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By M G. Wansbone, R Bhargava

The inferred ground conditions for the proposed mined cross passages at the northern end of the Waterview Connection tunnels consist of an overburden of alluvial and residual soils, with mixed face geology of highly weathered to unweathered extremely weak rock. This paper describes three-dimensional (3D) finite difference analyses undertaken to evaluate the stability of the cross passage headings and to validate the proposed sequence of excavation. The analyses undertaken incorporated the influence of the construction of the mainline tunnels and the breakout opening in the segmental lining for construction of cross passages.The stability analyses were carried out using FLAC3D™, version 4.0 (by Itasca Consulting Group) by progressive reduction of shear strength parameters to obtain a failure condition and estimate a factor of safety. For each step of strength reduction, corresponding increments of displacements of several points on heading faces were monitored. The stability obtained from numerical analyses was compared with analytical solutions. Interpretation of results of drained analyses indicated instability of the upper 2 m of heading face within the highly weathered rock mass. Additional analyses were undertaken by including grouted fibreglass dowels to reinforce the heading face. The results of the additional analyses showed significant reduction in displacements and yielding of ground around the face. The proposed temporary support comprised face reinforcement using grouted fibreglass dowels in conjunction with canopy tubes and perimeter support of steel fibre reinforced shotcrete. The stability of the construction sequence, which was related to the specific requirement of the proposed excavation equipment, was validated.CITATION:Wansbone, M G and Bhargava, R, 2014. Analysis of stability and design of face support for cross passages – Waterview Connection tunnels, Auckland, New?Zealand, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014, pp 339–344 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

By C Hamilton

Stawell Gold Mines (SGM) is an underground mining operation located in Victoria, Australia. The mining method employed is long hole retreat stoping, utilising up and downholes and artificial concrete pillars. Stawell is currently mining the Golden Gift and Magdala orebodies.Access to the Magdala and Golden Gift deposits is via 6.0 m wide by 5.5 m high declines developed at a gradient of one in eight to one in seven from the surface to a depth of 1500 m, with a planned depth of 1650 m. From the declines, cross cutting drives are developed to intersect the orebodies. Orebodies in the Gift system are discrete lodes which are generally mined from a bottom up centre retreat to minimise geotechnical stresses.Ore development fronts are currently located between 1000 m and 1500 m below surface, with all ore being hauled to the surface using a fleet of 60 tonne underground trucks. With the use of conventional pyrotechnic long period (LP) delays, broken rock of combined ore and waste is thrown 10 m from the face and the materials hauled to the surface. The majority of the mullock from development is consumed in the underground as backfill.With the use of Orica Mining Services eDev™ Electronic Blasting System for Tunnelling, the waste is thrown up to 40 m from the face, while majority of the ore is left 5 - 10 m from the face, effectively segregating ore and waste. This enables significant recovery of gold values with minimal loss and significantly reduced dilution. By using this technique in ore drives with a 30:70 waste to ore ratio, SGM is able to haul 24 000 tonnes less mullock to the surface annually. Resue mining is applied to narrow vein headings and gives a 40 per cent grade increase at the faces as well as increasing the economic footprint of development. This will also contribute to an improved grade profile for the year from 3.98 - 4.16 g/t Au and allow extra capacity for ore haulage from stoping and for milling.This paper describes the application and the successful blast outcomes achieved using the eDev™ Electronic Blasting Systems for resue mining at SGM. Results to date, since commencement in March 2010, have been achieving significant benefits in terms of ore grade as confirmed by geologists grab sample grades. Face advance have also shown improvement with better breakage of perimeter holes giving improved face profile. These benefits are delivering increased productivity and safety performance when compared to other resue firing techniques.

