Search Documents

By Brosnan J. G

Simcoa Operations is the only silicon smelter in the region and since the plant was commissioned in late-1989, has progressed from supplying silicon metal to the secondary aluminium market to the current position of supplying in excess of 90 per cent of its production to the high quality chemical and primary aluminium markets. This position has been achieved through the unique advantage which Simcoa has developed within the industry, namely raw materials, people and Simcoa's ability to adopt and use modern technology. A quality culture was instilled into the workforce prior to commissioning which ultimately led to AS3902 qualification in 1992. Simcoa has continued its quality drive through the formation of 'Simcoa's Quality Leadership Process' which is planned to make Simcoa the best silicon producer in the world.

Jan 1, 1995

By D. E. Gorse, R. G. Anderson

"Indusmin's history dates back to 1937 when they developed the Blue Mountain Nepheline Syenite deposit at Nephton, Ontario, and began supplying material for the glass, fiberglass, paint, ceramics and rubber industries.Since then, as a subsidiary of Falconbridge Nickel Mines, Indusmin has expanded the Nephton operation, diversified into the aggregate quarries for the construction industries, with operations at Acton and Halton, Ontario, established silica plants at St. Canut, Quebec and Midland, Ontario, to supply the glass, carbide, ceramics, cleanser and concrete products industries, and the purchase of a foundry, Fahramet Limited, Orillia, Ontario, supplying steel and alloy castings to the mining, construction cement and petrochemical industries.Indusmin also has a Technical Resource Centre and Head Office facilities in Toronto.As this paper deals with Indusmin's experience with dust abatement, and although dust control is a concern at the Nephton, St. Canut and Orillia plants, we will be confining this paper to the experience gained at the Badgeley Quarry and Midland plant of the Ontario Silica Operation."

Jan 1, 1980

This paper briefly reviews the demise of professional mining education and training in NZ over the past ten years; compares it with the Australian experience; and discusses the immense success experienced by EXITO and the upsurge of competency based education and training we are currently experiencing in the mineral extraction and associated industries. It also looks to the development of a Bachelor in Mining Technology.

Jan 1, 2001

By E. Robles

The Tati Activox® Project (TA®P) is the first step towards the implementation of the Norilsk Nickel Activox® process. The ultrafine grinding (UFG) and autoclave pressure leach process conditions are the heart of the Activox® patent. Low grade base metal sulphide concentrates are leached in the process to recover the base metals and to produce LME grade nickel and copper cathodes and cobalt carbonates. The downstream processing of the metal-containing liquor produced by this process includes solvent extraction circuits to extract and concentrate metal-rich solutions, before the various final products are obtained. This paper gives an overview of many of the relevant design aspects taken into consideration in the design of the Tati Activox® solvent extraction circuits. It addresses key design elements related to leach process conditions such as scaling, materials selection for corrosive solutions, pH control, crud formation and treatment, multiple SX trains designed to prevent organic cross-contamination, and design aspects related to the mitigation of fire risks.

Jan 1, 2009

By P. Mbele

Iron ore concentrate is not easily transported to, or processed in, ironmaking plants, therefore it is necessary to agglomerate. This paper will determine the possibility of agglomerating Sishen concentrate into suitable ironmaking feedstock. Pelletizing is one of the conventional and preferred agglomeration processes for iron ore concentrate investigated at Kumba Value-In-Use Laboratories. Sishen concentrate was mixed with binder, and then pelletized using a laboratory pelletizing disc; afterwards the green pellets were indurated at high temperatures to give strength high enough to survive handling and lessen disintegration in the shaft during ironmaking. Sishen pellets have satisfactory physical and metallurgical properties which make them suitable feedstock for the direct reduction processes. These were tested under Midrex shaft operational conditions and performed well, with a metallization of 94.47% being attained.

