Search Documents

By J. L. Thompson

Lime made in a coal-fired, rotary kiln has two distinct parts: the interior of the pebble which constitutes about 90% to 95% of the mass, and the surface dust layer which is the remaining 5% to 10%. Uncalcined carbonate and impurities in the product may be present and will not contribute to the hydration reaction. Sulfur, in the form of calcium sulfate, inhibits the hydration reaction out of all proportion to its actual weigh-percent concentration (perhaps more than 100 times). If the stone contains dolomite, this will also inhibit the reaction as its rate of hydration may be nearly 3 orders of magnitude slower than that of calcium oxide. Early in the hydration reaction dolomite appears practically inert, but given sufficient time, it will hydrate. The heat of reaction is nearly the same as for calcium oxide, but the time necessary for complete hydration may be hours; whereas for calcium oxide it is only fractions of a second. The dust layer on the surface also inhibits hydration as it contains a collection of compounds which have low heats of hydration. This layer can tie up additional calcium and delay or prevent its reaction. In addition to these chemical processes, an important physical characteristic of the lime is its specific surface area. This is effected by the thermodynamics of calcination and the original stone grain chemistry. All of these factors are agglomerated in the gross slaking rate of lime. The total hydration of the chemical complex that is called commercial lime can be more easily understood by considering the individual reactions and combining them to form a more comprehensive picture of the situation. Calcium oxide and magnesium oxide hydrate similarly, differing only in their reaction kinetics. Dolomite, however, reacts differently than a simple mixture of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide as its hydration is strongly influenced by calcination thermo-dynamics and stone grain structure. Finally, the dust hydration and composition should be examined Understanding these reactions enables one to examine hydration reaction graphs with more insight into the factors which determine their shape.

Jan 1, 1978

By I. J. Jansen

Successful soil construction involves preparation of an adequate base, selection of high quality soil materials, and placement of those materials by means which will establish a continuous macropore network and modest to low soil strength. Where such has been accomplished, experiments reveal row crop productivity on reclaimed land which is very competitive with that on undisturbed land. Inferior productivity and sensitivity to drought stress are experienced where the soils are excessively compacted during construction. Some deep tillage practices have been quite successful in improving the compacted soils, but it is preferable to avoid compaction as the soil materials are handled.

Jan 1, 1987

By Alix Thierart, Yann Rouillard, Bernard Catalano

Bessac's presence in Singapore started in 2014 with the construction of the Thomson metro line, which includes 18 miles of twin-bore tunnels and 22 stations split into 17 construction packages. Bessac joint venture was allotted the T219 lot. The works include the construction of a new 660-foot (200-meter) long transfer station, two parallel 19-foot (5.8 m) ID tunnels and a pedestrian underpass. The urban context and the very soft ground stratum imposed to utilize unusual tunneling techniques, from upgrading a slurry TBM to a high-density slurry TBM to launch with very low cover and canopy pipe roofing completed with a MTBM without retrieval shaft.

Jun 23, 2024

By Zengwu Zhao, Peng Xu, Jieliang Wang, Qingwei Bai, Xinyang Liu, Xiao Lei

The paper investigates the capture and recovery of rare earth minerals from Bayan Obo ore using superconducting magnetic separation. A finite element model (FEM) was established to study the influence of various factors on the capture of rare earth minerals under a high-gradient superconducting magnetic field. The study aims to improve the efficiency of rare earth mineral separation and recovery.

