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By Marvin P. Barnes

An attempt has been made to compile and code geologic data relating to twenty of the major porphyry copper districts of North America in such a manner as to permit the use of modern electronic digital computers to retrieve, compare, and build statistical mathematical models from the input. In the exploration process as part of his broader efforts to evaluate the potential of some prospective region, district, or ore body, the experienced geologist consciously or subconsciously compares and fits the observed geologic features to similar phenomena associated with known ore bodies with which he is acquainted. Thus an adequate conceptual "model" of the total geologic environment and type of ore body sought is an essential requirement for the successful exploration effort. Numerous such models of porphyry coppers already exist in the minds and notes of many experienced geologists today. These models are, of necessity, couched largely in qualitative terms and though they may be quite definite in the mind of the porphyry copper expert, the total concept of what constitutes a porphyry copper deposit and environment is difficult to convey in very precise terms. There probably is no such thing as a typical porphyry copper deposit. However, it is well understood that most of the deposits that have been studied have many geological characteristics in common. A logical question then might be: What characteristics are most common or how often do they occur in common, and what is their relationship to other common characteristics ?

Jan 1, 1970

By G. Deschênes

Silver minerals are known to have slow leaching rates and low overall extraction and require a high concentration of cyanide and a long retention time to maximize leach extraction. Their response to cyanidation is considered mild to moderately refractory, largely due to complex mineralogical compositions. New research on improving the dissolution of silver minerals in cyanide was performed using high-purity minerals, as well as a high-grade ore sample from the Kupol property, owned 75% by Kinross Gold. The high-purity silver minerals studied in the leach investigations included acanthite, stephanite and pyrargyrite, which were also the predominant silver minerals in the Kupol ore sample. Dissolution of silver from acanthite produced only 37% extraction in 48 hours of leaching with 500 ppm NaCN. Analysis of the leached acanthite surface showed appreciable formation of polysulfide species, which can interfere with silver leaching. Adding lead nitrate into a pretreatment stage increased the acanthite silver extraction to 86.2%. No polysulfide species were formed with the addition of lead nitrate from the surface analysis. Cyanidation of stephanite and pyrargyrite produced very low dissolutions of silver, only 12.6% and 10.4%, respectively, in the absence of lead nitrate. Silver extraction from stephanite improved to 98% by adding lead nitrate directly to the leaching stage, whereas pyrargyrite required a pretreatment with lead nitrate to extract 83.2% Ag. With the addition of lead nitrate, the mineral surfaces had a PbO species and minor amounts of Pb(OH)2 and antimony was oxidized on the stephanite and pyrargyrite surfaces during leaching. There was a much greater concentration of Sb(V) on stephanite relative to pyrargyrite. Therefore, lead forms a redox couple on silver mineral grains and favors the oxidation of silver minerals. The high-grade Kupol sample assayed 22.6 g/t Au and 359.3 g/t Ag following treatment by gravity separation. Gold and silver extractions from the Kupol sample were 94.5% and 82.9%, respectively, using 500 ppm NaCN and 250 g/t lead nitrate. The findings to improve the extraction of silver from the ore sample with lead nitrate addition were congruent with those to improve the extraction of silver from the individual high purity minerals. Pretreatment did not, however, improve gold or silver extraction significantly with the ore sample.

Jan 1, 2011

By Victoria Vaccarezza, Corby Anderson

The demand for rare earth elements for everyday technology and applications has initiated much research into the extraction and recovery of these rare earth elements. An otherwise unknown group of minerals, eudialyte is a zircon silicate consisting of rare earth oxides (REO), contained in a unique mineral structure and represented by a complex chemical formula. Research into extraction and recovery of rare earth elements involves various beneficiation and hydrometallurgical techniques. The goal of beneficiation being to efficiently liberate and upgrade the REO content, followed by hydrometallurgy to extract the desired elements. This overview will discuss previous research on treating eudialyte group minerals via different mineral processing and extraction techniques.

