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By L. C. Stilwell

Input-output analysis is a major branch of quantitative economics, and is used to analyse the flow of goods and services between production sectors in a national economy. Its purpose is to determine the relative value-adding capacity of each sector. The model has also, in recent years, found increasing use in assessing the environmental and ecological impact of development projects. It has, however, never been applied to individual production facilities, such as large mines, which themselves have complex economic structures, through which there is a flow of goods and services. Conventional cost and accounting systems, as used on mines, treat production sectors as separate cost centres, and do not determine the inter-relationships between them. This can lead to incorrect conclusions on the relative value of sectors and their impact on the total economic performance of the facility. This paper explains the basic principles of input-output analysis, and presents an example of its application to a simplistic model of a mine, which is used in the absence of any real data. The paper concludes that, by forcing definition of the value adding function of each sector, input output analysis will facilitate control of inputs, or costs. This will result in optimal application of resources and exploitation of ore reserves. The authors realise the model needs to be tested on an operating mine, and hope this paper will result in an opportunity to do so. The authors wish to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments.

Jan 1, 2000

Major activities of the Bureau of Mines Explosives Research Center during fiscal year 1966 (July 1, 1965 to June 30, 1966) are reviewed briefly. Part 1 summarizes significant accomplishments of the projects that were active during the report period. Part 2 presents short abstracts of the publications that appeared in the Bureau series and in other media during fiscal year 1966. Publications issued after June 30, 1966, are noted where pertinent in foot- notes but are not abstracted. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Bureau of Mines gratefully acknowledges the support given through cooperative agreements by the following organizations to investigations conducted by the Explosives Research Center during fiscal year 1966: Manufacturing Chemists' Association. The Sulphur Institute.

Jan 1, 1967

By Martin Kesting

The world wide growth dynamics and the continuously growing demand for energy, results in increasing energy prices. Looking from this point, the efficient exploitation of fossil fuel deposits has become a more important factor to the production of energy raw materials than ever before. This shall be reached by an increase of the automation degree of the bucket wheel excavator in the open pit mining as well as a quality increase of the entire mining process chain. A further optimization of this operation can only be achieved by gathering additional information about the input parameters. The earlier and more exact the description of the input parameter, the greater the effectiveness of the entire process chain. To address this major issue, the RWE Power AG assigned the Institute for Transportation and Automation Technology with the research project "SIMT, Sensory Identification of Material Type and Detection of the Interfaces" [Kes07]. Presently, the control of the bucket wheel excavator is carried out manually by the operator, as well as the visual identification of the different geological layers and the energy raw materials. In this paper, a sensor-system is introduced, which was developed in order to transfer the manual material identification and detection of interfaces into an automatic online procedure. A special challenge and the main focus of this contribution is the integration of this sensor system into a bucket of the bucket wheel excavator. For measuring procedures where direct contact with the in situ material is necessary, the sensor has to be integrated into the bucket. Since direct contact with the material is not necessary, it can be integrated next to the bucket wheel. The results of a preliminary study show that although there is a broad spectrum of sensor technologies for material and interface identification, only a few are suitable for an application in on-line measuring at the bucket wheel excavator. Taking into consideration the demands on the sensor technology, the studies carried out and comparable applications of individual sensor technologies which have already taken place in practice, the integration of the following measuring systems have been realized: ground penetrating radar / reflection measurements, geo electric, resistance geo electric technology. The solution developed in the research project offers for the first time the direct integration of sensor systems into the bucket of a bucket wheel excavator. It will now be possible to test other measurement methods and sensors, not only for the ones already mentioned. As an example the integration of a triaxial accelerometer to measure the solid borne sound and vibrations concerning the cutting of different materials will be shown.

