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By M. B. McClenaghan

"Abstract- The Ontario Geological Survey completed a regional till sampling project between 1984 and 1988 in the Black River Matheson (BRiM) area of northeastern Ontario. The project was designed to aid mineral exploration in the area by documenting the Quatemary stratigraphy and by providing a database of till geochemistry. This paper summarizes the results from the sonic overburden drilling component of the BRiM project carried out in areas of thick drift (> 5 m). Results from till sampling in areas of thinner drift (<5 m) have been presented in a separate paper. Approximately 1100 till samples were collected from 225 sonic drill holes. For each sample, the non-magnetic heavy mineral (> 3.3 S.G.) and fine (-250 mesh) till fractions were analyzed geochemically and visible gold grains were recovered by panning.Gold and other multielement geochemical data were plotted using proportional symbols to high­ light anomalous areas and to demonstrate how to evaluate and interpret a very large geochemical dataset. Thresholds for identifying anomalous concentrations of Au in till samples, defined using the 95th percentile, are 1500 ppb and 12 ppb for the heavy mineral and fine fractions, respectively. The heavy mineral fraction of older tills and to a lesser extent, Matheson Till, display a number of significant gold anomalies in the study area, which in a few cases, are associated with base metal anomalies. The vertical position of gold anomalies in Matheson and older tills varies from directly on bedrock to several meters above the bedrock surface and can provide information of relative ice transport distances."

Jan 1, 1994

By John A. Teeter

"A SHORT WHILE AGO I enquired about The Mining Society of Nova Scotia. In all honesty I was apprehensive about addressing such a body if it was highly geared to the technical aspects of discovering and obtaining mineral resources. I was told that this would not be the case. Rather, there would likely be in attendance a broad cross section of people from business, industry and government and from across Canada and the U.S.A. Thus there would be an interest in a free-wheeling discussion of the prospects for industrial development in Cape Breton. Accordingly - being one who hates to miss an opportunity - I intend to exploit the invitation of your executive by being, over the next short while, frankly promotional. I would like to talk about what I consider to be some of the most important attributes of Cape Breton for industrial development and identify some of those prospects. Secondly, I will quickly review some of the things the Cape Breton Development Corporation is doing these days to stimulate some of that industrial development."

Jan 1, 1972

By L. Tafaghodi, A. Hosseinpour

"Silicon is considered as the most appropriate semiconductor material for manufacturing solar cells because of its natural abundance and being nontoxic. The transferable knowledge and technology from the electronics industry and the long history of silicon-based semiconductors are also assisting the domination of silicon as the most common semiconductor material. Developing an environmentally and economically viable process for producing solar grade silicon has been one of the main challenges in the silicon industry in the past few years. Metallurgical refining processes have received significant attention because of their high productivity and low cost. Slag refining is one of the purification methods which is based on oxidation of the impurity elements, followed by its dissolution into a slag phase. This article presents a review of various slag refining processes that have been employed for purification of silicon and silicon alloys. SiO2, CaO, CaF2, CaCl2, Al2O3, MgO and Na2O are the major components of the slags used for silicon refining. These slags can be classified into three main categories including binary, ternary and quaternary slags.INTRODUCTION Silicon can be categorized into three different grades based on its application or purity: metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) with purity of ~98 %, solar grade silicon (SoG-Si) with purity of ~99.99999 % and semiconductor grade silicon (SeG-Si) which has the purity of 99.9999999 % (Johnston & Barati, 2010; Krystad, Tang, & Tranell, 2012; Tang, Øvrelid, Tranell, & Tangstad, 2009). Producing SeG-Si is carried out through an energy-intensive and complicated process named Siemens. This purification process is relatively slow and involves using toxic and corrosive reagents (e.g. Trichlorosilane). At present the majority of SoG-Si is produced via Siemens or Siemens-like processes and there is very limited production via processes dedicated to SoG-Si. Because of the difference in silicon specifications required in microelectronics and photovoltaic industry, and the cost and energy associated with the Siemens process, an interest has emerged to develop technologies dedicated to producing low cost SoG-Si (Istratov et al., 2003; Johnston, Khajavi, Li, Sokhanvaran, & Barati, 2012; Mitrašinovic, D'Souza, & Utigard, 2012; Wu et al., 2012)."