Jan 1, 2012

By Bill Cain, David F. Tsztoo, R. John Caulfield, D. Scott Kieffer

In 1994, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) commenced a system-wide Seismic Improvement Program to protect their facilities from catastrophic damage. A primary focus of this program has been on retrofitting the 75-year old Claremont Tunnel, which crosses the active Hayward Fault zone. A large earthquake on the Hayward Fault could generate enough right-lateral fault slip to effectively sever this important lifeline. The retrofit project involves construction of a new bypass tunnel through the Hayward Fault zone, together with systematic contact grouting and localized structural repair of the existing concrete liner. Several innovative design measures have been incorporated into the seismic retrofit design, including an oversized tunnel cross section, backfill concrete side drifts, seismic isolation of an internal structural pipe, and shear fuses in the final lining.

Jan 1, 2005

By Barry Olson

The Peñasquito deposit in Mexico is one of the largest grassroots precious metal discoveries to be developed in recent years. Goldcorp Inc. acquired the gold-silver-lead-zinc property with the acquisition of Glamis in 2006. The company has since committed US$1.5 billion to construct the mine, mill and associated facilities. The first of two 50-kt/d (55,000-stpd) mill and flotation lines is currently being commissioned while engineering and construction continues on the second line. A high-pressure grinding roll (HPGR) will ultimately take total throughput to 130 kt/d (142,000 stpd). The Peñasquito property is located in the northeast corner of Zacatecas state, Mexico. The elevation of the property averages 1,900 m (6,200 ft) above sea level and it is situated in a wide east-west valley. Except for one small outcrop (Peñasquito), the area is covered by up to 30 m (98 ft) of alluvium.

Jan 1, 2009

By X. M. Zhou, T. Wu, He X. N.

"In order to study the support effect of concrete in the surrounding rock of a metal mine, the concrete and surrounding rock were comparatively studied. Firstly, the general situation of the ultra-kilometer deep shaft in Xincheng, surrounding rock and geological conditions are introduced. Secondly, the experimental scheme of material mechanical properties of surrounding rock and shaft lining concrete based on same standard dimension and shape are examined, and the mechanical tests of rock and concrete based on different shapes and sizes are carried out. The study shows that the compressive strength value and elastic modulus of the rock cube are 1.28 times and 1.78 times that of the cylinder, and the Poisson's ratio is 0.77 times. The dimensional effect law of the concrete cube and cylinder test data is consistent with the rock law. However, the test results of the concrete are less discrete than the rock; the test also shows that the strength and elastic modulus of the concrete lining of the main shaft of the Xincheng are much smaller than the surrounding rock that is also used as the concrete aggregate, which indicates that the support of concrete lining in the surrounding rock shaft behaved weakly. Based on the development of the modern NATM rock support theory, it is suggested that the mechanical test standard of artificial support materials should be unified into the mechanics test standard of natural rock, which will help to improve the accuracy and practicality of scientific calculation of geotechnical engineering.INTRODUCTIONConcrete and rock mass are usually attributed to a class of materials called frictional materials or geotechnical materials, of these two kinds of materials, the first is man-maded and the second is natural. The attentive scholar can find that there are many differences in the test criteria for the mechanical properties of the two kinds of materials among different industries or departments, reflecting the differences in their sources, tradition, and the application thoery of material strength among them.There is a situation wordwide, that there are many testing standards of the same material mechanical parameters such as elastic modulus, compressive strength, etc. The cube with a side length of 150 mm is adopted as a common sample in the architecture department in China, while a cylinder with a diameter of 50 mm and a height of 100 mm is as a standard specimen in geotechnical department.Knowing that mechanical parameter values are strongly affected by the the size, shape of specimen and loading rate etc, that is to say the mechanical parameter values of the same material are completely different when obtained from different test with different standards. However, such a problem has been long neglected in geotechnical engineering."

