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The paper deals with the taking of soundings in connection with coal mining operations under part of the Pacific Ocean adjoining John Darling Colliery.INTRODUCTIONIn the early days of mining in the Newcastle District there did not appear to be any definite law specifying the limits to which mine workings, other than certain borings, could extend under tidal waters.As time went on, a figure of 120 ft. was fixed as the minimum thickness of strata between the roof of the seam and the sea bottom; beyond this mining operations are disallowed. The laws relating to working coal under tidal waters are as follow:-The minimum width of pillars to be left shall be eight (8) yards and the maximum width of bords or other excavations shall be six (6) yards, but the lessee may at his discretion increase the minimum width of the pillars or decrease the maximum width of the bordsor other excavations so as to increase the general safety.The eight (8) yard pillars shall be left unwrought.In on-road of every pair of Winning-off or leading headings, a bore shall be kept going ten (10) feet in advance for the purpose of foretelling the presence of any fissure, wash-out, open joint, fault, dyke, or otherwise, and all winning-off headings shall be driven atleast one hundred (100) yards in advance of the working bords.The most accurate and trustworthy information shall be obtained by the lessee not only' of the depth and character of the ocean bed, river, lake, or estuary deposit, but also of the strata overlying the coal seam.When working under the ocean, strata shall be bored through and proved a minimum thickness of thirty (30) feet at the face of the leading headings or levels immediately such headings or levels are under the ocean, and...

Jan 1, 1947

By M Cooksey, Z Zhu, N Langrené, W Chen, T Tarnopolskaya

"Dynamic decision-making can significantly increase the value of mining projects and deliver better sustainability outcomes under conditions of uncertainty. Despite its benefits, dynamic decision-making is rarely used by the mining industry, possibly because of the complexity of the algorithms used to make sequential decisions under uncertainty and difficulties in visualising the optimal strategies. To achieve better outcomes in practice, decision-makers in industry would benefit from a tool that would help them to understand and implement the results of the analysis.CSIRO is developing innovative dynamic decision support tools that include an intuitive graphical display of the boundaries between the regions of different optimal decisions, which would significantly assist optimal sequential decision-making under uncertainty. The dynamic decision support tool is based on novel stochastic optimal control methodologies that can be used to optimise decisions in situations with multiple uncertain variables and decisions (Tarnopolskaya, Chen and Bao, 2015; Chen et al, 2015; Langrené et al, 2015). The types of market uncertainties that can be considered include commodity prices, interest rates and exchange rate, while the key orebody uncertainties include the reserves, boundaries between ore types and even geometallurgical parameters.The dynamic decision support tools have a number of benefits and can be used to:construct optimal operational strategies and to optimally manage resources projectsgain insight into optimal strategies under different market conditions and project settings compare expected project values under different project settings and to select the setting that provides best sustainability outcomes.This extended abstract demonstrates the use and benefits of the dynamic decision support tools using a synthetic case study of a gold mine.CITATION:Chen, W, Langrené, N, Tarnopolskaya, T, Zhu, Z and Cooksey, M, 2016. Dynamic decisions under uncertainty – a case study on a gold mine, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2016 Conference, pp 20–23 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Jun 28, 2016

Ranger Uranium Mines Pty. Ltd. operates an open pit mine and ore treatment plant in the Northern Territory designed to produce 3 000 tonne/yr of U308 in yellowcake from 3 500 tonne/day of mill feed. The construction of this project was completed in 1981, 12 years after the discovery of the orebody. Wright-Davy, a Joint Venture of Wright Engineers and Davy McKee Pacific, were the Project Managers and Designers of the $270 million ore treatment plant and associated infrastructure. The project was designed in Sydney in -an office integrated with the Client, staffed by 35 key personnel drawn from Wright Engineers and Davy McKee, supplemented by personnel hired for the project. The peak Wright-Davy workforce in Sydney of 200 contained 113 design staff. The design principle of using the best practicable proven technology resulted in a plant which easily produces its design output using ore types outside the design criteria. The structuring of the project systems and industrial relations policies contributed to construction being completed within time and under budget. The plant was built without any major industrial dispute occurring and no dispute arose due to the uranium issue.

