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By F. L. Pirkle, D. L. Pirkle, E. C. Pirkle, W. A. Pirkle

Heavy minerals have been mined from the sands of the United States’ Atlantic Coastal Plain since the early part of the twentieth century. Production of ilmenite from beach sands near Mineral City (Ponte Vedra), Florida, began in 1916. The first reported large-scale recovery of zircon in Florida was reported from this deposit in 1922 and of rutile in 1925. These operations ceased in 1929. Today the Ponte Vedra Country Club and Golf Course is situated in the center of the former mining site. In 1942 heavy-mineral operations were established on 202 hectares of land situated in Duval County, Florida. The location is about 16 kilometers east of the center of Jacksonville, Florida, in an area known as Arlington. This operation demonstrated that low-grade sand containing only 2 to 3 percent titanium minerals could be concentrated economically with the Humphreys spiral and that the oxides could be separated from the heavy silicates by electrostatic methods. Much of this area is now covered by a large mall and is a major retail- commercial center. Between 1958 and 1964 the Skinner tract, a deposit about 4 kilometers south of the above deposit, was mined. Today the area of this deposit is known as Deerwood, a gated country club community on the southside of Jacksonville. Further inland, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. has been mining heavy minerals from a physiographic feature known as Trail Ridge since 1948, and a deposit near Green Cove Springs, Florida has been in production since 1972. Since the start of heavy-mineral mining in the southeastern United States, nine heavy-mineral ore bodies either have been or are being exploited in Florida and Georgia. Other deposits either have been lost to mining or are yet to be mined. These deposits have different origins. Some formed along shorelines at the heights of marine transgressions while others formed on regressional beach ridge plains during periods of temporary stillstands or slight transgressions. These different origins are reflected in the chemical and physical characteristics of the deposits. Ilmenite in older, more western deposits has a higher TiO2 content than ilmenite in younger, more eastern deposits. TiO2 content does not very with north-south direction. Garnet and epidote are absent or rare in the older Trail Ridge deposits, but progressively become common in the younger Duval Upland, Crestal Pamlico, and Holocene deposits. Grain size is coarsest for Trail Ridge sediments and finest for sediments in Duval Upland and Crestal Pamlico deposits. The average grain size for Holocene deposits is intermediate between Trail Ridge and Duval Upland deposits. The two models for the origin of the heavy-mineral deposits – deposits formed at the height of major marine transgression; and deposits formed during periods of temporary stillstands or slight transgressions that occur during a general marine regression; - are consistent with known sedimentological data and depositional trends.

Jan 1, 2005

By R. L. Virta

Four companies ? H.C. Spinks Clay Co., Inc., Imerys, Old Hickory Clay Co., and Unimin Corp. ? mined ball clay in four states in 2013. On the basis of preliminary data, production was 1 Mt (1.1 million st) with an estimated value of $47 million. Production increased by 3 percent in tonnage from 973 kt (1.1 million st) with a value of $45.1 million in 2012. Tennessee was the leading producer accounting for 64 percent of domestic production, followed by Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky. About 67 percent of total ball clay production was airfloat, 22 percent was crude or shredded and 11 percent was water-slurried.

By David Belknap, Clay Haynes, David Egger

Rehabilitation challenges were met nearly two months ahead of contract schedule for the Design-Build, Fast Track Scituate Aqueduct & Tunnel project in Cranston, Rhode Island. The aqueduct and tunnel were built in the 1920s and consisted of three sections—a 2.3 m diameter reinforced concrete section that extends approximately305 m before it transitions to a horseshoe-shaped 2.3 m wide by 2.1 m high cast-in-place concrete tunnel that continues for approximately 5.3 km until it transitions back to a 2.3 m circular section that extends approximately 1.9 km to the end of this project. Major repairs were required to assure sustained operation of this water supply tunnel.

