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Burr Mineral Resource has: ?Grade / Thickness / Tonnage ?Dry Caprock ?Low Carnallite ?Low Clay / Insolubles ?Flat & Continuous Deposit ?Proper depth

May 1, 2009

By Wilfrid Comeau

Vibrograms, which last significantly longer than the actual blast (say 10 to 15 cycles or more), may be signalling an elastic response, which is not uniquely blast related. For example, geophones mounted on a part of a structure, which can elastically resonate at a frequency included in the seismogram, may not show the structure’s real reaction to the blast. This resonance usually amplifies the ground vibration. This contribution examines one particular case where blasting excited and amplified a resonant ground response, and the method used to significantly reduce or eliminate this undesirable condition.

Jan 1, 2007

How do you think the US Bureau of Mines closing will affect SME? The demise of the bureau represents a challenge, an opportunity and, above all, new responsibilities for our profession. A lot of good professionals are seeking new positions. A lot of worthwhile research is available for transfer to the private sector. Logic dictates that worthwhile projects of any defunded government activities should find support in the private sector. The bureau may be gone but its legacy is deeply rooted in the profession. The bureau’s contributions will be remembered as long as there are mines and miners. Its1994 research program was divided into three major areas: environ-mental technology; health, safety and mining technology; and minerals and materials science. There must be a place in either the government or private sector to continue these worthwhile activities.

Jan 1, 1996

By Hanes J

More than 200 bursts in coal occurred at Leichhardt Colliery prior to December 1978 during mine development in the 6 m thick Gemini seam at depths approximating 400 m. Three large bursts each displaced more than 300 tonnes of coal and stone. Two of these which occurred in continuous miner developments, are described and compared. Geological settings, mining strains including induced cleavage and roof failures associated with bursts are described. A shotfiring technique replaced mechanised mining following a major incident at the colliery. Present mining procedures, the apparent improvement in stability of workings and ongoing geotechnical monitoring programme are discussed.

Jan 1, 1980

By B. Cavender

Safety departments have traditionally been held responsible for the safety performance of their division or company. This approach leads to a lack of ownership of safety issues by the larger organization. An alternative paradigm is significantly more effective: the members of the work force (managers as well as workers) are fully responsible and accountable for safe production. The safety department is not extinct, however. Its role has changed, to focus on training, litigation, and external relationships such as community relations. This approach was implemented at BHP Copper's Superior mine and mill in Arizona. By obtaining the genuine commitment of the work force to accident-free production, the mill's MSHA incident rate immediately dropped from 7.4 to zero. The mill also ran one year with no MSHA citations. When this philosophy was implemented at the divisional level, the division's incident rate decreased from 9.5 to 1.1,an 88-percent reduction in six months.

Jan 1, 2000

By D. P. Ziegler

Formulas relating economic optimum busbar cross sectional areas to busbar cost, electric price and financial parameters are reviewed and revised. Application of the formulas is illustrated with discussion of the appropriate choice of parameter values and the sensitivity of the optimum to the parameters. The extension of the single busbar concept to optimization of more complicated arrangements of bus for smelting pots is complicated by the constraint of obtaining a specified current distribution. An example problem illustrates the optimization of a section of a bus network containing a fork, with the imposed limitation of achieving a specified uniformity in the current. In cases where the current in the individual conductors may vary, Kelvin's law does not apply. Further extension of the technique to a full pot set of conductors poses additional problems which are discussed, but whose solution has not yet been accomplished. Aluminium 2006 45th Annual Conference of Metallurgists ofCIM Montreal, Quebec, Canada Edited by

Jan 1, 2006

By Rodrigo Werneck Athouguia

O cerne desse trabalho consiste em demonstrar os resultados obtidos pela implementação de um programa de Lubrificação Confiável na Samarco Ubú com objetivo de reduzir custos através da busca contínua pela lubrificação classe mundial. A Samarco Ubú entende que uma lubrificação de qualidade contribui diretamente para os equipamentos, aumentando a vida útil. A gerência de manutenção lançou no final de 2013 um programa de Lubrificação Confiável com objetivo de buscar continuamente as melhores práticas de lubrificação no mundo.Esse programa abrange desde o recebimento do lubrificante até a manutenção do mesmo no equipamento em condições ótimas de trabalho, capacitação da equipe e as melhores práticas de lubrificação.