Jan 1, 2019

By Qingwei Wang

Heavy metal-containing wastewater from hydrometallurgical processes of lead-zinc was treated by biologics in a 200 m3/h industrial scale experiment. The result shows that Zn concentration declined from 50.28 mg/L~240.81 mg/L to 0.21 mg/L~1.98 mg/L, Pb from 1.00 mg/L~13.47 mg/L to 0.083 mg/L~0.71 mg/L, Cu from 0.24 mg/L~2.38 mg/L to 0.059 mg/L~0.40 mg/L, Cd from 2.12 mg/L~23.47 mg/L to 0.011 mg/L~0.071 mg/L and As from 0.50 mg/L~6.00 mg/L to 0.005 mg/L~0.10 mg/L. The concentrations of the above heavy metals in the treated water were lower than that in Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978~1996) in China. Furthermore, the treated wastewater was recycled and reused in smelter plant. Zinc content in hydrolytic sludge reached up to 34.04%, which indicates that this sludge can be used to recover valuable metals.

Jan 1, 2010

Variations in delay timing can have a marked influence on blasting effectiveness and, hence, on total production costs. In single-row bench blasts, delay firing is invariably more effective than simultaneous initiation. In single-row delayed blasts, there is an optimum inter-hole delay above and below which inferior blasting results are obtained. This optimum delay is equal to the time required for each charge to just effectively detach its quota of the burden. The inter-hole delay should seldom be less than 4 ms.m-l of burden.In multi-row blasts in which holes in a given effective row are fired on the same delay, the entire burden on any effective row should be detached from the rock mass just before charges in the next effeotive row detonate. Delays shorter than this give inferior blasting results and an increased likelihood of environmental and slope stability problems. If the inter-row delay is too long, cut-offs can occur, especially where the delay unit is located outside the blasthole. For a surface delay system, the optimum inter-row delay usually varies between 4 ms.m-l and 8 ms.m-l of effective burden. The number of rows that can be fired effectively with surface delay systems (in a single blast) is limited by the threat of cut-offs. Greater interrow delays and a larger number of rows per blast can be fired to advantage with down-the-hole delay systems.There are practical limits to the timing accuracy of all available delay systems. The existence of delay time variability should be recognized and duly considered in the design of blasts.The relationship between delay timing and blasting vibrations is not discussed.

Jan 1, 1977

By Kihong Park, Matthews C. Habjan, Arthur L. Miller

New Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations limit the mass concentration of airborne diesel particulate matter (DPM) or, more specifically, the concentration of elemental carbon (EC), in underground mines. The mine operators are responding by introducing a variety of controls to reduce DPM in the mines, potentially including the evaluation of new maintenance procedures to reduce underground mine vehicle emissions. There is currently a lack of an inexpensive and dependable method to directly measure the DPM concentration emitted from the vehicle tailpipe. To that end, this work demonstrated a simple field portable method for estimating the mass concentration of elemental carbon exiting the tailpipe of a diesel engine using a direct reading photometer. Simultaneous measurements of tailpipe exhaust were made with a Thermo Electron Personal DataRAM 1200 photometer (particulate mass concentration based on light scattering) and by analyzing PM2.5 and PM1.0 samples collected on quartz fiber filters using the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method 5040 (mass concentration of EC via thermal-optical method). Results indicate surprisingly good correlation (R2 ) 0.97) of the two methods when the data are adjusted for relative humidity (RH) and corrected using an empirically generated calibration factor. Although preliminary, it may be possible to implement this method in maintenance shops to monitor emission trends and to compare emissions of various vehicles in a fleet. Such data will be useful for fleet planning to meet new air quality standards.

