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By James F. Kvitkovich, George V. Weisdack

Longwall mining techniques were introduced into U.S. bituminous coal mining operations in the early 1960s. These techniques were gradually adopted by many mines during the 1970s. By 1983, considered to be the peak of the longwall mine census, there were 118 active longwall faces in 79 coal mines throughout the United States. Beginning in 1984, longwall faces began a decline in numbers that has continued to the present day (Fig. 1). The geographic distribution of longwall faces today is shown in Fig.2 according to region. A breakdown of recent longwall mine production by region is shown in Table 1. An approximate breakdown of present longwall face installations by product (metallurgical and steam) is shown in Table 2.

Jan 1, 2005

By D. R. Wilburn

This summary of international mineral exploration activities for the year 2005 draws upon available information from literature, industry and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) specialists. It provides data on exploration budgets by global region and mineral commodity and identifies significant mineral discoveries and exploration target areas. It also discusses government programs affecting the mineral exploration industry and presents analysis of the mineral industry based on these data. Two types of information are reported and analyzed in this annual review of international exploration for the year 2005. They include budgetary statistics provided by Metals Economics Group (MEG) and information on regional and site-specific exploration activities in 2005 compiled by the USGS.

Jan 1, 2006

By Harry D. Lewis

Gilsonite is a lustrous black material that can be easily crushed into a chocolate-colored powder. It is a solid but relatively soft, lightweight hydrocarbon that visually resembles the volcanic glass obsidian. It was once thought to be a type of coal, but because it is thermoplastic it melts rather than bums. Gilsonite is found in commercial quantities only in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado, where it forms vertical, nearly parallel veins of varying depth, width, and length. Gilsonite from different veins has different properties, most notably variations in softening point and solubility. These differences result in its use in a variety of industrial applications. Gilsonite's earliest commercial uses were in varnishes, buggy paints, and beer vat linings. Eventually it came to be used in more than 160 products ranging from inks to explosives. It is exported from the United States to most industrialized countries throughout the world. Today, due to competition from synthetics and other hydrocarbon products, its use has narrowed to several specific industries. Although sold mostly as a commodity, current research is focused on applications for gilsonite as a value added product. Historical Overview The discovery of gold in California and the dawn of the mining era in Nevada, Colorado, and Utah around 1850 brought a wave of prospectors to the western United States. One of those pioneers, Samuel H. Gilson, is generally credited with a major role in the discovery of gilsonite. The material now known as gilsonite was discovered several times from the late 1860s through the mid-1880s. It was William P. Blake who, after receiving samples of the material, wrote a paper in 1885 describing "a new variety of asphaltum from the Uinta Mountains." He termed the material uintaite. Although Sam Gilson was not the first to discover the mineral, he was an-inventor who used gilsonite in products that he patented. It was his conviction that the substance was of great value, which caused some to refer to it as gilsonite. The term Gilsonite became the registered trademark of the American Gilsonite Co., and it continues to be in use today. When the first company was formed to mine this substance in 1886 it was named the Gilsonite Manufacturing Co. This firm acquired many gilsonite mining claims and marketed a varnish made from the material. It was the unusual properties of gilsonite varnish that attracted the attention of Adolphus Busch of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. In 1889 Anheuser-Busch bought out Gilson's interests and formed the Gilson Asphaltum Co. Busch had been importing asphalt from Sicily for use in lining beer barrels and saw gilsonite as being more readily available and cheaper. Although gilsonite did not work well in this application, Busch did acquire a large number of mining claims in the Uinta Basin. In 1903 the parent firm of Gilson Asphaltum financed the building of an 85-km railroad from near Grand Junction, CO, to Dragon, UT, to haul gilsonite ore to market. Underground mining was initially centered near Dragon and then later at Bonanza, UT, as different veins were mined. The railway was abandoned in 1937 in favor of truck transportation. In 1938 Gilson Asphaltum changed its name to Barber Asphalt Co., the predecessor of Barber Oil Corp. In 1946 Barber Oil teamed with Standard Oil of California to form a partnership, American Gilsonite Co., which today has its operational headquarters at Bonanza, UT. Barber Oil investigated many new uses for gilsonite, including the making of petroleum derivatives such as gasoline. This work led to the construction of a 116-km pipeline to carry slurried gilsonite to a refinery in Colorado for the production of gasoline, fuel oil, and coke. Pipeline operations began in 1957 but stopped when the economics of competing with petroleum became unfavorable, and the refinery was sold in 1973. In 1981 Standard Oil (later Chevron) became the sole owner of American Gilsonite and remained so until 1991, when it sold its interest to Stratford Enterprises Co. of Tulsa, OK. The companies have since been merged and now operate under the name American Gilsonite Co. with headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT. American Gilsonite continues to be the world's largest miner and supplier of the mineral. The American Asphalt Association was formed in 1902 by former stockholders in Gilson Asphaltum. This company mined various gilsonite claims until it was dissolved in 1953 and its properties were sold to American Gilsonite and Gordon S. Ziegler and Associates. The Utah Gilsonite Co. was established in 1920 and mined several claims until 1952, when its holdings were sold to Gordon Ziegler. Several other gilsonite mining ventures have been pursued in Utah, although they were significantly smaller in scale than those described above. There are currently three companies which mine gilsonite resin in Utah. They are American Gilsonite Co., Ziegler Chemical & Mineral Corp., and Lexco.

