR initiatives? Because culture is the foundation of your organizational identity. Understanding the impact of identity, for an organization and for each individual, will provide a description of the experiences and values that affect every work placed interaction, with your clients, with colleagues, with suppliers, with the community of the host country. Each one of us sees and evaluates the world through our perceptions. Through these perceptions we give meaning; how we view and understand our reality which sets the tone for how relationships are built. This is what I call building the ?invisible asset?. Identity, experiences, values and beliefs are invisible commodities, locating them can be as difficult as finding a mine. But if they are not located, the commodity does not have value. Just like in the work we do in our industry. For example when you are working in an underground gold mine and the vein is lost, you keep on working and trying to find the vein; time passes, money is being used and no results. You decide to bring an expert on this type of deposits who gave you directions that allowed you to find the vein. To be a responsible citizen of the world and to set the foundation for a better world, it is imperative to go deep, as deep as your next drilling program, because only there and then, can you develop the cultural sensitivity and the ability to become an agent of change for responsible, sustainable and profitable businesses.

Oct 1, 2010

By A. Tabereaux

The reduction of perfluorocarbon (PFC) emissions from aluminum electrolytic cells is a key issue in reducing greenhouse gases at all aluminum smelters, The emission of tetrafluoromethane (CF4) and hexafluoroethane (C2F6) gases during anode effects at smelters can be calculated using two different methods; anode effect-minutes slope and anode effect overvoltage, This work demonstrates that the optimum method depends to a large extent on the type of anode effect kill algorithm utilized at each smelter, CF4 emissions vary widely from aluminum cells depending on the type of anode effect kill method utilized; fast, aggressive anode bridge movements vs. slower, moderate anode bridge movements.

Jan 1, 2005

By John Hughes

1. De Beers, Diamonds and Canada 1.1. De Beers was founded long ago (1888, the same time that Canada became a country) in a rural mining village in South Africa. Today, we employ 22,000 people across 19 countries and have 14 mines including open pits, shafts, beach-sands and seabed. 1.2. Last year our sales were US$5.7 billion and our total production amounted to 47 million carats which means a 40% global market share. For the Kyoto buffs in the audience, the company consumes 66 million cubic metres of water per annum, 210 million litres of hydrocarbon fuel and 1,600 GWh of electricity. Stats are good, but aren?t as expressive as a movie. This one is 2 minutes long, which is quicker than I could elaborate. (Video 1 - 2 minutes) 2. De Beers in Botswana is the leading source of diamonds 2.1 Today Botswana is the Jewell in the Crown. There are three big open pits that enjoy economies of scale that make them the lowest cost producers. Last year 60 million tonnes of overburden and 30 million tonnes of ore were moved in Botswana alone. Botswana produced 31 million carats, compared to 14 million carats in South Africa and 2 million very high quality carats inn Namibia. 3. Diamond Mines provide feedstock? ?.to jewellery stores

Apr 1, 2005

By C. A. Lorenson

THE Marmoraton mine is located a mile southeast of Marmora, a village in Hastings county, Ontario, 130 miles east from Toronto and 143 miles west of Ottawa. Highway No. 14 from Belleville intersects Highway No. 7 at Marmora and the branch line of the Canadian National railway between Trenton and Bancroft passes through the property just east of the open pit. HISTORY AND GEOLOGY The Marmora orebody appears as the whorls of a thumb print on the aeromagnetic survey map released by the Ontario Department of Min.es early in 1950, the survey of the district having been made in 1948 and 1949, under the joint auspices of the Department of Mines and the Geological Survey of Canada. The 'anomaly' appeared to have interesting possibilities, so Bethlehem representatives carried out a ground survey and began drilling the property in June, 1950. A total of 40 holes, aggregating 37,000 feet, were drilled to delineate the ore-body. The Marmora orebody is a re-placement of Precambrian limesto.ne with zones or bands of magnetite interlaid with metamorpl1ic rocks and cut by later intrusives. The ore and associated Precambrian rocks are overlain by 100 to 150 feet of flat-lying Palaeozoic limestone. It is a low-grade deposit averaging 33 per cent iron and requires concentration to raise it to 65 per cent iron grade.