Oct 1, 2009

By D. Bois, P. Keating, J. Lemieux, M. A. Vallée, M. Allard, R. S. Smith, L. Z. Cheng, M. Chouteau, D. K. Fountain

"As part of a larger research program, a number of MEGATEM airborne electromagnetic (EM) test flights were flown over the Gallen massive sulfide deposit in northwest Québec. A particularity of this test site is that a major part of the ore body was extracted before the MEGATEM survey. Therefore one of the purposes of this study was to verify the ability of the system to detect the remaining massive sulfides below the water in the open pit. The open pit is also surrounded by a metallic fence, and a power line is present in the vicinity. A large part of the case study involved accounting for the impact of infrastructure and acidic water on the survey, which will help in the interpretation of airborne EM responses in complex exploration situations.The Gallen deposit was also previously flown with the INPUT and GEOTEM airborne EM systems before the major exploitation period. A comparison between the results from the different survey results allows estimation of the physical properties of the Gallen deposit, which is a relatively poor conductor.A new method for removing the power line signal shows amplitudes with a smaller residual associated with the emanating fields, and more compact, cleaner responses associated with induced currents. This will make it easier to identify bedrock conductors close to power lines"

Jan 1, 2007

By Aly M. Mohammad

The 12th and 14th Street Viaducts, which carry Route 139, are located west of the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey. The two viaducts, provide access to and from the Holland Tunnel (which connects New York City and New Jersey) and carry upwards of 50,0000 vehicles per day from Jersey City and New York City to points west. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) selected AECOM to perform design services including rehabilitation and seismic retrofit for the 12th Street and 14th Street Viaducts while maintaining traffic at all times. Building a new parallel bridge just north of the 14th Street Viaduct was essential in avoiding extremely costly traffic delays. Installation of the new foundation, in close proximity to the existing viaduct, required drilling through some of the existing timber piles supporting the bridge. As a result, the existing bridge was required to be reanalyzed for this new foundation configuration. This proposed structure consisted of 8 piers each supported on a single six (6) foot diameter drilled shaft. Currently this portion of the bridge structure has been constructed. The shafts were constructed with rock sockets that were five feet six inches (5?- 6??) in diameter and were extended 11.2 feet (3.4 meters) into rock. A 2300 ton Osterberg Load Test was performed on one production shaft to confirm the capacity of the shaft. The rock socket for the test shaft was in sandstone. This paper will present a description of the design methodology and construction methods adopted for the foundations. In addition, the paper will illustrate the Osterberg Load Test including: equipment used, number and locations of strain gages, and interpretation of results. Additionally, regarding the close proximity of the new foundation, the paper will present the type of equipment used to drill through the existing timber pile foundation while minimizing the impact on the integrity of the existing foundation. We will also present the method of analysis for analyzing the redistribution of load on the remaining piles. The results presented in this paper will assist the design engineer by providing a comparison between the geotechnical design assumptions and the actual measurements obtained by field measurements for this rock formation.

Jan 1, 2009

By J. Kang

To obtain microbial cultures with the ability to efficiently leach copper ion from chalcopyrite, microbial samples from acid mine drainage sites were mixed and then subjected to mutation using sodium nitrite (NaNO2), diethyl sulfate (DES), ultraviolet light (UV) and their combinations. Mixed cultures with a much stronger ability to leach copper ion (identified as mixed cultures A, B, C, D and E) were obtained by screening on leaching media. Leaching tests showed that mixed culture E had the best leaching performance and increased the Cu2+ content by 120.5% in 20 days, compared to a control without mutation treatment. Mixed culture E grows well on Leathen leaching medium supplemented with Cu2+ (at a final concentration of 32 g/L), reaching 3.2 × 107 cells/L after 15 days, while the unmutated control culture cannot survive beyond 15 days, indicating that mixed culture E is more tolerant of high concentrations of Cu2+. In addition, continuous leaching by mixed culture E is very effective at a pulp density of 1%. These results suggest that it has the potential for industrial applications.

Jan 1, 2008

By D. C. Oliver

Paper written on project work carried out in partial fulfilment of B.Sc. (Eng.) (Metallurgy and Materials) degree Corrosion in exhaust systems can occur on both the interior and exterior surfaces. Chloride-containing de-icing salts on the roads in colder countries greatly increases the rate of corrosion on the exterior surfaces. This paper investigates the relative exterior corrosion resistance of three alloys?two ferritic stainless steels( AISI Types 409 and 441) and an aluminized mild steel. The exhaust system is split into two categories?the hot end and the cold end. A test for each of these ends was designed?the standard ASTM G85test was modified to create a simulated driving cycle. The cold end test samples were exposed to ten driving cycles, and the hot end test samples were exposed to five driving cycles. A driving cycle constitutes the car being started from cold, driven until the operating temperatures are reached, and switched off and allowed to cool. Pitting corrosion is the primary corrosion mechanism occurring at the cold end of the exhaust system. The aluminized mild steel was the most resistant alloy in this test, and Type 409 the least. However, once the protective aluminium layer degrades, corrosion will occur rapidly. At the hot end of the exhaust system, spalling of the surface oxide layer is the primary corrosion mechanism occurring. Type 441 was the most resistant in this test, and the aluminized mild steel the least resistant. Potentiodynamic tests were performed on the alloys?the results agreed with the results obtained in the exposure tests.

