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By Harold Hopkins

THE Wright-Hargreaves mine is one of a group of seven mines long active in the Kirkland Lake district, Ontario. Detailed geological reports and maps covering the area have been published by the Ontario Department of Mines (1,3)t. Though all these mines work several productive veins there is one vein which is common to all and is known as the North Vein of the camp?not that it is the most northerly vein mined, but it is the more northerly of the two major veins of the camp. At the Wright-Hargreaves mine there are in all ten important producing veins, and most of them have a N.60°-65°E. strike and in general a steep southerly dip. It is a common belief that most of these veins lie along faults but it will be shown that whilst this is true of some of them it is not true of all, and also that a vein may lie in a fault along part of its course and elsewhere fill a fracture in line with the fault, this being a consequence of rotational movements that took place during faulting. The paper describes the history of faulting at this mine in particular, makes observations on the principal pre-ore fault, and describes the method used in solving the movements on the post-ore faults. Other details of geology are not discussed except to mention here that our main veins lie almost entirely in the syenite porphyry stock except on lower levels close to the east boundary of the property, where the North vein leaves the porphyry to enter the greywacke.

Jan 1, 1940

By S. G. Shabestari

Thermal analysis is a tool that is generally employed to predict the structure of the alloy before the actual casting is carried out. By cooling a sample of the molten alloy and recording the temperature-time curve, important solidification events may be analyzed by using the first derivative-cooling curve. In this research, strontium is added to (AS5U3G) 319 aluminum alloy and its influence on the formation of intermetallic compounds e.g. Al15(Mn,Fe)3Si2, Al2Cu, Al5Mg8Cu2Si6 formed during pre- and post-eutectic reaction have been investigated. Also any changes in solidification parameters such as temperature of Al-Si eutectic under cooling and temperatures of nucleation and growth of each phases caused by strontium addition, have been determined via the first derivative cooling curves. The effect of strontium on the formation of various intermetallic compounds has been studied by using very accurate thermal analysis equipment and the microstructures were analyzed using an optical microscope. The various phases reported in this paper were identified using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and linked to Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). Formation of all pre- and post-eutectic phases was interpreted by comparing the phases formed in the microstructure and the reactions detected by using cooling curves. The results of this research indicate that thermal analysis technique can be used as an on-line process control in the production lines in aluminum casting industries.

Jan 1, 2004

By Morgan Schauerte, Laura Raimondi, Mariel Palomeque

Executives in the mining industry are facing dramatically changing market expectations on reporting and transparency regarding the environmental and social impacts of projects, supply chains and products. Companies increasingly need to disclose the governance procedures they have in place to ensure communities, investors, employees, and Indigenous partners are effectively managing social and environmental risks. These disclosure requirements begin during exploration and carry through to all stages along the project life cycle. This type of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure is referred to as ESG performance by the investment community. ESG is not a new concept, and it builds on and is intertwined with many concepts such as corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, eco-efficiency, triple bottom line thinking, life cycle management and many others. This paper will explore how mining companies can develop a credible ESG governance approach and strategy that will reduce risk, open opportunities, and create value. This paper will summarise ESG trends and drivers, discuss the economics and investors’ perspective towards ESG, and outline leading ESG standards and guidelines of interest to investors, regulators, communities and other stakeholders. Linkage of ESG to global sustainability efforts such the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Global Compact will also be addressed.

Jan 1, 2023

By L. W. Krahenbil

The programmable Logic Controller (PLC), at its present stage of evolution, is now considered as a mature control system. The PLC combines the solid-state reliability of hardwired logic and computer control systems with the simplicity of a relay ladder logic. Relay symbolic programming through a function-oriented keyboard provides a means which plant personnel can easily become accustomed to work with. In a large coal facility, it is shown that the control engineer can provide improved control flexibility with the advanced capabilities of the PLC.