Jan 1, 1994

By J. J. K. Daemen

Mining Engineering education is in trouble, if not in crisis. The most visible signs are the decrease in the number of programs that offer the degree, and the continued difficulties in attracting students to the discipline. Unless these trends are reversed, the future of the profession is uncertain, at best. Remedies have been proposed, and some are drastic. They range from consolidating mining engineering education into one or two national schools, to cooperative regional programs, to distance education programs, and to proposals to limit mining engineering to a graduate degree or specialization only. These alternatives deserve serious attention and merit discussion. I hope that one alternative that will remain on the table is the classical and traditional “School of Mines”. A reasonable number of such schools are needed to provide the educational diversity and the critical mass to maintain accreditation and professional registration for their graduates. Most importantly, such an approach is most likely to assure the continued existence of mining engineering as a profession. It also provides the best educational framework to teach mining engineers. However, such Schools are vulnerable, highly susceptible to university budget pressures, and probably can survive only with strong external support.

Jan 1, 2004

By Dan Witkowsky

For the 36th consecutive summer, the Colorado Mining Association Education Foundation and the Colorado School of Mines have sponsored “A Total Concept of the Mining Industry” for kindergarten through grade 12 teachers. Teachers from 34 states, plus the District of Columbia and two foreign countries, have graduated from the four-week course. They received six hours of recertification credit. This summer 31 teachers from Colorado, Kentucky, Virginia and Alaska completed the program. The course is unique from other shorter courses in that it solicits teachers of all disciplines from all K-12classes. In addition to the expected earth science and mathematics teachers, the Class of 2004 consisted of educators who teach music, chemistry, biology, social studies, history, basic English and world history. Others in the program included those who teach American history, physical and life science, remedial reading, consumer/family studies, “world of work,” language arts, engineering technology, environmental science, world geography, human anatomy and physiology, and business.

Jan 1, 2004

By S. Ripke

Between 2002 and 2004, the performance of a six million ton per year iron ore beneficiation plant dropped significantly. In a classic case of “who done it,” was it the mine, the concentrator, an ore change, or something else? While average annual final product grade decreased 8% (indicated by an increase in silicate gangue from 2.76% to 2.99%), the weight recovery also decreased by 8% (from 37.92% to 34.79%). This represents a loss of 832,000 tons of iron ore worth about $16 million for the two year period! The concentrator had been optimized to produce a high grade wet concentrate as feed to the dry side of the plant. But, did optimizing an individual unit operation’s grade give the best overall plant performance? In this paper, the investigation and solution to this mystery will be revealed.