Mar 21, 2011

By H Wang, D Wang

Mine dust is the most serious occupation hazard in coalmines. And many coal workers suffer from pneumoconiosis because of long-term inhalation of respirable dust. Reducing the dust concentration of workplaces by effective technical means is an important way to prevent coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP). In order to overcome deficiencies in existing dust control technology for underground mining, especially the disadvantage of water spray technology mounted on roadheaders or continuous miners, the authors developed an integrated dust suppression technology utilising foam for fully mechanised heading faces. This paper presents an overview of the principles, materials, equipment and application of this technology. Among these, a jet type foaming device and a green foaming agent were developed, which can realise the goal of efficient preparation of foam. In addition, an arc fan nozzle used for foam spraying was invented, which can effectively cover and enwrap the dust produced by the roadheader at the cutting point and achieve the goal of efficient utilisation of foam. This dust suppression application of the proposed foam technology was investigated on fully mechanised heading faces. The results show that the dust concentration was cut down significantly with a dust suppression efficiency of greater than 85 per cent, an increase of over 30 percentage points compared to the water spray system. This study demonstrates that this foam technology can play an important role in dust suppression on fully mechanised heading faces, which provides an important method to improve the working environment and protect coal workers’ health.CITATION:Wang, D and Wang, H, 2015. Technology of dust suppression by foam for fully mechanised heading face, in Proceedings The Australian Mine Ventilation Conference, pp 177–182 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 31, 2015

By B Reynolds

The process design for green- or brown-fields metallurgical plants typically starts with two fundamental elements: the detailed mass and energy balance and the plant flow availability. The detailed mass and energy balance is generally developed using process flow-sheet simulation software and represents the steady-state operation of the plant at normal operating conditions. The plant flow availability, also known as a range of other industry-specific terms such as ‘flow availability’ and ‘operating factor’, describes the ratio of plant production to the steady-state mass balance. These elements are then used together as the basis for equipment selection and design.Plant flow availability takes into account a myriad of production loss factors including planned and breakdown maintenance, feed availability and composition changes, variability in operational performance and the interaction of batch and continuous unit operations. The combined impact of these loss factors are complex and as such plant flow availability is usually derived using a top-down approach such as comparison to an existing operation, a group of similar operations or to an anecdotal ‘industry leading’ benchmark. These top-down approaches are fraught with risk however, as they cannot factor in changes to equipment selection, flow-sheet or plant operating philosophy, and can result in over-expenditure of scarce capital or shortfalls in plant production.The use of dynamic simulation to provide a bottom-up alternative to quantifying the plant flow availability in metallurgical plant design has been growing rapidly in recent years. It provides a technique to quantify the combined impact of the loss factors described here and a tool to support process design and equipment selection by facilitating a range of sensitivity and what-if analyses. This paper presents a case study of how dynamic simulation has recently been used to support the

Aug 8, 2011

By C Artica

Two quantitative methods for Mineral Resource classification have been applied to a copper skarn deposit beneath a large open pit that is mining a world-class porphyry complex. A drill hole spacing study (DHSS) using the single block kriging method (SBK) and a conditional simulation method (CS) were applied to the skarn deposit and the results compared. Inputs to both processes included the proposed mining rate and stope designs to estimate the likelihood of achieving grade and metal production targets. Mineral Resource classification of the deposit considers the relative precision of tons, grade and metal predictions over quarterly and annual production periods. These relative precision estimates are calculated at 90 per cent confidence interval (CI). The SBK method represented the production period as a single large block. Kriging estimates were performed in the large block for various synthetic drill hole grids, and the estimation errors derived. The error was assumed to be normally distributed due to the large block size and quantity of samples, allowing CIs to be deduced. The CS method followed a conventional sequential Gaussian simulation workflow where grades were simulated with a 5 ft × 5 ft × 5 ft grid node spacing inside mineralisation domains. Each realisation was then averaged up to monthly production volumes represented by a combination of designed stopes, and the coefficient of variation (CV) for the averaged grade was calculated. CI on the relative precision of grade predictions were then deduced from the CVs. The two methods produced similar results; despite being calculated independently. CS results were used to report uncertainty in the proposed life-of-mine plan and highlight areas for additional drilling. SBK results were used as the basis for Mineral Resource classification as this method has been previously applied to the skarn deposit.