Jan 1, 1979

By E. Onal

Mining operators are faced with complex information delivered by technology-centric rather than user-centric systems. The ability to achieve high situation awareness (SA) in the face of this data overload is a key challenge for effective decision making and information exploitation. Incidents that result in loss of revenue and even life, and compromise safety that are attributed to human error are often the result of system designs that overload human cognitive capabilities. This paper focuses on defining SA as it relates to mining operations and presents methods for improving SA through a scientific approach for electric shovel operator user interface development.

Aug 1, 2013

By Walter E. Montgomery

ACCIDENT-PREVENTION work in years gone by has been carried on by many mine managers as a philanthropic movement, but in recent years they have come to realise that Safety is good business and pays tangible dividends. Let us begin with the word itself. We are told that an accident is "any-thing occurring unexpectedly, undesignedly, or without known or assign-able cause'. It is further explained that it is any 'unpleasant or unfortunate occurrence involving injury, loss, suffering, or death", and, finally, "any unintentional or non-essential circumstance". We admit that accidents are unfortunate, unpleasant, unintentional, and they generally happen undesignedly and to a great degree unexpectedly, but to say that they happen "without known or assignable cause" leads us to believe that the word 'accident' is often misused. Would it not be more correct to say that a man suffered a "personal injury"? The word 'accident' in its proper sense implies something over which no one has any control, but when the majority of all so-called accidents are analysed we arrive at the incontestible fact that some act or action, previous or present, was the underlying cause. As long ago as the year 1556 this fact was mentioned by Georgius Agricola, who, in writing a paper on metallurgy, aptly stated, "It remains for me to speak on the ailments and accidents of mines, and of the methods by which they can guard against these, for we should always devote more care to maintaining our health, that we may freely perform the functions of our body, than to making profits". Farther on, Agricola relates in more detail, "Sometimes workmen slipping from ladders into the shafts break their arms, legs, or necks, or fall into the sumps and are drowned; often, indeed, the negligence of the foreman is to blame, for it is his special work both to fix the ladder so firmly to the timbers that they cannot break away, and to cover so securely with planks the sumps at the bottom of the shafts, that the planks cannot be moved nor the men fall into the water; wherefore the foreman must carefully execute his own work. Moreover, he must not set the entrance of the shaft-house toward the north wind, lest in winter the ladders freeze with cold, for when this happens the man's hands become stiff and slipping with cold, and cannot perform their office of holding. The men, too, must be careful that, even if none of these things happen, they do not fall from their own carelessness'.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. F. Baxter, C. M. Read, R. I. McCulloch

"Globalization of the aluminium industry continues to increase the pace of change and the intensity of competition, while simultaneously, society demands better products, cleaner technologies and sustainable industries. Bechtel, a global engineering, construction and project management company, is not immune to either the opportunities or the challenges created by globalization. However, and not withstanding the challenges, for aluminium industry ""players"" with a true global perspective, globalization presents very real opportunities that may be leveraged to deliver value creating goods and services. The following paper will focus on the exploitation of one of the opportunities created by globalization in the Knowledge Management domain - the application of high level tools and methodologies to improve global delivery of greenfield and brownfield aluminium smelter construction projects. Specific examples will be presented of value driven solutions that were delivered at the early stages of project engineering."

Jan 1, 2006

By S. A. Briggs

Bioremediation has been accepted as a treatment technique for groundwater contamination in subsurface soils and shows promise for contaminated fractured rock environments. Biological growth in fractured rock is expected to occur predominantly as biofilms attach to the fracture surfaces. Biofilms in rock fractures are subject to a complex system of forces and other phenomenon due to the dynamics of the bulk fluid in which they grow. In this paper, through the applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to rock fractures, where the boundaries are rough and the flow is complex, a precise analysis was conducted of the interaction of a fluid flow and the rock fracture. Specifically, hydraulic parameters and velocity profiles of an actual rock fracture were calculated and compared to a fracture of equivalent aperture. From the analysis it is clear that it is important to use more complex models such as the Lattice Boltzmann Method used is this paper to describe fracture flow.

