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By D. B. Nazzer

"ANY DISCUSSION of energy today is incomplete without consideration of nuclear energy. In the Maritimes, with plentiful supplies of coal, with relatively easy availabilty of imported oil brought in to the deepwater terminals, with future sources of large supplies of oil and gas anticipated from under our neighbouring continental shelf, and with the Fundy tides, you may question why nuclear energy should be considered. What follows may not give you a specific answer to that question, but it may provide a basis for better understanding. Energy from the sun, from hydraulic sources and from combustion has been available to man from prehistoric times, for thousands of years, but the most sophisticated source of energy, the actual conversion of matter into energy by man, has been developed entirely within the last one-third century, since the discovery of fission in 1939, and the application to generation of electric power has all been done within a generation or less. The pressure of military needs during and after the second world war was largely responsible for the speed of initial development, by funding and focussing the effort needed to develop the basic technology, and in particular materials. The U.S. defence program yielded, for example, the large-scale isotope separation processes for fissile U'35 and for heavy water. The nuclear submarine program yielded zircaloy, a key structural material for the core of the Canadian Candu type reactor."

Jan 1, 1972

By Vahid Faghihi

SatraPM is a web-based software package, aiming to help project managers to easily handle their construction projects via internet. This software is capable of handling all projects of an organization, in which all projects can be defined in EPS the same as users in OBS. A 3D accessing module links EPS, OBS and inherent functions in order to provide a secure environment for the data to be processed throughout the system. This paper intends to take a deeper look at capabilities of SatraPM in helping project managers to keep track of and control their construction projects as well as its potential future features.

Aug 1, 2013

By T. A. Lazier, C. S. Longley

"Paymaster Consolidated Mines, Limited, owns several groups of claims in various parts of the Porcupine district. The area in which mining has been carried on includes parts of lots 5, 6, and 7, con. 1, Tisdale township, and twelve adjoining claims in Deloro township to the south. Highway No. 67A between South Porcupine and Timmins crosses the property.The discovery of the Dome mine in 1909 caused a rush of prospectors to the district and in a few weeks practically all territory adjacent to the Dome was staked. At that time work was started on the West Dome, West Dome Lake, Apex, and Standard properties. These were consolidated in 1930 to form the present Company. Gold was produced from the West Dome Lake from 1915 to 1930, and from the Standard-Paymaster from 1922 to 1928. The total production of the previous and present companies from 1915 to November 30, 1946, has been 487,170 oz. gold and 149,342 oz. silver from 2,337,554 tons of ore."

Jan 1, 1954

By John Loui Porathur

Highwall Mining has been recently introduced in India. The first Continuous Highwall Mining extraction in India started operating at Ramagundem Opencast Project-II (OC-II) of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) in December 2010. A new hybrid empirical and numerical modelling approach has been devised to design web pillars for the initial Highwall Mining sites in India, considering the complex geology, such as existence of thick seams and multiple seams in close proximity. This paper gives the scientific elucidation of a comprehensive design methodology adopted for the above mentioned Indian Highwall Mining sites. The design technology includes web pillar design for multiple seams using hybrid empirical and numerical methods, slope stability assessment, ground movement monitoring, and recommendations for conducting blasting operations in the vicinity of Highwall Mining extractions.

Aug 1, 2013

By B. S. Prosser, K. G. Wallace, A. Akansobe

"This paper describes a ventilation project at the Wassa gold mine in Ghana. Golden Star (Wassa) (GSWL), a subsidiary of Golden Star Resources, owns and operates the mine. Golden Star holds a 90% interest in GSWL, while the Ghanaian Government holds the remaining 10% ownership, earning a 5% royalty on the gross revenue of GSWL’s gold production. Construction of the underground mine began in mid-2015 and pre-commercial production started in June 2016. Commercial production from the underground mine was achieved in January 2017. This paper describes the ventilation studies performed to support the initial development and production at the mine. The initial ventilation design included four, parallel surface exhaust fans. Future designs will include booster fans, new primary fans, and additional connections to surface. The paper describes the long-term ventilation planning goals and expectations as the mine achieves a production of 4,000 tpd with truck haulage to surface.INTRODUCTIONThe Wassa Gold Mine is located in the southern portion of the Ashanti Greenstone Gold Belt in Ghana, northwest of Tarkwa as shown in Figure 1. The mine has been in production as an open pit since 1998, with some minor disruptions, but the surface minable reserves have become exhausted and the mine started a transition to an underground operation in 2015. The underground mine was initially developed with twin decline accesses extending from the base of the open pit to the mining areas. The mining method selected was sub-level open stoping with cemented rock backfill. The original production level for the mine was 2,500 tpd with ore and waste transported by trucks hauling in the ramps to surface. In 2017 the production goal was set to increase to approximately 4,000 tpd. This resulted in an increase in the truck haulage fleet in addition to a significant increase in ventilation requirements. This paper describes the ventilation upgrades at the mine as it transitioned from a surface to an underground operation and the adjustments the ventilation system needed to make in order to accommodate a significant increase in production"