May 24, 2023

By H Chalcraft, T D. Mullen

Conditions encountered at a recently completed brownfields mining project provided valuable insight into, and development of, techniques for working in and around known underground mining voids in an open cut environment. The careful application of underground blasting principles to a pit environment and successful excavation whilst maintaining appropriate stand-off distances were two primary areas of innovation enabling the success of the project.Mary Mac Hill is a gold deposit situated less than 2 km south-west of the town of Laverton, Western Australia. It is owned and mined by Crescent Gold Limited. Previous underground mining by various other mining companies has left an extensive network of underground horizontal development, subvertical stopes and shafts, some of which daylighted at surface. This was identified as potentially posing substantial risks, which would prevent the application of conventional mining methods. Two major stopes were located under a hard banded iron ridge topped by a peak of cap, connected variously by narrow drives and vertical development. Due to the proximity of the first of these stopes to the surface, its dimensions and governed by procedures and advice provided by externally engaged engineers, Crescent Gold could not access the area of the ridge immediately overlying the stope using conventional open cut mining methods. This was the first of many hurdles surmounted in mining this deposit.The following report outlines how the challenges this geometrically complex deposit presented. Solving these problems enabled the team to mine the contained gold ore to a completed design, without subjecting personnel or mining equipment to harm due to a void breach incident. This paper outlines the numerous complications and difficulties Mary Mac Hill posed and explains the strategies developed to overcome them. The report also presents technical mass blasting details explaining two of the critical crown pillar blasts.CITATION:Mullen, T D and Chalcraft, H, 2012. Mary Mac Hill - The challenges and strategies of successful open cut mining: A complex underground gold deposit riddled with a network of complicated voids, in Proceedings Eighth Open Pit OperatorsÆ Conference , pp 89-96 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 18, 2012

By S Long, D Carnovale, L Louwrens

The Mt Wright underground mine (MTW) is located near the town of Ravenswood in north Queensland and is operated by Carpentaria Gold – a wholly owned subsidiary of Resolute Mining Limited.The Mt Wright mine has gone through many stages, from the conception and implementation of the world first ‘sub-level shrinkage’ stoping (SLS) with continuous fill mining method in 2010, through to steady state production. These have been outlined in detail in papers presented by Mackay (2011) and Mackay, Long and Koen (2014) at previous Underground Operators Conferences.Since the last paper was presented, MTW has experienced significant change in two key areas.The first significant change was the discovery of a previously unknown hazard in the form of flat rilling events (FREs) from closed drawpoints (DPs). These events are believed to be unique to MTW and pose a significant risk to both the safety of personnel and the business as a whole. The paper will discuss this hazard and the evolution of the controls and practices that have been introduced to mitigate the risk posed by the identified hazards. The material involved in these events is extremely dry, fine and hot.The second significant change is an altered stress regime bought on in part by a change in the production front orientation and a general deterioration in ground conditions in some areas of the mine. This has caused some production interruptions at MTW. The second half of the paper will describe the challenges encountered, the mechanisms behind these challenges and the strategies implemented to safely return MTW production to planned levels.It is believed that other operations can learn from the issues mentioned above, and the paper has been written with this in mind.`CITATION:Long, S, Carnovale, D and Louwrens, L, 2017. Mt Wright – managing unique risks, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Underground Operators’ Conference 2017, pp 295–304 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 16, 2017