Jan 1, 2003

By C. Wen

In Huoqiu region of Anhui Province, Fe2O3 occurs mainly in the form of specularite. Besides quartz, the gangue minerals include iron-bearing silicates such as chlorite and sericite which account for about 10% of the total gangue. The separation effect of conventional collectors is poor in the flotation of the minerals, that is, the average grade of iron concentrates is only 60-62%. Using the developed amphoteric collector can successfully realize not only the separation of specularite from various gangue minerals with results of iron concentrate grade above 65% and iron recovery of above 80% but also low temperature flotation at 15°C.

Jan 1, 2012

By T Leach, B Fulton, R Stewart

Gold mineralisation at Porgera is inferred to have been derived from a deep differentiated magmatic source which is capped by a series of (now tilted) inward dipping sills and stocks, which comprise the Porgera Intrusive Complex. An arc normal transfer structure provides a conduit, at tile intersection with an arc parallel structure, into which basic magma derived from tile deep melting of mantle material has been emplaced. Two phases of mineralisation display an association with late stage feldspar porphyry intrusives. Stage I carbonate-base metal-style gold mineralisation occurs as early quartz-sericite, then massive sulphide and late zoned Mn-Fe-Mg-Ca carbonate vein/breccias. Magmatic fluids derived from the deep magma source, are interpreted to have migrated along me margin of a feeder stock to the sills, and south to Waruwari. Stage II epithermal Au-Ag quartz-style gold mineralisation occurs as early fluidised breccias and carbonate veining, followed by zoned quartz-roscoelite-carbonate-gold vein/breccias, and late carbonate and/or sulphate open space infill. Magmatic fluids are interpreted to have utilised the same plumbing system as the late stage feldspar porphyry intrusive, and then migrated into the Roamane Fault which was dilated by; dextral rotation on elements of the transfer structure, normal faulting, and refraction around the competent footwall hornblende diorite. Bonanza gold is localised in a jog in the Roamane Fault, hangingwall splits and at intersections with cross structures. Bulk low grade Stage I gold has been deposited by the mixing of magmatic fluids with cool gas condensate waters, whereas high grade Stage II gold mineralisation resulted from the rapid quenching of mineralised magmatic fluids by oxygenated groundwaters.

Jan 1, 1995

By S. Vujic

The exploitation of stone (trachyte) at the ?Srebro? open pit mine, located on the northern slopes of the Fru?ka Gora National Park (Serbia) central area begun in 1964. Stone exploitation in this locality does not endanger the environment in an ecological sense, does not pose a threat to plants and animals, and apart from the terrain configuration changes, it did not leave behind permanent consequences to the environment. Projects for permanent cessation of mining operations and for land reclamation and spatial arrangement were completed in these circumstances. The paper gives a short review of the condition at the open pit mine; furthermore, the key problems and basic demands are presented, together with a concept of technical and biological land reclamation and the spatial arrangement of the mining complex. Keywords Open pit mine, land reclamation, spatial planning, spatial arrangement, National Park, Fru?ka Gora, Srebro.

Jan 1, 2011

By M. J. Gavin

Within the past three years numerous inquiries for information on oil shale have been received by the Bureau of Manes. These inquiries have been increasing to such an extent that it has seemed advisable to issue a short paper prior to the publication of a bulletin on the subject, giving a, general discussion of the subject and a comprehensive list of references, so that those interested in the details of obtaining oil from shale can find additional information without much difficulty. Some of those who desire information are interested only in a general discussion of the subject, or are not in a position to refer to books and' articles describing the industry. The material for this paper is largely derived from published information on oil shale. Much of the information is obtained-from the books and articles mentioned in the list of references, and has been compiled with the intent of furnishing information to those not interested in all the details.