Aug 16, 2017

By Corale L. Brierley

The depressed economic condition resulting from normal cyclic behavior, a more fundamental structural alteration, or both, is a mandate for change within the mining industry. Although several strategies for change have been proposed, the option of applying high technology processes to this smokestack industry offers the greatest opportunity for regaining global competitiveness and a new vitality. Research and development to secure new technologies require a corporate commitment for substantive change, a tech¬nologically enlightened management, a well¬funded and stable science and engineering effort, and a dedicated and motivated technical team--features in short supply in the mining industry today. However, an alternative to in-house development of frontier technologies is available to this beleagured industry through entrepreneurial, high-tech companies. These entities, with their dedicated focus toward product development, motivated and streamlined teams, high productivity and efficiency, and low costs offer a unique opportunity for large corporations to obtain high-tech products and services. These commodities are available through traditional commercial channels and an array of creative business arrangements. The latter offers notable benefits to large companies including windows on frontier technologies and mitigation of risk. Likewise, entrepreneurial companies profit through manufacturing and marketing relationships and an expanded financial base.

Jan 1, 1985

By G. A. Johnson

Basic management principles will be discussed (as they apply to minerals education efforts), especially in light of the changing nature of volunteerism in today’s society. Also, the “minerals education tree” will be presented, along with public opinion / public policy realities.

Jan 1, 2001

By Jason N. Scott

CFA piling is a ?blind? construction process that relies heavily on the rig instrumentation to produce sound piles. If the data measured and recorded during construction can be made available to engineers and managers within hours after construction then there are many economic and quality control benefits that can be realised. A state of the art CFA instrumentation and data management process has been developed in the UK. The key components of the instrumentation, GSM data service and the central database are described. Many benefits to the business have been realised and, where possible, these are quantified.

Jan 1, 2006

By M. C. Roberts

The consumption of industrial minerals, like most other commodities produced from the earth, depends on the demand for the goods and services that use these materials. Minerals are not generally used directly by final consumers (table salt is a notable exception) but instead are used to either make products that are then purchased by customers, or the minerals are used to make industrial products that eventually contribute towards producing other goods and services. Therefore the demand for industrial minerals in most uses is derived from the ultimate demand for goods and services by consumers. The problem for producers of industrial minerals is that the demand for their mineral product fluctuates greatly in response to the changes in the production of goods and services over the course of the business cycle. In this respect, the producers of industrial mineral are innocent victims, subject to market fluctuations outside of their control. Because the demand for most minerals depends on the demand for the product and because minerals typically make up a minor portion of the costs of producing the product, changes in the price of the mineral often do not influence demand for it to a significant degree in the short run. This is described as a very low price elasticity of demand, as shown by the steep slope of the hypothetical demand curve in Figure 1. This demand curve shows that changing the price of the mineral does not alter the quantity demanded very much, but shifts in the demand curve will be the important determinant of the quantity of the mine.ra1 that is sold. The shifts are caused by the changing demand for the products using the mineral over the course of the business cycle.

Jan 1, 1994

By F. Alsobrook

Industrial minerals are receiving increased attention by metals, coal and other companies seeking to diversify and stabilize earnings. Each industrial mineral has a unique set (and sub-sets) of business dynamics, however, and the diversity can present a bewildering maze to the corporate planner. Shrugging off this complexity and relying on serendipity for entry opportunities often results in unsuitable acquisitions. An effective alternative used in exploration can also be applied to strategic planning. By providing focus and direction, this flexible methodology can prevent wasting corporate resources on random pursuits and result in a quicker, more satisfactory achievement of diversification goals.

Jan 1, 1990

The global recession of the 1980s drove commodity prices down and intensified cost competition. The 1990s saw a restructuring of the mining industry with the survivors adopting new technology, significantly increasing workplace productivity and reducing capital and operating costs. Major changes in mining industry business strategies evolved in the late-1980s including the development of miner - supplier - manufacturer - partnerships, cultural changes in work practices and common goals between the partners to reduce the cost of production. These industry trends are putting new demands on mining machine manufacturers and dealers both on the `hard' side of the machine business, such as research and product development programs, and on the `soft' side in terms of business processes, use of human resources and communication. The paper describes several mining industry trends as identified by a large supplier to the industry, and discusses the impact they are having, and will have, on mining machine development and the provision of product support services to the industry.