By J Vann

Geometallurgy is inherently multidisciplinary and it gains its power to deliver improved outcomes for the minerals industry by bridging silos between disciplines. This cross-disciplinary approach unlocks value, identifies (and avoids) value destruction and provides a pathway to better implementation of an energy efficient and sustainable minerals industry. Despite this promise, we argue that the cross disciplinary approach also represents the greatest threat to the success of geometallurgy. Some key cross disciplinary issues identified are:Geometallurgy has so far evolved in the technical sphere, mainly by collaborations of geologists and metallurgists. Consequently, in many cases the business dimensions and value have not been incorporated. Financial and risk evaluation viewpoints need to be assimilated into the geometallurgical paradigm. In fact, until such measures are integrated into practices, the value cannot be fully demonstrated.The historical and current efforts on geometallurgy have been highly focused on improved sampling and measurement of geometallurgical properties or appropriate proxies. This work has been driven by professional and academic geologists and metallurgical engineers. It is notable that mining engineers (who are critical in the value delivery of geometallurgy through changed planning approaches) have so far been at the margins, or absent. The construction of valid three dimensional (3D) geometallurgical models raises some important organisational, mathematical and geostatistical considerations. The enhancement of resource models to account for geometallurgical aspects must be managed carefully if the full value of geometallurgical thinking is to be realised.The use of 3D geometallurgical models to change business decision making and practices is the real nub of the problem. We believe sophisticated scenario based evaluation methods are required if the potential impacts of spatial rock properties on processes further down the mining value chain are to be realistically evaluated. Such changed practices require ‘whole of value chain thinking’ to embed this change into the business in an ongoing way.Because profitable geometallurgy demands changed approaches to business decision-making and also organisation of the firm (radically changed in some cases), the senior executive viewpoint must be incorporated into the language and thinking of geometallurgy. This is unavoidable if the establishment of a geometallurgical approach to project evaluation, development and operation is to be successful and sustained.A powerful analogy for the problem faced by geometallurgy is the transformation of safety culture in the mining industry in the past 20 years. We argue that, as in the safety revolution, explicit models, cultural change and management of the ‘soft’ dimensions of the problem are pivotal to success of geometallurgy. In light of this, we propose a model (‘the Geomet Curve’) that gives a framework and pathway for geometallurgy in seven steps. The implications of this model for technical and organisational steps required at different stages are discussed.

Sep 5, 2011

By J Balzary, A Mohais

Dynamic market and operating conditions, coupled with an environment in which multiple objectives and trade-offs are common, pose major challenges for planners and schedulers working in any mining entity. Many mining companies recognise the need to shift from a siloed mining-focused push model to an integrated value chain, demand-driven approach, but there are still fundamental barriers in business process and the supporting technology preventing a consideration of end-to-end optimality.This paper presents some elements of experiences working with companies to adopt such advanced approaches. In addition to algorithmic elements, an approach to phased and gradual deployment of progressively more sophisticated optimisation models is described. From a practical software adoption perspective, it is believed that this last concern is also of primary importance. Next generation approaches to the optimisation of complex bulk commodity demand chains, namely iron ore and coal are presented, with case studies in the world’s largest integrated operations in Western Australia and Queensland from the raw material mined through to market. Utilising accurate simulation models supported by metaheuristic optimisation techniques, a range of ways to engineer a dynamic decision support framework that can adapt and change with the inevitable changes in commodity markets is explored. Objectives such as total revenue, margin, cost, NPV, throughput, asset utilisation, contractual penalties and bonuses, and energy consumption can be managed simultaneously across the mine, plant, logistics network, port operation, shipping and sales domains.CITATION:Balzary, J and Mohais, A, 2014. Consideration for multiobjective metaheuristic optimisation of large iron ore and coal supply chains, from resource to market, in Proceedings Orebody Modelling and Strategic Mine Planning Symposium 2014, pp 213–222 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 24, 2014