By O. A. Orumwense

The liberation of intimately disseminated impurities from the coal matrix often demands that the material be ground to a high degree of fineness. Similarly, some technologies for coal utilization require superfine particles (i.e., sizes less than ten microns). This implies additional costs for coal preparation plants due to the high energy and media costs associated with fine grinding operations. Besides, there are problems such as sever product contaminations due to media wear and impairment of the quality of coal. Hence, proper choice of grinding media type is important from the viewpoints of cost reduction and product quality.

Jan 1, 1993

By James Wm. White

Computer-based mine management systems are being used in many surface mines to assign haul trucks, track equipment and manage information. Advances in digital communications allow these systems to be used in underground operations. Underground mine management systems help maximize production by providing gains in equipment and manpower use, drawpoint equalization in block caving operations, preventive maintenance and safety. Current systems use allocated or "locked" train and load-haul-dump (LHD) dispatching. Allocated dispatching rarely optimizes open pit product' on. But it offers an efficient mode of operation underground and where options are more limited. The primary objectives of underground mine management systems are to maximize production and mini¬mize contention time through allocated train, truck or LHD dispatching, traffic control, equipment monitoring and comprehensive reporting. The main components of an underground mine management system include: ? A central computer (personal computer or worksta¬tion) in a central control center. It sends instructions to train, truck or LHD drivers and allows dispatcher interaction. ? A field computer system (FCS). This consists of a touch-screen graphics console (GC) and mobile hub - on each train, truck or LHD to receive and display instructions from the central computer and accept driver input. ? A data radio network based on leaky feeder (data, voice, video) or microcell radios (data only) and advanced token-ring technology. This passes information between the central computer and the FCSs. ? Radio frequency (RF) tags mounted at boxes, weigh bridges, tips and rim tunnel main haulage ways to locate trains or LHDs (Luke, 1993). Such a management system must be in place before implementing computer-based dispatching (Vagenas, 1991) for production optimization.

Jan 1, 1997

By Corby G. Anderson, Sheikh Abdul Rezan Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Sanjith Udayakumar, Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Noor, Teuku Andika Rama Putra

Chemical and mineralogical characterization of Malaysian monazite, a phosphate mineral, bearing rare earth elements separated from the tin tailings originated from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, was performed in this paper. The study aims to collect detailed information on the chemical composition, crystal phases, and microstructure of the mineral monazite concentrate that would aid to optimize the subsequent hydrometallurgical processes for high-efficient separation of thorium and other associated rare earth elements. A systematic characterization study of the concentrate was conducted using techniques such as optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). These techniques analyzed the morphological details on the surface, elemental analysis, and mineral association assessment and identified the surface functionalization groups. The bulk composition and the mineral phases in which the elements are present were studied by wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies respectively. The XRF analysis confirmed the presence of Ce, La, Nd, Pr, and Y (rare earth oxides: REO’s ~ 60 wt.%) while thorium dioxide (ThO2) accounted for 7 wt.% of the total composition. Traces of Ca, K, Al, Fe, Ti, and Mn were also confirmed by SEM elemental mapping. The XRD results confirmed that the concentrate was primarily composed of monazite (Ce, La, Nd, Th (PO4)) along with minor impurity phases of quartz. Automated mineralogical analysis was used as a confirmatory tool to corroborate the preliminary evidences. Based on the particle size distribution analysis supported by SEM, the majority of monazite grains were found to be present in the size range of 170–210 μm. Strong bands of PO4 and SiO4 were observed in the IR spectra corresponding to the phospho-silicate matrix of the REE mineral.

