Search Documents

By Martin Langenderfer, Catherine Johnson, Alexander Douglas

Mine haul roads degrade rapidly due to extreme loads on sub-optimal construction materials. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are suited to quantify large-area road-network conditions, such as surface roughness, defects, and grade to optimize remediation of poor conditions and reduce overall costs. Mine haul roads present unique challenges, such as material type and edge characteristics, to automatic road detection that often fail, requiring manual road input. This research proposes a new method for analysis using the road center determined by principal curve analysis of a haul truck’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) traces; analysis grids were created from this center line. A dense point cloud from UAV photogrammetry was generated, and multiple linear regression analysis was conducted on each individual grid. The root mean square error in each grid indicates the surface roughness, and the change of slope between grids indicates the road grade inconsistencies. This method was applied to 26 road sections, and the results were validated by images taken from the truck operator’s vantage point. Critical defects were identified including excessive pothole formation, corrugation, depressions retaining water, and narrowing of travel lane. The results demonstrate this is a valid method of road identification and quantification of road defects at a mine site.

Dec 19, 2023

By W. O. Kerr

As in other industries, companies engaged in mining and extraction use and develop intellectual property (?IP?) in the form of new technologies or production processes. The development of IP assets in mining may occur as a byproduct of ongoing operations, or result from investment in dedicated R&D efforts. New technology may lower costs, increase quality of output, and/or increase operational efficiency or safety. Key business questions with respect to any new technology are how best to use IP assets, how to protect them and how to derive value from them. IP assets can provide a competitive advantage to a developing firm that uses the technology to improve its operating results. The developing firm can preclude others from using the technology if it believes that is the best way to exploit the technology?s value. Or, it can be shared with others taking care to ensure rights are maintained, thereby generating royalty income or strategic value through cross licensing or other business relationships. Either way, in order to fully realize the maximum economic benefit, innovators must protect the IP assets and control their dissemination.

Jan 1, 2012

By D. Anthony, R. A. Williams, R. Raponi

Barrick Gold Corporation in conjunction with SNC Lavalin Engineers and Constructors have developed basic engineering design for counter current decantation thickener (CCD) plants capable of processing 44 000 t/d. To achieve this throughput in a single train, the largest high-rate thickeners installed to date have been utilized in concert with large process slurry and solution transport systems. Process reliability and plant operability and maintainability have been carefully considered in order to develop a practical, yet cost effective design. The design also incorporates the challenges associated with installation of large equipment and structures in a remote location, with a climatically hostile environment, situated in a high seismic activity zone.

Jan 1, 2002

By Massimo Concilia, Remo Grandori, Paolo Nardone

Paul Y. – SELI Joint Venture had been contracted to build the longest section of the Strategic Sewage Disposal Scheme (SSDS) – Stage I. This involved two tunnels under urban and marine areas excavated by high performance hard rock open type TBMs operated from deep shafts. A specific ground treatment program was developed using advance probing and grouting to control water inflow into the excavations. The article describes: the technologies adopted, the experienced problems, the encountered productions and their interrelation with the water inflow amounts, the possible improvement in the technologies for the excavation of the future stages of the same project as well of any other project under similar conditions.

Jan 1, 2001

By Levent Ozdemir, Bjorn Nilsen

For several recent TBM tunnel projects, unexpected ground conditions have been encountered, causing extra cost, considerable delay, and in some cases major claims. Undoubtedly, insufficient and/or irrelevant site investigation and testing are among the main causes of such incidents. The purpose of this paper is to review the main investigations and tests relevant for hard rock TBM projects, with particular emphasis on the considerable development that has taken place over the last few years. Also, guidelines for defining optimum scope and extent of site investigations and testing are discussed, as well as the importance of adjusting the investigations and tests according to complexity of the ground conditions and project type.

