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By Peter N. Calder, Louise H. Michaud

"An interactive mine planning package has been developed to aid with the tasks involved in generating dragline mine plans. This package employs recent advances in PC-based,3D computer graphics and 3D geologic modelling. A Gridded Seam Model (GSM), capable of modelling rugged topography and multiple coal seams, including folding and faulting, is used to generate the geologic database This model is then integrated with an interactive graphics mine planning system in order to develop one model and one database for the generation of the mine design, the depletion of the coal reserves and the removal of waste material.As well as offering large potential saving in the time required to carry out the planning tasks, the system offers immediate visual feedback to the planning engineer. This can greatly aid in the conceptual understanding of complex geology and mine plans and can allow for the evaluation of a number of mining options within a reasonable time frame.IntroductionThere are a large number of variables that must be taken into account during the development of a dragline mine plan. This is especially true when developing a mine in mountainous terrain, where there is a lack of continuity of the geology and topography over the mine site. Until recently, the complexity of dragline mine plans has prohibited the development of a universal mine planning package that is applicable to all geologic and topographic situations. The majority of the commercial programs that are presently available to facilitate dragline mine planning have been developed for specific mine properties or are limited in the coal geology and mining methods that they can simulate (Brown and Clifford, 1983; White 1983; White and Jones, 1984; Sadri and Lee, 1982; Dagdelen, 1979)."

Jan 1, 1993

By C. W. Hancher, B. D. Patton, W. W. Pitt

"There are a number of nitrate-containing wastewater sources, as concentrated as 30 wt % NO3 and as large as 2000 m3/day, in the nuclear fuel cycle. The biological reduction of nitrate in waste water to gaseous nitrogen, accompanied by the oxidation of a nutrient carbon source to gaseous carbon dioxide, is an ecologically sound and cost-effective method of nitrate waste disposal. These nitrate-containing wastewater sources can be successfully biologically denitrified to meet discharge standards in the range of 10 to 20 g N(NO3-)/m3 by the use of a fluidized bed bioreactor. The denitrification bacteria are a mixed culture derived from garden soil; the major strain is Pseudomonas. In the fluidized-bed bioreactor, the bacteria are allowed to attach to 0.25- to 0.50-mm-diam. coal fluidization particles, which are then fluidized by the upward flow of influent wastewater. Maintaining the bacteria-to-coal weight ratio at approximately 1:10 results in a bioreactor bacteria loading of greater than 20,000 g/m3,This paper describes the results of a bio denitrification R&D program based on the use of fluidized bioreactors capable of operating at nitrate levels of up to 7000 g/m3 and achieving denitrification rates as high as 80 g N(N03-) per day per litre of empty bioreactor volume. IntroductionThe discharge of wastewater containing nitrate at concentrations greater than stipulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) creates an environmental hazard and constitutes a civil and/ or criminal legal liability.(I.2) At present, we have three options: (1) recycle and reuse of nitrate streams the total economic and technical balance should be Closely examined; (2) use of an alternative acid, which may pose an entirely different set of problems ; or (3) disposal of nonreusable nitrate sources by an environmentally acceptable procedure."

Jan 1, 1980

By Malcolm Scoble

School Values ?? Each other; ?? Students, & helping them develop intellectually, personally & professionally; ?? Freedom to pursue educational & research opportunities; ?? Home-work-life balance; ?? The geographic-business community in which we operate ; ?? The pursuit of excellence; ?? Our contribution to society; ?? Creativity & innovation; ?? Teamwork & collaboration; ?? Career development, achievement & reward.

