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Any Australian who knows of the poverty of the early settlers in the first few years following the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip with his "first fleet" at Botany Bay must feel proud of the progress that has been made in the 174 years that have elapsed since that momentous occasionGFor all its attractive appearance as reported by Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks, the shores of Botany Bay and of Port Jackson proved most ,inhospitable, and the accessible country surrounding them anything but suitable for sustaining the life of the small settlement. It is well known that during the first 15 or 20 years the hardy colonists and un-tfortunate convicts were close to starvation on several occasions and were only saved by the arrival of supply ships, which were dependent on the vagaries of wind and current, and the hazards of the uncharted seas they had to -navigate-.When Australia was little more than a miserable penal settlement, Great Britain was one of the great-powers of the world, and the U,.S.A. was an independent nation with a growing degree of prosperity that even then gave promise of its mighty awakening to become, as it has, a e.olossus of industry and commerce,-and the. leader in living standards of the world to-day.Australia, from such a shaky, and comparatively recent start, has risen to a position in which its living standards rank very high in comparison with those of most of the nations of Europe and America. Exact com-parisons are hard to fix because of the wide variety of factors involved .but the Institute of Pab?Lic Affairs .(Victoria) places Australia fifthin the world, excelled only by the U.S.A., Canada, Sweden and Switzerland. The next best after Australia are the United Kingdom, West Germany and France.How we achieved such a high standard of living is a vast subject for study but some of the economic aspects of our climb from abject poverty to a position of near affluence can readily be identified.

Jan 1, 1962

By He BQ

Static attachment of bubbles to solids is contrasted with dynamic attachment in flotation cells. The times of contact during particle-bubble collisions in dynamic attachment are compared with the induction time determinations and the kinetics of thinning of the liquid films separating solids and bubbles. The thinning is examined mainly in terms of electrostatic and dispersion (van der Waals) contributions to the disjoining pressure existing in the films. The local heterogeneity (on a molecular scale) of charge distribution invariably present at all interfaces (even at conditions of zero zeta potential) calls for some means to minimize possible electrostatic repulsions which arise when the electrical double layer at the air-bubble interface begins to overlap that present at the solid surface, on encounter between particles and bubbles. It is postulated that dipoles of frother molecules, owing to their ability to "flip over" (polarise), replace localized electrostatic repulsion by attraction within fractions of a milli- second, as long as the structure of the frother molecules is sufficiently "bulky" to maintain diffuse films (of mixed collector-frother) at the air/liquid interface of bubbles. The relaxation times of dipoles (signifying their "flipping over" ability) have to be shorter than the collision times between particles and bubbles for particle-bubble attachment to be facilitated under dynamic Conditions.

Jan 1, 1984

By K Ehrig, C Lower, V Liebezeit, M Smith, E Macmillan

"Minerals, minerals, minerals. Elements occur in the earth as minerals. If local physical, chemical and structural conditions are conducive to concentrating these minerals to sufficiently high abundances in the earth’s crust, a mineral deposit will form. If technology is available to extract metals from the minerals economically, then you have a mineral resource that will be mined and processed. Determining which minerals are present and quantifying their abundances, textural characteristics (grain size and shape) and how they are intergrown with each other is the realm of the mineralogist. Geologists use this mineralogical data to understand how the mineral deposit formed, how to find high-grade zones within the deposit and where to find other mineral deposits. Metallurgists use this data to design, operate and optimise processing facilities to extract metals from the minerals. The types, quantity and precision/resolution of the mineralogical data required by geologists and metallurgists are different, but are not mutually exclusive of each other. Fortunately, measurement technology is available that is relatively rapid, high volume and low cost, thus enabling ore and gangue mineral characterisation at a historically unprecedented scale of a mineral resource.CITATION:Ehrig, K, Liebezeit, V, Smith, M, Macmillan, E and Lower, C, 2014. Geologists and the value chain – how material characterisation by modern mineralogy can optimise design and operation of processing facilities, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014, pp 5–14 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Aug 18, 2014