Jan 1, 2019

By G. J. Govett

THE RESERVES of industrial minerals of the Western Plains are probably several times more valunable than all the known deposits of metallic minerals of the Canadian Shield, though sharing little of the latter's popular appeal. Because of comparatively low value per unit weight or volume, an adequate and accessible supply of industrial minerals is essential for the full development of any territory; assessment of the value of deposits should consider fully the proximity to cheap transportation, and existing and potential markets. Production statistics of industrial minerals are probably a more reliable guide to economic development than, for example, those of petroleum, and the relative importance of industrial minerals increases with growth of the population. The development of a high-volume natural deposit such as petroleum naturally favours an increase in population, and thus industrial minerals form an integral part of an expanding industrial economy. This situation is clearly demonstrated by the relationsl1ips of industrial minerals production, petroleum production, and population growth, in Alberta (Figure 1).

Jan 1, 1959

By R. B. Fermor

"The tyndalloscope is used in Europe for dust-hazard assessments in both coal and metal mines. Dust-hazard conditions can be directly evaluated by the tyndalloscope in many underground working situations, once the basic standard table or tables have been prepared from representative mine-rock samples.The tyndalloscope is excellent, in many cases, for diagnostic dust sampling during a working shift, because individual readings can be taken to within three-minute intervals. The limitations of the tyndalloscope are also discussed.The author suggests that a combination of both the tyndalloscope and gravimetric sampling methods would be an ideal match for most mine dust-hazard assessments."

Jan 1, 1970

From 1999 to 2008 rock related accidents accounted for 75 fatalities, nearly 6,000 injuries and almost 14,000 incidents (Pappas and Mark, 2011). Clearly this shows that rock related safety on coal mines remains a serious issue and more effort is needed to address this hazard. This paper reviews support design considerations and monitoring needed to improve rock related safety in room and pillar coal mines in the USA. From the present study design considerations continue to evolve and improvements in technology and a better understanding of failure mechanisms and methods to prevent these failures from occurring are in place. At first glance, the design of safe and efficient underground openings appears simple until the designer begins to realize the complexities and variability of geometries, geology, loading and stress influences, support designs and other factors such as corrosion and economics. Ultimately the goal of all designs is to ensure that it can be completed safely, last for the duration of the design life and it is economically feasible.

Aug 1, 2013

By L. H. McKay

Tailing Dams Three types of dam have been structed to impound tailings from the Allenby mill: 1.- By classifier unit 2.- By earth dam 3.- By direct deposition of tailings The first type, which includes two dams, was built across a shallow valley which sloped down to Similkameen river, just below the mill site. Two earth embankments, one below the other, were built across the valley. Tailings were then piped to Akins classifiers mounted on wooden wheels. The classifiers were set up at one side of the valley and gradually moved ahead on the sand embankment created by the sand discharge from these classifiers, the slime overflow going to settli.ng ponds formed by the dams. Decanting wells were built in the settling ponds by placing four six-by-six timbers vertically in the ground, two feet apart, to which two-by-six tongue-and-groove boards were nailed. The elevations of the ponds were raised, as required, by nailing additional two-by-six boards on the well and bolting on more six-by-six timbers when required. The bottoms of the wells were attached to a covered launder made of three-inch lumber laid on a one per cent grade. This launder carried the overflow through the dam. The second type of dam was built across a long, narrow valley, known as Hitchen's Flat, the upper ~n d of which was about 2½ miles north of the mill. This valley, an ideal tailings site, was 4,000 feet long and from 600 to 800 feet wide. An earth embankment with a concrete spillway through the top was built approximately 28 feet high across the lower end of this valley. Tailings were then dumped into the upper end of valley, with no further expense until the basin was filled up to the level of the flume where this entered the valley. When the upper end of the valley was filled to this point there was still room for more tailings at the lower end. Therefore, a pump was installed to elevate the tailings to build a wall around the upper end of the valley by depositing sands from a launder built up on 20 foot supports and sloping both ways from the pumping station around the upper end of the basin.

