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By Rebecca Hardy

The escalating demand for coal, in addition to the steady depletion of reserves, has produced increasingly difficult mining conditions for coal mining companies within the United States, resulting in mining above or below previously mined areas. The safe and productive extraction of coal in a multiple seam environment requires specific design technology for effective mine planning. Presently, one of the most useful design approaches for multiple-seam feasibility analysis is using numerical modeling techniques. Therefore, numerical modeling programs LaModel 2.1 and Lam2D were used to determine the feasibility of mining the Herrin (No. 6) coal seam over an existing room-and-pillar mine in the Springfield (No. 5) coal seam in the Illinois Basin.

Jan 1, 2006

By Roy McKinstry, Mark Rantapaa, Thomas Bolles

"More efficient drilling and blasting techniques have shown measurable improvements in throughput at the Barrick Goldstrike wet grinding mill.A decrease in throughput at the autoclave, due to increasingly hard ore, was identified in early 2002. A team of individuals from the Open Pit and Process areas participated closely on the Drill-to-Mill (D2M) Continuous Improvement initiative to ensure that it would address the needs of both groups, with the target of improving throughput in future years, despite the projected harder ores. Plant studies were conducted to determine if adjustments to drilling and blasting could positively influence throughput. At the Goldstrike mill the greatest opportunity from the D2M initiative is realized on the hardest ore. Grinding throughput for softer ore, <15 kWh/st, can meet or exceed the downstream pressure oxidation requirements. Grinding throughput for harder ore, >15 kWh/st, is limited by the SAG milling capacity. Better fragmentation in the D2M ore, as demonstrated by image analysis, increased throughput 5% to 10% (25 to 50 stph) compared to the standard mining methods.Better fragmentation and a subsequent increase in mill throughput were achieved through the use of:1) Electronic caps for more precision and flexibility, as well as for allowing extremely fast shots.2) Explosives with a higher velocity of detonation (VOD), to provide for improved shock energy.3) Improved distribution of the explosives by decreasing pattern spacing.INTRODUCTIONThe Barrick Goldstrike Open-Pit group, along with the Process division, began experimenting with novel blasting technology and techniques to improve mill throughput in the spring of 2001. A series of tests were developed to determine if fragmentation and ultimately mill throughput could be influenced by optimizing the drilling and blasting program in known"

Jan 1, 2004

By M. Natarajan, C. J. Cutler, E. Mponda

Keywords: Pyrometallurgy, furnace, KCM Nkana, Zambia The Nkana smelter was initially commissioned in 1931, with two reverberatory furnaces, two Peirce-Smith converters, and blister copper casting facilities. Reverberatory furnaces were the mainstay of production up until 1994, when an El Teniente Converter (CT) was installed to upgrade reverberatory furnace matte to white metal, prior to converting in conventional Peirce-Smith (PS) converters. In 2000, a decision was taken to increase the proportion of concentrate smelted in the CT by introduction of bone-dry concentrate injection through the tuyeres. A flash dryer with a nominal capacity of 1 200 metric tons per day of dry product, and associated tuyere injection system was commissioned in March 2004. Based on the projected concentrate arisings from the KCM mines into the future, as seen in 2004, it was decided to develop the CT to be the primary smelting vessel at Nkana, to handle a minimum of 1 250 tons per day of concentrate, and to operate only one reverberatory furnace in slag-cleaning mode pending a full evaluation of alternative slag-cleaning technologies. The anticipated cathode production from Nkana was to be in the range 140 to 150 000 tons per annum. This paper details the outcomes from trials that were carried out in August and September 2004, using two reverberatory furnaces for slag cleaning. The results of these trials, plus further work in October and November, provided confidence to move to one reverberatory furnace for slag cleaning in December 2004. With the advent of Vedanta as the majority shareholder in KCM at the end of 2004, the approach has been to maximize the available smelting capacity. Currently, two reverberatory furnaces and the CT are on-line, with the higher silica concentrates going to the reverberatory furnaces with an appropriate amount of pyrite, and the cleaner concentrates going to the CT. Expansion of the smelter is currently under investigation.

