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By Dharmendr Kumar, Pradip, Beena Rai, Venugopal Tammishetti

"Due to rapid depletion of high grade Indian iron ores, there is a need to utilize low grade fines and slimes. However, these fines and slimes, in their current form, cannot be utilized in steel making due to their high alumina (6-10%) contents. Several beneficiation strategies such as gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation and selective flocculation are currently being explored for the upgradation of low grade fines and slimes. In our previous work density functional theory simulations were employed to come up with selective flocculants for beneficiation of iron ore slimes. Our simulation results suggested that starch and guar gum are more selective towards iron minerals than other minerals present in the sample. Grinding of iron ore fines becomes necessary in some cases to achieve adequate liberation for removing alumina impurities in Indian iron ores. We have thus investigated effect of grinding of iron ore fines on its selective flocculation-separation.In the present work, we have taken natural iron ore fines from one of the Indian iron ore mines and ground it to -400 mesh (<37 microns) in dry and wet conditions. X-ray diffraction study confirmed the presence of minerals hematite, goethite, gibbsite and kaolinite in the sample. The fine ground samples were used in selective dispersion-flocculation study with corn starch and guar gum flocculants. It is interesting to note that even though the dry and wet ground samples possess almost similar particle size distributions, significant differences were observed in yield and grades of the concentrates thus produced. These differences may be arising due to the coating of alumina containing minerals on iron minerals. We have also studied the effect of addition of dispersant while grinding. Our study suggests that grinding conditions determine the efficiency of the separation process."

Jan 1, 2016

By J. McCreedy

This paper reviews new methods of exploration for metals and new techniques of mining the deposits and extracting the metals from their ores. Examples of mining innovations are taken from Inco's Thompson Operation. The importance of presenting a favorable image of the industry to college students and young people deciding on a career is stressed.

Jan 1, 1971

By A. Ignatieff

"THE WORLD'S coal resources represent the largest component of non-renewable energy resources. Coal is now regaining Its position following a temporary decline, particularly in North America during a period of about a quarter of a century. This period provided the opportunity to improve both surface and underground mechanization, thereby increasing the productivity and improving conditions for humans in the mines. Similarly, in preparation, improved cleaning of coal from various impurities including sulphur was achieved, to meet the more demanding requirements for coking coal. Progress was also made in combustion, particularly related to the reduction of pollution. Canada participated in most of these developments, despite the country's strong commitment of the use of hydrocarbons during this period. _Bearing in mind the vastness of this land (3.85 million sq. miles) by comparison with countries like U.S.A., U.S.S.R., and China, Canada's coal resources estimated to date are not large and they are scattered. The original evaluation of 1913 estimated the ""reserves"" from seams over one foot in thickness and a limiting depth of 4,000 ft at 1.2 trillion metric tons. D:. ~.R. MacKay, in his evaluation for the 1946 Royal Commission on the coal industry, known as the Carroll Commission, reduced the ""reserves"" to 99 billion short tons. The increased knowledge now available would indicate that the 1913 estimated was too liberal and the 1946 estimate too conservative but both were closer to a resource than to a reserve designation. Some adjustments of Dr. MacKay's estimates were made in 1970 by B.A. Latour of the Geological Survey of Canada and L.P. Chrismas of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada (EMR). In the last decade the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board has developed its own methods of evaluating coal resources and reserves. A methodical approach of exploration and evaluation was carried out by Saskatchewan jointly with the federal government of the lignite resources of Southern Saskatchewan. A similar joint program is in progress in Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, the industry itself carried on an extensive exploration program on the outcrops of promising projects in the Inner Foothills belt of Alberta and British Columbia in preparation for surface mining on a very large scale, with some development of hydraulic mines. All these activities have been reflected in the increase of the country's resources and reserves, which now fortunately are separately defined. In 1979 EMR issued Report E.R. 79/9(1>; the data were developed in 1978 and provided to the World Energy Conference Organization<2>. In 1980 the World Coal Study (Wocol), an international group that included Canada carried out a study which updated the W.E.C. data, indicating some reduction of the 1978 figures; quantities were reported in million metric tons of coal equivalent (C.E.)*(Jl."

