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By G. S. Hume

THE discovery of natural gas with naphtha in 1924 in the Upper Palaeozoic limestone of Turner Valley, 35 miles southwest of Calgary, has led to continuous developments in this field. Drilling undertaken soon after this discovery demonstrated that the anticlinal structure was in reality a major drag-fold cut off on the east side by a westerly inclined fault of large displacement. The faulted edge of the .limestone at depth determines the eastern limits of the field, which between 1924 and 1936 was shown to have a gas area 14 miles long by about 1 mile wide. Since the strata dip westerly, away from the axis of the fold, drilling becomes progressively deeper to the west and, with the advent of deeper drilling, crude oil was discovered in 1936 on the west flank of the structure but in the same porous reservoir rocks as the gas on the crest and upper parts of the fold. Since 1936, drilling has been undertaken wholly for the production of crude-oil and at present two producing areas have been found within the Turner Valley structure. The larger of these, at the south end of the field, in the vicinity of Highwood river, has a length of about 4 3/4 miles and a proved width of one mile, whereas the smaller, in the north end of the field, south of the north fork of Sheep river, has only a few producing wells.

Jan 1, 1939

By A. Warczok, T. A. Utigard

"Slags from smelting of copper concentrates contains from 1 to 15% of copper. Copper is present in the form of copper or copper matte inclusions of size from 2 to 1000 micro, and as dissolved cuprous oxide. Removal of the copper requires the slag reduction, primarily reduction of magnetite and co-reduction of cuprous oxide. Thus, the kinetics of the slag reduction play an important role in copper recovery. Instantaneously, at the contact of carbon and a slag the gaseous film is formed. The magnetite and cuprous oxide reduction is going through a gaseous film, separating the slag and carbon of a coke or electrodes. The thickness of a gaseous film grows to a critical value and gas bubbles, containing CO and CO2, are created and rise up in the slag. Results of measurements of kinetic of the slag reduction with graphite showed high value of activation energy, close to the value of activation energy of Boudouard reaction. Strong temperature dependence of the reaction rate points out the thermal instability of the reacting system. It was found that the slowest process in the reduction stages determines the loop of CO and CO2 transfer and magnetite diffusion to the slag/gas film boundary. Strongly endothermic Boudouard reaction seems to cause thermal instability on the reaction surface. So, heat transfer to the reaction surface is very important. Due to low thermal conductivity of a slag the convection dominates in the heat transfer. So, any slag stirring accelerates the rate of reduction and coalescence of metallic copper or copper matte inclusions."

Jan 1, 2015

By R. D. Brown

The Federal Government's White Paper on Tax Reform received further major criticism in the reports of the Committees of the House of Commons and the Senate, which recently completed a lengthy review including public hearings of the government's proposals. These reports both criticized the emphasis placed by the White Paper on its concept of tax equity rather than on a system which would promote economic growth. However, the Finance Committee of the House of Commons was prepared to accept, with modifications, a number of the White Paper's key reform proposals. The Senate Finance Committee was more critical of the basic thrust of the tax reform program and recommended that a modification of the existing tax system would be more appropriate to Canada's needs. Both Committees re-commended a more favourable treatment of mining income than that originally proposed in the White Paper, and to some extent both Committees suggested proposals that were even more favourable to the industry than those set out in Finance Minister Benson's amended proposals made in August of this year. This article out-lines the principal recommendations and comments in the reports of both the House of Commons Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

Jan 1, 1971

By Celine Y. Zhang, Chloe J. Feng, Charles Q. Jia, Donald W. Kirk

Oil sands petroleum coke (OSPC) is a by-product of coking - a high-temperature process that converts the mined bitumen to the synthetic crude oil (SCO). For every barrel of the SCO produced, about 20 kg of OSPC are generated. Over 70 million metric tons of OSPC have been produced and stockpiled as a result of the development of oil sands industry in the past few decades. Unlike conventional petroleum coke, OSPC has uniquely high impurity contents, particularly sulphur (~ 7 wt%) and metals (e.g. vanadium at ~0.15 wt%), which has hindered its large-scale applications as a solid fuel. Vanadium is a valuable metal that is widely used as an alloy for strengthening steels. The stockpiled OSPC contains about 100,000 tons of vanadium, while the world’s production in 2013 was only 75,600 tons. At the current price of $25US/kg, the OSPC-bound vanadium represents a total value of $2.5 billion US dollars. In this work, we investigate the technical feasibility of extracting vanadium from OSPC. The work focuses on the characterization of vanadium in OSPC and the conditions for effective extraction of vanadium from the OSPC.

