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By J. O?Shea

From the characteristics of the new (1976) electronic components and units that are being marketed, the author has tried to foresee the types and the performances of the near-future slope-monitoring equipment. Much-improved sensors, instruments and systems for pit use can now be developed - sun-powered telemetry remote stations are feasible, very sensitive as well as precise and drift-free liquid level inclinometers will be available, new techniques for distance measurement with lasers obviate the need for atmospheric corrections and the latest generation of desktop calculators have become easily programmed minicomputers. Thus, it is realistic to assume that fully automatic pit-slope monitoring systems will be operational in the foreseeable future.

Jan 1, 1978

By N. Morrison, I. Holl, R. Welyhorsky, A. Hempstock

ABSTRACT: The Victor diamond mine is located in the James Bay lowlands, 90 km west of the First Nations village of Attawapiskat. The project was the first of its kind in northern Ontario. The process plant was designed to produce a 95 to 98% by weight diamond concentrate through three stages of comminution, dense medium separation, and proprietary X-ray technology for final recovery. The plant was commissioned over a period of six months, commencing prior to substantial completion of construction. Through effective planning of the commissioning phase, the Victor mine start-up was safely completed nine months ahead of schedule.

Jan 1, 2011

By F. Habashi

"The rare earths industry started in Austria in 1887 by Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929) Professor of Chemistry at the University of Vienna. The process was based on monazite sand transported from Brazil as shipping ballast free of charge. This made possible producing thorium, cerium, and other rare earths at a low cost, thus permitting the growth of the industry. However, once the Brazilian authorities realized the strategic importance of the sand, shipping was stopped. Brazil then started its own processing of the sand in 1949. The background for Auer’s work, the role of Robert Bunsen in Heidelberg, and the invention of the spectroscope will be presented. INTRODUCTIONHeidelberg on the Neckar (Figure 1) was the meeting place for chemistry students from all over Europe in the nineteenth century. Her university founded in 1386 had already a famous professor of chemistry and medecine in the Faculty of Medicine by the name Leopold Gmelin whose three - volume Handbuch der theoretischen Chemie appeared in 1817-1819, that became later a multi-volume monumental work. As successor to Gmelin came Robert Bunsen (Figure 2) in 1852 who made this university town the Mecca of chemistry students. One of his students, the English Henry Roscoe (1833-1915) who became later a distinguished professor in Manchester, described him as follows: ""As an investigator he was great, as a teacher he was greater, as a man and a friend he was greatest""."

Jan 1, 2012

"The Key Lake mill was commissioned in 1983 to process the two Key Lake ore deposits. With the depletion of these ore bodies in 1999, the plant was converted to mill the exceptionally rich McArthur River deposit located seventy eight kilometers northeast of the Key Lake mine site. This paper describes in detail the Key Lake milling process. The mill consists of a grinding circuit, a leachkounter current decantation circuit, a solvent extraction circuit, a yellowcake precipitatiodcalciner circuit, an ammonium sulphate crystallization circuit, and a waste treatment circuit. The paper also describes process changes to handle McArthur River ore, including the ore receiving stationLOCATIONThe Key Lake mill is located 78 kilometres south of the McArthur River mine. It is located at latitude 57' N in northern Saskatchewan, within the southern boundary of the Athabasca formation. The nearest town is Pine House, located 240 kilometres to the south. Access to the mine is by an all weather road and by a private airstrip.HISTORYAND DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONThe Key Lake mill was commissioned in October 1983 to process ore from the Gaertner and Deilmann ore bodies. The mill was designed to produce twelve million pounds of uranium oxide (U308) a year from a feed grade of 2.4% U3O8.Following grinding, the uranium is leached in a two stage leach circuit using oxygen and sulphuric acid. An eight-thickener counter current decantation (CCD) circuit is used to separate the uranium bearing solution from the solid waste residue. The uranium is further purified in a solvent extraction circuit and then precipitated using ammonia. It is then calcined at 840' Celsius, and packaged into drums for shipping to refineries. There is a crystallization circuit to recover ammonium sulphate produced in the process and a waste treatment circuit."