Jan 1, 1995

By O. A. Bascur

It is difficult to analyse the economics without an integrated view of mine transactions, stockpile inventories, process flows and assays. The lack of integration of mining and metallurgical information with sufficient detail to analyse and act is a problem. However, to take action requires real time information from manufacturing assets, corrected for gross errors from trucks, shovels, conveyors, faulty sensors, bad instrument calibration. Validation methods use process models to identify inconsistent information in the case of corrupt actionable information. This paper presents new strategies that transform the data into business information for continuous improvement and optimization. This technical presentation will review recent implementations enabling large metallurgical complexes to improve their data quality for overall production and energy management. A competence center emerges as an enabler for implementing operational intelligence. The evolution of Web services to troubleshoot plant information and to collaborate at the enterprise level is presented.

Jan 1, 2014

By Alexandre Keunecke Hardt

A dinâmica competitiva do mercado globalizado demanda informações confiáveis no dia-a-dia das empresas. Essas informações são preciosas, pois estabelecem vantagens que permitem que as empresas mantenham suas lideranças no mercado. Enquanto sistemas de Business Intelligence (BI) normalmente pertencem ao mundo da gestão e da estratégia, os conceitos da Indústria 4.0 trazem um conjunto de novas oportunidades para obtenção e extração de dados direto do chão-de-fábrica, permitindo com isso que decisões operacionais e táticas suportadas por esses dados sejam tomadas quase em tempo real. Uma solução BI desenvolvida em tecnologia OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) possui na etapa de ETL (Extract Transform Load) um de seus maiores gargalos. Este trabalho propõe uma ferramenta de processamento desenvolvida em Spark, denominada neste trabalho como BI 4.0, que resolve esse problema ao realizar o ETL de forma escalável, distribuída e com alta performance, trazendo ganhos significativos para o negócio.

Aug 17, 2017

By M. Bunch

"THE SUPER CYCLE IS GONE The utopia of the rising sales volume, for mining companies from 2002-2011, was entirely due to rising production volume and prices. The Australian mining sector experienced an 18 percent annual growth rate in revenues, and 11 percent growth in prices. (1) However, EBIT remained flat during the same time period. In addition, Australian mines saw a 7 percent annual decline in both labor and capital productivity. (2) Mines in the U.S. and Canada produced similar results, whereas the world-wide mining industry has seen a productivity drop of 40% since 2001. (3) The decade “Bull Run” of rising prices was trashed by companies that chased low-quality assets while increasing debt on their balance sheet. It seemed everyone believed the “super cycle” would last forever, while completely ignoring the history of cycle downturns. Worldwide mining operations are as much as 28 percent less productive today than a decade ago, according to new McKinsey research. The results from McKinsey’s new MineLens Productivity Index (MPI), which adjusts for declining ore grades and mine cost inflation, show that the pronounced decline in productivity is evident across different commodities and is seen in most mining players and geographies. (4) McKinsey sees three important areas of focus to address the root causes of productivity decline. 1) Embed effective management operating systems at mines 2) Prioritized operational excellence and capabilities development 3) Focus on innovation Reality has now settled back in and companies are struggling to make ends meet. The basic management staple of controlling costs and improving the production/productivity that was lost in the excitement is now back in play. Traditional cost-cutting approaches, such as across-the-board spending cuts, layoffs, and hiring freezes are only short-term initiatives and will not permanently improve a company’s cost structure or improve long- term competitiveness. This can only be accomplished by engaging front-line employees and empowering them to make necessary improvements in their daily work. It is time for leaders to lead and develop cultures of continuous improvement within their organizations in order to sustain their mining project to the end of mine life. Successful operating managers require two different skill sets of Leadership and Management; knowing how to lead people in their organization and how to manage the work they do."