By Ali Behrad Vakylabad, Esmaeel Darezereshki, Babak Koohestani

As a by-product of the steelmaking industry rich in iron and zinc, electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) landfill disposal is restricted in many countries due to the metal lixiviation risks. Several approaches have been examined to recycle or reuse EAFD. Hydrometallurgical methods mainly include the preparation of pregnant acid leached solution (PLS) using inorganic acids followed by selective metal recovery using different methods. We herein proposed a hydrometallurgical process initiated by acid leaching and finalized by thermal treatment to produce nano-ZnO from EAFD. At the condition of this study, only 67% of zinc was leached by sulfuric acid from EAFD into PLS while 98% of surplus leached iron was removed through precipitation by sodium hydroxide. Additional purification of iron removed PLS was accomplished using di-2 ethylhexyl phosphoric acid to extract Zn+2. The addition of ammonium hydroxide to purified PLS provided (Zn(OH)2)3(ZnSO4)(H2O)5 as the final precursor for nano-ZnO that ultimately transformed to nano-ZnO (60 ± 6 nm particle size) at 850 °C. The achieved results were scrutinized through various tests and analyses including TEM, XRD, SEM, EDS, FTIR, and TGA.

Mar 10, 2021

By Rahul Singh, Sunil Kumar, Erich Dohm, Maoming Fan

The rapid increase of P2O5 use for food, biofuels, and LiFePO4 batteries etc. accelerates the depletion rate of phosphate reserves. In the phosphate industry, a significant amount of ultrafine phosphate has been discarded as slime tailing due to processing difficulties. The major problems associated with ultrafine particle flotation are low probability of bubble-particle collision and adhesion, and high probability of unwanted gangue particles entrainment. This paper investigates the enhanced ultrafine phosphate particle flotation probability by Eriez’ CavTube generated fine/ ultrafine bubbles and the improved flotation selectivity by wash water etc. Ultrafine phosphates with various gangue minerals of quartz/muscovite, calcite/dolomite, and iron/ silica were studied. Microscopic observations show that the entrained ultrafine gangue minerals can be minimized by using wash water in column flotation. A three-factor threelevel central composite experimental design was conducted for ultrafine phosphate flotation. For comparison, both benchtop mechanical cell and laboratory column flotation tests were performed at their optimal respective flotation conditions. Using Eriez CavTube column flotation technology for Industries Chimiques du Senegal (ICS) ultrafine slime tailings, a concentrate grade of 36.0% P2O5, was achieved at 89.4% P2O5 recovery. Improved flotation performance was achieved using column flotation as compared to benchtop mechanical cell flotation. The benefits of Eriez’ column flotation technology realized from this study include the high P2O5 grade and recovery.

Feb 1, 2024

By D. P. Gold

Major sources and reserves of Cb/Nb, Ta, REE, Y, Sc, Zr, Hf, Cu, apatite and vermiculite may be concentrated in primary and secondary minerals associated with different stages and depths of emplacement in carbonatite complexes and kindred alkalic intrusive rocks. Exploration targets include: apatite and pyrochlore (Nb) in the plutonic and hypabyssal core and ring-dikes: bastnaesite (REE), strontianite, barite and fluorite in hydrothermal veins and cone-sheets (subvolcanic setting): thortveitite (Sc,Y) and vermiculite in metasomatized aureoles (fenites): high grade eluvial deposits of apatite and pyrochlore, and secondary REE, Nb, Ti. and V-minerals in supergene and weathered zones.