Jan 1, 2006

By E. C. Westman

Anomalous geologic or stress-induced conditions can create a hazardous working environment for underground miners. Seismic attenuation tomography provides a valuable tool for understanding static and dynamic conditions induced by mining. As a longwall shearer cuts coal, it generates seismic energy. As this energy travels through the rock mass it is attenuated in a manner proportional to the degree of fracturing of the rock mass. By calculating this attenuation at specific locations underground, the degree of fracturing of the rock mass, and hence the relative stress state or material properties can be inferred. The goal of this work has been to create a tool which can be easily used by the mining industry to obtain information about the distribution of stress concentrations or material properties across a broad area in advance of mining.

Jan 1, 1996

By Dave Rose, Jacques McMullen

"The Detour Lake mine is located 200 km northeast of Timmins, Ontario, Canada.The mill processes a free milling gold ore using both a gravity circuit and leaching with a state-of-the-art carbon-in-pulp circuit. The grinding circuit is a conventional SABC circuit with a tonnage of 55,000 tpd at 95 microns with the addition of pre-crushing upstream of the SAG mill.The Detour Lake mine has one of the largest gyratory crusher in the world (60"" x 113"") and over the years, many improvements have been made to this crusher with the result of improving plant throughput. This paper will present how choke feeding the gyratory crusher has been found to be one of the main influences on crusher product particle size and plant throughput. It will explain how the effect of choke feeding the gyratory was measured and from that, the various changes made to improve choke feeding of the gyratory crusher.IntroductionOre is hauled from the open pit mine and dumped directly into a single 60"" x 113"" primary gyratory crusher. The live capacity of both the feed and discharge hoppers of the gyratory crusher are designed for two (2) truck loads each, assuming a nominal payload of 300 tonnes per truck. The surge bin under the primary crusher feeds an apron feeder that controls the ore feed rate at approximately 4,200 tph onto a 227 metres long x 1.52 metres wide belt conveyor with a nominal capacity of 4,200 tph.The primary crusher is operated at an open side setting of 172 millimetres to produce a F80 feed to the secondary crushing circuit of 135 millimetres."

Jan 1, 2017

By C. Laughton

Construction of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory(DUSEL) is proposed under the auspices of the US National Science Foundation(NSF). DUSEL will provide scientists and engineers with a research facility capable of supporting a broad spectrum of fundamental and applied research deep in the earth’s crust. Research partners are physicists, biologists and geoscientists. DUSEL research calls for the construction of a network of shafts, tunnels and caverns that will provide laboratory facilities at depths of up to approximately 2 kilometers. The Project is still in the planning stages but, the initial experimental program is taking shape and conceptual designs have already been developed at two hard rock mine sites. This paper discusses the overall program and key engineering tasks being developed to support the construction of deep, large-span caverns. These caverns will house a new generation of physics experiments. As currently scoped, the experiments call for the excavation of permanent caverns with spans of up to 60 meters, sited at depths in excess of a kilometer.

Jan 1, 2007

By A. Mazhary, T. Huff

Sensor-based ore sorting technology is a growing area of interest due to lower-grade ore deposits and higher costs of processing, among other reasons. Among the sensors currently utilized in the particle sorting industry, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), as the only sensor with elemental analysis capabilities, has always attracted more attention. Currently, the bench-scale amenability tests for this sensor are performed using hand-held XRF analysers. However, this testing method overestimates the performance of the XRF sorter, and therefore, the results from these tests can be misleading and are often mispresented. The work presented here was conducted on a copper mine and investigates how the sensor’s sensitivity to copper deteriorates under different testing methods. This work compares and correlates the results of an Olympus hand-held XRF analyser, static, and dynamic sorter responses with the actual grades of the rocks. The results confirmed that, the sorter response was extremely prone to blind spots. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that although the static sorter’s responses were comparable in terms of rock identification to those of the hand-held XRF analyzer and assays, the accuracy of the dynamic sorter response deteriorated both as a function of grade of the rocks as well as the potential for blind spots. INTRODUCTION Sensor-based sorting technology has been gaining increasing attention even by larger mining corporations as ore grades decrease, deposits get deeper and therefore cost of mining and processing increases. There are various types of sensors that are currently being used in the particle sorting industry such as X-Ray Transmission (XRT), Color, Electromagnetic (EM), Near-Infrared (NIR) and others. However, none of the sensors are capable of identifying and quantifying particles by the elemental content, except for X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). XRF is a non-destructive, surficial analytical technique used to measure elemental composition of materials. X-ray fluorescence happens when a secondary x-ray (fluorescence) is released after a sample is bombarded by a primary x-ray source. From a sorting perspective, the most common and expected issues that are associated with XRF sorting are lower throughputs compared to other sensors due to particle presentation limitation as well as the need to wash the material before introducing to the sorter. However, one important issue that is mostly neglected is how the amenability tests are performed and how realistic the obtained results are. Current amenability test procedure utilises a handheld XRF analyser (such as an Olympus InnovX, as used in this work) on multiple, generally 4, sides of the rock and uses the average measured grade as a criterion for separation. While this is a widely accepted technique, it fails to consider some important factors such as exposure time and the distance between the sensor and the particle. These factors can significantly affect the sorting outcome.

