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By J. Winterton

Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Co. is developing a full-scale pad injection program as part of the overall operational plan for the Valley Leach Facility. As part of the development process the mechanics of the injection methodology are evaluated in the context of physical injection measurements, outcome from geophysical monitoring, and gold leaching theory. The results indicate that hydraulic fracturing analogies advanced heretofore do not accurately describe injection phenomena in unconsolidated and noncohesive material typical of leach pads. A new interpretation is presented and extended to define operational strategies for maximizing gold production.

Feb 27, 2013

By James M. Griffin

Ladies and Gentlemen, There have been no less than ten major coal project financings in the last eighteen months. Each of these has been in the order of $100 million to $1 billion for the development of a coal property and its associated infrastructure. It is appropriate at this time to review the nature of these past financings. Why has there been so much activity? There are primarily two reasons. The first is due to the large number of contracts which were signed as a result of OPEC oil shocks. High projections were made for increased coal consumption particularly in world trade. This is distinct from domestic coal mine/power plant projects which often tap a government source of funds. Second is the high cost of coal development in the 1980's compared with a typical company's corporate borrowing capacity.

Jan 1, 1984

By Shular R. Scudamore

There was a time when heavy-duty apron feeders were built to last almost forever. The machines were heavy and built to maintain certain expected longevity and reliability. Increasing emphasis on return on capital leads to cost-effective designs. Costs can be increased or decreased, depending on customer specifications and the design philosophy of the feeder manufacturer. Specifiers can make important contributions to cost effectiveness. To do so, this article describes what should be known about planning with a supplier for heavy-duty apron feeders. There are several factors that should be considered, including capacity, characteristics of material carried, length, method of feeder loading, degree of lift, hopper opening, pan construction, and type of drive. Today's apron feeders are built in various sizes and with a variety of components to handle heavy, lumpy, or abrasive materials that can ruin lighter feeders. Careful feeder selection is important if it is to provide a controlled feed rate, absorb huge impacts, be used with long hopper openings, and have a relatively low power-perton capacity. Variations in systems and materials demand that each feeder be designed for its application, drawing on a wide range of components. Therefore, certain factors must be considered before final specifications are drawn. Capacity The design and application of an apron feeder is based on how material passes through a given system over the feeder into processing machinery. The processing machinery's capacity governs other equipment and productivity of the flow. From this basic information, related sizes of upstream equipment can be determined. Of these, the apron feeder acts as the "mouth and neck of the bottle." No more will pass than the mouth and neck will accommodate. Everything in the apron feeder design, from dimensions to power, is based on processing machinery. Material Considerations Are Vital Just as the nature of materials to be crushed or screened affects capacity and productivity of a crusher or a grinding mill, so does it affect capacity and performance of a feeder. Lump size must be identified closely so the pan width can be selected to accommodate the maximum lump with room to spare. For example, a lump size of 760 mm (30 in.) indicates a pan width of 1.5 m (60 in.) While two times the maximum lump is considered minimum width, if the maximum lump

Jan 12, 1983

By W. M. Luff

The Brunswick No. 12 Deposit is a large polymetallic massive sulphide deposit, occurring in Ordovician age rocks of the Tetagouche Group. Silver is contained within the sulphide zones and economically it is the second most important commodity produced. Brunswick is one of the largest silver producers in Canada. The distribution of silver within the mine is presented, with examples from various levels. The concentration of silver can be shown to be related to both stratigraphy and structure. The mineralogy of silver in mill products is also presented.

Jan 1, 1986

By H. Michael Breza

Texasgulf Inc. installed bucketwheel excavators and overland conveyor sysems at its Aurora, NC phosphate mine o increase the productivity and flexibilty of the surface mining operation. This ;ystem has significantly improved overrall. Its flexibility is evidenced by adapation to operation requirements, such is mining area moves, movement of xcavated overburden to designated ites, selective handling of overburden, poll placement contouring, and proiding an environmentally sound and afe operation. The system's productiv:y is evidenced by case studies relating. overall production, excavation rates nd cost-effectiveness. There are many competing alternaves available for excavating uncon)lidated overburden: truck-shovel, raglines, dredges and bucket wheel ticavators. These alternatives also may used in tandem to recover reserves icated at greater depths.