Jan 1, 2015

By T. T. Ni

FOR MORE THAN 200 years, the Kochiu district of Yunnan province has been, and it still is, the hub of China's tin industry. The district produces annually from 80 to 90 per cent of that country's out-put of tin, which averages about 9,300 tons a year and places China fifth among the tin producing nations of the world. The tin ore reserves of the country are estimated (1) at 1,873,370 metric tons, of which 1,500,000 tons are in the Kochiu district. The mill of the Yunnan Consolidated Tin Corporation, described in this paper, is the only one of its kind in China. MINING AND SMELTING There are only two tin mines in the Kochiu district operating with modern equipment -the Hsin-Chang and the Lao-Chang, both owned by the Yunnan Consolidated Tin Corporation, a government company. The Hsin-Chang mine has four working levels with cross-cuts 6 ft. by 6 ft. and is equipped with steel mine cars and trucks to haul the ore. The ore is hoisted to surface in a three-compartment shaft and transferred to the mill by a 4-kilometer aerial tram. The Lao-Chang mine has two circular shafts 656 feet apart, each equipped with two cages. Haulage-ways 1,600 meters and 1,000 meters long, respectively, have been driven to the southwest from these shafts and are connected by three cross-cuts.

Jan 1, 1951

By A. J. Petrina

"At Craigmont Mines Limited, Merritt, B.C., tests were begun in March, 1965 to evaluate the use of shotcrete as a method of ground support m development headings; previously, ail drifts had. required support, which was accomplished mainly by timber and occasionally by the use of rockbolts. The tests demonstrated conclusively the effectiveness of shotcrete for supporting Craigmont's ground. Gradually, the use of timber for ground support was virtually eliminated in favour of shotcrete. This paper describes the equipment used, the operation of the equipment, pertinent cast data and opera ting details. Also discussed are other uses developed for the shot-creting equipment, the use of reinforcing bar rockbolts, and a method used at Craigmont for lining long vertical ore passes with steel plate and concrete as part of the raising cycle."

Jan 1, 1968

RÉSUMÉ Cet article traite d’une analyse technique et économique du concept du triage optique en vue d’améliorer la rentabilité des opérations minières. Le principe du tri optique et les principaux systèmes et modules servant au fonctionnement de l’appareil de triage sont décrits. un modèle a été développé pour analyser l’intérêt économique d’une opération de triage optique. L’étude est basée sur des données provenant d’une halde de minerai à faible teneur en or, déposé à la surface, et de minerai extrait des opérations souterraines courantes de la mine Beaufor au Québec. Les résultats de cette analyse indiquent que l’opération de triage optique permet d’améliorer grandement la performance économique; l’opération devient alors rentable pour des teneurs en or relativement petites.

Jan 1, 2010

By T. H. Janes

THE POSSIBILITY of producing pig iron from iron ores of British Columbia for a west coast primary iron and steel industry has been investigated by the provincial government and by commercial interests on sever.al -occasions. The latest study is that currently under way by The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited. The Company is studying the possibility of making pig iron from the oxide calcine resulting from the roasting of pyrrhotite. tailings used in making sulphuric acid for fertilizer production at Kimberley. A comprehensive report on the subject .of establishing a primary iron and steel works in the Province, based on local iron ores, was prepared by Arthur G. Mc-Kee and Company of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1942 for the B.C. Minister of Mines and is available to interested parties. A detailed survey on the subject was also pre-pared in 1954 by Dr. G. P. Con-tractor, then .of the British Columbia Research Council. Considerable information is there-fore available on most aspects of an integrated primary iron and steel industry in British Columbia to supply the needs of the western provinces. To date, however, no basic iron industry has been established despite the .occurrence of high-grade iron ore deposits on the offshore islands and the high freight charges on iron and steel products brought into the area from Eastern Canada and overseas producers. The chief deterrent has always been the relatively small and highly diversified market available to a local steel producer. Other major fact-ors have been the lack of sufficient proven reserves of iron ore, and the difficulty of making pig iron, suit-able for steel manufacture, economically on a small scale. Technical and economic conditions have changed considerably since World War II and the establishment of a primary industry based on electric furnace production of pig iron or on one of the direct reduction processes, coupled with electric furnace steel production, may now be economically feasible.

