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By Amy McBrayer, Andrea Brickey

Limited research has been conducted related to the development of mathematical optimization models for production scheduling at large surface coal mines using the area, i.e., strip, mining method. Increased economic and technical challenges have led to a new interest in production schedule optimization models for these type of mining operations like those currently applied to model underground and open pit mines. While area mines share similar characteristics to both open pit and underground metal operations, neither an open pit nor underground production scheduling model adequately depicts an area mine mathematically. We present an integer programming model with blending constraints and discuss the challenges and opportunities related to the implementation for area mines as well as future research in area mine production scheduling.

Jun 25, 2023

By T. Y. Yan

O2, NaCl03, H202, NaOCI and Ce+4 have been examined as oxidants in an alkaline carbonate system for uranium in situ leaching. The South Texas and New Mexico ores contained up to 2.6 meq/g of reducing compounds that consume oxidants in the leaching operation. Leaching rates did not increase linearly with the oxidation potential of the oxidants. A mild oxidant can be used to maximize uranium oxidation selectivity and oxidant efficiency. 02 can oxidize most of the uranium mineral with an adequate rate and high oxidant efficiency.

Jan 1, 1993

By Eugene L. Foster

The engineering profession has traditionally devoted its efforts to understanding and modifying the Earth's environment in order to adapt it to man's needs. In appraising our overall performance, I would have to say it has been a mixed bag. In many areas, notably communications taken in the broadest sense, and development of creature comforts, we have done a good job. In others, we have failed, particularly in our assessment of the effect of our work on the environment. Our failures have been due in part to a lack of understanding or foresight, and in part to a disproportionate emphasis on lowest first cost. Now, with an increasingly large number of people living in a finite environment, there is an urgent need for reassessment. It is no longer possible to pursue a single objective without regard to its side effects. Our projects are too large, and there are too many of them. Environmental impacts must be taken into account in all important engineering decisions of the future. There are forces at work which will help to bring this about. Thinking people everywhere have realized that adverse alteration of our environment eventually affects every one of us. The majority of our citizens, who now live in cities, are beginning to appreciate the advantages of a good natural environment in a way which others who have been closer to the soil have appreciated for years. Our people have flocked to the cities because they wanted to be "where the action is." At the same time, there is a strong desire for what we have come to call the quality of life. Today, we all want the standard creature comforts. We want to be able to move freely

Jan 1, 1974

By J. J. Peshel

As per the current conceptual design presented by the Department of Energy, the exploratory shaft facility (ESF) becomes a part of the repository if the Yucca Mountain site is found suitable for repository development. Therefore, the design of the ESF should be compatible with the performance requirements for the repository. The construction methods selected should limit to the extent practical, the degree and the extent of damage to the surrounding rock mass. The ESF construction and operation should be compatible with the site data gathering activities, such as geological, thermomechanical, hydrological and geochemical testing.

Jan 1, 1991

By E. Poeck, R. Garvey, U. Ozbay, K. Zhang

"A coal bump is characterized by the sudden failure of one or more pillars and an associated release of kinetic energy. Although the geologic conditions surrounding coal bumps are often similar, their occurrence and magnitude are difficult to predict. This paper presents the development of an approach to assess the potential for coal bumps in room and pillar mines through the use of energy concepts and special consideration of the interface properties between the coal and overlying rock. Back analyses were performed on the widespread collapse of a room and pillar mine with an associated 3.9 local magnitude seismic event. Pillar and mine-scale models were constructed using the distinct element method to simulate the mining stages leading up to the collapse. A variety of loading conditions, material properties, and interface properties were evaluated for their effect on unstable failure of single pillars, and the mine-scale model was used to study the evolution of failure during progressive mining. The extent of unstable failure was quantified in these models by calculating the total kinetic energy released during each mining stage. Through the parametric analysis of single pillar models, it was found that softening parameters in either the coal or the coal/rock interface can individually facilitate unstable failure of pillars, but the combination of the two in a single model produced a much higher release of energy during failure. The results of the mine-scale model further illustrated the trend as the combination of softening parameters in the coal and coal/rock interface produced a series of failures which most accurately reflected the collapse event at the mine. The method of room and pillar stability analysis demonstrated in this study effectively explores the potential for large coal bumps. INTRODUCTION The analysis of coal pillar behavior is challenging because natural variability in geologic conditions requires estimation of material strengths and predicted loads for a given mining situation. Large width-to-height (w/h) ratio pillars and deep overburden present an additional challenge, as the failure behavior of such pillars is more complex and may involve unstable, sudden collapse. Empirical methods have improved the success of coal pillar design for a wide range of conditions, but for deep cover and squat pillar geometries, less accuracy has been achieved in predicting pillar performance (Mark 2000). As with any empirical approach, more back analysis and the consideration of new variables may help improve understanding and accuracy of future designs. This paper presents a study of pillar stability through the back analysis of the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse, which occurred in August of 2007. Pillar-scale models are utilized for the calibration of material properties and assessment of potential instability under varying conditions, and mine-scale models are constructed in an attempt to reproduce widespread failure and correlate with observations at the mine. Special consideration is given to the properties of the coal and the coal/rock interface, and kinetic energy is calculated throughout the course of the simulations to gauge the level of instability when pillar failure occurs. Models were constructed using the Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) (Itasca, 2014)."

