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The approvals process for a major cut-back is not a simple exercise when a mine is located alongside the community. Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) has been through an extensive process of government, JV owner and community consultation to ensure that necessary permitting processes and detailed studies have been completed to allow this six year extension to the open pit mine life to be achieved. With the Kalgoorlie Boulder community being on the doorstep of the mine, it is critical to ensure that the operation runs smoothly and complies to the license conditions to achieve the full value of the Golden Pike cut-back, and leave behind a sustainable legacy for the local community. This is an ABSTRACT ONLY no paper was prepared for this presentation.

Jun 1, 2010

By E Y. Baafi

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASSM) offers lucrative employment opportunities to the locals of most developing countries. The major drawback of ASSM is its adverse impacts on the environment resulting from improper mining and processing techniques. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has very active ASSM activities. The artisanal and small-scale gold mining in PNG provide employment at local and national levels and the sector is an important source for inflow of foreign exchange into rural communities. However, small-scale mining activities are associated with sensitive health and environmental issues. The process of recovering gold by retorting and heating the amalgam over an open fire is a dangerous health practice. This paper discusses artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations in PNG and their impacts on the local environment.

Jan 1, 2008

By P R. Botha

Mining has played a significant role in human development and without the mining sector, society would not enjoy a large number of the benefits that it does today. However, mining has also carried with it some important lessons, which remain the source of ongoing learning. One of these lessons is the poor closure or abandonment of mines, worldwide. This has in many cases resulted in large tracts of unproductive land, representing a source of environmental pollution and a safety hazard to the community. Frequently associated with this is a legacy of mining communities having fallen into economic and social decline, beyond mine closure.Due to this legacy, governments, society and the mining sector pay far greater attention to mine closure planning today, than was done in the past. Typically closure planning has focused on the engineering aspects of a mine, namely decommissioning of the workings and plant; dismantling of unusable infrastructure; and rehabilitation of disturbed land. These are important aspects of closure but a more holistic, long-term approach is required which encompasses environmental and social aspects and aims to leave a positive legacy behind.In planning for a mine closure scenario with a lasting positive legacy, it is critical that the broader receiving environments (social, economic, physical and biological) within which a mine is located, define and drive the closure plan and the mine planning as a whole. This ensures that the broader environment influences mine closure, as opposed to looking at how a closed mine will impact on the environment. The ultimate aim is to first understand the broader environment and then to fit the closure of a mine into it. The earlier this approach is followed in the life of a mine, the greater the operational time frame available, and hence a better chance is presented for planning and managing a mine towards the desired, tested and agreed post closure scenario. Within this broad context, there is tremendous scope to achieve successful mine closure. However, it is critical to note that mine closure is not the sole responsibility of the mining companies, and neither is it possible for said mining companies to achieve mining closure alone. This concerted effort requires a multi-stakeholder approach in which partnerships are created and risks, responsibilities and opportunities are shared and managed. To achieve sustainable closure, a multi-stakeholder approach based on an initial forward-looking closure vision is required. This approach provides an early basis for consideration of alternative land uses and economic options from which specific actions to achieve the preferred option can be defined. The Anglo American plc Mine Closure Toolbox has been formulated and developed around this concept. The Toolbox aims to expand mine closure planning - from financial provisioning for rehabilitation and physical closure, to planning for sustainability beyond mine closure and leaving behind a positive legacy.This paper focuses on the business case for mine closure planning and provides an overview of the Anglo American plc (AAplc) Mine Closure Toolbox.CITATION:Botha, P R, 2012. The business case for mine closure planning and an overview of Anglo AmericanÆs mine closure toolbox approach, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2012 , pp 7-10 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 10, 2012

An airlift pump is fitted to the screw conveyor of a decanter type centrifuge in order to pump out soft cakes which are difficult to discharge from a standard decanter. The new patented2 design improves separation performance and allows more stable operation, particularly when operating the decanter as a thickener.

Jan 1, 1989

The Junction Reefs gold bearing deposit is situated on the Lyndhurst Mining Field in mid-west New South Wales. It is located within a triangle of three country towns namely, Blayney, Cowra and Canowindra, all three townships are approximately 25 km from the current operational mining leases. The district is well developed, having been settled for more than a cen- tury. However, being close to the Cities of Orange and Bathurst it is real- lised, instantly, that mining leases have been pegged, in this area, almost boundary to boundary. The lease patterns are, with few exceptions, those which had been estab- lished more than seventy-five years ago. These types of lease patterns may not assist the proper exploitation of a large district where there have been many discoveries of gold, copper and other metals.