Jan 1, 1993

By Lee Browne

The transformation of Peru’s Tintaya copper project from a state-owned company to a private company is under way and the results have been successful. Since Magma Copper Co. assumed operating management in December 1994, production and costs have improved dramatically. To understand the transformation of Tintaya, the transformation of Magma Copper must also be understood.

Jan 1, 1996

By D. Tao

The reverse cationic flotation is the most widely utilized flotation method for concentrating iron ore. In such a process quartz is often floated with ether amines (R?O(CH2)3?NH2) partially neutralized with acetic acid. However, it is well known that the cationic flotation of hematite does not work well if a certain amount of slime is present in ore slurry. To improve flotation performance, starch is often added to the flotation feed to selectively flocculate and depress the iron minerals and sodium silicate is used to disperse the silica gangue. The present study was conducted to improve the flotation efficiency of iron ore flotation by use of a new type of depressant for clay and iron minerals, i.e., GP clay binder. It is postulated that the GP clay binder minimizes slime adsorption on quartz and hematite particles by agglomerating clay particles to reduce their surface area. It is further theorized that the clay binder helps depress hematite flotation due to its unique chelating ability to iron ion. The results from this study clearly show that the GP clay binder is an effective depressant in iron ore flotation. When it was used as a substitute for corn starch, it increased concentrate grade from 60.78% to 67.67% and increased iron recovery from 71.96% to 72.90%. The combined use of GP clay binder with corn starch produced even better flotation performance, increasing concentrate grade to 67.08% and iron recovery to 78.15% simultaneously. Key words: Clay Binder; Depressant; Iron Ore; Flotation.

Jan 1, 2009

By Massimo Concilia, Remo Grandori, Paolo Nardone

Paul Y. – SELI Joint Venture had been contracted to build the longest section of the Strategic Sewage Disposal Scheme (SSDS) – Stage I. This involved two tunnels under urban and marine areas excavated by high performance hard rock open type TBMs operated from deep shafts. A specific ground treatment program was developed using advance probing and grouting to control water inflow into the excavations. The article describes: the technologies adopted, the experienced problems, the encountered productions and their interrelation with the water inflow amounts, the possible improvement in the technologies for the excavation of the future stages of the same project as well of any other project under similar conditions.

Jan 1, 2001

Nuclear power currently produces about 20% of the electricity in the US, with 104 nuclear power plants located in 31 states. The commercial US nuclear industry contributes over $4 billion annually to US workers in salaries and wages. 25,000 new jobs need to be filled in the next 5 years. There are over 30 new power plants under consideration by US utilities. The operating reactors use uranium oxide fuel enriched to about 4% U235 and fission is the process used to generate heat to form steam to drive the turbine generators. Nuclear energy is an important element in the US generation portfolio and represents the largest producer of nearly emission-free electricity. Most, if not all, of the operating plants will secure an extended 20 years of operation or more. The last plant constructed was ordered in 1978. New smaller, modular reactors are under design to provide less expensive, expandable generation options.

Jan 1, 2011

By Daniel W. H. Su

A nearly 305-m- (1,000-ft-) wide sandstone channel was projected to run through the mid panel area of a 457-m- (1,500-ft-) wide longwall panel in a southwestern Pennsylvania coal mine. This sandstone channel was known to cause serious longwallface roof control problems in the mine?s B-panel area in 1998 and 1999; and most recently, it induced many large face cavities and caused a substantial production delay in the preceding panel. For the two B panels mined in 1998 and 1999, hydraulic fracturing of the massive sandstone was conducted to facilitate better caving, thus relieving cantilever compressive stress at the longwall face. Vastly improved longwall face condition was observed and four weeks of mining delay due to bad roof conditions were eliminated. The implementation of the hydraulic fracturing technique, results of underground observation and measurement, and results of numerical modeling were summarized in a paper presented in the 20th International Conference on Ground Control (Su et al., 2001). This article is a summary of the activities that took place during a four-month period (October 2011 through February 2012) at a Consol Energy longwall mine southwestern Pennsylvania to improve face conditions and safety of underground personnel during mining of the 457-m- (1,500-ft-) wide longwall panel. The elevated concern for safety was driven by adverse face conditions encountered while mining the preceding longwall panel. Many of the problems were attributed to a thick and massive sandstone channel. A joint task force consisting of coal operations engineering, Pennsylvania operations engineering and CNX Gas personnel was formed in August 2011, which recommended drilling four hydraulic fracturing holes along the center axis of the sandstone channel to reduce pressure and improve face conditions at the longwall face. To further provide detailed monitoring of the longwall face and to evaluate the effectiveness of the hydraulic fracturing program, the Longwall Visual Analysis (LVA) software (Hoyer, 2011) was installed in early December 2011 to track the face pressure and c