A comprehensive analysisof rock structures in non-oriented (axially oriented) drillcore is now available (Laing, in press). The system embodies new concepts which better equip the geologist and engineer to deal from the outset with optimising the acquisition of structural information in drillcore, logging, interpreting, and graphically presenting the results. The few existing techniques for determining orientations of structures are augmented by a wide range of new techniques, and all are brought together into two solution types by considering the underlying Euclidean geometries. Analysis of these solution types in terms of what data are required to implement each solution and what assumptions need to be made, leads to strategies which facilitate intelligent design of different drilling programs for blind and outcropping situations. Drillcorc is variably structurally fertile, depending on the number of different structures present. This concept fosters the selective logging only of the more fertile core. Drillholes are also variably fertile, depending on their orientational relationship to the structures in the host rocks. Structural parameters are either vectorial or non-vectorial. Vectorial structures parameters comprise normal structural orientations plus polar vectors like vergence, younging, shear sense and so on. They can be determined by one of two solution types: external solutions, which use an external reference structure to fix the drillcore and thus permit orientation of all structures within that core, and internal solutions, which use orientational data from a selected structure at three or more different drillhole orientation to determine the unique orientation of that structure, without reference to any external structure.

Jan 1, 1990

By Bhattacharyya A. K

A major constraint on sustaining high rates of production in the collieries of the Southern Coalfield of New South Wales is the inability to develop panels fast enough to match the rates of extraction. This inability is particularly crippling in the case of retreat longwall mining and is due to nearly half the time in roadway drivage being spent on strata control operations such as roof support.Increased rates of roadway drivage and significantly improved roadway stability can be achieved by the application of yield pillars between parallel roadways. These pillars are designed to yield immediately upon formation and transfer the damaging roof loads away from the immediate vicinity of the roadways. Since the width of the yield pillar is the key to their successful application, it was determined through the Yield Pillar Experiment conducted by Kembla Coal and Coke Pty Ltd at West Cliff Colliery.Three experimental headings, each nominally 5.5 m wide and 2.8 m high, were driven to form two tapering pillars. The width of these pillars progressively decreased from 24 m to 3 m over a length of 154 m. The convergence between the roof and floor of the headings measured at various cross-sections corresponding to predetermined widths of the pillars are analysed in this paper to evaluate the stability of the tapering pillars at the different widths.The width of the yield pillar in a three heading development layout at West Cliff Colliery was determined to be 7.5 m.

Jan 1, 1995

By F Shi, W Huang, D Seaman, K Runge

High Voltage Pulse (HVP) technology is a novel process that could potentially be the step-change needed in ore processability in the mining industry. The propensity of high voltage pulses towards mineral-enriched ore particles during treatment makes this technology selective and has the potential to enable ore pre-concentration by size separation. In this study, the potential for pre-concentration of a low grade copper-gold ore sample subjected to HVP pretreatment is investigated and compared to that achievable after mechanical breakage in JKMRC’s rotary breakage tester (JKRBT). The data show that a better pre-concentration result can be achieved after HVP processing than conventional breakage. The gold pre-concentration potential is much better than that observed for copper. 4D HVP pre-concentration characteristic curves were produced to assess the metallurgical performance possible as a function of energy input. The case study shows that when targeting a nominal metal recovery of 90 per cent for gold, the HVP pre-concentration technique can split the low grade ore (0.9 ppm gold and 0.28 per cent copper in the feed size 26.5-37.5 mm) into two components – a low grade oversize material (0.3 ppm gold and 0.15 per cent copper) and a high grade undersize material (1.0 ppm gold and 0.3 per cent copper). The mass split to the low grade is 23 per cent. Under this mass split scenario, gold recovery to screen undersize is 90 per cent and copper recovery is 85 per cent. The HVP treatment of this feed size requires a specific energy (spark) of 2.8 kWh/t.There is further research that would be required before industrial uptake of the HVP pre-concentration technology would be possible. This paper also outlines the research challenges that need to be overcome.CITATION:Huang, W, Shi, F, Antonio, C, Runge, K and Seaman, D, 2018. High-voltage pulse pre-concentration study using a low-grade copper-gold ore, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 327–338 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By Fejes A. J

The U.S. Bureau of Mines installed surface and subsurface instruments at a mine site in Colorado to monitor and characterize the overburden response to longwall mining. Instrumentation included a time-domain reflectometry (TDR) cable, a multiple-point borehole extensometer (MPBX), vertical- deformation surface monuments, and in-mine pressure cells for monitoring abutment, pillar, and gob loads with respect to the longwall face position. The purpose of the study was to collect data that could be analyzed to correlate the design of the mine layout to the resulting overburden failure response. Determining the extent of caving and fracturing is important in the and and semiarid Western United States because of the possible consequences to the fragile underground hydrologic systems upon which the land owners and users depend. This study is unique from past investigations because the overburden contains massive sandstone members that impose special conditions on the caving process and pressure redistribution above the longwall panels. This paper presents the results of this correlation study.