Jan 1, 1921

Jan 1, 1992

By Steve Chorley

Open-type, or main beam, tunnel boring machines (TBMs) can achieve impressive rates of production. This type of TBM typically outperforms other types of TBMs currently in use around the world. In good ground conditions, main beam machines have achieved production rates of more than 1 km/month (0.6 miles/month). However, installing effective ground support in poorer rock conditions on main beam machines can be a major cause of concern. The design of main beam machines is such that installation of ground support equipment, particularly at the front of the machine in what is commonly known as the L1 support zone, has traditionally been limited to rock drills and basic working platforms. Personnel working in the L1 zone have, until recently, been protected by roof supports and extended fingers, often with restricted access to working areas.

Jan 1, 2011

By P R. Denize, V S. Wein

A brief review of the Waipipi Iron Sands Limited company history and operations over the past ten years is made along with a summary of the benefits of this mining company to New Zealand. Land rehabilitation procedures in coastal dune lands are described in detail and brief mention is made of a study of animal health and copper uptake. The paper concludes with a summary of the increased emphasis on agronomy and restoration as the mining operation commences dredging in a better class of grazing land.

Jan 1, 1981

By S. A. Aye

Vibration levels on a variety of equipment in a South African opencast mine were measured in this study. The well-established ISO 2631-1 (1997) standard methodology was used for the computation of weighted root mean square (WRMS) and vibration dose value (VDV). This method was used to evaluate the whole-body vibration (WBV) on a wide range of equipment in the opencast mine using the two main parameters, namely the daily exposure A(8) which is based on the WRMS concept and the VDV which measures shocks. The results obtained show that while the majority of the equipment rendered exposure levels that are below the exposure limit value (ELV), exposure levels on about half of the equipment do exceed the exposure action levels. The study also highlights the importance of shock in the observed responses.

Jan 1, 2011

By G Ma, L Qi, J G. Shellnutt

"An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation. The Emeishan large igneous province (ELIP) of SW China is host to magmatic Ni–Cu–(PGE) sulfide and Fe–Ti–V oxide deposits which contain economic to subeconomic concentrations of precious and base metals. The formation of a given deposit-type (ie sulfide versus oxide) is thought to be related to the type of parental magma (ie high-Ti versus low-Ti) and the subsequent processes (ie fractional crystallisation and sulfide segregation), which allowed for metal enrichment.We examined the PGE of Baima and Taihe oxide-bearing layered mafic intrusions from the ELIP (Shellnutt, Ma and Qi, in press), and compared them with the nearby Xinjie and Hongge intrusions as well as with the Emeishan flood basalts. The PGE results for the two intrusions are contrasting. The Baima gabbroic rocks are almost PGE-barren (SPGE < 4 ppb) whereas the Taihe gabbroic rocks are variable, but generally much higher in PGE concentrations (SPGE < 2 to ~300 ppb), although the gabbros from both intrusions are enriched in platinum-subgroup PGE (PPGE = Rh, Pt and Pd) relative to iridium-subgroup PGE (IPGE = Os, Ir and Ru). Cu/Zr, Ni/Ir, Y/Pt, Cu/Pd and Ni/Ir systematics suggest that the Baima rocks were derived from a relatively evolved, mafic, S-undersaturated parental magma that was affected by earlier sulfide segregation. In contrast, the Taihe rocks record evidence of both S-saturated and S-undersaturated conditions and that the parental magma was likely emplaced very close to S-saturation. Through comparison of the PGE contents in the Emeishan flood basalts and the Emeishan oxide-bearing intrusions, we provide a self-consistent model for ELIP that the PGE budget in a magma is not strictly controlled by magma series (high-Ti versus low-Ti), but very much by crustal contamination.CITATION:Ma, G, Shellnutt, J G and Qi, L, 2015. Platinum group elements in the Baima and Taihe Fe-Ti oxide-bearing gabbroic intrusions of emeishan large igneous province and problems on propensity of magma series for sulfide- versus oxide-dominated deposit types, in Proceedings PACRIM 2015 Congress, pp 303–310 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 18, 2015

