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By F. Habashi

Chile is at present the largest copper and rhenium producer and was before World War I the largest nitrate producer. She is also an important producer of lithium carbonate and molybdenum oxide. An important event in the history of the country is the Pacific War of 1879-1883 in which she acquired the northern provinces initially belonged to Bolivia and Peru. In 1888 Chile annexed Easter Island. The Chilean mineral and cultural history is briefly reviewed together with the people who contributed to her development. The present report is the result of a number of academic and industrial visits to Chile during the period 1992 to 2009.

Jan 1, 2011

The surface properties of eight coal samples were studied by measuring contact angles, coal oxidation, equilibrium moisture and film flotation. The penetration tests were carried out with do de cane, while dodecane and MIBC were utilized in batch flotation tests and in the simplified release analysis. Coal floatability results from the properties of coal organic matter and coal liberation. While the wetting of coal by water seems to be determined by the surface properties of coal organic matter, wetting by hydrocarbons correlates very well with the content of coal mineral matter.

Jan 1, 1992

By V. T. McLemore

"Production of industrial minerals remains important to the rural economy of New Mexico. In 2014, 226 active mines and mills were registered in New Mexico and included four coal, eight potash, 11 metal, 33 industrial mineral and 170 aggregate and stone operations. New Mexico leads U.S. domestic production of potash, perlite, zeolite and travertine. Other production includes aggregate, humate, pumice, gypsum, salt, common and fire clay, scoria, limestone, fly ash, cement, magnetite, silica and decorative stone. New Mexico also has the potential for additional production of industrial minerals. One company is exploring for garnet. Cretaceous black sandstones in the San Juan Basin have drawn interest for titanium, rare earth elements (REEs), niobium and zircon, and other REE deposits are being explored. REE-thoriumuranium veins have been found in the Gallinas, Capitan and Cornudas Mountains and Laughlin Peak-Chico Hills. Exploration for beryllium has occurred in the Ojo Caliente No. 2, Cuchillo Negro and Victorio mining districts. Companies also are examining high-calcium limestone and high-magnesium dolomite for potential development, while aggregate continues to be important in urban areas and along highways. IntroductionIndustrial minerals and rocks are literally the building blocks of our way of life. They are an exceptionally diverse and vital group of raw materials that underpin almost all aspects of human activity, infrastructure and standard of living. Industrial minerals and rocks are used in the manufacture of many products, from ceramics to plastics to refractories to paper. Although industrial minerals permeate nearly every aspect of daily life, their presence and their roles are typically invisible. A widely used definition of industrial minerals and rocks is “any rock, mineral, or other naturally occurring substance of economic value, exclusive of metal ores, mineral fuels, and gemstones: one of the nonmetallics” (Bates, 1975). This definition includes the important construction materials sector as well as specialized industrial minerals, but complex interactions between consumer industries produce a number of apparent anomalies to this definition. Some metals are included as industrial minerals because their use is industrial rather than as a metal. Sulfur is now predominantly extracted as a byproduct of cleaning natural gas, one of the world’s major energy fuels.Production of industrial minerals has been and remains important to the rural economy of New Mexico. Industrial minerals constitute nearly 41 percent of the more than $3.1 billion generated by mineral production in New Mexico in 2014 (Table 1). In 2014, 226 active mines and mills were registered in New Mexico and included four coal, eight potash, 11 metal, 33 industrial mineral and 170 aggregate and stone operations (New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division, 2015a). New Mexico leads U.S. domestic production in potash, perlite, zeolite and travertine. Other industrial minerals production from New Mexico includes aggregate, humate, pumice, gypsum, salt, common and fire clay, scoria, limestone, fly ash, cement, magnetite, silica and decorative stone. Additional production statistics can be found in Harben et al. (2008). Major industrial mineral districts are shown in Fig. 1."

Jan 6, 2017

By BERND SCHÖNHERR, JÖRG DEHNERT, PETER WINDISCH, JENS STOPP

The Quick-Erect Stopping System (QESS) offers a new way of reducing the radon exposure of miners in Germany, especially during remediation work in old mines. The QESS is a lightweight, modular and reusable construction kit of interlocking telescopic aluminum tubes, radon-proof foil and expanding foam. It is designed to seal off radon-rich parts of galleries within minutes. Originally, the QESS was developed to protect miners against radon exposure. Then, the QESS found the attention of several mine rescue teams at a German mining conference. Some mine rescue drills by The Student Mine Rescue of the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Wismut Mine Rescue and Front Range Mine Rescue helped to improve the system and highlighted its potential for mine rescue operations. Now, the QESS is well-suited for small-scale mining. The QESS can be used to both protect miners from radon exposure and to support mine rescue operations. Moreover, the QESS was also successfully used in ventilation experiments.