Jan 1, 2017

By Michel Dostie

Un séchoir à vis chauffé par induction électromagnétique a été développé et implanté chez Mines Niobec pour le séchage d?un concentré de niobium. Ce séchoir a permis une réduction des émissions de poussières et des gaz à effet de serre de l?usine. Il offre une grande souplesse de contrôle, une meilleure efficacité énergétique et peut être utilisé pour le séchage de granulats, de poudres ou autres substances habituellement traitées dans un four rotatif ou à l?aide de vis chauffées par un caloporteur. Le principe de fonctionnement du séchoir est simple. Trois inducteurs opérant à la fréquence du réseau électrique assurent le chauffage des parties métalliques du séchoir, dont des vis qui servent à convoyer le matériel. Le contact du matériel avec les parties métalliques chaudes permet le transfert de l?énergie requise pour le séchage. La conception de ce type de séchoir requiert un équilibre adéquat entre les besoins associés au chauffage par induction et ceux liés au transfert de chaleur par contact et au transport du matériel dans le séchoir. Cette première implantation industrielle a nécessité des efforts de développements importants et une collaboration des différents intervenants. Une revue des principes de conception, des difficultés rencontrées et des performances obtenues sera présentée.

May 1, 2007

By Pierre St-Julien, Réjean Hebert, M. Racine, Roch Gaudreau, Pierre Lacoste, Michel Rocheleau

"Les unités volcano-sédimentaires de la ceinture de l'Abitibi à l’est de Val-d' Or ont été regroupées en quatre domaines litho tectoniques. Du nord vers le sud, nous reconnaissons les domaines d'Assup, de Garden lsland de Val-d' Or, de Trivio et de Villebon. Deux de ces domaines (Garden Island et Trivio) correspondent à des couloirs de déformation, d’envergure régionale et d’orientation approximative E-W. Les trois autres domaines sont caractérises par des volcanites defond océanique de type MORB (tholéiites et komatiites) qui sont en position inferieure; ces volcanites sont surmontées par des sédiments marins de type turbidite (domaine de Ville bon) ou évoluent dans le temps, soit vers un volcanisme bimodal d'affinités tholéiitique et calco-alcaline ( domaine d'Assup), soit vers un volcanisme d'arc insulaire (domaine de Val-d'Or). Il n'existe aucune certitude de corrélation litho stratigraphique entre les différents domaines et l'on doit considérer la possibilité que ceux-ci représentent l'accolage tectonique de terranes de nature et d'origine différente.Les principales caractéristiques structurales de la région sont regroupées en quatre étapes de déformation dont trois sont archéennes et la quatrième attribuée à l'orogenèse grenvillienne. Au moins cinq facies métamorphiques ont été reconnus: I) un facies régional faible propre à la province du Supérieur, 2) un facies de cornéennes a amphibole en périphérie du pluton de Pershing, 3) un facies hydrothermal dans la zone tectonique de Cadillac, 4) un facies régional moyen dans la zone de bordure de la province de Grenville, et 5) un facies régional élevé a l'intérieur de la zone structurale du front de Grenville.Le front de Grenville est défini dans la région par l’apparition subite des ortho gneiss au faciès métamorphique élevé et par la disparition du grain tectonique E-W. Le contact brusque entre les deux provinces pourrait correspondre à une zone de chevauchement de la province de Grenville sur la province du Supérieur. La région étudiée est l’hôte d’un gite majeur de sulfures massifs et de plusieurs gites et indices aurifères; elle présente des cibles favorables pour l’exploration minière dans le contexte tectonométa-morphique de l'influence grenvillienne. L'intérêt de la Formation de Val-d' Or pour les métaux de base et le potentiel aurifère des couloirs de déformation d'orientation approximative E-W, sont bien connus. Les structures grenvilliennes NE-SW, qui se développent vers l'est, représentent aussi des cibles intéressantes, en particulier dans les secteurs ou elles intersectent des cisaillements E-W kénoriens."