Jan 1, 1983

By A Struminski

The principles of occupational risk evaluation resulting from the improper ventilation of the underground mines were presented. It was shown that the risk level implies the appropriate planning and usage of prevention methods. That approach is fundamental in the ventilation, fire and climate safety management in the copper ore mines. The paper uses the adequately modified Risk Score method.

Jan 1, 2003

Samples of the feed, underflow and overflow mediums from dense medium cyclones operating at low separation densities in eight commercial coal washeries were sized and analysed, to obtain comparative cyclone classification performance curves for the magnetite, shale and coal components in the circulating medium. The resulting component classification curves indicated that the dense medium cyclones hydraulically classify the magnetite and the shale to the underflow with a Stokesian size and density relationship at these low medium densities, ie the shale curve was shifted parallel to and appropriately coarser than the magnetite curve because of the lower density of the shale. However the lower density coal reverse classified to the overflow (ie away from the cyclone wall) with a similar Stokesian relationship. By correcting the magnetite and shale classification curves for the bypass inefficiency to underflow, and similarly correcting the coal classification curves for the bypass inefficiency to overflow, the corrected classification curves for the magnetite, shale and coal were reasonably parallel (considering that the coal has a range of densities). Using a value of five for the density of the magnetite, the displacement of the shale and coal curves corresponded to densities of 2.27 and 1.38 respectively for one circuit, although the data was not as good for the other circuits. This reverse classification mechanism was confirmed in a 140 mm diameter laboratory dense medium cyclone circuit using low density (1.20 - 1.30 RD) tracers, sized from 0.25 to 2 mm. These classification performance curves were corrected for bypass ineffiency (as above). The corrected curves were parallel and displaced according to tracer density, even though the lowest density tracers were reverse classified to the overflow. The data indicate that the rates of classification of all particles could be described by the same Stokesian relationship, regardless of the direction of travel, except for a narrow band at the partition density. Particles heavier than the partition density classified to the underflow, particles lighter than the partition density reverse classified to the overflow and particles identical to the partition density were not classified at all. Consequently it should be possible to simulate partition in dense medium cyclones, operating under free settling low density conditions, with a simple cyclone classification model, provided the partition density can be accurately calculated from, or correlated with the cyclone feed, underflow or overflow pulp densities. The tracer partition performance in the laboratory cyclone was an inverse function of the tracer particle size, as proposed by King and Juckes (1984) for medium/coal ratio in low density medium systems. Their sized coal data was parallel, with lower partition values due to a higher energy cyclone. Partition data with similarly sized tracers (Scott, 1988) showed a parallel shift to higher partition values due to the separate effects of higher viscosity medium and a larger diameter lower energy Cyclone.

Jan 1, 1993

Dr David Dekker discussed the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to automation, the infrastructure required to support automation, and selecting the equipment for automation. Dekker stressed that automation involves a number of technologies. The mining industry is currently about part-way through the evolutionary process of achieving a fully integrated automation system. He pointed out that the final stages require parallel development of infrastructure such as mine communications. Technologies required for automation Automation systems consist of three parts: the gathering of information, the processing of that information, and taking action.

Jan 1, 1997

By J Shooter

Pezzimenti Laserbore designed, fabricated and commissioned the first microtunnelling machine in Australia in 1986. The System was initially a very basic one, developed in isolation to the overseas explosion in microtunnelling growth headed by Japan and Germany. Market needs in Australia have demanded increasing flexibility in microtunnelling capacity-longer distances, variable ground conditions and larger diameters. The one constant throughout the development process is in maintaining high accuracy û the attribute which most readily differentiates microtunnelling from other limited steering techniques.This paper will highlight the features of microtunnelling by drawing on case studies of completed projects.

Jan 1, 1999

By J P. Moodie

Recent trends in flotation technology are briefly reviewed. These show that considerable development has been made as the operators, suppliers and technologists have responded to the challenges of the industry. Most of these advances have been based on empirical and phenomenological methods. There is a considerable opportunity to make further advances through a more fundamental, scientific approach. Some of this work is discussed and, although progress is being made on this front, industrial uptake has been somewhat slow. A number of specific issues facing the industry are discussed.

