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By Robert B. Parsons

"Income tax legislation is not keeping pace with federal and provincial environmental legislation. There is a vast array of new environmental regulations at various stages of implementation across the country. Unfortunately, there are serious concerns about the deductibility of significant payments which mining companies will be required to make under these new rules, and the Department of Finance seems to be reluctant to act on these concerns. IntroductionWhile the federal and provincial governments are racing ahead with obvious fervour to introduce new envirorunental laws, the tax rules relating to envirorunental costs are being allowed to lag far behind. In a nutshell, the tax treatment of envirorunental costs is not keeping pace with the new envirorunental legislation.One of the most serious concerns of the mining industry is the deductibility of mine reclamation or closing costs. The producing provinces are well advanced down the road toward mandating upfront deposits, bonds, or similar financial guarantees to protect the envirorunent from the operation and eventual closure of a mine. These requirements are not small. In some instances, they can amount to tens of millions of dollars. And, if there is no tax deduction for these sums when they are set aside by the mining company, then the costs have to be paid out of the company's after-tax earnings."

Jan 1, 1991

By D. E. Barnett

"Paramount to sound aggregate resource management is an awareness of what resources exist. For the past six years, New Brunswick has been conducting granular aggregate resource inventories in and around urban centres as a means of documenting, both qualitatively and quantitatively, these resources.These aggregate studies require extensive ground truthing due to the often small nature of the surficial feature s as well as extensive foliage. Approximately 35% of the province's land mass has been mapped at a 1:50,000 scale as part of this on-going program. Reports are published annually and include data on size analysis, lithology soundness, abrasion and absorption.Aggregate deposits in New Brunswick frequently reflect the local bedrock lithology and, whereas much of New Brunswick is underlain by soft, friable sandstone of Pennsylvanian age, it is necessary to transport aggregate for higher-specification use considerable distances. Alternatively, the construction industry must turn to crushed stone as a source of asphaltic or concrete aggregate.Over 40% of New Brunswick's land mass is owned by the Crown, and aggregate resources are managed under the Quarriable Substances Act. Under this legislation, permit applications are reviewed by a Land Management Advisory Committee which consists of representatives from the various government departments involved.IntroductionSurficial materials either directly or indirectly form the basis of much of our economic activity, whether it is the field of agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, construction or other. Although sand and gravel have been produced and used since the day s of early settlement, the economic significance attached to such materials has only recently been recognized by both government and the general public."

Jan 1, 1982

By Vic Briccardi

Energy Management Challenges The Holistic Standard to Energy Management Energy Management Information System (EMIS) "Best Practices?: Energy Management Maturity Curve De Beers Canada Profile & Mine Locations Significant ROI Driven by Real-Time Energy Visibility Mining Energy KPI?s Summary: What Does EMIS Deliver? Q&A Session

May 1, 2013

By Eric J. Grimsey, Don C. Ibana, David E. Grimsey

The segregation process as applied to nickel laterite ores involves the formation of gaseous nickel and iron chlorides which are subsequently reduced to form ferronickel on the surface of a solid carbon reductant. A fundamental study of the process has been carried out using limonite, nontronite and garnierite ores. The study highlighted the significant impacts that ore mineralogy and carbon addition have on the amount of nickel which is segregated rather than retained within the ore due to in-situ reduction. These important aspects affecting nickel recovery and the success of the process are discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 2017

By Jean Fortin

In order to remain competitive, the search for excellence has been and will remain the only viable option facing the Mount-Wright operations. Safety and environment, process and technology as well as cost performance have been the focus points on which the operations have concentrated their efforts in order to meet and exceed our company's "Vision 2000" plan. Some of our mine's accomplishments have been a new work organization, a world class maintenance and a new collective agreement. The concentrator, maintenance and production departments have evaluated their processes and implemented various improvements in areas such as power supply, dewatering, blasting, implementation of service centers for large and small vehicles, fleet standardization, crusher, mills and silos improvements... etc. Safety and work environment for personnel have been our driving force in order to achieve this plan.