Jan 1, 2016

By M. Albrecht

In the mining industry and particularly in the processing plants, we use some large and unusual equipment. Understanding what it is and what it does is important to good operations, but how do you teach a new employee. When I started out in this field, the information on the processing equipment was easy to come by. Equipment manufacturers readily supplied it; their salesmen, often engineers themselves, knew how important the availability of this information was. Old engineers used their notebooks to train the new engineers. Over time this has changed. Equipment manufacturers have changed hands or gone out of business, and often the older engineers are gone. As a start in reversing this, this presentation will be an introduction to sizing, selecting, and operation of some of this equipment, in particular gravity separating equipment. Major portions of this have been excerpted from A Mining Engineers Notebook: Mineral processing (2).

Feb 23, 2014

By Matthew Geary, Stephen J. Marino, Jordan A. Schreiner

"INTRODUCTION Project Overview The Southeast Collector (SeC) is a new 15km long 3.0m internal diameter wastewater tunnel designed by Hatch Mott MacDonald (HMM) that twins the existing 2.6m diameter York-Durham Sewage System (YDSS) tunnel. Both sewage tunnels are located north of the City of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. The SeC provides much needed conveyance capacity for the rapidly growing York Region population, supporting development until 2036 and increasing sewage system security (Hatch Mott MacDonald and AECOM 2011). Construction of the SeC will also permit flows of the twinned section of the YDSS to be bypassed in order to clean, inspect and carry out any essential maintenance within the YDSS tunnel. Although owned and operated by York Region, the SeC spans two regional municipalities beginning upstream from the intersection of Ninth Line and Rouge Bank Drive in the City of Markham in York Region to the downstream Finch Avenue and Valley Farm Road intersection in the City of Pickering in Durham Region. See Figure 1 for the SeC and YDSS alignment. The project includes 19 shafts and chambers with depths ranging from 8 to 48m in addition to seven facilities supporting the operation and maintenance of the sewer. The construction contract was awarded to Strabag Inc. in July 2011 for $291M CAD. Construction Management services were provided by a joint venture team of Hatch Mott MacDonald and AECOM. Existing York-Durham Sewage System The YDSS tunnel was completed in 1979 and was constructed using an open shielded TBM with ribs and lagging temporary support, followed by installation of a 380mm thick unreinforced cast-in-place (CIP) concrete final lining. The YDSS sewer system has numerous connections that accumulate flows from various urban areas within York Region. The section of the YDSS twinned by the SeC flows under gravity conditions and had been putting a strain on the municipality’s potential for population and development growth having reached its maximum capacity of 420 ML/d. According to the York Region’s Water and Wastewater Master Plan, the existing YDSS would not have been able to handle wet weather flows past 2016 (Genivar and XCG Consultants 2009). The dependability of this section of the YDSS is also of concern because it is the main and critical connection between the sewer systems upstream and the downstream Duffin Creek Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP)."

