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By Barry J. Morash

The over-all slope angle of between 55 and 60 degrees at the Adams Mine necessitates control blasting on the final pit walls. The control blasting techniques used are pre-shearing and buffer blasting. Pre-shearing with 2'I2-inch holes on 5-foot centers is used in areas where jointing and rock type are not conducive to smooth stable walls. Buffer blasting with 12'/4-inch holes is used in areas where the rock is competent. Control blasting adds to the operating costs, but can result in substantial savings in increased slope angle and reduced stripping.

Jan 1, 1978

By K. Soldenhoff, M. Fainerman-Melnikova

The use of strong base resins for uranium recovery is severely affected by the presence of chloride ions in solution. In areas where high-quality process water is not readily available, the use of saline water would extend the potential application for ion exchange in uranium processing. This study presents measurements of uranium uptake, using a wide range of commercially available weak base anionic exchangers, from solutions with chloride concentrations ranging from 2.5 to 22 g/L Cl. Out of 14 weak base anionic resins tested, 3 were identified that were not severely impacted by the presence of chloride and significantly outperformed a gel strong base resin typically used for uranium recovery in high-chloride environments. The uranium loading was sufficiently high for the consideration of development of the application of uranium recovery from uranium ores leached with seawater.

Jan 1, 2012

By Timothy W. Ellis, Abbas H. Mirza, R. David Prengaman

Recycled lead, i.e. material produced by the recycling of lead-acid batteries, has become the primary source of lead in much of the world. This has been important to the recycled lead industry as other uses have dwindled, e.g. lead based pigments, chemicals, fuel additives, solders and CRT glasses. Presently, battery manufacturing accounts for greater than 85% of lead consumption worldwide while recycled lead accounts for approximately the same market share of lead supply. Battery manufacturing and production of recycled lead are intimately coupled. In 2007, of all the industrial base metals, lead from lead-acid batteries had the highest recycling rate in North America at greater than 95%. In this paper we will review some of the processes and technologies used in a modern lead acid battery recycling facility, and how recycled lead has become the material of choice for battery construction through the development of a recovery and refining process that exceeds the industry requirements. We will also briefly review an advanced air emissions treatment system in a modern lead recycling plant that demonstrates the feasibility of a new maximum available control technology (MACT) for secondary lead smelters.

Jan 1, 2011

By M. S. Badollet

"The study of the physical properties of asbestos minerals requires a careful isolation of the fiber from the wall rock and, at a later stage, a comparison of these physical properties with those of fibers that have passed through the milling and beneficiation processes.The effects of mineral impurities, loss of fiber length and the formation of extreme fines (asbestic and/or associated minerals) often show up in the formation of special asbestos products as well as in the commercial production of asbestos papers, mill-boards, asbestos cement products, plastics and insulation materials, and in the filtration of blood plasma and wines.Numerous test methods have been developed in Canada and in England for use in the asbestos industry. Special treatments of asbestos fibers have been used to improve their physical and chemical properties and to eliminate impurities.Numerous problems connected with the use of asbestos fibers are discussed, such as the effects of asbestos on filtration, surface area, surface treatments using organic or inorganic materials, the surface charge on the fiber, the presence of magnetite and air pollution elimination. Biological studies on finely ground asbestos, when dispersed in 0.9 per cent sodium chloride solution and then sterilized and injected into hamsters, show that by reducing the dose, the tissue damage can be largely avoided. In these experiments, Arizona asbestos fibers were carefully extracted from the wall rock, finely ground, and examined chemically and micros-copically for any mineral impurities that might be present so that any effect on the hamsters would be directly due to the presence of the asbestos. The harsh Arizona fiber induced more extensive tissue response than the soft fiber when tested in hamsters."

Jan 1, 1969

By M. A. Marois

This paper proposes an improved temporal stability condition for the implementation of an inverse heat transfer method for predicting the time-varying bank thickness of the phase change protective bank inside a high temperature furnace. The direct problem is handled with the enthalpy method. The inverse method rests on the Adjoint Problem and the Conjugate Gradient Method. It is shown that the temporal stability condition for the inverse phase change problem relies on the time delay of the temperature measurements. Results indicate that this time delay is proportional to the heat diffusion time including heat diffusion through the mushy zone.

