Search Documents

After the last world war, management tended to change from an acquired skill more associated with experience than formal training, to a specific widely-recognised specialism requiring an involved formal education process.That process, of necessity, required the development of business schools, M.B.A. courses -indeed the setting up of professional chairs to deal with the intricacy of general management development.Management research burst forth bringing forward new and exciting theories which developed new techniques, tools and terms.

Jan 1, 1985

By P N. Duan, Z G. Liu, M S. Chu, X X. Xue, B Liu, G J. Cheng, T Jiang, J X. Liu

High-chromium vanadium-titanium magnetite has not been exploited and made full use of on a large scale so far due to the immature utilisation technology and the reality that the utilisation efficiency of valuable metals still urgently needs to be improved. In the present paper, the isothermal reduction kinetics and mechanism of high-chromium vanadium-titanium pellets were studied at 800–1100°C. The mineral composition transformation of pellets before and after reduction was analysed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the microstructures were examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) to reveal the elemental distributions. The effect of reduction temperature on the volumetric swelling degree and cold crushing strength was also studied. It was found that reduction temperature has a large effect on the reduction rate of pellets, and the increase in reduction rate is more obvious in the range 1000–1100°C than 800–1000°C. The volumetric swelling degree of pellets increased with increasing reduction temperature, while the cold crushing strength decreased. The transformation of mineral species can be expressed as Fe2O3 ? Fe3O4 ? FeO ? Fe, Fe2O3·3TiO2 ? Fe3O4· (2FeO·TiO2 ) ? 2FeO· TiO2 ? FeO·TiO2, (Fe0.6Cr0.4)2O3 ? FeO· Cr2O3 ? Cr2O3 , and Fe2O3· VO/V2O3 ? VO. The apparent activation energy of the reduction reaction was calculated to be 44.3 kJ/mol, and the reduction rate is controlled by the combined effect of interfacial chemical reaction and gas diffusion through the porous product layer. The rate controlling steps were further studied by calculating the resistance percentages. The interfacial chemical reaction was found to be predominant in the initial reduction stage, with the percentage effect of gas diffusion through the porous product layer gradually increasing during reduction.CITATION:Cheng, G J, Xue, X X, Liu, J X, Liu, Z G, Chu, M S, Jiang, T, Liu, B and Duan, P N, 2015. Reduction kinetics and mechanism of pellets prepared from high-chromium vanadium-titanium magnetite concentrate, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 349–358 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

AustraliaÆs current interest in renewable energy is based on a desire to reduce the countryÆs greenhouse gas emissions. Wood from sustainable sources offers a unique opportunity to combine greenhouse gas benefits with other significant environmental and social benefits, including salinity mitigation, carbon sequestration, soil replenishment and rural industry. The challenge is to make renewable energy from wood in a cost competitive manner, so that this broad range of benefits may be best realised. Bioenergy and carbon products are of great interest as new, commercial forestry products that can drive large-scale environmental tree planting:In Western Australia, Enecon has worked with Western Power Corporation to build the first full-scale plant for integrated processing of mallee eucalypts, to produce activated carbon, renewable power and eucalyptus oil. It is intended that this plant is the first of a number of such plants to help catalyse environmental tree planting in Western Australia. New technologies being developed overseas may provide competitive bioenergy in areas where traditional markets for wood do not exist. For example, pyrolysis converts wood into a bio-oil that may be transported to remote sites for power generation in gas turbines. Pyrolysis also produces wood char. Pyrolysis and wood-to-ethanol technologies, coupled with short rotation coppicing trees, offer the long-term prospect of large-scale production of renewable fuels around the country.

Jan 1, 2006

The majority of coke in Australia is made in by-product slot ovens at steelworks in Port Kembla, Newcastle and Whyalla. Most of the coals for these plants come from New South Wales but a regular proportion of Queensland coals may be introduced. The plants and the coals are reviewed in the paper.

Jan 1, 1975

When preparing an appraisal, valuation or feasibility study for a new mining project it is difficult to imagine the technical, economic, social and environmental context that the project will occupy in ten or 15 years time. This paper is about our ability to foresee the future, the choices available now in matching the project to that future context, and about the flexibility that exists in adapting the project to a changing environment. The author draws upon his experience of project reviews, valuations and feasibility studies in the mid to late 1980s in Australia and New Zealand to explore how the project context has changed since key decisions were made and what this tells us about decisions made today for future projects.