Jan 1, 1985

By D. R. E. Whitmore, J. M. Harrison

There are five logical stages in the search for orebodies in virgin territory, namely: (1) reconnaissance inventory of geology, and related investigations; (2) development of broad concepts as a basis for selecting regions of potential mineral deposits; (3) assessment of criteria leading to specific localities within these regions; (4) geo-physical and geochemical studies that will delineate small anomalous areas; and (5) stripping, drilling or other means of locating ore. In addition, the development of new means of extracting mineral resources and the finding of new uses play a vital role in our mineral industry. The continued growth of this industry will be largely governed by our ability to develop or to adapt new concepts and techniques, and to produce a greater number of scientists and engineers. It should always be remembered that more than one-third of Canada's exports are dependent upon our ability to find, develop and economic-ally exploit new orebodies.

Jan 1, 1967

By H. Westengen

The AE alloy family exhibits remarkable combinations of properties when utilized as high pressure die castings. This performance relies on the fact that the rapid cooling rate resulting from the direct contact between the molten alloy and the steel die walls effectively refines the structure through rapid solidification. Furthermore, the rare earth additions modify the solidification pattern, dramatically reducing the solidification interval. A solid shell forms at temperatures exceeding 500C, reducing the tendency for die sticking and inverse segregation. As a result, the die castability is excellent, giving parts with a smooth and shiny surface. Unlike other magnesium die casting alloys developed to improve elevated temperature creep properties, AE alloys do not suffer from the commonly observed tendency to introduce brittleness. This feature is attributed to the fact that the massive magnesium- aluminium intermetallic phase is substituted by a finely dispersed lamellar structure of Al-RE intermetallics. The resulting combination of excellent elevated temperature properties and good ductility, as well as excellent corrosion resistance, means superiority of these alloys for demanding automotive engine and chassis applications.

Jan 1, 2006

By J. C. Rudolph

"THE TOPIC on which I am speaking this afternoon is ""The Future of the Canadian Oil Industry.'' At the time of C + 100, we should take a searching look at ourselves, an honest appraisal of our achievements and a forthright accounting of our shortcomings as well as the uniquely Canadian aspects of this industry. I would like to put before you some of my views on the direction we are taking in the exploration field and in the production field. I would also like to speak briefly on some of our problems and the role of the various segments of our industry in solving these problems.First of all, let us look at the exploration picture. We are in the midst of an exploration boom. There were 133 seismic crews active in Western Canada this winter, the highest since 1957, land prices are appreciating rapidly, Canadian oil reserves increased + 16 per cent during 1966, there is a great demand for technical personnel of every kind and the whole industry, except the drilling segment, seems to be prospering. This surge of activity has its roots in two major occurrences. The first of these was the change in the pro-ration system in Alberta, the major producing province, accompanied by the change in spacing pat-terns. The proration change was designed primarily to encourage in-creased exploration and it has certainly had this effect. It has also had the unforeseen effect of put-ting everyone into what we, in the oil business, call ""elephant hunting."" In other words, the days of the development of barely economic, marginal fields are over. Oil companies today are only interested in high-reserve, high-productivity, high-quality reservoirs."

Jan 1, 1968

By A. Warczok

Smelting slags contain payable metals in a dissolved form and as mechanically entrained matte or metallic inclusions in the size range from 2 to 1000 µm. Slag cleaning requires reduction of magnetite and metal oxides and sedimentation of inclusions. Slag cleaning in an electric furnace is carried out in batch or semi-continuous mode. The strong trend for continuous slag cleaning generates the basic question about the optimal geometry of the electric furnace. Results of combined CFD, potential distribution and heat transfer modeling allowed for the determination of the fluid flow pattern and the temperature distribution in a classical, circular electric furnace as well as in a rectangular furnace. For the rectangular furnace, various length/width ratios and position of electrodes have been simulated. Analysis of key phenomena pointed out the advantages of the rectangular electric furnace over the circular furnace, particularly for continuous slag cleaning. Phenomena that have been analyzed were mass transfer, the rate of slag reduction, coalescence and settling of inclusions, all on the basis of the calculated slag flow pattern and the temperature distribution.