Jun 1, 2013

By G. Jalkanen

Parameter estimation of the inverse distance estimation algorithm is presented. The objective function to be minimized is a sum of squared cross validation errors. The unknowns to be estimated are the exponent of the inverse distance estimator and anisotropic angles and ratios that are used in determining the distances in the algorithm. Examples are presented for both two and three dimensions data sets.

Jan 1, 2009

By H. E. Cross

In a minerals-recovery context, the object of exercising control over milling operations must be threefold, 1) To achieve maximum recovery at 2) minimum operating costs and 3) making maximum use of installed equipment, Milling is one of a sequence of operations which have as their objective the economic recovery of minerals from mined ores, All operations in the sequence are interdependent and each is both influenced by and itself affects all other unit processes. The part which grinding plays in achieving each of the above objectives is indicated in the following analysis: In South Africa, the most important mining operations are still the gold mines, A vast reservoir of knowledge and experience in treating the Witwatersrand and associated ores has been accumulated. and recoveries are consistently high, However residue values do vary and frequently this is due to fluctuations in the degree of grind, The significance of changes in residue values is indicated by the following example: On a modern mine, the residue values varied from 0,25 to 0,33 dwi; per 2000 lb, during a period of 6 months, The cash value of the gold thus lost varied therefore between $0.44 and $0.58 per 2000 lb, ton. A residue which assays 0.30 dwt per ton would contain approximately 0.26 dwt as undissolved gold and 0,040 dwt per ton as dissolved gold present in residual solution after filtration. This dissolved gold loss is a function of efficiency of filtration and varies from 0.030 to 0,.070 dwt per ton of residue.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. R. Tonry

In the grinding of dry non-metallic materials such as rocks, ores, gypsum, lime, and cement clinker, it is recognized that only a relatively small portion of the energy is utilized for actual size reduction, and the major portion of the energy used is converted into heat. As a result, heat is generated inside grinding mills imparting to the ground product a higher temperature than that of the mill feed. In some cases, as for instance in grinding cement clinker and gypsum into finished cement, it may be desirable to keep this temperature increase within certain limits, to avoid any change in the properties of the product and, because consumers may specify a maximum temperature of the finished product for reasons associated, with the tulimate use of the cement. The actual proportions of heat and useful work are somewhat indefinite. Some tests have indicated that nearly all the energy is converted into heat, and. other investigators have found that they could account for "everything except the noise." Investigations sponsored by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and carried out with an adiabatic calorimeter, indicated that a surprisingly high 19 percent of the energy might actually be used for size reduc¬tion. However, for the purpose of the following discussion it will be assumed that: (Fig. 1) 10% is lost in motor and gears 10% is lost by radiation and convection from the mill body 10% is used for size reduction, and. that 70% of the energy input leaves the mill as heat in the ground. product. A typical example (Fig. 2) would be a 7x22-ft tube mill operating in open circuit, driven by a 400 hp motor, charged with 77,000 lb of grinding media and producing 70 bbl or 26,300 lb of cement per hour. Reducing this cement from a clinker size of 96 percent passing a No. 16 mesh sieve to a specific surface of 3,230 sq cm per gm (Blaine) will increase the temperature of the cement approximately 143F above the temperature of the feed, as explained later. If the tempera¬ture of the clinker therefore is 125F, the finished cement will be 268F, which in some cases may be too hot. : When cement temperatures approach a range during grinding where dehydration of the gypsum becomes a problem, a logical consideration would be some means of reducing the temperature before it attains the range conducive to gypsum dehydration. Regardless of the varying degrees of heat generated within the mill or mills during grindingto various finenesses, consideration of the maximum safe limit for any type of cement being ground, which may vary fromplant to plant, govern in refining the mill circuit to obtain a safe temperature range. All plants are not necessarily required to do the same cooling job, and may or may not use cement coolers following the grinding circuit. (Not discussed in this paper). In the past, various means have been employed for controlling this temperature increase, Such means have included water cooling of the outside of the mill shell; equipping the shell with cooling fins; injection of moisture inside the mill; ventilation through the mill; and., in cases of closed-circuit grinding, drawing cooling air through the classifier; the purpose in all such cases being to remove heat from the grinding system.