By D. Harrington

Although the explosion-fatality record for the fiscal year 1944 showed considerable improvement over those of the preceding 4 years, it is still fur from creditable, and the coal-mining industry and agencies interested in the prevention of coal-mine accidents should not be satisfied until accidents from explosions and fires are eliminated. In view of present knowledge of the methods of preventing explosions and fires, such disasters are inexcusable and discredit the mining industry. Despite this knowledge, far too many coal¬mine operators and employees continue to follow procedures that have resulted in disasters in the past. Included in the appendix to this circular are a number of safety measures designed to prevent coal-mine explosions and fires and metal-mine fires. Their adoption is essential if explosions and fires are to be prevented, as certainly they should be. An epidemic of disastrous mine fires of electrical origin during the past 2 years emphasizes the need for better methods of protection of underground electrical circuits. At present, committees of mining-electrical engineers, electrical-equipment manufacturers' representatives, and others are cooperating with the Bureau of Mines seeking means to solve this problem.

Jan 1, 1945

By G B. Smith, G M. Marshall, A Querzoli

The South Australian mining regulatory framework has adopted a performance based approach to the management of risk. This approach has been in place in South Australia for more than 10 years and is increasingly being implemented in mining jurisdictions in Australia and around the world. Performance based regulation focuses on setting appropriate environmental outcomes to be achieved based on an assessment of the potential impacts associated with the development, operation and closure of mining projects. Measurable compliance criteria, including completion criteria, are set to demonstrate achievement of the outcomes. It is the responsibility of the proponent to propose designs and strategies that will achieve the regulated environmental outcomes and to demonstrate the implementation of their designs and strategies will achieve the outcomes into the future. Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) are significant elements of many major mines and each is unique with site specific factors such a materials to be stored, design, size, location, climate, sensitive receptors, operating history of the facility (i.e. changes to design), site culture and company capability amongst a range of other factors. Consequently a fit-for purpose approach is a key principle of best practice regulation of tailings management as it takes the site specific factors into account in setting appropriate outcomes for mitigating the identified impacts associated with a proposed development. Achievement of those outcomes through fit-for purpose, well designed management strategies would ensure safe, stable and economic storage of tailings in a manner that complies with all legislative requirements and presents negligible public health and safety risks. Tailings storage must also have acceptably low social and environmental impacts, both on and off site, during operation and indefinitely post closure. Achievement of environmental outcomes during operations and at mine completion can then be demonstrated to the regulator and community through public reporting of compliance with measurement criteria which establish the appropriate level of impact for each individual operation. A number of new mining proposals including tailings storage facilities (TSF) have recently been assessed and approved in South Australia. The location, size, design, sensitive receptors, public interest and therefore risk profiles of these TSF’s have varied substantially between these new mining proposals. These considerations were reflected in the assessment of the TSFs and the resulting mining lease conditions of approval including the environmental outcomes to be achieved over the life of the facilities. This paper and the accompanying presentation will provide case studies of recently approved TSFs within South Australia and the regulatory framework for each case.CITATION:Smith, G B, Querzoli, A and Marshall, G M, 2018. Tailings regulation – a South Australian perspective, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 166–177 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

By W. A. Heitbrink, J. D. Ashley, R. E. Gresh, J. A. Organiscak, A. B. Cecala

Many different types of mobile equipment used in surface coal mining utilize enclosed cabs to protect equipment operators. The overburden removal process is extremely dusty and can cause excessive exposure to respirable dust, especially crystalline silica. After equipment is used for years, many components of the enclosure deteriorate and its effectiveness is greatly reduced. This report discusses a cooperative research study performed on an Ingersoll Rand DM45E surface drill, retrofitted with a new Sigma pressurization and filtration system. Respirable dust concentrations were substantially reduced from 0.64 mg/m3 during pre-testing to 0.05 mg/m3 during post-testing with the new system, representing a 92% reduction in dust levels in the drill cab. This new system appears to be a very well-built and sturdy device, well-suited for the mining industry.

Jan 1, 2002

By L. A. Cramer

Platinum metal was first utilized by the Inca civilization in South America where it was found in alluvial deposits along the San Juan and Atrato rivers that lie between the Andean mountain range in Colombia and the Pacific Ocean. The nuggets found in these rivers average between 77% and 86%platinum, 7%?8% iron and small amounts of copper, gold and other Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). The Incas often alloyed platinum with copper to increase its workability and fabricated various ornaments from it.

Jan 1, 2001