Jan 1, 2007

By V. G. Papangelakis, G. A. Moldoveanu

"Rare earths adsorbed on clay minerals are easily recovered via ion exchange during leaching with inorganic monovalent salt solutions. The leaching efficiency of various salts at 0.5M and 25°C was investigated as a function of cation type and salt system (sulphates vs. chlorides). (NH4)2SO4 was identified as the lixiviant of choice and a procedure was established to investigate the influence of lixiviant concentration, temperature, pH and agitation on desorption kinetics and REE extraction levels. It was determined that the kinetics were fast and the optimum leaching conditions (for >80% total REE extraction) required pH below 5 and moderate temperatures (<50°C). INTRODUCTIONRare earth elements (REE) are at the core of numerous advanced applications due to their various uses in high strength permanent magnets, lasers, automotive catalytic converters, fiber optics/superconductors, and electronic devices (as phosphors in TVs and display screens for computers and cell phones). Because of the ongoing development of new technologies, there is an increased demand for REE in the international market, with emphasis on identifying new resources to insure an adequate supply for present and future use. World production of rare earths is dominated by China, the United States and Australia; however, in terms of resources, China dominates the world potential with reserves estimated to be over 90% of the total (Chen, 2011).The main commercially significant REE sources, as reviewed by O’Driscoll (1991) are bastnasite (carbonate) and monazite (phosphate) minerals, containing up to 70% wt. rare earth oxides (REO). In spite of being high grade, these ores are associated with elevated recovery costs due to difficulty in mining, separation and beneficiation. Moreover, aggressive conditions are required to solubilize the REE from the mineral, such as leaching with hot, concentrated acids or baking in 70% NaOH (Gupta & Krishnamurti, 2005)."

Jan 1, 2012

By Hong-wei Ma

With social development and technological advancement, mine rescue robots used in complex environments have developed as a research hotspot. This paper reviews the progress of research on coal mine rescue robots, and key technologies of rescue robot design are put forward, such as mechanical structure, self-navigation and self-orientation, multi-sensor information fusion, multi-robot cooperation, and wireless communication technology.

Aug 1, 2013

By M. S. Badollet

Introduction Very little fundamental research has been done on asbestos fibre to cake maximum advantage of its properties and to determine in what commercial products it can best be utilized. For the research chemist who is associated with asbestos development work, a thorough study of mineralogical information on asbestos deposits would furnish reliable information on the rock formations and the mineral impurities closely associated with the asbestos. Furthermore, ?he must have an intimate knowledge of the uses of the fibre in various products so that he can visualize the importance of the fibre and the role it plays in industry. Some of the properties of asbestos fibres such as strength, composition, length, harshness or softness, and mineral associates are of considerable importance to the manufacturer because they are responsible for many production difficulties. Fibre Strength It has been known for some time chat asbestos filaments have considerable tensile strength. These strengths have been referred to merely as &apos;weak&apos; to &apos;very strong&apos;. Not until recently have numerical values been applied to the strengths of asbestos fibres. But today we can take a thin fibre filament and mount it between two holders and apply a gradually increasing load or pull until the fibre breaks. By measuring the cross sectional area of the filament and the amount of load applied, we can calculate the tensile strength of the fibre in terms of pounds per square inch. This type of test is slow and rather difficult, but the fundamental data obtained furnish important basic information that can be applied to mechanical processing equipment and to certain asbestos products.

Jan 1, 1948

By N. Wachgama, J. P. T. Kapusta, R. U. Pagador

The Thai Copper Industries smelter (Thai Copper) is located some 200 km southeast of Bangkok near the MapTaPhut deep sea port in one of the industrial centres of Thailand. Although construction of the complex started in the mid 1990s, the smelter, acid plant and refinery were completed in 2004. Thai Copper is a state-of-the-art copper smelter processing imported concentrates with a total yearly capacity of 165,000 tonnes of cathodes. It employs the El Teniente Technology where concentrates are blended and smelted continuously in a primary smelting reactor to produce high grade matte or white metal. The white metal is converted in batches to blister copper in Hoboken siphon converters equipped with Air Liquide Shrouded Injector (ALS I) Technology for sonic injection of oxygen enriched air. Final refining is carried out in two anode furnaces prior to anode casting and electrorefining. Thai Copper and Air Liquide Canada executed a technical assistance agreement in late 2005. Pre-commissioning of the shrouded injectors took place in July and November 2006 while hot commissioning occurred in December 2006. This paper presents the major technical aspects of the joint commissioning, including the establishment of operating practices specific to shrouded injection converting. Preliminary results of this first commercial implementation of ALSI Technology in copper converting are also provided.