Jan 1, 1958

By H. R. Oliveira, C. R. Aragonez de Vasconcellos

Pipeline operation and maintenance necessarily involves geotechnical studies at points and areas with deflagrated instabilities or still to map and monitor areas prone to geotechnical problems. Landslides, erosions and debris flows are some examples of natural hazards, that not rarely, can bring high consequences to pipelines, sometimes leading them to high stresses levels and ruptures. Bolivia-Brazil Natural Gas Pipeline has 2.593 kilometers since Rio Grande City in Bolivia until Canoas City, in south Brazil. The pipeline crosses a lot of types of geological fields and difficult topography. The south spread of the pipeline has the most prone areas to geotechnical hazards because of its hard topography combined with the variety of geological materials, such as, colluvium deposits and debris flow areas. The aim of this paper is to present the right-of-way geotechnical risks that affect pipelines, presenting some practical remedial works done by TBG at Bolivia-Brazil Natural Gas Pipeline as well as the integrity plan and the adopted actions in way to prevent geotechnical accidents.

Jan 1, 2005

By A. Mykytiuk, I. E. Puddington, W. D. Macleod, F. W. Meadus

"A laboratory-scale continuous procedure for the up-grading of naturally occurring tin ores, based on the principle of spherical agglomeration, is described. High recoveries are indicated. A proposed second stage suggests useful fractionation steps.IntroductionA LABORATORY-SCALE batch process for the upgrading of a tin ore using the principles of spherical agglomeration has already been described (1). This procedure consisted of milling, for about an hour, a precrushed ore with at least 200 per cent water, 0.2 per cent of a reagent such as tall oil (to render the de-sired ore particles hydrophobic) and about 3 per cent of a viscous petroleum oil. The feed material passed an 8-mesh Tyler sieve, and the percentages of re-agents are based on the dry weight of the feed. Du-ring the grinding, the hydrophobic particles transfer into the oil phase to produce coherent semi-solid bodies while the gangue stays preferentially in the aqueous phase. The concentrate can be separated from the gangue easily by a mechanical operation. Using an ore containing about 0.3 -0.5 per cent tin, grades of from 1.5 to 7.0 per cent were obtained by varying the pH of the system. Recoveries fell from about 80 per cent to as low as 50 per cent as the grade in-creased."

Jan 1, 1966

By D. B. Apel

As depths to the ore bodies keep increasing around the globe, the problem how to deal with the increasing temperature of undisturbed rock mass becomes very important. In extreme cases the rock temperature at the bottom of the mine could raise up to 80 °C. In deep mines, geothermal heat is considered as the primary heat load contributor, which accounts for 50?90% of the total heat load depending on different geological conditions. Thus the geothermal heat control in underground mines is the most important and demanding issue to ensure a suitable working environment. In this study, expanded perlite aggregate (EPA) was incorporated as a lightweight substitute for sand. Five mixtures were prepared using 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% replacement ratios of sand by EPA. These, mixtures were tested in the laboratory for both the insulating and strength properties of the developed shotcrete. The goal of this research was not only to develop shotcrete which would exhibit good insulating properties but also which would exhibit strength properties similar to the regular shotcrete. This paper not only reports the results of the laboratory tests but also discusses the output of numerical model which was performed to evaluate the benefits of using the insulating shotcrete in reducing the cooling costs at hot underground mines.

Aug 1, 2013

By M. J. Nicol

The leaching of gold with thiosulfate solutions in the absence of ammonia and copper ions was investigated using electrochemical and kinetic methods. In sodium thiosulfate solutions, the electrochemical oxidation of gold was hindered and the leaching rate using pure oxygen as the oxidant was very slow. It was found that the addition of a small amount of thiourea or formamidine disulfide to the thiosulfate solution greatly enhanced the oxidation of gold. However, the enhancement to the overall dissolution of gold using dissolved oxygen as the oxidant was limited. This was attributed to the fact that the oxygen reduction process was unaffected by the additives and remained slow, which limited further improvement to the overall kinetics. An alternative oxidant, the ferric EDTA complex having a reduction potential of approximately 0.12 V, was found to be promising. The cathodic reduction of ferric EDTA was fast and reversible at neutral pH. While the ferric EDTA complex was effective in oxidizing gold, it did not appear to significantly oxidize thiosulfate. A thiosulfate solution containing thiourea and ferric EDTA has been shown to quickly dissolve gold in the form of a powder as well as from gold ores. In the leaching with the ores high gold recoveries of above 90% was achieved with the best performance obtained in neutral solutions (pH 6-7).