Jan 1, 2005

By D. Rendini, R. D. Gutridge

INTRODUCTION Gwinnett County, Georgia, is a part of the rapidly expanding metropolitan Atlanta Georgia area. Located approximately 48 km (30 miles) northeast of Atlanta, Gwinnett County has a current population in excess of 600,000 and is projected to reach a population of 1,200,000 by 2025. As a part of the County’s master plan to supply drinking water for the expanding population and to increase system reliability, the Gwinnett County Public Utilities Department undertook the Shoal Creek Raw Water Intake and Pump Station Project. Figure 1 shows a vicinity map for the project. Prior to construction of the Shoal Creek Raw Water Intake and Pump Station Project the County had a single raw water intake to feed water from Lake Sidney Lanier (Lake Lanier) into a filter plant for processing into potable water. This project together with a newly constructed water filter plant provides Gwinnett County additional capacity and system redundancy to prevent interruptions to the drinking water supply. Lake Lanier is a man made reservoir with over 800 km (500 miles) of shoreline and was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s for hydro electric power generation, flood control, and navigation benefits for the Chattahoochee River. Over time, Lake Lanier has become an increasingly important source of drinking water for the metropolitan Atlanta area. This paper focuses on the primary underground construction and lake tap components of the project including a 42.7 m (140 ft) deep pump station shaft 24.4 m(80 ft) in finished diameter transitioning to a 6.1 m (20 ft) finished diameter shaft, a3.05 m (10 ft) finished diameter by 19.8 m (65 ft) deep intake shaft constructed in an average of 21.3 m (70 ft) of water, and a 190.5 m (625 ft) by 3.05 m (10 ft) finished diameter modified horseshoe tunnel connecting the two shafts. This raw water intake system, in conjunction with the incorporated pump station with 8 pumps and dual1,829 mm (72 inch) pipelines, provides a system capacity of 1,091,062 m3/day(240 MGD) to two water filter plants and is expandable by the addition of pumps to1,500,210 m3/day (330 MGD). Parsons provided design and construction management services for the project. The $29.6 million contract to construct the project was awarded to W.L. Hailey &Company. Notice to proceed was given August 6, 2001 and substantial completion was achieved on January 20, 2004. Value engineering changes adopted for the project contributed to completing the project at a final cost of $28.8 million.

Jan 1, 2005

By Staff

The mineral sector is a fundamental part of the U.S. economy. It contributes to the real gross domestic product (GDP) at several stages—basic (mining), intermediate processing, manufacturing of finished goods and construction. The estimated growth rate for the real GDP of the United States for 2006 was 3.2 percent. The nominal GDP was about $13.2 trillion. The value of minerals mined in the United States in 2006 rose significantly because of increased unit price for some metals—particularly copper, zinc and other base metals. There was also a significant reduction in metals stocks. Infrastructure expansion and manufacturing in China and India have been absorbing a significant portion of world output. Domestic production increased for some industrial mineral materials, mainly cement and construction sand and gravel. Production of crushed stone declined less than 1 percent in 2006 compared

Jan 1, 2007

Impala Platinum?s No.16 Shaft mine is currently under construction and is expected to reach full production of 256 500 tons per month by 2014. Mining will start at 1 260 m below surface with a maximum mining depth of 1 535 m where virgin rock temperatures of 56.6°C will be experienced. As a result of depth, high virgin rock temperature and narrow reef mining, an expected total of 31.5 MW[R] of air cooling capacity will be required to achieve acceptable underground conditions. This will be achieved by cooling mine intake air in a single dedicated air cooling installation located on surface. The compact installation includes air cooling spray chamber, refrigeration machines, condenser cooling towers, evaporator and condenser water reticulation as well as all electrical and control systems. Construction and commissioning of the first phase of this air cooling installation has recently been completed on a turn-key contract basis.

Jan 1, 2009

By L. Clark

Despite near-record commodity prices, the mining industry continues to search for ways to maintain profits in these times of steadily increasing energy prices and steadily decreasing grades. The pressure is still on today’s miners to continuously improve their operations because they know that one day prices too will drop. Some, however, have seized the opportunity to employ systematic methods to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of their workforce and equipment. As a result, closer attention is being paid to scheduling and the value that could be added by defining the extraction sequence that maximizes the net present value [NPV] of a project. This paper will discuss the challenges faced by Newmont Mining Corporation [Newmont] at its operations and the application of sophisticated software tools and methods in its search of solutions to this problem.

Jan 1, 2007

By P. M. Prasad

Off-grade molybdenite concentrates, mainly derived from secondary sources as by-products of the processing of copper, uranium and tungsten ores, do not satisfy the purity requirements (percent MoS2) for the production of molybdenum bearing products. This investigation is a continuation of a successful effort to refine a low-grade molybdenite concentrate to prepare a high-grade MoS2 using a mixed acid (HF + HCl) leach procedure. Specifically, this investigation is concerned with an understanding of the separation chemistry underlying the removal of the oxide/silicate gangue and the base-metal sulfide associations present in the low-grade molybdenite by their selective dissolution in the two acids. Experiments were conducted on an off-grade concentrate containing 42.6% Mo. Results of the controlled dissolution tests indicate that both HCl and HF are suitable for the removal of the associated alumina and both work well for iron, nickel and copper. However, HF was found to be the most effective for dissolving silica/silicate and magnesia. An attempt was made to rank the leaching efficiencies of the acids used singly, sequentially or in a mixed mode. Scale-up (300 to 2,000 g) experiments were conducted to validate this approach. Excellent purification of the concentrate was possible by processing the off-grade concentrate with 10% HCl plus 15% HF at 363 K for 7.2 ks in open polypropylene reactors with internal stirring. These conditions leached practically all of the oxide and silicate gangue and 96% of the metallic impurities. Starting from the low-grade molybdenite concentrate (42.6% Mo; 71.1% MoS2) it was found feasible to obtain a refined product containing 97.8% MoS2, which is suitable for industrial use.