Jan 1, 1988

By K D. Tuckwell

The Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan, has nominated ‘maximising our advantages’ from ‘Mining Boom Mark II’ as the focus of the 2011/2012 Australian Budget. Australia therefore requires a bolder and better integrated economic reform agenda if it is to convert current strong demand for mineral commodities into lasting prosperity that benefits all Australians. Lasting prosperity, well past 2012, will only be achieved if Australia can effectively reverse a decade-long deterioration in the minerals industry productivity performance due largely to capacity constraints that inhibit growth. This requires improving the efficiency of energy networks, transport infrastructure, water markets, health and education services, access to skilled people and by streamlining costly, inefficient project approvals’ processes. The common thread that holds this economic fabric together is the importance of having the right people using the most appropriate technology within the correct policy framework.In December 2010, employment in the minerals sector stood at 187 200; 21 per cent higher than one year earlier, 15 per cent higher than the industry employment peak prior to the global financial crisis in 2008 and 14 per cent greater than anticipated by industry modelling published in 2008. Managers and professionals make up approximately 15 per cent of the total workforce, yet minerals-related higher education programs (mining engineering, metallurgy and geoscience) continue to be chronically underfunded, requiring direct industry subsidies of more than $25 M over the last decade. Also, the publicly-funded Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector continues to fail the industry in the delivery of quality training programs. Importantly, the industry is a key driver of economic activity in regional and remote Australia and is the largest source of private sector employment for Indigenous Australians who comprise up to a quarter of employees in certain locations.This presentation looks at what our industry and country need to achieve to ensure we have the right people for the challenges ahead. **This is an abstract only. No paper was provided for this abstract.**

Nov 22, 2011

By I Gray

This paper examines the effects of the changes in stress that a coal may undergo as part of the drainage process. As a consequence of this, some coal seams will come to the situation that they have zero horizontal stress existing within them at the time of mining. The hypothesis of this paper is that this lack of horizontal confining stress means that on mining, the vertical stresses may be easily raised to a level where failure occurs. This failure may be accompanied by significant energy release from energy stored within the coal as well as that coming from the roof and floor. To determine the state of stress within the coal seam, the concept of the effective stress path that the coal passes through is examined and is found to be very dependent on the shrinkage of the coal with degassing, the Young’s modulus of the coal and its Poisson’s ratio. The Young’s modulus of the coal is important and has been found to be highly dependent on the state of stress within the coal. It may change by more than an order of magnitude.CITATION:Gray, I, 2014. The consequences for pillar stability of zero confining stress brought about by forced or natural drainage, in Proceedings AusRock 2014: Third Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference , pp 331–336 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 5, 2014

APPIN AND TOWER METHANE ENERGY PROJECTA world first in energy innovationBHP has teamed with Energy Developments Limited and Lend Lease Infrastructure, to establish an electrical power generation facility that utilizes methane produced as a by-product of mining at BHP's Appin and Tower coal mines in southern New South Wales.

Jan 1, 1998

Recent research publications in extractive metallurgy were analysed for their stated and self-evident objectives. Over 100 different objectives (not specific to a metal or unit operation) were identified. These were divided into groups of economic, environmental, professional and fundamental significance. Comparisons were made of the objectives adopted in universities, industry and national research organisations. The most common primary and secondary objectives (by a large margin) were "to develop a new process (different chemistry)" and "to determine the effects of variables on a process" respectively. It was concluded that, overall, recent research has been dominated by commercial objectives. Objectives related to thermodynamics and kinetics have been the most common of the fundamental sort. Those related to professional methods in general, sensors and process dynamics, among others, have been largely neglected.

Jan 1, 1986

By Kerr M. H, Slaughter P. J

Design of the new cemented hydraulic fill plant was based mainly on experience with a succession of previous fill plants. Two stage cycloning of combined concentrator tailings was introduced. Design of the two stage cyclone configuration was assisted by computer simulation of cyclone performance. Cementing additives, namely Portland cement and ground copper reverberatory furnace slag, drawn from bulk storage, are pre-slurried prior to mixing with hydraulic fill. Quality control of fill being sent under- ground is achieved by a series of automatic control loops. Plant instrumentation was given prime consideration during the design phase. Inventory checks of all mass flow metering equipment are made at regular intervals. Fill is pumped to boreholes at several locations. Details of the equipment and operating procedures for the plant are Discussed.