Jan 1, 1992

By S Jayakumari, E Ringdalen, V Canaguier

Silicomanganese (SiMn), containing approximately 16–30 per cent Si, is produced in submerged arc furnaces using various Mn sources and quartz as the primary raw materials, along with fluxes and reductants. In the high-temperature zone known as the coke bed, a silica-rich slag is formed. SiMn is produced through the reduction of SiO2 from the slag. Dissolution of quartz into slags with different compositions, the primary slag formed from the Mn sources and flux before any MnO reduction occurred, representing conditions at the top of the coke bed, and dissolution of quartz into a partially reduced slag to simulate conditions inside the coke bed has been investigated. Experimental investigations were carried out to study the dissolution of quartz particles of varying sizes, 5 mm and 25 mm in synthetic slags with different compositions at temperatures between 1400°C and 1600°C, with varying holding times. Observed results are compared with liquidus compositions and equilibrium phases for original and formed slags. Particle size has been shown to be of little importance for the dissolution. Quartz dissolved more easily in slag at top of the coke bed than slag in the coke bed. Complete dissolution was observed after 30 mins at 1600°C in all cases, but not after 0 mins.

Jun 19, 2024

By Colwell JB, Cronan DS

Manganese nodules cover great areas of deep ocean floor far from land, and have long been considered a major potential resource of nickel, copper, cobalt and perhaps manganese. A decade ago there was a period of intense evaluation of nodule fields, especially those lying between the Clarion and Clipperton Fracture Zones in international waters southeast of Hawaii. There, nodules are abundant and of high grade (average of 2.4% Ni+Cu+Co). The evaluation activity has since declined, but a recent agreement on lease boundaries among all interested parties may lead to a resurgence of work. Indeed, French and Japanese groups have pushed ahead with field and economic assessments.The Southwest Pacific, where there are large nodule fields in the waters of the Cook Islands and Kiribati, has seen considerable assessment of resources in the last ten years, especially through a major field programme of the Japanese Metal Mining Agency. The best prospect appears to be in the South Penrhyn Basin, in Cook Islands waters, where nodules are very abundant but of only moderate grade (1% Ni+Cu+Co). Using a cut-off of 5 kg of wet nodules per m2, Cronan (1989) and Cronan et al. (1989) have estimated the total resource to be a huge 110 million tonnes of Ni+Cu+Co.

Jan 1, 1990

By Y Zhu, W Liang, P Knights

In recent years, Chinese companies have invested billions in Australian mineral exploration, development and processing. In 2008 - 2009 alone, the Foreign Investment Review Board approved $26.4 B of investment. Much of this investment has been by merger and acquisition (M&A) of Australian resources companies. This paper sets out to investigate how Australian CEOs perceive the cultural and institutional challenges in operating Australia mining companies recently acquired by Chinese interests. HofstedeÆs cultural dimensions and institutional theory from management science were used to develop a structured questionnaire, which was subsequently used to conduct telephone interview of the CEOs of six recently acquired mining companies. Analysis of the survey results indicated that, in all cases, few changes were made to the operational management of the Australian companies post-M&A. The three major benefits for Australian companies as a result of the M&A are the ability to; access long-term debt at lower cost; secure finance for growth plans in financially volatile times; and maintain existing management structures. Some perceived negatives involved longer and more convoluted decision-making as a result of Chinese state approval required for investment decisions. The study identified building æGuanxiÆ and an aversion to losing æfaceÆ as important cultural learnings for Australian CEOs. Maintaining effective communications is regarded as key for successful cultural integration.CITATION:Liang, W, Zhu, Y and Knights, P, 2012. Cultural challenges in Chinese/Australian mining mergers and acquisitions - A CEOÆs perspective, in Proceedings International Mine Management 2012, pp 251-260 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 20, 2012