May 1, 2009

By R. C. McMurchy

"The Powell mine is in western Quebec about 2 miles northwest of the adjoining towns of Noranda and Rouyn. It is the original discovery of the area, its gold-bearing quartz vein having been discovered in 1922. Considerable work was done on this vein by several companies and discontinued because the grade, when gold was $20 an ounce, was too low for profitable extraction. Between 1922 and 1924 an inclined shaft was sunk to 225 feet and drifts were driven 240 feet on the 100-foot level.In 1929, due to the discovery and development of the Horne mine at Noranda, interest was revived in the property. Sulphide deposits of the disseminated and vein types were explored on the Powell claims. On the B copper 'showing', a vertical shaft, now known as the 'old copper shaft', was sunk to ·a depth of 167 feet and 300 feet of lateral work was carried out on the 150-foot level. As no orebody was discovered this work was discontinued.In 1933 the present company, Powell Rouyn Gold Mines, Limited, was formed and the gold-bearing quartz veins were again tested by drilling and trenching. In 1936, the price of gold having risen to $35 an ounce, operations were resumed. Since then the inclined shaft (No. 1) has been deepened to 500 feet, a second shaft (No. 2, vertical) on the main quartz vein has been sunk to 2,630 feet, and ll; shallow vertical shaft (No. 3) on the same vein but in the south claim has been sunk to 500 feet.Lateral work now approximates 9 miles, and to November 15th, 1946, 1,685,674 tons of ore, which averaged 0.129 oz. gold per ton and 73.6 per cent. Si02, had been extracted."

Jan 1, 1954

By S. Boisvert

Risk-based Inspection (RBI) addresses the challenges associated with ageing plants by focusing the inspection effort on the process equipments with the highest risk, thereby improving plant safety and reducing inspection costs. The RBI methodology is commonly used in the oil industry through the API 581 standard. Since no such standard exists in the mining and metals industry, BPR-Bechtel has developed one using inspection data from process equipments in CEZinc. Models were developed for various damage mechanisms, such as uniform corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. The equations were organized into a user friendly software that facilitates the implementation process.

Jan 1, 2010

By L. Chunpongtong

The Athabasca oil sands mineable resource is located in northeastern Alberta, Canada. In oil sands mining, the ore zone is regulated to have a minimum mining thickness of 3 m and a cutoff grade of 7 wt.%. The current algorithm that is widely used to flag ore zones and waste zones tends to overestimate oil reserves and causes low-grade ore to be processed. This paper presents the development of a more complex algorithm that is more representative of the actual oil found during operations and that can prevent low-grade ore from being sent for processing.

Jan 1, 2014

By P. Mottahed, E. De Souza

One of the major unsolved problems of safe, economical roof support in the evaporite industry has been that of obtaining and maintaining anchorages in relatively soft rock. This is due to the viscoelastic and viscoplastic behaviour of salt rock and associated deposits. This paper introduces a low-cost, yieldable support mechanism, consisting of a system of buckling disks, which provides viable solutions to dynamic support. The yieldable support system offers a number of advantages in comparison with existing dynamic support systems. It is characterized by its simplicity in design and installation, repeatability in behaviour and cost effectiveness. It also has the added advantage of providing the operator with a means of assessing support behaviour and ground performance by direct visual observation of changes in disk shape. Thus, the system can be utilized as a warning mechanism of ground stress and support load conditions. Such system not only provides a feasible and more effective rock mass stabilization strategy but improves mine safety.

Jan 1, 1999

By W. H. Zieman

NORMAN WEISS, Milling Engineer, American Smelting• and Refining Company: The subject of the Forum on Rod and Ball Mill Liners is very fascinating, and there is no end of discussion when operators get together on grinding. However, the hypotheses and suppositions easily outrun the facts, especially when we •consider the inaccuracy of many reported observations. Still surprisingly small is the number of concentrators even reasonably well equipped to measure power consumption of each grinding mill, together with running time, so that data on this tangible factor, at least, can be obtained with precision. While the more elaborate devices of this nature, producing for each 24-hour period the total power consumption, average kilowatt hours per hour, short-term demand chart, instantaneous demand, and print-out, may cost in the neighbourhood of $2,500 per mill and may be difficult to justify, the combination of an ammeter, watthour meter, and running-time meter will cost only a few hundred dollars, so there appears to be little reason not to in-stall them in view of their numerous advantages.