Jan 1, 2007

By A. M. King, J. M. Neilsen

"Roughness at varying scales is an important component of the shear strength of discontinuities. Small scale roughness can be assessed in drillcore and through laboratory testing of drillcore derived samples. Large scale roughness, or waviness, also plays an important part in peak shear strength and a number of methods for its incorporation into defect plane strength models are presented.A number of methods for capturing waviness data from exposed faces are reviewed. A method is presented for deriving waviness from downhole televiewer data, which is shown to be significantly more accurate than structural data derived from core logging. The method is based on work undertaken in the highly anisotropic bedded units of the Hamersley Province, Western Australia where televiewer surveys are routinely undertaken. Values of waviness are derived through a review of variation in dip resolved in the direction of the slope face. This method allows design engineers to incorporate large scale roughness in defect plane shear strengths at the design stage.INTRODUCTIONThere are a number of constitutive models currently being applied by rock mechanics practitioners in calculating defect plane shear strength parameters, such as Patton, Barton – Bandis and Hencher [1, 2, 3]. Most of these shear strength determinations are typically undertaken by determining the base or residual friction angle, and applying corrections for small and large scale surface roughness."

Jan 1, 2015

By R. W. Thompkins

In order to evaluate the impact of air quality control on mine design, a few examples are given of cases in wh.ich ventilation has affected the economics of the total design problem. Principles for the drainage of gas contaminants are shown, and the contamination control problems created by differential pressures in complicated booster fan installations are discussed. The paper also deals with the use of advanced mathematics for solving some of the ventilation problems likely to be encountered.

Jan 1, 1967

By K. Kudo

Magnesium rods of 99.95% purity and approximately 6 mm in diameter were continuously cast at rates of between 15 and 25 mm/min by a heated mould process and their mechanical properties evaluated. It was found that rods cast at 15 and 20 mm/min consisted of a single crystal, while rods cast at a speed of 25 mm/min were multi-crystalline and showed a unidirectional structure. Although room temperature tensile ductility to fracture varied widely, it was found that with an appropriate crystal orientation, cast rods can exhibit elongation by as much as 215%.

Jan 1, 2006

By Cindy Schiewek

Industrial injury occurrences are an ongoing concern for Mine Operators. Along with the personal suffering of injured workers comes an increase in compensation and productivity costs. Growing recognition of repetitive stress and bodily injuries, accompanied by recent studies, validates the assumption that a relationship exists between ergonomic injuries and machine design. Intuitively, there is a belief that an ergonomically designed machine will reduce repetitive stress injuries through design and education however; quantifying this belief has been a challenge for Mine Operators. Sandvik Tamrock has undertaken a project aimed at developing a business model to assist in quantifying the benefits of ergonomic intervention. This model focuses on distinguishing and quantifying this method of intervention to allow for a better evaluation of the machine. For simplicity, the project initially focused on the Face Drill Jumbos. The target of the project was three fold: !" Recognition of the cost drivers for compensation; ergonomic injuries !" Identification of the relationship between ergonomic machine design, and the decrease of the negative effects associated with the cost drivers !" Systematic prioritization for ?prevention by design? The project findings substantiate the expected reduction in injuries and compensation claims. Based on all ergonomic intervention studies conducted, each case showed a reduction in compensation cost; through prevention by design, one can reduce the amount of potential risk. The paper addresses the resources and methodology used, along with the findings and its relevance to the issues that face the Mining industry.