By Monique Pharand, Jeet Basi, Simon Hille

"High quality activated carbon is essential in the recovery of gold in Carbon-in-Leach (CIL), Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP), and Carbon-in-Column (CIC) circuits. Goldcorp’s Campbell complex at Red Lake Gold Mines (RLGM) experienced a period of low soluble gold (Au) recoveries during Q3 2013, during which time the processing plant saw higher than typical Au grades in the CIP tails solution stream. A technical review identified that the CIP circuit may be experiencing a carbon-fouling issue. To further understand the degree of fouling, and to troubleshoot the low recovery problem, samples of carbon were collected from the CIP, elution, acid wash, and regeneration circuits, and submitted for characterization test work. This paper summarizes the steps taken to remedy the carbon-fouling problem at RLGM resulting in increased overall Au recovery.Overview of Red Lake Gold MinesRed Lake Gold Mines is located approximately 450 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Ontario’s western boundary region.All mining is carried out through underground operations, utilizing overhand cut and fill, underhand cut and fill, and long-hole mining methods. Ore types include: silica-replaced carbonate veins with free milling gold, siliceous replacement-type mineralization (rich with arsenopyrite) marginal to veins, broad disseminated sulphide mineralization along major shears, and some minor sulphidized chemical sediment-hosted ore. The operation is supported by two milling complexes: Red Lake, and Campbell.Process DescriptionThe Campbell processing plant's main unit operations consist of grinding, gravity concentrating, flotation, autoclaving, leaching, carbon-in-pulp (CIP), carbon elution and reactivation, electro-winning, bullion smelting/refining and cyanide destruction, and concentrate handling. A schematic of the plant flowsheet is shown in the figure below.BackgroundHigh quality activated carbon is essential in the recovery of gold at many CIP/CIL/CIC processing plants. At RLGM, gold-bearing ore is milled and cyanide is added to leach the gold from the solids into solution. The dissolved gold then comes into contact with activated carbon, and adsorbs onto its highly porous surfaces. Gold is then recovered by separating the activated carbon from the main slurry for further refining. As such, the characteristics and quality of the activated carbon have a significant and direct impact on overall gold recovery."

Jan 1, 2016

By J. O. Marsden

Over the past eight years, Phelps Dodge (a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc.) devoted a significant amount of effort to the development of a suite of processes for the effective hydrometallurgical treatment of copper sulfide concentrates. This effort resulted in the development of high-temperature (>200ºC) and medium-temperature (150° to 165ºC) pressure leaching processes. Specific configurations of both processes have been commercially demonstrated at Phelps Dodge?s facility in Bagdad, Arizona. This paper reviews in detail the chemistry of medium-temperature pressure leaching of copper concentrates and reports on the process development work conducted by Phelps Dodge and others for this technology. This paper is Part I of a four-part series on this technology. Part II covers the development of medium-temperature pressure leaching and direct electrowinning technology; Part III considers the large-scale demonstration of the MT-DEW-SX process at Bagdad, Arizona; and Part IV addresses the development and design of a full-scale commercial application at Morenci, Arizona.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. T. Nel

The establishment of a pilot plant for the continuous production of titania pigment and nano-titania is discussed. The plant was designed, constructed and operated on the Necsa site. The TiO2 production capacity is 7?10 kg.h-1 by the reaction of TiCl4 and O2at>1000°C. Liquid TiCl4 is sprayed under pressure into a plasma reactor where it evaporates and reacts with O2 to form TiO2. Process optimization has allowed for continuous production without any clogging or blockages. The primary advantage of the plasma-assisted process is the possibility to recover and recycle the chlorine values in high yield as Cl2 for use in the manufacture of TiCl4. The HCl formed in most conventional fossil-fuelled processes makes Cl2 recovery and recycling much more difficult. Particle size distribution analysis of the fine, white product revealed a d50= 125 nm. The raw product consisted of 60% rutile that could be increased to 80?100% rutile by post-annealing. The specific surface area (SSA) of the pigment was 8?20 m2?g-1(BET). According to the CIE colour index the ?whiteness? (L*>95) of the plasma-produced pigment was better than that of several commercially available pigments. The particle size could be manipulated by controlling the TiCl4 feed rate, gas flowrates, and the particle quench rate and residence time. Nano-sized TiO2 powders with a particles size (d50) as small as 50 nm were also successfully produced in this way.