Jan 1, 2007

By Jean Habimana

The Detroit Upper Rouge Tunnel CSO Control Project will capture and store up to 201 MG of combined sewer overflow from 28 outfalls in Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Redford Township during wet-weather events. The history of rock tunneling in the area is associated with high groundwater inflows, artesian pressure, and hazardous and combustible gases. This paper presents the geotechnical considerations for designing the 11.28-km (7-mile) long, 9.14 m (30-ft) finished diameter tunnel and its associated adits, chambers and shafts, including the discussions of geotechnical investigations, rock mass characterization, estimated groundwater infiltration during construction, and the selections of excavation methods and lining system based on anticipated ground behavior to be encountered.

Jan 1, 2008

In its April 1991 issue, MINING ENGINEERING published a salary survey form asking for information relating to engineering and management jobs in the minerals industry. 1038 of these forms were filled out and returned, most of them being received in the magazine's offices at SME headquarters before the end of June 1991. An SME volunteer took on the task of tabulating and analyzing data from the forms, but the press of other business interfered with this work, and publication has been delayed until this issue of MINING ENGINEERING. Appreciation is extended to SME members who took the time to fill out and return the salary survey forms, and our apologies go to MINING ENGINEERING'S readers for the delay in publication. Of the total number of forms received, more than 97% were from SME members. The geographic distribution of the respondents closely mirrored that of SME membership as a whole, about 50% being from the Society's Western Region, 19% from the Central Region, and 23% from the Eastern Region. About 8% were from outside the US. Average salaries for each of the four geographic areas ranged between $55,000 and $60,000, with the highest average in Eastern Region (Fig. 1). Respondents were asked to answer a number of questions formulated to determine if there are significant differences in salaries based on the type of organization for which they work. As indicated by Table 1, salary averages at mining companies do not vary markedly with the size of the company: • Large companies, defined as those having more than $1 billion in annual sales, accounted for just over 16% of the returns. Their average salary was $61,840 per year.

Jan 1, 1992

By B. R. Zernich

Advances in tunneling technology, such as Earth Pressure Balance and Slurry Shield methods, have allowed the tunneling industry to construct tunnels in increasingly difficult ground conditions. In recent years, a number of civil projects including large diameter train tunnels, subway tunnels, water tunnels, sewer tunnels, and combined sewer tunnels have been successfully completed deep beneath the water table in soft ground conditions utilizing modern day Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM). With the increase in difficult ground conditions and higher water pressure comes the inherent need to utilize compressed air to gain access to the TBM?s cutterhead and cutting tools. This paper focuses on one such instance in Los Angeles, CA in which Traylor Brothers Inc. performed a cutterhead intervention by compressing the heading of an 11-foot diameter tunnel to approximately 3 bar gauge pressure. This paper focuses on the environmental controls used to manage ventilation, oxygen levels, temperature, and pressure, as well as discusses the problems associated with toxic gases and the increased risk of fire. The paper will also cover the physical science of the environment and the increased risks of performing basic job functions while in a compressed air heading.

Jan 1, 2009

By A. D. Nicholson

This paper presents an approach to quantitatively calculate the neutralization of acid by silicate minerals, based on the chemical kinetics of acid reacting with silicates. This approach incorporates incongruent dissolution mechanisms and the effects of silicate iron content on net acid consumption, and offers guidelines for considering the extent to which specific silicate minerals will react. This approach differs from previous methods of estimating silicate buffering: it is based more on the fundamental chemistry of acid generation, and less on potentially misleading empirical measurements of acid neutralization.

Jan 1, 2002

According to the classification of water conservation mining in shallow coal seams in China, when the ratio of the impermeable layer thickness to the mining height is less than 18, the mining belongs to the category of special water conservation, and the strip backfilling mining method is employed. This study is based on the geological conditions in northern Shaanxi. By analyzing the stability of the impermeable layer, the stability criterion of the impermeable layer was developed. The study also investigated the compositions and properties of the backfilling materials. The results show that reasonable subsidence of the impermeable layer is allowed during mining under the basic precondition (upward cracks and downward cracks are not connected).