Jan 1, 2005

By R. E. Whitehead

"Abstract - Alkali-alumina and MgO-alumina plots are an effective instrument for displaying chemical and mineralogical compositions of altered and unaltered rhyolites and rhyodacites. They reveal that most supposedly unaltered rhyolites, apart from those of Cenozoic age, have undergone losses in Na2O and gains in K2O. The extreme loss of Na2O from highly altered rhyolites immediately adjacent to VMS deposits is strikingly illustrated by alkali-alumina plots. MgO/Al2O3 vs. K2O/Al2O3 diagrams display a strong negative correlation between MgO and K2O that results from the conversion of sericite to chlorite. A similar negative correlation between MgO and whole-rock d18O is apparent on plots of these two parameters. Alkali-alumina plots underscore problems in selecting appropriate precursor compositions required for mass-balance calculations. Molar ratio plots are a viable alternative to such calculations. Sommaire -Les diagrammes alcali-alumine et MgO-alumine constituent un instrument efficace pour la représentation des compositions chimiques et minéralogiques des rhyolites et rhyodacites altérées et fraîches.Ces diagrammes révèlent qu’à l'exception de celles d’âge Cénozoïque, la plupart des rhyolites qualifiées de fraîches ont subi une perte de Na2O et un gain de K2O. L’intense perte en Na2O que l’on note dans les rhyolites fortement altérées associées aux gîtes de type SMV est particulièrement bien mise en évidence par le diagramme alcali-alumine. Le diagramme MgO/Al2O3 vs. K2O/Al2O3 montre une forte corrélation inverse entre le MgO et le K2O due à la conversion de la séricite en chlorite. Une corrélation inverse analogue entre le MgO et le d18O de la roche totale s’observe sur un graphe comparant ces deux paramètres. L’usage du diagramme alcali-alumine fait ressortir combien il peut être difficile de choisir un précurseur de composition appropriée pour des calculs de balance de masse. Les diagrammes de rapport molaire constituent une alternative à de tels calculs."

Jan 1, 2006

By François Charette

High stress conditions in weak rock masses lead to large deformation and breakdown of the rock material, while stress release events in hard rock mines can lead to sudden and usually violent rock failure. Typical support systems combine various reinforcement and support mechanisms to provide the required convergence control and retainment, but results are often mitigated by failure of surface liners, shotcrete and tendons. The paper reviews differing requirements of support and reinforcement for different failure types. In addition, the mechanical performance of a new reinforcing tendon is presented and analysed in view of the field requirements. Field tests results are presented.

May 1, 2011

By E. Best

In 2003, Phelps Dodge Mining Company decided to pursue the design and construction of a Central Analytical Laboratory to provide chemical analyses for their Arizona and New Mexico operations. This centralized approach was selected in place of refurbishing six (6) older laboratories that operated at the various Phelps Dodge sites, and which would not have permitted full automation and use of robotics. The new lab was designed by the Process Technology Center (PTC) Material Characterization Group in cooperation with IMP Group. The Central Analytical Service Center (CASC) encompasses fully automated sample preparation of blast holes and geological samples weighing up to 15 kg/sample. The CASC also includes the first "wet chemistry module" worldwide to be operated by robotics systems to perform Total Cu, Acid Soluble Cu, and Quick Leach Tests (QLT), and a fully automated lab for electrowon copper cathode. The new lab also offers flexibility for handling specialty samples and analyses by either semi-automated or manual mode. Data handling and transfer is accomplished using the commercially available StarLIMS system. Commissioning was accomplished within five (5) months of startup during which the CASC also handled 86% of a full production load. The 24/7 lab operation has already exceeded its design capacity, has achieved considerable savings in operating cost, reduced sample preparation errors, and significantly increased analytical quality.

Jan 1, 2007

The Cadia mine is shifting from the open pit operation to the Cadia East underground block cave. The resulting increase in milled tonnes and the decrease in fines production through shifting to block caving require an increase of over 25% in installed power. This expansion is being accomplished via the installation of up-front crushing and HPGR milling of the ore, with the SAG mill receiving a secondary crushed feed. This design, criteria and rationale for selection is presented. Over the coming years, the mine will further expand capacity. The target is to accomplish this with minimal addition of installed power or use of fresh water. This presents a challenge that epitomizes the future constraints on our resource dependent and intensive industry. The approach and proposed options to this longer-term expansion are also presented.