Jan 1, 1950

By F. McGravie, S. T. Solinski, W. W. Robertson

During this, the Centennial year of the discovery of the Hall-Heroult process, it seems appropriate to review some of the developments which have taken place in Canada and to explain why it has become an important world centre for the production of primary aluminum. For many years after it was recognized that the element aluminum existed, scientists were frustrated in their efforts to isolate it. In the early 1800s H. C. Oersted and Frederick Woehler prepared small quantities sufficient to measure some of the physical properties. A quasi-commercial process involving reduction with metallic sodium was developed by the French scientist H. St. Claire Deville in 1855 but the cost was very high ($30. 00 per kg). It was not until 1886 that Charles Martin Hall in the United States and P.L.T. Heroult in France, more or less simultaneously but completely independently, discovered the process which is essentially that in use today. Some of the early pioneers in the industry quickly recognized the potential of the hydro-electric resources in Canada as economic energy suppliers for aluminum production. The first commercial production in Canada was in Shawinigan, Quebec in 1901, only 15 years after the process was discovered. Subsequently operating plants were established at nine different locations in Canada (Quebec and British Columbia) (Table 1). Operations continue today in all locations except one (La Tuque). The table shows present plant capacity which for the older plants was reached in an evolutionary manner including replacement of obsolete capacity or upgrading and modernization of existing designs.

Jan 1, 1999

By W. I. van Drunick

The Anglogold Ashanti (AGA) Navachab single stage SAG mill has provided an excellent setting for incremental optimization. Over the past decades, several interventions have resulted in marked improvements in specific performance; including steel ball scat removal, re-design of the mill lifters, replacement the pebble crusher and cyclone cluster, as well as the use of a vibrating screen in place of a discharge trommel. Recent initiatives now include an operating fine DMS circuit, studies on pre-crushing of the ROM feed and also fine-screening as an alternative to hydrocyclone classification. The current optimized state of the Navachab mill allows it to operate at approximately 20% higher efficiency when compared to mills of similar shell dimensions in gold mining, treating similar ore. This paper describes the systematic improvement of the SAG circuit to its current state.

Jan 1, 2012

By Daniel Murray

"ACCIDENT PREVENTION in and around coal mines presents many problems of a type which are not encountered in any other industry. This is particularly true of the coal mines in Nova Scotia, where the underground workings are very extensive and the area of exposure to workmen is very great.Roof conditions at the coal faces and in the waste change very rapidly, almost from hour to hour, and it is at these places that the greatest dangers exist and where most mine accidents occur. It is only natural, therefore, that our attention, as far as accident prevention is concerned, should be concentrated •at the coal faces and in the waste, especially in mines where the longwall system is used in the operation •of the seam.It has been said that no hard and fast rules can be set down for timbering at the coal faces and in the waste in the coal mines in this area. We do not subscribe to this theory, however, for the following reasons:On the longwall faces in No. 18 Colliery of the Dominion Coal Company, Limited, where the 'Dosco Miner' has been in operation and where there is a very rigid system of timbering and roof supports, which is strictly followed, only one compensable accident has occurred on those faces from May 2ndJ 1950, to the time of writing this paper, February 3rd, 1953.The 'Dosco Miner' has worked on four different longwall faces in this mine and has mined and loaded some hundreds of thousands of tons of coal."

Jan 1, 1953

By W. Hardtke, B. Perry

Model reconciliation problems at the low-grade, high-nugget Phoenix gold-copper deposit led to an examination of the influence of production decisions on ore-waste classification. A conditional simulation study of the deposit was used as the basis for: 1) quantification of dilution at different bench heights, 2) quantification of ore-waste misclassification relative to bench heights and cut-off wades, and 3) determination of an appropriate number of samples to optimize ore-control polygon definition. Actual reconciliation data were empirically used to support conclusions. Simulations of both gold and copper were combined through net revenue modelling. These simulations increased understanding of the nature of the deposit and provided insight for resource modeling and mine planning.

Jan 1, 2011

By M. A. Hararah, T. Neesse, M. G. Farghaly, G. Proellss, P. Kaniut, W. Rubarth

ABSTRACT: This paper presents two new options for hydrocyclone control. Volume split control using a control valve in the overflow is applied for the stabilization of separation results at changing feed conditions. Controlled water injection to the conical part of the cyclone leads to the reduction of fine particles in the underflow. Hydrocyclone monitoring in both cases is performed by optical sensors that indicate the spray angle of the underflow. Applications in mineral processing for desliming, classification in closed-circuit grinding, and dewatering are demonstrated.