May 1, 2003

By Jeremy Breker

Cameco aligns its social and environmental responsibilities with its vision, mission and values. Environmental Leadership is established as a corporate objective that emphasizes the triple-bottom-line and a systematic approach to understanding environmental, social and economic issues, risks and opportunities. These are ingrained in the project culture, systems and processes and used to influence solutions derived by the project teams to achieve Cameco's objectives. This paper traces the organizational objectives from the early stages of a project through to implementation and turn over to Operations. A case study is used to demonstrate how an asset is influenced by Cameco?s strategy.

Aug 1, 2010

By R. H. McCorkell

"Sample drops were evaporated on Lexan disks on which fission tracks were etched and counted after neutron irradiation. [U] = 0.01 ppb could be measured. This method is rapid, cheap, simple and accurate when sufficient control and checking is possible, but several types of error were encountered in its use, the natures and sources of which were investigated but not always determined. The most troublesome were ""annealing"" processes which sometimes altered the fission tracks so that they were not fully revealed, or acquired varying appearances, after etching. Several different annealing processes seemed to exist and seemed to be produced by alteration of the Lexan surface by dissolved components in the solutions and, perhaps, by radiation and local heating during neutron irradiation. The appearances of the etched tracks varied with the natures of the droplet solutions even when annealing appeared to be absent, and for this reason, standards are best prepared by additions of known amounts of U to sample solutions. Contamination of sample droplets by U-containing dust from the air is best avoided by preparing the disks away from areas where other U-analysis is being carried out.IntroductionFission tracks are regions of radiation dam age produced in solids by the fission of atoms such as 235U. They can be enlarged to sizes visible through optical microscopes by etching surfaces through which they pass with solvents in which the solids are slightly soluble. A sample to be analyzed for U may be placed against a film of a solid of negligible uranium concentration (the track detector) and irradiated with thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor to fission 235U. The track detector is then etched and the number of tracks per unit area, ?, which is proportional to the uranium concentration of the sample, c, and the neutron do se, n, is found by counting through a microscope. Uranium in solutions ha s been measured by evaporating drops on track detectors, irradiating, etching and determining the number of tracks per drop, T(2,3,4,5). Extensive test s of this method are reported here."

Jan 1, 1983

By Alisa M. Caswell

Outline: 1. Syncrude: Who are We? 2. Energy Use at Syncrude 3. Historical Energy Focus at Syncrude 4. Case Studies for Process Variable Monitoring 5. Extraction Flood Water Temperature Management 6. Fired Heater Tuning 7. Critical Factors for Success Syncrude: Who are We? ?Syncrude is a Joint Venture Operating Company with one product: Synthetic Crude ?Production Capacity: 350 kbbls/day ?Primary Energy Sources: ??Fuel Gas + Natural Gas ?? Coke ?? Electricity ?? Diesel

May 1, 2008

By R. D. Corrans

"Africa is endowed with a number of the world's giant ore deposits which have contributed significantly to the development of their host countries. Mineral exploration has a long history in the continent, but mining on an unprecedented scale took off during the latter part of the 19th century, accompanied by the development of lines of communication and other infrastructure to service the major mining centres.The ""Winds of Change"" which swept Africa in the 19505 and 1960s brought in new styles of government and economic management to a number of regions, often with demise of economic viability and infrastructure. In recent years, with the end of the cold war, collapse of communism and changes in South Africa, new opportunities for mineral exploration are opening up rapidly in Africa. However, due to the large cost, long lead-in time, and high risk of developing new mineral ventures in the continent, it is necessary for the host countries to draft realistic and favorable mineral laws and fiscal codes in order to attract, and not deter, potential mineral investors. There will be an on-going role in mineral exploration throughout Africa for the artisanal miner, the smaller entrepreneurs and mining companies, exploration aid programs funded by the developed countries through African governments, as well as the major mining houses who have the resources to develop larger viable mineral deposits."