Jan 1, 2001

By E. Pribonic

Failure of a mine material hoist can cause injuries, fatalities and significant infrastructure damage, along with an associated loss of production. Principal causes of hoist accidents are overwind and underwind. Past and present means of arresting hoisting equipment are marginally effective and utilize destructive systems that are not reusable following an arrest. The use of permanent magnet eddy current arrestor technology is proposed; the history and fundamental science of the technology are presented, followed by real world examples and calculations of performance for failsafe, friction-free, instantly reusable eddy current arrestors as applied to stopping a 30-ton ore skip traveling at 16 metres per second. A comparison of existing arrestor types with the eddy current arrestor is included and limitations of the ECA are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2008

By Ray Walton, Ron Colquhoun, Ken Thomas, Dwayne Fentie, Barney Burke

"The new Roasting Facility at Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine in Nevada, U.S.A. was developed to process 12,000 tons per day of refractory gold ore. The process consists of crushing, dry grinding, roasting, extensive gas purification, calcine quenching and leaching in the presence of activated carbon. The new plant is integrated into the existing Goldstrike facility, treating ore from both open pit and underground sources.The process design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the Roaster facility was performed successfully over a 3% year period with peaks of 400 engineering personnel and 950 construction personnel supporting the project. The US$330,000,000 project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The commissioning was well planned and proceeded smoothly through a rapid start-up to achieve all primary goals within three months of the start of processing of ore.BACKGROUNDAs early as 1992, Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine, located north of Carlin, Nevada had indications of the ore becoming ever increasingly carbonaceous in nature. As the open pit and underground exploration programs proceeded to step out over the years that followed, the accumulative amount of carbonaceous refractory ore and tons had become significant. By 1997, 29 million tons of double refractory carbonaceous ore containing an estimated 11.6 million ounces of gold had been identified. By 2000 the resource had increased to 14.3 million ounces."

Jan 1, 2001

By D. Wolfe, K. Reid, T. Nunn

"The Aurora North mine has been operating for more than ten years, and is the source of over half of Syncrude’s bitumen production. In order to minimize front-end rejects, and to allow for high throughput, the ore top size at Aurora has been set at a nominal 125 mm. These relatively large lumps have a significant effect on both pump performance and pipeline pressure gradient. Current design methods underestimate the solids de-rating effect of lumpy slurries in pumps, and do not accurately describe the distribution or magnitude of the lump effect on pipeline pressure gradient. Data from the Aurora hydrotransport systems has been compiled, to quantify the effect of lumps on the pump head ratio and pipeline pressure gradient, and how this effect changes as lump ablation occurs along the length of the pipeline. A model has been built, using a logarithmic curve, which predicts the effect of 125 mm lumps on pipeline pressure gradient as a function of velocity and the distance from the start of a hydrotransport pipeline. This model is applicable only to Aurora hydrotransport operation, but similar models could be developed for other operations using the same methods. Using accurate pipeline pressure gradients and pump head ratios when designing future hydrotransport pipeline systems will help improve their reliability and operability."

Jan 1, 2014

By D. Eastick, S. Hardcastle

"Over the last few years, a multi-faceted feasibility study has been evaluating the introduction of hydrogen fuel cell-powered equipment into underground mines to replaced diesel engine-powered equipment. The analysis has shown that under normal operating conditions fuel cells could at the very least be an environmental and health benefit by eliminating combustion engines and their unwanted by-products. However, they could also generate significant reductions in the amount of ventilation a mine needs to supply when compared to dieselized operations; this would further decrease a mine’s energy consumption, its associated greenhouse gas impact, and also reduce a mine’s significant ventilation-associated costs. Fuel cell-powered equipment also has the advantage of lower noise and heat production compared to its equivalent diesel-powered counterpart.The degree to which fuel cells can generate ventilation benefits in underground mines depends upon a number of operational parameters and mine specific qualifiers such as current ventilation control or management, mine depth, inherent dust conditions, and minimum velocity requirements.However, another major consideration in the introduction of fuel cells in underground mines will be the safety requirements associated with diluting and removing the potentially explosive hydrogen in the event of a gas leak. In outside surface applications, it is possible to use dispersion, buoyancy, time, and lack of ignition sources as mitigating factors in deriving a low risk of an explosion. However, in underground operations, these factors change, and dispersion and buoyancy are limited; time may not be available and, in non-coal mines, ignition sources are not typically controlled. When a hydrogen leak occurs, the availability of sufficient ventilation to dilute and effectively remove the gas will be critical. Consequently, ventilation may be the prime risk controlling factor. In this paper, the authors evaluate the potential benefits of replacing diesel engines with fuel cells in powered production equipment, discuss the mitigating qualifiers that could limit ventilation savings, and evaluate solutions to retain and maintain an additional ventilation capacity in the event of an emergency situation, such as a hydrogen leak from the fuel cell stack or its distribution system."

