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By J. O. Pitts

"Background The preponderance of Canada's coal resources is located in areas remote from high demand domestic users and at some significant distances from deepsea ports. This places great demands on the transportation system and has forced the coal and the transportation industries to adopt highly efficient methods of handling the product and hauling it to market position. Most of the coal not consumed in minemouth thermal power stations is carried by rail over lines operated by the two transcontinental railway systems, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. These rail networks are extensive and have the advantage (as compared to most other North American railways) of being able to handle coal movements from origin through to destination without interchange to other rail carriers. Coal SourcesWith exception of the coal produced in Cape Breton, Nova iScotia, all the significant shipping volumes in Canada emanate ifrom mines located in the three most westerly provinces. Figure I ishows the geographic distribution of the major mining operaitions shipping coal to domestic and export markets. The prinicipal routes and the tonnages carried (1980 calendar year) are ialso indicated. iThe 1980 shipping data are summarized in Table I. Saskatchewan lignite began moving from Bienfait to Thunder Bay by CP Rail unit trains in mid-1981 at the rate of one million tonnes per year. The product is handled through Thunder Bay Terminals and delivered directly to a nearby Ontario Hydro electrical generating station."

Jan 1, 1985

By G. F. MacDonnell

THE Privateer mine consists of a group of mineral claims situated in the Zeballos area, on the west coast of Vancouver island, approximately 180 miles north of Victoria. Although Zeballos is a comparatively new mining camp, its transportation facilities can be considered exceptionally good. General freight and supplies are brought in by either C.P.R. or Frank Waterhouse steamers from either Victoria or Vancouver. Service by these boats varies from five to ten days and the trip from Victoria takes approximately two days. Passengers may use the C.P.R. boats, or, if speed is essential, they may fly, in which case they have the choice of two flying companies, namely, Canadian Air-ways, Limited, and Ginger Coote Airways. The average flight from Vancouver takes approximately two hours. Excellent unloading facilities are provided at the beach by a government dock for the steamers and a floating dock for aeroplanes. The mine, which is approximately five miles from the beach, is serviced by a fairly good gravel road, which has proved satisfactory for all haulage purposes. Zeballos has the reputation of having one of the heaviest rainfalls on the west coast, but as no accurate records have been kept, no comparisons can be made. H. C. Gunning, in his report, comments on the weather from 1929 to 1932, and one would judge that the practically continuous rainfall did not add to the pleasures of the field work. During the summer of 1938, the opposite condition prevailed and the area had exceptionally dry and pleasant weather. The snowfall is generally light at the lower elevations, but very heavy higher up. No extreme cold weather is encountered during the winter, which is generally short.

Jan 1, 1939

By T. Gerritsen, R. MacRosty, R. Pula, P. Gebski, W. L. Ying

Furnace run-outs can cause extended furnace downtime for repair, while leaks or more severe failures in the cooling system can lead to brick hydration or in severe cases, steam explosions. These incidents can result in lost production, damage to equipment, injuries and casualties. To prevent such incidents, reliable and accurate techniques to monitor the critical components of the furnace such as refractory lining, furnace structure, taphole integrity and main water circuits are required. This paper describes several advanced methods that have been developed to assess the condition of furnace integrity, refractory lining, tapholes and cooling water circuits.

Jan 1, 2015

By N. A. Beier, R. Amos, Smith. L., C. Atherton, D. R. Barsi, D. Blowes, D. C. Sego