Jan 1, 1990

By Deborah A. McCombe

"One of the cornerstones of NI43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects is the technical report. The purpose of the report is to provide a summary of the scientific and technical information concerning mineral exploration, development, and production activities on a mineral property that is material to an issuer. The reports must be prepared in accordance with NI43101 and Form 43-101F1 Technical Report and the information must be current as of the date of the filing of the technical report. As these reports provide important information to the investing public, qualified persons preparing these reports should, as much as possible, write in plain, simple language that can be easily read and understood by people who are not geoscientists or engineers. So let’s review some of the common deficiencies with technical reports. Non-current technical report Some of the factors you should consider when determining if your previously filed technical report is still current are as follows: •,Is there new technical information on the property, such as drilling, assays, metallurgical testwork? •,Have you made changes to key assumptions, parameters relating to mineral resources or mineral reserves, or economic analysis? If you have completed the previously recommended work, are your recommendations still current? Similarly, are your report recommendations consistent with what you are telling your shareholders or disclosing in the use of proceeds in your offering documents? For example, if the recommendations in the report consist of further exploration and metallurgical test-work prior to completing a preliminary feasibility study and you have completed the proposed work and are now raising money for a final feasibility study, the report is probably not current."

Jan 1, 2003

By W. G. McBride

INTRODUCTION Preparation of this article, at the request of the Committee on papers, has been undertaken in the hope that it may stir up helpful discussion and constructive criticism. The Canadian mining industry is in the dumps and there is no use trying to deny the fact; nor does it help to say that other industries are in as bad or a worse condition. Let us face the situation honestly and see just how serious it is. The entire financial and industrial world is in a state of depression. The gravity of the case is no doubt exaggerated by contrast with the wave of optimism and false prosperity which pre-ceded it. The prevailing gloom and pessimism are just as irrational as was the former super-optimism. As far as we mining engineers are concerned, the causes are quite beyond our control, and it is the effect upon our own industry which interests us most. This effect is an accumulation of mineral products with consequent depression in price to a point where profits have almost, if not quite, disappeared. Whether this accumulation of stocks is the result of over-production or under-consumption is difficult to say, but it would seem likely that there is a combination of the two. The introduction of selective flotation has brought about a large increase in the production of zinc, a moderate increase in the production of lead, and a comparatively small increase in copper. It has turned relatively small mines into great producers, as in the case of the Sullivan, revived expiring mines like La Cananea, and brought-in new ones like Flin Flon

Jan 1, 1931

By G. Zárate, G. Tapia

Anglo American Chile has been doing copper concentrate leaching studies at the laboratory and small pilot plant scale since 1992. Among the processes evaluated are bacterial leaching and pressure leaching using Mantos Blancos, Salobo Project and Quellaveco Project concentrates. Late in the nineties, it was decided to focus the research on pressure leaching, either medium or total pressure oxidation. Preliminary scouting tests were run with Mantos Blancos concentrate samples during 2000, which were repeated during 2003 together with samples of Los Bronces and El Soldado concentrates, in order to define the most suitable concentrate for running a pilot plant campaign at AARL, which was carried out in two campaigns, a first one from November 2003 through January 2004 and a second one during April 2004. Mantos Blancos was the selected concentrate and the laboratory and pilot plant results are discussed in this paper together with some preliminary economic estimates.

Jan 1, 2004

By W. E. Oching, M. M. Ghomshei

Attracting and retaining workers in mining industry has become an uphill battle to many mining companies. As workers with significant experience retire, it is getting more difficult to attract not only new workers but also top talent to the mining industry to replace professionals exiting the workforce. To make matters worse, students’ enrolment in the post-secondary mining programs in Canada and USA is continuously declining year after year for reasons not directly linked to job market. This raises a question of how can the future needs of mining be met? This paper focuses on avenues for collaboration of industry and educational institutions to meet the current and future needs of mining. It provides effective approaches that mining institutes can engage with program advisory committees, role of the mining industry in supporting both faculty and students, how to harness the benefits of diverse workforce in the country and use of innovative technologies to attract young workers in mining. This work presents Human Resources (HR) professionals with tools that they can use to hire and retain skilled workers with strong interest to work in the mining industry. It also provides HR professionals with an opportunity to re-evaluate their restructuring practices during economic downturns as they reduce number of employees on temporary or permanent basis. The paper stresses the need of working together of the mining stakeholders including mining industry, academic institutions, First Nations’ communities and provincial(state) and federal governments to meet the current and future demands of mining as the industry experiences shortage of labour and low students’ enrolment in post-secondary mining programs. It is shown that mining educational institutes can enhance their programs and recruitments through establishing a better communication with all stakeholders. This communication can be facilitated by creating a national advisory board, to work with all mining programs at the national level for sustainable mining.