By L Schürmann, R Kendall

Social licence to operate is becoming part of a mining company’s DNA in the same way as health and safety. Consequently, mining companies are receiving increasing pressure from their shareholders to ensure that they add enduring value to the local communities in which they operate. Apart from the shareholders, a company has responsibility to suppliers, customers, employees, the government and the community, which means under the social responsibility model they must be accountable to the other stakeholders. External and internal challenges in mining are increasing the difficulty and complexity of mines to operate. The external mining environment has a big impact on mining operations and is driving matters such as the focus on safety, responsible mining and resource management, sustainability issues, profitability and productivity. Considering this, it is expected that the widespread implementation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related practices across the mining industry in the next ten years will increase, not just for the big players but for juniors as well. Companies, investors, governments and insurers who fail to act on ESG matters are to likely face greater risks. Demonstrating leadership in ESG will ultimately become a differentiating factor and market participants have much to gain from embracing ESG stewardship as part of their competitive advantage. Stock Exchanges have an important role to play in advancing sustainability in the capital markets. It is for this reason that the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative was founded to serve as a global platform for exploring how exchanges can enhance performance on ESG issues and encourage sustainable investment. The SSE initiative provides an effective platform for dialogue between the United Nations, stock exchanges, investors, companies and regulators in the mining industry. The paper will explain why ESG reporting is crucial for the survival of a mining company and how the lack of transparency could be detrimental to its public image and shareholder relations. The paper will also identify bodies that regulate ESG reporting, as well as the available tools that provide guidelines on reporting ESG matters. Key ESG reporting parameters (at a global scale) will also be highlighted.

Jun 22, 2022

Many persons hold the opinion that the metal indus- ries are fortuitous and that the occupation is one of sordid toil, and altogether a kind of business requir- ing not so much skill as labour. But as for myself, when I reflect carefully upon its special points one by one, it appears to be far otherwise. So wrote Georgius Agricola in 1556. He could have been espousing the sentiments of an indus- trial archaeologist investigating mining sites in 1986. South Australia has a very rich legacy from its industrial past-especially in the area of its mining history. Industrial archaeology, which is part of the broad field of archaeology, is concerned with the material and documentary remains of this industrial past. This includes the products and processes of manufacturing, industrial, technolog- ical and engineering activity and their relation- ships to people and the environment. `Archaeology' immediately conjures up the image of excavations in Greece or Eygpt. Excavation however is only a part of archaeological methodology. Industrial archaeology utilizes documentary historical rec- ords combined with field survey techniques (both above and below ground) to create a composite picture of the past. Interest in our recent past has burgeoned in Australia in the last few years. This interest manifests itself in many ways-the unprecedented popularity of Australiana and col- lecting, the plethora of Australian historic films, the growth of the National Trust, local historical societies and genealogical research. Fortunately these trends have been reflected in academic and legislative circles. Various univers- ities, institutes of technology and colleges of advanced education run courses in aspects of cul- tural resource management and conservation of the historic environment. These courses are com- prised of archaeology, architecture, geography, his- tory, materials conservation, museum studies, and national parks management and planning.

Jan 1, 1987

The Rio Tinto Iron Ore group currently estimates grade attributes for mineral resources using ordinary kriging (OK). OK produces a smoothed globally unbiased estimate, but does not capture local variability, which can have significant impact on mine planning and scheduling. The dimensions and the multivariate nature of iron ore deposits make point simulations of whole deposits impractical. With a direct block simulation method the size and speed limitations of point simulations can potentially be overcome, resulting in a viable method for capturing local variability and for providing risk measures into the mine plan and schedules. Some iron ore deposits are highly folded (post mineralisation) and require preprocessing using an unfolding algorithm to properly define the continuity parameters and directions of anisotropy before simulation can proceed. Block co-simulation proceeds in unfolded space and since mine planning require a block-model with regular block-sizes; a regular block-model is unfolded first. This paper discusses a block co-simulation approach that can be used to simulate the irregular blocks resulting from the unfolding process. A section of an iron ore deposit is used for testing the block co-simulation algorithm and the simulation results are compared against the Isatis direct block simulation method. Available blasthole data is also used to validate the behaviour of the block co-simulation algorithm.