Jan 1, 1991

By Yucheng Li, De Huang, Yonghong Liu

Mine frictional resistance is one of the essential parameters of mine ventilation systems, and it is of considerable significance for the prevention and control of mine risks and accident hazards. Frictional resistance requires a lot of resources and time and has errors. To reduce the errors of frictional resistance, a regression model of frictional resistance is proposed based on the correlation analysis of the affecting factors. Through the comparative test analysis of seven regression methods, it is found that the classification and regression tree method for solving the proposed regression model has better performance than other methods. The least square error criterion is used to calculate and rank the importance of the factors affecting frictional resistance. The results show that the cross-sectional area of the tunnel, the support method, and the presence or absence of devices or pedestrian ladders have the most considerable influence on the prediction accuracy of frictional resistance. The support methods and cross-sectional areas are essential input variables. Through the combination test analysis of the influencing factors, the results show that the regression model does not have predictive ability when the number of input variables is less than 3 and the best predictive performance cannot be obtained using all the influencing factors. The best prediction model of resistance is to combine the shape of the tunnel, the support method, the presence or absence of devices or pedestrian ladders, and the cross-sectional area. The method proposed in this paper does not require a lot of resources and time investment, and the frictional resistance error is small. At the same time, it solves the problem of resistance prediction with incomplete data of influencing factors and provides a compelling new method for obtaining frictional resistance parameters.

Jan 28, 2022

By James M. Barker

No commodity agreements now exist for sulfur and a lack of reference to sulfur commodity agreements exists in the literature. Law (1975) made a passing reference to sulfur as one of a group of commodities where "there have been additional control efforts of various types." Clearly, sulfur was a candidate, at least conceptually in the past, for some form of commodity agreement and the following discussion centers on the world sulfur market of the early 1980's in this context. GENERAL THEORY OF COMMODITY AGREEMENTS The upsurge in demands for commodity agreements seen in the last decade or so stems largely from agitation by the less developed countries (LDC) for better economic treatment by more developed countries (MDC). Several economic factors, real or imagined, adversely affect the LDC's as follows (MacAvoy, 1977): 1) variable demand in MDC's causes wide fluctuations in commodity prices which hurt the economies of commodity producers, who are often LDC's although consumer economies may also benefit from more predictable prices; 2) a general decline of commodity prices relative to the price of manufactured goods which hurts commodity producers in their balance of trade while their stocks and overcapacity rise; 3) instability of LDC economies enhanced by the above factors lowers internal stability, inhibits foreign investment, and retards economic growth; and 4) a lack of self respect when dealing with developed countries o, following the OPEC lead, LDC producers want the stature related to cartel market power.

Jan 1, 1985

By N. Chow

The recovery of manganese from lower-grade resources has been studied for a number of years. Of key importance in prior work was the discovery that higher-valent manganese can be readily leached with sulfurous acid. This eliminates the need for high-temperature reduction roasting that is conventionally used in processing high-grade material. High-temperature roasting is energy intensive, emits a large amount of carbon dioxide and would not be economical for processing lower grade material. While the prior work provides important information for extracting manganese from lower-grade resources, the production of unwanted byproducts and high water and energy usage has limited its commercial use. This paper describes the results from laboratory work that demonstrate solutions to problems that to this point have precluded commercial development. Preliminary mass and energy balances show that a significant opportunity exists in producing manganese with this hydrometallurgical scheme in a low-cost, environmentally friendly manner. The emphasis of the work is on low water use, low overall energy use and economic destruction of unwanted byproducts.

Feb 1, 2012

By P. M. Soupios

An integrated suite of environmental methods was used to characterize the hydrogeological, geological and tectonic regimes of the study area, to determine the geometry of the landfill (depth and spatial extent of electrically conductive anomalies), to define the anisotropy caused by bedrock fabric fractures and to locate potential zones of electrically conductive contamination. The study area which covers an area of about 0.08 Km2 is a municipal solid waste site (MSW), located 20Km West of Herakleion in the central part of Crete (S. Greece). The landfill is located in a northwest oriented valley with highlands to the northeast and southwest. The combination of geophysical methods and chemical analysis are commonly implemented for characterization and management of land-fills. At the particular site, geophysical methods were focused on studying the electrical insolating properties of the materials, electrical con-ducting properties of fluids (leachates) and electromagnetic properties of the disturbed regolith materials in the burial zones. Three different types of geophysical surveys were performed: 1) 2D electrical tomography (ERT), 2) electro-magnetic measurements using very low frequencies (VLF) and 3) electromagnetic conductivity (EM31). Furthermore, in order to calibrate the geophysical methods dielectric spectrometry measurements are conducted. To evaluate the environmental degradation of the area, soil and liquids samples were collected.