"Waste rock is one of the most abundant materials at mine sites and must be properly characterized and managed to limit acid rock drainage and other harmful byproducts. An experimental waste rock pile—part of the test piles research program—located at the Diavik diamond mine (Northwest Territories, Canada) was deconstructed and sampled to study the spatial variability of material properties. Bulk samples were classified based on the amount of material finer than 4.75 mm. Hydraulic properties of each sample were estimated and particle size distribution analysis was completed. These datasets and classification methods might be used to improve the understanding of hydraulic and geochemical behaviour of the material and to study waste rock at other sites. ¦ KEYWORDS Acid rock drainage (ARD), Material classification, Particle size distribution (PSD), Waste rock RÉSUMÉ Les stériles font partie des matériaux les plus abondants sur les sites miniers et, en tant que tels, doivent être correctement caractérisés et gérés afin de limiter le drainage rocheux acide (DRA) et la pré¬sence d’autres sous-produits nocifs. Dans le cadre du programme Test Piles Research Program, un amas de roches stériles expérimental situé à la mine de diamant Diavik (Territoires du Nord-Ouest, Canada) a été décomposé et mis à l’essai afin d’étudier la variabilité spatiale des propriétés des matériaux. Les échan¬tillons en vrac ont été classés en fonction de la quantité de matériaux plus fins que 4,75 mm. Les propriétés hydrauliques de chaque échantillon ont été estimées et l’analyse de la composition granulométrique effectuée. Ces ensembles de données et méthodes de classement serviront à mieux comprendre le com¬portement hydraulique et géochimique du matériau et à étudier les stériles sur d’autres sites. ¦ MOTS CLÉS classement des matériaux, composition granulométrique, drainage rocheux acide (DRA), stérilesINTRODUCTION Statement of problem The characterization of mine waste rock remains a challenge in active mining sites. The large volume of material and the large size of particles make it difficult to collect representative samples. Sampling techniques are often dis-ruptive to mining operations because they alter the structure of the waste rock pile or interfere with mine traffic. The convention at most mine sites to collect little to no information on waste rock material means that models and predictions of how waste material will behave and interact with the surrounding environment are based on general information that might not be site specific. This could lead to environmental damage or higher costs if environmental effects are underestimated during the construction of waste rock structures."

Jan 1, 2019

By Claude Hubert, Robert Sansfaçon

"The Malartic gold camp includes the Malartic Gold Fields, Barnat, East-Malartic, Canadian Malartic and Sladen mines. From 1935 to 1984, these mines have yielded 212 403 kg of gold. They occur within a 900 m wide belt of highly sheared, dislocated and faulted volcanic and sedimentary rocks (Piché and part of the Pontiac groups) herein named the Malartic Tectonic Znne (MTZ). The zone trends WNW-ESE and separates two lithotectonic sedimentary domains, the Cadillac to the north and the Pontiac to the south. The sedimentary domains are characterized by their coherent fold generations consisting of open to tight reclined and recumbent F1 folds that have been refolded into series of asymmetric upright F2 folds. A flat-lying schistosity (S1 ) and a vertical pressure-solution cleavage (S2) are ubiquitous throughout. Discrete sets of brittle and brittleductile faults are synchronous and parallel to each of these two fabrics.The MTZ trends N320° in the northwestern sector of the town of Malartie, changing to N2800 at its easternmost extremity. The Malartie and Sladen faults constitute its northern and southern boundaries respectively. These two faults also bound another set of faults oriented N305°. Throughout the MTZ, the faults at N280° and N320° and those at N305° outline a series of anastomosed motifs that constitute the principal structural feature of the Malartic district. Locally, a fourth set of minor faults at N065° combines with the other three prominent sets. All these faults have disrupted the gold-bearing volcanic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks encountered throughout the MTZ.The MTZ comprises numerous lozenge-shaped blocks of komatiites and basalts or greywackes and black shales which are cut by disjointed dikes, sills and small intrusions of felsic and mafic rocks. The latter includes gabbro, diorite, lamprophyre, monzonite and pegmatite. They frequently fill conjugate sets of fractures. In some areas, they are clustered into coalescent intrusions. The present morphology of these intrusive bodies( cube, chocolate-tablet boudin, parallel epiped and cigar) is not representative of their primary forms but the result of late shearing and faulting indicative of a major tectonic event subsequent to their emplacement. The intrusions were injected during a brittle stage of deformation related to the F1 folding but prior to the development of the F2 folds and subsequent tearing and shearing by late brittle and brittle-ductile faults . The ultramafic and mafic rocks are intensely altered to serpentine, tremolite, actinolite, carbonate, biotite, hematite and pyrite according to the nature of their proto/it h. In the vicinity of the MTZ, all lithologies exhibit mineral assemblages indicative of the upper greenschist or lower amphibolite facies of metamorphism.The structural evolution of the MTZ involved superimposed folding, shearing, transposition, mylonitization, brittle and brittle-ductile faulting. Each lenticular motif results from the combined effect of conjugate sets of shear zones that outline lozenge-shaped blocks where strain markers indicate different strain states from cores to margins. Bedding in ultramafic flows and/or sedimentary rocks is either NW-SE or NE-SW within the blocks but, in the vicinity of the Malartie and S laden faults, it has been rotated to become subparallel to the faults.Ore shoots are most commonly associated with altered and deformed bodies of diorite and monzonite, or some mafic and ultramafic schists and, at the Canadian Malartic, Sladen and East Malartic mines, with metasedimentary rocks. The shoots occur in close proximity to the various faults of the MTZ but the gold itself is intimately associated with pyrite, biotite and carbonate in halos bordering fractures crisscrossing the different host rocks. The density of fractures and the width of their altered zones have been significant parameters in the production of economic ore shoots. Grains of gold are visible in some veins of quartz a"