Jan 1, 2019

By Philip J. Daynes

As part of the regeneration of the centre of Dublin, a multi-functional development is being constructed on the site of the historic Smithfield Fruit Market. The site is being developed in three phases, and includes one of the deepest basements (10m) constructed in Ireland to date. Until the recent improved economic climate, there has been little requirement for deep basements in Dublin, and this is the first to be constructed entirely within fluvio-glacial gravels and boulders. The difficult ground conditions led to the adoption of a diaphragm wall solution to ensure a watertight construction. Tie-back anchorages are utilised in the temporary case, and the wall is propped by floor slabs in the permanent case. Where required by high bedrock levels, the diaphragm wall is dowelled into limestone bedrock to ensure toe stability. The recorded lateral movement of the wall is significantly below that calculated by numerical analysis. Temporary bentonite cut-off walls were installed to divide the site into discrete sections. The basement was constructed as a tanked structure, and is subject to uplift water pressure. Passive tension minipiles provides an innovative alternative to the standard stressed anchorage solution. This paper describes:- design and construction aspects of the diaphragm wall, tie-back anchorages, and anti-flotation minipiles, together with recorded lateral wall movements,

Jan 1, 2003

The Development of a Non-Roasting Technology for Polymetallic Gold and Silver-Bearing Sulfide Concentrates Treatment

Sep 13, 2010

By B Murphy

Traditionally comminution optimisation has been focused on energy minimisation, whereas flotation optimisation has been focused on recovery improvement. One of the largest, if not the largest, operating cost over the life of a flotation circuit is electrical energy. With increasing pressure on operators to lower production costs and the cost of energy increasing, reducing the energy consumption of the flotation circuit can be beneficial to site economics. This paper reviews the use of energy by mechanically agitated flotation machines and discusses the measurement and benchmarking of energy consumption in modern flotation concentrators. Opportunities for improving flotation energy efficiency are also identified.CITATION:Murphy, B, 2013. Flotation energy consumption and opportunities for improvement, in Proceedings MetPlant 2013 , pp 399-412 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 15, 2013

By Oliver Bowles

Accidental explosions in coal mines are due to various causes, but many of them can be directly attributed to coal dust; others that probably in no way depend on dust as a primary cause are propagated, greatly intensified, and made more disastrous by the presence of coal dust. The fact that coal dust in a bituminous mine will explode as a result of a fire-damp explosion has been generally accepted for many years, but the belief has also been held by many that coal dust is not in itself dangerous when unmixed with an explosive gas. Therefore, in past years little attention was given to dust in mines free from fire damp, and many disastrous explosions have resulted from lack of knowledge of the danger from coal dust. In the explosives gallery and experimental mine of the Bureau of Mines experiment station, Pittsburgh, Pa., it has been proved repeatedly and conclusively that coal dust will explode violently when no inflammable gas is present. PROPAGATION OF DUST EXPLOSIONS A coal-dust explosion is an extremely rapid burning or combustion of the coal particles. Their burning consists essentially of the combination of the hydrocarbons in the coal with the oxygen of the air, a process that generates heat and flame and produces hot gases and water vapor. These gases and vapors have a volume many times that of the original coal particles; thus they exert an outward motion and pressure which constitute the explosive wave. When fine particles of coal are suspended in the air, each particle is surrounded by the oxygen of the air, and thus is well placed to oxidize or burn rapidly whenever the temperature is high enough. If some particles are ignited from any cause they will fire others, and the combustion will extend from particle to particle with extreme rapidity wherever enough coal dust of sufficient purity is present.