May 1, 2008

By Anthony McDonald, Dominic Verhelst

"Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. (HBM&S) started up a zinc plant and smelter in late 1930, employing technology of that period. The zinc plant has since converted from a roast/leach operation to a two stage pressure leach operation to eliminate sulphur dioxide emissioms. The smelter, however, is still continuing with much of the original roaster/reverberatory furnace technology. This paper reviews the process flow of the copper smelter, with some comments on past and recent changes.Smelter FlowsheetPrior to July 1993, the HBM&S smelter operation consisted of seven areas, namely feed preparation, roasters, reverberatory furnace, converters, anode casting, fuming plant, and dust collection. A simplified smelter flowsheet is shown in Figure 1. The data for tonnage of materials moving through the circuit are presented in Tables I to 4, and are representative of the time period from July 1992 to June 1993. A change in the zinc plant technology in 1993 resulted in the elimination of a zinc-bearing sulphide leach residue from the smelter feed blend, thereby greatly reducing the zinc content of slag produced in the smelter. Consequently the fuming plant and ancillary equipment, such as the drying plant, were shut down. These areas will, however, be described. With the closure of the zinc fuming furnaces all the slag from the reverberatory furnace is now discarded to stockpile.The over-all smelter metal recoveries are 96% for Cu and rn.5010 for Au and Ag. Figures 2 and 4 indicate historical production numbers of copper, silver and gold, respectively. A review of the minor element distribution in the smelter can be found elsewhere."

Jan 1, 1994

By I Wilkomirsky, F. Parada, R. Parra, E. Balladares

"The neutral roasting of As bearing copper concentrates is confirmed well established and promising option for the treatment of this type of complex concentrate. The AS elimination by volatilization allows subsequent treatment of the calcines produced in a conventional pyrometallurgical process, by blending this product with standard concentrates.Several tests were performed using the fluidized bed pilot plant at the University of Concepción with different types of concentrates. Calcines, fines from two hot cyclones and flue dust from the ESP were collected. These materials were characterized using QEMSCAN® and the results used for the development of a mass and energy balance which took into consideration the specific chemical transformations that occurred in the reactor.A physico-chemical/kinetic model is proposed to explain the formation of bornite, chalcopyrite and magnetite. The mechanism involves solid-gas reactions between chalcocite, pyrrhotite and gaseous sulfur that without the mineralogical characterization would not have been possible to propose"

Jan 1, 2014

By L. E. Gutiérrez

A new filtration model based on porous media transport theory is presented. It predicts capacity and final moisture content in the filtered cake as a function of design and operational variables at the plant. FilterSim® is the computer code where this new model is programmed. Application of FilterSim® to ten-month operation of an industrial copper concentrate filtration plant is shown on a daily basis and using a single set of internal parameters for the whole period. Average error is less than 5%, both in capacity and moisture estimation. FilterSim® abilities to optimize industrial filtration plants as well as to estimate future budgets are illustrated with several real examples.

Jan 1, 2007

By F. W. Wellmer

"This paper discusses the changing nature of reserve/consumption ratios, using data from Canadian operations and focussing particularly on copper.IntroductionStudies in world metal consumption and world metal reserves are done regularly by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the German Federal Institute of Geosciences and Raw Materials, and other institutions. Formerly, on the basis of these data, the following figures were calculated:• a static lifetime of reserves-reserves at year end divided by the consumption of the previous year;• a semidynamic lifetime of reserves-reserves at year assumed constant growth rate.These figures were severely criticized because they were purely theoretical and did not consider the availability of the raw materials.Recent practice is to calculate reserve/consumption ratios (R/C ratios) for periods(1) or for different years(2,3) and to interpret the trend. For base metals, these R/C ratios are increasing (Table 1). This had led to the conclusion that today the relative availability of base metal reserves has increased as compared to 10 or 15 years ago(4,5) As there are normally numerous deposits for each commodity, the anticipated production rates of deposits are irrelevant to this conclusion as long as the statistical distribution of possible production rates does not change significantly.The above conclusion is only justified if the quality and the nature of the data base remain the same. This is certainly the case for the consumption data. It is also assumed for the quality of the reserve figures, which usually take into account only proven and probable reserves. For the nature of the reserve figures, however, this does not seem to be true.Undoubtedly, the reserves increased in absolute terms between 1966 and 1978. To put the absolute reserve figures into perspective, it is common, as said above, to compare them with the mine production, which increased in the free world between 1966 and 1978; e.g. for copper by 40%, for Pb by 17% and for zinc by 36%. However, the reserves are also influenced by other factors, such as average size of the mines, changes in the grade of the mined ore, price-to-cost relationships and the like.The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the reserve figures in more detail. Because the completeness of mining data published in Canada is rather exceptional, Canadian .data serve as an example and it is assumed that the conclusions can be extrapolated to other mining countries or at least to those with free market systems."