Jan 1, 2008

By Y. Rama Murthy, Amit Ranjan, Pankaj Satija, Sunil K. Tripathy

"Chromite ore is one of the essential raw materials for ferroalloy and steel industry. Boula-Nuasahi belt of Sukinda region, Odisha, is the only resource of chrome ore in India. The Indian deposits are typically characterized as ferruginous and siliceous type ores. Chrome ore is generally mined by open cast mechanized mining method in these areas. The run-off-mine (ROM) ore from the various mines is sent to beneficiation plant via stack yard for further up gradation. The chrome ore beneficiation plant (COB) has two major circuits: comminution (feed preparation) circuit and beneficiation circuit. In the comminution circuit, the ore is reduced to <1 mm size ( for complete liberation of chromite) from -220 mm size in stage wise crushing (primary and secondary crusher) followed by screening and single stage grinding in a ball mill. Fraction having size <1 mm is further upgraded in the beneficiation circuit to produce three different concentrates having specific chemical composition and Cr: Fe ratio. The beneficiation plant is a complex circuit comprising of combination of unit operations (spiral concentrator, Floatex density separator, hydrocyclone, wet shaking tables). In the recent years the overall performance efficiency (grade and recovery) of the beneficiation circuit got affected with numerous changes in the run-off-mine ore quality (physical and chemical), mineralogical composition, etc.In this article, attempts made for improving the performance of chrome ore beneficiation circuit is discussed. The approach adopted and practical problems encountered while the process were also highlighted. The results of the trials has shown an improvement in the performance of the cyclone (d50 : 56 µm – 40 µm) and chromite losses into tailing to <12%.INTRODUCTIONChromite has a wide range of application, from refractories to metallurgical industries, and from chemical to non-ferrous alloy industries. Chromium ore (Fe2+, Mg) [Cr, Al, Fe3+]2O4) occurs exclusively in rocks formed by the intrusion and solidification of molten lava or magma which is very rich in the heavy, iron containing minerals such as pyroxene and olivine. With the richness of silica and iron, the chrome ores are broadly classified as siliceous type and ferruginous type. Pure chromite with composition FeCr2O4 is rare because magnesium usually substitutes for ferrous ion and aluminum and ferrous ion substitutes for chromium. Generally the associated gangue minerals are talc, quartz, hematite, goethite, limonite, gabro, serpentine, anorthosite, dunite, pyroxinite, etc. Around 96% of the chromite ore production is consumed for metallurgical applications of which 94% is converted into different grades of ferrochrome i.e., high carbon ferrochrome and charge chrome as shown in Figure 1. Stainless steel being the leading consumer of ferrochrome, any change in the dynamics of the stainless steel industry impacts overall chrome ore demands significantly."

Jan 1, 2016

By W. H. Hodgson, A. R. Preston

"Improved rail production techniques provide new options for the rail user. Steelmaking improvements offer tighter composition control, lower oxide and sulphide counts, greater control of segregates and freedom from hydrogen problem s. New ultrasonic, laser and eddy current equipment gives printout information on surf ace flatness, straightness and internal condition. These have come along at a time when dramatic changes have occurred on the rail heat treatment scene. Rails can now be deep hardened on or offline in ways which should eventually result in a complete rewrite of the world&apos;s specifications. Rails of simple composition can be produced in the hardness range 2801400 BHN as required. The rail user can choose the hardness within this range according to requirement without the necessity for any step changes in the process routes.It is suggested that this is the pattern f or the next decade.IntroductionRails have been the subject of very slow improvement over many years but developments gathered momentum in the early seventies. Recent improvements in quality and properties have provided dramatic increases in rail life under the more severe service situations. Rail profile grinding, lubrication and other track improvements have greatly added to expectations of even longer life. All of this, coupled to even newer mill heat treatment developments, tilt both technical and economic advantages away from tradition to the point where specifications will need to be rewritten so that railroads can take full advantage of these new products."