Jan 1, 2007

By J. S. Roberts

"Campbell mines has been in operation since 1948. Part of the process consists of roasting of a flotation concentrate which contains arsenopyrite.At present operation level the milling rate averages about 850 t.p.d. and about 48 t.p.d. of concentrate is roasted. The gas emissions at present contain between 3 and 3.5 t.p.d. of arsenic trioxide, about2 - 2.5 t.p.d. of particulate matter and between 19 - 25 t.p.d. of sulphur dioxide. The particulate is extremely fine calcine dust and it assays about 4 oz. Of gold per ton.Until 1974 the gas was discharged untreated through a 125' stack.UntreatedThe decision was made in 1972 to erect a gas treatment plant, construction ran through 1973 and operation began in 1974. The cost of the installation was about 1.3 million dollars.On investigation the process technology, it was apparent that the plant operated by giant Yellowknife for the same purpose was the model we should study. I would like to acknowledge the fine cooperation we had from giant, the plant that emerged is very similar to theirs and incorporates some improvements suggested by them and based on their operating experience.The plant is designed to remove arsenic and solid dust and it has no provisions to remove sulphur dioxide.We depend upon the 125' stack to assure adequate dilution. Because of the nearby airport the stack cannot exceed 125'. A stack burner is provided that can ""y used to heat the stack gas and carry it higher into the atmosphere when there is an inversion condition.The removal of arsenic from hot gas is fairly simple. The sublimation point is about 425°f, a few degrees above this point the arsenic is a gas and a few degrees below it condenses into a solid form. The arsenic could have been removed by simply dropping the temperature below the condensation point and collecting all the solids in a baghouse. This would have removed the possibility of recovering the gold in the calcine dust and would have produced an impure and more bulky arsenic material to be placed in safe storage. The decision was made to collect the solid dust in a hot electrostatic precipitator operating above the sublimation point and subsequently lower the temperature below the condensation point and collect the arsenic in a baghouse."

Jan 1, 1976

By G. W. Poling

This paper evaluates current environmental protection legislation, guidelines and criteria, focusing mainly on the land and water disposal of mill tailings. Effluent criteria and regulatory mechanisms are proposed, and submarine tailing disposal is discussed at length. The importance of basing regulations on the best available rationale is stressed.

Jan 1, 1979

By Gerald R. Larocque, Donald F. Grenville

"IN APRIL, 1965, the employee relations department (then called the personnel department) was established as a separate function within the company. Its aims and objectives were to hire an effective work force to operate the open-pit mine and the mill, which were at that time under development and construction. It was also directed to develop a sound policy for employee relations to assist the company in maintaining a stable and properly motivated work force, which included the establishment of satisfactory wage rates and fringe benefits, safety, fire protection and security. During the 8 years that the department has been in existence the scope of the company's operations has expanded to include a zinc plant and an underground mine. The work force has enlarged accordingly and now totals 1,680 employees working at the two sites, separated by 34 road miles. To cover the employee relations functions the department has a total of 29 members at the two sites. The department is organized under a superintendent, who has an employee relations supervisor, a safety director and a fire chief reporting directly to him. The employee relations supervisor, with 2 employment officers and 2 clerks, handles hiring, first-stage employee grievanoos, terminations, employee records, and the organization of company-sponsored functions and meetings. Safety, training and security are the responsibility of the safety director, who has 3 safety supervisors, 16 security men, 1 first-aid attendant and one hearing conservation technician to service the two sites. The fire chief operates as a one-man section responsible for plant-wide fire inspections and fireoriented training. Although"