Jan 1, 1981

By Yolaine le Beau

Plan de la présentation Le contexte mauritanien La situation de l?environnement en 1999 L?évolution de 1999 à 2010 Bilan La situation de l?environnement en 2011 Le contexte mauritanien Pays du Maghreb couvert à 75% par le désert du Sahara Un des plus pauvres au monde Index de développement humain : 136esur 169 pays en 2010 46,7% de la population ne peut subvenir à ses besoins quotidiens

May 1, 2011

"High Pressure Grinding Roll (“HPGR”) technology is applied in a broadening range of minerals processing applications for relatively wet or moist materials. HPGR grinding of dry material or involving drying and air classification is more common, for example in cement manufacturing. A number of minerals processing plants are also operating with dry material, either due to process reasons, such as considerations of preceding or subsequent process stages, or as dictated by local conditions of arid areas and scarcity of water. The present world-wide expectation of decreasing availability of water supply urges us to look for alternatives that minimize water consumption.Recently established and envisaged future HPGR applications with dry ores have indicated that the technology of dry crushing and classification as practiced in cement and limestone grinding can be applied in minerals processing. Moreover, dry technology could very well be applied for generating a final fine product at sizes near or below 100 microns, as may be required for beneficiation by, for instance, flotation, magnetic separation or tank leaching.Dry HPGR grinding requires special attention in maintaining suitable process economics, when considering power input in grinding, drying and classification. In some cases, HPGR capacity and roll surface wear life may be negatively affected by a lack of moisture in the feed.This publication summarizes some of the features of, and experiences in dry HPGR applications. This includes design aspects of the classification system and discussion of the wear protection of the roll surfaces. The paper also includes examples of operational experiences of dry practices in minerals processing and cement plants."

Jan 1, 2012

By 13409, B. Arjang

"Ground stresses are one of the significant factors in the context of rockbursts and underground instability at some hard rock mines in Canada. Overcoring strain relief measurements using triaxial strain cells were performed at several mine sites to provide stress data for stability evaluations and mine design. Pre-mining stress determinations carried out at depths between 60 m to 1890 m resulted in the following average stress gradients:Maximum horizontal stress, s Hmax = 8.18 + 0.0422 MPa/m depthMinimum horizontal stress, s Hmin = 3.64 + 0.0276 MPa/m depthAverage horizontal stress, s Ha = 5.91 + 0.0349 MPa/m depthVertical stress, a; = 0.0266 ± 0.008 MPa/m depthThe maximum and minimum horizontal compressive stresses, with an average ratio of J.75 ± 0.45, prevail in east-west and northerly directions, respectively. Horizontal compressive stresses in excess of vertical overburden load were determined, indicating large variations in ratios to a depth of about 1000 m with decreasing trend toward depth.From present data, a particular regional zoning for the magnitude and direction of horizontal stress fields cannot be outlined.A common feature at mines with near vertical orebodies is that the maximum horizontal stress acts perpendicular to strike while the minimum horizontal stress is aligned on-strike. The vertical stress components approach the gravitational overburden load."

Jan 1, 1991

By Robert Lamarre

In today?s environment, the availability of production equipment is a must to increase throughput and profits. For a number of mining organizations around the world, spare parts availability is key to achieving this goal. Fortunately, having less production equipment immobilized by a lack of spare parts does not equate to increases in inventory levels or in carrying costs. Advance operations research has shown a number of avenues to increase equipment availability while reducing total investment in stock. The presentation will explore these avenues by focusing on key inventory management changes that can be implemented by organizations to optimize their service and stocking levels. We have successfully applied our approaches in start-up mining projects, in mature projects and in end of life mining operations. We will illustrate our methodology using examples from our work with > 30 mining sites around the world.