Jan 1, 1958

By E. Fahrenkrog, D. Sbartaro, E. N. Cifuentes

An intelligent supervisor using expert system tools and applied to a crushing plant has been developed with a structure based on a model of a human operator. It consists of a knowledge base containing a qualitative model of the process and a rules base with the heuristic logic used by an operator when supervising a plant. The simulation results obtained show the potential of this type of system to supervise the automatic operation of a plant. There has been very significant development in artificial intelligence over the last two decades. Within this development, two approaches can be distinguished, (Winston, 1984). The "model approach," in which the main objective is to understand and model the be¬havior of living systems. The second approach is the "engineering approach." Here, systems capable of performing tasks usually requiring human intelligence are created. As part of this latter approach, knowledge engineering and its main achievement, expert systems, have been developed. Expert systems arose from the need to incorporate the abilities of a human expert in solving realistic problems in which the conventional approach has great difficulties. The first successful applications of expert systems were in medical diagnosis, geophysics, and fault detection. However, since 1971, when Fu (1971; defined intelligent control as the inter action of artificial intelligence and automatic control, some significant developments in the use of artificial intelligence tools for process control have been achieved (Astrom, 1986; Pinto 1988; Fahrenkrog, 1988; and Porter 1987). The modern control theory has made important advances. And, although successful in some applications, it has failed to cope with the practicalities of many industrial processes. As a result, the automatic operation of a plant has been confined to a small region around a normal operating point and to periods without any great disturbance. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of accurate and structured knowledge of the processes involved. Despite this, operators applying their knowledge, experience, and a little intuition, often obtain good results controlling the plant in such situations. Considering the above, the next obvious step is to include similar reasoning capacities in a computational system. The development of such an expert supervisory system prototype applied to a mineral crushing plant is presented. Problem description The problem is to conceive a control system with the ability to handle quali-

Jan 1, 1989

By G. H. K. Schenck

Weather changes of a daily, weekly, or seasonal period affect mineral production and cause significant losses that are considered unavoidable. Private weather forecasting services are available on a contract basis that can significantly reduce the uncertainty associated with weather-induced changes in the production of and demand for minerals. This paper provides examples of current practice and reviews the opportunities that await those producers who incorporate weather services as an integral part of their operating, scheduling, and planning procedures. Private weather forecasts can be highly accurate because atmospheric trends such as conditions and movement tend to persist and are related to previous meteorological events. Commercial meteorological services are prepared to deal specifically with a mineral producer's special problems (Table 1). Tactical use of private forecasts is a major advance over the severely restricted value of public forecasts which, of necessity, are general in nature and cover a dispersed geographic territory. Private weather services provided on a consulting fee basis offer the mineral producer the opportunity for tactical and strategic response to weather conditions at an acceptable cost. This contrasts with the too-frequent current tendency to view weather as a random variable the costs of which are unknown and about which nothing can be done.