Jan 1, 2016

By Scott Horton

In no Confederation of Independent States (CIS) country does the mining sector play quite so commanding a role as in the mountainous Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. Its president, Askar Akayev, says he would like to develop his country into "a Central Asian Switzerland." However, in Switzerland, the gold is largely under the street along Zurich's renowned Bahnhofstrasse. In Kyrgyzstan, though, the gold is still in the mountains. Accordingly, Kyrgyzstan's recent adoption of a comprehensive new mining law has attracted widespread attention. Akayev recently completed a tour of the United States. His visit drew large crowds from the business community at events staged in New York and Washington, DC. The success can be attributed as much to the attractiveness of Kyrgyzstan's min¬ing sector as to the personal charms of the nation's president. Led by a half-billion-dollar investment by Canada's uranium giant Cameco, the mining sector is leading Kyrgyzstan's economic revival. And Bishkek is beginning to show some of the same signs of a "boom town" that already mark its Kazak neighbor, Almaty. Mercedes and BMWs already outnumber the Volgas on Bishkek's major traffic arteries. After nearly two years of debates involving government advisors and a final round of deliberation in Parliament, Kyrgyzstan finally adopted its second mining law. This followed quickly in the wake of measures enacted in neighboring Kazakstan and proposed in Russia. Kyrgyzstan's new law replaces the 1992 law "On Mineral Resources." It was one of the first enactments of an independent Kyrgyzstan. The 1992 law made a major contribution to the introduction of free-market economics in the country by ending the state monopoly over mineral exploration and development. It also laid the groundwork for an independent mining industry. According to Kyrgyz government reports, Kyrgyzstan has about 270 commercially viable deposits of almost 40 types of mineral resources. These include oil, gas, coal, precious-, nonferrous-, ferrous-, rare- and basemetals. However, the nation's key draw is gold. Since enactment of the first law, the government has issued more than 100 licenses for geological prospecting for and development of established deposits of gold.

Jan 1, 1998

By R. C. Emmett

Waste treatment in the mining industry is by no means a new problem to this field. In a sense, the entire process from ore to finished product is one of waste treatment - the separation of a relatively minor quantity of desired component from valueless material. Where it has been necess-ary or economical to practice conventional waste treatment or pollution control methods, such as dust collection, water recovery from tailings, or impounding of residues for future treatment, this has been done. Generally the containment of hazardous pollutants such as arsenic and cyanide also has been followed in modern times. But it is only recently, with the public outcry for the elimination of all forms of pollution, "that the industry has been forced to solve what often appears to be a myriad of difficult and costly waste treatment problems, or be faced with the alternative of closing down the operation. It is the objective of this paper to describe new as well as conventional approaches to these problems, specifically as might be applicable to liquid-solids separation methods. Host wastes in the industry are present either as solutions or slurries, or can be most advantageously handled by conversion to this form, such as in scrubbing noxious gases and dusts with water. Separation of the solids and purification of the aqueous effluents are, therefore, often the principle problems.

Jan 1, 1971

By B. McNulty

The Niblack polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits are located on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska, approximately 50 km southwest of Ketchikan. The property hosts a number of polymetallic volcanogenic sulfide occurrences within the folded Lookout rhyolite volcanic succession. The Lookout deposit is the primary focus of current resource delineation and contains an indicated resource of 4,136,000 tonnes at 1.13% Cu, 2.32 g/t Au, 2.27% Zn, 38.70 g/t Ag and an inferred resource of 1,736,000 tonnes at 1.09% Cu, 1.77 g/t Au, 2.02% Zn, and 25.52 g/t Ag as of March 2011. Sulfide mineralization is interpreted to have formed sub-seafloor, within permeable felsic fragmental volcanic rocks. Sulfide minerals of economic interest include chalcopyrite and Fe-poor, Zn-rich sphalerite. Of considerable importance, the Lookout deposit contains elevated gold that occurs as inclusions within the base metal sulfides.