Jan 1, 2007

By Serge Moalli

The Ashlu Creek Hydro-electric project, located north of Squamish, BC, at the confluence of Ashlu Creek and the Squamish River, comprises a 49 MW run-of-river project and features a 4.08 m diameter, 4.4 km power tunnel and a 128 m deep drop shaft. The Ashlu Creek Hydro-electric project is being developed by Innergex under Ashlu Creek Investments Limited. Site civil works are being completed by Ledcor CMI of Vancouver with tunnel construction by Frontier Kemper Constructors ULC under a lump sum design-build contract. Site works got underway in September 2006 with the construction of the tunnel portal and laydown area. These site works required rock slope stabilization over a 50 m rock slope to secure the laydown area as well as the construction of a tail track muck tipping station and structural wall to facilitate TBM excavation and spoil removal. Starter tunnel construction commenced in early 2007 and TBM tunneling started in the late spring of 2007 and is planned to continue until early 2009. The power tunnel is being excavated using a 1,200 kW Wirth open-type hard rock TBM dressed with 31?17' cutters. The TBM featured two fixed mounted rock bolt drills behind the finger shield: these were removed and replaced with jacklegs to improve access. A probe drill at the end of the main beam is also present. The geology along the 4.4 km power tunnel comprises very strong and generally massive granitic bedrock with rock strength greater than 225 MPa. A unique feature of the project is that no subsurface investigations have been completed for the tunnel however extensive bedrock outcrops are present along the Ashlu Creek valley. A historical quarry exists approximately mid-way along the tunnel alignment that has exposed good quality granitic bedrock. TBM tunneling to date has achieved advance rates of 10?20 m/day with a maximum of 23 m and has encountered all of the anticipated six major fault zones where the installation of various standard high capacity tunnel support was successful to facilitate TBM advance through these sections.

By L. W. Berry

Drill and blast planning is critical to successful mine production, both in timing and in results. However, typical planning, reporting, and information exchange usually involves large quantities of data collated in a discordant set of spreadsheets, databases, and reports. Collecting, analyzing, modeling, and distributing all data necessary for efficient drill and blast operations is time consuming and cumbersome. MineSight Axis Drill and Blast provides an extensible core of functions, seamlessly integrated with other MineSight software tools, to make sense of this information. The benefits of improving the management of drilling and blasting processes are immense and result in improved fragmentation at a lower cost, improved shovel and truck productivity, and enhanced ore processing.

Jan 1, 2011

By Charles J. Kucera

Today's highly publicized issues of resource development and environmental protection are not new. But recently these issues have been played one against the other, and some would have us believe they are mutually exclusive. Why? Because modern man has realized that the shortest route to achieving economic progress is to subdue nature. He extracts mineral resources from the earth to provide the raw materials upon which other processes and services are based. But often in his search for economic progress he finds that other highly- held values (e.g., an unspoiled environment) have been violated. The natural response is a counter action - to attempt to protect nature. But this response is basically unsatisfactory because it is reactive.

Jan 1, 1979

By X. Shi

This paper presents design and implementation details of a fuzzy-behavior-based controller for an automated excavator. The robotic excavator is equipped with sensors, actuators and an embedded control system. The excavator controller uses neural-networks to interpret forces and torques gathered during the excavation process from bucket-mounted force sensors. Implementation details card experimental results using the fuzzy-behavior-based excavation controller are given for several excavation tasks. These excavation tasks demonstrate some of the complex skills that are essential for an autonomous mining-excavator controller.

Jan 1, 1997

By R. V. Stewart

This chrysotile asbestos orebody is located near the northern tip of the Province of Quebec, Canada. It is some 1818 km (1130 mi) north of Montreal; 480 km (300 mi) north of the tree line and is situated within the zone of continuous permafrost. The open pit ore zone is approximately 0.4 km (1/4 mi) in length some 61 m (200 ft) in width and plunges at 25-30 below surface to a vertical depth of at least 610 m (2000 ft). The orebody was originally evaluated by programs of surface mapping, diamond drilling and bulk sampling. The fibre is semi-crude, possesses excellent strength, and good fibre length distribution.

Jan 1, 1978

By S. Jayson Ripke, Shane Hoff

Cleveland-Cliffs’ Northshore Mining Company operates a magnetic iron ore (taconite) concentrator and pelletizer in Silver Bay, MN. These are two recent cost reduction projects: 1. Rougher Magnetic Separators were upgraded throughout the concentrator; throughput and recovery were simultaneously improved. 2. Green Ball Roll Screens on one agglomeration circuit were upgraded from 3.5-inch to 2.5-inch rolls. Throughput improved by 24% from 62 to 77 LTPH. Green ball size distribution improved as an added benefit.