Oct 1, 2023

By J. Sohn

The most promising near-term alternative to fuel cell driven vehicles is probably Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV or EV) technology. HEV technology combines the best characteristics of fuel-driven engines, electric motor drives, and energy storage components. It is designed with a combustion engine that functions as the primary power source, and an electric power storage system that functions as the secondary power source. The presence of the secondary power source allows designers to size the combustion engine for cruising power requirements. A new energy source for HEV or EV market will become lithium ion batteries (LIBs) in the near future. LIBs for HEV or EV has large scale about more 10,000 times than small size one for IT devices in order to achieve high electric density/capacity and high efficiency, etc. In those reasons, physical treatment of the batteries is more difficult for stable dismantling in comparison with the smaller one. Hybrid vehicle sales will grow by nearly 400 percent during the next seven years, according to a new report from analyst firm ABI Research. By 2013 hybrids will make up 6 percent of annual U.S. auto sales. The traction battery pack will become air-cooled LIBs which consists of several modules of Li ion battery and connected in series/parallel configuration to provide about >450 VDC, >150 kW peak power, and >80 Ah capacity. As the use of these batteries tends to increase significantly for the next years, it is relevant issues that development of new recycling methods as well as optimization of existing processes to treat spent LIBs for HEV have being addressed in order to obtain sustainability. In this study, physical treatment containing stable electrical discharge of spent LIBs for HEV was carried out for recovery of valuable metals from the batteries. Also In order to increase the yield of valuable metals through physical treatments such as electric discharge of spent batteries, crushing, and classification, we also focused on the recovery of cobalt from +8 mesh fraction due to its large portion in crushed intermediates.

Jan 1, 2010

By C. Nesbit, N. Duru

During the cyanide leaching process of gold and silver, ores that come from the transition zones which typically con-tains low levels of sulfide may produce one or more of the following reduced sulfur species: sulfide (HS ), polysulfides (Sn ), thiocyanate (SCN ), thiosulfate (S2O3 ), trithionate (S3O6 ), tetrathionate (S4O6 ), pentathionate (S5O6 ) and hexathionate (S6O6 ). The actual speciation of the reduced sulfur species in the circuits will primarily depend on the re-dox potential, pH, cyanide levels and existing sulfur species in recycled process water, as well as the presence of other reac-tive metal species. Development of an accurate analytical method for sul-fur species in cyanide leaching units of gold ores where sul-fur speciation occurs has an important role in explaining the metal recovery deviations. This study presents the speciation of sulfur species and development of an ion chromatography method to analyze the reduced sulfur species thiocyanate, thio-sulfate, trithionate and tetrathionate in cyanide leaching circuits for gold ores. The method developed has resulted in the precise quantification of target sulfur species in leach solutions.

Jun 1, 2024

By Virginia T. McLemore, Abena S. Acheampong-Mensah

Critical mineral endowment of mine wastes in two mining districts in New Mexico (Copper Flat at Hillsboro and Carlisle-Center mines in the Steeple Rock district) will be characterized and estimated. “Beta-testing” of USGS procedures was performed. Potential critical minerals at these deposits include As, Bi, Te, Zn, Co, Ni, Mg, Mn, and fluorite. pH and particle size of samples were analyzed to determine weathering and migration potential of heavy metals. Soil pH was also measured to determine the potential for Acid Rock Drainage. The pH of the waste rock piles ranged from 3.66 to 5.67 which indicates fine- grained pyrite or sulfide oxidation. The samples collected from the tailings however, showed a different range of pH, from 6.30 to 8.62, probably due to the presence of carbonates. Difference in particle size fractions and its distribution along the slope are generally influenced by natural occurrences (e.g., gravity and pre-mining hydrothermal alteration) and operational activities such as material piling or dumping. Future work includes analyses of mineralogy and particle size correlation and estimation of critical mineral endowment of these mine wastes at New Mexico.

