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By J. Bruce Clemmer

In the experimental concentration of Vermont talc-magnesite ores, talc concentrates and tailings rich in magnesite were obtained. On account of the possible market value of the magnesite, the tailings are given consideration' in this report along with the talc. After some comments about the talc industry, the magnesite that accrued as tailings will be considered. Then the flotation results will follow.

Jan 1, 1936

By W. R. Hardwick

This paper describes open-pit mining methods and practices at Copper Cities Division of Miami Copper Co, in Gila County, Ariz. It is one of a series being prepared by the Burea of Mines on mining methods, practices, and costs in various mining districts of the United States. A similar program, conducted from 1928 to 1939, provided technological information on the development and conservation of our mineral resources and assisted operators and engineers in evaluating and developing new mineral deposits. This circular contains a brief history of the district and describes the Copper Cities deposit, with particular emphasis on a detailed description of those characteristics--physical, economic, or engineering--that affect the choice of mining method. Prospecting and exploration, sampling and estimation of tonnage and values, development, and mining (including breaking ground, loading, hauling, ore control, and auxiliary operations related to mining) are described, Percentage of extraction, production rate, safety, first aid, Eire prevention, mine organization, and processing plant are discussed briefly, The final section gives such costs, on a percentage basis, as are available for publication. Where relevant, some information on the Castle Dome mine is included.

Jan 1, 1960

Historically, the selection of mining sequence for multiple seam conditions has been based on many factors other than ground control considerations and minimization of interaction effects. Today, numerous operations are finding themselves mining above existing or abandoned operations, some of which exhibit large scale caving, pressure arches and subsidence troughs. Development of design criteria for the upper seam that would alleviate damage due to lower seam interaction effects can contribute substantially to the safety and productivity of many mining operations. The primary objective of this re search has been to identify methods of improving ground control conditions in the upper seam when mining through either passive or active subsidence waves. These methods concentrate on improved ground control practices for the upper seam, rather than reducing the amount of subsidence in the upper seams by improved practices in the lower seam. Design factors such as pillar size, pillar and opening orientation relative to the subsidence trough, offsetting intersections, and different support methods have been studied for the upper seam in a variety of typical geologic environments. Analysis has demonstrated criteria for ameliorating negative interaction effects and facillitating design in the superincumbent seam.

Jan 1, 1986

ABSTRACTMechanised cut and fill stoping in the Racecourse orebodies between II and 9 levels was started in 1964.Five stopes are in progress over the two level interval, extracting the full strike length (600-2,000 ft) of each orebody without transverse pillars.Each stope is served by a central 10 ft by 12 ft service intake ventilation raise and an 8 ft by 8 ft return air raise at each end of the stope. Each stope is divided into two sections for drilling. firing. mucking, and fillingto maintain steady production. All equipment is kept in the stope for one level lift stoping. Gardner-Denver 2 boom jumbos are used for uphole drilling and Wagner ST 5 Scooptrams for loading and transport to ore passes located in the footwall of the orebody. A Wagner PTIO is used for materials handling and scaling of the stope backs.Mill tailings, after one stage of cycloning are used to fill the stope, one section at a time. About 80 per cent of the water is removed by decantation while the remainder percolates through hessian-covered pipes and boxes.The ore is passed to 11 level where it is hauled by the 3 ft 6 in. gauge train to the tipple at the shaft area. The ore is crushed underground before hoisting to the surface.A performance of about 100 ton/manshift is achieved by the drilling, blasting, and mucking crews in the stopes.

Jan 1, 1968

By R. S. McClain

The Federal Bureau of Mines investigated residues from aluminum plants, to determine if carbon could be removed by flotation while recovering fluorine and aluminum compounds for recycling to the reduction process. This publication summarizes studies on samples representing three types of plant waste products, supplied by three aluminum-producing companies. Samples of flue dust, pot skimmings, and pot linings from the various plants all responded to a simple turpentine flotation scheme to reject 90 to 97 percent of the carbon. Aluminum compound recoveries ranged from 42 to 94 percent on the flue dust, were about 95 percent on the pot skimmings, and ranged from 75 to 89 percent on the pot linings. Fluorine recoveries from the same samples ranged from 35 to 63, 92 to 95, and 77 to 86 percent, respectively. The pot linings contained soluble salts of aluminum and fluorine which were recovered by precipitation with sodium aluminate and carbon dioxide gas. Composites of residues from each plant responded to flotation much the same as the individual samples. Aluminum is produced by the electrolysis of alumina in a molten cryolite bath. The electrolytic reduction cell consists of a carbon-lined box containing a pad of molten aluminum which serves as a cathode, a carbon anode, and an electrolyte of molten cryolite in which the alumina is dissolved. Alumina is reduced to aluminum at the cathode, and carbon is oxidized at the anode.