By D Chalmers, C C. Harb

The detection and control of gas levels in mining is a continuing challenge for the industry. Standard detectors have many problems that could be overcome with laser based spectroscopic instruments, but to date these systems have not been suitable for mining conditions. This paper reports the development of a new digital data extraction scheme to modernise traditional cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS). CRDS is a direct cavity enhanced laser based absorption technique, which is used to allow the identification of an unknown substance by their molecular fingerprint; this unknown substance is identified by analysing the ring downtime of the light exiting the optical cavity. Traditional CRDS has many issues when analysing substances in hostile environments, or when multiple species may be present. This presents an alternative approach, called real-time CRDS (rtCRDS) that has the potential to overcome many of these issues and produces systems that could be used in the mining industry. The system utilises newly developed widely tuning quantum cascade lasers combined with improved optical cavities and novel digital data extraction to produce spectra over a 1500 nm range in a few seconds. The ring downtime measurements produced are accurate and have high sensitivity and maximum signal to noise ratio. This paper discusses the technique, illustrating the advantages compared to traditional systems and show real-time spectra for a set of molecules of interest to the mining industry. This paper also provided an analogy between this approach and that used in digital communications systems, and shows that this scheme is ideally suited to provide a network of sensors in hostile environments.CITATION:Harb, C C and Chalmers, D, 2015. Real-time methane detection – modern digital laser spectroscopy for hostile environments, in Proceedings The Australian Mine Ventilation Conference, pp 161–166 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 31, 2015

By M Angus, S Konopa, A Virisheff, S Crispin

A positive mill reconciliation at a mine is a double-edged-sword. Much back slapping happens. The bank and the board can’t get enough until the downside becomes apparent. Over a prolonged period, there becomes an issue with market perception and the potential for shareholders to be misinformed regarding the potential value of the project. In addition, there are impacts on mine scheduling, waste allocation (or lack thereof), government expectations, and the potential for misguided external assumptions regarding the ‘unexpected’ results. The PT Agincourt Resources Martabe Gold Mine has shown a significant under-call, in the order of 20% total gold metal, between the Mineral Resource (MR) estimates and Grade Control (GC) estimates since production commenced in 2012. Recently, the under-call has been reduced by incorporating the use of grade control drilling in the MR grade estimates. Despite recent improvements in reconciliation, drilling in 2017 at both Purnama and Barani open pits shows that infill reverse circulation (RC) drill holes often produce significantly higher grades than those predicted in the MR block model. CITATION: Angus, M, Virisheff, A, Konopa, S and Crispin, S, 2018. Martabe Gold Mine, Indonesia: a positive solution for positive reconciliation, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 76–78 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

In the current climate, there is a real need to bridge the gap between theory and the real world mining considerations, and develop viable, cost-effective, high performance thickeners. With a greater need to extract profits from both difficult-to-process ores and lower grade orebodies, coupled with the necessity to produce 'greener', less water intensive technologies, suppliers need to take current thickener designs to the next level and into the 21st century. The complexity of 'getting it right' within a thickenerÆs feedwell, the 'nerve centre' of the thickener, is no small task. Delivering dilution water and mixing this water with incoming feed slurry, addition of flocculant, maximising flocculant-slurry interaction to build aggregate size, minimising unabsorbed flocculant percentage, volume average of solids volume fraction, momentum dissipation ratio, dilution recycle ratio, volume average shear, maximum shear rate at exit, aggregate size on exit, uniform discharge profile and more ù all of these need to occur in the right order and in the right proportions within the feedwell. This paper discusses the genesis and evolution of a new feedwell design, the first major innovation in the thickening industry in over 15 years.