Feb 1, 2024

By Basil W. Mercer

Increased emphasis on industrial pollution control has intensified investigation of waste treatment technology for methods of reducing the amount of pollutants discharged by industry. The mining and mineral processing industry can point to a record of considerable accomplishment in the field of wastewater treatment and reclamation because these operations are so frequently an integral part of the entire operation of an ore dressing facility. This is amply demonstrated by metal producers in the arid regions of the Southwest where water shortages require maximum use of available water. For example, the copper industry in Arizona during 1960 employed an estimated 184 billion gallons of water of which 87% was reused water. (1) Only 0.0003% was discharged to streams and the remainder was consumed by evaporation (8%) and seepage (5%). The most severe pollution problem facing the mining and ore processing industry today is that resulting from acid mine drainage. This problem is largely associated with the mining of coal although it occurs to a lesser degree with the mining of other materials. The degradation of streams by acid mine drainage in the vicinity' of the Appalachian coal fields has been widely publicized and a major effort is underway to determine the best means of correcting this situation. Other forms of pollution from mining operations are less well-known, but it is anticipated that improved or advanced waste treatment techniques will be required for segments of the industry to comply with new pollution control regulations. The current emphasis on redefining hazardous levels for heavy metals and various chemicals with regard to the total environment will in all likelihood lead to tighter discharge controls in some cases. It is the purpose of this paper to review some of the waste

Jan 1, 1971

By Kanchan Mondal, Gopi Bylapudi, Anand Bhagwat, A. J. S. (Sam) Spearing

Corrosion of steel roof support systems can cause potential premature failure of the support, thus adversely affecting the excavation stability and rock-related safety. An in-house corrosion test system was designed and developed to test full-length roof bolts for material performance based on tensile load capacity and strength under different corrosive conditions found underground. Initially, ASTM A615 grade 60 steel roof bolts, which are the most commonly used bolt material in the United States, were tested with and without stresses in a simulated underground coal-mining environment for approximately six months. This paper mainly discusses the test system, protocol and system shortcomings, and makes recommendations based on the observations and results.

By R. Kalra

The current paper looks at evaluating the merits of large geared mills versus gearless driven mills by evaluating the following factors: The capability of currently available systems in terms of power and mill diameter Efficiency in terms of overall electrical power consumed vs mechanical output power Capital cost Running costs Cooling requirements in terms of air versus water cooling Installation and delivery time World?s largest geared drive ? 2x8500kW ? Wushan, China (operating) Among the many reasons that geared drives on large SAG mills are not favoured, is due to not having an efficient variable speed drive option (60 to 80% critical speed), which is required for process reasons. As technological advances have occurred quite rapidly in recent years, this paper uses the latest data in applying these comparisons and attempts to dispel some of the myths regarding Slip Energy Recovery (SER) and variable frequency drive technology on twin pinion drive systems. Early attempts to provide load sharing on twin pinion drives used primitive electronics which have since been developed to eliminate the problems encountered in earlier attempts. In particular, torque pulsations between the twin motors have been overcome using a higher number of devices (pulses) and better electronics. With successful operation of 2 x 6.5MW (Phu Kham, Laos) and three 2 x 7MW units under manufacture (Pascu Lama) and a further 40 projects worldwide, energy efficient Hyper Synchronous SER drives are now mature and ready for use on 2 X 10MW dual drive mills. Speed variation required is in the range of +/- 15% of synchronous motor speeds. VVVF drive packages from ABB and Siemens are also available for 2 x 10MW in low and high speed options. Dual hydraulic inching drives provide a much safer and convenient operation with the added advantage of locked charge detection.

Feb 27, 2013

By Jonathan G. Price

The 2011 report titled ?Energy Critical Elements: Securing Materials for Emerging Technologies? by the American Physical Society?s Panel on Public Affairs and the Materials Research Society surveys potential constraints on the availability of these elements and identifies five specific areas of potential action by the United States to ensure their availability: 1) federal agency coordination; 2) information collection, analysis and dissemination; 3) research, development and workforce enhancement; 4) efficient use of materials and 5) market interventions. Energy-critical elements (ECEs) are a class of chemical elements that currently are critical to one or more new energy-related technologies. A shortage of these elements would significantly inhibit large-scale deployment, which could otherwise be capable of transforming the way in which energy is produced, transmitted, stored or conserved. The report addresses elements that have not been widely extracted, traded or used in the past, and therefore are not the focus of well-established and relatively stable markets (such as carbon in coal or uranium as fuels, copper, aluminum, nickel and iron, all of which are clearly vital in energy applications).