Jan 1, 2005

By Wilson W. Zoogah, Joel G. Burken, Abdullah Al Moinee, Mariam K. Al-Lami, Kwame Awuah-Offei

Soil CO2 flux serves a critical indicator of ecosystem function and carbon cycling in disturbed landscapes. This study measured and quantified temporal patterns and environmental drivers of soil respiration across fifteen revegetated treatment plots over a 12-week period (July-October 2025). Utilizing automated CO2 flux measurements, we investigated differences between treatments and quantified their relationships with soil temperature, moisture, and atmospheric pressure. One-way ANOVA revealed significant treatment effects on CO2 flux (F4, 442 =14.1, p < 0.001, η2=0.113), with amended plots exhibiting 40–50% higher mean fluxes than control plots. Weekly temporal analysis demonstrated distinct temporal patterns, with peak fluxes registering in mid-August before a gradual decline. Multiple regression analyses showed that soil temperature (β=0.043, p < 0.001) and moisture (β=2.31, p < 0.001) are the primary flux drivers, together accounting for 18.2% of total variability (adjusted R2=0.182). Atmospheric pressure had a moderate effect (β=1.13, p < 0.001), detectable only in multivariable analysis. Variance partitioning indicated that environmental factors explained more variability (18.7%) than treatment effect (10.5%), with approximately 71% of flux variability attributed to finer spatial or temporal variability. These results demonstrate that revegetation amendments enhance soil biological activity and impact geochemical cycling, and that temperature and moisture are dominant controls on respiration dynamics in reclaimed mine soils. The findings provide quantifiable benchmarks for ecosystem recovery through altering soil biology and geochemistry and for quantifying carbon sequestration potential in post-mining landscapes.

Feb 22, 2026

By J. F. T. Agapito, L. J. Gilbride

High horizontal stresses were recognized to impact roof stability more than 60 years ago. Since then, numerous measurements associated high horizontal stresses with difficult ground conditions. This paper presents case histories illustrating the practical usage of roof stress determinations for helping assess stability, not only in the case of high horizontal stresses but also of low stresses. Examples are given of high stresses associated with faults, mine design changes, quantification of stress shadow effect, and anistrophy. The paper concludes with a comparative evaluation on the effect of various stress fields on ground support requirements.

Jan 1, 2002

By Yi Luo

Subsurface strata movements and deformations caused by longwall mining operations in underground coal mines could affect many important coal mining activities, such as gob well degasification, ground water protection and multiple seam mining. The stratifications in the overburden have significant influence on the subsurface and surface movements and deformations in the ground subsidence process. An enhanced subsurface subsidence prediction model considering overburden stratifications has been introduced in this paper. In this method, the entire overburden strata are equally divided into a finite number of layers and the percent of the hard rocks in each layer is an additional input. The proven influence function method is applied to predict the subsidence on each of the predefined layers progressively upward using the predicted subsidence on the previous layer as the subsidence cause for the current layer. A computer program is developed to facilitate the calculations. A case demonstration is used to show the applicability of the proposed subsurface subsidence prediction model.

Jan 1, 2012

By Serdar Aktaş, Özgün Küçükoğlu, Burcu Nilgün Çetiner, Mehmet Hakan Morcalı

This study compares the cementation performance of metallic iron, metallic aluminum, and metallic tin in terms of the reaction conditions and parameters in synthetic antimony chloride solutions. The effects on the antimony recovery (%) caused by the cementators’ types, stirring speed, reaction time, and temperatures were explored thoroughly. The cementation kinetics of antimony were also explored for each cementator. The activation energies were determined to be 10.99, 9.09, and 13.58 kJ mol– 1 for Al, Fe, and Sn, respectively. The results reveal that the reaction is diffusion controlled, and comparable results were obtained for each cementator. At 25 °C, 40 mg of iron powder was found to reduce all antimony ions (i.e., approx. 99% recovery), but even when 100 mg of Al and Sn cementators were used, the antimony recovery did not reach 100%. This result shows that iron is the best candidate to cement antimony out of the solution.