Jan 1, 2008

We outline a first version of an ambitious goal: The world's first horizontal (matrix-independent) generic sampling standard. The specific needs and requirements are overwhelming, as all the world's analytical standards follow strict matrix or material type classification pigeonholes, leading to a plethora of analytical standards. One could rightly expect a similar multiplication regarding sampling standards, yet the singular HORIZONTAL is aimed at being truly generic. Also the existing style of standards writing is cumbersome and partly contradictory. The current work is presently being pursued in CEN and European Union standardisation regimens, for which reason full disclosure and publication is not allowed. Respecting this constraint, we unofficially present selected key issues involved in developing HORIZONTAL: The objective and scope of a horizontal sampling standard is to delineate the minimum set of principles and procedures needed to guarantee documented representative sampling for all types of materials. The horizontal standard is designed for two types of use: 1. auditing/assessing/ improving the reliability of an existing sampling procedure, and 2. design and implementation of a new sampling procedure (new lot type). The principles in this standard are all derived from the Theory of Sampling (TOS), but the standard is far from a mere collection of TOS principles. Representativeness is a characteristic of the sampling process, not of samples themselves. For practical purposes, the horizontal standard follows the fundamental distinction between 'stationary lots' (0-D, 2-D, 3-D lots) and 'dynamic lots' (within TOS aka process sampling - including extended, non-moving 1-D lots). TOS' principles of 'correctness' must never be broken at any stage, lest representativeness is irretrievably lost. The horizontal standard is not written in the mandatory fashion for legally binding matrix-specific standards, eg ISO - for the present overarching purpose a different style had to be developed. The standard must be immediately understandable in full, which merits special demands, eg extensive use of didactic illustrations. HORIZONTAL introduces an all-inclusive sampling variability measure, Relative Sampling Variance (RSV) which is for sampling of stationary lots as variographics is for process sampling - RSV is to be used as a quality criterion for any stationary sampling procedure as applied to a specific heterogeneity (lot/material). The target for this standard is all individuals, companies, organisations and regulatory bodies who are responsible for sampling: technicians, process engineers, laboratory personal, academic and industrial scientists as well as project leaders, technical managers/directors and top managers. Based on current R&D we illustrate the principles promulgated by HORIZONTAL with cases from exploration and mining of minerals commodities, a Finnsh 'Autosampler' at work in the mining context (RSV) as well as sampling equipment for use in the cement and mineral commodities industries. This is an ABSTRACT ONLY. No paper was prepared for this presentation.

Mar 1, 2010

The first difficulty encount.ered in preparing this paper was to find a definition of the word "special" as applied to steel. The first thought is "obviously any grade not mild steel" but this is an over-simplification, because the term "mild steel" covers a series of carbon ranges, each found from experience to be especially suited to the production of a particular rolled section.Even if the Australian structural mild steels are excluded it is found that no part of the plant here is independent of special steel.The face-man on Iron Monarch makes his bench safe by barring down with a 0.6% carbon steel bar. He bores a hole into the ironstone with a 0.75-0.8% carbon steel drill, driven by a jackhammer which is built of a variety of special steels. After it is shot down, the stone is lifted by an electric shovel, very few of whose steel components fall into the general category of structural grades of mild steel.Further special steels are met with in the truck into which the stone is loaded, the hauling electric locomotive, and the rails on which these .run. Even the permanent way uses more than one grade, e.g., the crossings experiencing heavy service have their frogs built with austenitic manganese steel inserts.Special steels play their part in the overhead crane which tips these trucks, and in the crushers into which they discharge, and so they can be followed right through the production line, and they are still there at the seaward end of the ship loading boom at the head of the WhyalIa ore jetty.

Jan 1, 1951

By D Stacey, J Matthews

Hunter Valley Operations in partnership with Orica Explosives designed a process to optimise coal extraction at depths greater than 65 m below the Hunter River in a safe and cost effective manner. The process involved a team approach to investigate the relationship between geology, mining sequence, vibration and blasting methods adopted. From this an optimum method for uncovering the coal was developed.