Jan 1, 1925

By Howard Roscoe

Linking Ashford International Station to the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link required over 5000 rotary bored and CFA (continuous flight auger) piles to form tunnel walls and viaduct foundations and to support overbridges and trackside barriers.. Much of the work was carried out close to the existing railway infrastructure. Plunged columns were used to maintain traffic flows over the tunnel site during construction. The results of an extensive programme of vertical and lateral load tests on bored and CFA piles in heavily overconsolidated Weald Clay are compared to illustrate the relative importance of stress relief and of prolonged exposure to bentonite. The completion on schedule of this major piling and ground engineering contract (value £30 million) demonstrates that collaborative working in partnership produced cost effective solutions to a series of challenging technical and logistical problems.

Jan 1, 2002

"Rock falls involving a relatively small amount of material are a leading cause ofinjuries in underground mines in the United States. A contributing factor is unwantedblast damage and over-break. A goal of the United States National Institute forOccupational Safety and Health is to reduce the number of ground fall-related accidents by improving drift driving practices through the introduction of perimeter control blast designs. This paper presents a blast design technique based on a hydrodynamic method. Using commonly available explosive and geometry data, the theoretical particle velocity is calculated as a function of distance away from a cylindrical charge. A calibration factor is introduced to account for actual conditions by comparing the predicted values to a set of field data. The calibrated curve can then be applied for design. The paper introduces modifications to account for different explosives from those used in a calibration test. The application of the approach is demonstrated with respect to a data set from a large-scale concrete block test."

Jan 1, 2009

In choosing such a threadbare subject for a paper I fear that I may in some measure be taxing your patience, yet as upon the accuracy with which the work is done depends the result of conclusions drawn as to whether a property will be profitable to work or otherwise. The subject cannot be too well threshed out, and I trust that upon certain points that have come within my own experience I may be able to give &apos;hints that will prevent others from making mistakes. First as to alluvial. Gold is often found from the grass roots down, often ill particular horizontal bands in the wash, but more generally concentrated either on a true or false bottom. When sampling dry ground for proposed hydraulicing I have obtained accurate results only by taking the whole of the dirt from measured shafts, stacking it as it was lifted on a tarpaulin, and putting the whole quantity through a carefully constructed box. In wet ground careful borings will in most cases give fairly correct results, but where it is possible to sink shafts, that should be done, as a guide is then also obtained as to the nature of the wash, whether it is bouldery, cemented, or free. Sampling in a face is a more difficult work in many respects than in new ground, as so many elements enter into action to spoil accurate sampling. Of course the great thing to avoid is sampling in any place where either natural or artificial concentration has taken place, and very much has to be left to circumstance and the sampler&apos;s own judgment. In passing I may mention that I have on several occasions seen diggers deceive themselves in wet ground where they were sinking and coping as best they might with water. They would take a dish of dirt from the bottom of their hole, pan it off, and take the result as a fair yield, and on the strength of it perhaps spend a lot of time and money in tail races and whereas in their sample there had been a process of concentration carried on, the movement and working in the water had caused the gold to work down, and anything like accurate estimations by the method pursued were out of the question.

By S. Sunkavalli

Acid rock drainage (ARD) is produced when sulfides are exposed to oxygen and water. Oxidation reactions typically result in a depression of pH and leaching of solutes and metals. Many oxidation models have been developed based on oxygen diffusion, but in environments with high permeability, other transport processes (i.e., convection and advection) can play an important role. Multiple sulfide mineral phases with differing oxidation rates should also be incorporated. WROC, a finite-difference model, was developed to account for these factors in predicting ARD. The program includes sulfide mineral oxidation using a shrinking core mechanism, heat transfer by conduction, heat of reaction, and oxygen transport by diffusion and advection. The model was validated using data from the literature. After validation, the WROC model was used to simulate several different waste rock scenarios including different forms of sulfide mineralization and the effect of implementing a waste rock cover. The results demonstrate that including specific sulfide mineral phases can have a significant effect on oxidation and that implementation of a cover can also aid in reducing waste rock oxidation. Key words: Arsenic sulfides, oxidation, shrinking core, waste rock, oxygen transport

Feb 27, 2013

By R. V. Ramani

The industrial hygiene and safety aspects with internal combustion engines in mining systems is truly interdisciplinary and encompasses many fields such as mine ventilation, exhaust gas and particulate analyses, mine atmospheric environment monitoring, mathematical modeling of generation, dilution and dispersion of pollutants in ventilation systems, and engine testing and approval. This bibliography, therefore, is a compilation of references from interdisciplinary sources pertaining to diesels and related areas. Related areas are defined as those concerned with: (i) mine ventilation system design and operation; (ii) description, measurement, modeling and monitoring of mine atmosphere contaminants, and (iii) tests, standards, selection procedures, and operational practices for internal combustion engines in underground mines. References cited from source materials span the years 1900 to early 1977. Total number of references cited is 511. Subjective criteria governed the definition and selection of references. Therefore, this bibliography is not claimed to be all-inclusive nor does it purport to be an exhaustive search of all sources.