Jan 1, 2005

By K. V. S. Sastry, K. D. Lofftus

Mathematical modeling and computer simulation are two valuable quantitative tools that are being effectively applied to mineral process- systems. This paper presents an up-to-date assessment of process modeling and simulation, identifies a number of associated challenges and opportunities and discusses in detail sane of the aspects of applying the current state-the art modeling and computational tools.

Jan 1, 1989

By R. M. Cox

The ground forces generated by a properly installed and tensioned mine roof truss assembly can provide permanent mine roof support, even in severe ground conditions, either by direct suspension of the rock loads within the potential failure zone above the mine opening or indirect reinforcement of the natural rock arch that tends to form within the immediate mine roof. Notable advancements in mine roof truss support systems hardware and design technology have occurred since the introduction of the in situ mine roof truss concept for permanent mine roof support in 1966. The systematic installation of mine roof truss support systems has proven to be a very effective method of mine roof control room and pillar mines under a wide variety of ground conditions, even in areas otherwise considered unmineable because of severe roof control problems. Properly designed mine roof truss systems have also been used for permanent support of mine slopes and haulage tunnels.

Jan 1, 2002

By D. R. Zuchelli

In order for MSHA to require the use of a noise control, the control must be proven ?technologically feasible?. Technologically feasible controls must reduce a miner?s noise overexposure to the permissible exposure level (PEL) or achieve at least a 3 dBA reduction in the miner?s noise exposure. The miner?s total noise exposure should be examined from an occupational viewpoint and not solely on a machine or equipment basis. This examination requires a field evaluation of the occupation as opposed to an equipment test conducted in a laboratory. The operator of a Hilti TE MD20 LS electro-pneumatic drill realized a full shift noise exposure (TWA8) reduction exceeding 8 dBA as compared to when operating a Gardner Denver S83F pneumatic jackleg drill while installing an equal number of drill holes into the Idaho Springs Gneiss rock formation. However, the Hilti drill?s penetration rate was only 27% of that of the jackleg drill. Although the Hilti drill was proven to be technologically feasible as a noise control, its slower penetration rate would require its economic feasibility to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Jan 1, 2011

By V. R. Degner

The minerals industry trend toward very flotation machines, exceeding 10 m3, began in the late 1960's and responds to the continuing desire to achieve better plant economics through improved plant floor-space utilization, power requirements, and operational /maintenance manpower heeds. In general, as process design tonnage increases, the benefits of the larger flotation machine becomes more evident. The development of the larger flotation machine can be distingushed from earlier, smaller, machines in demanding a rational "scale-up" procedure to guide the basic design, thereby producing a machine prototype capable of satisfactory-operational evaluation at minimum cost. Proven flotation machine "hydrodynamic" scale-up consideration, successfully applied in the development of both the WEMCO No. 164 (28.3 m3) and No. 190 (42.5 m3) machine will be reviewed, and the resulting economic benefits of large flotation machines in high tonnage applications will be summarized.