Jan 1, 2012

By H. Russell, N. DePriest, J. D. Quaranta

Valley-fill structures built of blasted rock overburden from Appalachian mountaintop surface mines pose many reclamation challenges. The steep mountainous terrain, short valley lengths, and straight stream channel profiles create significant challenges to implementing fluvial geomorphic landform design in terms of both form and function, and from a safety and constructability perspective. The fluvial geomorphic landform design approach balances erosive and resistive forces by considering long-term climatic conditions, soil types, slope profiles and vegetation types. Commercial geomorphic landform design software tools do not specifically analyze the stability and factor of safety for the computer-designed landform slopes. This research investigated slope stability parameters and factors of safety between a traditional valley-fill design with a geomorphic landform alternative. Slope stability assessments were performed on two profile geometries. Finite-element modeling of a permitted valley-fill and a geomorphic design alternative indicated that slope angle and internal angles of friction associated with the gradation of the overburden greatly affected the designed factor of safety for both designs. The geomorphic designed slopes yielded the highest factors of safety out of 14 models analyzed with all cases having factors of safety over 2.0. The high factors of safety are attributed to shallow slopes and beneficial surface and internal drainage.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. L. Chapman

When originally accepting the assignment, the Client had described the property as vacant land. A prior appraisal was later discovered and revealed that the property included a mineral rights appraisal. Further research disclosed an old dispute with a court ruling based on testimony by AIMA-certified experts. The present appraisal was therefore based on data from findings of the court with a fresh look at discount rate, absorption period, and residual land value. Fortuitously, the property subsequently sold on the market, while meeting all criteria for Fair Market Value. This provided insight into a market-based discount rate. Also, the absorption period could be adjusted in accordance with the current market conditions. The residual land value was minimal (based on comparable sales and projecting trends in market) as the property was affected by a flood zone and the surrounding development was sparse. PROPERTY HISTORY: A GREAT INVESTMENT Briefly, the subject property is located in the floodplain region of the San Jacinto River, a short river in southeastern Texas that flows into Galveston Bay, filled with sand and gravel. This location is on the north side of Houston, north of Beltway 8 on the east side of I-59.

Jan 1, 2012

By Fan Yang, Zhiping Wen, Tiancheng Nie, Jinhe Pan, Ruibo Jia, Changchun Zhou

Rare earth elements have important strategic significance and economic value, and the rare earth elements in coal resources have considerable development potential. This study took coal refuse in the Jungar area of Inner Mongolia, China, as the research object, and investigated the occurrence modes of rare earth elements. A special sequential chemical extraction experiment was designed, and the results showed that the rare earth elements in coal refuse mainly occur in silicate and aluminosilicate form, accounting for approximately 65% of the total rare earth elements. According to the results of SEM-EDS, micro morphology of the sample belonged to the lamellar structure of clay minerals, and Al, Si, Fe, S, Y, and La were all present in the sample. Through SPSS software analysis, rare earth elements have an obvious linear positive correlation with Al, Si, and Fe elements, and a negative correlation with S elements. The rare-earth element occurrence mode in coal refuse can provide a definite theoretical basis for the later extraction and enrichment work.

Feb 18, 2022

By Ken Goering

"Bridgestone Americas opened the company’s first U.S.-based giant off-road radial (ORR) tire plant in November. The 139,000-m2 (1.5 -million-sq ft) plant, located on a 222-ha (550- acre) site in Aiken County, SC, will produce radial tire products, including 157-cm (63-in.) tires, used on mining and aggregate haul trucks.The plant, announced in 2011 as a $970-million investment, represents the largest investment that Bridgestone has made in the United States, and is also the single largest investment ever made in South Carolina. Although it had already been producing tires for a few months, the plant officially opened with a ceremony in November 2014, attended by South Carolina federal, state and local elected officials, as well as Bridgestone personnel from the United States and Japan. Prior to the Aiken County plant’s construction, all of Bridgestone’s giant ORR tires were manufactured at its Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu facilities in Japan.Kurt Danielson, president of Bridgestone’s U.S. & Canada Commercial Group, said the facility was built to primarily serve the North American mining and aggregate industries in a more efficient manner. "It’s a real change for us," he said of the U.S.-based plant at its opening ceremony. "This allows us to have a true global presence."The Aiken County plant is intended to allow Bridgestone to meet customer demand for ORR tires, Danielson said. "It really frees up our other plants in Japan to service the rest of the world, allowing us to serve our customers faster," Danielson said. "As soon as we build (a tire), we can have it to our customers."Tires manufactured at Bridgestone’s Japanese plants could spend up to a month in transit to the American continents; from initial mixing of the rubber and other compounds to being warehoused, tires manufactured at the Aiken County plant can be ready to ship in four to five days.Danielson said most of the tires built in Aiken County will be used by customers on the American continents. "We will export," he said, "but our desire is to use as much capacity as we can for the Americas."Ground was broken for the facility inSeptember 2011, when commodity prices were much different than today and global demand for tires had skyrocketed."

