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By L. G. Austin

The procedure for scaling breakage parameters determined in a laboratory mill to values for a full-scale mill is briefly presented. A simulation model of a closed circuit mill also requires a model of residence time distribution, a mass transfer law to predict over-filling as a function of flow rate through the mill, and a model to describe classification action. For fine dry grinding, or viscous slurry grinding, it is necessary to allow for slowing-down of breakage rates for a fine mill charge. Four examples of comparing simulation models to actual plant data are presented. The first is wet grinding of copper ore in normal closed circuit at 50 tph (metric) production, under conditions where the mill does not overfill. The second is the wet grinding of copper ore in reversed closed circuit at production of 87, 102 and 108 tph, with flow through the mill of approximately 150, 200 and 300 tph. The third is dry grinding of coal with a hot air sweeping stream to remove all of the coal as air-borne material, in open and normal closed circuit. The fourth is grinding of cement clinker in a two-compartment, air-swept tube mill in normal closed circuit with two different classifiers, producing 120 tph of 3250 Blaine cement. In all cases the simulated capacities and product size distributions were in reasonable agreement with actual plant performance.

Jan 1, 1984

By D. W. Brunton

The erection of large metallurgical establishments for the treatment of gold, silver, copper, and lead-ores, at railroad arid topographical centers, where fuel and fluxes, together with proper oremixtures, can be cheaply and constantly obtained at all seasons of the year, has led to the very general introduction of a system of ore-handling known as "public sampling." By this system the ore, instead of being shipped direct to the mill or smelter, is sent to a public sampler, where it is crushed and sampled. Guaranteed samples are sent to the different metallurgical establishments, and the ore is then sold to the highest bidder. Though differing in many respects from the English system of "ticketing," the underlying principle is nearly the same, while the greater rapidity with which a lot of ore can be disposed of renders

Jan 1, 1885

By Fearnsides W. G.

Discussion at the The Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers' general meeting held in Doncaster on 27th May 1916, on the paper published in Trans. I.Min.E., vol.LI, 1916, p.409-448, included oral contributions by Lupton A. on the mechanisms of subsidence and water egress and by Kendall P.F. on the validity and accuracy of the contour extrapolation technique and the effect of major faults, together with the author's response

Dec 1, 1916

By S. C. Brown

A number of studies have suggested that microscale asperities enhance bubble-particle attachment efficiency; however, in practice the roughening of particulate surfaces can also lead to a decrease in flotation. In the present investigation, it is proposed that nanoscale asperities may be partially responsible for this phenomenon. It is suggested that as inter-asperity separation distances are reduced capillary effects are enhanced leading to the formation of stable liquid domains, which adversely impact bubble-particle adhesion. In addition, obstruction of surfactant self-assembly may occur, further limiting flotation.

Jan 1, 2003

By S. C. Schaefer

Thermodynamic properties of indium oxide (In203) have been studied with a high-temperature galvanic cell employing stabilized zirconia electrolytes. In the temperature range 790° to 1,230° K the free-energy change for the cell reaction 21n(1) + 3Cu20(c) = In203(c) + 6Cu(c) together with the standard free energy of formation of cuprous oxide gives the standard free energy of formation of indium oxide from the elements as ?Gf° = -218.78 + 75.34 X 10-3T ±0.7 kcal/mole. A third-law analysis yields the standard enthalpy of formation: ?Hf°298.15 = -221.5 kcal/mole.