Jan 28, 2022

By Fahimeh Dehghani, Louis Ackah, Tathagata Ghosh, Justin Godbold, Jia Liu, Meisam Peiravi, Manoj Mohanty, Azam Baharlouei

Primary economical deposits of rare-earth elements (REEs) are exhausting all over the world, and it has become necessary to find new sources and methods for their extraction. In addition, increasing the application of REEs in modern technological society has increased its demand globally. One of the important movements to compensate for the future shortages of critical metals is the recovery of REEs from recyclable materials. This paper presents a review of the classification and extraction methods, as well as general applications of REEs with emphasis on secondary sources such as coal and coal byproducts, iron ore tailings, apatite, and phosphate byproducts. An overview of the current state of knowledge on the various methods of REE beneficiation and extraction is covered. These methods include physical separation, as well as hydrometallurgical and bio-hydrometallurgical techniques. The application of these REE extraction techniques for enhanced recovery has been driven primarily by the unique industrial application of these important elements. This paper further explores the existing and potential environmental challenges associated with REE extraction. The authors have presented a wide array of literature, in-depth discussion of the subject, and a succinct summary of processes and relevant case studies.

Sep 23, 2020

By William Gleason

Since 2004, Dave Kanagy has served as the executive director and chief executive officer of SME. In that role, he has worked with 22 SME Presidents, traveling the world to represent the Society. His prestigious one-million-mile status with United Airlines is a testament to these efforts. He has been to six of seven continents while leading the Society on a journey from a struggling association in 2004 to the largest and arguably the most influential professional mining society in the world. In the following pages, some of those past SME Presidents reflect on their time with Kanagy and paint the picture of a visionary leader who was willing to make the hard decisions for the betterment of the Society while remaining open to new ideas and opportunities. One of his first accomplishments as the executive director was to streamline the SME Boad of Directors from 29 members to nine, making it much more effective. With a keen financial sense, he was able to add value while cutting excess to expand the Society in every measure. As the leader of SME, Kanagy helped facilitate much of the Society’s growth and innovation as the world’s largest mining related organization. He has a B.S. degree in industrial education from the University of Maryland, an M.S. degree in technology education from Eastern Illinois University and is a certified association executive by the American Society of Association Executives. Under his leadership, several unique programs were created or advanced, including OneMine.org, the world’s foremost online mining research library. He enhanced legacy programs and increased collaboration with international organizations. Kanagy is the recipient of prestigious awards, including the Colorado Society of Association Executives’ Professional of the Year award and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America’s Gold Medal award.

Feb 1, 2026

By B. Anameric

Considerable effort has been directed towards understanding the carbothermic reduction mechanisms of self-reducing, fluxing dried green balls to produce pig iron nuggets. Given the geometry of the situation, some investigators believed that the shrinking core model was applicable. Hence, this study involved investigation of the applicability of the shrinking core model to pig iron nugget production. The experiments involved heat treatment of dried green balls utilizing either a laboratory-scale resistance box furnace or a gas-fired muffle furnace at various furnace temperatures and residence times. The products were analyzed for the following: (i) preferred reaction pattern, (ii) distribution of the metallized areas, (iii) % iron content variation in the pig iron nuggets from surface to center, (iv) carburization pattern and (v) physical and chemical properties of the pig iron nuggets. It was determined that the reduction of iron oxide occurred simultaneously throughout the sample and not beginning at the surface and propagating inward; thus the shrinking-core model was not applicable. Heat transfer and gas diffusion from surface to center were not the rate-limiting steps for reduction and carburization reactions.

Jan 1, 2011