Jan 1, 2011

By C. Harold Riches

This article is directed co a commentary on the patent system in its relation to the public interest. As man gained supremacy over his environment, he could devote progressively increasing portions o his time to improving his standards of living. In the history of the human race, we have advanced from the hollowed floating log to the modern steamship of the present age; from the sickle and flail to the reaper and combine; from the trumpet and drum as a means of communication co the telegraph, telephone, and radio; from the horse and ox cart to the automobile, truck, aeroplane, and train; and so on ad infinitum through the list of inventions on which are based the industrial and political economies and standards of living we enjoy today. It has also been a long road from the day of the alchemist and his closely guarded secrets to the era of the patent system and its storehouses of knowledge open to the world. The alchemist and the craft and merchant guilds closely guarded their secrets. In fact, they largely opposed innovations on the grounds that they might injure profits and restrict employment. In these days of unrest, with great clamour out of doors for radical changes in our political and industrial economies, it may not be untimely to examine one of the keystones which support the economic structure we know as the free enterprise system, the system which is predicated upon the right of the individual to own property. Many, through impractical idealism, ignorance, confused thinking, or blind political prejudice, advocate the substitution of ownership by the State ? for the right of ownership by the individual. As civilization has advanced to the high standards of living we enjoy today through the efforts of a comparatively few inventors, the patent system which has provided the incentive that created the inventions on which our industries and our employment are based is fully understood and appreciated by a comparatively small percentage of our people. As a result, the patent system, as a keystone in our free enterprise economy, is an apt target for destructive criticism, with the thought, possibly, that by eliminating or drastically restricting the several rights to individual ownership one by one, ownership by the State will progressively replace ownership by the individual.

Jan 1, 1949

By J. F. Henderson

Stable mining operations commenced in the Northwest Territories in 1933. Pitchblende from Great Bear lake and gold from the Yellowknife district are the main minerals produced. The value of pitchblende products produced from 1933 to 1941 was nearly $6; 000; 000; data on subsequent production are not available. The first gold was produced from the Con mine at Yellowknife in 1938. Other properties that later came into production include the Negus; Slave Lake; Thompson Lundmark; and Ptarmigan mines. The annual gold production reached $3; 862; 000 in 1942 but due to the war and consequent labour shortage fell to $333; 218 in 1945. The only producing mines at present (May; 1947) are the Con and Negus; but several promising properties are under development; including that of Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines where large tonnages of ore are being blocked out. With the reopening of former producing mines and new production from properties now being developed; gold production should rapidly increase and exceed its former peak within the next few years.

Jan 1, 1954

By T. W. Wlodek

"AbstractIn this paper a new type of durable 'spiral-rolled' drill set is introduced and its performance discussed. Efficient and economical mine drilling-depends to a great extent on durability of the drill-set employed. Premature failure of this element damages the drill bit and is costly when tungsten carbide bits are used.Time of drilling of 'spiral-rolled' drill sets introduced at present in Canada is considerably larger than for the presently used drill steel, but laboratory simulated service tests and practical field tests show that the 'drilling life' of the spiral-rolled drill set is several times that of ordinary drill steel.Some features of differential plastic deformation and differential surface rolling, so called 'spiral-rolling', are given.Relations between the drilling machine drill set and characteristics of the ore are discussed. The effect of shims on conical drill rod attachments, the mechanism of failure of drill steel, .and stresses during mine drilling, are analysed.IntroductionIN MINE DRILLING operations, the main interests are: the drilling machines as a source of working energy, the drill set as the tool transferring the working energy to the cutting edges of the bit, and, finally, the drilling characteristic of the .ore or waste rock.This paper includes a review of the possibilities of metallurgical and mechanical improvements in the drill set, with particular attention to drill steel and the attachments.For economical and efficient mine drilling operations, a durable drill rod, attachment, and drill bit are essential. Premature failure of any of these parts interferes with mining operations and is costly."

Jan 1, 1955

By Claude Bourgoin

"The Copra massive sulphide deposit occurs as a continuous slab of ore dipping at approximately 40 degrees within a sericite schist formation. The orebody has been delineated over a distance of more than 5,000 feet down dip. This paper is mainly concerned with the mining procedure, and particular reference will be made to the use of steel mill holes and hydraulic roof supports. The gravel backfill line, which is operated both by gravity and hydraulically, is described. The paper mentions some of the operational problems, discusses the feasibility of longwall mining and presents the information obtained from stope testing."

