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By B P. Voutharoj, R A. Dutch, M Paknezhad, T Ostersen

With the proliferation of new sensor technologies, acquiring multiple data sets over the same ground is becoming cheaper and easier than ever. This new, higher resolution multivariate data provides a significant resource for exploration and resource geologists but comes with the added complexity of effectively integrating the various data sets in useful and meaningful ways to elucidate new geological understanding. Both geophysical data sets and hyperspectral data are extensively used for exploration targeting, providing different information at different resolutions and crustal scales. One of the biggest challenges comes from trying to effectively integrate data sets that record very different physical properties, across the different scales these data are captured at, in a way which can allow for a data-driven analysis of these combined data sets.

Sep 1, 2024

Studying the ore textures in a discrete orebody is a novel approach to estimating liberation potential of the ore minerals present. As part of a PhD thesis, this project aims at classifying and quantifying the textures of the Hilton North orebodies, and at estimating their liberation characteristics.

Jan 1, 1993

By Dobos SK

The Black Ridge Gold Deposit is located in the northern part of the Clermont Goldfield, which is situated at the boundary of the Bowen Basin and Anakie Inlier, Queensland. The goldfield comprises a series of NNW-trending semi-isolated basins, which are tectonically aligned with the Denison Trough, the west-most division of the Bowen Basin (Fig. 1-1).The main stratigraphic units in the deposits in younging sequence are the Anakie Metamorphics, the early Permian Blair Athol Coal Measures, the late Permian(?) White Section, and the Tertiary basalts which are regionally widespread, and intruded by abundant mafic and felsic plugs.

Jan 1, 1990

Towards Improved Hydrocyclone Models - Contributions from Computational Fluid Dynamics

Sep 13, 2010

By Quast K. B

Samples of limestone and micaceous hematite have been ground in a laboratory batch mill using equal weights of either rods or balls. Values of the Schuhmann distribution modulus, a, have been shown to depend on grind time and do not remain constant as often reported. The linear reduction in a with grind time was attributed to a change in grinding mechanisms with time. The product sizing from ball milling limestone showed a bimodal distribution, but rod milling produced a unimodal size distribution. The product sizing from milling micaceous hematite was difficult to interpret due to the major influence of the shape factor on the transition from screen sizing to cyclosizing.

Jan 1, 1995

By L Soares, W T. Hennies, F Fujimur

Barra Bonita reservoir, located in the Sao Paulo State, Brazil, has been mainly used for local navigation and electricity generation to supply a prosper region in the country. Sand mining activities in that area have an important social and economic meaning for the local community. In this reservoir there are several sand mines that produce around 45 000 m3 of sand a month. These deposits were rich in material used as concrete aggregate in the civil construction. However, nowadays a significant increase in the demand of gravel can be observed, representing a serious productive problem. This material hasnÆt been well accepted by the market and, through the years, it was disposed at open sky in piles as waste deposits. This deposits have caused environmental problems like visual impact, reduction of free spaces outside and inside the mine, source of material to erosion and sedimentation processes in lower areas, flooding as a result of the filling up process in the drainage system, among others. For a lack of an appropriate technological characterisation, this material have been mainly used to pavement internal and external areas in the mine, with lower cost associated. With the purpose of evaluate the usefulness of this material in the conventional concrete, there were conducted several tests in the disposed residue including petrographical, physical, and chemical characterisation. The petrographical analysis and the preliminary results of the study showed that the material reacts with the alkalis that are present in the conventional cement (CP-II-E-32). In order to make the application technical and economically possible a research was developed seeking forms to correct this characteristic by adding special cements with high pozzolana content. The results of the technological, physical and chemical characterisation of the products indicated the technical viability of the use of that material. The study also allowed projecting environmental improvements resulting in the elimination of the waste piles.