Jan 1, 2010

By Rudy Tenbergen, Dick Farmery, Jim Naylor

"Paste backfill has replaced cemented rock fill as one of the components to improve ground · control and mine safety at the Macassa Operation of Kinross Gold Corporation in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. It is the first operation to utilize "" flash thickening ""of very fine gold tailings to a paste consistency in the ""Paste Production and Storage Mechanism"", a joint technical development of Inco and GL&V. The tailings paste is mixed with alluvial sand to produce an engineered quality paste backfill. The development leading up to the decision to proceed with this novel technology is discussed, as well as commissioning of the backfill operation.IntroductionThe occurrence of a major rockburst on November 23, 1993 prompted a review of mining and backfill procedures at the Macassa No 3 shaft . This shaft is some 7238 ft deep and lies in a mining belt that is prone to seismic events. The recommendations were to change the mining from underhand cut and fill to mechanized long hole stopping and to look at alternatives to the rockfill backfill system in place. The Macassa cemented rock backfill operation, while producing the desired fill stiffness had drawbacks as compared to paste fill. With paste fill, placement rates are faster, more openings can be filled, it is less expensive and less prone to the occurrences of compensable incidents.Macassa mining personnel visited the Sudbury operations of Inco in 1993, where development on paste backfill was in progress. As some of the R&D was taking place with funding from the Premier's Council Technology Fund of the Ministry of Trade and Technology of the Province of Ontario , Inco personnel at that time did some feasibility and conceptual consulting on the use of paste fill for the industry. Inco had developed the use of alluvial sand paste fill, an engineered blend of alluvial sand and tailings fines and was doing development work to eliminate the ""conventional"" way of producing paste from mill tailing by thickening and filtration. This latter development work was taking place with GL&V Ontario. That work led to the filing of a joint Inca/ GL&V patent application for the PPSM, the Paste Production and Storage Mechanism with all marketing rights being held by GL&V."

Jan 1, 1997

WITH the exception of the deposits of the Milburn Cement Co near Dunedin, Wilson's Portland Cement Co., on the Mahurangi River (a short distance north of Auckland), and those of the New Zealand Portland Cement Co., at Limestone Island, the cement. Tesources of New Zealand remain practically undeveloped. The Milburn Company utilizes a mixture of limestone and mud for the manufacture of cement, while Wilson's and the New Zealand Portland Cement companies both have the advantage of a natural cement stock which requires but small additions of highgrade limestone to give the mixture required. The plant and deposits of the New Zealand Portland Cement Co are located in Whangarei Harbour, some six miles from thetownship of Whangarei. The works and dwelling-houses are situated on Limestone Island, which, with an area of 92 acres, and rising to a height of 212 ft., supplies the bulk of the raw material required. In addition to the island, the company possesses a high-grade limestone area of, roughly, four acres, situated on the mainland, 11 miles to the south. A better location for a cement works could not well have been chosen. On the east side of the island there is a deep channel, which never shows less than 18 ft. of water alongside the company's...

Jan 1, 1912

By S. Kittel, P. Galleguillos, H. E. Urtubia

The rougher flotation at Escondida consists of 80 cells of 100 m3 each, with injected air. Escondida has developed a system of automatic control of the rougher flotation using video cameras, which have been operating since 1997 for remote monitoring and manual control. Since 1999, an image processing software and a group of rules have allowed implementation of an expert system. To date, the expert system controls the superficial speed of each cell by adjusting the air flow and the froth depth of the flotation bank. Preliminary tests of the expert control on two of the eight rows gave 1.2% higher rougher recovery at a 92% degree of confidence. The proven benefits are already sufficient to move towards a complete plant implementation.

Jan 1, 2001

By Patrick Pelletier, Pierre-Alexandre Bossé, Julie Fournier, Gianni Bartolacci, Jayson Tessier, Ahmed Bouajila, Carl Duchesne