Jan 1, 1988

By W. Haibei, Lei. Z., Z. Bangsheng, W. Yufang, J. Kaixi

In 2007 output of zinc was more than 3.71 million tons in China. Some new projects have finished FS and several new zinc plants are building now. In recent ten years it happened great changes in zinc industry. For zinc concentrates one pressure leaching plant was built with capacity 10,000t/a and at least four companies are carrying out FS or engineering design now. Direct atmospheric leaching will put into used in China in 2008 with capacity 100,000t/a. It is estimated that until 2010 the output of direct leaching will be 400,000t/a.

Jan 1, 2008

By Les Philips

National Institute for Safety and Health?s (NIOSH, USA) Office of Mine Safety and Mine Safety and Health (OMSHR) has definitions for: -Proximity Detection as detection of personnel, vehicles and other objects near a machine using some type of sensor technology -Proximity Warning (aka Collision Warning) as detection of personnel, vehicles and other objects near a machine resulting in alarms that ?Warn the operator only ?Warn the operator and nearby personnel (two-way) -Collision Avoidance as the processing of sensor information resulting in control signals or actions that alter machine status/movement to avoid a collision by ?Computer control ?Human control

May 1, 2013

By Esau Arinaitwe

The most extensively used methods and approaches for characterizing and selecting frothers for plant application are based on measurements in clean water in the absence of solids and without consideration of physicochemical factors that are known to influence the properties and behavior of practical flotation froths, and hence metallurgical performance. These factors include aquatic chemistry, collectors, modifiers, particle shape and size, and pH. Understanding interactions between these factors and the role and relevance that they play in characterizing frothers and froth zone properties will greatly aid in the frother selection and evaluation process. Such an understanding will also greatly enhance the ability to create frother solutions that are sufficiently robust to plant variability (such as mineralogical, comminution, operational, physical and chemical). This paper reports results of a “systems approach” study designed to probe ways in which physicochemical factors a) influence frothing and bubble size in 2- and 3-phase systems, and b) confound correlation of fundamental measurements with flotation outcome. The concepts and insights gleaned from fundamental frother studies, together with empirical laboratory flotation tests and a thorough understanding of plant needs and challenges were used to develop and implement customized frother formulation at a Cu-Mo flotation plant. Plant metallurgical data and qualitative assessment of froth zone properties showed that a frother formulation developed using the approach described here provided marked improvements in froth characteristics (mineralization, mobility, stability, persistence). These improvements resulted in better circuit control and significant performance advantages, such as improved coarse particle recovery, without detrimental downstream effects. INTRODUCTION Successful recovery of value minerals of sufficient grade via the flotation process requires selective manipulation of the value minerals to render them hydrophobic using collectors and modifiers. The hydrophobized minerals then attach to air bubbles and the mineral-bubble aggregates are selectively transported through the froth zone into the launder. Frothers play a critical role in froth formation and more importantly in achieving and maintaining desirable froth characteristics (for example, stability, mobility, persistence) that are essential in facilitating the selective transport and recovery of value minerals. Fundamentally, frothers contribute to the transient stability of thin liquid films and so aid in reducing bubble coalescence rates in the pulp and froth zones, thus maintaining the small bubbles required for efficient bubble-particle attachment. Invariably, the action of frothers at the liquid/gas interface in the pulp and froth zones impacts bubble stability, water and solids transport to the froth, which in turn impacts froth mobility, froth carrying capacity, and the concentrate grade. Consequently, selection and evaluation of frothers for flotation plants requires careful consideration of the frother type, though the choice is limited to only two main classes of compounds in terms of fundamental chemistry (short chain alcohols and polyglycols). Even with the selection of what is thought to be the best frother for a given application, practical knowledge of the froth zone and experience in controlling its properties is essential for maximizing metallurgical performance.