Jan 1, 2003

By Y V. Haarlem, P Coghill, N G. Cutmore, M Millen, I Carter

Due to the low concentration of gold, ore sorting for gold has always required measuring indirect properties, such as density or colour, to allow separation on a rock by rock basis. This only works on an ad hoc, by deposit basis and is likely to be least reliable where it is most required in low grade ores. One candidate technique, Gamma Activation Analysis (GAA) has been demonstrated to directly measure gold extremely accurately in powder samples of around 500gm and is used in the Chrysos PhotonAssay assay system. This method uses a linear accelerator (linac) to generate the X-ray radiation that activates the ore at low levels to emit a characteristic gold gamma ray that is then measured by a radiation detector. CSIRO is adapting this measurement technique to application on a belt at up to 800tph to measure pods of ore. The principal differences between measuring samples and an on-line measurement of pods are the requirement to measure coarse ore (<50mm), to measure a larger volume of ore as uniformly as possible, and to have an open-ended geometry with adequate shielding of the linac radiation source. These issues have all been addressed with measurements of coarse ore reported down to around 1ppm in sub-optimal test conditions. They have been demonstrated for <75mm particles with detectors capable of measuring a large volume geometry continuously. These are projected to allow measurements down to 0.3ppm in more optimum conditions for a 10 second measurement time period where the U/Th content of the ore is less than ~10ppm. Extensive Monte Carlo modelling has demonstrated that adequate shielding can be provided in relatively simple geometries with only 1 right angle transfer in the material handling. Steady progress is being made to reach the technical position required to trial an ore sorting system.

Nov 10, 2020

By T Nassis, P Louw, M R. Fry, T du Toit

Business intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA) are established IT technologies that are used extensively in the business environment. This paper discusses the use of these technologies in production environments and beneficiation plants.Assmang’s Khumani mine is an iron ore operation located in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Assmang Limited is jointly owned by African Rainbow Minerals Limited and Assore Limited. This paper presents a case study of a BI solution applied to this plant, which is used by metallurgists, supervisors and all levels of operations and management to extract and analyse data to control and optimise the operation of the plant.The main advantage of adopting an established BI solution is the ease with which production personnel can extract and analyse data. The data is easily presented in familiar spreadsheets and no IT staff or specific training is required to achieve this.The solution adopted at Khumani mine uses a data mart with a multidimensional model (called an online analytical processing (OLAP) cube) acting as the main repository and source of data. The OLAP cube simplifies the access and analysis of plant data.The OLAP cube stores data in a specifically-designed way, which allows extraction and analysis to be performed quickly. It is designed to hold large amounts of data on a long-term basis, which could be for the life of the plant. It also performs automatic aggregations over many dimensions on a background process.A major benefit in adopting such a BI solution is that it allows common BA methods to be applied. This is due to both the efficient long-term storage of data and the availability of standard BA tools. BA tools are now able to perform data mining, predictive analytics, forecasting and other machine-learning algorithms. This paper presents the possible use of such advanced data analysis methods in a beneficiation plant.CITATION:Fry, M R, Nassis, T, Louw, P and du Toit, T, 2015. The use of common business intelligence and analytics tools in the operation and optimisation of iron ore process plants, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 129–138 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By D Lucato, B Haase, R Saha, S Limberger-Forte, J Lishman

Cadia East Mining operations have employed geometallurgical techniques to advance the understanding of the in situ rock hardness variability across existing Panel Caves (PC). Geometallurgy advances the understanding of variability across an orebody through the integration of geology, mineralogy and processing response and therefore enhances spatial mapping of comminution or separation properties. Spatially extensive geometallurgical measurements are necessary so that continuous rock properties can be generated and used for the development of comminution and processing domains using geostatistical modelling. Standard testing protocol across geological and mineralogical domains is vital to understand the variability in deposit wide comminution and separation properties. The high cost and large sample requirements associated with metallurgical test work typically results in insufficient data density and distribution, making it difficult to model and map deposit scale variability. Quantitative hardness proxy tools are useful to measure in situ rock hardness, however this data is typically either sparse or missing within advanced mining operations. In recent years, mineralogy and multi-element assay data has often been collected as part of the standard geological data set and is generally coincident with metallurgical test work. In this paper relationships between mineralogy and comminution parameters have been applied to multi-element assay data with coincident measured Bond Work Index (BWi) data to generate a predicted BWi using linear regression. The predicted BWi is intended to supplement existing measured BWi data to enable better extrapolation across the deposit. Geostatistical Conditional Simulation methods have then used the predicted and measured BWi data to produce a BWi variable as a new input to the resource model. The simulated BWi can be used as an input for specific energy models to predict required grinding energy consumption across a deposit.