Jan 1, 1974

By Jacek Paraszczak

L?exploitation rentable des gisements de type filonien constitue un problème important dans le contexte actuel de l?industrie minière québécoise. Les études effectuées depuis 1994 ont indiqué, que la technologie d?abattage mécanique utilisant l?outil hydraulique appelé « éclateur radial-axial » constitue une alternative intéressante par rapport aux méthodes conventionnelles par le forage et sautage. Les essais du prototype de l?éclateur ont prouvé qu?il est en mesure d?abattre les roches dures dans un environnement minier, mais sa performance dans les termes de masse du roc abattu dans une unité de temps a soulevé certaines doutes. Pour cette raison, une étude de préfaisabilité de l?éclatage en tant qu?une technologie d?excavation souterraine a été réalisée. Cet article présente quelques résultats des travaux effectués dans le cadre du contrat octroyé à l?Université Laval par le Ministère des ressources naturelles du Québec. Leur objectif principal consistait à comparer, pour les conditions des gisements filoniens, la productivité et les coûts des méthodes d?exploitation souterraine utilisant l?éclatage par rapport à celles conventionnelles. Deux variantes proposées de cette méthode ont été comparées avec la méthode conventionnelle sur le plan du coût (par tonne de minerai) et de la teneur de coupure de minerai d'or. Les études ont démontré que l?application de l?éclatage représente un potentiel de réduire ce coût, surtout dans les situations où l?abattage sélectif pourrait avoir lieu. Pour le cas de base on a trouvé, qu?il serait possible de réduire la teneur de coupure par la marge d?environ 16 ? 26%. Toutefois, les études de sensibilité ont démontré, que le coût dépend de façon important de la productivité d?éclatage, qui, pour sa part, varie beaucoup en fonction de paramètres du massif rocheux devant être abattu.

Oct 1, 2001

By Oy Leuangthong

The McMurray formation in the Athabasca oil sands deposits of Northern Alberta is part of the world?s second largest proven crude oil reserves. The formation is characterized by stratigraphic layers that correspond to three different depositional environments: Marine, Estuarine and Fluvial facies. Resource estimation for oil sands has traditionally relied on polygonal and inverse distance schemes. These techniques are simple and straightforward in practice, but they do not permit reliable uncertainty assessment. This paper describes the modeling of the McMurray formation using modern geostatistical techniques. Geostatistical modeling should be performed within homogeneous geological facies. The methodology for geostatistical simulation within each of the identified facies involves: (1) assessing the most appropriate stratigraphic transformation for optimisation of the correlation structure, (2) determining representative distributions with declustering and debiasing techniques, (3) modeling spatial continuity of the bitumen grade, fines grade, water saturation and other petrophysical variables, (4) performing estimation and cross validation as checks against simulation results, (5) performing simulation for uncertainty quantification of bitumen and fines grade, and (6) model checking of simulation results against the input data and comparisons against the kriged models. These steps are described in detail. The application of these models for uncertainty quantification in support of resource classification is also discussed.