Jan 1, 1990

By ByongPil Lee, Changkyu Lee, Jin Gyun Park, Hyung Sub Eom, Sung-Koo Jo, Jae-Young Lee, Gilsoo Han

"A new hydrometallurgical process for nickel extraction from a low grade laterite ore such as limonite has been developed by RIST and POSCO. This POSCO Nickel Extraction Process (PosNEP) consists of five main processes: ore reduction using hydrogen as a reductant; acid leaching at atmospheric pressure and temperature; cementation by the use of reduced-ore seed; production of the main product such as ferronickel or a high purity nickel compound; and production of by-products such as cobalt and iron in the forms of cobalt sulfate and iron oxide. In addition, hydrogen produced in acid leaching and hydrochloric acid regenerated in pyrohydrolysis for iron oxide production can be reused in the process, which makes PosNEP more cost-effective. The performance of PosNEP has been proven through pilot tests, showing that this process is economically and technically viable. In this paper, basic concepts and detailed test results of PosNEP are shown.INTRODUCTIONNickel has been extracted from two types of ore, sulfide and oxide ore. Nickel and cobalt usually occur together in the ores. The principal ore mineral of the sulfide is pentlandite, (Ni,Fe)9S8, which is easily beneficiated to produce sulfide concentrates(Moats & Davenport, 2014). These concentrates are usually treated by smelting and converting to make a matte. The produced matte is then purified through either hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processes to produce high-purity nickel. In general, this process for sulfide ore has been known as a more cost-effective process than that for oxide ore.The oxide ore is laterite comprised of two different ore types, saprolite and limonite. The main nickel-bearing mineral of saprolite is nickeliferrous garnierite,(Mg,Ni)6Si4O10(OH)8, and that of limonite is nickeliferrous goethite (Fe,Ni)O·OH ore (Moats & Davenport, 2014). Since the saprolite has high contents of nickel and slag formers (MgO and SiO2) and a low content of iron, it tends to be treated by a pyrometallurgical smelting process such as calcination and electric furnace techniques to produce ferronickel for use in stainless steel. In this process, the cobalt in the ferronickel does not have any economic value."

Jan 1, 2017

By D. J. Charlton

"IntroductionMaintenance is a business, which to be successful, requires good management, systems and reporting. The prime objective of the maintenance management group, be they large or small, must be to anticipate and prevent interruptions in operations by keeping equipment in good mechanical condition. This objective should be carried out at minimum cost consistent with maximum productiveness.The objective of this chapter is to give an insight into the various aspects of maintenance management that must be considered to effectively and efficiently operate a mill complex. The degree to which the maintenance sub-systems are developed in an operating mill will be determined by the size of the mill and the needs of the operation.The criterion of the management system used is that the system serve the operation and not vice versa. The systems presented should be considered as tools and, as with all tools, they must be sharpened and replaced as the need arises or as more effective tools become available.To understand what is involved in maintenance management, it is worthwhile to consider a systems approach to analyzing management problems. This approach was developed by J.A.B. Rae while reviewing maintenance management systems for Cominco Ltd.A very simple system involving managing results and objectives is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1.The systems approach to organizational development involves four basic elements: an objective, a result, an activity and feedback. In the analysis, the activity element is broken down into individual actions that people could be held responsible for. If we introduce the action of operating into the diagram of Figure l, we arrive diagrammatically in Figure 2."