By Lawrence Adler

The properties of a geologic mass may be considered from a resource or an engineering viewpoint. The primary engineering applications include ground control, excavation, bulk handling, and hydrology. This study will focus upon these areas in descending order. For an adequate geologic description, data is necessary on the following components: (1) the intact rock, (2) geologic structures, (3) contained fluids, and (4) existing pressures and temperatures, see Table 1. This information, combined with the engineering specifications, provides the basis for a formal geotechnical analysis as illustrated in Figure 1. For a structural analysis it is essential to establish the mechanical properties of the material composing the structure. This material, termed the "rock mass," consists mainly of the first two geologic components, the intact rock and geologic structures (Figure 1) Consideration of fluids will be subordinated to their role as chemical agents affecting the mechanical properties. The existence of pressures and temperatures generally lies beyond the scope of this study.

Jan 1, 1973

By MATT RENAUD, Mustafa Kumral

As high-quality mineral deposits are thoroughly exploited, mines of the future will have to move towards more remote and lower quality projects. With these projects comes an increased business risk to the operator. Even now, mining companies often turn to foreign countries for new deposits to produce, introducing the concept of country risk into their portfolio. Furthermore, feasibility studies often fail to accurately quantify the risks associated with various projects, and as such, this study proposes a technique of risk quantification which can both aid mining companies to evaluate the viability of investment and assist in risk disclosure to public investors for the mining industry of the future. This paper aims to quantify the effects of country risk on the valuation of potential mining projects, using a combination of modular and risk-weighting techniques to evaluate the country risk premium (CRP) required to obtain capital for operation of risky foreign mining projects. The techniques proposed in this paper are demonstrated using fictional examples and then evaluated for accuracy against a recently developed debt-funded precious metal project in a country in the Americas.

Sep 30, 2021

By Thomas A. Gwynn

When Lewis and Clark first pushed their boats up the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis reported the presence of coal in the western states by saying in 1802 that it "burnt tolerably well and afforded but little flame or smoke but produced a hot and lasting fire". Lewis would have been amazed and bewildered at the history of coal development in this region and the more recent political-socio-economic-environmental confrontations of today. Certainly without this coal the railroads would not have readily pushed into our western states, and the progress of this region would have suffered. The coal industry has passed from a period when "coal was king" to a period of depression in the industry, but its importance is being revived. A contributing and simultaneous environmental concern has emerged in the nation and in many states during the past ten years, partly caused by newly imposed standards for sulfur content of fuels. Much of the midwest and eastern coal cannot be used because of high sulfur content, shifting attention to the low sulfur coal deposits of the western states. In the western states, lands disturbed by strip mining or even underlain by strippable coal are small compared to the total acreage, and usually mining operations are on lands not under cultivation. There are some farm lands being disturbed by surface mining, but this is often over-emphasized. In states like New Mexico and Arizona the percentage is less. The value of the minerals underlying the surface certainly must be considered along with the value of the surface, and sometimes proper reclamation following mining can result in higher ultimate usage of the land.

Jan 1, 1974

By Verya Nasri, Mehdi Bakhshi

"Fiber reinforcement has emerged as an alternative to steel bars in precast concrete segments due to advantages such as saving cost and reducing production time while developing a more robust product with improved handling and long-term durability. ACI recently drafted a new report as the first design guideline on FRC tunnel segments to provide specific guidance for this emerging technology. ACI document offers general information on the history of FRC precast segments from tunneling projects throughout the world; a procedure for structural analysis and design based on governing load cases, and a description of the material parameters, tests and analyses required to complete the design. This paper summarizes the design considerations in this ACI guideline prepared by the authors of this paper as the main contributors. Application of this guideline to design of a tunnel with an internal diameter of 5.5 m (18 ft) results in elimination of steel bars.INTRODUCTIONPrecast concrete segments are installed to support the tunnel excavation behind the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in soft ground and weak rock applications. The TBM advances by thrusting off the completed rings of precast concrete segments that provide both the initial and final ground support as part of a one-pass lining system. These segments are typically designed to resist the permanent loads from the ground and groundwater as well as the temporary loads from production, transportation and construction. Tunnel segments are generally reinforced to resist the tensile stresses at both the Serviceability (SLS) and the Ultimate Limit States (ULS). With traditional rebar, a significant amount of labor is needed to assemble the cages and place the rebar, which results in higher production costs.Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) can be used to enhance the production, handling, and placement of precast concrete segments. This is because of the uniform dispersion of fibers throughout the segment to include the concrete cover, which is very advantageous for resisting the bursting and spalling stresses. These stresses develop as a result of the high loads induced on the segments during the TBM jacking process. The presence of fiber in the concrete matrix helps mitigate against unintentional impact loads during segment handling and tunnel construction operations."