Jan 1, 1961

By S. H. Jason Choi

The Systems Conveyance and Operations Program (SCOP) is being implemented to convey tertiary-treated effluent to Lake Mead near Las Vegas, Nevada. The Reach 3 Tunnel Project is part of SCOP. The tunnel?s planned location along and across the Las Vegas Wash creates challenging tunneling conditions. A number of feasible excavation and initial support methods are being considered during the final design stage. This paper describes how the tunnel construction options were refined based on anticipated tunneling conditions and compatibility between tunnel excavation and initial support methods. A brief description of the most significant characteristics of the anticipated ground conditions is included for the purpose of discussion.

The selection of the best comminution circuit for the preparation of concentration feed is a compromise based on economics, energy efficiency, labour costs, steel consumption, availability and other factors specific to each case. It is postulated that the selection must be a choice of one of the eight basic comminution circuits which can be divided into two basic groups, (1) autogenous or semi-autogenous primary mills with or without a secondary grinding stage and (2) fine crushing usually in cone crushers followed by a rod mill-ball mill circuit or a single stage ball mill circuit. The accuracy of selection may be improved by pilot plant and laboratory tests which are described in this paper. For (1) above, testing includes media competency tests with standard impact crushing, grindability and abrasion tests followed by pilot plant tests. For (2) above, bench scale crushability, grindability and abrasion testing is available. It is suggested that, through these tests, it should be possible to eliminate all but one in each group of basic comminution circuits. Then engineering and economic studies should lead to the best comminution circuit for the specific requirement.

Jan 1, 1984

By B. Burke, R. Colquhoun, K. Thomas, R. Walton, D. Fentie

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 3½ 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.

Jan 1, 2001

By David Baughman, Steven Axen, Ray V. Huff, Donald H. Davidson

Introduction In situ leaching (ISL) is an alternative method of mining uranium from deposits that are low-grade, deeplying, and water-saturated. ISL recovers uranium by transporting fluids through rock rather than by moving rock, a concept the Chinese developed over 2000 years ago for water production. This technique eventually evolved into production systems for oil, gas, sulfur, and salt. More recently, in situ methods have been developed to produce shale oil, gasified coal, geothermal energy, uranium, and copper. ISL uranium operations began in the early 1960s with Sabine Production Co. in south Texas. About the same time, Utah Construction and Mining Co. (Anderson and Richie, 1968) started similar operations in Wyoming's Shirley Basin. During the 1970s, six commercial operations were started in south Texas, (USBM, 1978) and a number of pilot operations were in various stages of development in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. This paper reviews some of the technical and economic aspects of the ISL process and briefly discusses key subsurface engineering functions as¬sociated with well pattern design and operation. While flow characteristics of a deposit are of prime importance, the following information is also needed: Depth, ore grade, total contained metal, ore thickness, flow conductivity (permeability), void space in rock (porosity), mineral type and distribution, natural groundwater flow, and structural features. Solvent selection, which is important to the economic success of the operation, takes these factors into account: Composition, rate of metal solubilization, interaction with gangue minerals, impact on rock permeability, impact on materials of construction, trace metal solubilization, cost, availability, and handling problems. Overview of ISL An ISL operation consists of these functions (Fig. 1): 1. Chemicals to dissolve and maintain uranium in solution are prepared at the surface extraction facility. 2. A set of injection wells forces the solvent into rock pores of fractures using pressure in excess of the deposit's hydrostatic pressure. 3. Solvent travels through the rock and reacts with uranium minerals to dissolve them. The solvent usually consists of an oxidant and a complexing agent in an acidic or alkaline medium. 4. A set of production wells creates a low-pressure sump where metal-enriched solution is collected for transport to the surface. 5. The enriched solution is processed to recover uranium and to separate the leaching solution for recycling through the system. The economic performance of an in situ operation may be estimated by integrating these related factors: (1) the flow rate of solution processed through the system, (2) rates of fluid injection and production from wells, (3) the rate of mineral solubilization in the liquid phase, and (4) the volume of rock swept by the fluid. As these factors reveal, ISL involves the technical disciplines of petroleum engineering, ore deposit geology, and hydrometallurgical processing. Wellfield Design Just as mineral engineers use drillhole information to plan a conventional mine, in situ engineers use similar information to design a well field. A thorough knowledge of deposit geology and reservoir properties is required. Early application of pressure transient testing, such as