Jan 1, 2011

By Edward R. Mueller

As an alternative to a million dollar, sensor based, computer dispatching system, Cyprus Pima Mining Company has installed a home¬made analog computer. The device is used in conjunction with a standard radio-dispatching system; it is inexpensive and very simple to build and operate. It enables the dispatcher to make near opti¬mum dispatching decisions and to identify all off schedule haulage trucks. Since installation, Cyprus Pima has experienced significant increases in pit productivity.

Jan 1, 1977

By Douglas J. Lacke

1974 marked the start of a new era for Climax Molybdenum Co., a division of AMAX, with the initiation of an open pit operation above the existing successful underground block panel caving mine. A number of problems posed a challenge to the Climax open pit. Highly fractured rock, old mine workings, permafrost, and more than 7.6 m/a (300") of snowfall forced changes in normal operations. Final pit wall design was altered. Production bench heights were lessened due to old workings. These and other modifications contribute to a highly successful open pit operation.

Jan 1, 1981

By MAURICE SUNKPAL, Taghi Sherizadeh, ELAHEH TALEBI, PEDRAM ROGHANCHI

Excessive heat exposure is among the health and safety hazards for mine workers. The nature of the underground climate makes it a convenient avenue for heat generation and accumulation from several heat sources, including autocompression, equipment and heat from strata. This study investigates the effects of clothing insulation and acclimation on the thermal comfort of mine workers exposed to heat in underground working environments. Several clothing ensembles were considered to analyze the effect of the thermal resistance of clothing on the workers’ thermal comfort. To investigate the impact of clothing insulation, the thermal comfort limit of an underground miner was calculated in the form of maximum allowable exposure time for an eight-hour shift.

By J. Leonard Frame

A coal-fired fluidized bed combustion (FBC) system will be installed at the Owatonna Tool Company, Owatonna, Minnesota. Two FBC combustors will burn solid fuels: coal, petroleum coke, and wood and paper wastes. Crushed dolomitic limestone will be used to control sulfur emissions to EPA limits. The combustors will supply indirectly heated hot air and hot water for paint drying operations, washing processes, and space heating. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and the Owatonna Tool Company, and is one of five programs designed to demonstrate industrial applications of coal-fired fluidized bed equipment. The paper will describe the combustion system and the results of development tests with dolomitic limestone for sulfur emission control.

Jan 1, 1978

By STEVEN J. SCHATZEL, Zoheir Khademian, KAYODE M. AJAYI

The integrity of unconventional shale gas well casings positioned in the abutment pillar of a longwall mine could be jeopardized by longwall-induced deformations. Under such scenarios, the surrounding fracture networks could provide pathways for gas flow into the mine, creating safety concerns. To provide recommendations for developing guidelines that ensure a safe coexistence of longwall mining and unconventional shale gas production, this study uses a discrete fracture network (DFN) model to evaluate the impact of parameters that could affect potential shale gas flow into the mine in the event of a casing breach. These parameters are evaluated using a conceptualized DFN realization that is representative of the fractured zone in the overburden, and the range of parameter variations are within values validated with field measurements.