May 1, 2004

By G. Warren

"In the past, smelting and refining of the precious metals recovered from ore has been generally looked upon as a small and relatively minor component of the business of gold mining. This is not surprising when one considers that the manpower, space and capital components of a gold refinery at an operating mine can be several orders of magnitude smaller than other unit operations at the same location. This philosophy is changing however, as economic and environmental pressure are forcing a re-evaluation of all aspects of gold mining and milling.This paper describes and evaluates three furnace technologies available and used by precious metal operators. The operation of arc, induction, and reverberatory furnaces are discussed and their strengths and weaknesses with respect to capital cost, impurity removal, slag quality, and environmental concerns highlighted.INTRODUCTIONIn the past, smelting and refining of precious metals recovered from ore has been generally looked upon as a small and relatively minor component of the business of gold mining. This is not surprising when one considers that the manpower, space, and capital components of a gold refinery at an operating mine can be several orders of magnitude smaller than other unit operations at the same location. Generally, gold producers will spend a great deal of effort to squeeze the last drop of efficiency out of a leach or grinding circuit via simulation or testwork but will design and build the refinery based upon past practices or industry standards. That past practices or industry standards will provide a functional refinery is undisputed; that this philosophy achieves the efficiencies that are possible or demanded in other plant operations is debatable.Environmental and worker hygiene requirements are considerations as well. Pollution control equipment can become a substantial contributor to both the capital and operating costs of a refinery and furnace selection has a marked influence upon the type and cost of this equipment. Slag characteristics and subsequent processing options available also play a role in furnace selection as precious metal slag losses and the recovery effort can greatly influence the cost / benefit analysis of a particular technology."

Jan 1, 2001

By C. Pelley, S. Kelebek, T. Katsabanis, B. Nanthakumar

"As part of a larger investigation on generation of fines from mining activities and their effect on downstream operations, ore samples from Onaping area stockpiles of Falconbridge Ltd were studied. Batch flotation tests were conducted on the stockpile samples and fresh ore samples to explore the effect of stockpiling on grade-recovery performance. Head grade and particle size distribution of the samples from stockpiles were adjusted so that the samples compared are similar to each other. In additional tests, fresh ore samples were blended with stockpile samples at various percentages, representing 27.4, 50.2 and 81.5% of stockpile samples.The samples from stockpiles produced inferior nickel grade-recovery curves compared to fresh ore. The poorer grade-recovery performance was attributable to two factors. First, a significant dilution effect was observed due to the nearly complete flotation of pyrrhotite. Secondly, while pyrrhotite from stockpiled ore became highly floatable, the same stockpiling conditions caused nickel losses that were attributable to non-floatability of some pentlandite.In the case of blending, there was generally insignificant difference in the nickel grade-recovery between fresh and blended samples when the blending cases involved 27.4 and 50.2% stockpile samples. However, an increase in pyrrhotite recovery was observed for both blending cases. At 81.5% blending case, degraded grade-recovery was significant primarily due to the nearly complete flotation of pyrrhotite. There was a small, but noticeable amount of nickel loss for this case. However, for lower ratios of blending this loss was negligible.The increase in pyrrhotite recovery was partly attributed to its activation by Cu and Ni ions. Formation of a significant amount of elemental sulphur was also apparent from analysis of stockpiled samples. It can be concluded that pyrrhotite is mildly oxidized under stockpiling conditions while part of the pentlandite undergoes a more severe oxidation."

Jan 1, 2006

By Kenji Koga

In order to derive the population distribution of gold nanoparticle morphologies as a function of size, highresolution electron microscopic (HREM) observations and structural analyses were done for over 4000 particles (3-18 nm) grown by an inert gas aggregation (IGA) source using helium. To obtain structural features threedimensionally and not to skip high-contrast images, twenty photos were taken for each particle by changing tilting angle of a specimen holder in combination with the through-focus procedure. For the reliable structural determinations, HREM images and their tilting sequences were directly compared with multislice-simulation results for icosahedral, decahedral and face-centered cubic morphologies, and finally the population distribution of each morphology was obtained as a function of size. In the present sample, icosahedral particles were dominantly populated over the whole observed size range and decahedral particles with non-spherical truncated bi-pyramid shape were secondly dominant. Even though a large number of sampling has been done, few crystalline particles were observed.