Jan 2, 1980

By Jennifer L. Bell, PATRICK L. YORIO, Emily J. Haas, Susan M. Moore, Lee A. Greenawald

Although researchers have struggled to replicate Heinrich’s safety triangle findings (Heinrich 1931) for various reasons (e.g., no access to his original database and it is unclear if the database was of a single establishment/operation or for an entire industry), the occupational safety community has continued to adopt and expand the applications of this theory (e.g., McSween 2003). Within the mining industry, the potential exists for operations and companies to use concepts from the safety triangle as a way to inform or challenge the practices employed within their health and safety management systems (HSMS) to prevent incidents (Backlund 2016). This paper considers data obtained from the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s databases and demonstrates the validity of applying the safety triangle theory at the mine level. The results support the use of this theory and demonstrate that lower severity incidents can predict fatalities in a subsequent year where significant nuances and caveats to applying the theory are identified and discussed.

Jul 25, 2020

By Alvin J. F

Tin in ores containing 0·025 to 1·5 per cent tin can be determined polarographically by the reduction of the chlorostannite ion at the dropping mercury electrode in 2M hydrochloric acid solution containing 15 per cent ammonium chloride. The tin is separated from interfering elements by distillation as the tetrabromide and collected from the distillate by co-precipitation with aluminium hydroxide. The method can detect 0·01 per cent tin in ore.INTRODUCTIONAn iodimetric method, suitable for routine analysis of titrating tin in concentrations down to 1 per cent, has been available for some years (Low, Weinig, and Schoder, 1939).As concentrations fall below 1 per cent tin, there is increasing difficulty in obtaining a distinct end point due to large amounts of iron and silica normally present after fusion of the ore. Since concentrations of tin down to 0·02 per cent are significant in ore dressing products it was necessary to examine methods to determine such low concentrations, and to adapt these to tin ores containing a wide variety of other minerals.EXPERIMENTALDigestion and separationCassiterite, the principal tin mineral, is refractory but readily attacked by a sodium peroxide flux to yield soluble sodium stannate. In a recognized procedure, a sample of ore is mixed with up to 15 g of sodium peroxide in an iron crucible and swirled over the full heat of a Meker burner for 7 min. The fusion is leached with water and acidified.This solution then contains tin, silica, and other soluble...

Jan 1, 1962

This paper reviews the current techniques employed in the prediction of subsidence and how they have been applied to partial extraction systems. The method using influence functions to describe the shape of the profile is investigated in detail and has been adopted to model the subsidence over workings in Huntly. It is compared with the profile methods developed in the United Kingdom and found to predict the subsidence profile more accurately than these methods.

Jan 1, 1991

ON mineral lease 38 of the Sulphide Corporation Limited, Broken Hill, a shaft was sunk in the early days Ior prospecting purposes and at the present time it is accessible as far as the 1000-ft. level where a connexion exists with the main workings of the Corporation's Central Mine, mineral lease 9. About the year 1895· a crosscut was driven east from this shaft at the 1330-ft. level cutting the Central Ore-body in mineral lease 9 and the shaft is supposed to extend a further depth of 25 ft; but no records of any of this work are in existence, the whole of the evidence being based on hearsay and memory:Fig. 1 shows the position of the Extended shaft in relation to the main workings. The shaft filled with water to the 1000-ft. level where it overflowed through the crosscut to the main shaft and was pumped to the surface, but when the South drive on the 1300-ft. level was pushed to the southern boundary, it was deemed advisable for safety, to tap the water at this level and so relieve the...

Jan 1, 1919

By Vincent Roy

Numerous on going activities at the Daniel-Johnson Dam : ? Surveillance / monitoring ; ? Structural investigations & evaluation ; ? Injection work ; ? Crack mapping ; ? Instrumentation management (drawings & inventory) ; ? Drainage system state ; ? Foundation evaluation

Aug 1, 2013

Several economic factors have caused the surface mining industry to require large-capacity shovels and trucks for efficient, high-production, low-cost operations. Some of those factors include technological advancements in equipment, commodity market depressions, increased labor and maintenance costs, contractural obligations and harsh operating conditions. The difficult operating conditions in surface mines, however, pose challenges to the use of high-capacity equipment. They include space limitations, weak over-burden, and weathered soils and rocks. So mining companies face major challenges in selecting appropriate shovels to meet the technical, operating, safety, environmental and economic requirements of their mines.