Jan 1, 1985

With the advent of the environmental "green" movement of the 1960s, eventually leading to Earth Day 1970, Congress responded by passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 1970. NEPA gave impetus to a flood of federal acts and laws in the subsequent three decades. Many of those protecting man's environment, health, and well-being also affect mining. For purposes of this chapter, a current mineral law summarization lends itself to a division into two parts: viz., Part I, General Mining Law, and Part II, Enviromining Law. The word enviromining has been coined by the author and is defined and used herein as those federal and state statutes and regulations that were created to provide protection and preservation of man's environment, health, safety, and welfare, and they have particular application to and affect on mining activities. They are listed and treated under Enviromining Laws in Part II. Mining, as a basic industry to provide the essential minerals for mankind's necessities and well-being, truly reflects the mining industry's slogan, "If it can't be grown, it must be mined." Without the basic minerals and rocks won from the earth by mining and mineral processing for their valuable physical properties or chemical constituents, man would soon be forced to revert to the cave-dwelling age. Unfortunately, for man to survive in the "manner of life to which he has become accustomed," he is caught between the demands of cleaning up his deteriorating environment and a continued supply of his basic requirements and amenities for daily living supplied by mining of the earth's minerals. He must have "clean living" at the same time with "good living;" neither is expendable. A very high pricetag accompanies this essential and critical choice which must be paid by society. The United States is internationally recognized as the world leader in environmental matters. Many countries are following suit, principally the other Anglo nations. Because US law is founded and based on English law, on occasion, Anglo-American law is referred to and cited as authority in litigation anywhere in the Anglo-American world of jurisprudence. For this reason, and because mining and the industry is international in nature and operations, some British Commonwealth cases will appear in various topics. If the case is of interest to the reader, further inquiry at a law library may be made through use of the case's style and citation given. "Style" refers to the name of the litigating parties. "Citation" refers to the law publication in which the case and decision may be found, as well as the jurisdiction and court of decision. Citation of cases from the United States and British Commonwealth nations is explained under Case Citation Explanation. Space and time limit exhaustive treatment of subjects and covering all geographic and jurisdictional areas. This chapter is intended as a broad outline and is based on the author's master's thesis at the University of Missouri-Rolla, 1992. The following Case Citation Explanation provides guidance on formatting of citations.

Jan 1, 1994

By C. Allen

Vale Inco Ltd. is trialing several energy conservation initiatives in an effort to minimize costs and reduce green house gas emissions. The Ventilation on Demand (VOD) concept is a major project being carried out in various phases at Vale Inco mines. Due to the complex nature of a dynamic VOD system, Vale Inco is taking a systematic approach of testing VOD system components with milestone evaluations of each project. Coleman Mine was selected to pilot test the functionality and robustness of automated louvers in the underground environment; with the goal of optimizing mine airflow such that ventilation would be available for developing a new ore body. This project involved installing automated louvers in the exhaust raises; and installing variable frequency drive (VFD) starters on auxiliary supply fans. Because the VOD project created efficient utilization of the ventilation air in the 153 OB, the 170 OB is currently being developed without increasing the total fresh air into the mine. This paper describes the louver system component of VOD as applied at the mine.

Jan 1, 2009

By Tim Hurley

On Friday, May 27, 1983 at about 6 p.m., an avalanche occurred at the Revenue-Virginius Mine. Six mine personnel and two contract diamond drillers were trapped when the avalanche covered and blocked the portal, the only access into the mine. The San Juan Mountain Range in southwestern Colorado is an old volcanic caldera. It has dikes and other intrusions, many of which are mineralized with sulfide ores rich in silver, gold, lead, zinc and copper. Several peaks rise above 4,260 m (14,000 ft) and the district has been the location of avalanches dating back to prehistoric times. This is evidenced by the numerous snow-slide chutes that are infamous enough to be named on topographic maps.

Jan 1, 2006

By Wu Xueling

9K medium was used to isolate iron-oxidizing bacteria from 27 sump water samples collected from Dexing Cop-per Mine, Chengmen Mountain Mine and Yin Mountain Mine, Jiangxi Province, China. Lead acetate and silver nitrate were used to enrich metal-resistant iron-oxidizing bacteria from the above water samples. Isolate 16 was isolated from the sample taken at Dexing Copper Mine. Growth experiments indicated that when incubated under lead acetate (3,500 mg/L), isolate 16 still carried out ferrous ion oxidation, while isolate H1, a less resistant strain taken at Yin Mountain Mine, had a tolerance level of only 400 mg/L. When assayed with other metals, i.e., Ag+ (240 mg/L), Hg2+ (0.9 mg/L), Cu2+ (32,000 mg/L) and Mg2+ (22,500 mg/L), isolate 16 still carried out ferrous ion oxidation while, on the other hand, isolate H1 exhibited much lower tolerance levels, i.e., Ag+ (60 mg/L), Hg2+ (0.1 mg/L), Cu2+ (19,000 mg/L) and Mg2+ (13,500 mg/L). Based on 16S rDNA sequence data, isolate 16 and H1 were both identified as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans.

Jan 1, 2007