Jan 1, 2004

By McNabb K. E

Significant coal reserves in New South Wales lie under areas with steep topography such as valley slopes and cliffs. Subsidence predictions are difficult to make for these locations as existing empirical databases cannot cover all permutations of topography and mining geometry. Two dimensional numerical model alternatives are of limited applicability. Consequently a novel three-dimensional numerical model is developed including the detailed panel layout, realistic rock mass properties including the full stratigraphy, goaf behaviour and actual surface topography. Model results show the same trends as subsidence measurements from Baal Bone Colliery in the Western Coalfield of New South Wales.

Jan 1, 1992

By N Green

The production of approximately 550 000 tonnes of æwhiteÆ or chrysotile asbestos fibre between 1972 and 1983 at the Woodsreef Mine in New South Wales left behind 24 million tonnes of tailings and 75 million tonnes of waste rock and overburden. The Woodsreef Magnesium Project is designed to extract the 23 per cent magnesium content of the tailings to produce magnesium metal and magnesium alloys, the latter with aluminium from the New South Wales smelters. Further value will be added to the tailings waste with the downstream production of magnesium alloy sheets and cast products for the transportation, electronics and other consumer goods industries. The mine opened in 1918 and closed in 1983 becoming derelict. There has been minimal expenditure on rehabilitation compared with that recommended in reports commissioned by the New South Wales Government. The tailings dump has been designated æasbestos wasteÆ by the EPA and will be eliminated through the magnesium refinery process of the Project with the dissolution of the remaining chrysotile fibres. The benign waste from the refinery process will consist principally of silica with some iron. Significant energy savings are expected from innovative new processing technology, in the alloy formation and in the application of the light weight, cast and sheet metal products, particularly in the transportation industries. Globally, there are very large resources of similar tailings with hundreds of years of useful productive lives that could be converted into the metal of the 21st Century, magnesium, and its alloys, to assist pollution and greenhouse gas reduction from transportation industries. No new mining and minimal feedstock preparation is required. Unlike potential producers using carbonate rocks such as magnesite and dolomite that have to be mined, the asbestos tailings composed principally of non-fibrous serpentinite do not contain any carbon dioxide.

Jan 1, 2002

By Granholm S

The current emphasis within the mining industry to reduce the cost of production has stimulated interest in the field of maintenance and operational reliability of capital intensive mining equipuent. The failure consequences of these machines have major safety and economic implications for a mine operator. The reliability centered maintenance (RCM) approach has been found cost effective for equipment maintenance and for achieving high level system perform- ance by many organizations such as airline, military, chemical, process and manufac- turing industries. In this paper an attempt has been made to describe in brief the basic concepts of a RCM approach, the methods of RCM analysis and its cost effectiveness for maintenance of equipment. Since this approach is comparatively new for the mining industry, suitable examples are given to illustrate the case.

Jan 1, 1988

The paper describes the development leading to the bucket wheel excavator systems now used in the Latrobe Valley and refers in particular to the new S.E.C.V. dredgers Nos. 14 and 15 which will be employed in the Loy Yang open cut. The design concept and operating possibilities of these dredgers are described in detail with reference to the machine characteristics designed for the operating conditions in the Latrobe Valley. The design is compared with units of similar capacity in open cuts of other countries.

Jan 1, 1982

By J-S Zhang

In this paper, the author briefly introduces the resource characteristics of Chinese iron ore, as well as the present increasing market demand for iron concentrate. The SHP-3200 wet high-intensity magnetic separator (HIMS) is used to separate complicated weak-magnetic iron ores being composed of specularite, limonite and siderite in Jiuquan Iron and Steel (Group) Co Ltd. Some technologies have been used to improve SHP-3200 HIMS, including modifying the angle of magnetic polar from 90¦ to 83¦, cooling the exciting coils by oil instead of air, adding reverse-washing equipment to wash off magnetic particles and adjusting the tooth-space of the matrix from 5.0 mm to 3.5 mm or 2.5 mm to enhance the recovery of fine particles. It is still difficult to meet the requirement for recovering more difficultly separated iron and the demands for high-grade concentrate of iron. In order to improve the recovery of difficult-separated iron, the film-magnetic separation technique is applied into the HIMS and a new LY matrix is designed to form magnetic gradient vertically. A flowing-film feeder is also added and the feed mouth is modified to make a slurry flow formed in the form of film along the wall of matrix. The microstructure and dissemination character of the mineral particles is studied, and the specific susceptibility of the primary minerals is measured. Then the distributive characteristics of a magnetic field for the separator with film-magnetic technique and the motion of particles in the process of separation are all analysed. By introducing the film-magnetic separation technique to SHP-Φ700 HIMS, the recovery of iron can be raised from 69.45 per cent to 76.07 - 78.96 per cent with the similar grade of concentrates of iron. Such an increase of 9.51 per cent in the recovery also shows that it is feasible for such film-magnetic separation technique to be applied into HIMS.