Jan 1, 1971

By B. Ozturk, K. Ito, R. J. Fruehan

"A simulation model for bath smelting processes for the production of iron was developed which predicts the coal, flux, ore, and oxygen consumptions and the off gas volume, temperature and composition. The model is comprehensive in that it takes into account all of the important variables including coal composition, metal composition, ore composition, slag basicity, post combustion ratio, (PCR), prereduction degree (PRO), heat transfer coefficient (HTC) , flux, scrap charge, and heat losses. Four basic cases were considered: I. 30% PRO-50% PCR; II. 90% PRO-O% PCR; III. 60% PRO-30% PCR; and IV. 0% PRO-50% PCR. Several different coals were considered and a sensitivity analysis of the critical variables was performed. The model also estimates the sulfur content of the metal. The major conclusions included:1. Post combustion significantly reduces coal consumption but above 20% PCR little reduction of FeO to Fe can be performed with the off gas.2. Prereducing to FeO (Case I) and having as much post combustion as consistent with good heat transfer is an attractive process. This process only requires a simple pre reducer, uses less coal, and is relatively insensitive to the type of coal used.3. High off gas temperatures may pose a potential problem. The off gas temperature can be reduced by using an 02-Air mixture for post combustion, limiting post combustion or adding water to the gas.4. The use of CaC03 in place of CaO or of supplemental electricity does not appear attractive.5. The melting unit is theoretically an energy efficient scrap melter. For Case I using 200 kg of scrap as part of the charge the coal consumption decreases by about 80 kg.6. With PCR > 30% the FeO content of the slag is expected to be 2-5%, and the metal will not be saturated with carbon. These factors and the increased sulfur load since coal is the fuel indicate the sulfur content of the metal may exceed 0.25%"

Jan 1, 1988

By Myers PA, Noble MR, Lawrence JS, Cannings WR

The Perseverance orebody presents the Agnew Mine with a wide variety of geological settings, necessitating the application of several mining methods within the limited strike length being extracted.Mining methods have been introduced and modified during the six years' production history of the property and that evolutionary process remains very active.The methods used, in use or planned, are:Hand held scraper cut and fill Hand held mechanical cut and fill Post pillar cut and fillOpen Stoping (uphole benching) Modified vertical crater retreat Sub-level caving

Jan 1, 1985

By Alex Heath, Andrew Barycki, Baladron. Javier

"Efficient flocculation is important to thickener performance, affecting the overflow clarity, solids settling flux, underflow density and operability. Many factors affect flocculation; from the material/flocculant type, dilution of the feed and flocculant solution, mixing, to the shear rate and shear history. The flocculant addition point (or points) can be used as a tuning method to alter the effective flocculation time in a feedwell, with addition further up the feed pipe increasing the residence time but making the aggregates more prone to breakup if they experience high shear later in the process. Conversely, adding the flocculant later, eg under the feedwell shelf decreases the mixing time but allows some free (unadsorbed) flocculant to be available at the feedwell exit. An extensive trial has been performed on an operating thickener comparing seven individual different flocculant dosing positions through a Vane feedwell, and some combinations of two dosing points simultaneously. Measurements of the velocity, solids concentration and aggregate size were made throughout the feedwell at the different positions, with the dosing points significantly changing the aggregate size and clarity, and also affecting the solids concentration at some positions. The results are accessed in terms of flocculation kinetics and used as CFD validation data."

Jan 1, 2014

By Paulo Couceiro

Highly non-ideal explosives usually tend to react expressively below their ideal detonation velocities. In these cases, dimensional effects and product heterogeneities become important to proper model the detonation state. Although Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) techniques can provide a complete and exact solution for this problem, its actual computation cost is still not practical for industrial applications. In order to minimize these constrains, a simplified two-dimensional steady non-ideal detonation model for cylindrical stick explosives is developed. Based on an ellipsoidal shock shape approach, the proposed model uses the quasi-one dimensional theory for the axial flow solution and combine the post-shock sonic flow criteria with some limiting conditions for the explosives’ unconfined radius determination. Due to its attractive fitting capability for unconfined detonation experimental data, the model offers the possibility to predict the non-ideal detonation state for any diameter, resulting in a full mapping of the diameter-effect curve of the explosive. Thus, the proposed engineering approach is used to model the main properties of some of the most common ammonium nitrate-based explosives used in mining and quarrying industries, including the complete axial flow solution.