Jan 1, 2012

By D. J. MacDonald

UNDERGROUND development at the Lynn Lake property of Sherritt Gordon Mines, Limited, was begun in 1948 with the sinking of the A shaft in the area of the A orebody. By June, 1949, the shaft was completed to a depth of 1,024 feet. Twelve stations were cut, with the bottom level at 992 feet below the collar. Since completion of the shaft, lateral work has been carried out on the 12th level in order to expose the known orebodies and to provide openings from which deeper exploration could be conducted. Dur¬ing the change-over from sinking to lateral work, preliminary diamond drilling was done from the 12th level station to locate the A? ore-body. Later, drilling was carried out from the 5th and 9th level sta-tions, where, also, the outline of the A orebody was established. As the work progressed on the 12th level, and with the commence-ment of drilling below that level, the geological picture was found to be complicated by numerous faults. Instead of operating two drills it became necessary to use at least four. The original plans had provided air sufficient to drive two headings and to operate two diamond drills. The addition of two more air-driven drills resulted in a serious shortage of power.

Jan 1, 1951

By H. Son

The three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of as-built industrial plant models plays an important role in revamping planning, maintenance planning, and preparation for dismantling during the lifecycle of industrial plants. Recently, the 3D reconstruction of existing industrial plants was conducted using laserscan data to make surveying processes more efficient. However, the current 3D reconstruction process from laser-scan data is still limited due to the need for significant human assistance. Although a great deal of effort has been made to efficiently reconstruct 3D as-built industrial plant models, the presence of objects?such as equipment, pipelines, and valves of different sizes and shapes?in existing industrial plants significantly increases the complexity of laser-scan data and makes automating the reconstruction process more challenging in practice. The purpose of this study is to propose a knowledge-based approach for the 3D reconstruction of as-built industrial plant models from unstructured laser-scan data. First, pipelines were extracted from laser-scan data based on surface curvature information and knowledge about pipelines' sizes from existing piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID). Once entire pipelines were extracted, they were modeled based on skeleton features. Then, the remaining objects were clustered and grouped separately via the region grouping process. Afterward, clustered objects were retrieved and modeled based on global feature-based matching from the 3D database. Finally, the resulting model was checked to ensure that it was well-reconstructed according to the information regarding the relationships among objects abstracted from the existing P&ID. The preliminary results on actual industrial plants show that integrating knowledge into the reconstruction steps played an important role in the proposed approach and that this approach obtained accurate as-built industrial plant models from unstructured laser-scan data. The proposed approach could be successfully utilized to assist in many applications during the lifecycle of industrial plants.

Aug 1, 2013

By M. Tardif, F. L. -Lavoie, M. Ruel

"In mineral processing, it is often very difficult to reliably measure several key operation variables. The harsh environment and high temperature encountered in pyrometallurgy processes lead to some difficulties when selecting the instruments, valves and actuators. If an important variable cannot be measured or manipulated adequately, controlling it can really become a big challenge. Sometimes, it is simply impossible to find the perfect equipment for the task. To help overcome these difficulties, a different approach is required. This approach will not correct the inherent problems related to the instruments and valves, but will cope with these problems. This article will demonstrate how modern process control techniques can be used to solve complex problems while remaining easy to implement. In this article we will described how soft sensors and multivariable fuzzy logic control were implemented at Koniambo Nickel to stabilize the furnace feed and allow for safe and reliable operation of an 80 MW DC arc furnace.INTRODUCTION Process Overview The process plant at Koniambo Nickel SAS is located in the North Province of New Caledonia, 310 km north of Noumea. The nickel-bearing ore is mined in the nearby Koniambo massif. After being screened and crushed, the ore is transported to the processing plant using a 12 km conveyor. After stacking in two blending piles, the ore, containing 2.3% nickel, is fed to the processing plant where it will go through the NST process (Nickel Smelting Technology) before being sent to refining and shotting. This article will focus on the improvement to control of the NST processes. The first steps of this process consist of milling the ore and removing all moisture through calcining (Figure 1)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Michael McClintock, Bern Klein