Jan 1, 1977

This paper describes the methods of constructing timber barricades against pillars of ore in the South Mine, property of Broken Hill South Limited, Broken Hill, N.S.W., and discusses the behaviour of the various types of barricade alongside trucked sand filling and hydraulic stowed sand filling.Since the introduction of hydraulic stowing, cut and fill and overhand square letting methods have been used in mining the pillars. Such methods could not be used where the pillars had failed badly. The filling used is partially deslimed concentrating millresidue containing among other gangue minerals, calcite and a small amount of pyrrhotite and pyrite.The author is indebted to the mine superintendent of Broken Hill South Limited for permission to publish this paper.OLD METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING BARRICADES.Square Set Stopes.Before filling each stope the outer row of legs was lined inside with 10 in. x 2 in. boards spaced 2 in. apart. It was usual to tie the row of legs and caps together with timber dogs. As the space between the barricade and ground varied from nil to several feet, it was general practice to fill behind the lining boards. No provision was made to retain this sand during subsequent pillar stoping, consequently a run of sand right up the barricade could cause adilution of ore and serIOUS dIstortion of the barricade.

Jan 1, 1946

By Floyd Varley

In deep and highly-stressed coal mining, advanced design practices are used to minimize the potential for damaging events to occur. Despite these design efforts, the hazard of coal mine bumps can not be completely eliminated. This paper will review current and historic work practices used internationally to minimize the hazard to miners from mining in conditions which could produce a bump. These site specific work practices have a common base in monitoring for conditions which could result in a bump and application of controls to prevent the occurrence or minimize the severity of an event where miners are working. Monitoring practices range from purely observational to semi quantitative. Control methods attempt to initiate events in a controlled manner, absorb the energy of a potential event or reduce the potential for or magnitude of an event by altering the stress conditions of the mine workings. Building from the experiences of other coal fields, an empirical framework to manage the potential hazard of coal mine bumps can be developed to enhance the level of safety provided by prudent mine design.

Jan 1, 2008

By Donald E. Redmon

Industrial engineering departments perform staff duties and are most effective when sincerely supported by management. In accordance with the needs and desires of the mining companies involved, various industrial engineering functions have been adopted widely at western metal mines during the period 1950-60. Newly organized departments usually conduct method and equipment studies, work-measurement programs, and establish and maintain production standards. Supervisor-training programs and courses are effective in showing the relationship between supervisory responsibility and the purpose for which industrial engineering is practiced. Industrial engineering staffs of western metal mines are composed predominantly of personnel from within the companies. Experienced industrial engineers, not necessarily experienced in mining, frequently are hired by a company to help establish the department. Management consultants frequently are called upon to advise management and instruct department personnel in industrial engineering practices. Some departments have developed satisfactory industrial engineering programs without benefit of formal industrial engineering training or advice.

Jan 1, 1962

By Sterling J. Anderson

Through the use of nondestructive testing techniques, the Bureau of Mines is pursuing a goal of improving the efficiency of the rock excava-tion process. Toward this end, 44 laboratory tests were conducted to identify a practical method of monitoring fracture development in rock, as caused by an excavation tool. An acoustic emission CAE) transducer was used to monitor the test samples as they were loaded. The signal from this instrument was recorded in real time along with the radial and axial loads generated by the fracturing device. Through the review of these signals on a common-time base, it was possible to see the relationship between the developing fracture and the loading conditions. As a part of the posttesting investigations, samples that were pletely fractured were sawn and ground to expose the fractures. examination of these samples allowed approximations to be made incom-Visual of the total surface created. Surface area approximations were also made for the completely fractured samples. Quantitative analyses· of the AE signals were conducted for comparisons with the calculated surface areas.

Jan 1, 1987