Jan 1, 2005

By A S. Kurilko

For mines located in the cryolitic zone, thermal conditions are an important factor for all kinds of mining works, especially for ventilation of workings. In the present paper, some models of mine air heat transfer considering air distribution in a net of mine workings are developed. A combined solution is suggested for heat transfer and air distribution problems in mine workings and other underground structures located in the cryolitic zone. A software package is also presented for calculating temperature conditions in an underground refrigeration plant and for optimisation of ventilation conditions. This software uses a special 3D mathematical model to describe heat transfer in a freezing chamber between surrounding rock massif and stored product as well as between atmospheric air and the daylight surface of rock massif. A problem requiring strengthening of a backfill material and its thermal interaction with surrounding rocks during underground deposit mining by horizontal layers in conditions of the cryolitic zone is also discussed. The developed program takes into account cement consumption, geometrical dimensions of workings filled and a sequence of deposit mining.

Jan 1, 2005

By A Coulson, J Hussey

Noranda Inc is a Canadian mining and metallurgical company with its activities managed through businesses in copper and recycling, zinc, aluminum, magnesium and various metals through its interest in Falconbridge Ltd. Noranda operates three base metal mines, three copper smelters, one copper refinery, one zinc refinery, one lead smelter and refinery, three copper recycling and sampling facilities seven aluminum producing facilities and one magnesium production facility in the construction stage. The mining side of Noranda has a strong history of open stope, cut and fill and shrinkage mining. The 1999 Noranda Annual Report lists a 206 million tonne resource located at Porphyry Mountain in GaspT, QuTbec. Mont Porphyre is a large tonnage, low-grade porphyry style Cu-Mo deposit that was discovered in 1994. It is located at a depth between 1.0 and 1.7 km below surface and characterised by a very competent rock mass. The Mont Porphyre resource is located adjacent to the town of Murdochville, close to NorandaÆs Mines GaspT operations. Mines GaspT closed its open pit and underground operations in 1999 after approximately 45 years of mining, but still operates a copper smelter near Murdochville. The low-grade and great depth of the Mont Porphyre resource suggested that mine design could not be based on the conventional Noranda open stoping mining practice. This paper will review NorandaÆs approach to evaluating the Mont Porphyre deposit. The approach included two definition diamond drilling campaigns, a review of current caving practice, an in-house scope study, a geotechnical logging program for diamond drill core and participation in an international study on cave mining. One interesting component of NorandaÆs approach was the scope study that involved a team of multi-disciplinary personnel drawn together for a short period of time. The objective of the scope study was to determine what conditions would be necessary to mine the deposit and to assess the merits of continuing with further exploration work. A review of current worldwide underground bulk mining practices, and in particular an evaluation of the applicability of caving mining methods, were key components of the scope study. The scope study team concluded that derivatives of caving could be applied to the mining of Mont Porphyre, but additional diamond drilling was recommended to further define the deposit and improve the level of geotechnical information. Following the recommendations of the scope study team, a diamond drilling campaign was completed during the summer and fall of 1997. The 1997 drilling campaign had two secondary objectives, in addition to the primary objective of defining the limits of the orebody. The first objective was to improve the level of geotechnical information available for the characterisation of primary block cave fragmentation. The second objective was to improve the delineation of a lower grade intrusive core. A geomechanical investigation was conducted and included particular emphasis on geotechnical data collection and analysis. A review of the actual data collection process, including several trials of different core orientation techniques, will be included in the discussion.

Jan 1, 2000

Workplace Centred Learning, (WCL), is a learning strategy which helps organisations cope with the constant change in skill requirements that is part of business today. WCL focusses on the specific needs of the workplace and provides the structure and sets the standard whereby the required competencies can be transferred between individuals. Learning is considered part of the job and ownership is achieved by involving individuals in all aspects of the learning system. Each individual in a WCL system is considered both a learner and a teacher. A significant advantage of WCL over conventional training systems is that it responds quickly to changing requirements, and once in place, becomes self-sustaining. That is, once implemented, the system provides mechanisms to detect and respond to changes in skill requirements as they arise. WCL is a competency-based system with multiple levels of validation. It provides a flexible approach to skills development that recognises both the needs of the workplace and the needs of the individual. WCL was developed in collaboration with ALCAN Aust Ltd and is currently being implemented by companies within Australia and overseas.