Jan 1, 1999

By Steve Zaffron, Olga Loffredi, Eric Seedorff, Mary Poulton

"The New Face of Mining is a recognition of the central role of human beings in mining and the underappreciated power they can have in generating breakthroughs in business performance and shareholder value. The key is people creating, aligning on, and subsequently enacting the future of mining. A methodology that is effective creates a corporate environment for alignment to be possible and then transforms operations by embedding the necessary behaviors, processes and practices. The people within the organization then are empowered to find and to implement solutions quickly, as measured business results demonstrate in case histories of diverse mining challenges around the globe and over the decades.Urgent case for actionThe physics of mining does not change fundamentally over time, but the context in which it operates changes rapidly, periodically requiring a new face of mining. “The New Face of Mining,” which has been used as a metaphor for the campus-wide mineral resources research organization at the University of Arizona, has many facets, including societal, generational, technological, financial and environmental, but at the center, always, is humanity. The New Face of Mining is not necessarily about age, it is about people first imagining and then creating a new future for mining. The challenges facing the global industry evolve from year to year and differ in individual companies or mines at any one time.Quantified outcomes from case studies indicate that a methodology, now also offered annually in a four-day, open-enrollment leadership program tailored to the mining industry, is effective at generating breakthrough results in the mining business. Such challenges range from those with important technical components to others that are mostly social challenges. Our focus, however, is the centrality of people in aligning on and enacting the future of mining. We use the phrase New Face of Mining for leadership and ways to empower people in organizations that commonly are overlooked in the mining industry. Some of the material in this article is based on the ideas of Werner Erhard and on the book by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan (2009), The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life.At Davos, Switzerland in January 1992, nine visionary mining chief executive officers (CEO) gathered to create the Global Mining Initiative. Much has changed in the 26 years since that meeting:• The world GDP has increased from US$25.4 trillion to $75.8 trillion.• The annual number of U.S. patent applications increased from 186,000 to 629,000.• The number of websites has increased from 100 to 1 billion.• The number of academic references to artificial intelligence has climbed from more than 16,000 to more than 1 million.• The number of cell phone subscribers grew from 11 million in the United States to four billion globally."

Oct 1, 2019

The Cadia Mine is located 25kms South West of Orange in the central west of New South Wales (NSW), Australia (Figure 1). Orange is a major regional centre with a population of 35,000 people. Cadia has a history of mining and exploration dating back to 1851 and shortly after the first Australian gold rush at Ophir, north of Orange. Newcrest Mining commenced an exploration program at Cadia Hill in 1992. This identified a substantial zone of copper and gold mineralization. Subsequent resource definition drilling defined an orebody with a mineable reserve of 200 million tonnes of ore with an average gold grade of 0.74g/t and 0.17\ copper. A full feasibility study commenced in 1994, approvals to proceed with development were granted in September 1996 and the processing plant was commissioned in July 1998. The project came in on budget at A$440 million and on time, 24 months from design to construction. The estimated operating cost at the time of commissioning was A$8.85/t of mill feed.

Jan 1, 1999

By Shangyong Lin, Wei Sun, Weiping Liu, Muhammad Azam, Junfeng Chen, Yujie Zhao, David Asubonteng, Michael Ngoie

Copper concentrates are widely used in smelting operations worldwide and typically consist of chalcopyrite ( CuFeS2) as the primary mineral, with chalcocite ( Cu2S) and bornite ( Cu5FeS4) as secondary copper-bearing minerals. However, these concentrates often contain hazardous impurities, such as the fluorine ion, which can result in various complications during the smelting process. These issues include equipment corrosion, gas treatment requirements, environmental hazards, and strained community relations. Furthermore, high fluorine content in copper concentrates can lead to penalties and limitations during sales. To address these challenges, this comprehensive review assesses current techniques for removing fluorine from copper concentrate. Drawing upon recent research and the findings in the field, the review analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of existing fluorine removal methods and identifies critical issues requiring attention in the future. This review provides valuable insights into the current state of fluorine removal from copper concentrates and serves as a practical guide for researchers and industry professionals in this field.

Aug 2, 2023

By R. C. Milici

The primary factors that determine the marketability of coal from various supply centers in the U.S. are coal quality and supply; i.e. low sulfur, moderate- to high- Btu coals have large market areas when compared to less expensive but poorer quality coals. Price is the major factor in the competitive marketing of similar coal products. Good quality, (moderate- to high- Btu, low sulfur) coals from the Powder River and central Appalachian basins are marketed over large areas of the country, and central Appalachian coal is widely distributed in foreign markets, primarily as coking coal. In contrast, poorer quality bituminous coal (low calorific value and/or high sulfur) from the Illinois Basin, northern Appalachian Basin, and lignite from the Gulf Coast is marketed in or near the States in which it was mined even though the price at the mines may be lower than mine prices for central Appalachian coal. Widespread distribution of sub-bituminous Powder River Basin coal is enhanced by its exceptionally low mining costs, which offsets transportation costs to distant markets.