Sep 26, 2011

By I Coombes, M Trim, Y Sun, M McRae, A Spiegl, H Lagger, A Amon, P Barraclough, M Villeneuve

The Brisbane Airport Link Project (AirportlinkM7) includes the design and construction of more than 12.5 km of tunnels, with the Kedron interchange including four ramp tunnels that intersect with mainline tunnels and result in caverns with spans of up to 26 m. These caverns are in highly variable ground conditions with less than 35 m of cover underlying residential neighbourhoods and commercial properties. The Kedron caverns were constructed using the sequential excavation method (SEM). Owing to complex geometry and excavation sequence, the caverns were designed based on numerical modelling methods, including both two- and three-dimensional models. These numerical methods were used to develop a suite of support types with excavation sequences for the expected range of ground conditions. A combination of methods that included in-tunnel monitoring (convergence monitoring and extensometers), probe holes, endoscope probes, face mapping and ground settlement measurements were used to verify performance of the tunnel support systems and to select and refine the appropriate support system for each section of the caverns. The construction monitoring data indicated that numerical modelling can provide a good basis for predicting the performance of large-span underground openings in highly variable ground conditions. This paper presents a comparison of the performance of the caverns predicted by state-of-the-art numerical models and the actual measured performance.CITATION:McRae, M, Villeneuve, M, Trim, M, Sun, Y, Barraclough, P, Spiegl, A, Amon, A, Lagger, H and Coombes, I, 2014. Brisbane Airport Link Project – design and construction of the 26 m span Kedron Caverns: comparing monitoring data with the design, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014 , pp 295–306 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

By A Horne, Z Graszkiewicz, D Dettrick, R Evan, B Neal

"Most of VictoriaÆs rivers and aquifers are already fully allocated or reaching full allocation. In regions without a well-established water market, access to water entitlements to facilitate new development is limited. In areas with established water markets, mine developers face an undue cost burden in circumstances where they are only planning to consume a fraction of the water entitlements that they purchase. The challenge for water managers is to ensure protection of water resources and other water users without creating an unnecessary disincentive for those types of developments that return most of the water that they take from water sources. The opportunity for development of a mine is explicitly linked to a particular location and must be developed where a resource is located or it cannot be exploited at all. Regulatory arrangements that facilitate development may have a positive impact on economic development, particularly where water availability is a potentially limiting factor. Net volume licensing has the potential to allow increased economic outcomes through improved licensing of access to water. Net volume licensing differs from traditional water licensing in that it authorises access to water on the basis of ænet useÆ rather than æthe gross volume takenÆ. This paper asks under what conditions net volume licensing is likely to be feasible and effective. In particular, the paper examines the information and accuracy requirements to allow net volume licensing decisions to be made. This work is based around five case studies in Victoria that were used to examine the potential for net volume licensing for mines and quarries. Assessing a potential net volume licensing arrangement requires the regulating authority to have an understanding of the inputs and outputs of water to a site. In contrast, assessment of take and use licences consider only a single input. It was concluded that the conditions that lend themselves to net volume licensing include: well understood water inputs and outputs, including appropriate accuracy of information where the location of site water inputs and outputs are the same where the timing of extraction and discharge can be managed to minimise impact on the water resource.A key remaining challenge is establishing an accounting framework that allows net volume licensing under current water resource limits. CITATION:Graszkiewicz, Z, Horne, A, Neal, B, Evan, R and Dettrick, D, 2013. The practicalities of implementing net volume licensing of water use in mines and quarries - a discussion based on Victorian case studies, in Proceedings Water in Mining 2013, pp 241-250 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Nov 26, 2013

By M Orunesu Preiata

The Odysseus Project is part of the high-grade Cosmos Nickel Complex that lies 30 km north of Leinster. The Odysseus definitive feasibility study (DFS) was approved by the Western Areas’ board in October 2018. Early works commenced in January 2019 with rehabilitation of the existing underground infrastructure. In June 2022 Western Areas was acquired by IGO Ltd. The project is now well advanced to meet its target of first concentrate. The project included the construction of a haulage shaft. The design of the hoisting equipment and the shaft barrel evolved from the initial DFS design stage to the final execution, as the data were made available from the initial investigation to the data gathered during execution (although this did not change from its initial concept). The design philosophy for the haulage shaft incorporated, from the beginning a multidisciplinary approach with inputs from three main areas involved in such projects, namely excavation techniques, geotechnical assessments, and infrastructure construction. This interaction is a fundamental component for the success of such a critical project. In fact, each of these three areas influences each other in a cyclical manner, triggering a continuous review of the project inputs and outputs, while maintaining the original project goals: the design of an infrastructure able to deliver the desired throughput. The throughput dictates the infrastructure that needs to be built, which in turn controls the size of the shaft. The key assumption applied to this is that the rock mass can accommodate the excavation void, and the excavation technique with its tolerances and limits that ultimately need to be verified back with the initial assumptions used for the infrastructure design. The aim of the paper is to present a case study of the experience gained with the Odysseus hoisting shaft and to propose a possible logic path for similar projects elsewhere.