May 1, 2003

By L. H. McKay

Tailing Dams Three types of dam have been structed to impound tailings from the Allenby mill: 1.- By classifier unit 2.- By earth dam 3.- By direct deposition of tailings The first type, which includes two dams, was built across a shallow valley which sloped down to Similkameen river, just below the mill site. Two earth embankments, one below the other, were built across the valley. Tailings were then piped to Akins classifiers mounted on wooden wheels. The classifiers were set up at one side of the valley and gradually moved ahead on the sand embankment created by the sand discharge from these classifiers, the slime overflow going to settli.ng ponds formed by the dams. Decanting wells were built in the settling ponds by placing four six-by-six timbers vertically in the ground, two feet apart, to which two-by-six tongue-and-groove boards were nailed. The elevations of the ponds were raised, as required, by nailing additional two-by-six boards on the well and bolting on more six-by-six timbers when required. The bottoms of the wells were attached to a covered launder made of three-inch lumber laid on a one per cent grade. This launder carried the overflow through the dam. The second type of dam was built across a long, narrow valley, known as Hitchen&apos;s Flat, the upper ~n d of which was about 2½ miles north of the mill. This valley, an ideal tailings site, was 4,000 feet long and from 600 to 800 feet wide. An earth embankment with a concrete spillway through the top was built approximately 28 feet high across the lower end of this valley. Tailings were then dumped into the upper end of valley, with no further expense until the basin was filled up to the level of the flume where this entered the valley. When the upper end of the valley was filled to this point there was still room for more tailings at the lower end. Therefore, a pump was installed to elevate the tailings to build a wall around the upper end of the valley by depositing sands from a launder built up on 20 foot supports and sloping both ways from the pumping station around the upper end of the basin.

Jan 1, 1950

By Ming’an Wei, Qifu Duan, Jianmin Wu, Lusheng Zhou, HMR Group Limited / HMR Technology Canada Ltd., Wenjian Wu

"The development and industrial applications of magnetic liners have been around for decades. A Swedish company Skega first introduced rubber magnetic liners, and then followed by the Chinese invention of metal magnetic liners. Traditionally, both liners were used in secondary ball mills and regrind ball mills for industrial applications, especially for ores containing magnetic materials. Mostly steel balls or equivalent forged steel balls, usually below 60 mm in diameter, were used as grinding media. With the development of mineral resources over the years, SAG mills and larger ball mills have become the dominating components for comminution circuit design. Due to the development of larger diameter ball mills and thus larger ball charge diameter (up to 80mm) especially in non-ferrous metal mining operations, the application of magnetic liners have been very limited. Based on “Magnetism theory” and the development of new materials, the HMR Group Limited has been conducting researches on examining the structures of magnetic liners, associated materials and magnetic circuits which led to the invention of the Nano Alloy Steel Magnetic Liner (NSML). Recently, NSML had a successful application in a 5.5 m diameter × 6.5 m ball mill at the Erdenet Copper Mine in Mongolia. The NSML successfully handled a ball size up of to 80 mm, while achieving a service life of nearly 24 months, which is almost 3 times wear life of the original manganese steel liners.INTRODUCTIONDuring the development and utilization of mineral resources, mineral processing is an indispensably operation. The effective separation of various useful minerals depends on sufficient monomer dissociation of minerals in the ores. The crushing and grinding operation is prior operation of mineral processing. Ball mills are used in different concentrators. As the main consumption parts of mill, liners have been studied constantly. As a new kind of liners, magnetic liners besides can meet the requirement of production, and also have characteristics with maintenance-free, saving energy and increasing efficiency. So the magnetic liners are worth to be spread and applied world widely."

Jan 1, 2016

By C. G. Williams

This paper describes the planning, development and operation of the Highvale Mine to supply coal to both the existing Sundance and the approved Keephills thermal power plants of Calgary Power Ltd. Reference is also made to the company &apos;s Whitewood Mine, which feeds the Wabamun thermal plant .