Jan 1, 2011

By A. E. Cameron

The theory of atomic distribution of the stranger atoms in the space lattice of the solvent metal has been well developed by Rosenhain. It has long been known that the addition of one metal to another to form a solid solution increases the strength and hardness of the solvent metal. This increase is practically proportional to the amount of added substance up to the limit of solid solubility. To account for this increase in hardness and strength, Rosenhain assumes that the stranger atoms occupy positions on the solvent metal space lattice. Atomic attractions about the stranger atoms will not be the same as in the case of the pure metal, and there will thus be a disturbance of the orderly arrangement of the atoms on the space lattice, or a distortion of the lattice. Such a disturbance would interfere with the ease of slip along the planes and would thus tend to promote strength and hardness. Rosenhain notes that not only may there be a local disturbance of the lattice about the stranger atom but there may well be also a measurable change in the dimensions of the lattice as a whole. The relative amounts of local and general distortion of the lattice will depend upon the nature of the lattice itself. As Rosenhain says, "If the lattice is comparatively soft and flexible the distortion is likely to be largely local. In a stiff lattice, however, local distortion will be resisted and there will be a correspondingly increased general distortion."

Jan 1, 1927

By M. Aushouri, S. H. Mansouri, N. Aminizadeh

A thermo-chemical model of the Peirce-Smith copper converter in blowing the copper stage has been developed to predict the molten temperature. The key assumption of the model was that white metal and gas phases in the converter were in thermal and chemical equilibrium. In this model, the chemical reaction of white metal and oxygen was accomplished completely. So long as sulfur existed in the bath, the generation of Cu2O was frozen. The reaction rate was considered to be constant and controlled by the reacted sulfur. The converter temperature was calculated by heat balances over time. The model was validated by a detailed comparison with measured industrial data. A good agreement was obtained. The converter temperature depended on process parameters such as oxygen efficiency, molten emissivity and oxygen enrichment.

Jan 1, 2007

By Rhual L. Guerguerian

MINING has been practised by mankind for over sixty centuries (1). In 1876, the "ball mill" was patented, and during the century that followed rotary grinding developed to the state where individual machines are treating tens of thousands of tons of ore per day. This paper gives a brief description of design practices prior to the availability of advanced facilities, followed by modern analytical design development at Dominion over the past ten years.

Jan 1, 1978

By T. Patching

"A GLANCE BACK AT what has happened in the past is often a useful guide to the future, although it should be used mainly to provide a sense of direction rather than a map that must be followed. As a preamble to discussing some of the questions posed by the organizing committee it may be appropriate to briefly review the distribution and careers of the graduates of our Department since the first degree in mining engineering was awarded in 1916. An attempt has been made to keep a record of the locations and careers of the Department's 540 graduates in mining and metallurgical engineering. Almost all of those who graduated before 1930 have now retired, but a very large proportion held positions as senior executives prior to retirement. A major proportion of those who graduated before 1950 are now in what might be considered senior management positions. Those who have 10 to 20 years of experience are generally in work of senior engineering responsibility or in supervisory or junior management ranks, while those who graduated in the last ten years appear to be generally in staff engineering or junior supervisory positions. This classification is admittedly imprecise because it is difficult to determine from a job description whether duties should be considered of an engineering or management nature - a distinction between the two terms is often over-emphasized. Nevertheless, the trend from technical engineering to management responsibilities with seniority and years of experience is clear in the careers that we have been able to follow."

Jan 1, 1972

By Jared Onyirimba, Jim Viellenave, Hal Demuth, Dale Verran, Chad Sorba, Errol Lawrence, David Bronkhorst

As outlined within the Denison Mines Corp’s (“Denison”) Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") completed in late 2018, additional work is required to increase confidence and reduce risk associated with the application of the In-Situ Recovery (“ISR”) mining method at the Phoenix deposit, located on the Wheeler River Uranium Project (“Wheeler River” or the “Project”) in northern Saskatchewan. The successful application of ISR in any geological environment largely hinges on three fundamental requirements, 1) permeability (of the deposit), 2) containment (of the mining solution) and 3) leachability (of the mineralization). Denison has designed several staged technical programs to progressively reduce risk associated with these requirements as the Company advances the Project toward a Feasibility Study (“FS”) and Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”). This paper will discuss the scope and results of certain technical programs being undertaken as the Company aims to develop the first ISR mining operation in the Athabasca Basin.

Jan 1, 2020

By Jim Richard

Introduction Electric Vehicle Controllers (EVC) and the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) have created two generations of Lunar Highland Simulant ?Simulant preparation techniques and equipment resulted from drilling activities in support of Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatiles Extraction (RESOLVE ) ?The purpose of defining the compaction process was to minimize the effect of density on drill testing This allowed other variables including drill bit geometry, auger, RPM, and thrust to be evaluated independent of density ?Density of Highland Regolith falls within a range of 1.40 to 2.29 g/cm3 (p484 Lunar Source Book)

May 1, 2013