Aug 1, 2013

By M. M. Papic, J. C. Whitehead

"A sample of Hat Creek coal has been extracted using supercritical aromatic solvents in a laboratory-scale extraction unit. Extract yields in the range 21 to 27 per cent of dry-ash-free coal were obtained.These yields are significantly lower than yields available from high-volatile bituminous coal and some lignites. Thus in a combined extraction/hydrocracking scheme for the production of liquid fuels from Hat Creek coal the char product would exceed that required to supply the energy and hydrogen requirements of the process. Excess char could be used for the production of power or gas for sale.IntroductionThe Supercritical Gas Extraction (SGE) process developed by the U.K. National Coal Board operates in two stages: an extraction stage in which a coal extract is separated from mineral matter and undissolved coal and a subsequent hydrogenation stage.The SGE process is based on the ability of a compressed supercritical fluid to dissolve relatively high molecular weight substrates. It is operated under conditions where a hydrogenrich portion of the coal is selectively extracted in a short residence time extraction stage leaving a hydrogen-deficient char. The process schematic shown in Figure I illustrates that the extract produced is separated from the solvent and passed to a conventional hydroprocessing stage while the char product is utilized in the production of heat, power and hydrogen for the process. An extract yield in the order of 50 per cent dry-ash- free coal represents a ""balanced"" case for such a process in which there is just sufficient char for the provision of these commodities."

Jan 1, 1985

Introduction ?MT involves the measurement of naturally occurring magnetic and electric field oscillations. ?The ratio of E/H (wave impedance) is measured as a function of frequency to give resistivitydepth information. ?The ratio of vertical and horizontal magnetic fields (tipper) gives information about the location of (channeled) current systems.

May 1, 2008

By John De La Vergne, Morri Medd

"This paper describes the sinking of a circular concrete ventilation shaft through 110feet of water-bearing overburden. The brine circulation freezing method was used to stabilize the walls during excavation. In order to take advantage of the cold winter weather, a custom-built heat exchanger (natural radiator) was installed in place of the standard mechanical refrigeration plant.IntroductionIn the late fall of 1979, Les Mines Selbaie awarded a contract to the firm of 1.S. Redpath Limited to sink a ventilation shaft on its property in northwestern Quebec. The shaft was to be sunk through 110 feet of water-bearing overburden and approximately 90 feet of rock to a final depth of 200 feet below surface. The water table was measured at 16 feet below the surface elevation.After examining the soils report and diamond drill core from the shaft area, Redpath came to the conclusion that freezing was the best way to stabilize the overburden for sinking. LocationThe mine site is 420 statute miles due north of Toronto, just east of the Ontario/Quebec border (Fig. 1). Access to the site is provided by a development road built by the Quebec government from the Matagami/lames Bay Highway. History of Ground Freezing In the Mining IndustryIn 1862, shortly after the development of mechanical refrigeration, a mine shaft was sunk through an artificially frozen water-bearing formation in the United Kingdom. The first application of ground freezing in North America was for a Michigan iron ore shaft in 1888. Since that time, the freezing method has been used to sink hundreds of shafts throughout the world. Its best known application was to sink sixteen shafts through the Blairmore Formation in Saskatchewan.The same method has been used in every case. It involves chilling a calcium chloride brine solution and circulating the brine in concentric pipes, spaced between 3 and 6 feet around the shaft perimeter and usually 4 to 5 feet from the limits of the proposed shaft excavation."

Jan 1, 1982

By W. M. Moon, Hugh G. Miller, C. -S. So

"Digital image processing and enhancement techniques have been applied to airborne gamma ray spectrometry data from Sudbury, Ontario. These results have been correlated and compared with the available geological maps to evaluate their usefulness for identifying lithological units. Digital processing allows the correlation of various data sets, and different combinations of images can be tested and viewed as a composite image. Composite images with pseudocolours provide an opportunity to analyze and correlate information that is not otherwise apparent in individual images. Principal component analysis has been applied to the gamma ray spectrometry data to evaluate their efficacy and relative information contents of the measured and computed data. The results of this study indicate that the combined radioelements image (obtained by combining the radioelement image and the ratio images) is effective for defining areas of relative concentration of a specific element in near surface materials. Furthermore, the composite radioelements image (produced by combining three separate radioelement images) and composite principal components image reflect large-scale lithological variations. IntroductionThe Sudbury area is a unique geological structure located in the southern Canadian Shield (Fig. 1). Because the area hosts economically significant nickel-copper deposits (Pye et al., 1984), it has been surveyed in great detail by geological and geophysical methods. In order to obtain meaningful geological infonnation about the Sudbury area, several studies have been carried out with the application of innovative mathematical techniques for geophysical modelling, and attempts have been made to integrate the multisensor geophysical data available for the area (e.g. Gupta et aI., 1984; Moon et al., 1988; Singh et al., 1993). The main objective of this paper is to apply digital image processing and enhancement techniques to airborne ganuna ray spectrometry data in order to determine their usefulness for regional geological mapping."