Jan 1, 2005

By P Hatherly, A Melkumyan, D Wyman

Chemical species distributions in rock sequences can be modelled using Gaussian processes (GPs) to predict the weight percentage between known data points. This method can be improved by dividing the modelled area into regions of different mineralogy. In the context of many iron ore deposits, marker shales give the initial guidance of where these regions may lie. These shales give rise to distinctive peaks in the natural gamma downhole logs, which are conventionally identified by hand. A GP method has been developed to automate this task.Once the appropriate boundary has been located on the basis of shale occurrences, chemical assays from exploration drill holes are used to find the exact boundaries of interest. These boundaries divide the drill hole stratigraphy into regions of different mineralogy, each of which display their own distinct correlations between the main elements and oxides (Fe, SiO2 and Al2O3). Iron ore shows a negative correlation between Fe and Al2O3, but in banded iron formation (BIF) there is a positive correlation between these species. Similarly, SiO2 and Al2O3 have a positive correlation in the shales and ore but a negative correlation in the BIF. Correlations obtained within ore-, BIF- and shale-dominated regions are therefore better than those obtained using the entire log and can be used to improve the results obtained when modelling.

Sep 26, 2011

Some fundamental aspects of recent single-particle fracture studies are reviewed. Findings from this research shed new light on the utilisation of energy during comminution operations and provide useful pointers to new research directions that could lead to significantly better comminution machines. Two methods for quantitatively predicting mineral liberation during comminution are reviewed. These methods have been developed into useful practical procedures, but they are almost unknown in the mineral processing community. Their use should promote the consideration of mineral liberation as an important variable to be considered during the design and operating control of comminution circuits.

Jan 1, 1993

By Kubik K

This paper reviews the historical data on relative height changes of landmasses with respect to sea level for Pacific Rim countries.It discusses existing theories of the Greenhouse effect, and the interaction with the vertical movements of the continental plates which leads to different effects for different places. Possible future scenarios are described and directions for future research and measurement programs are given.Relative sea levels are governed not only the increase of water from deglaciation but also by a range of other factors such as variable water storage in lakes and the atmosphere, thermal expansion of the ocean, ocean currents, and the shape of the ocean and the continents. Sea floor spreading, for example, is ultimately more significant than deglaciation in sea level control but is generally much slower.

Jan 1, 1990

In an industry that is data-hungry and increasingly international in its outlook, the role of the New Zealand Government in facilitating exploration and mining activity here presents unique challenges. All things being equal, the Regime itself should result in æefficient outcomesÆ, however central to this rational economic tenet are the assumptions that the regime is in keeping with the times, other legislation works in tandem with it, and that those who administer the regime have the knowledge and experience to apply the rules wisely. Following the Crown Minerals review in late 2003, a shift in emphasis from Crown Minerals æmanaging the ActÆ towards proactively æmanaging the mineral estateÆ for greater benefit for all New Zealanders means that these assumptions are being increasingly challenged and addressed through a variety of initiatives. These include improved access to relevant data sets, minimisation of red tape and compliance costs, increasing emphasis on permit holder compliance with work programme obligations, changes to the Minerals Programme and regulations, closer collaboration with and representation to other government departments and councils, and additional recruitment of industry-experienced staff. This presentation will highlight aspects of these initiatives, and examine how they will collectively contribute to facilitating future exploration and mining activity in New Zealand.

Jan 1, 2004

By Browning E. J

The application of conventional dust control systems in British Coal mines has considerably reduced the incidence of pneumoconiosis. A number of new techniques have been developed involving extraction close to the cutting heads of mining machines which will be capable of controlling airborne dust with the greater intensity of production necessary in the present economic climate.

Jan 1, 1988

This opportunity to present a few thoughts on the question of professional education and training comes at a most appropriate time. In Britain, a great deal of energy is being expended in this, so-called, post-Finniston era, to create a new look for the status of engineers and engineering by the Engineering Council. Naturally, the tune and the tempo are being called by the big institutions which essentially serve the manufacturing industries. However, the Engineering Council in Great Britain also includes the mining and processing institutions such as the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (IMM) and so there is a chance - if it is taken - for us to contribute to the debate and the determinations that emanate from it. The IMM, of course, caters for the professional status of those engaged in the mining and minerals industries and includes many who do not see themselves as engineers. Nevertheless, the debate is important to these other groups whose livelihood is inextricably bound up with those who are engineers and there are many facets of the engineering policies being shaped that will, I am sure, eventually be enshrined in the requirements for professional status across all the various disciplines in our industry.