Jan 1, 1989

By A. Varma

Successful technology commercialization occurs when a company is focused on creating shareholder value by providing a reliable product at a price point attractive to the market, while at the same time maintaining strict control of its internal cash burn rates. Developing a technology platform and a market platform are equally important in the commercialization of new technologies such as fuel cells. This paper will discuss some of the key barriers that may prevent successful market entry for emerging and disruptive technologies, such as: R&D priorities, supply chain / manufacturing issues, materials, cost reduction strategies, customer needs, developing a market pull strategy, institutional barriers such as existing regulatory/approvals processes and/or current design/purchasing practices, product reliability and resilience, and finding the right path to market. SDTC is an arms length foundation that aims to financially support the successful market entry of emerging and disruptive technologies that can provide significant environmental benefits to Canada. The fuel cell industry, which represents one such technology, is at a critical point in its evolution where market receptivity and the technology platform are converging to potentially create significant customer advantages for fuel cell products being developed today. Since its inception in 2001, SDTC has received over 850 business cases from which it has identified successful strategies to overcome the noted barriers to commercialization. While maintaining commercial confidentiality, the SDTC database will be mined to: Identify specific success stories that have overcome various barriers and discuss their strategy; Identify specific fuel cell related industry experiences that hinder successful market uptake. The general attributes and trends of successful technology developments identified in this paper will hopefully provide guidance to technology developers and prepare them to successfully tackle the next set of hurdles on the path to commercializing their technology, once they have proven their technology works in the laboratory.

Jan 1, 2005

By H. V. Kinsey

"IntroductionTITANIUM is probably the most widely publicized metal today. Much has been written, both in the lay press and the technical press, about its properties and potentialities. In view of the fact that Canada possesses large quantities of titanium-bearing ore, and could conceivably become a major producer of metallic titanium, it was felt that a paper dealing mainly with the physical metallurgy of titanium would be of interest to this Institute. This paper is concerned chiefly with the useful properties of titanium and its alloys and the fundamentals governing the modification of its properties by alloying.Physical Properties of TitaniumTitanium belongs to a family of metals that have been termed 'gas sensitive' (I), because their mechanical properties are altered by certain gases which they readily absorb and retain. Other metals of this group are zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, columbium, tantalum, and chromium. Titanium has a strong affinity for oxygen and nitrogen and once it has absorbed these gases they cannot be removed either by melting in vacuum or by any degassing agent. These gases, when present in excess of about half a per cent oxygen plus nitrogen, render the metal brittle and useless as a structural material.Some of the typical physical properties of titanium are listed in Table I along with those of common structural metals for comparison."

Jan 1, 1953

By G. R. Waters

"The technology behind industrial applications such as Hydrometallurgy continues to evolve, as do the corresponding regulations and specifications that ensure the safety of workers and the environment. Valves make up key aspects of this technology, and often represent the single point of failure for entire operations. More often than not, the valves being used in Hydrometallurgy applications are known as Severe Service Valves (SSVs) due to their ability to withstand the extreme conditions. Most experts agree that SSVs are identified by applications, and that these applications are challenging to the valve’s ability to provide a minimum acceptable level of performance over a minimum acceptable duration. The Manufacturers Standardization Society (MSS) of the Valve and Fittings Industry has designated Ross Waters, President of CGIS, as Lead to the Task Force put in place to determine the minimum requirements a valve needs to be able to perform to when faced with extreme conditions, whether from pressure, temperature, toxicity, solids, or usage. This paper serves to determine what the minimum requirements are for SSVs in Hydrometallurgy applications. It will draw on five decades of industry experience from one of Canada’s leading valve experts.INTRODUCTION Severe Service Valves Severe Service Valves (SSVs) mean different things to different people. Until today, defining SSVs had little if any global agreement or recognition. That is about to change as the Manufacturers Standardization Society (MSS) has accepted an application to produce a Standard Practice so defining them. This paper provides information about the selection of SSVs in all industries but focusses on metallurgical processes and applications and offers examples to illustrate the successful and unsuccessful use of these valves. All of this with the purpose of raising the awareness of the industry on all sides, from the suppliers and manufacturers, specifiers and to the users and owners of them. It also supplies tools to understand where and why to separate SSVs from general purpose or commodity valves (GPVs). SSVs are often identified by applications, and these applications are challenging to the valve’s ability to survive. Within these applications the elements that make the service severe are being analyzed, quantified and qualified. From this, we expect to offer objective and repeatable definitions and guidance to improve the experience of SSVs, reduce unnecessary costs, provide longer service life and process runs, improve safety and reduce environmental issues."