Jan 1, 2016

By Manoj Khandelwal, Bright Akuinor Tsidi, Newton Amegbey, Daniel Mireku‑Gyimah

One of the ambient effects of production blasting is flyrock. To effectively manage flyrock throw distance in mining, there is the necessity to successfully envisage blasting output without sacrificing the hazardous impact of flyrock which may result in fatality and operational shutdown. For flyrock throw distance prediction, velocity of detonation (VOD) and charge per bank cubic meter (CPBCM) are not usually included. This paper focuses on the use of support vector machine (SVM) regression to ascertain the impact of VOD and CPBCM on flyrock throw predictions. The machine learning models were linear support vector machine (LSVM), quadratic Gaussian support vector machine (QGSVM), fine Gaussian support vector machine (FGSVM), medium Gaussian support vector machine (MGSVM), and cubic Gaussian support vector machine (CGSVM). The outcome indicates that FGSVM was the most sensitive with a 4% improvement when VOD and CPBCM were included. As a result, the LSVM model provides a suitable AI competitive alternative tool for flyrock throw prediction in mining operations by incorporating VOD and CPBCM.

Feb 10, 2024

By J. T. Tanner

The research activities of the Minerals Research Laboratory, which is a part of North Carolina State University, is normally confined to solving beneficiation problems, and developing flotation processes for the mining industry. In recent years the laboratory has veered from its main purpose somewhat and has placed some emphasis on the manufacture of products from mineral concentrates. This has been the result of requests for help from industry. One such request came to the MRL from a talc producer in North Carolina who was having a difficult time competing with foreign imports of steel marking crayons. He felt that if a process could be developed whereby a satisfactory crayon could be produced from powdered talc at a low cost that he could compete.

Jan 1, 1986

By Jagannath Pal, Ammasi Ayyandurai

Hematite ore pellets require a much higher induration temperature than magnetite ore pellets because no exothermic heat is generated due to oxidation inside during induration-like magnetite pellets. Carbon is used as in situ heat source in hematite ore pellets which can reduce temperature requirement in the induration strand and hence decreases energy consumption. Many investigators have reported that a 0.8–1.25% addition of carbon in hematite pellets can improve the pellet properties also. However, to investigate the exact role of carbon in hematite pellets, its reaction mechanisms and kinetics study are required which have not been done so far. Therefore, the reaction mechanism and its kinetics have been studied in this investigation. It has been found that carbon reaction happens in pellets from the surface towards the center in a topochemical manner which is controlled by pore diffusion of gas, and its activation energy is around 52 k J mol− 1. It is also found that apart from in situ heat, carbon in hematite pellets enhances diffusion bonding which improves pellet properties. This study ascertains the exact role of carbon in hematite pellets which may help operators to use carbon effectively to reduce energy consumption and improve pellet properties.

Nov 6, 2022

By Thomas V. Falkie

In bygone days, the mineral engineer spent most of his/her time on the technical aspects of designing, building, and managing mineral operations. In the last few decades, mostly since the 1960s, increasing amounts of engineering man power and time are spent dealing with federal, state, and local government agencies, laws, and regulations. It is not possible to plan, design, build, or operate mines, mills, smelters, or even office buildings without detailed consideration of government regulations and permitting requirements dealing with environment, worker health and safety, etc. The four chapters of this section provide an overview of the social, legal, political, environmental, and health and safety aspects of mineral enterprise. The section sets the stage for the working engineer/geologist in industry, government, consulting, or academe and points the direction for more detailed study in each of these areas.