Jan 1, 1958

By B. Tonn, F. Kröger

"The continued development in engine technology is leading to an augmentation in power density which steadily elevates the requirements for thermally and thermo-mechanically highly loaded components such as cylinder heads and pistons. Due to these high performance requirements conventionally applied Al-Si alloys have reached their application limits, since their mechanical properties deteriorate quickly under the influence of heat. Improved applicability is given by Al-Cu-based casting alloys which have a superior high-temperature strength than Al-Si alloys. Since Al-Cu alloys exhibit insufficient casting characteristics, especially regarding hot tearing susceptibility and increased tendency for porosity, it is currently not possible to cast geometrically complex components in robust permanent mold casting processes. The further development of Al-Cu alloys is aimed at finding an optimum between improved castability while high-temperature strength and thermal conductivity are not deteriorated. It is known that a high amount of eutectic reduces the hot tearing susceptibility of an alloy, but it reduces thermal conductivity at the same time. In this paper it will be presented how the conflicting objectives – improved high-temperature strength, good thermal conductivity and reduced hot tearing susceptibility – can be brought together to develop an optimized Al-Cu alloy for application in permanent mold casting.INTRODUCTION At the beginning of the 21st century car, engine blocks were primarily made of gray cast iron (GJL). Less than half a decade later, the choice of material had shifted towards lightweight materials. Ever since, the car engine manufacturing is dominated by aluminum-based alloys. The weight of car engine blocks could thus be reduced by around 50% due to the lower specific weight of aluminum alloys compared to gray cast iron. Furthermore, the high thermal conductivity of aluminum alloys allowed a reduction of complex cooling channel systems and thereby promoted the advancement of this material group. The further development in engine technology leads to an augmentation in power density which elevates the requirements for thermally and thermo-mechanically highly loaded components. For example, in diesel-powered car engines the upper required limits can reach an ignition pressure as high as 230 bar and gas temperatures of up to 1000°C. Thereby, thermal loads can cause high alternating thermal stresses (Grzincic, 2003) which can effectively be reduced by providing high thermal conductivity."

Jan 1, 2017

By A. H. Lang

Introduction Tin continues to be as much a strategic metal as it was during the war. This situation is due to the fact that the tin mines in the major producing areas of Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies have not yet reached their pre-war production. Moreover, the world requirements for tin in certain fields, particularly in the food pack industries, are steadily increasing. At present, tin is still under International allocation by the Combined Tin Committee, of which Canada is a member nation. This Committee reviews periodically the availability of refined tin for export from the producing countries and makes allocations of tin to ensure equitable distribution to the consumer countries. In 1947, availability permitted an allocation of only 70 per cent of stated requirements. From 1935 to 1938 the price of tin in New York averaged 49 cents a pound and during the war the price in Canada was controlled under a subsidy programme at levels from 60 to 70 cents per pound. Just recently, this price has been raised to 96 cents. The value of the Canadian production amounts to about half a million dollars annually and the whole of this is obtained as a by-product of the lead-zinc-silver ores of the Sullivan mine in British Columbia. In 1947 Canada's imports of tin were 3,961 long tons valued at over $6,000,000. In addition, tin plate to a value of $8,000,000 was imported from the United States; the tin content of this is estimated to be from 650 to 700 long tons. An increase in domestic production would, therefore, be of great national importance, and the present high price may make the search for and development of tin deposits more attractive than it has been in the past. Although no one can foretell what future prices will be, there is reason to believe that, unless there is a drastic downward revision of production costs, the price will be maintained at present levels for some years. A number of tin occurrences are known in Canada, but none of these have been developed for their tin content alone.

Jan 1, 1948

By L. Szecowka, M. Poskart, Siwka M. . J.