Jan 1, 1994

By Ros Taplin

Realizing the potential of cutting greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with mining, a variety of approaches has been proposed for their mitigation. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been a key mechanism to assist in implementation of mitigation measures. The objectives of CDM are not only to assist Annex I countries in meeting their GHG emissions reduction targets with cost-effective reduction but also to achieve sustainable development in non-Annex I countries. However, apart from China, India, Brazil and Mexico, many developing countries are still in the stages of formulation or realizing CDM strategies. Projects associated with methane capture and flaring are the fourth most prevalent type of CDM project internationally. This research primarily has addressed emissions abatement and sustainable development aims and effectiveness of registered CDM projects associated with coal mining in China. The paper reviews 30 currently registered CDM projects in China on the UNFCCC database and six other non- Chinese projects. Systematic evaluation involving content analysis of documentary evidence regarding coal mining CDM projects is presented in relation to firstly, quantitative reduction of GHG emissions and secondly, sustainable development outcomes. The projects have been assessed via a set sustainability criteria. Overall it was found that sustainable development goals are only briefly referred to in Project Design Documents, Letter of Approvals and validation documents. Varying types of sustainability initiatives have been implemented with weak to strong indications of effectiveness. This has implications for the future effectiveness of CDM projects in the mining sector, the proposed new market mechanism under UNFCCC, and for assessment of projects under mechanisms established outside the UNFCCC.

Aug 1, 2013

By K. V. Konigsmann

"Concentrate dewatering operations have a significant influence on the economics of base metal beneficiation. The expenditures f or energy and labour per tonne of product are high. The relatively low efficiencies of standard techniques present inducements for process modifications. Development efforts at several Noranda concentrators led to process changes which improved productivity, namely, agitated pulp storage in large vessels, process automation and pressure filtration.IntroductionA program was initiated in 1968 with the aim of improving utilization of manpower and equipment in dewatering operations. The following considerations motivated us in this effort: Firstly, filters and dryers had traditionally been operated continuously and in step with grinding and flotation circuits. The demand for labour and equipment operating time was fixed and was not determined by the rate of concentrate production.Secondly, dewatering equipment had usually been designed to handle the concentrate tonnages which were produced when mill feed grades were high; therefore the equipment operated at less than capacity when treating ores of average metal content. The first goal was the separation of the flotation process from concentrate dewatering by development of a practical storage system for concentrate pulps . A second objective was the gradual introduction of dependable automatic controls. The steep increase in energy costs after 1973 added urgency to the search for dewatering processes which were highly energy efficient."