Jan 1, 2001

By M Creech

During the 1990s, wider and more productive longwall panels were being introduced into the Newcastle Coalfield. The strata of the Newcastle Coalfield incorporate numerous massive sandstones and conglomerates, some of which formed the immediate roof of the coal seams being mined. The unexpected implications of introducing wider panels into this geological environment included more variable and increased subsidence, severe periodic weighting (with associated mid-face falls) as well as windblast.Subsidence prediction at the time was based on empirically derived data essentially relating subsidence to the width/depth ratio of the panel without accounting for actual widths, nor the impacts of variable geology. This approach required modification as locally derived data was gathered and reinterpreted.The interaction of massive strata located close to the roof of the mined seam resulted in dramatic implications for some of the operations. When associated with longwall goaf geomechanics severe periodic weighting events and crippling mid-face roof falls were the consequence. When associated with narrower panels and shortwall goaf geomechanics, mines in the region experienced aggressive windblast events. The relationships between the overlying massive strata, longwall panel geometry and the various risks encountered during this period is in the author’s opinion, the most concise still documented.As the extensive coalfields of Queensland turn to underground mining operations the relevance of these experiences cannot be underestimated. This paper will discuss recent developments as well as incorporating diverse subjects such as microseismic monitoring, low frequency radio emissions and ‘electrophonics’ as they relate also to the topic.Like Moriarty, massive strata can be disguised and can offend when you least expect. This paper documents a trail of crimes committed by conglomerate in the Newcastle Coalfield that were inflicted on the general public, miners and mining equipment. Although this paper concentrates on the criminal behaviour of conglomerate, this story is also relevant to other massive units such as coarse sandstones that may be more difficult to identify and apprehend. Currently Moriarty remains at large and able to reoffend at any time, once again taking advantage of the unwary.CITATION:Creech, M, 2014. Moriarty was a conglomerate – experiences and implications of coal mining under massive strata in the Newcastle Coalfield, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014 , pp 47–54 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 18, 2014

By B Belle

"Mines around the world are inherently and operationally diverse. Current methodologies for the design of mine ventilation and cooling infrastructure involve controlling major safety and health hazards. Globally, it can be estimated that mine ventilation systems from various commoditiescirculate over 150 000 m3/s of exhaust air through shafts. Additionally, over 2 000 000 workersare transported every day through shafts in labour-intensive mining countries like China, India,Southern Africa, and the Americas. A key objective of this paper is to share experiences and provide a case for the revision of ætime-honouredÆ ventilation design parameters based on a benchmarking exercise on design exhaust shaft velocity from various global operations (gold, diamond, platinum, coal and base metals). An active fi eld observation on exhaust shaft velocity has indicated that, regardless of the commodity or continent where the mine operates, almost all life-of-mine (LOM) design parameters provided are in the same range of 20 m/s to 22 m/s, which is not convincing considering signifi cant variations exist in shaft depths, geography, commodity, operating and capital costs. From a due diligence perspective, there are no documented views that are available on the most widely used design exhaust air velocity. Based on the global exhaust shaft velocity data, it is noted that a significant portion of shaft velocities are outside the current design velocity of 20 m/s (some operating up to 30 m/s) and other signifi cant portions of the exhaust shafts operate in the critical velocity range. In the case of Australian coal mines, limited data suggests that none of the mines have ever reached the LOM design exhaust shaft velocity. It is self-evident that when the shafts are not operating at their design quantities either the mine system resistance is low or the ventilation and main fan is operating ineffi ciently. The most common reasons given for not reviewing the shaft system were, ætime-honouredÆ design parameter are being used and cannot be changed, mine fan pressure limits, possible fan blade damage, possible spontaneous combustion risks, leakage or simply did not consider such a possibility. In conclusion, the study has reiterated the historic lessons that a safe and expensive airway should not be utilised uneconomically by circulating too litt le air through it."