Jan 1, 1973

By R J. Higgins, M Edraki

What is the meaning of the Life of a Mine (LOM) if that mine results in a requirement for water treatment in perpetuity? ‘In perpetuity’ is of course a duration with no relationship to a Life-of-Mine or what might rightly be regarded by external stakeholders as a fair and reasonable post-mine recovery period. It exceeds the life span of investors, mine managers and governments, indeed even of capital markets as we know them, and of corporate and individual memories.In mine and mine closure planning, decisions are usually based at least to a significant extent on traditional economic analysis underlain by discounted cash flows (DCF). For investments in income-producing facilities, such as mining development and equipment, and ore-processing plant and equipment, this analysis reflects commercial reality and allows for comparison of competing investments. However, for environmental and social infrastructure, the same analysis using the same input parameters, especially the discount rate applied to cash flows, can lead to a bias against the adoption of best practices for non-investor stakeholders. CITATION:Higgins, R J and Edraki, M, 2018. Water treatment in perpetuity – or not?, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2018, pp 131–132 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 25, 2018

By Williams M

Sheet flotation is a new two dimensional column flotation cell that produces continuous spectrum of products. Analogous to a shaking table in its performance and analysis, sheet flotation is a sheet of bubbles rising through packing contained between two walls. Feed enters the sheet at the lower left and the product exit along the top and right edges. Iligh grade materials exit at the top left, middlings exit at the top right comer and low grade waste materials exit at the bottom right. As in the case of a shaking table, two motions are required: up and right. Bubbles furnish the upwards movement for hydrophobic particles, slanted packing the rightward movement for hydrophilic particles. The sheet flotation cells is analysed as a 40 x 40 array of simple cells. In practice, 1000 x 1000 arrays of simple cells may be expected. With larger arrays, excellent separations may be expected. Because there is no recycle, there is no build-up of middlings in

Jan 1, 1993

By Armstrong M

The highest grades of the Porgera gold deposit, Papua New Guinea, are contained in Zone 7 due to the presence of the Roamane fault, which acted as channelway of the gold-bearing fluids. Prior to the development and underground mining of this fault-controlled high-grade zone it was critical to provide grade estimates of relatively small mining units, and of the proportion of mining units above cutoff. To be applicable to Zone 7 of Porgera a grade estimation method should account for the following:1. the highly skewed and apparently lognormal distribution of the grades,2. the rapid drop off of the local mean grade and the variance as the distance to the Roamane fault increases,3. the presence of high grade pockets in the footwall, away from that fault, and4. the existence of variograms for the logs with sills parallel to the fault and without sills perpendicular to it.

Jan 1, 1990

By Kruse JW, Kjar AR

Recently there has been increased recognition o'f the cost savings that can be achieved by the greater use of offsite preassembly for the construction of industrial plants. Preassembly is a method of construction which involves considerable offsite assembly of complete sections of an industrial plant in established fabrication shops. The preassemblies are transported to the plant site, often by large and oversize transport systems where they are set on prepared foundations, finished and interconnected to other sections of the plant as required. The concept of preassembly is not new, but widespread interest has been shown because site construction costs in all parts of the world have increased rapidly and often at a greater rate than in established fabrication areas. Particular interest has be focused on remote, isolated and inhospitable plant site locations. These areas require the import of skilled labour, the payment of high labour rate premiums and the development of infrastructure to support the workforce for the duration of the construction period.

Jan 1, 1983

By Smith P

The past 20 years have seen the replacement of hydraulic control of longwall mining systems by the neater. smaller and better controlled electronic units.Early problems of moisture and other effects on reliability were overcome to see electronically controlled supports chosen for Corrimal Colliery ten years ago. Lessons from Corrimal and elsewhere, with following improvements and sophistication led to wider use as exemplified by Meco and other electronically controlled supports used in more recent installations in New South Wales, Queensland, USA and Czechoslovakia of the total of over 80 electronically controlled support installations worldwide in the past decade. Present work is toward a fully "integrated face" of British Coal by 1993, incorporating the Meco automatic face straightening system already due for practical use in the UK later this year. However the manless face still appears to be some way off although the present minimum crews and close monitoring, including early warning, are promising stages.