Jan 1, 2003

Every automatic citizen is an automatic recipient of a miner's right under the present Mining Act (Chapter 195), but this alone does not entitle any automatic citizen to mine for minerals on any land, even his customary group's land. Without complying with requirements of the Mining Act, any automatic citizen who engages in mining solely on the basis of a miner's right would be mining illegally. He would also be engaged in illegal mining if he mines on customary or other non-government land. Even if mining is legally pursued by an automatic citizen, he does not acquire ownership of minerals without first making the required royalty payments to the State.

Jan 1, 1991

By J. Yuan

Ground calcium carbonate (GCC) and chemically precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) have become important mineral-based commodities in recent years. GCC manufacturing generally requires high purity and high brightness deposits of marble, chalk or limestone as the stone source. PCC usually uses limes made from lesser quality limestone deposits. GCC products have a wide span of particle size, with a d50 size ranging from sub micrometers to as large as several inches such as those used in landscaping. PCC products are typically limited to less than 10 µm (1,250 mesh). Each PCC product has a narrowly distributed size range. GCC and PCC products tend to have higher levels of whiteness com-pared with other traditional filler and extenders, such as kaolin and talc. Published statistics of GCC production volume often vary due to the exclusion of certain size range GCC products. According to Roskill’s latest estimate, world GCC capacity was believed to exceed 56 Mt (62 millionst) during 2004 for all grades.

Jan 1, 2005

By Peter L. McSwiggen

The mineralogy of the Biwabik Iron Formation changes dramatically from west to east as the formation nears the basal contact of the Duluth Complex. This reflects a contact metamorphism that took place with the emplacement of the igneous Duluth Complex at tem¬peratures as high as 1200 °C. However, the mineralogy of the Biwabik Iron Formation also varies vertically through the stratigraphy of the unit. This variability in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions makes it difficult to predict exact horizons where specific minerals will occur. The iron-formation has been subdivided into four broad stratigraphic units (lower cherty, lower slaty, upper cherty, and upper slaty) and into four lateral mineralogical zones (1-4). Zone 1, the westernmost zone, is characterized by quartz, magnetite, hematite, carbonates, talc, chamosite, greenalite, minnesotaite, and stilpnomelane. The silicate mineralogy in Zone 2 of the Biwabik Iron Forma¬tion changes very little. However, the minerals begin to change dramatically in Zone 3. Most significantly, Zone 3 is characterized by the appearance of grunerite in both a tabular form and a fibrous form. In Zone 4, the original silicate minerals have completely reacted, and a new suite of minerals occupies the iron-formation. These include grunerite, hornblende, hedenbergite, ferrohypersthene (ferrosilite), and fayalite.

Jan 1, 2007

By Peter L. McSwiggen

The mineralogy of the Biwabik Iron Formation changes dramatically from west to east as the formation nears the basal contact of the Duluth Complex. This reflects a contact metamorphism that took place with the emplacement of the igneous Duluth Complex at temperatures as high as 1200 °C. However, the mineralogy of the Biwabik Iron Formation also varies vertically through the stratigraphy of the unit. This variability in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions makes it difficult to predict exact horizons where specific minerals will occur. The iron-formation has been subdivided into four broad stratigraphic units (lower cherty, lower slaty, upper cherty, and upper slaty) and into four lateral mineralogical zones (1-4). Zone 1, the westernmost zone, is characterized by quartz, magnetite, hematite, carbonates, talc, chamosite, greenalite, minnesotaite, and stilpnomelane. The silicate mineralogy in Zone 2 of the Biwabik Iron Formation changes very little. However, the minerals begin to change dramatically in Zone 3. Most significantly, Zone 3 is characterized by the appearance of grunerite in both a tabular form and a fibrous form. In Zone 4, the original silicate minerals have completely reacted, and a new suite of minerals occupies the iron-formation. These include grunerite, hornblende, hedenbergite, ferrohypersthene (ferrosilite), and fayalite. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Biwabik Iron Formation; Duluth Complex; Mineralogy

Jan 1, 2007

By Barry Olson

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

Jan 1, 2009