Jan 1, 1995

An integrated approach to risk management to complement insurance is the sustainable way forward for the modem organisation. For risk management to work, its various aspects need to operate interactively, not in isolation from insurance. This is the approach recommended in this paper. The risk management process is a strategic method for reducing an organisation's total cost of risk. Well established and basic risk management techniques will help identify and achieve risk management Objectives.

Jan 1, 1994

The last 40 years has seen a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of pneumoconiosis through improved mining engineering associated with continuing medical surveillance of those at risk. Presently the dust particle count standard is being correlated with gravimetric dust standards. Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema are also coal mining related diseases. Methane is the commonest of a number of coal mine gases. Oxygen deficiency symptoms may result from high gas content of mine air. The explosive nature of methane-air mixtures is well known. Mine gases will always present a potential threat to safety.

Jan 1, 1983

A useful sampling device can be constructed using three movable flaps. One is moved between its two extreme positions as material is flowing past it; the other two are only moved while no material is flowing past them. Material commences to flow into a sample container as the primary flap is moved from right to left, continues to flow into the sample container as the primary flap is moved from left to right, and the flow is terminated as the primary flap is next moved from right to left. As for several other sampling devices, an argument that there is no delimitation error can be made on the basis that the sampler conceptually divides the stream up into discrete portions and takes a set of equally-spaced portions as a sample.

Jan 1, 2008

By Cole RT

The cultural ages of man have been defined in terms of smelting and hence as a prerequisite, mining for example the iron age and the bronze age. There could be no separation of the man from his role as the technologist (miner/ smelter) for his early metal working efforts were to enhance survival. In the millenniums since, the artisan specialist developed and the technologist emerged. The process is a sort of technical natural selection. From the generalist hunter, gatherer, miner, metalworker we advanced over the centuries with great 'steps for mankind' to the series of specialists each largely intent on securing his/her technical functions from the curious assaults of other tribal members. The relevance of all this to the theme, 'Past, present and future of the Victorian mining and metallurgical industries', is simply that people have always, and will always, be the moving force in our industries. It is the effectiveness of people now and in the future that this paper addresses.

Jan 1, 1982

DURING a period extending over about the last two and a half years, the performances of various types of rock drills in use at the mining department of the Zinc Corporation have been recorded as closely as possible. The main objective was the collection of sufficient data regarding internal water-feed hammer drills, when used for the same class of work as the older type reciprocating drill, to enable a decision to be formed on the following points:(1) Whether internal water-feed, hammer drills could efficiently perform the work previously carried out by reciprocating drills without excessive repair cost to the former.(2) If so, was it good policy commercially to eliminate the reciprocating type completely, writing these off together with the accompanying spares, accessories, and solid drill steel, and replacing with internal water-feed hammer drills, with lighter fittings, and the requisite amount of hollow drill steel.(3) What were the best types and makes of hammer drill for different classes of mining work(4) What was the economic aspect of the introduction of the principle of internal water feed to every type of machine throughout the mine.Prior to the strike of workers in May, 1919, Ingersoll-Rand E47 31-in. reciprocating drills had been used for stoping and for the major portion of driving, cross-cutting, and similar work. The accompanying columns and fittings were all 4t in. The drill steel used was solid octagon. Up to 1916 these machines were also used for winzing, after which time jackhamers were more successfully employed. These latter were of the usual types, varying in weight from 40 to' 46 Ib. Ingersoll BCR 430, Holman No. 2 spool valve, Sullivan DP33,. Waugh Clipper 55. These machines were all dry head; the drill steel was hollow hexagon, shanked.