Oxides of nitrogen, created during combustion, are the most hazardous components of atmospheric pollution. However, it is possible to limit the negative influence of hazardous components on the natural environment. An experimental appartatus was built to determine the influence of the following "primary methods" on the reduction in concentration of NOx: air staging, reburning and flue gas recirculation. The influence of the simultaneous usage of the primary methods on reduction in NOx emissions was also examined. A significant increase in the efficiency of NOx reduction was achieved in two cases.

Jan 1, 2004

By S. Steinlechner, G. Schneeberger, J. Antrekowitsch

The recycling of steel mill dusts is getting more and more important. The costs and requirements of land filling are rising and companies are interested in new recycling strategies. The rising of sustaina¬bility hand in hand with the high rate of valuable metals in these residues supports new research activities on the recycling sector. Especially zinc but also iron and lead are economical factors due to the treatment of steel mill dusts. This paper gives a small overview of fundamental studies concerning the chemical and physical composition of these dusts. Furthermore aggregates for the reduction of these dusts in the liquid phase are introduced and compared. The Flash-Reactor, the TBRC-Technology (Top Blown Rotary Converter) and submerged arc furnaces and there use for melting and treatment of these dusts are in the center of interest of this paper. The final conclusion gives an overview of possibilities for reduction of filter dusts in the liquid phase.

Jan 1, 2011

By Jonathan Peck, Jim Gray

"While the mine developer looks for bigger and better orebodies in countries offering lower risks to development capital, the opera-tor of existing mines is looking for bigger and better ways to use his existing resources. Mining operations today utilize a variety of stand-alone systems for planning and managing their operations. In both small and large mines, payroll, accounting, inventory, planning, and engineering requirements are met using a combination of manual and computer-based systems.Technical advances and new enabling technologies are changing how mines are doing business. PC-based systems are allowing small operations to join the larger mines in using advanced computer-based systems. Advanced monitors are being used in maintenance to track, predict and correct the health of production equipment. Production monitoring systems are used to measure the performance of operating equipment and personnel in real time. This detailed information on how much, where, when, and by whom is being used for proactive management and planning. Ultimately, this information can be used to optimize and control the machines’ activities, eventually leading to robotic and autonomous operation of mining equipment.As the use of technology increases in mining, specific information objectives are being met but other problems are being created. The life cycle of technology is small, and as current systems are replaced by newer ones, integration problems and additional end-user training are created. In addition, onboard monitoring systems can create large volumes of data, data which are frequently archived without being analyzed. Mine operators are also duplicating efforts applying new technologies in an effort to be more competitive, but in doing so are creating interfaces which are only compatible with their own facilities. As system development moved from the centralized mainframe computer to the PC environment, the fragmentation of these systems became more pronounced.To efficiently continue in adapting and utilizing advancing technology, the mining industry needs to develop a system architecture that readily integrates as many sub-systems as possible. This will provide a framework for existing system integration and design guide-lines for future development. The Total Mining System (TMS) concept will allow a network of stand-alone functional modules to be readily integrated with minimal effort. This paper will discuss some of the current technologies cur-rently in use in some surface mine operations.In addition, a description of the information system and communications requirements that will be needed to integrate these components in the future, will be discussed."

Jan 1, 1996

By D D. Deacon

A brief description is given of the requirements which No. 4 Shaft has been designed to meet and of the methods by which two-stage winding of rock has been accommodated in a single shaft sunk to a depth of 7,421 ft. This is followed by a consideration of the factors which led to the decision to sink the shaft as rapidly as possible. Introduction T HE No. 4 Shaft of Hartebeest-fontein Gold Mining Company, Ltd., has been sited to serve the deep southern area of the mine, some 1,500 claims in extent, between the elevations of 6,250 and 7,300 ft. below surface. From this area, some two-thirds of the mine production will ultimately be obtained. Above the 6,-250-ft. elevation, an existing shaft hoisting system, situated adjacent to the reduction plant, is of adequate capacity to cater for all ore hoisted to surface for milling. No. 4 Shaft will therefore be required to provide downcast ventilation of 1,000,000 c.f.m., together with surface hoisting facilities for men, material and development rock and underground hoisting