Jan 1, 1966

By E. Landry, W. Naudts

"The amenability theory was developed by Alex Naudts and considers grouting operations as continuous permeability tests where Newtonian test fluid water, is replaced by a cementitious or solution grout. It utilizes hydraulic conductivity and grouting data to establish the amenability coefficient of a particular grout zone. The amenability coefficient reflects the quantity of apertures or voids accessible to the selected grout, divided by the number of apertures accessible to water, in the zone intersected by the grout hole. By calculating, in real time, the effectiveness of a particular grout at the start of a grouting operation, the most appropriate grout to match design criteria can be targeted. By incorporating the amenability theory in every grouting operation, schedule savings and an increase in productivity are typically achieved. Three short case studies illustrate different enhancements in productivity: At an underground mine during the construction of declines, a cement based suspension grouting program was highly ineffective and did not appear to affect the inflow into the mine workings. The amenability theory was utilized to evaluate the grouting program and based on this evaluation, changes to the grouting program were made which allowed the grouting to meet the project’s objectives. On another project, a pre-excavation grouting program implemented during shaft sinking operations utilized the amenability theory to select the most suitable grout for the program. Schedule constraints also influenced the selection of the grout. In the third case history presented, the amenability theory was used to select the grouting sequence of every individual grout hole for a grouting project in a highly heterogeneous soil formation. INTRODUCTION The amenability of a given soil, civil structure or rock formation for a particular grout formulation is a measure of the ability of that grout to permeate the pores, fissures and apertures water will flow through. The amenability coefficient of a particular grout for a specific zone equals the percentage of apertures, pores and fissures accessible by water that are also accessible by grout. Grouting should be viewed as a continuous permeability test, where the apparent in-situ hydraulic conductivity value for a particular grout zone is continuously evaluated, using grout instead of water as test fluid."

Jan 1, 2019

By Fazel G. Jahromi, Ahmad Ghahreman

"Atmospheric leaching of arsenical sulfide concentrates, and especially enargite leaching, is one of the major challenges within the current hydrometallurgy research area. One of the recent processes developed for sulfide ore treatment is atmospheric leaching in the presence of AF 5, a novel carbon based catalyst, in chloride media. The quantification of different ion concentrations during enargite and chalcopyrite leaching in the presence of AF 5 were measured and the copper recovery rates of 97% and 96% were achieved. The objective of this study is to shed light on the leaching mechanism of the sulfide minerals. Based on the speciation of iron and copper by different titration methods, the AF 5 catalyst first reduced ferric and cupric ions and then oxidized ferrous, cuprous and arsenite ions. The oxidation behavior of the catalyst enhanced the leaching results. The AF 5 catalyst also caused in situ precipitation of scorodite in leaching experiment. The speciation of ions in the chloride media were simulated by Phreeqc software and the dominant species in the leaching solution were determined.INTRODUCTION The hydrometallurgy of copper has been used for several decades and is still under development for more complex copper sulfide minerals due to their refractory nature. Most of the world copper reserves are in the form of chalcopyrite; and enargite is known as a major contaminant. Pyrometallurgical processing of enargite is problematic due to arsenic release and tight environmental regulations (Peacey, Gupta, and Ford n.d.). On the other hand, lower recoveries in the hydrometallurgical processes make most of these processes impractical. Several leaching processes have been developed for the leaching of copper sulfide minerals. Some of the common treatment methods for copper sulfide minerals are pressure oxidation leaching (POX), CESL, Activox, Albion process, atmospheric ferric sulfate leaching, Dynatec, Galvanox, and Hydro copper process (Barr, Defreyne, and Mayhew 2005; Conner and Anderson 2013; D.G. Dixon, Mayne, and Baxter 2008; Hyvärinen and Hämäläinen 2005; Palmer and Johnson 2005; Rohner, Bartsch, and Ngoviky 2012). Generally it is not viable to dissolve copper sulfide minerals at ambient pressure in mild acidic media and dissolution of these refractory minerals requires harsh conditions in the presence of oxidant materials (Biswas and Davenport 2002). Ferric ions have been used as an oxidant in different media in copper sulfide leaching processes. U. S. Bureau of Mines’ Reno Metallurgy Research Center in 1969 (Haver and Wong 1971) investigated ferric chloride leaching of chalcopyrite. Dutrizac and Macdonald (1972) studied ferric sulfate leaching of enargite. Based on this study, 50% of the copper was recovered at 80-85 ºC after 7 days of leaching. Cupric ions can also be used as an oxidant. Parker, Paul, and Power (1981) stated that cupric/cuprous couples are more effective than ferric/ferrous couples in chloride media because they are rapid and reversible. The Hydro Copper process leaches copper sulfide minerals in chloride solution catalyzed by cupric ions. In this process, copper dissolves as cuprous ions in presence of cupric ions (about 10 g/L) (Hyvärinen and Hämäläinen 2005)."