Jan 1, 2017

By S. H. Ward

An account of a new method of investigating the electrical .properties J the earth's crust is presented. The method, called AFMAG, employs, as a source, natural alternating magnetic fields of audio and sub-audio frequencies. Measurements of the distortion of these fields caused by geological features are made with the aid of search coil detectors at several discrete frequencies. Many results of field surveys made with the method are presented and they illustrate its advantages and limitations when applied to the search for massive sulphide mineralization. The advantages far outweigh the limitations and in fact indicate that a major breakthrough in geophysical exploration technique and instrumentation has been made.

Jan 1, 1958

By D. Auerswald, M. Kotze, V. Yahorava, T. Udayar

Uranium can be recovered from lower grade uranium ores (<800 mg/kg U3O8), leach residues, and waste dumps cost-effectively via resin-in-pulp (RIP). Using this technology, no solid/liquid separation or washing of the leach residues are required. Furthermore, the uranium recovery can be higher than with conventional methods. RIP technologies have, however, been perceived negatively due to concerns around potential resin fouling and losses. This paper highlights the advancements made in RIP and discusses a number of potential applications where the technology could deliver economic and consequential environmental benefits by reducing the uranium levels in the waste.

Jan 1, 2014

By Ian R. Muirhead

Over the past year or so, a number of mining companies have been meeting to examine the role of research in surface mining and, in particular, how to establish a collaborative research effort for the surface mining industry. A review has been completed which has identified the topics that are of interest to the surface mining companies for undertaking collaborative research. This has identified key subject areas such as Operations & Equipment; Maintenance; Environment & Reclamation; and Stability. Specific research projects for the initial research effort have been selected which include Wireless Data Communications, Analysis and Management; Application of GPS in Mining; and Tires for Heavy Haulers. In addition, attention has also been focussed on finding a suitable low cost, but effective, organization to coordinate and manage the collaborative research. The recently formed CONRAD Organization (Canadian Oilsands Network for Research and Development) appears to be a suitable candidate and discussions are ongoing with that group. This paper provides a summary of the review of surface mining research needs and of the status of the establishment of a collaborative research body for surface mining.

Jan 1, 1996

By J. W. Thomson, H. J. Lloyd, R. J. Taylor

"THE HOLLINGER MINE has been producing gold and by-product silver almost continuously for forty-eight years. The value of current production is $10,000,000 annually from one million tons of ore. Its management •has, particularly over the past decade, increasingly . concerned itself with the problem of profitable operation in a time of steadily rising costs and a fixed price of gold. At one period in the life of the mine, before World War II, production resulted in yearly profit margins that were stable and relatively thick. In winning gold from a series of inconsistent vertical ore lenses, operating management was much better protected than it is today against a general rise in cost or dip in grade of ore. The tissue-like thinness of present-day margins demand more careful handling. A sharp rise in costs, if protracted, could easily rip the tissue to shreds and close down the business. The counter-measure of raising grade and gutting the mine would bring on the end perhaps more rapidly, without having contributed much to the recovery of our national re-sources, nor to community welfare. The alternative is to keep costs under control."

Jan 1, 1960

By Shiqiang (Rob) Hui, Jiaren (Jimmy) Jiang, Rees Llewellyn, Yongsong Xie

Wear has been estimated to cost the Canadian mining/mineral processing industry over $15 billion per year mainly for repair/replacement of worn parts in 2013. The associated production loss is difficult to quantify but add considerably to the problem. The Canadian oil sands sector which has to deal with extremely abrasive and erosive solids, has traditionally incurred extremely severe and often unique attack. Demonstrable progress in mitigating the wear problems has been achieved through materials development, more informed materials selections, and better component and operation condition designs. An integral contributor to these advances is a long-term collaborative research partnership between NRC and the mining/supply industry. In this paper, this continuing collaboration will be described. A main focus is to identify degradation mechanisms occurring in the most severe and important service applications and to correlate these findings with laboratory test data. Relevant abrasion and erosion (often combined with corrosion) properties have been established and correlated with composition and microstructures for all classes of resistant materials ranging from relatively soft elastomers to ultra-hard ceramics. A comprehensive wear properties database has been compiled. This capability has been instrumental in facilitating the development of improved materials, optimizing materials fitness/selection for service, wear failure analysis, and quality assurance.