Mar 29, 2023

My roots span four generations. My great grandfather, Christian Frederick Fisher, along with twenty-one others was drowned in the New Australasian mine disaster at Creswick in Victoria in 1882. My grandfather, also named Christian Frederick Fisher, escaped and then followed a career of shaft sinking for large companies and operating small mines (very unprofitably according to my father) when funds allowed. My father, an excellent practical mining and mechanical engineer, was also a small miner and my early entry into the industry was, like many before me, very basic. My introductions to the business end of a No. 4 shovel, drilling with hand steel and later with jack hammers without the benefit of airlegs, feeding heavy cordwood to hungry boilers and felling trees for mine timber soon dispelled any illusions I had that mining was a bed of roses.Before it became well known I knew "Life was not meant to be easy".In a family-owned small gold mine in a remote part of Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland I was fortunate in obtaining an excellent grounding in reef and deep alluvial mining. Operating in vertical and underlie shafts the variable ground conditions often required close timbering. Steam pumps were used underground and steam winders for hoisting.The complete absence of municipal or government infrastructure in this remote mining field threw responsibility on each mine operator to be self-sufficient, and responsible for mine development and installation of crushing and milling equipment, accommodation and water supply. Conditions, although harsh, were acceptable in the 1930s, and fostered great self-reliance.The first crushing from our Black Cat Mine in 1935 returned nearly 200 oz from 10 tons of ore. Gold was then worth $13 an ounce compared to about $400 an ounce today; but in those depression years of the 1930s our operation was profitable.This basic education not only returned dividends when confronted with difficult mining problems, but created a deep respect for the miners who develop the small mines and who continue to contribute to the industry today, often under difficult conditions.Australia and mining are synonymous. The industry has been immortalised by the famous historian, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, in his book "The Rush that Never Ended".Initial gold discoveries were concealed and exploration was frowned upon by authority as being disruptive to early rural development. But with the discovery of gold in the Bathurst area of New South Wales by Hargreaves in 1851, the rush to the gold fields began followed by an influx of migrants. The traumatic effect on industry and society that followed, created the pattern of the love-hate relationship that at times became temporarily submerged, but is so evident today.In the harsh economic climate of the 19th century with low wages and no welfare, the opportunity to wrest riches from the earth was literally "rushed" by the adventurous, the poor, the rich, people from all walks of life. Pressures developed on preFederation Governments to provide law, order and infrastructure to the rushes that have never ended.

Jan 1, 1984

By J Geronimo, P Kumar, Z Yussupova, M Yahyaei, M Powell

This work goes beyond the general perception of how the well-known mine to mill process can be applied, by applying deeper knowledge along the mining chain. Grade deportment and dilution are considered at the mining stage, and modelled with the new SMI blast movement simulator, linking with the block model data. Assessing the shift to a considerably more competent section of the orebody is quantified via substantial milling trials at standard and higher-intensity blasts. These were stockpiled for batch processing through the mill to ensure feed integrity. The trial work included operating the mill at widely different fillings to develop Grindcurve milling responses. Additionally, model informed process control is initiated via a mill prediction tool.It has been found that accounting for blast movement for the higher intensity blasts could generate additional value of around $1.5M per blast. With the high-intensity blast and changing mill control, the plant was easily able to exceed projected mill throughputs with the far more competent Pipeline ore. Strategies to shift the workload and debottleneck the milling circuit were proposed and proven during the milling trials, demonstrating an increase in throughput of 7 per cent despite running at a lower SAG mill speed, and potential of 16 per cent for increasing the SAG mill to standard operating speed. A number of process improvement opportunities have been identified to enhance current productivity and ensure long term capability to process the considerably more competent future ores. All of this is being linked in with the major digitisation program at the Barrick Cortez site, with an objective of linking all the data into a mine-wide process optimisation system, that can embed the processes by providing process-wide data access and production support via the future dynamic models linking ore body knowledge to productivity along the full process chain.CITATION:Powell, M, Yahyaei, M, Geronimo, J, Yussupova, Z and Kumar, P, 2018. The designed approach to mill liner optimisation – experience at Pustynnoye mine, Kazakhstan, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 595–612 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By A R. Sale