Jan 1, 2023

By Dalton Fowler

"Pressure vessels used in pressure leaching and pressure oxidation processes in the mining industry are often lined with acid resistant brick and membrane systems. Although the options available when it comes to selecting materials and linings designs for these vessels appear somewhat limited there are, nevertheless? several choices which must be made in order to successfully design, manufacture and construct these linings. These choices require careful evaluation of materials properties which include, among others, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, chemical swell, and modulus of elasticity, as well as a variety of construction methods.Some of the options available, and some of the means of evaluating them objective of this discussion."

Jan 1, 1999

By A. R. Harrington

BEFORE discussing some of the technical aspects of the steam generating plants of Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, Limited, it might be of interest to go back through history and see the development of steam generation in this public utility. Back around 1902 Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, Limited, had three slide-valve engines in-stalled at its Water Street, Halifax, generating station for a total capacity of 1,800 kilowatts. The plant remained at about this size until 1910 and in 1911 a 2,000 kilowatt steam turbine was installed to raise the total capacity of the plant to 3,800 kilowatts. In 1916, a 3,000 kilowatt turbine was installed and one of the slide-valve engines was removed to make a total plant capacity of 6,200 kilowatts. The total demand in the Company&apos;s service 8rea was at that time 4,000 kilo-watts.

Jan 1, 1958

By Dale A. Sketchley

The objective of Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs on advanced exploration projects is to ensure that data from sampling, assaying, and recording of geological observations are of high integrity for the purpose of obtaining reliable mineral resource and reserve estimates. National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects states that all scientific and technical reports must be prepared and certified by a Qualified Person in accordance with professional and industry standards following Mineral Exploration Best Practices Guidelines and Definitions, and Guidelines of the CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves. Additional information is given in Companion Policy 43-101CP and Technical Report Form 43-101F1. Although the Qualified Person must discuss and describe the Sampling Method and Approach; Sample Preparation, Analyses, and Security; and Data Verification; there is little specific information in the guidelines on Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs. Examples from the Oyu Tolgoi Cu-Au Project are given for optimizing sampling protocols, following proper sample preparation procedures, safeguarding sample shipments through chain of custody, ensuring quality of assaying with Round Robin monitoring programs, verifying transcribed data, and validating data with check assays to ensure high integrity for resource and reserve estimation. Oyu Tolgoi, also known as Turquoise Hill, is in the South Gobi desert, Mongolia, about 550 km south of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, and 875 km northwest of Beijing, China. The project covers a major copper-gold system, which consists of the South West, South, Central, and Far North deposits, comprising high sulphidation and porphyry mineralization with oxide, supergene, and hypogene ore types. Exploration is done by multiple diamond drill rigs, and samples are prepared on-site and shipped to laboratories in Mongolia, Canada, and Australia for further preparation and analysis.

May 1, 2003

By J. C. Nicholson

The "V" system was first introduced by the West Virginia Coal & Coke Company at their No. 9 mine, Norton. Norton is a small mining village on the B. & 0. railway, about seven miles from the town of Elkins. This year, accompanied by G. D. MacDougall, I visited this mine to obtain first-hand information regarding this modem system and to determine its adaptability to conditions in Nova Scotia. The following is a brief account of my observations. The seam that is being worked is known as the Lower Kittaning, which, at this point, has an average thickness of 7 feet. This includes a band of hard clay varying in thickness from 8 to 14 inches, which occurs about 2 feet from the pavement, also 8 inches of inferior coal at the roof. The latter is not recovered, which leaves to be mined about 5 1/2 feet of clean coal. The roof is slate and shale for the first 30 feet, followed by 40 to 60 feet of sandstone; the total cover is from 80 to 250 feet thick. The seam lies very flat, with a dip of only 2 per cent., and, as the dip is toward the main entrance, it&apos; is in favor of the load, also providing natural drainage for any water the mine makes. As the mine is not gassy, and there is no water to be pumped out, one can understand that mining conditions are practically ideal.