Jan 1, 2015

By Shek N. Lau, Nicola Samman

"Enclosed gear cases on board heavy mining equipment have traditionally been lubricated with regular heavy duty gear oils. However, equipment manufacturers, have recommended the use of an ISO-1000 gear oil for this application to ensure adequate lubricant film strength, especially at the higher end of the working temperature range. The majority of these ISO-1000 gear oils are based either on residual/asphaltic oil or synthetics, primarily higher viscosity polyalphaolefins. Although the performance of these lubricants has been satisfactory, they suffered other shortcomings that equipment users have lived with over the years.The major requirement at the user’s mine was to provide lubrication for the shovel Hoist gear case. Within such a gear case design, the gears and the roller bearings, that have different lubrication requirements, are lubricated with the same lubricant. Several lubricants were used, light gear oils as well as the recommended ISO-1000 heavy gear oils. On the one hand, the lighter oils performed adequately for the lubrication of the bearings that formed part of the enclosed gear system. These lighter oils did not perform as well for the lubrication of the gears due to their lower viscosities, resulting in shorter gear servicelives.On the other hand, the ISO-1000 gear oils performed well for the lubrication of the gears, but were too viscous to creep into the bearing elements to lubricate them adequately, especially during the cold northern Canadian winters. This resulted in catastrophic bearing failures and secondary damages to the gears.The challenge, then, was to formulate a lubricant which met the 1000 cSt at 40°C viscosity requirement as stipulated by the equipment manufacturer, while satisfactorily lubricating the bearings at the full working temperature range. This was achieved by the development of a semi-fluid grease lubricant, which has proven in field trials to give adequate performance in this application for the lubrication of both the bearings and gears down to -40°C.This product met the equipment manufacturer’s performance criteria and resolved, to a large extent, leakage of the lubricant through seals experienced with the use of conventional and synthetic gear oils.Although the main performance criteria of the fluid was its capability to lubricate the “Hoist” gear case, it was also used during the field trial in other gear cases on board the shovel to test its full capabilities.This unusual alternative lubricant was field tested and evaluated for more than two years. Based on this assessment, the product was reformulated to improve its fluidity, slumpability and the settling of debris/wear metals to the bottom of the gear cases. This reformulated softer grade, a semi-fluid grease, has been performing satisfactorily for more than eight months and is still undergoing longer term assessment."

Jan 1, 1996

By John D. Godfrey

A brief account of economic developments in and around northeastern Alberta is presented and mention is made of mining and industrial developments currently of interest in the area. Planned and projected operations are briefly discussed for this region. The history of geological surveys and mining activities in the Shield area of Alberta and the adjoining parts of Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan is traced. Reassessment of the presently-known economic picture of northwestern Canada in conjunction with some recent information on Precambrian structures of northeastern Alberta points to some interesting mining possibilities, particularly in and around that province.

Jan 1, 1960

By Maarten van de Vijfeijken, Marco Rufli

"By using the latest generation of medium voltage frequency converters, new possibilities have arisen to improve the grinding process. Beside all the direct and indirect advantages, several dedicated functions have now been implemented for ring geared grinding mills in the minerals industry. The advanced operational functions ensure a smooth, safe and reliable operation with minimum stress for the mechanical equipment and therefore highest availability of the mill. Several papers have already been presented concerning the benefits of using this state of the art technology for mill drives (Ravani von Ow and Bomvisinho, 2010; Ravani von Ow and Gerhard, 2010). However this paper will not only show and explain the operational benefit of these functions, but will focus on the experiences gained with this kind of sophisticated ring geared mill drive system. Several measurements of different operating conditions (starting, frozen charge remover, controlled roll back, backlash, etc.) made on an installed and commissioned 2 x 5 MW dual pinion ring geared mill drive system will be shown and discussed. Also the accuracy of the load sharing between the two 5 MW motors during starting, normal operation and stopping will be demonstrated using real measurements from an operating system. Finally the inherent features of these drive systems are briefly discussed.INTRODUCTIONLooking at the demands of grinding mills, we can split them into operational, maintenance and protective demands. For smooth and safe operation, it is important that critical situations are avoided as much as possible. Maintenance functionality must be quick and easy to execute, while protection of the system is important during all operating conditions. ABB has considered all these demands during development of their dedicated mill functions. By adding an additional controller (mill controller), not only a lot of application related functionality and protection is included, but also the interface between the mill drive system and the customer’s distributed control system (DCS) is simplified."