Mar 22, 2022

By N Lefebvre, M Jakeman, R Aseervatham

Semi-arid regions suffer from two afflictions; evaporation may exceed precipitation by multiples of two or more and variations in precipitation can be both extreme and difficult to predict. Many Australian mines are situated in semi-arid areas where communities are reliant upon locally sourced water or special purpose infrastructure is built as part of the mine construction. As the question of climate change looms, issues related to future water supply and sustainable water management become increasingly important. Across Australia several mining operations co-exist in a single surface water and/or groundwater catchment area. The management of water on a mine by mine or a community by community basis is illogical and must be reconsidered based on a single water catchment and a whole-of-community basis. Mine water should be considered on a full life cycle basis where the quality is assessed for specific mine site applications. This paper addresses technical challenges that include surface water and groundwater supply in semi-arid regions, operational water in the mining industry, beneficial uses of water, water economics and demand management. In much the same way as emissions trading evolved into a multi-stakeholder forum, mining regions offer scope for innovative thinking in water supply and reuse. In addition, this paper considers a number of initiatives taken by Australian mining companies that are entering a prefeasibility stage and contrasts these initiatives against the established success within a South African mining region. The challenges and potential solutions to this initiative are presented for future consideration.

Jan 1, 2006

Coal geology plays an essential role in the investigation of in situ coal seam quality. Coal geology can also play an important part in laboratory studies such as coal washing and coking, and in operating plant problems.

Jan 1, 1976

By T Walsh, S R. Mudnuru

The development of lithium-ion batteries, coupled with the global trend towards electrification of transportation, has led to a dramatic increase in the demand for lithium. The production of lithium from hard rock ores is increasing, and flotation has proved to be an effective means for the beneficiation of many pegmatitic lithium ores. Clariant Mining Solutions has developed a range of novel collectors for the flotation of spodumene and other lithium ores, and this paper presents examples of some of the most recent developments. Fatty acids are the typical collectors for lithium flotation, however the grade and recovery achieved with these collectors is often below the desired level. There are also some significant drawbacks associated with the use of fatty acid collectors, such as the formation of calcium soaps which give rise to filtration problems and the need for acid washing. Several FLOTINOR products have been developed as alternatives to fatty acids. These products offer equivalent or better metallurgical performance at significantly lower dosages than fatty acids. This offers benefits to the flotation circuit as well as potentially reducing the issues associated with downstream processing of the concentrate.

Aug 24, 2022

By A Bonani, R Molina, H Constanzo

With conventional undercutting sequence the infrastructure on the production level often has a short serviceable life before major rehabilitation is necessary and is characterised by high maintenance costs. The abutment stress zone is the main cause of this situation. The application of the pre-undercut caving method variant can increase the availability and utilisation of the production level When a pre-undercut is used development and construction are carried out underneath a previously undercut area, far away from the abutment stress zone, under more favourable stress conditions. This paper describes the design principles and the relevant results from the application of the pre-undercut variant over three years to the Esmeralda sector of El Teniente mine. The aspects described are the undercut-extraction, the undercut-development and construction distances, the geometry and drawbells opening, cave extraction rates, and the rate and height of undercutting.

Jan 1, 2000

By Hayba DO

Metal-rich slurries discharged from excess-enthalpy geothermal wells at Kawerau (NZ) indicate that an efficient ore precipitation mechanism operates in some feedzones. In our conceptual model, which takes into account the relative permeabilities of liquid and gas phases in boiling fluids, a metal-precipitating liquid phase is effectively immobilised along boiling fronts, leading to the formation of highly concentrated ore. Chemical equilibrium and heat/mass transport modeling demonstrate the general applicability of this conceptual model to hydrothermal eruption environments.