Jan 1, 2019

By H. W. Fleming

In 1955, the results of a regional, geological interpretation of the northern portion of New Brunswick were used as a basis for selecting, for intensive exploration, three areas in which structural and stratigraphic conditions were believed to be favourable. Airborne electromagnetic work, in one of these areas, provided the justification for acquiring the Murray group. Even though the initial results were discouraging, this geological interpretation, combined with the fortuitous discovery of cop• per-bearing float, was sufficient reason for carrying out further work using geochemical methods. This work finally resulted in the discovery of the Murray massive-sulphide deposit, after about eighteen months of coordinated exploration on the property. While this deposit is a typical New Brunswick-type base-metal occurrence, extensive leaching has produced a fossil gossan that rendered it an elusive target for exploration techniques of limited penetration Full credit for localizing the target area is given to the geochemical techniques, but geophysical surveys were needed to provide the necessary

Jan 1, 1961

By Y. -B. Kang

New databases are being developed to provide the capability to evaluate the suitability of present and potential new Mg alloys for automotive applications through cost-effective calculations. An extensive and complete thermodynamic database is being prepared for Mg alloys formed from among 25 present and potential alloying elements. The database is being developed by critical evaluation, modeling and optimization of available phase equilibrium and thermodynamic data. It contains model parameters giving the thermodynamic properties as functions of temperature and composition. Using the FactSage thermodynamic software, users can access the database to calculate the amounts and compositions of all phases at equilibrium at any temperature and composition or to calculate any phase diagram section in multicomponent alloys, to follow the course of equilibrium or non-equilibrium cooling, to calculate corresponding heat effects, etc. A database of densities and lattice parameters of Mg alloys and intermetallics (as functions of temperature and composition) is also being developed in order to permit the calculation of volume changes during cooling and phase transformations, c/a ratios of the hcp phase, etc.

Jan 1, 2006

By Robert B. Parsons

"No Canadian or his family is likely to escape the effects of proposals for pension reform tabled on October 9, 1986 by Finance Minster Michael Wilson. New tax rules are proposed for Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), company pensions, and other forms of retirement plans. Draft legislation is expected to be released in the first half of 1987.IntroductionOver two years ago on February, 15, 1984, Mark Lalonde, then Finance Minister, tabled two White Papers. The first, Action Plan for Pension Reform, proposed improvements to the public pension system and increases in the minimum pension benefits standards to be mandated by the federal government. Since then changes have been made to the Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and Canada Pension Plan programs. Also, benefits provided under pension plans subject to the federal Pension Benefits Standards Act have been improved significantly.The companion paper, Building Better Pensions f or Canadians, proposed to standardize and, in many cases, improve retirement savings through private plans by revising the tax rule s. The tax proposals in the Notice of Ways and Means released by Finance Minister Wilson on October 9. 1986 implement, with modifications, the tax treatment of retirement savings originally proposed in the May 1985 budget in response to that second paper."

Jan 1, 1987

By J. D. Galloway

The mining industry of British Columbia continues to grow steadily in importance. The gross value of the production in 1925, sixty-two and a half million dollars, was a record, and ali indications point to the 1926 output registering a still higher figure. In an industry such as mining, where production means the depletion of known ore reserves, the discovery and development of new &apos;ore-deposits is of the utmost importance. To maintain and increase production, steady development is essential. In this respect, the record of the last three years in British Columbia mining is most satisfactory, as in this period more real development has been carried on than in any similar period in the history of mining in the Province. Prospecting, or the search for new ore-bodies, has also been fairly active, but comparatively few important new discoveries have been reported in the past few years. The mineral output of British Columbia consists of Iode minerals, coat and coke, and building materials. In 1925 the value of the output of these three classes of products was, respectively, about 46, 13, and 3 million dollars. The industry as a whole embraces the mining of these materials, and the treatment and manufacturing processes involved in preparing the various products for the market.