Jan 1, 1984

By G. Sedelnikova, D. Kim, N. Ibragimova

"The object of this study was three samples of sulfide old tailings, which were obtained after Cu- Zn ores processing. Fine metal dissemination in sulfides as well as fine mineral intergrowth determine the refractory nature of material and low metal extraction using simple methods: gravitation 1-6%, flotation 32-48%, cyanidation 10-37%, and cause the need to use sulfide bio-oxidation to liberate gold and to recover it by heap leaching. The gold is the main valuable metal in the tailings with content 1-1.5 g/t. Heap bio-oxidation with mesophilic and moderately thermophilic bacteria was used for pre-treatment of tailings before gold heap leaching from bio-oxidation solid residues. The tailings have a low permeability < 0.3-1.2 m/day, which is caused by migration of fine particles, decreases recovery rates, and is poorly suited to heap bacterial leaching. Therefore, preliminary gold sulfide tailings with permeability < 0.3 m/day were pelletized using copper containing flotation tailings of converter slags and calcium oxide. The most gold extraction was obtained for pelletized tailings. The base metals (copper and zinc) were precipitated from bacterial solutions. Experiments have demonstrated effective bio-oxidation of all third gold sulfide tailings samples and enough high gold extraction 60-82%.INTRODUCTIONIn Russia, as everywhere, there is a trend toward deterioration in the quality of mineral resources, including non-ferrous and precious metals, manifested in lower grade and higher complexity of ores. The proportion of refractory ores is increasing, characterized by fine dissemination of metals in sulfides, intergrowth, and poor liberation of minerals during concentration, resulting in loss of base and precious metals to flotation tailings.Over the operation period, huge reserves (hundreds of million tons) of ore processing waste have been accumulated at mining and concentration operations. Because of the imperfections of the previously used ore concentration technologies, the content of precious and base metals in flotation tailings is comparable with the grades of the ores being currently processed. Therefore, old tailings can be viewed as an additional reserve of non-ferrous and precious metals. The works (DEN, 1997; Lyman, Johnson, & Guerney, 2000) demonstrate that, tailings containing sulfides (sulfur, copper, zinc, and other metals) are a potential environmental hazard since they produce acid drainage water containing toxic components. Processing those tailings would require designing an effective technology for recovering useful components and protecting the environment."

Jan 1, 2016

By D. M. Baird

Copper mineralization occurs at several places along the shore of Notre Dame bay, Newfoundland, and at one time formed the basis of a considerable mining industry. The sources of the mineralizing solutions and the structural settings of some of the deposits have not been clearly understood. This paper reports new investigations into the origin and structure of the deposits between Bett&apos;s cove and Stocking harbour, in a strip about ten miles long and two miles wide along the western shore of Notre Dame bay. The most complete previous descriptions of the area are those of Snelgrove (1929, 1931, 1938), Douglas, Williams and Rove (1940), and the writer (1947). The discovery of the Bett&apos;s Cove deposits took place about 1860, soon after the discovery of the well-known Tilt Cove deposits to the north. Several other small prospects were found between Bett&apos;s cove and Stocking harbour between 1880 and 1910. At Bett&apos;s cove, active mining began in 1875 and a small smelting plant was built near the mine in 1877. .Mining operations came to an abrupt halt in 1883 after a major cave-in. In 1900, and again in 1906, attempts were made to drain the old workings and reopen the mine but were abandoned long before completion. Total production amounted to about 130,000 tons of hand-picked copper ore which averaged about ten per cent copper, and 2,450 tons of pyrite (Snelgrove, 1938, pp. 52-55).

Jan 1, 1948

By John Oxenford

There are currently two operators producing oil from the surface-mineable portions of Alberta?s oil sands (Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Suncor Inc.) and two other companies are proposing to enter the industry (Albian Sands in 2002 and True North in 2004). Tailings from the two current oil sands plants contain approximately 220 000 tonnes per year of recoverable TiO2 and approximately 80 000 tonnes per year of recoverable zircon. This represents approximately 6% of the world?s TiO 2 consumption and approximately 9% of the world?s zircon production. With the commissioning of plants by Albian Sands and True North, and the announced expansion of plants by Syncrude and Suncor, it is expected that these tonnages could quadruple in the next ten years. All of these operators have at least 50 years of reserves even at these expanded production rates. The occurrence of heavy minerals in Alberta?s oil sands has long been known and is well documented in the literature. There have been a number of attempts to produce market-grade products from this resource and the results of this work have been quite mixed. Typically, researchers have used the normal mineral dressing techniques of the industry and have found the mineral assemblage does not respond to these techniques all that well. This has led to the widelyheld suspicion that there must be some difficult metallurgical problems associated with this resource. There are three main problem areas that have created difficulties for previous researchers: 1) The bitumen coating on the sand grains; 2) Secondary mineralization such as pyrite, siderite and calcite 3) A high proportion of aluminosilicates (approximately 25%) that have the same gravity, electrostatic and magnetic properties as other minerals in the heavy mineral suite. Recent work by Lakefield Research shows that these problems can be largely overcome with some novel approaches. The bitumen can be removed by washing with a solvent in the presence of a demulsifier. The pyrite can be removed by flotation. And the titanium and zircon minerals can be separated by selective flotation followed by conventional electrostatic and magnetic separation.

May 1, 2001