Jan 1, 2014

By J. L. Brinkman

"One of the most common emissions from detonating explosives are nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are potentially deadly if inhaled. Lab studies estimate emission quantities, though great variation is shown based on site-specific conditions, and lab tests may not fully represent field results. Field VALUES (have not been measured due to the vast area affected. OSMRE recently promised to release a ruling regarding surface mine NOx production. Once the ruling is implemented, it may eventually be necessary to monitor site-specific NOx production from blasting. A small unmanned aerial vehicle system (sUAS) is able to carry a NOx gas monitor, rapidly travel to the blast location, and to follow resulting clouds of dust and emission gasses. This project will perform laboratory tests to expand on current estimations, determine an optimal method for collecting data, and evaluate the ability for this unique application of sUAS to assist in health risk assessment for mine employees and nearby communities. Additionally, large initial NOx concentrations do not necessarily correlate to unsafe conditions, and this project will be ground breaking in observance of surface blasting emission dispersion. The project is still in early phases at the time of submission for this paper (Nov 1, 2017). Therefore, this paper focuses primarily on summarizing background research related to the project and a description of the project plan. INTRODUCTION Nitrogen oxide gases (NOx) are common emission by products of surface mine blasting. These gases can potentially cause risk to human health and safety, both for mine workers and communities near the blast site. However, these emission quantities are largely unmeasured and no attempts have been made to relate these VALUES (to human health risk. The primary objectives of this project are to determine actual quantities of emission gases produced during surface blasting, to evaluate immediate and long-term risks to nearby people, communities, and ecosystems, to develop a system for mine employees to easily monitor emission and risk levels, and then provide guidelines for mitigating health risks based on a location’s emission results. BACKGROUND Current research regarding health risk produced by surface mine blasting NOx emissions is extremely lacking. Estimations have been made based on laboratory research, though these same test results show wide ranges of possible gas quantities produced based on site-specific conditions. Even if these estimations are accurate, no method has been created to relate gas quantity produced to human exposure concentrations. To further understand this field, background research was studied pertaining to blasting emission gas formation, laboratory and field measurements, harmful effects of blasting emission gases, and relevant government regulations. Background on Blasting Emission Gases"

Jan 1, 2018

By Alvin Kaufman

Malthus, an eighteenth century economist, predicted a rather dismal future for the world. It was his contention food supplies would not be sufficient for the population of the world because the economy of a nation grew arithmetically while population increased geometrically. As a consequence, within a relatively few years mass famine would spread throughout the world. This prophecy, based on an agrarian economic situation, did not come true at least insofar as the Western World was concerned. In largo measure, the salvation of our part of the earth resulted from the growth engendered by the Industrial Revolution. Throughout much of today's world, however, the Malthusian theory seems to be coming true. The advantages and benefits of the Industrial Revolution have net reached all nations. Further, the situation has been compounded by the benefits of modern medicine. This has reduced child mortality and extended life expectancy, but placed no limitations on births in the developed countries, child mortality has declined to 2 percent and adult life expectancy has doubled, but education and general prosperity have resulted in voluntary limitations on pregnancies thus partly offsetting the increased chance of survivals Even so, the present rate of population increase in Europe is approximately 6 percent per decade, and somewhat higher in the U.S., Japan, and other developed countries. The world as a whole, however, is expected to double its population by the year 2000, This would imply a rate of increase in the less developed countries approximately four times that in Europe.