Jan 1, 2011

By Stephen P. Quin

One of the most prospective undeveloped greenstone belts in Canada, the Hope Bay greenstone belt extends over 80km in a north-south direction and is between 7 and 20km wide. The belt lies on the arctic coast and comprises mafic meta-volcanic and meta-sedimentary rocks that are bounded by Archean granite intrusives and gneisses. The greenstone package has been deformed during multiple events and is transected by major northsouth trending shear zones that appear to exert a significant control on the localization of mineralization. The Hope Bay belt contains a number of significant gold deposits hosted in a typical Archean greenstone belt and which occur in several geologic settings, including shear-hosted, lode-style and breccia-associated. Combined, the deposits host a measured and indicated resource of 1.6 million oz of gold averaging 15.7 g/t plus an inferred resource of 2.7 million oz of gold averaging 12.3 g/t. All deposits remain open to expansion. Exploration in the period 2000-2002 by Miramar includes more than 110,000m of drilling to more fully define the nature of the known deposits, while regional exploration has focused on identifying and evaluating new targets. In carrying out its programs, Miramar uses a number of techniques to improve its chances of exploration success. Activity in 2003 includes 43,000m of drilling focused on expanding resources in the Madrid area, testing the Boston deposit at depth and continuing the hunt for more discoveries. Meanwhile Miramar is advancing one of the deposits towards a production decision, based on a low capital, high return development scenario.

May 1, 2003

By S. Zekovic

"The paper gives an overview of the economics condition and strategic business challanges of the mining&metallurgy sector and their possible impact on the future development of the Bor basin of copper in Serbian part of Danube Region. Economics and strategic challanges in the mining& metallurgy complex are emphasized by world economic and financial crisis. An analysis of strategic challanges is undertaken by application of a comprehensive development framework approach. Paper indicates that an economics and evaluation of possible impacts of constraints and challenges for the development of Bor basin shows that it must be included in corporative decision, local and regional plans.INTRODUCTIONRisks are characteristic of every strategic development and business decision-making, so their successful management should be a part of the development strategy of the corporation, especially longterm. Due to the growing uncertainty in the general socio-economic environment, “risk management”, risk insurance, risk control, risk culture, risk optimization are frequently talked about. Among the key risks at a corporate level are the financial risks and risks of the regulative framework, especially in the field of environment and land use. In both cases, it is a question of external risks, which the companies need to relativize and successfully manage. Some companies pay more attention to production risks and search for better solutions in that domain which is not enough (Ernst&Young, 2008). Strategic business risks appear mostly on the macro-economic level, from where they should be” transferred” onto the level of sector economics and action level in corporations. Risk management include transferring the risk to other parts, avoiding the risk, preventing hazard, reducing the negative effect or probability of the risk, accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk.The research has included perspective and the general market trend and market positioning of the production and copper processing complex in the world; the impact of the requirements and strategic goals of the EU Directive and Kyoto Protocol on the institutional and other adjustments important for business in this sector; the impact assessment of the regulations important for business in the mining and metals sector, and case study of economics and challenges for the development of mining and metallurgy sector in the Bor basin of copper in Serbian part of Danube region. The analysis has included the identification and assessment of the global challenges on the future development of the copper complex in the miningsmelting basin Bor. Presented results in the paper are part of the research project “Sustainable spatial development of the Danube area in Serbia"" (No. 036036), financed by Ministry of Education and science of Republic Serbia."

Jan 1, 2012