Jan 1, 1965

By Yang Shuxin, Guo Qiliang, He Ping, Lu Lizhi, Yao Rui

"We combined stepwise regression and constrained regression statistical method to obtain the best boundary conditions for the calculation of in-situ stress field in Wushaoling tunnel using finite element method. Our numerical results reveal that: the main geologic factors contributing to the initial background stress are gravity and tectonics; the principal stress values would drop in fault zones; the angle between the maximal horizontal stress and the axis of Wushaoling tunnel is acute; Wushaoling tunnel tends to become stable when this tunnel has 2:1 ratio of the height to its width; the possibility of rock-burst exists under high stress.INTRODUCTIONStress state of engineering region is an important factor affecting the stability of project. Geological disasters in the project area are closely related to their stress environment. Wushaoling tunnel which is 20,050 meters long, lying along Lanzhou-Wuwei segment of Lan-Xin Railway in China, is the key project of Lan-Wu double-track railway. The region surrounding this tunnel is under a high stress environment. Accurate identification of the stress environment of the engineering area and the interaction between geomaterials and geotechnical engineering construction holds significant scientific and practical value for engineering design, construction, and operation.Many scholars explored and discussed the present-day tectonic stress through investigations of tectonic evolution history (Ding, & Lu, 1986), crustal deformation (Zoback, 1992), focal mechanisms (Yang et al., 2003, Xie, Cui, & Zhao, 2004), and so forth. However, the above methods would only provide the approximate direction of the principal stress in a broad region, and could not give the absolute stress values. In-situ stress measurement is one of the primary means to directly gauge the current crustal stress. However, in-situ stress measurement can only be applied in small number limited by measurement conditions."

Jan 1, 2015

By Tanai Marin

Modelling of pyrometallurgical processes can become extremely challenging when the process involves complex chemical reactions, phase change, multiphase flows, heat and mass transfer and fluid flow. Traditionally modelling involving complex thermodynamic equilibrium and thermochemistry are treated separately from problems in which transport phenomena are dominant, such as CFD and heat transfer studies. The separation is also necessary due to the lack of modelling tools that can effectively couple both solution thermodynamic and transport phenomena or even multiphysics problems. However, there are, quite often, problems in high temperature process metallurgy in which it is not possible to simplify this two modelling approaches. Typical cases of this are for example, the modelling of slag freezing on furnace walls (electric or flash furnaces) to create a protective layer in front of the refractories hot wall, the formation of build up from the matte or metal phases at the hearth of the furnace, calcine smelting from charging piles into slag phase, etc. The problem is even more challenging in nonferrous pyrometallurgy as most, if not all, of the condense phases are highly non ideal solutions involving several components and exhibiting complex crystallization paths and miscibility gaps, such as the Fe-Ni-Cu-S matte, FeO-Fe2O3-SiO2, FeO-MgO-SiO2 slags, etc. In this paper, an approach to model coupled problems involving multiphysics and solution thermodynamic is presented. The approach consists in developing in-house a library containing the Gibbs energy minimization routines and using the local equilibrium concept for process modelling from a multiphysics commercial software (COMSOL). Simple test cases, such as building a non-ideal binary phase diagram on a CFD package is presented, the limitations and of other classic approaches such as equilibrium or Scheil cooling are discussed and compared to this model.

Jan 1, 2015

By J. Grignon, C. Fleming

It is possible to reproduce the performance of an operating CIP or CIL plant in the laboratory, in small scale batch kinetic tests, coupled with mathematical models that translate kinetic data into predicted steady state gold profiles across multi-stage adsorption circuits. Once the performance of the commercial plant has been mimicked by the model, the plant operating parameters can be varied systematically in the model, and the likely response of the plant to the step wise change can be determined. In this way it is possible to inexpensively optimize the operating conditions of an existing plant, with no disruption to plant operations and no economic risk to the mining company. This approach had been adopted by IAMGOLD to optimize the performance of their Rosebel CIL plant following several major expansions in mill capacity since 2004.