Jan 1, 2008

By T. Grammatikopoulos, C. Gibson, M. Aghamirian

"Lithium is a silver-white alkali metal that has recently become a target commodity for many junior mining companies. Lithium has a wide range of applications including ceramics and glass, lubricating greases, air treatment, continuous cast mold flux powders, polymer production, and primary aluminium production, but the current popularity of lithium can be attributed to an anticipated increase in demand for lithium ion batteries. The most common lithium-bearing minerals occur globally in pegmatites and granites. Spodumene [LiAl(Si2O6)] is the most desirable economic lithium-bearing mineral due to its high lithium content (theoretical Li2O content of about 8 wt%). However, lithium can also be hosted in petalite, micas, tourmaline, and phosphate minerals. In Canada there are a number of spodumene deposits in Ontario and Quebec at development stage that have the potential to help narrow the forecast lithium supply gap stemming from the widespread acceptance and use of electric vehicles. This paper discusses the beneficiation of hard rock lithium deposits, including an in depth review of the use of flotation to upgrade spodumene. A review of the use of dense media separation (DMS), magnetic separation, and roasting as means to process spodumene bearing ores is also discussed. INTRODUCTION Lithium is a soft, silver-white alkali metal with atomic number 3. As of 2015, the end use of lithium was estimated to be as follows: lithium-ion batteries (35%), ceramics and glass (32%), lubricating greases (9%), air treatment (5%), continuous casting mould flux powders (5%), polymer production (4%), primary aluminium production (1%) and other uses (9%) (Jaskula, 2014). Lithium is found in brine lake deposits containing lithium chloride and in hard rock pegmatite deposits. It can be sold in a range of product types; as mineral concentrate, brine, compound (lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide) and metal depending on its intended end use (Goonan, 2012; Jaskula 2014). In the 1990s the United States and Chile were the largest producers of lithium globally, primarily from brine operations (Ober, 1994). Most of the lithium compounds produced over this period were consumed in the glass, ceramics and aluminium industries. In the 1980s and 1990s there were two major lithium operations in the United States: brine operations at Silver Peak, Nevada, and a spodumene mine and lithium carbonate/lithium hydroxide plant in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. The Kings Mountain operations ceased production in 1991 and were eventually dismantled in 1994. Brine operations were also active in Argentina and Chile, while the largest lithium ore deposit in the world was operated at Greenbushes, Western Australia. During this period it was predicted that major shifts in demand for lithium would come from the success and widespread use of electric vehicles (Ober, 1994)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Feridon Ghadimi, Saeed Mojeddifar, Massume Khavari

Separation of geochemical anomalies from background is an important and essential issue in the exploration of mineral deposits. Statistical methods are used to separation of anomaly from background. Fractal/multifractal and singularity methods are very suitable for the separation of weak anomalies. For interpolation, various methods could be used such as most distance-weighting methods, kriging, spline interpolation, interpolating polynomials, and finite difference methods. This paper addressed application of multifractal techniques together with finite difference procedure to detect the anomalous regions. Fractal models such as concentration–area, spectrum–area, and singularity index model were selected to identify Pb–Zn anomalies. In this research, 170 samples from 33 boreholes were taken in the Haft-Savaran area and analyzed for determination of Pb–Zn anomaly. Singularity method was a suitable method for separating Pb and Zn anomalies. Also, the results showed that the geochemical anomaly has occurred along NE–SW trend and is consistent with the sulfide mineralization process and the faults of the region.

May 18, 2020

The last time Mining Engineering presented an issue with a special focus on Canadian Mining (ME, August 2008 pp. 28 to 40) things were going well. A feature story took a look at Xstrata?s Nickel Rim South Mine in Sudbury and the booming Canadian oil sands were discussed at length. Potash prices were soaring, large diamonds were being found and British Columbia was launching plans to find more workers. How things have changed in six short months. What began as a mortgage crisis grew into a credit crisis, then mutated into a financial crisis, that has taken its toll on the value of bonds, loans, stocks, real estate and commodities. Miners that were flying high on unprecedented commodity prices six months ago have begun scaling back with delays, shut downs and layoffs as they struggle to survive this most recent economic downturn.

Jan 1, 2009

By D. D. Xu

A novel system for the depression of pyrite and the ash-forming minerals has been developed. A metal ion, including but not restricted to Fe+2, is added to form a hydroxide coating on the pyrite or ash-forming mineral. A polymeric depressant is then added to attach to this re-surfaced mineral. Nearly 200 flotation tests with a 11 different coals indicate the effectiveness of this system. Many of the important process variables such as the coal source, frother-collector system, grind size and procedure, pH, metal ion, and depressant type and concentration have been studied.