Jan 7, 2020

By Sohta Takatsu, Hachiroh Mizubata, Shigeki Kudoh, Kazuya Takekuni, Yoshinori Yamada

A special type of shotcrete is used to improve the performance of open-type TBM in difficult situations. The Hakamagoshi and Johana tunnels are expressway evacuation tunnels of 3.2 km and 5.1 km in length, respectively (total 9.1 km) that were excavated by one open-type TBM. The geological conditions at the sites were estimated to be good before excavation. However, 95% of the rock turned out to be two ranking orders worse than the estimated classes. Therefore, we used a special shotcrete for bad rock conditions, and succeeded in excavating the tunnel at an average rate of 270 m/month.

Jan 1, 2001

By C. Bucknam, M. McComb

Mercury and silver polythiocarbonate sludge that was generated from the pilot testing of optimized mercury removal from cyanidation pregnant eluate solutions prior to Merrill-Crowe recovery of gold and silver were tested for long term stability at Newmont Metallurgical Services. Sludge samples were mixed with heap leach residue to simulate disposal of the sludge in spent or active areas of the heaps and leached for twenty weeks with water and cyanide leaching solution, respectively. Leach testing results are presented as well as analysis of the sludge using scanning electron microscope techniques down to the <1000 nanometer scale.

Jan 1, 2007

By E. Tulcanaza

M.S. Azun I do not at all agree with the basic points of the author&apos;s conclusion. The use of lognormal or normal model to respond to the attribute distribution function should be carefully questioned. If fitting a distribution function of regionalized variables is the main purpose, one may employ one of certain well-known families of distributions, such as Tukey&apos;s lambda functions. For instance, the distribution function of gold assay values studied by Krige (Krige, 1978) may fit the lognormal model well, but one should not exclude that the basic idea of using the distribution function of observed data is to have insight of the physical mechanism that gives rise to the regionalized variables. In Applied Geostatistics, there are many examples considering only lognormal or normal model for the distribution function of geostatistical data even if the observed distribution function has more than one mode. Of course, using lognormal or normal model always brings easy computation for the statistical properties of attribute under investigation. Still, I object to adopting any of those models without having any "statistical inference." As seen from the author&apos;s paper, lognormal and normal model produce the same average grade (0.746% copper) and almost the same sample variance. Therefore, which model explains the probabilistic behavior of ore deposit is always an important question that should be replied by the geostatistician using not the common sense but the statistical and probabilistic methods. For kriging procedures, such as linear kriging, one should describe either second order stationary properties or bivariate properties of regionalized variables. Second order properties, such as correlogram function or semivariogram function, are the inputs of the so-called kriging equations. Selecting one of any useable models for the observed second order properties, such as spherical model, is not easy since the models are not based on the correlations structure of the regionalized variables. How those models being used in Applied Geostatistics can be distinguished is another important problem. One may develop many fitting models to respond to the observed second order properties of regionalized variables. However, I suggest that the model should be based on the probabilistic behavior of geologic process. The author used spherical model for copper, wolfram, and silver grades from isotropic sector (Fig. 2, 4, 3b) and exponential model for silver grades obtained along raises in isotropic sector (Fig. 3a). It seems that those semivariograms given in Fig. 3b for isotropic sector and Fig. 4 may be described by the random model implying that regionalized variables do belong to renewal process (Azun, 1983). If I knew the total number of data points used in estimation, I may prove that my conclusion is correct. Recalling the test for the first order sample correlogram value, the test procedure is introduced such that the independence is rejected if [ ] where Za/2 is the a/2 percentile of standard normal random variable and N is the total number of samples used in estimation (Azun, 1983). For the other observed semivariogram functions I suggest the author might try to use the so-called "Markovian model" describing not only the correlation structure of regionalized variables, but also the physical mechanism that produces the regionalized variables. The Markovian model for correlogram function is, [ ] The Markovian model for the other second order properties of ReV are also derived. T ve B, in the above equation, show, for example, structural change and mineralizational variation in a considered deposit, respectively (Azun, 1983). In selecting any model, it is not easy to search for the "best" response to the observed second order properties of ReV&apos;s. The Markovian model, based on a theoretical understanding of underlying mechanism, gives more information about the occurrence of regionalized variables and respond to all properties. Random model and the so-called hole effect structure can be easily defined as a special form of the Markovian model (Azun, 1983). An estimation of any second order properties of regionalized variables may be computed through (N-1) lag. However, the dependency between the regionalized variables may be deemed to have "died out" after the so-called stationarity width (range). In practice, the estimation is carried out through 25% of the total number samples available. Therefore, the large fluctuations around the zero level and variance for correlogram or covariogram function and semi-variogram function, respectively, cannot be observed. Since the number of pairs involved in the estimation of higher second order properties is small, the estimation variance at those lags is large. There is no need to show higher order estimated second order properties. After using one of any kriging procedure for block estimation, the distribution function of average grades has the same mean as the drilling sample grades but