Jan 1, 2001

By Bahram Sameit

Blast engineers have been taking advantage of image-based rock fragmentation analysis methods for the past three decades to estimate rock size distributions. These methods utilize a range of image segmentation techniques, from manual to fully-automated, to delineate the edges of rocks in images. Rock delineation results are then converted to physical rock sizes (and percentage passing curves) by scaling the image pixels to correspond to physical measurements. The size scaling process is critical for acquiring physical measurements, but specifc to the limitations of different applications. This article starts by presenting a shovel bucket-based fragmentation analysis system, where scaling is done using the known width of the shovel bucket within the image. It will then describe methods that use pictures captured by digital cameras with scaling reference objects in the view. Finally, the article presents a method that uses three-dimensional imaging to capture images without the need for scaling reference objects.

By R. L. Virta

Four companies mined ball clay in four States during2004. They were H.C. Spinks Clay (owned by Franklin Minerals) Kentucky-Tennessee Clay (owned by Imerys),Old Hickory Clay and Unimin. Production was estimated to be 1.46 Mt (1.61 million st) valued at about $56.9 million, based on a preliminary survey of the ball clay industry. In 2003, production was 1.31 Mt (1.44 million st) valued at $56.2 million. Tennessee was the leading producer state with 61 percent of production. It was followed by Texas, Kentucky and Mississippi.

Jan 1, 2005

By R. P. Gardner

Results of work on the development of a phenomenological model for the continuous flotation process using short-lived radioactive tracer techniques for the determination of model parameters is reported. A model that incorporates a flotation first-order rate constant and a residence time distribution based on the cross flow finite state (CFFS) model has been derived and investigated. The short-lived radioactive tracer techniques necessary to extract the model parameters have been developed as have the necessary nonlinear search methods. The conditions under which all the model parameters can be extracted from a single radiotracer experiment are detailed and illustrated. A microcomputer-based unique data logging system has been designed, assembled, and implemented for collecting the necessary transient radiotracer data. Results are reported for a continuous laboratory flotation system for the two systems mica ore and coal.

Jan 1, 1985

By L. O’Connor, E. Tarshizi

The objective of this work is to provide a detailed review and a list of references in chronological order, comprising 80 recent technical papers, on the use of discrete-event simulation (DES) modeling in mining engineering. In this article, the review papers of published mine simulation projects through 2007 are summarized, and then a comprehensive review of individual articles published from 2008 to 2015 is presented. This survey work also includes analyses of the simulation tools used in the published projects, mining types and applications in order to assess these key features and evaluate the recent state of research in mine DES simulation. In addition, an interactive map visualization for the locations of the simulated projects is made available on a website to benefit current and prospective scholars in the field. The results of this investigation revealed that the most common application of DES in mining had been mining equipment selection and analysis, while ore processing and risk management projects were less frequently reported. The results also showed that modeling surface mines were in the majority, but the trend of publications for underground mine simulations had also increased. According to the results, ARENA was the most popular simulation software package, but several simulation tools that were only used once or twice in the mining projects are also included in this review.

Jan 1, 2018

By L. O’Connor, E. Tarshizi

The objective of this work is to provide a detailed review and a list of references in chronological order, comprising 80 recent technical papers, on the use of discrete-event simulation (DES) modeling in mining engineering. In this article, the review papers of published mine simulation projects through 2007 are summarized, and then a comprehensive review of individual articles published from 2008 to 2015 is presented. This survey work also includes analyses of the simulation tools used in the published projects, mining types and applications in order to assess these key features and evaluate the recent state of research in mine DES simulation. In addition, an interactive map visualization for the locations of the simulated projects is made available on a website to benefit current and prospective scholars in the field. The results of this investigation revealed that the most common application of DES in mining had been mining equipment selection and analysis, while ore processing and risk management projects were less frequently reported. The results also showed that modeling surface mines were in the majority, but the trend of publications for underground mine simulations had also increased. According to the results, ARENA was the most popular simulation software package, but several simulation tools that were only used once or twice in the mining projects are also included in this review.

Jan 1, 2017

By M. Li, J. D. Miller

During the past decade, considerable effort has been made to develop improved flotation strategies for the sedimentary phosphate resources from Florida, particularly the dolomitic phosphate resources. New flotation equipment and alternate flotation strategies have been evaluated. These developments are reviewed for both traditional siliceous resources and future dolomitic resources. Most process strategies involve variation in the reagent sequence and/or the use of depressants/dispersants. Further research and development efforts in flotation technology are needed to increase flotation plant capacity by elimination of the conventional double float process, to improve the recovery of coarse phosphate, and to achieve the desired selectivity with respect to carbonate minerals, particularly dolomite.