Mar 1, 2023

By E Mutaz, M Bahaaddini, D J. Williams, M Serati

The contribution of the mining industry to the global economy has reached (and gone beyond) $1,800 billion in recent years that necessitates (more than before) the need to ensure workability, viability, health, and safety of mine sites and workers to meet the ever-increasing global demand for mineral resources. Amongst the many challenges facing the excavation industries, rockburst and spalling failures in deep mines in hard and brittle rock formations are yet happening that are still deemed as unsolved problems. During unconfined compressive testing of brittle rocks, microcracks initiate at approximately 0.3–0.5 of the peak strength (which is commonly known as the Crack Initiation stress level) mainly in the direction of the major principal stress, then grow unstably and coalesce to form macro fractures at approximately 0.7–0.8 of the peak load at a so-called Crack Damage stress threshold. From a stress-strain perspective, the crack damage stress threshold () is associated with the reversal point of the volumetric strain, which is also proved to be strongly affected by the intermediate principal stress. This paper extends the previous studies on the impact of true triaxial loading conditions on the CD stress level in high porosity rocks, and introduce a new Crack Mode-Changing Stress (CMCS) defined as the minimum principal stress required to change rock fracturing from splitting to a sliding failure mode. A large number of experiments on sandstone specimens were carried out at different true triaxial loading conditions and the effect of principal stresses on the CI and CD as well as CMCS were studied. The results show that not only the intermediate principal stress, but also the minor principal stress can significantly affect the CD and CMCS thresholds.

Apr 26, 2022

By John F. M. Sims

Political issues and a glaring infrastructure deficiency have retarded the emergence of a strong mining component to the Alaskan economy in recent years. Barriers to orderly mineral development are slowly being removed attendant upon changing political circumstances. Infrastructure development, as an investment avenue as well as a responsibility of the State, is receiving much greater attention than in the past. Alaska of course has a rich and varied mining history going back to the 19th Century. This paper, however, focuses on the mining potential, not the mining heritage of the 49th State. The mining industry is emerging from a nadir in the economic cycle - times during which it was buffeted by unsympathetic administrations and confused and confounded by the protracted land status- conflicts prior to enactment; of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) and other milestone legislation. Today Alaska's mining industry looks toward a bright and healthy future and, in the process, will become a very important and vital component of the State and national economy.

Jan 1, 1982

By H. F. Ghezzi

The indirect method of drying coal fines is applied to filter cakes which ordinarily contain 22 to 30% moisture and are not readily transportable. The "Thermal Dryer", which operates on the mass transfer principle, has found wide use in coal preparation plants. The thermal dryer is penalized in operation by the necessity of adding coarse coal to the wet fines before entering the dryer body in order to produce a permeable bed, and thus enable hot gases to uniformly contact the wet mass. The ratio of coarse coal to fines varies from 2:1 to as much as 4:1, depending on the average particle size, moisture, and ash content of the fines.

Jan 1, 1985

By Daniel Saramak, Agnieszka Saramak

A big issue in crushing and grinding operations in raw materials handling is high energy consumption and low breakage effectiveness. According to the Legendre [7], only 10% of energy input is directly consumed on the feed material breakage, while the remaining portion is dissipated in the form of heat and noise [8]. In the industry of limestone powder production, the grinding operations constitute integral part of technological circuits, and the energy consumption in operations of industrial comminution consume as high as 2% of world energy [14]. High-pressure grinding is the technology with proved energy benefits both in ore processing circuits and in limestone grinding. The promising results concerned mostly the achieved energy savings and good results of material breakage were achieved and demonstrated in numerous investigations [1,3,12]. However, it appears that a proper selection of operational parameters of the press devise, determination the feed material characteristics and adjustment of process course san be of a key-significance in improving an effectiveness the HPGR operation. Operational parameters of devices and process course should be verified towards the characteristics of the feed material, which mainly applies to the particle size and shape of the feed material and its moisture, and also mineralization in case of ores [2,4,9]. There are various investigations concerning an impact of the operational pressing force on comminution results which mostly refer to the determination of energy consumption and crushing ratio [5,6,10,13]. Investigations on the moisture content are less common, however their results suggest that, in general, the HPGR feed with higher moisture shows the tendency to higher comminution intensity, while the energy consumption increases together with increasing of feed material moisture. Investigations on olivine sand feed [11] showed that crushing ratio decreases for higher moisture, especially when the material is crushed at higher pressing force. HPGR devices, however, shouldn’t be regarded as a unique and perfect solution for comminution of each type of material. But they indeed may bring technological and economic benefits, comparing to conventional crushing and grinding machines, resulting in more favourable breakage of material particles and lower consumption of energy per unit mass of processed feed material.

Feb 1, 2025