Jan 1, 1923

Trade unions are people. As organisations they exist to represent the needs and interests of their members; that is the workforce. Thus one of the underlying objectives of the trade union movement has been and will continue to be: achieving from management recog- nition that the labour input to the production process - whether that be in the factory, office or service context - is made up of individual people who can not be treated as just another factor of production. The essential difference between labour input and other factors of production such as capital and raw material is the "humanness" of the individual entities which make up a firm, company or industry's labour supply. Recognition of the "people" input to the production process has essentially two aspects: humanisation of the workplace and the treatment of labour as human beings who have a role to play both within the workplace and within broader society.

Jan 1, 1982

By N Madani, N Battalgazy

Geostatistical simulation has been widely used in mineral resource classification of metalliferous deposits based on international standards such as JORC code which is one of the most extensively used around the world for reporting the mineral resources and ore reserves alongside with objectives of the companies (Sadeghi, Madani and Carranza, 2015). However, the modeling process becomes challenging whenever the relationship between the variables of interest is complicated and cumbersome to model. This characteristic sometimes manifests itself in complex spatial and global cross-correlation measures, deeply depending on the formation and genesis of the deposit. The objective then is to generate the models that not only reproduces these significant characteristics, but also, it leads to a better understanding of a mineral resource estimation and successive decision-makings. In this respect, there are different approaches taking into account the spatial correlation structures, for which can be classified as independent simulation, co-simulation, and factor-based methodologies. In this paper, three techniques: Turning Bands Independent Simulation (TBSIM), Turning Bands Co-Simulation (TBCOSIM) and Projection Pursuit Multivariate Transform (PPMT); from those aforementioned approaches are selected to model two cross-correlated variables (Iron and Aluminum Oxide) belonging to an Iron ore deposit located in Brazil, in order to examine which methodology better reproduces the corresponding complexity in terms of local correlation measure. CITATION: Battalgazy, N and Madani, N, 2018. Mineral resource assessment in complex ore deposits based on international standards, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 79–81 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

Epithermal deposits have been defined as the lower temperature end of a spectrum of hydrothermal mineral deposits and are inferred to have formed near the EarthÆs surface. The preservation of an epithermal gold deposit in an Archaean craton is rather problematic, especially when such deposits form clusters or groups as reported for the Pilbara and Yilgarn cratons. For two of the better studied examples of epithermal gold deposits in these cratons, Becher and Wiluna, the evidence that they formed near the Earth surface is non-diagnostic, and the epithermal origin appears uncertain. Despite the simplicity of the original definition, there have been numerous errors in classifying epithermal gold deposits. It is suggested that these errors are primarily due to poor criteria defining the group as there is limited evidence of poor observational science being the cause. The criteria being used to recognise epithermal gold deposits include tectonic setting, ore element suite and quartz vein textures. None of these are diagnostic of epithermal deposits and their link back to the original low pressure-temperature definition of the class is tenuous. There has been definition creep over time as new observations on potential epithermal gold deposits become accommodated within a flexible definition. There is some urgency establishing and then using criteria to reliably identify epithermal deposits. Distinction of epithermal gold from weathered gold deposits is an important step. An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation.

Jan 1, 2008

By Keys NJ

The so-called COMAT process provides a method for leaching low grade sulphide mattes in an acidic ferric sulphate medium in such a way that non ferrous base metals such as Ni,Cu and Co are substantially all dissolved; the concentration of residual acid and dissolved iron remaining in the leaching solution is low, and a large portion of the sulphide sulphur is converted to elemental sulphur. Thus the quantity of neutralising agents required to remove residual acid and dissolved iron from the leach solution prior to subsequent recovery of the dissolved base metals is greatly reduced. The leach residue and iron precip- itate report in a readily filterable form. In this paper results obtained on a pilot plant scale are presented for the leaching of a typical low grade matte in the manner describ- ed above; for the solvent extraction and elec- trowinning of copper, and for the removal of residual acid, copper and iron from the copper solvent extraction raffinate. Processes tested on a laboratory scale for the further recovery of cobalt and nickel by solvent extraction and electrowinning, and for the recovery of sulphuric acid and ammonium hydr- oxide from the dissolved ammonium sulphate salt contained in the final plant effluent, are also briefly described.

Jan 1, 1986