Oct 1, 2003

By S. McCalpine, W. Muir, P. J. Downey

"Golden Bear Operating Company Ltd. (GBOC) was a joint venture between Chevron Minerals Ltd. and North American Metals Corp. that was formed for the development of the Golden Bear Project. The mine is located at Muddy Lake, Western British Columbia, approximately 80 km northwest of Telegraph Creek and 135 km west of Dease Lake (see Figure 1). Road access to the mine was developed by Golden Bear and consists of a radio controlled 155 km gravel road originating at highway 114.A feasibility study was completed in 1987 and project approval was finalized in 1988 with Golden Bear issuing a ""Request For Proposal"" for detailed engineering in May 1988. Golden Bear also commenced negotiating with vendors at this time for the supply of the two principal process equipment packages: the dry grinding and classification system and the whole ore roaster package.Process plant engineering and plant construction was completed in October 1989 with plant startup commencing in November 1989. Two months into the commissioning phase it became apparent that the plant, as designed, would not achieve the anticipated production targets.Kilborn Engineering Pacific were subsequently contracted by GBOC to review and modify the plant design, assist the operating personnel with plant commissioning and startup and provide operator training.This Paper describes some of the problems encountered during the startup and the plant modifications incorporated to achieve design parameters."

Jan 1, 1992

By Brian Hart, Stamen Dimov

"The Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF-SIMS) is unique in that it measures the outermost atomic layers of any material. The technique is particularly suited for determining surface chemical composition of mineral particles. It is most commonly used as a diagnostic tool to measure mineral surface chemical variability in plant and bench top flotation separation processes. Recently, research towards understanding the full capability of the instrument has resulted in the development of new diagnostic applications related to various Au extraction technologies and the development of the ToF-SIMS as a predictive tool for assessing the chemical reactivity of the ore.In this paper we will present a brief review of the ToF-SIMS technique with recent advances in instrumentation and methodologies including:•,?recent developments and advances towards a semi-quantitative approach to the evaluation of mineral surface modifiers (ex. Cu),•,?flotation case studies investigating activator, depressant and collector loading variability within a flotation process,•,?the recently developed chemical reactivity test which we believe has the potential to predict the behaviour of minerals in a flotation test in response to chemical transfer during grinding,•,recent applications for determination of surface Au preg-robbed in carbonaceous materials.A portion of this material has been recently presented at the COM 2009 meeting and at SIMS XVII (see Dimov et al 2009 and Hart et al, 2009).INTRODUCTIONIn flotation seperation surface chemistry is the principal determinant for selective separation of the various mineral phases (Ralston, 1994, Smart et al, 2003). Determination of this hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance by particle therefore requires correct identification and selection of the particular mineral phase(s) followed by a statistical analysis of the surface chemical characteristics of the particles with an estimation of the spread of values (Smart et al, 2003)."

Jan 1, 2010

By Bryan M. Maybee

The scheduling of underground mining activities is a complex task, in particular because of the requirement to satisfy a large number of constraints. A Schedule Optimization Tool (SOT) for underground mine planning is described, and its use for investigating strategic decisions is illustrated by means of a case study. The main components of SOT include: a genetic algorithm, which searches for optimal schedules; guidance, the application of heuristic rules to guide the genetic algorithm; and sliding, which implements just-in-time development. For the case study, SOT is employed to generate schedules at various ore capacities, accounting for the appropriate financials in each schedule evaluation. The case study finds that preliminary scheduling performed before invoking SOT, intended to provide a good starting point for the search, does not ultimately lead to higher value schedules. Two key uses for SOT are identified. A mine planner can save time by using SOT to produce high-value scheduling alternatives. This process ensures a broader investigation of the value that the deposit can yield. Also, SOT can be used to validate strategic and tactical decisions, by scheduling under alternative scenarios. Both uses produce high value schedules conforming to all imposed resource constraints.

May 1, 2009

By Donald Strickland, Peter Kresin, Dave Hall

"Have your parents or grandparents ever tried to share with you their wisdom and you ignored it because it did not relate to you‘? I have been ignorant and inevitably grew older and wished I had listened. The result: learning the hard way. As British Astronomer Fred Hoyle once said. “It is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes not from example.“ Hopefully we will continue to learn from the examples shared by our fellow mineral processors in these conference proceedings. It is the intent of this paper to share wisdom from the Musselwhite Mine that you may apply to your own operation.This paper is divided into three sections:1. Feasibility3. Operation3 . DesignKey points of the Feasibility and Design stages are summarized. followed by an analysis of actual operating statistics. An attempt is made to relate these statistics back to the feasibility and design with emphasis on areas of success and those with potential for improvement."

Jan 1, 1999