Jan 1, 1979

By J. H. Parliament

"The 15,000-tpd Similkameen open-pit copper mine, 10 miles south of Princeton, B.C., started production during 1972. The two main ore zones are separated by the deep canyon of the Similkameen River, with the Ingerbelle or western deposit being mined first. The location, design and construction of the plant were complicated by the steep terrain and the situation of the orebodies. Mining, utilizing 10-cu.yd electric shovels and 100-ton electric-wheel trucks, is conventional. Closely integrated with the preproduction mining was the construction of a 4-mile section of main highway to bypass the Ingerbelle pit. This entailed a very large fill, placed with mine equipment. Ore is crushed to minus 9 inches, stockpiled and reclaimed for direct delivery to three 32-ft-diameter by 14• ft single-stage autogenous grinding mills, each driven by two 4000-hp motors. Because of the friable ore in the upper part of the mine, 4-inch balls are added, with higher than design throughput attained. Classification is by 91>-inch spiral classifiers and cyclones. The flotation section comprises three parallel lines of ten 400-cu.ft rougher- scavenger cells and a single line of 100-cu.ft cleaner and recleaner cells. Concentrate is transported in end dump, closed trucks to Vancouver for dockside storage prior to shipment to the smelter. Tailings are piped across the canyon on a suspension bridge and through a tunnel to an empoundment area. Water is reclaimed and returned to the concentrator, forming a closed system. Dams are raised with cycloned ands, with the downstream section compacted."

Jan 1, 1973

By J. T. Liu, G. H. Han, W. C. Chai, Y. F. Huang

"In beneficiation process, metal ions could adsorb onto clay mineral surfaces or interact with flotation chemicals, and then result in the flotation behavior changing of desired minerals. Al(III) is the dominating ion existing in the bauxite flotation system. In this research, the adsorption behaviors of Al(III) on two silicate clay minerals (including bentonite and kaolin) were investigated by means of UV-Vis spectra, zeta potential testing and scanning electron micrograph analysis. The adsorption experiment results show that the adsorption capacity of clays for Al(III) ions increases with the initial Al(III) concentration, contact time and solution pH. There are some different adsorption behaviours for two clays. Increasing the clay concentration decreases the adsorption capacity of bentonite, while increases first then decreases for kaolin. Higher temperature favours the adsorption of Al(III) on bentonite but goes against for kaolin. The adsorption capacities of bentonite and kaolin for Al(III) respectively reach 12.48 and 0.875 mg/g at initial solution pH 5. Zeta potential results show that the adsorption of Al(III) on two clays is characterized by electrostatic attraction mechanism.INTRODUCTIONIn beneficiation process, there is inevitably a wide variety of metal ions generated from mineral crushing, mineral dissolution and water chemistry conditions. Metal ions adsorb on the mineral surfaces or interact with the beneficiation agents, affecting the flotation efficiency of desired minerals (DiFeo et al., 2001; Parolis et al., 2008; Shackleton et al., 2012; Shengo et al., 2014). Therefore, it is necessary to have a detailed investigation on the adsorption behaviour of metal ions on clay minerals.Having good ion exchange capacity and negative surface charge, the clay minerals could take up various metal ions from the mineral-water system. Bentonite and kaolin are very common aluminosilicate clays in the mineral processing system. These two clays both hold a permanent negative charge, =X- on the basal surfaces, and a smaller variable charge, =SiOH on the mineral edges (Gu & Evans, 2008; (Gu et al., 2010). Adsorption experiments are usually used to study the adsorption affinity of metal ions for clay minerals (Sen & Bhattacharyya, 2012). The adsorption of Zn(II), Cu(II) and Pb(II) onto natural bentonite showed that the adsorption amounts of metal ions increase with contact time, solution pH and metal ion concentration, but decreases with adsorbent concentration and system temperature (Sen & Gomez, 2011; Melichova & Hromada, 2013). Cr(III) adsorption on bentonite was significantly pH dependent. The adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order model and the equilibrium adsorption was consistent with Freundlich isotherm (Lollino et al., 2015). The adsorption behaviours of Pb(II), Cd(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) onto kaolin indicated that increasing pH favoured the adsorption of metal ions (Jiang et al., 2010). The adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) onto kaolin showed that an ion-exchange reaction occurred at pH<7.0 and inner-sphere surface complexes were prone to form at higher pH (Srivastava et al., 2005)."

Jan 1, 2016