Jan 3, 1985

Membrane technology has been available for over 36 years, but has been used sparingly in the general mining industry. However, recent developments in polymer chemistry, spiral wound element construction, pretreatment equipment and techniques and an expanded understanding of membrane fouling and cleaning techniques have dramatically improved the reliability and robustness of membrane based systems in the mining industry. Harrison Western has expanded the use of this “new” technology to enhance the use of membrane technologies to separate metals from large volume heap leach mining solutions containing copper, zinc, and iron, gold or silver. Moreover, membrane technologies are ideally suited to fractionations that add value to processing fluids from refineries like separating metals from acids or concentrating acids and producing high quality process fluids. Finally, wastewater from Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) or, as in the case of the Newmont Yanacocha Mine in Peru, the treatment of excess barren leach solution created during the rainy season, can be cost effectively processed to meet World Bank Standards for surface discharge. Polymeric membranes, specifically thin-film composites, have been developed that will purify, fractionate or concentrate gold, silver, copper, zinc or nickel. Recent applications have been developed for spiral wound modules that operate across the pH spectrum from 0 to 14. Systems using membranes have been constructed that operate on feed streams from 140° C to 300 centipoise. Opportunities exist to apply membrane technology to concentrate gold, silver, copper, zinc or nickel using thin film composite membranes. Engineered membrane types can operate across the spectrum from low pH (<2) acid applications to high pH > 10 cyanide applications. Incorporating HW EMS™ membrane technologies into current mining operations could allow one to increase production because the membrane technology would be used to pre-concentrate heap leach solutions, and therefore, increase utilization of existing extraction and refinery capabilities.

Jan 1, 2007

By C. K. Kocsis

A study was undertaken to evaluate the thermal environment and determine the contributing heat sources within the existing 153 Orebody of Coleman/McCreedy East Mine which would then enable the prediction of the climatic conditions in the mine?s future 170 Orebody. The study entailed continuously monitoring, for a 2-week period, the dry-bulb temperature, humidity and barometric pressure along the existing intake airways from surface down to the 4810 Level and throughout an active mining area on that level. Furthermore, the mining activities and associated equipment that could be responsible for any changes in the temperature and humidity conditions within this mining area were also monitored. These data were then used to develop and validate a climatic simulation of the mine?s mechanized cut and fill mining method. This climatic model was then transposed to the future 5700 Level in the deeper 170 Orebody, to determine the environmental conditions within its production workings and along the main haulage route ascending from that area. Based upon the simulations performed it was shown that the level of ventilation planned for the new orebody should be able to maintain adequate environmental conditions. However, this study did emphasize the importance of the appropriate distribution of airflow in workplaces that used auxiliary ventilation in order to sustain a suitable thermal environment.

Jan 1, 2009

By Don F. Macfarlane

This paper describes the field application of the NTH fracture classification to rock encountered in the construction of the 9.6 km long, 10m diameter, Second Manapouri Tailrace Tunnel. Excavation of the tunnel was undertaken by TBM between 1997 and 2002, in gneisses, granitic and diorite rocks. The paper outlines an adaptation of the NTH fracture classification used during the geological logging of this tunnel. The NTH fracture classification was primarily applied to assess discontinuity spacing for tunnel support requirement decision-making. The paper includes some general comparison of NTH classes with overall penetration rate.

Jan 1, 2008

Over the past seven years a large database of coal self-heating rates under adiabatic conditions has been developed at The University of Queensland. Coals have been tested from Australia (Queensland and New South Wales), New Zealand (North and South Island), Indonesia and more recently the United States. As a result of this work, definitive relationships and trends have been established for the effects of various intrinsic coal properties on self-heating rates and anomalous coals have also been identified. Previously held views on the effects of coal rank, type and inorganic constituents are examined in this paper. Many of the published relationships do not hold true in terms of coal self-heating rates. A propensity rating scheme has also been developed which is routinely used in Australia for assessing coals and identifying appropriate mining analogues for spontaneous combustion management planning. A selection of examples will be presented in the paper, which shows the significance of this assessment strategy.

Jan 1, 2009