Jan 1, 1924

By A. B. Rossetti

"THE MISSION TO Offshore Scotland was in my opinion a very worthwhile venture, as it indicated the scope of the offshore oil and gas business and how we might exploit it to the fullest here in Nova Scotia - if our offshore fields eventually become producing fields. The writer was able to attend a considerable number of lectures and as a result gained some valuable know-how on the engineering design, financing and operation of the North Sea oil industry. There are many new fields of technology that had to be developed to overcome the North Sea's hostile environment and a great deal of the same technology will have to be developed to win oil and gas from our continental shelf. The visit left me with several impressions, which in the main are:(1) The high order of investment required to develop offshore oil. The investment ranges from 10 to 20 times that required for a similar output on land. Each barrel of oil costs on the average of about $2,- 500 per barrel per day.(2) Because of the high investments required, before the first oil is produced the field must be brought into production at the earliest possible date and initial lead time from decision to production is less than four years. In the British Petroleum field, working at a depth of 450 feet will require an investment of $900,000,000 to develop a production of 400,000 bbl per day. (3) The size and complexity of equipment required is beyond anything ever imagined. Problems which must be overcome are such factors as water depth, wind velocities, wave height, wave period, long periods of darkness, low temperatures, distance from land, and fog."

Jan 1, 1973

By CIM Mineral Resource, Mineral Reserve Committee

The CIM Mineral Exploration Best Practice Guidelines (the Exploration Guidelines) have been prepared to assist professional geoscientists and engineers to conduct consistently high-quality work in order to maintain public confidence. The Exploration Guidelines are meant to assist professional geoscientists and exploration practitioners in planning, supervising, and executing exploration programs. In Canada, there are generally two types of public resource reporting: “Disclosure”, as defined by NI 43-101, is the reporting of technical information to the public and market participants for securities legislation purposes where a Qualified Person (QP) must be involved, and reporting of exploration information for governmental agencies to support obligations under laws including the Mining Acts of each of the Provinces and Territories. The Exploration Guidelines are also relevant where the results will not be publicly reported but are intended for internal company use. While this document is intended as guidance for work conducted or supervised by geoscientists in Canada, many of the practices described herein can be adapted to mineral exploration activities in other countries. The Exploration Guidelines are not intended to inhibit original thinking, or to prevent the application of new approaches that may develop into fundamental components of successful mineral exploration programs. Rather than provide prescriptive solutions to specific issues, they include general guidelines for current professional practice and to demonstrate and defend the merits of new methods. These guidelines do not preclude individuals and companies from developing more detailed guidelines specific to their own requirements. The initial version of the Exploration Guidelines was prepared by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Exploration Best Practices Committee and adopted by CIM Council on August 20, 2000. On January 9, 2018, CIM Council formed a new committee, the Mineral Resources and Reserves Committee (CIM MRMR Committee) with a mandate to, among other things, update the Exploration Best Practice Guidelines. The mandate for the committee was accepted by CIM Council on March 2, 2018. The new document was adopted by the CIM Council on November 23, 2018.

Nov 23, 2018

By Per Hedvall, Jan-Eric Ståhl

"The main objective of this study is to introduce the new Sandvik’s production cost-model within Crushing & Screening (C&S) technology. So far, there have been different ways of determining different production costs in the industry, however, the previously published and presented methods have not been very efficient in calculating the costs per product and metric ton. Accordingly, the current study has been planned and started in collaboration with Lund University to provide an accurate and easy to implement cost estimation program to determine the costs for crushing and screening plants worldwide.The proposed model has been adapted to fit the C&S processes of different rocks/ores fractions. The result is presented as cost per ton of the end product(s).Within this paper the cost estimation results for 3 different crushing and screening plants are presented based on the information obtained from the following sources: a) documents at Sandvik SRP, b) Sandvik’s crushing & screening internal/external machines/plants data and information, c) literature studies, including the use of Sandvik’s internal/external simulation and software programs, d), visiting the crushing and screening plants ,e) interviews, information systems’ data, and, f) testing and observations by ourselves.In order to improve the level of accuracy and the validity of the attained results, simplistic Monte-Carlo simulations have been used, where needed. The achieved results, so far, have proven the reliability of the model. The calculated cost estimations have shown an accuracy over 80% when they compared with real cost data obtained from plant practices.The current cost calculation model, will offer the possibility of:•,Calculating the production costs in proposed and/or existing C&S plant.•,Making detailed cost analyses for the end product(s) in proposed and/or existing C&S plants.•,Determining the profitability of each finished product when it’s required.•,Cost optimization by potentially cutting the cost for part of C&S plant with an existing plant practice"