"The high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) is a relatively new comminution technology that is gaining popularity for providing energy efficient solution to hard rock mining operations. A significant barrier to increased adoption of HPGRs is the present requirement for large amounts (excess of 2 tonnes) of sample for pilot testing, which may not be possible for most early stage projects. Three methodologies have been developed at NBK Institute of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia that may be used for sizing design optimization of HPGR circuits. All three methodologies use a MTS pistonpress to simulate HPGR comminution. These tests are capable of providing information regarding energy consumption, energy breakage relationship, reduction ratio, and product size distributions. In a period of slow economic development, these methodologies are critical to allow the industry to cost effectively understand the operational benefits of HPGR implementation. This paper examines previous test work done at UBC, as well as the development of an HPGR and piston press database for use in sizing and budgeting of HPGR circuits.INTRODUCTIONCurrently, the mining industry faces several challenges due to falling commodity prices and escalating costs. This has applied pressure for operations and projects to reduce costs and improve project economics. In addition engineering and metallurgical budgets have shrunk as companies try to conserve cash. Improvements and optimization of milling and comminution circuits is one area project economics may be significantly improved. By considering alternative comminution technologies such as the high pressure grinding roll (HPGR), energy operating costs may be greatly lowered. Many have begun to implement HPGR crushing as an alternative to semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills, including KGHM and, Sierra Gorda, and Freeport Mc-MoRan’s Cerro Verde operation. However, implementing new technology for companies with little or no HPGR experience may not be practical. An operator must consider both feasibility and economics of a circuit. Currently, consideration of the HPGR requires expensive pilot scale testing for which large sample sizes are needed. In addition, few laboratories are equipped for running pilot scale HPGR test programs. Furthermore, the results of pilot HPGR testing are dependent on the quality of the sample, which cannot represent variations across a deposit. In contrast, ball mills and SAG mills can be sized using the Bond Mill Work Indexes that require a small amount of sample which enable a number of different geological blocks to be tested to allow engineers to have a complete understanding of how the comminution circuit will perform for the life of mine."

Jan 1, 2016

By Wm. L. Giachino

"Over the last 10 years, C-1-L has played a significant role in the major advances that have taken place in blasting technology, among them the following: development and introduction of capsensitive slurries; development of bulk slurry systems both for underground and open-pit operations; development of the TOE-DET and ANODET systems of delay blasting;introduction of the NONEL system of initiation;development of the Vertical Crater Retreat (VCR) system of mining.This paper identifies areasin which we foresee further developments in blasting technology over the next 10 years and outlines how and to what extent C-1-L will become involved."

Jan 1, 1980

By A. Mehinrad, F. Rafia

"The Dez River flows from the Zagros Mountains into the great Khuzestan plain, Southwest of Iran. The 203 m high Dez Dam is a double curvature thin concrete arch dam, with a Pulvino, founded on thick bedded to massive conglomerate of Bakhtiary Formation, mainly horizontal and very less jointed at the dam site. Construction work was completed in 1963, creating a reservoir with a total storage volume of 3’315 million m3. The dam body, with some 350’000 m3 volume and (W/H=1.1/1.0), is the dominant feature of the project.Geological and geotechnical studies at the dam site started in 1957 and continued during the whole period of dam construction. Simultaneously, two extensive programs of laboratory testing were carried out in New York and Milan.Most of the results were recorded in the project design documents and in two very well-known papers of Talobre et. al. (1964) and Dodds (1966), however, no detail results are available for most of tests.In order to estimate geomechanical parameters of the rock mass foundation for numerical modeling of the dam body and its foundation, reassessment of the in-situ and laboratory test results using the recent rock mechanics methods was required.This paper explains how the outcomes of those tests, performed more than 50 years ago, were reevaluated and how the definitions and parameters presented in the project reports were re-interpreted using the recent rock mechanics concepts and definitions. Also, the results of classification of Bakhtiary conglomerate using GSI system and application of Hoek & Brown failure criterion for estimating rock mass parameters have been described.INTRODUCTIONThe Dez River flows from its headwaters in the Zagros Mountains into the great Khuzestan plain. Just before entering the plane, the river passes through a narrow, steep gorge that is about 17 km long. The Dez Dam is located at the entrance to this gorge, some25-km upstream of the city of Dezful and 150-km upstream from the provincial capital Ahwaz (Figure 1)."

Jan 1, 2015