This paper highlights two aspects of the mineral sands industry in Australia: the development of the industry from approximately 1870 through to 1980, and the author’s experience in the industry from 1966 to date.The first real heavy mineral (HM) mining in Australia started in 1870 with the mining of heavy mineral slicks on the beaches along the east coast of Australia. The real potential of Australian heavy minerals was however only realised in the 1920s with the first production of a heavy mineral concentrate that was shipped to Canada for processing. Post WW 11 and the Korean War, Australia was the largest producer of mineral sands products in the world as well as a significant developer of associated separation equipment and technology. The number of producing companies in the east coast peaked at 33 in 1957, was reduced to ten by 1965, and subsequently further reduced to five in 1980 as a result of potential mining areas being declared National Parks or Conservation Reserves. Today there is one company, Unimin Australia Pty Ltd (formally Consolidated Rutile Ltd) operating on the east coast. In contrast there were three companies on the west coast in 1965, four companies in 1980, and four companies today (albeit not the same companies).There have been considerable ups and downs for the industry in Australia, however world wide it was renowned in the past as being an industry that attracted numerous interesting and innovative characters that played a major role in developing it into the vibrant industry that it is today. This, given the current climate, is predicted to continue into the future.The author has been continuously involved in the industry for over 45 years from 1966, initially as an electrician at Consolidated Rutile Ltd culminating in the role of General Manager/President of Iluka Resources Limited USA, prior to his retirement in 2009. His exposure has been world wide and has covered all aspects of the industry but in the main focused on project development and operational areas. During this time there have been significant technological advances, yet to some extent the basic principles have not changed at all. Some of the most noteworthy advances include the development of the Wright Spiral in 1977, the development of the Reading High Intensity Wet Magnet (WHIMS), the rare earth magnets, the CRL floating thickener and the improvement of analytical techniques. From a safety, health and environmental perspective there has been significant advances that the industry has much to be proud of. These include wetland restoration both in Australia and in the US, the restoration of farmland in Virginia and Capel, and the re-establishment of native species, for example at Eneabba and Richards Bay to name but a few.

Oct 5, 2011

Variety among deserts is nearly as great as among other climatic environments. Common to most deserts, and to areas downwind from them, is the dominance of aeolian transport of surface material, at least during some seasons of the year. The result is dilution of local surface materials with varying proportions of chemically uniform fine sand and silt, often imported by the wind from remote areas. Fortunately, desert pavement,.even though separated from bedrock by a meter or more of nearly pure loess, is simply a diluted reflection of nearby bedrock. Infiltration of loess through the surface debris and the rudimentary soil-forming processes in the desert usually preserve the integrity of the pavement. This pavement, or its "downstream" derivatives, provides a suitable sample for exploration geochemistry if proper care is taken to circumvent the aeolian dilution. The simplest and most commonly used method of circumventing the dilution is to use a coarse fraction of soils or stream sediments, discarding or retaining the finer fraction depending upon the magnitude of the dilution. Where the coarse surface debris is composed of rock chips representative of the bedrock sources, the method is successful. Under most circumstances the coarse fraction of the surface material will give a fair representation of gross lithology and will occasionally give an indication of mineral- ization. The major drawback to this approach is that selective weathering and erosion in the vicinity of mineral deposits often lead to the loss of ore minerals into the finer fraction, leaving a coarse residue enriched in feldspar and particularly in quartz; thus, the geochemical signature from a mineral deposit is effectively reduced or completely masked. The second most commonly used method to overcome aeolian dilution, and probably the most effective at present, is to use a heavy- mineral concentrate. This approach presupposes that the chemical signature sought resides in a heavy mineral. Fortunately, the arid weathering cycle is conducive to the formation of a wide variety of secondary ore

Jan 1, 1988