By Michael T. McCaffrey

The wide range of potential feed materials, process steps, and products in metallurgical facilities means that standard equipment might not be available to adequately meet the project technical and economic needs. Custom designed equipment should be considered only after rigorous research precludes purchasing standard equipment. However, the decision to use custom equipment introduces a new element of risk into the project. To manage the risk, custom equipment design should be developed through the same front end loading (FEL) phases as project development. If more than incremental development of custom equipment is required, appropriate test work or pilot trials are required to test key uncertainties. Important activities during custom equipment design include maintaining clearly defined performance objectives, conducting appropriate reviews, carefully crafting commercial and intellectual property agreements with design and fabrication partners, and assembling a multidisciplinary team with sufficient development expertise.

Jan 1, 2015

This volume constitutes the final report for the Rescue Subsystem portion of the Coal Mine Rescue and Survival System program conducted by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation under contract to the United States Bureau of Mines (Contract Number H0101262 dated Jung 17, 1970). The program was directed by the Special Systems Department of the Westinghouse, Baltimore, Maryland facility. The basic objectives of the CMRSS program were to develop and test hardware to determine the efficacy of a variety of coal mine rescue and survival concepts and techniques. These concepts were drawn from two major- sources: the Request for Proposal from the Bureau of Mines and the final report on the Mine Rescue and Survival Study conducted by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Jan 1, 1971

By J. D. Vincent

The Mission By-Products Plant at the Mission Concentrator of the American Smelting and Refining Company, some 20 miles south of Tucson, Arizona in the Twin Buttes mining area, has been in operation slightly over a year. The plant produces a molybdenite concentrate a copper concentrate and, at times, a zinc concentrate. An intensive test program of over three years was conducted at Mission to make the recovery of molybdenum economic. Briefly it was found necessary to make a scavenger concentrate in the copper mill before it was possible to recover economic quantities of molybdenite. By so doing there were resulting additional recoveries of copper, silver and zinc. This program resulted in the design and construction of the existing plant. A paper by the authors discussing the test work and the design was presented at the, October 1965 meeting of the American Mining Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Mr. Wayne Bossard.

Jan 1, 1966

By R. L. Grayson

In 1995, Congress abolished the Bureau of Mines in the Department of Interior but preserved the safety and health research functions being performed at the Pittsburgh and Spokane Research Centers. These functions were transitionally housed in the Department of Energy before permanently merging with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Department of Health and Human Services, in October 1996. Since the merger of the former Bureau with NIOSH, there has been an active evaluation of ongoing research activities, significant interaction with stakeholders, and the development of a process leading to "data informed" priority setting. This presentation will review current surveillance information concerning the level of injury and disease from mining work and will discuss how research priorities are evolving to improve the contribution of research to the prevention of injury and disease.

Jan 1, 1998

By David L. Giles

The alkalic igneous province of Montana consists of centers of laccolithic and stock-like intrusive complexes with associated sills, dikes, and breccia pipes (e.g., Judith, Highwood, Little Belt Mts.); isolated plug-like mafic bodies (e.g., Smokey and Eagle Buttes); and clusters of kimberlitic diatremes and ultrabasic dike swarms (Missouri River Breaks). The province extends in a belt throughout central Montana from the North Absaroka Range in the south to the Sweetgrass Hills on the Canadian border. Intrusive activity ranged in age from Late Cretaceous to late Miocene, peaking at about 50 m.y, ago. Diverse types of significant epithermal gold mineralization occur at many of the laccolithic centers. This mineralization took place in large part during the waning stages of, or following, igneous activity. Large remnant travertine blankets in the region attest to comparatively recent hydrothermal activity. The quartz-pyrite-gold mineralization ranges from igneous- hosted stockworks or fracture sets (Zortman-Landusky and Neihart districts) and breccia pipes (North Moccasin Mts.) to replacement zones in flanking and upwarped Madison Group limestone (Gilt Edge and Kendall districts). The latter are mostly localized by intraformational solution breccias in the upper Madison, notably near porphyry contacts. Gold mineralization in the province was accompanied by varying amounts of silver, base metals, sulfosalts, and tellurides, with quartz, fluorite, carbonate, and barite and gangue. Gold occurs as auriferous pyrite, sylvanite, or in native form. Since the 1880's, primary gold production from numerous scattered deposits in the Judith, Moccasin, and Little Rocky Mountains, along with byproduct gold from the Neihart silver district (Little Belt Mountain), has totalled around 2 million oz. The major deposits were in the 1-2 million ton range at an average gold tenor of 0.3-0.6 oz per ton. Most of the ore was mixed oxide or carbonaceous sulfide ore and was treated either by amalgamation or by roasting-cyanidation. Current activity includes heap-leach operations on bulk- tonnage low-grade (approximately 0.03 oz per ton) ores at Zortman-Landusky, and several small-scale, experimental leach or mining operations on carbonaceous replacement ores, as in the Kendall district and Spotted Horse mine. Current exploration efforts for gold are focused not only in the old established districts, but also in and around other alkalic centers, which have been unproductive to date, such as the Crazy Mountains, Sweetgrass Hills, and Bearpaw Mountains. Target concepts in these efforts are porphyry-hosted stockwork or disseminated gold ores and Carlin-type replacement lodes in the flanking Madison or other favorable carbonate units.