Jan 1, 2011

"Developed by CRIRSCO, IRT is a document that draws on the best of the CRIRSCO-style reporting standards. These reporting standards are recognised and adopted world-wide for market-related reporting and financial investment.The IRT is not an international reporting code and does not supersede existing national reporting standards. Rather it is a guideline that encapsulates the content of these standards for the benefit of the international mining industry and its various stakeholders.The template is a 'living document' that is continuously updated and improved as new national laws, rules, codes and guidelines are created or amended.The International Template is advisory only and where national codes already exist, these will take precedence. The International Template is intended to assist those countries that either do not have a reporting code or whose code is outdated, to produce a new code consistent with international best practice. It also provides a consolidated version of national codes that reflects their compatible international components and may thus be used in comparisons with other international reporting systems. The word 'Template' is used advisedly to indicate that this document is a model for code development and does not in itself constitute a 'code' which implies that it has legal or other regulatory force.From this point forward, the Template includes words that imply a mandatory action, such as ""requires"", ""applies"", ""must"" etc. This is to enable the Template to be easily adopted by countries and organisations wishing to do so, and does not imply that the Template itself is a mandatory reporting standard.INTRODUCTION2 In this edition of the International Reporting Template (""The Template""), important terms and their definitions are highlighted in bold text. The guidelines are placed after the respective Template clauses using indented italics. They are intended to provide assistance and guidance to readers for interpreting the application of the clauses in the Template.Indented italics are also used for Appendix 1 — 'Generic Terms and Equivalents"", and Table 1 —'Check List of Assessment and Reporting Criteria' to make it clear that they are also part of the guidelines for the application of the Template.Appendix 1 contains a table of generic terms and their equivalents, designed to avoid unnecessary duplication or ambiguity in the textAppendix 2 provides Rules of Conduct for Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimators that may be considered in addition to the Codes of Ethics or Practice normally applying to members of professional institutions."

Jan 1, 2003

By W. A. Jankola

Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. operates an integrated zinc-lead smelter at Trail, British Columbia, Canada. The zinc circuit comprises three parallel operations: conventional fluid-bed roasting, direct zinc pressure leaching of concentrates and atmospheric leaching of zinc oxide fume recycled from the lead smelter. The products from these three areas are combined in the main leaching plant where they undergo iron purification. Unlike most leaching circuits, the leach process in Trail begins with an acid leach and is followed by a neutral leach. An evaluation was undertaken to determine if the process at Trail could be improved by converting to the conventional neutral leaching process with a subsequent acid leach of the residues. This paper explores the results of these tests and the implications for Trail Operations.

Jan 1, 2006

By Leroy G. Hagenbuch

"IntroductionAn integrated Truck Management Information System (Truck MIS) evolves as seemingly separate functions combined to yield a single homogeneous result / product. The concept of a computer integrated Truck MIS includes truck dispatch, truck maintenance management and truck weighing.A truck management system is only as good as the information / data bases input to it. The concept of an integrated system works best with automated data gathering. Automated data gathering provides timely and normally, the most accurate historical information/data bases. Data bases are, however, historical, which is a problem to be overcome in a computerized truck management information system, especially in regards to a truck dispatch system as loading sites / loading conditions and some dump site conditions continually change. As these changes occur, data base s must change as well, and thus the need for the continual update of data bases that the computer uses for a Truck MIS.For a truck dispatch system to achieve reliability / viability, dispatch decisions need to revolve around real time data gathered in an automated way. Integration of all truck management function s through automated data gathering lead s to the best over-all system.An integrated system is a combination of many different factors and is only as good as each factor / building block put in the system. With the proper building blocks, an integrated Truck MIS is very feasible - an MIS System that includes weighing, time and motion study, truck maintenance and maintenance management, as well as truck dispatch.Truck MISAn integrated Truck MIS provides for truck dispatch as the ultimate end result, a truly automated /integrated truck dispatch system (to function non-operator-dependent). The following comprises its central building blocks:-Time.- Haul Cycle Segments.Truck Status, i.e. Load on truck,- being loaded,- loaded,- unloaded,- in service,- out of service.- Vehicle Location.Loading Equipment Status.- in service,- out of service.Optional- distance travelled in each haul segment.With this data provided on a non-operator dependent basis, it is possible to build good data bases so a computer can make truck dispatch decisions. Knowing what information is needed as the central core to a good Truck MIS, how can this information be automatically gathered and fed into a central control computer?"

Jan 1, 1986