Jan 1, 1991

Simple quotation of quantities of coal reserves neglects the relationship between qualities of coals and their efficient use. If exploitation of a deposit is contemplated, its life expectancy can be deduced only if its reserves are estimated according to the coal user's technological standards. A wide range in properties will satisfy a steaming coal, whereas a high vitrinite high rank coal would be preferred for coking and a low inertinite low rank coal for conversion. In competitive trading the buyer's commercial specification may require weighing against the producer's practical ideals, especially when beneficiation is critical. Differentiation of grades in quality of a deposit provides an intelligent understanding of the economic importance of the deposit. The Wongawilli seam of the New South Wales Southern Coalfield exemplifies the effect of quality criteria upon the extent of in situ, recoverable and marketable classes of economic reserves. Effective management of a deposit will result from simultaneous quotation of coal qualities and quantities in a statement of its reserves.

Jan 1, 1979

By Manula C. B

The total systems model for underground oal mining planning and design is a set of omputer programs which encompasses a realis- ic reproduction of the interaction between he geological, environmental, equipment, meth- ds and the health and safety aspects of the ining plan. The total system includes nine ajor subsystems - Geology and Reserves, Meth- ne Generator, Roof Support, Subsidence, Pro- uction, Rail Haulage, Cost, Water Generator, nd Ventilation. The subsystems themselves re divided into two categories based on the requency with which they are executed. Event riented Subsystems are executed either inde- endently, or at discrete intervals when cer- tain specific events occur. Dynamic subsystems 'unction interactively during the production :ycle. They transfer data to or request data `rom event oriented subsystems only when spe- ific events occur. Three specific areas for iodel application are in the measurement of system performance, the development of the '_ nterrelationships of the components of deep Wining process and the evaluation of new and Lnnovative mining technology.

Jan 1, 1977

This paper intends to give an insight into what is often considered to be a poor relation of the mining industry but is in fact an integral part of any community. Aggregate production accounts for more than half of the world production of minerals by weight. In New Zealand production of aggregates runs at around five tonnes per capita per year, making it a significant industry. The industry in this country is dominated by smaller operations close to the market due to the widespread population and relative abundance of aggregate. The Logan Point quarry is one of the largest quarries in the South Island with an annual production of around 250 000 tonnes. The market is mainly based around roading and building in the Dunedin area with some higher quality specialist aggregates being used allover Otago. The quarry has been owned and operated by Palmer and Son Ltd for 106 years with a fifth generation family member the current quarry manager.

Jan 1, 1992

By R Castroviejo, F Segundo, C Brea, J-C Catalina, H-J Bernhardt

Optical microscopy is a basic but still indispensable tool for examining mineral parageneses in ores. The design and concepts behind the reflected light ore microscope have obviously not been subject to spectacular technical evolutions in the last decades. However, digital imaging capabilities have opened new and stimulating perspectives for automated mineral identification. Recent works in developing multispectral image analysis (Pirard, 2004) have demonstrated its superior potential with respect to conventional colour imaging, but at the same time reconciliation with spectroscopic databases such as the Quantitative Data File III (Criddle and Stanley, 1993) still needs a more in-depth investigation as well as the possibility to extend both imaging and spectroscopy into the near infrared domain. In this paper, the authors present results gained from multispectral imaging in the range between 400 and 1000 nm together with spectrophotometric data from the QDFIII database, with an emphasis on minerals that cannot be easily distinguished in the visible spectrum.

Jan 1, 2008

By E R. Ramanaidou

The value of Raman spectroscopy to undertake mineral and chemical characterisation of iron ores was assessed by applying the technique to representative samples of banded iron-formations (BIF) and a BIF-derived, martite-goethite ore. The common iron oxides haematite, magnetite and goethite as well as gangue minerals such as quartz and carbonates all show distinct Raman spectra that enables these phases to be easily detected and mapped in situ for either samples prepared as polished blocks or unprepared material. Raman spectroscopy also offers the potential of in situ chemical characterisation. Shifts in the excitation bands of carbonate detected in BIF were related to the Mg content of Fe-carbonate and confirmed the first world-wide occurrence of a high Mg-bearing siderite (pistomesite) in BIF.The discriminatory power of Raman spectroscopy coupled with the potential of the technique to offer large-scale (volumetric) characterisation of iron ore will be of great value not only to the existing BID and CID ore types, but also to the newly emerging magnetite iron deposits (MID).

Jul 11, 2011