Jan 1, 1970

By G. H. Lewis, C. L. Krcil, N. S. Harding, D. E. Havekotte

Introduction Limestone injection work was completed in a 440-kW (1.5-million Btu per hour) pilot-scale combustor in preparation for a 50,000-kg/h (110,000-lb per hour) industrial steam boiler limestone injection test program. The main objectives were to: (1) identify the important variables that affect sulfur capture, (2) determine the maximum SO2 removal, and (3) determine the effect of limestone addition on furnace operability and heat transfer. A more detailed report is given by Lewis et al. (1985). The test program was divided into two phases. The objectives of Phase I were to determine the important variables that affect SO2 reduction and to investigate the effect of limestone addition on combustor operation and heat transfer surfaces. The objective of Phase II was to determine, using only the important variables identified during Phase I, the conditions that resulted in the greatest sulfur dioxide reduction. Phase I Test program Using one limestone, five variables were identified as having an effect on SO2 reduction. These are noted with their respective ranges: heat release rate [103 to 166 kW/m3 (10,000 to 16,000 Btu per hour-cu ft)], Ca/S molar ratio (0 to 3), flue gas oxygen concentration (3% to 5%), additive particle size [90% -150 µm (-100 mesh) and 90% -45 µm (-325 mesh)], and burner stoichiometry (SR = 0.75 and >1.15). A 2.3% sulfur northern West Virginia coal, pulverized to a nominal grind of 70% -75 µm (-200 mesh), was burned for the tests. The limestone used was obtained from a Maysville, KY, quarry and contained 51.75% (wt) CaO. An 11-run statistically designed program (plus three duplicates) was used to screen the five variables. The effect of limestone injection on the combustor heat transfer surfaces was determined by comparing the heat transfer rates through a slag panel and fouling probes during periods with and without limestone injection. Combustor operation was determined by noting any operating problems that occurred during the tests. Test procedure After furnace wall temperatures had stabilized at operating conditions, heat transfer surfaces (slag panel and fouling probes) and the convection section were blown clean, and a four-hour test was begun. The

Jan 12, 1986

By Harry Parker

Resource and Reserve Audits Becoming Increasingly Common Types of Audits -Review of Methodology (‘Fatal Flaw’) -Due Diligence – (‘Sign Off’) -Endorsement – (‘QA-QC’) Suggested Standards in Red

Jan 1, 2003

By Erich U. Petersen

Recognition of mineralogical and chemical zoning patterns associated with mineralization is an integral part of mineral exploration. Even though the origin of zoning may not always be known, zoning patterns as expressed by the systematic distribution of ore and gangue minerals, alteration or elemental assays (soil and rock geochemistry) have received much attention and are extremely useful in guiding exploration efforts toward locating economic mineralization. By contrast, the potential of using zoning information recorded in solid-solution minerals to address practical geological-engineering problems has received less attention. Solid-solution minerals can provide critical information for common problems faced in exploration, mine development and valuation. Mineral zoning information from solid-solution minerals can now be easily obtained because advances in electron microprobe instrumentation have made these instruments a most efficient, accurate, economical and practical tool for analysis of large numbers of samples. Now entire mines and districts can be studied in a timely and cost-effective manner as required by modern mineral exploration and mining practice. This article shows how knowledge of the composition of fahlore minerals can be used in addressing important problems in exploration, development and valuation. Situations are described in which drilling intersected "low grade zones" (Case one: Orcopampa, Peru, precious metal system) and where there was a need to determine the "lateral correlation of multiple ore intercepts" (Case two: Sheep Creek, Montana, sediment-hosted sulfide deposit).

Jan 1, 1992

By M. S. Klima, A. Simard, M. L. Turek

Laboratory testing was carried out to evaluate several devices for recovering clean coal from bituminous coal refuse material. The bulk of the testing focused on using a dense-medium cyclone to process -0.6-mm refuse material. A hindered-settling column and a spiral concentrator were also used to process 1.2x0.15-mm material. Product yields and ash contents were obtained for all tests, while partition curves were generated for selected tests from which the characteristic performance parameters (relative density of separation and probable error) were determined. The results indicated that the dense-medium cyclone was capable of cleaning down to 0.037 mm, while the other devices were effective to 0.15 mm.

Jan 1, 2002

By Setareh Afrouz, Emily Sarver, Cigdem Keles

The resurgence of severe lung disease among US coal miners since the mid-1990s has led to efforts to better characterize and monitor respirable dust exposures, particularly focusing on mineral constituents from rock strata surrounding the coal. A rapid analysis method for silica (quartz) mass using direct-on-filter Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been developed, which can also estimate kaolinite, a primary silicate mineral in many coal mines.

Feb 24, 2022