Jan 1, 1994

By R. Scheffel, R. Washnock, G. Zarate

"The second survey of global copper leaching operations has been completed, the data published in 1998 has been updated. A survey questionnaire was sent to 40 identified copper leach operations around the world including those leach properties still in operation that responded to the 1998 survey. This paper lists the results of 26 operations that responded to the survey. Selected information from the survey is represented in graphical form. INTRODUCTION Copper leaching was first performed by truck dumping huge monolithic stockpiles of ore and flooding the surface with leach solution or lixiviant with little understanding to the parameters that support optimum recovery of the metal. Heap leaching has evolved into a controlled process whereby a complex low grade ore is stacked in shallow lifts (under 10 m in most cases). The ore is usually crushed and agglomerated, conveyor stacked on an engineered containment system (leach pad) and irrigated in a controlled manner. The lixiviant chemistry is designed to extract the optimum amount of metal from the ore. At first glance, heap leaching appears to be simple in nature. In fact, it is a very complex process. A plethora of technologies such as material handling, environmental control, analytical techniques, solution chemistry, hydrology and many others contribute to the design and operation of a heap leach. Heap leaching requires an inter-disciplinary approach between geologists, mining engineers and metallurgists. Many operational factors affect heap leaching. The process must address climatic factors, flexible operation, quality control before and after leaching, physical characteristics of the ore, geology, mineralogy, reagent consumption, solution application rate and methods (wobblers or emitters), particle size, and favorable conditions for bacterial growth and survival. Predicting, troubleshooting, and optimization of leach recovery is a significant challenge when considering the number of variables involved and their interactions The survey updates many of these key operating parameters to the current state of the art. It should provide the reader an excellent benchmarking summary of these factors on a site-by-site basis."

Jan 1, 2016

By T. Guler

Turkey has important celestite reserves in Sivas. These reserves have gypsum and/or calcite as gangue minerals. Celestite-calcite ore cannot be concentrated by gravity methods due to the low efficiency of gravity methods in fine sizes. Research was tried to concentrate celestite to a market grade by flotation. Parameters such as pH, particle size, dosage and types of collector and depressant were examined. Cyanamid A-845 and Na-oleate combination as collector, sodium silicate as depressant, and Aerofroth-65 as frother were found as the optimum flotation reagents. By applying 3-stage cleaning, a concentrate assaying 95,34 % SrS04 was obtained with 84,93 % recovery.

Jan 1, 1999

By Valérie J. Bertrand, Richard W. Lawrence, Marcos G. Monroy

Two cemented paste backfill (CPB) formulations containing pyritic tailings were leached in deionized water in flooded and alternating air-flooded environments and in a simulated acid rock drainage-type (ARD) solution. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), solid phase chemistry and acid-base accounting measurements documented the weathering characteristics of the CPB samples. Short-term exposures of the portland-CPB samples preferentially dissolved the cement binder to a greater extent than slag-Portland CPB mistures. In all cases, the added neutralizing potential provided to backfill by cement was short-lived and insufficient to neutralize the acid generating potential of the mixture.

Jan 1, 2000

By Hemant Agrawal, Arvind Kumar Mishra

Rock breakage using blasting is one of the important operations of the mining industry. The delay timing decides the initiation sequence of holes in the blasts and is a crucial factor to improve the overall blast performance. Blast-induced ground vibration is an undesired yet unavoidable outcome of blasting. Peak particle velocity (PPV) is commonly used to measure the magnitude of blast-induced ground vibration. Channelization and better utilization of explosive energy delay are provided between blast holes using initiating systems. The use of different initiation systems even on the same site results in a very significant difference in the values of PPV generated. Due to scattered delay timings of pyrotechnic detonators, the scaled distance predictor equations obtained become unreliable. The error/scatter in delay timing leads to overlapping of holes and hence increases in maximum charge per delay. In this paper, an analytical approach has been discussed to measure the overlapping of holes during blasting with initiation systems having inherent cap scatter. The analytical approach will be calculating the probable overlapping of holes due to scatter in delay timing and will help blasting engineers to understand the variation in maximum charge per delay due to pyrotechnic based initiating systems. In this study, a total number of 102 blasts were conducted using different initiation systems at two different opencast coal mine and 221 corresponding blast vibrations events were recorded.

Nov 10, 2020