Jun 1, 2012

By R C. Morris

Two major types of economic secondary iron ores occur in the banded iron formation (BIF)-rich Hamersley Province of the Pilbara, Western Australia:dominant BIF-hosted bedded iron deposits (BID)detrital ore deposits (DID sensu lato), which are mainly hosted in the three province-wide Cenozoic sequences that include coeval non-ore sediments and comprise:a. the major Miocene, fluvial channel iron deposits (CID)b. the lesser Eocene and Pliocene detrital iron deposits (DID sensu stricto).Striking differences exist between the massive CID resources and the much smaller underlying and overlying DID. CID are essentially riverine alluvial ooidal rocks with abundant small fossil wood fragments and variable iron peloids, but with only extremely rare recognisable lithic remnants. The original matrix is typically ramifying layered goethite. Eocene DID are mainly alluvial with minor pisoids, whereas Pliocene–Quaternary DID are dominantly coarse colluvial gravels, both derived from and largely retaining the original textures of BID, hard cap or variably ferruginised surface BIF. The colluvial DID matrix is typically ferroan-aluminous soil, resulting in canga where replaced by goethite, which may be dehydrated to hematite by exposure. The Cenozoic deposits occur in two dominant geomorphological environments: the southern Marra Mamba to Brockman Iron Formation strike valleys containing all three Cenozoic sequences and the much later northern Brockman Iron Formation plateau valleys that include only the Miocene and Pliocene sequences. The Cenozoic detritals formed in different climatic regimes, with an extended dry period forming a prominent province-wide dehydrated carapace on the Eocene DID. The Miocene ‘optimum’ followed with its thick scrub-covered deep regolith that produced the fossil wood-rich CID and was succeeded by the arid cool period of the Oakover limestone/calcrete. A major renewal of exposure and erosion in the Pliocene resulted in the extensive iron gravels of the Pliocene–Quaternary.CITATION:Morris, R C, 2015. The Cenozoic detrital iron deposits of the Hamersley Province of Western Australia – a tribute to Mal Kneeshaw, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 319–326 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

In recent years there have been many changes in mine ownership due to the on-going rationalisation towards larger mining companies. Larger companies inevitably find it hard to manage small mining operations and in many cases smaller mines do not fit corporate resource, production and profit criteria. Smaller companies are more suited to managing these medium or small scale mines and are tendering for the purchase or lease of mines that larger companies wish to dispose of. In addition to these factors there has also been a trend (especially in Western Australia) for mines to continue operating at ever increasing depths. This in turn has led to more mines operating in high stress environments and experiencing damaging seismicity. Assessing the viability of seismically active mines from a takeover or purchase point of view should involve analysing the risk profile of every aspect on mining that could be affected by adverse seismicity. This includes assessing current and alternative mining methods, mine designs, support systems, extraction sequencing, monitoring and blasting. This paper includes discussion on items that need to be assessed when considering the purchase of seismically active mines, with experience gained from some recent studies in Western Australia. In these cases it was apparent that quantification of previous seismic history on itÆs own was a totally inadequate method of assessing minewide seismic risk potential. A more holistic approach is required, taking into account all aspects of relevant data, all the minewide effects of seismic activity and all possible means of mitigating those effects.

Jan 1, 2002

Forty years ago Dr Pierre M Gy, a metallurgist, introduced variography as applied to monitoring a process. Consequently, his followers used the variogram to elaborate meaningful process control charts, especially since 1993. The name æChronostatisticsÆ was suggested several times by Gy as a logical name for this new science. The intent was to draw a parallel between the variogram identifying the variability components affecting a process parameter as a function of time, and the variogram used in geostatistics identifying the variability components of a given mineral content as a function of space. Heterogeneity problems encountered have indeed strong similarities. However, there is a fundamental difference. The variogram used in geostatistics is often stationary within a given type of mineralisation. While investigating a dynamic process through Chronostatistics, there is no such thing as a stationary variogram. Still, the evolving variogram provides essential information about subtle, often overlooked process difficulties. Chronostatistics is especially useful for management to take advantage of existing data that are often a forgotten source of valuable information to pinpoint recurring structural problems. The superiority of Chronostatistics over conventional statistical process control approaches is that it links observations to the inherent heterogeneity of materials under investigation, therefore to the sampling theory. Chronostatistics is like opening a new world to the metallurgist, making the process variability speak in a more comprehensive and in-depth way. Several case studies are presented to demonstrate the potency of this new science. For each of them, observations lead to solutions for continuous process improvement, therefore attractive economic opportunities. The philosophy is this: if a control chart shows a process is out of control, it must also suggest logical and pragmatic directions for solutions. The intent of this presentation is to vastly expand on these valuable, almost forgotten ideas.

Jan 1, 2006