Jan 1, 1926

By Jiahao Xu, Namsoo P. Kim, Guikuan Yue

Iron (ferrous ions and ferric ions) plays an important role in the heap leaching of copper sulfide minerals and copper electrowinning. In our previous study, a novel oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) equation only based on the variables of temperature and nominal ferric/ferrous ratio was developed to predict the redox potential of the quaternary H2SO4-Fe2(SO4)3-FeSO4-H2O system, and its applicability was also extended to more complex acidic iron sulfate solutions, especially those generated during the acidic leaching and bioleaching of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) to recover copper. In this work, the broader range of applicability of this equation to other complicated acidic iron solutions containing copper ions has been extended and determined. Specifically, synthetic iron-containing solutions with copper ions according to the conditions of industrial electrolyte during copper electrowinning and heap leaching have been used to measure the ORP and test the developed equation. It seems that this equation can still be employed to predict the redox potential of the Fe3+/Fe2+ couple for the simulated solutions under conditions related to copper electrowinning and pregnant leaching solution generated during heap leaching over a wide range of solution concentration, nominal Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio and temperature. It has shown that the prediction and measurement of redox potential is highly useful to estimate and understand the iron chemistry of industrial leaching and electrowinning processes. INTRODUCTION It is well-known that iron (ferric or ferrous) ions are widely involved in the hydrometallurgical production of non-ferrous metals such as Cu, Au and Zn, mainly in the form of acidic iron sulfate solutions. As far as Cu is concerned, in a typical leaching-solvent extraction-electrowinning process, ferric ion plays a central role in the heap leaching process and is reduced to ferrous ions in the pregnant leaching solution. Ferric ion is the most important surrogate oxidant and the dissolved ferric/ferrous couple plays an important catalytic role in accelerating the leaching rate with oxygen as an oxidant (Peters et al., 1986; Schlesinger, King, Sole, & Davenport, 2011). In addition, during the traditional electro-winning process, oxygen is evolved at the anode, and copper is reduced at the cathode. A common idea is that iron in the electrolyte in copper electrowinning cell (with total iron of 1–4.4 g/L) plays an important role in reducing the current efficiency. According to the published results (Winand et al., 1975; Dew et al., 1985; Moats et al., 2009; Khouraibchia et al., 2010), thecurrent efficiency decreases linearly with increasing ferric ion concentration and the energy consumption increase was mainly caused by the decrease in current efficiency.

Jan 1, 2019

By R. O. Loutfy, J. C. Withers

"Titanium powder is produced from a small fraction of sieved sponge, HDH of sponge or gas blown from a melt produced billet. Ore from foreign sources is chlorinated in a very high temperature fluid bed to make TiCl4, then vacuum distilled purified and then reduced to sponge by Kroll processing. Domestic ores of ilmenite or perovskite can be carbothermically reduced to Ti2OC which can be chlorinated at low temperatures of 250–400°C to produce TiCl4 which can be electrolyzed in a fused salt to Ti powder, or the Ti2OC used as an anode in electrolysis to produce Ti powder. The electrolysis process can be operated continuously to produce Ti powder at a lower cost than Kroll processed sponge including produce control size powder. Electrolysis processing was scaled up and operated at the commercial demonstration stage on a continued basis that verifies the potential of a low cost process to produce Ti powder.INTRODUCTIONTitanium and alloys of titanium powder have been elevated to strategic status resulting from a focus of producing meltless titanium components as well as a feed for additive manufacturing processing. However, the high cost of titanium powder has limited wide scale implementation of using titanium powder as a feed to any process to produce titanium components. Titanium powder free of alloying is available as sponge fines from the Kroll process as illustrated in Figure 1. Titanium alloy powder is much more expensive, also illustrated in Figure 1 produced from an alloy ingot or mil product as the feed and then transformed into powder by one of several melt form processes which accounts for the high cost of titanium alloy powder at approximately $60–150/lb. Ton lots of titanium alloy powder (i.e. Ti-6Al-4V) from one source is quoted at $120/lb. in the U.S. It appears that alloy powder production cost by current processing is not sensitive to volume."

Jan 1, 2016