Jan 1, 1959

By Jack F. McQuat, Ross D. Lawrence

"Most geologists and mining engineers, in the course of their professional careers, frequently become involved with the appraisal of metalliferous mineral deposits and develop a familiarity with and standard approach to the evaluation of these deposits. When the same individuals approach the industrial mineral field, however, their usual approach pattern can be rudely disturbed.This paper highlights the difference in appraisal approach and outlines the factors common to both but which have entirely different emphasis. These comprise geological appraisal, analytical requirements, the importance of transportation, marketing requirements and standards, including appropriate allowances for product development, and marketing penetration.Out of these ""different"" considerations, however, a pat-tern or standard approach emerges which is as common to the industrial mineral field as that used either consciously or subconsciously in the metallic field.The paper reviews the different factors and points of emphasis and offers an outline of the common pattern of appraisal for industrial minerals."

Jan 1, 1971

By I. Lackey

In 2004, Zinifex Budel Zink commenced testing with the objective to increase the precipitation of aluminium in the iron purification stage of its hydrometallurgical zinc circuit, without the use of expensive reagents. Findings from the literature applied to the leach circuit at Zinifex Budel Zink demonstrated that aluminium removal from the leach circuit could be increased by lowering the ferric concentration and acidity in the vessels where jarosite precipitation occurs. An associated increase in copper precipitation was mitigated by limiting the extent to which the ferric concentration was lowered in the vessels where jarosite forms and lowering the ratio of copper to aluminium in the solutions entering these vessels.

Jan 1, 2006

By M. A. Nagle

Various strategic projects were carried out in 2002 to increase the capacity of Teck Cominco's integrated zinc-lead smelter at the Trail operations site in British Columbia, Canada. The lead smelter treats the iron residue from the zinc plant and optimizes the overall zinc recovery. This paper summarizes two options that were considered to reduce the zinc content in the leaching iron residue. The first option involved increasing the capacity of an existing hot acid leach circuit up to the iron loading constraints of the circuit. The second sought to maximize the hot acid leach capability by separating the ferrite-rich solids, followed by aggressive hot acid leaching (>100°C) and subsequent iron precipitation. Different forms of iron precipitation were reviewed in order to determine the most effective and economical approach. Among these, was a novel high temperature ferrite conversion process. The technical results and selection criteria are presented together with possible ways to integrate the process concepts into the current sulphide leaching plant circuit. The first option was selected for implementation and is currently being operated successfully.

Jan 1, 2006

By Xu Wang, Yizhe Zhang, Yangge Zhu, Xiao’ou Xia, Fangming Liu

"The progress of lean magnetite preconcentration in China was introduced in this paper, such as using coarse crushing to reject tailings, and multistage grinding, multistage magnetic separation. The applications of “more crushing and less grinding” process and equipment in lean magnetite preconcentration could reduce production costs effectively. The related analysis and study on concrete cases were carried out in this paper.INTRODUCTIONIn the case of the slowdown and weak recovery in the global economy, bulk commodity prices fell sharply in 2015. Take iron ore's prices for example, about 60% grade iron ore's import prices in China from about $65 per ton at the beginning of 2015 fell to about $42 per ton in the end of the year, down by about 35%. But iron ore resources are non-renewable resources, with the continuous development and utilization of mineral resources, high grade iron ore resources will be exhausted gradually. Accompanying with the economic recovery iron ore prices after this fall is bound to return to its value to maintain a high level.The development and utilization of resources is gradually turning to the low grade iron ore. Restricted by technical development level and disadvantages of lean iron ore resources, the cost of utilization lean iron ore resources is relatively high. Making full use of their rich lean ore resources has become many countries' important strategy to get rid of dependence on foreign countries' ore. Over the years with the development and progress of lean magnetite mineral processing technology in China, the production number of concentrator has been greatly improved.As the world's largest steel producer and consumer countries, ensuring a stable and continuous supply of iron ore is particularly important for the healthy development of China's iron and steel industry. Chinese iron ore production and import data in recent years are showed in Table 1.With the expansion of iron and steel production, iron ore demand has also been a phenomenal growth. Taking 2013 for example, China's crude steel production is about 780 million tons in 2013, accounting for about half of the world's total output of crude steel. At the same time, China is also the first major iron ore import countries whose iron ore imports in 2013 was about 820 million tons, an increase of about 10%. The degree of external dependence is very high. In some years, the cost of China's iron ore imports was even more than $100 billion, and second only to oil’s import cost in all bulk commodities."