Jan 1, 2017

By E. B. Wright

THE property of Falconbridge Nickel Mines, Limited, is in Falconbridge township, approximately thirteen miles northwest of Sudbury. From the mine and townsite, a gravel road leads to Sudbury and a branch line of the Canadian National railway to Sudbury Junction. The ore deposit is at the southeastern corner of the 'Sudbury Basin'. It lies in a sheet-like mass, striking in an east-west direction, between norite to the north and greenstone to the south. The general attitude of the ore-body is vertical, but with frequent variations in dip of as much as 10° to the north or south. The deposit is very irregular in outline, the width varying from a few feet to eighty or ninety feet. In the vertical plane, rolls are frequently encountered. Gouge is very often present at one or both ore contacts. The norite to the north shows much jointing. The chief ore minerals are pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite. The nickel content of the ore is usually double the copper content, average assays ranging from 2 to 2.5 per cent nickel and 1 to 1.5 per cent copper. The ore is of three main types: massive, breccia, and disseminated. The breccia ore, the most common type, consists of sulphides containing rounded inclusions of highly-altered country rock, which, in places, are so large that sorting is necessary in the stopes. In the norite, the breccia ore may grade into disseminated sulphides, which frequently are sufficiently concentrated for profitable mining. In places in the breccia ore, concentrations of solid sulphide masses occur. Until early in 1935, all mining at Falconbridge was by shrinkage scoping, but this method was found to be less and less suitable as greater depth was attained. When mining had reached the 1,000-foot level, ore drawn from large shrinkage stopes was found to have been diluted as much as fifty per cent by sloughing of the wall-rocks, caused by increased rock pressure and insufficient support. It was apparent that this method of stoping was un-suitable and -Mr. E. J. Martin was engaged to superintend the introduction of a method of cut-and-fill stoping.

Jan 1, 1938

By L. M. Dwarkin, D. F. Coates

Crows Nest Industries Limited adopted roof bolting in 1963 to improve roof control and to extend continuous miner utilization in one mine. Bolting was held back because anchorage tests gave inconsistent results. The time lapse between mining and bolting was suspected as a cause, and so a test entry was driven and sections of it were bolted as part of the work cycle in addition to the normal timbering. This paper presents the results of the instrumentation of test entries and discusses the utilization of the data to improve mining procedure.

Jan 1, 1967

By H. Aminian

Gold powders have many important industrial applications. In this paper the available processes for the preparation of gold nano and micron sized powders are described. The attention has been given to hydrometallurgy route and the recent works and achievements in controlling the powder morphology are highlighted.

Jan 1, 2011

By Stephen G. Hardcastle

Worldwide, metal mines are going deeper. For example in Canada there are six such mechanized mines planning production at 3000m (10,000?). Working at such depths challenges all aspects of mining including the provision of ventilation to supply an equitable working climate for personnel and machinery. This paper explores the overall challenges of supplying ventilation in Canada?s deepest mines and how the volumes required could be minimized. This is essential because it must be remembered that ventilation and refrigeration are not only costly items to supply, but the magnitude of their cost is also very sensitive to the volume supplied. For ventilation this is obvious because of the cubic relationship between volume and cost. In deep mines, the main function of ventilation is the removal of heat transferred from the strata and generated by the mining machinery, and the air volumes supplied are designed accordingly. The second consideration is the removal of other pollutants that could be harmful to humans such as diesel and explosive fumes. However, the need for ventilation at its present design levels could be reduced. This paper discusses the implications of such technologies as: teleremote mining and alternatives to diesel equipment on the magnitude of the volume supplied; ventilation-on-demand which recognizes ventilation as a costly and limited resource; plus other aspects, such as the benefits of controlled recirculation, local cooling, and heat rejection back to the strata to gain further advantage from new developments. Furthermore, this paper advances the need to be able to design ventilation systems more cost effectively and how such new advances as process simulators can be used in conjunction with ventilation simulators to explore the diverse options that could affect the air volumes required and provide more realistic economic data upon which to base design decisions.

May 1, 2003

By Ron H. Derammelaere

Coal Slurry Test Pipeline and First Recorded Commercial Pipeline Wallace Andrews founder of New York Steam Company awarded patent for ?Method of Transportation? that involved pumping finely divided coal in slurry form built test facility at Madison Avenue and East 58th Street in New York City died in 1899 in a fire and coal pipeline work was not continued First recorded commercial coal slurry pipeline designed by Gilbert Bell in 1914 to move coal from barges on the Thames River in London to a powerhouse in 8? tubes (660 yards long)