Jan 1, 2016

By P. J. Petit

"The complex planning required to achieve any planned production yields multiple and dissociated responses over the life of project (LOP). The customary decision-making process negates the possibilities of developing optimized and integral solutions from operating levels up to business and strategic levels. This results in an inefficient project or overall underperformance of the operation.In the project setting, disconnected trade-offs and improved performance studies become inadequate, because they are site-specific and use only a few comparative parameters. They are often based on a small data-set.Decisions taken to achieve overall objectives require the correct determination and dissemination of key performance indicators (KPIs). The KPIs indicate efficiency in operation, whereby the marginal rate of technical substitution corresponds to the rate of production. It is the necessary condition for optimization. Performance realization for sustainability follows optimization modelling, the latter often being presented with financial results such as business net present value (NPV). It considers techno-financial constraints and provides a strategic and aligned outlook of KPI decisions for an enhanced and integrated outcome.This paper explains a mining case study that is rendered efficient, and through business optimization (BO) short-term and sustainable targets are reached. Business optimization increases the NPV by 14.7%. This is achieved by challenging conventional decision-making associated with maximizing business value by including environmental externalities within the LOP."

Jan 1, 2016

By Roger Davieds

FACT: a company?s profitability (or loss) is directly related to the efficiency and effectiveness of its maintenance operation. Fact: in order to contribute in a positive manner, maintenance must understand what its true purpose is in the organization. It is easy to say our main purpose is to increase: ?equipment uptime ?OEE ?asset life cycle We all understand this; so does management.

May 1, 2010

By G Campbell-Cowan

Much has been written about the fact that most transformation efforts disappoint. This paper addresses factors that should be taken into consideration in planning and implementing transformation programs to ensure success.In 2009, St Barbara commenced a transformation program to address issues of chronic poor quarterly operational performance; financial pressure caused by the unreliable operational performance; and an inability to develop business plans with integrity and to reliably deliver on the plans. As a result of a number of years of disappointing operational performance, St BarbaraÆs culture was not conducive to business success.This paper uses lessons learnt during St BarbaraÆs transformation program to highlight key characteristics of change programs that can generate significant sustainable benefits. While there were many benefits from the transformation program, the most significant impacts of St BarbaraÆs program have been transformation of the companyÆs culture and capability of people as business leaders; the establishment of a business systems framework to guide the design and development of systems; and developing support functions, for example centralised procurement and supply chain, business improvement and technical services.CITATION:Campbell-Cowan, G, 2012. Business transformation - Lessons learnt for successful change, in Proceedings International Mine Management 2012, pp 135-142 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 20, 2012

"Butte originated as a placer mining camp. The first gold discovery was made in the year 1864, near what is now Main Street. Placer mining was vigorously prosecuted along Silver Bow Creek and in Missoula, Buffalo, Town and Parrot gulches for a period of five years, at the end of which time, in 1870, the camp was practically deserted. In the meantime, the quartz veins so prominently traceable over the hillsides were located, the first location being made by W. L. Farlin and called the Black Chief claim, and later restaked as the Travona. Reasoning from the presence of the gold placers, free-milling gold ores were eagerly looked for by the early prospectors. Claims covering the great Rainbow and other silver lodes were located in the sixties. The presence of valuable silver ores in these veins caused the staking out of many claims, believed to be valuable only for silver, but which later proved to be enormous copper producers.Treatment of these early discovered rich ores was first attempted in arrastres. Later, stamp mills were built. The Centennial dropping 10 stamps, was the first, and in 1875 Mr. Farlin built the Dexter 10-stamp mill, intro¬ducing chloridizing-roasting. More successful processes were soon introduced and several large mills built, among which were the Alice, Lexington, Silver Bow, Moulton and Bluebird, in all representing a total of 290 stamps. The silver mining industry reached its zenith in 1887 and declined rapidly in the early nineties, following the sudden drop in the price of silver in 1892.During this period of silver mining activity the business of copper mining was making rapid strides. Development of the veins, located as silver veins, had uncovered copper ore in many instances. There was great activity in ""claim staking'' in the years from 1871 to 1879, during which period most of the claims covering the present productive copper area were located."

Jan 1, 1913