Jan 1, 2013

By D. K. Crampton, H. I. Burghoff, J. T. Stacy

The effect of cold-working upon electrical conductivity of copper and of copper alloys appears not to be generally known in detail. Although several papers on the subject have been presented, showing variable effects according to alloy composition, it is often assumed that the 2 to 3 per cent lowering of the conductivity of ordinary tough-pitch copper by severe cold-working is typical for copper alloys. Because of this situation it was decided to carry out the present work upon several types of copper, copper-zinc alloys over the commercial range of brasses, other binary alloys, and numerous age-hardening alloys in the quenched, and quenched and aged conditions. The large number of alloys investigated made it impossible to study every one in the detail it may have merited. Inasmuch as several interesting points that could not be satisfactorily explained came to light, further work is contemplated by the authors. It is usually considered that the normal effect of cold-work on ductile metals and unordered alloys is to decrease conductivity slightly. In alloys that are in the ordered state, as annealed or otherwise heat-treated, cold--working tends to disorder the structure, resulting in very marked lowering of conductivity. The random state of atomic arrangement produces lower con- ductivity than the ordered state for the same composition.1 Previous Work Previous work in the authors' laboratory has shown the electrical conductivity of several copper alloys to be decreased by greater amounts than might have been expected, in view of the general knowledge on the subject, when cold-worked. Guillet and Ballay2 investigated the influence of cold-work upon the resistivity of several metals and alloys, including copper and some copper alloys. The increase of resistivity due to severe working w is less than 4 per cent for all pure metals tested, while the increases for the alloys were generally higher. In the copper-zinc alloys, they found that the increase of resistance due to drawing increased with zinc content, and reported a 21.7 per cent increase of resistance for an alloy contaiiiing 67.9 per cent Cu as severely worked. Masima and Sachs3 studied the change in electrical resistance of three brass crystals when stretched in the tensile test, obtaining increases in resistance of the order of 3 per cent for 30 to 40 per cent reduction of area of the specimens. The resistance decreased again when the cold-worked crystals were subsequently annealed. Bardenheuer and Schmidt4 found that the conductivity of copper was decreased by 3 to 4 per cent when reduced 50 per cent by working. The conductivity of 72-28

Jan 1, 1941

Before any accident prevention and total safety programme can succeed, a safety concientiousness or attitude needs to be implanted in the employees' minds. Psycholog- ical and physiological conditions play a vital role in accident causation and prevention. Both need attention in a good safety programme, but working place conditions and environment are more easily corrected. However, the challenge is to change attitudes in the minds of men - psychological factors in accidents. To do this does not require a Safety Officer, but does require a Safety Adviser. At Blackwater mine a Safety Adviser is available to all sections of the organisation to guide and assist, to provide data and material to use at meetings, to help in accident investi- gations and to help organise training. To eventually achieve total commitment requires every member of the management team to be a salesman towards all around selling an attitude to safe working, a way of life. At Blackwater mine the workforce is young overall with most employees being under 40 years old. Psychologically this is a quite different problem to a balanced ages working group. A great deal of effort is needed to communicate with the younger, articulate, better educated employee who is also generally a skilled operator in the capital intensive