May 1, 2013

By J. D. Allan

"IntroductionThe purpose of this paper is to present a general picture of the Lynn Lake nickel area of northern Manitoba. The geology of the area will not be discussed in great detail, nor will the mining op; rations presently being conducted. Both subjects will be treated briefly and, in addition, mention will be made of some of the problems encountered in mapping in the area. some of the questions which still remain unanswered, methods of prospecting that have been applied and the future possibilities of the area.For present purposes, the Lynn Lake area will be considered as extending from west of Lynn lake to east of Barrington lake. Thus, more correctly, it should be termed the Lynn Lake-Barrington Lake area. It comprises five 15-minute map-areas, or a total of 800 square miles, in a block 47 miles east-west and 17 miles north-south.Lynn lake itself is about 120 miles north of Sherridon, Manitoba, the closes t rail terminal. The area is part of the Granville Lake sheet which was mapped by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1932, 1933, and 1935, the results being published in Summary Report 1933. Part C, and as Maps 343A and 344A on a scale of four miles to o.ne inch. In 1940, the McVeigh Lake area was mapped by the Geological Survey of Canada on a scale of 1,500 feet to 1 inch and a map was issued in 1945."

Jan 1, 1950

By J. C. Rudolph

"THE TOPIC on which I am speaking this afternoon is ""The Future of the Canadian Oil Industry.'' At the time of C + 100, we should take a searching look at ourselves, an honest appraisal of our achievements and a forthright accounting of our shortcomings as well as the uniquely Canadian aspects of this industry. I would like to put before you some of my views on the direction we are taking in the exploration field and in the production field. I would also like to speak briefly on some of our problems and the role of the various segments of our industry in solving these problems.First of all, let us look at the exploration picture. We are in the midst of an exploration boom. There were 133 seismic crews active in Western Canada this winter, the highest since 1957, land prices are appreciating rapidly, Canadian oil reserves increased + 16 per cent during 1966, there is a great demand for technical personnel of every kind and the whole industry, except the drilling segment, seems to be prospering. This surge of activity has its roots in two major occurrences. The first of these was the change in the pro-ration system in Alberta, the major producing province, accompanied by the change in spacing pat-terns. The proration change was designed primarily to encourage in-creased exploration and it has certainly had this effect. It has also had the unforeseen effect of put-ting everyone into what we, in the oil business, call ""elephant hunting."" In other words, the days of the development of barely economic, marginal fields are over. Oil companies today are only interested in high-reserve, high-productivity, high-quality reservoirs."

Jan 1, 1968

By Jonathan Matthews

Efficient and effective management of mine tailings is essential for continued successful development of Alberta?s vast oil sands resources. Syncrude Canada Ltd. continues to research novel tailings management techniques in an effort to improve production efficiency and environmental sustainability. During the summer months of 2001, Syncrude Canada Ltd., in collaboration with members of the Canadian Oil Sands Network for Research and Development (CONRAD), conducted field-scale trials of thickened tailings technology at Syncrude?s Aurora mine, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta. This paper provides an overview of the test program including discussion of objectives, test configuration, and program observations. 0Data collected during the field trial indicate that substantial swings in feed slurry composition challenge effective thickener operation. When coarse mineral solids dominated slurry composition, thickener rake torque rose to unmanageable levels. It was determined that the end-of-pipe depositional characteristics of thickened oil sands slurry were generally consistent with present understanding of oil sands tailings slurries. After shear, thickener underflow product exhibited very shallow beach angles and a limited capacity to keep coarser particles in suspension indicating that stacking of ?paste-like? thickener underflow product from a conventional thickener is not practical in an oil sands setting unless process adjustments can be made to increase the underflow density and/or preserve the initial high yield stress of the underflow during transport and deposition. These technical challenges notwithstanding, Thickened Tailings technology offers considerable promise for recovery of warm water from oil sands process tailings.

May 1, 2003

By J. M. Ortiz, J. P. Bertini

"In mineral resource and ore reserve estimation, several sources of information are generally available, such as diamond drillholes, reversed-circulation drillholes, and blastholes, and originate from one or more sampling campaigns and are analyzed by one or more laboratories. In such a situation, the grade measurements may not have the same precision and one should distinguish between hard and imprecise data.This work aims at studying the impact of data imprecision in resource/reserve evaluation through two case studies on simulated deposits: a porphyry copper deposit conditioned to real exploration and production data, and a gold deposit simulated without any conditioning data. Several geostatistical techniques are used to estimate the grades of selective mining units from exploration samples, including kriging, cokriging, lognormal and indicator kriging. Two types of imprecision are examined— measurements with multiplicative errors and measurements defined as intervals. The results are compared to the simulated grades of the selective mining units from a statistical and economic viewpoint.The study concludes that imprecise measurements should never be discarded because they help to improve the estimates, and that simple methods such as kriging are as efficient as more sophisticated ones for resource/reserve assessment. Finally, a few indications on how to diagnose and model the data imprecision are given."

Jan 1, 2005