Jan 1, 2016

Keeping the sediment on the mine site and out of the water course is essential from the regulatory, environmental and sustainability perspectives. Regulation of this aspect of mining is embedded in environmental legislation and government receiving water quality standards, and government control has apparently been considered to be the most appropriate method to define mine site discharge standards and the environmental implications of sediment in downstream watercourses. A literature search for guidelines for the site specific design and operation of sediment ponds treating mine site runoff to remove total suspended solids, turbidity and flocculant-induced toxicity, revealed little information on the mining industry?s and government?s roles in defining the ?how to achieve? related to sediment pond design. Is there a need or reason for an industry-driven leadership to clearly define the ?how to? keep the sediment on the mine site and out of the water course? Currently, this issue is addressed in Canada by a federal mining regulation for metal mines which specifies discharge quality for sediment. This paper focuses on the method used in British Columbia, Canada, to regulate and provide a scientific methodology to control the discharge of sediment from mine sites. Management plans relative to this topic are discussed and are considered to have value from the exploration, construction, operation and the onset of closure phases. In addition, the balance and linkage between the erosion control management plan and the sediment pond management plan are discussed in terms of how they may be designed to complement each other to lower the risk of exceeding discharge and receiving water quality standards. If there were an industry-driven standard, or guidance document relative to addressing sediment release, it would benefit mining companies by eliminating the repetitive analysis of this topic for each new mine, mine expansion, and mine modification; also, government may often replace certain aspects of permitting with a regulation, if there is a government/industry established standard defining Best Achievable Technology (e.g. the Canadian Metal Mining Effluent Regulations).

Aug 1, 2013

By R. H. Wallis

Weighted moving-average contour maps have been constructed for molybdenum, copper and zinc using 7850 stream-sediment samples from 5430 square miles (14,063 sq. kms) of south-central British Columbia. Regional trends for molybdenum and zinc are northeast, north and northwest and those for copper are north and northwest. These trends are interrupted by zones markedly low in metals . The metal-rich trends cross rocks of different lithology and age and thus appear to be structurally controlled. The northeast trend may have exerted control on metal distribution at two different times.

Jan 1, 1978

By David Runnels

The Mount Wright iron are mine and upgrading plant were brought on line in the fall of 1975. The mine is located near the Quebec - Labrador border some six hundred miles northeast of Montreal. This paper describes the crushing, grinding and concentrating facilities at Mount Wright, and some design: criteria used in equipment selection and flow sheet design. Also mentioned are some "asbuilt" modifications. A brief description of the over-all flowsheet is also included. Introduction IN SEPTEMBER 1970, the Quebec Cartier Mining Company started development of the Mount Wright iron ore mine. The estimated are reserve is in excess of 1,000,000 ,000 long tons of concentrates, with an average crude are grade of 31.5% Fe. The run-of-mine ore is crushed, ground and concentrated to a product having 66% Fe and 5% silica at an annual concentrate production r ate of 18.4 million long tons. The daily production rate of over 50,000 long tons of concentrate necessitates a daily mine output of approximately 250,000 long tons of material, of which 50% is waste.

Jan 1, 1977