Jan 1, 1986

A report is given of the problems of finance and physical resources that currently affect The University of New South Wales, and of some of the measures adopted to alleviate them. Partly as' a result of review procedures, a School of Mines was formed to amalgamate Applied Geology and Mining Engineering, and to add the skills of extractive metallurgy to produce a group to match the needs of the minerals industry. A review of courses within the School indicated a need for enhanced computer teaching, which is partially negated by a lack of resources. It also shows an overcrowded course whose structure could possibly benefit from a split into managerial and specialist streams.

Jan 1, 1986

By M Haest, S Sandler, R Botha, H Lang, K Hume

Benchmark practices in the mining industry include the establishment of Quality Programs — Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) — to monitor the correct execution of sampling protocols and control each stage of the ‘Sample Cycle’: Sample Collection, Preparation (comminution) and Analysis. QAQC reports commonly include statistical-numerical results that quantify performance of QAQC controls (field duplicates, preparation duplicates, blanks, standards etc). Graphics such as scatter plots, QQ plots, histograms and cumulative frequencies are used to represent the results. Statistical values including relative difference, absolute difference, relative variance, averages, T-test, and Zscores are used to quantitatively express the relationship between duplicate pairs ... but is an effective quality program just a statistical exercise? This paper aims to highlight the concept of ‘Quality Management’ (QM) as the precursor of continuous monitoring (ideally in real time) of QAQC results on Exploration, Production, Processing and Port samples, determined by trend analysis performed on a time and/or grades basis. Currently, there is a paradigm in the process of quality assurance that if individual data points fall within a predetermined acceptance limit then they are ‘acceptable’ and therefore suitable for informing operational and investment decisions. However, what is stated with respect to QM is that sometimes results found within the acceptance limits can indeed be internally biased, or show material deviations over a period of time, thereby impacting reconciliation results and/or potentially creating discrepancies with the final buyers. QM refers to the proactive detection of these ‘anomalous tendencies’, the approach and communication with the source of the information, the understanding of the reasons that cause the deficiencies, and the generation of agreed action plans to remediate the situation and ensure the consistency of results, in other words: continuous improvement on proactive manners.

Mar 22, 2022

By J Stipcevich, N Patel, J Faithful5, S Narendranathan, L Tatnell4

ENGIE, the current owner and operator of the Hazelwood Open Cut coalmine, are in the process of rehabilitating the mine site in preparation for mine closure. Bucket wheel excavators (dredgers) used during coal mining operations are in the process of being demolished, which involves the controlled felling of dredger components using explosives. With the mine located in close proximity to the Morwell township and other critical public infrastructure, it is crucial that the use of explosives and the possible implications for mine stability is well understood. The felling of Large Mining Equipment (LME) will apply an impact load immediately to the underlying coal benches with the adjacent coal batters potentially at risk also of adverse slope stability impacts. This paper presents the 3D stability modelling methods employed to successfully assess the potentially adverse stability implications associated with LME collapse.

Jun 21, 2022

By D Lawie

Prior to resource modelling, sample scale data is normally grouped into spatial domains that reflect zones of homogenous properties. These domains are usually based on a combination of grade and other variables that reflect, for example, geology and alteration, or variables known to correlate with properties of the samples that affect downstream processing. Domaining and wire-framing sample scale data is a time intensive task and it is difficult to track more than a few variables simultaneously while establishing domain boundaries. This is especially the case in operations with complex data, for example, a combination of multi-element assaying of total element concentrations, and/or phase specific assaying such as sulfide sulfur, carbonate carbon, cyanide available gold, and/or downhole geophysical measurements. To minimise unintentionally grouping samples of contrasting properties within the same domain, unsupervised statistical methods are available that can automatically identify samples atypical of the domain, both as univariate tests, and as tests that take correlation within the domain into account. Unsupervised methods in this context means methods of identifying atypical samples that require just the selection of the domain and input variables. Thresholds are derived robustly from the data itself, and the results are therefore repeatable and operator independent. Atypical samples may be thought of as outliers, ie, samples that are separated from the ‘majority’ of the data. If these atypical samples are themselves spatially associated, they may be allocated to an alternative existing domain or allocated to a new domain. Care should always be taken to ensure that identified outliers are due to meaningful causes and not due to data coding and storage errors, although the identification of the latter is still valuable. *This is an abstract only. No paper was prepared for this abstract.*

Sep 5, 2011