Jan 1, 1966

By Robert C. Handfield

The trip from Denver southwest to Gunnison crosses seven main geologic and physiographic areas as shown on the accompanying map. These are: I Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary rocks of the Denver Metro area from downtown Denver to the foothills near Morrison. II Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks of the Front Range from near Morrison to the west side of Kenosha Pass. III Sedimentary and volcanic rocks of South Park (Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiary) from the west side of Kenosha Pass to Trout Creek Pass. IV Precambrian granitic rocks (1,350-1,480 M.Y.) between Trout Creek Pass and the Arkansas River. V Tertiary and Quaternary sedimentary rocks and sediments of the Arkansas River valley. VI Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the Sawatch uplift from Maysville to near Doyleville on the west side of Monarch Pass. VII Mostly sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous and Tertiary age from the Doyleville area west to beyond Gunnison. Each area will be elaborated in the following pages but no detailed road log is given since these are available elsewhere. An attempt has been made to point out some deposits and features of interest to economic geologists but it is by no means complete.

Jan 1, 1983

By P. Lan

Gold is often associated with arsenopyrite in many refractory gold ores. The selective recovery of arsenopyrite by flotation is therefore necessary in order to maximize the recovery of gold. However, the complexity of arsenopyrite flotation often makes it difficult to obtain a high recovery from real lean gold ore. This paper presents the results of arsenopyrite flotation by ultrasonic pretreatment in micro flotation experiments and bench scale flotation tests. The tests showed that pure arsenopyrite exhibited low natural floatability due to the oxidation on the mineral surface under ambient conditions. Using ultrasonic pretreatment, the oxidation film was ruptured and the floatability was enhanced greatly. The presence of Fe (III) was found to inhibit the flotation of arsenopyrite and this depression was also removed by the ultrasonic pretreatment. This result explained why the arsenopyrite in real ore is often difficult to float and how ultrasonic pretreatment can effectively improve the arsenopyrite flotation in real gold ores. Guanidine (GMM) was found to be a superior collector for arsenopyrite in acidic medium and xanthate in alkaline medium.

Jan 1, 1998

By Sergio Estebanez, Martha Gross, Ruben Rubal, Yvonnick Rescamps, Alexandre Cochennec

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) Expansion project in coastal Virginia, USA will add two 1.5-mile (2.4 km) TBM bored tunnels alongside two existing immersed-tube tunnels between artificial islands. The site’s unusual constraints and the requirements of a large-diameter variable-density TBM shaped the design-builder’s decisions for handling TBM inputs and outputs, siting the TBM plant and supporting equipment, and sequencing tunnel-construction operations. This paper addresses the logistics necessary to enable key functions of the 46-ft (14-m) TBM and its ancillary equipment, including transport of most materials by barge, U-turn of the TBM on an artificial island, and delivery of materials for the second tunnel through the first one while interior structures are under construction.

Jun 13, 2021

By Arthur W. Ruff

The iron-ore beneficiation and shiploading facilities of the Marcona Mining Company are at San Nicolas Bay which is on the Peruvian coastal desert about two hundred and seventy miles south of Lima. The mines are at elevation of 2,500 ft. Crude ore is transported from the Mine primary crushers to the beneficiation plants by ten miles of overland belt conveyors. After the predominantly magnetic ore is reduced to minus 3/4 in. in the secondary crushing plant, the ore is ground by rod and ball mills and concentrated with magnetic separators. The concentrate slurry is pumped to a thickening and filtering installation for desliming and dewatering. Pelletizing is accomplished with a Lurgi and also a Dravo-Lurgi machine. Deep-water shiploading facilities are available close to the beneficiation plants. Figure 1 shows a flowsheet of the general operation. Pelletizing operations are scheduled 24 hours a day and 365 days per year. A maximum tonnage rate with a high percentage of operating time is necessary to produce the three and one half million tons per year required from the two pellet lines. Process control is a major responsibility and of primary concern to all Operating personnel. The particle size, moisture, and chemical composition of the filter cake must be closely controlled to get uniform high-grade pellets. Key points are sampled routinely and analyzed on a two-hour basis to provide the necessary structure and chemical data to maintain a superior final product. The iron content of the pellets is held between 65.3 and 65.8 percent with 4.0 percent Si02. Sulfur is below 0.04 percent and copper is below 0.02 percent in the finished pellet.

Jan 1, 1968