Jan 1, 2016

By D. N. Madge

The use and development of industrial process control computers in the mineral industry during the 1970&apos;s has been sluggish. This cautious approach is due to lack of commitment by senior management. The lack of commitment is due to several reasons: variable mineral processes and technologies, market fluctuations, and excessive costs and inadequacies of applicable products supplied by computer vendors.

Jan 1, 1979

By Gordon E. Forward

Sustainable development in the mining and metallurgical industrial sectors can be implemented by two distinct groups: 1. The managers and operators of existing facilities ? working with industrial processes and systems that have been operating for many years, in some cases several decades 2. Those who are engineering and building new facilities or upgrades of existing plants. The focus of this paper is to look at approaches and tools available to bring sustainable development thinking and action to these two distinct areas. The paper will discuss: 1. The concept of working with existing facilities and processes to minimize waste and maximize product from a regional raw material/resource consumption perspective using By-product Synergy. The BPS concept has been carried out in Texas (TXI-Chaparral?s STAR Example), in Calgary, Alberta with Suncor assistance, in Montreal, Quebec with Noranda as project leader and currently in Ontario with Dofasco as industry champion. Successful outcomes are presented. 2. A new approach to designing greenfield facilities or upgrades to existing plants using a sustainable development review process. Undertaking the review early in every project can institutionalize the concept of discussing and implementing waste elimination, design for environment, eco-efficiency, risk minimization and community awareness and involvement in the future capital stock. The review process has been developed as an excellent tool for measuring and reporting on a corporation?s sustainable development progress. Examples of how this approach has been adopted in the mining and metallurgical industry, and the resultant outcomes are given.

May 1, 2002

By Peter Moser, Thoma Oberndorfer

"Within the research project “Mine Development” (Fettweis and Moser, 1990) a PC-based mine database has been built up since 1991 and so far includes detailed technical and economic data of about 150 under-ground hardrock mines in industrialized countries worldwide. These data represent about 50% of the underground hardrock mines in west and central Europe, Scandinavia, United States, Canada and Australia (Fig. 1). The mining operations included in the database have been visited directly and analyzed with respect to their deposit conditions, their general design and layout and also their operational and economic performance.The main aim of the Mine Database is to make a contribution to an improved planning of new underground hardrock mines. An analysis of current mine planning practices shows, that both personnel and company experience is still a dominant factor in planning new underground hardrock operations. Through the information included in the Mine Database the experience of a single per-son or company is supplemented by the experience of a wider group of people. The Mine Database makes the huge amount of experience that is available worldwide in the field of under-ground mining accessible for new mining projects. From that a contribution to a more reliable mine planning procedure based on the performance of existing mining operations is expected.In addition to its use in planning new mining operations, the Mine Database can con-tribute to the exchange of technical data among different mining operations, especially on equipment performance, etc. Such an information service is offered by the Department of Mining Engineering & Mineral Economics in Leoben and is already being used by different mining companies. To respect proprietory information, company specific information is not released under any circumstances.The cost of building up the Mine Database, so far, is about US$500.000 — two thirds of which is labour, and one third, travel."

Jan 1, 1996

By Gary M. Poxleitner

Skip/Hoist ?Vertical Advantage of Hoist ?High capital ?High operating cost Trucks Trucks ?Flexibility of ramp ?Low capital ?High operating cost Conveyor Inclined High capital ?Low Cost to run ?Continuous Production ?High Capacity ?Transfer pointsMax Grade: +32%

Feb 1, 2008