Jan 1, 1995

By M Allen

Energetics has been in the business of climate change for more than twenty years. This experience has only served to cement the understanding that decisions taken during design define the environmental and economic performance of any project. The 80-20 rule definitely applies, with 80% of a project’s performance being set through the first 20% of design decisions. This in depth knowledge is used for determining energy price forecasts, future carbon markets and carbon costs, current and future energy technologies, as well as giving a thorough understanding of the processes and technologies in place in the mining industry to work out what the most carbon and energy sensitive decisions during design are. Project selection and design is a gated process where decisions are taken in line with the information available at that point in the evolution of the project. Design decisions are, by their nature, dominated by uncertainty. In order to ensure that robust decisions are taken, it is necessary to ensure that the correct information is brought to bear at the correct decision point. This then defines and supplies the necessary carbon and energy information for design decisions to be correctly made. One of the most significant risks facing design engineers and decision makers in the mining industry is the future cost of energy. Part of this risk is associated with a future cost of carbon, however, a significant part of this risk is the cost, and variability in this cost, of the energy itself. This paper investigates the information required to support good decision taking during the design process.Project Managers and MetPlant Operators accept poor quality evaluations because they are generally unaware of what they should expect.The 2010 draft AusIMM ‘Guidelines for Techno-Economic Evaluations’ were collated by a subcommittee of practitioners and are regarded as best practice.They apply directly to projects and metallurgical plant evaluations, including those with a heavy technical basis. They can be applied to technical problem solving where there are no monetary computations.Project Managers and MetPlant Operators should demand that economic models and evaluations follow the six principles. They should become working tools which are easy to understand, fit for purpose, consistent, rigorous, record sources of input data, have key graphs and are rapid to audit.

Aug 8, 2011

By Smart RST C, Johnson NW, Ralston J, Griffin LF

At the Copper Concentrator of Mount Isa Mines, the largest diluent of the copper concentrate is liberated fine pyrite. Laboratory flotation tests carried out as a function of grind and flotation Eh in combination with surface analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have identified the major mechanisms of iron sulphide flotation. It was found that a significant proportion of the iron sulphide minerals had surface coverages of graphitic carbon, sufficient to impart moderate hydrophobicity in the absence of collector. A smaller, but economically significant proportion of chalcopyrite was also affected by the graphitic carbon coating. Two methods were tested to reduce the impact of the natural floatability of the iron sulphides on concentrate grades. 1. Depression through the use of organic depressants. 2. Preflotation to remove the "naturally hydrophobic" iron sulphides (flotation independant of Eh ) prior to chalcopyrite flotation. Preflotation was tested at the pilot plant scale. It was found that the amount of chalcopyrite reporting to the preflotation rougher concentrate could be minimised through flotation at a mildly reducing Eh by the use of nitrogen as the flotation gas to maintain the low Eh conditions resulting from grinding. The preflotation rougher concentrate was upgraded to an iron sulphide concentrate or a low grade copper concentrate.

Jan 1, 1991

By E J. Hill, F Huang, A Otto

Geochemical data from drill core samples is used in mineral exploration to enable geologists to understand subsurface geology. However, it is challenging to analyse these data sets rigorously and consistently. Manual data interpretation relies on the knowledge and experience of logging geologists. When multiple geologists are involved, it is possible to introduce inconsistencies in logged lithology type and scale of logging (‘splitters’ versus ‘lumpers’). Machine learning (ML) is a powerful tool for analysing high dimensional data (ie data with many variables) and large data sets (ie data with many samples). However, ML methods applied to drill hole samples do not incorporate spatial information and this can result in high misclassification rates and small-scale ‘noisy’ results. We demonstrate the use of multiscale spatial analysis (wavelet tessellation) as a pre-ML step to analyse spatial information. This step helps reduce misclassification and filter out unwanted small-scale variation in the data. In an experiment, we used wavelet tessellation and supervised ML to predict litho-geochemical rock types from geochemistry data. The data set is from the Valhalla uranium deposit near Mount Isa, northern Queensland. First, geochemical knowledge and statistical analysis was used to select appropriate geochemical elements for litho-geochemical classification. Second, the elements were processed using multiscale spatial analysis. Third, we trained a Random Forest model with the data set and found that the model performs worse in predicting rare rock samples than common ones. We applied over-sampling and down-sampling methods in aim to overcome this issue. As a conclusion, the combination of multiscale spatial analysis (to define rock unit boundaries) and Random Forests (to classify rock units) is a good method for rapid and accurate analysis of drill hole geochemistry.