Jan 1, 2000

By Evan J. Owen, Virginia T. McLemore

Rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals are increasingly becoming more important in our technological society and are used in many of our electronic devices (such as cell phones, computer monitors, wind turbines, etc.), batteries, and magnets. Measuring REE and critical minerals in ashed coal approximates the REE and critical minerals in the fly or bottom ash remaining after coal is burned at a power plant, where REE and other critical minerals could be leached. In New Mexico, there are 26 coal fields in Late Cretaceous rocks in the San Juan and Raton Basins. These rocks are being characterized as part of the DOE’s CORE-CM (Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals) program. Higher concentrations of REE (as much as 2103 ppm total REE) are found locally in ashed coals from the basins. More chemical and mineralogical analyses are required to fully understand the distribution and origin of REE in these deposits. As the demand for REE increases because of increased need and short supplies, the dollar value per ton of ore rises, enhancing deposit economics, perhaps even from coal.

Feb 1, 2025

By G. D. Mainwaring, Weng L. W, Lam Y. K.

The first power transmission cable tunnel in Singapore was the 2.6km long undersea tunnel between Pulau Seraya and mainland Singapore, constructed in the1980s. Ten years later, similar concepts were used for the Tuas Cable Tunnel. The tunnel, which includes a 2.2km long immersed tube section, was designed to accommodate 10power circuits of 400kV and 230kV capacity. It is fully equipped with sophisticated control and communication equipment, fire suppressant and life safety systems plus a maintenance vehicle which runs on tracks through the length of the tunnel. The paper discusses the planning, design, and construction of the Tuas tunnel, and the development of these concepts for future tunnels.

Jan 1, 2001

By S. K. Singh, P. R. Sheorey

To meet increasing demand of coal, underground mining is largely being replaced by the exploitation at deeper horizons and with greater complexities. The exploitation-proposition may be below not-to-be-disturbed surface properties or below water-bodies, posing a constant threat of inundation. Also, the mounting pressures to limit the adverse impacts on the environment bring the extraction-undertaking to face more challenges. An understanding of subsidence-mechanism and a rational quantification of subsidence parameters is a requisite herein. This paper presents such pragmatic quantification, validated at mine-sites in India. In comparison, better productivity, conservation and safety is ensured in this approach.

Jan 1, 1999

By Timothy D. Arnold

Barrick Gold’s Bullfrog underground mine, near Beatty, NV, was established as an after-thought to the main open pit. As open pit ore dwindles, the underground mining became increasingly more important as an ore source, and to the overall economics of the project. This situation is similar to many other mines. Today, there is a move towards underground mining in the United States. There are inherent problems in starting and operating underground mines in the shadow of any open-pit operation. Several attempts were made at the Bullfrog Mine for productive increases. Some were successful, while others were not.

Jan 1, 1996

By Bernie W. Martin, Raymond Leray, Christian Criado

Aguas Argentinas,1 a consortium managed by Lyonnaise des Eaux of France and operator of the world’s biggest privatized water supply and waste water collection system for the City of Buenos Aires, a city of 9 million people, was faced with the daunting task of providing new service to 1.6 million more people in the first five years of their 30 year concession. Aguas Argentinas elected to use the Negotiated Compressed Process - NCP - for the fast track implementation of a 15000 meter, 3,5 meter diameter tunnel, a key component of the infrastructure master plan. NCP was developed by Klohn Crippen for the $200 million international railway tunnel between Canada and the United States. The conceptual design of the project was performed by Safege Montgomery-Watson, who engaged Klohn Crippento assist with the NCP, the preparation of the tender documents, and implementation of theproject during construction. The process included the purchase by the client Aguas Argentinas of two sophisticated 4 metre diameter earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht of Germany. Construction of the tunnel is being performed by the consortium Wayss & Freytag (Germany) and Sollazzo Hnos S.A. (Argentina). The water tunnel is being built with a one pass, bolted segmented gasketed reinforced concrete liner. The purpose of this paper is to describe a transferable methodology for this innovative contracting procedure, the project organization and quality control plan for this important world class tunnel project which is designed to service one of Latin America’s largest metropolitan areas.

Jan 1, 1997