"This paper summarizes research into the study of the control of flotation processes based on froth images. The use of numerical image analysis techniques for the extraction of significant patterns (froth structure and colour) from industrial flotation froths is discussed.First, the froth was analysed by the use of the Multivariate Image Analysis (MIA) method to extract the spectral variation contained in a RBG image. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) was applied to develop the empirical model for the prediction of froth grade. The results of this application are illustrated using one industrial case study.Second, the froth was also analysed by Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Wavelet Transform Analysis (WTA) to extract features related more to morphological aspects. Since there is useful information hidden in froth texture, these methods are used as texture descriptor to classify different types of froths.Third, a control strategy based on a froth structure indicator was developed and implemented on an industrial zinc flotation circuit. The feedback controller uses a reagent flow-rate in order to maintain the froth structure at its set point. Process improvements obtained with the implemented control strategy are highlighted.Finally, the feasibility to implement a hybrid control strategy consisting in a froth structure supervision controller based on the froth concentrate grade estimated by MIA and recovery inferred by image analysis is discussed.INTRODUCTIONThe development of control strategies to achieve satisfactory control performance has always been a great challenge for engineers and the need for improved process diagnosis, control and optimization has become more and more evident for the mineral processing industry in the last decades. That is why new process variables need to be measured particularly in highly multivariable processes such as flotation. This industrial process is subject to a wide variety of disturbances mainly generated by frequent and sometimes abrupt changes in physical and/or chemical ore characteristics and also, due to some irregularities in manual process operating procedures. A flotation circuit scheme is always a complex network of more than two dozens slurry streams. Information about those streams (% solid, metal content analysis and flow rates) is important for process diagnosis performance evaluation and control. Also, because of the grade decrease and increasing complexity of the new processed ores, more instrumentation outputs and more powerful and significant pr"

Jan 1, 2005

By K Niiranen

Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) operates one iron ore mine, three concentration plants and three pelletising plants in Kiruna, Sweden. The current methods of separation at the beneficiation plants are low intensity magnetic separation (LIMS) and reverse apatite flotation, where the wet LIMS stage is regarded as the crucial part of silica separation from the ore. Because future silica levels are expected to increase in the incoming material to the beneficiation plants, geometallurgy has become an important area of development and research.A laboratory-scale methodology was developed for the systematic characterisation of the ore for mineral processing, with the focus on the high silica ore type B2 and newly discovered subtypes. This methodology combines mineralogical, geochemical and process mineralogical characteristics. Automated mineralogy (QEMSCAN®) is used to study the modal mineralogy, the distribution of silicate minerals in different particle size classes after comminution, the deportment of silicon (Si) between various silicates and the degree of liberation and intergrowth of magnetite and silicates. An essential stage in the systematic characterisation of the ore deposit for mineral processing is the estimation and simulation of different parameters from the laboratory scale to the full scale at the concentration plants. This is achieved by using empirical models based on the data collected at the mineral processing plants. As the first step to implement the geometallurgical information, the current geological model is reconstructed with the mineralogy and the two, newly defined subtypes of high silica ore type B2 are separated into different domains.To study the reduction of the SiO2 content in the magnetite concentrate, a large-scale reverse cationic silicate flotation laboratory test program was initiated in early spring 2016. This program investigated potential silicate flotation in the beneficiation plants at the Kiirunavaara site. The second target is to implant mineral processing parameters into the block model based on the new geological model. This information provides a good basis for making a prognosis for mine planning and a quality prognosis regarding the crude ore for mineral processing.CITATION:Niiranen, K, 2017. A geometallurgical perspective on a high-grade iron ore deposit at Kiirunavaara, northern Sweden, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 309–318 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

By S. Pal, A. K. Lahiri

Most of the compounds present in slag are surface active. This gives rise to foaminess of slag. The foam life and foaming index are normally determined by the draining rate of slag through the plateau border, so the foaming index is directly proportional to slag viscosity and inversely proportional to slag density and bubble diameter. When a small amount of a strong surface active compound like P2O5or Cr2O3is present in slag, however, the foam life increases significantly and the above relationship is not obeyed. The strong surface active compounds reduce the draining rate from the film between the adjacent bubbles so the film draining controls the life of the foam. The thickness of the film, Marangoni force, viscosity of the slag, and diffusion of surface active compounds determine the film draining rate. The interplay of these factors leads to very low or high film draining rates and affects the film and foam stability significantly. Keywords: slag, foam, foaming index, film draining

Jan 1, 2004