Jan 1, 1975

By A. M. E. Eilers

No one who has visited our Western mining districts, and studied the economical part of the beneficiation of the ores occurring all over that vast extent of country, can underrate the high importance of the above subject. By far the larger number of the districts which contain smelting ores, i.e., argentiferous and auriferous lead, or copper ores, are situated in the Great Basin, that great plateau between the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada on the west, almost the whole of which is comprised at present in the boundaries of Nevada, Utah, and part of Arizona. This region is essentially a barren country. The extreme dryness of the atmosphere permits but a scanty vegetation in the plains ; and even in the detached mountain-chains running through it-generally from N. to S., or from N. W. to S. E.-there are no trees found except dwarfed pines and mahogany, at the head of sheltered ravines, and a few cottonwoods and willows, which fringe the insignificant streams, before the water sinks in the arid plains. Nearly all the mountain-chains in this region are rich in silver ores. That class of these ores which is adapted to amalgamation, and rich in silver, has been worked with profit for more than ten years. But before the advent of the transcontinental railways, mining was restricted to these ores alone, and the consumption of fuel could be met with the scanty supply of forest trees in the immediate vicinity of the mining districts. Since, however, the Union and Central Pacific Railroads have brought the Great Basin nearer to the commercial centres of the East and the Pacific coast, thus reducing the expenses of freight and labor materially, other silver deposits, containing poorer ores in greater abundance, have been rapidly taken

Jan 1, 1873

By André Vervoort, Jef Caers

Compound lognormal distributions serve as new generalized distribution laws for analyzing and estimating ore value distributions or related properties such as the average ore grade. These models are an alternative to the well known lognormal distribution. They are the translation of general geological constraints on the genesis of the deposit cumulated in suitable statistical properties. In this paper a maximum likelihood framework is established for estimating the parameters of such laws or parameter functions thereof. It is shown that under certain conditions maximum likelihood estimation is accurate and efficient in estimating the mean value even when relatively few samples are available. The method is based on a numerical maximization of the likelihood function of these models given the data. Confidence limits on these estimates are set up using resampling techniques such as the bootstrap. By this a complete methodology is presented for inference on ore grade distributions such as is shown in an example of gold data from the Merriespruit mine (South Africa) and the diamond size distribution of the Bougban deposit (Guinea).

Jan 1, 1996

A programme began in 1970 to eliminate the charging of fine materials into the copper blast furnace of The Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company of Australia Ltd. at Port Kembla, N.S.W. A disc pelletiser and drying plant has been installed as part of this programme. Feed material for the plant is a blended mixture of copper concentrates, fine copper-bearing residues, and blast furnace cyclone dust. The operating parameters for the disc have been calculated by comparing the perform- ance of three other discs on the plant. Re- search work on choice of binder, feed moisture and drying conditions has led to the production of reasonably high strength pellets. A description of the pellet plant and modifications necessary to overcome the initial performance problems is given.

Jan 1, 1974

By C. R. Carpenter

A dynamic gas-mixing system assembled by the Bureau of Mines for the generation of precise gas mixtures from sources of concentrated or pure gases and diluent gases is described. A set of electronic mass flow controllers with maximum flows ranging from 10 to 5,000 ml/min, a so-called Pure Air Generator, and gases in cylinders are used to generate differing gas concentrations. The repeatability of the delivery rate of a flow controller, measured on different days, has a precision of 0.3 pct of the setting. This dynamic gas-mixing system reduces the cylinder inventory and the demurrage charges for special gas mixtures. Gas mixtures that cannot be shipped commercially, such as flammable mixtures of methane in air, can be conveniently prepared by this system. The maximum dilution ratio is 2.5 x 104. Thus, gas mixtures can be made over a wide range of concentrations, from the percent region (by dilution of a pure single-component gas) to fractional parts per million (by dilution of a premixed standard, e.g., a 1,000-ppm mixture). This system is especially useful in determining the response of gas detection devices over the entire range of their measurement. Because the controllers are voltage controlled they lend themselves easily to automated control using computer-based systems.

Jan 1, 1983