Mar 22, 2022

By A Campbell

Trials of different tapping operations at Olympic Dam have been carried out with the aim of improving the safety of tapping and improving the integrity and lifetime of the taphole. This has involved trialling the use of a mudgun and drill on one of the tapholes of the electric furnace in place of the normal manual tapping procedures. The blister copper tapholes are currently closed using a conical clay plug formed around a steel bar. The plug is pushed into the taphole by hand to stop the flow, and the cooling on the outer part of the taphole freezes the blister copper in the tapping channel. The hole is burnt open using consumable oxygen lances. This puts the furnace technicians in close proximity to molten metal and heat û which is reflected in the safety incidents reported by these operators. By moving to a mudgun and drill operation, the furnace technicians will be moved away from the taphole area improving their safety. Additional benefits include: improved tapping cycles; extended taphole refractory lifecycles; and improved furnace integrity around the taphole, hopefully extending the campaign. This paper outlines the trials that have shown that it is possible to plug and drill blister copper (not matte) tapholes using a mudgun and drill.

Jan 1, 2005

By J Loeb, R Ramanathan, H Ingham, P Cameron

Most mining operations, including iron ore, maintain a focus on continuous improvement and asset optimisation in their operations. As all the unit operations in the Mine-to-Mill value chain are interdependent, available technologies that address efficiencies across the value chain are once again in the spotlight as companies are driven to improve productivity and maximise mine site profits to increase return on capital invested. Core to continuous improvement is the need to understand the baseline and impact of changes to the process. In this paper, we discuss some of the critical attributes in the Mine-to-Mill process, including their influence on productivity and cost, the need for direct measurement and areas where they should be applied. Many initiatives can be considered to improve Mine-to-Mill processes. Mining operations are planned and executed based on designs and models to achieve the operation's objectives. However, there are many variables in the different parts of the value chain, such as blasting, material handling, crushing and screening. Therefore, measurement of the key attributes establishes the baseline for Mine-to-Mill (or Pit to Plant) performance, which is necessary to understand the impact of any proposed improvements to the process design and execution and monitor the outcomes on an ongoing basis sustain the improvements that have been implemented. This paper focuses on two types of measurement – blast movement and particle size of materials through the Mine-to-Mill process. Several innovative technologies and control loops are readily available to measure these attributes and assist operations to improve productivity and mine site profits. The size of the tangible benefits, which can flow from measuring and optimising fragmentation and blast movement, provide a remarkable return on the investment. Realising these benefits needs a focus outside conventional operation silos as a successful Mine-to-Mill project requires a multidiscipline approach across all the silos in the value chain. Required technologies are available; adding the necessary ingredients of communication and co-operation by all concerned across the silos will ensure the benefits are realised.

Nov 8, 2021

By A Satyanaga, H Rahardjo, K G. Mercer

The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is one of the most essential soil properties in unsaturated soil mechanics. The water flow and storage characteristics of an unsaturated soil are closely related to the amount of water contained in the pores and the negative pore-water pressure in the soil. These are both in turn, related to the particle-size distribution and the plasticity of the soil. The SWCC is obtained by laboratory testing which is difficult to perform, costly and time consuming. There is a significant advantage in establishing typical SWCC envelopes for different soil types from a geotechnical design and analysis viewpoint. This paper presents some of the research work undertaken by UWA and NTU to develop SWCC envelopes for soil types classified in terms of the ASTM D2487 Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). This was done by establishing a large database of soils from across the world, classifying them according to ASTM D2487 and undertaking SWCC testing for each soil. This paper presents the SWCC test results from a selection of three of the most common soil classifications encountered in geotechnical engineering practise.CITATION:Mercer, K G, Rahardjo, H and Satyanaga, A, 2018. The development of soil water characteristic curves for soil types classified according to the USCS, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 263–273 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018