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Sedimentation is used to clarify process effluents or to thicken process slurries. The sedimentation cycle of a suspension is presented as a settling curve. This curve is simply a plot of the height of the interface between the settled suspension and clear liquor versus time. Figure 1 shows a series of graduate cylinders which contain a suspension at various stages in its settling cycle. Cylinder 1 shows the suspension completely mixed at time zero. After a brief period of time (see cylinder 2), the suspension is observed to settle from its initial height Ho to height H1, leaving behind a volume of clear (or turbid) liquor, called the supernatant. The interface between the supernatant and suspension is termed the mud line. It is also possible to distinguish at the bottom of the cylinder a layer of sludge representing solids which have settled from the suspension. The interface between it and the suspension is called the sludge line. The sludge line moves upward in the cylinder.

Jan 1, 1992

By M. H. Rauschkolb, J. A. Cremeens

Geotechnical solutions were developed for closure of two historic, remote underground mines in the deserts of southern California. Closure criteria included access closure, minimal site impact, and optimum use of native materials. The closure designs and construction activities incorporated techniques for protecting sensitive biota, particularly bats and desert tortoise. The types of mine openings that were closed include adits, declines, shafts, daylighted stopes, and dugout dwellings. The desert locations permitted implementation of cost-effective closure techniques that relied upon the use of native materials. The strategies and techniques developed for these desert closures are adaptable to other climates.

Jan 1, 2002

By Horst H. Gielen

Bong Mining Company/Liberia provides the rare opportunity to compare two generations of grate kiln pelletizing plants operating on the same magnetite/hematite ore basis. In this paper advantages and drawbacks are compared: mechanical aspects, energy-savings, pellet quality. Plant I with up- and down-draft drying gas flow. Plant II runs only on down draft drying and incorporates a heat-recoup system. Ferteco Mineracao/Brazil operates a Lurgi straight grate plant since 1977 on hematitic pelletfeed. Energy-political situation and char- coal as energy source in Brazil are reflected also in the search for alternative fuels for pelletizing. First measures and results are reported as well as intended further steps towards a 100 % oil replacement.

Jan 1, 1983

By R. Poulin, R. Pakalnis, D. Peterson

Introduction A comprehensive project has been completed at the University of British Columbia that focused on the development of a commercially competitive composite cable bolt. Laboratory evaluation consisted of pull tests, preliminary shear tests, grout column testing and scanning electron microscope evaluation of the composite cable bolt. Field implementation at five underground mines throughout Canada were completed for technical and overall performance evaluation of the new product. The project began in 1989 under the sponsorship of HDRK Ltd., a consortium of mining companies including Inco, Noranda and Falconbridge Ltd. The objective was to develop a cuttable cable bolt that would serve as support for a continuous miner within a hardrock environment (Mah, 1994). The bolt was required to be cuttable by a continuous roadheader without adverse effects to equipment, personnel and the milling process. From the beginning, the focus was to employ existing cable bolt installation technology (Goris et al., 1994) whereby the cable bolts are grouted within a 4.8-cm-diam (1.08-in.diam) or larger employing a portland cement grout having a water: cement ratio between 0.35:1 to 0.4:1. The prototype, developed from Phase I, was technically comparable to that of conventional steel cable bolts. However, high cost and limited accessibility hindered its commercial acceptance. The second phase of the project was sponsored by the British Columbia Science Council and Pacific Pultrusions Ltd. of British Columbia to locally develop a glass fiber cable bolt. This phase of the project has resulted in the DAPPAM cable bolt (Pakalnis et al., 1994). DAPPAM Cable bolts are the second most used support method in Canadian underground mines after mechanical rock bolts. It is projected that 870,000 m (2.9 million ft) of cable bolts are installed annually in Canada (Poulin et al, 1994). The objective of the research program was to develop a glass fiber cable bolt with similar pullout strengths to the conventional steel cable bolts (267 kN - 60,000 lbf). More than 200 laboratory pull tests were conducted employing standard cable bolt test procedures, as outlined by the US Bureau of Mines (Goris, 1994), to assess optimum rod and surface composition, geometry, number required, pullout and shear characteristics, among others. This resulted in the DAPPAM cable bolt (Fig. 1). It consists of 10 individual 0.6cm-diam (0.25-in.-diam) rods enveloping a 2.2-cm (0.8-in.) outside diameter, high-density polyvinyl grout tube. The composite used in the construction of the rods is comprised of about 65% glass fiber within a 35% polyester resin matrix (by volume). Through pultrusion (a continuous fabrication technique), the fibers and resin are combined into a composite material. The strength of the overall composite is largely governed by the material properties, the alignment [ ] of the fibers relative to the applied load and the density and interaction of the overall components within the composite. A further modification to the composite was the addition of a sand grit to the surface of the individual rod. This increased the overall bond strength between the rod and the cement-based grout, used to solidify the cable bolt to the rock mass. The grout tube has an inside diameter of 1.9 cm (0.75 in.) and is rated at a pressure of 1.72 MPa (250 psi). During installation, the grout is pumped through the annulus of the grout tube thereby filling the hole from toe to collar. Laboratory and field trials concluded that a minimum drill hole diameter of 4.8 cm (1.08 in.) be used to ensure optimum grout coverage. Table 1 compares the design strengths (as tested) for DAPPAM vs. the ultimate strengths for a conventional 1.6cm (0.6-in.) steel cable bolt. The characteristics for the steel cable have been derived directly or indirectly by Goris et al. (1994). A design tensile strength of 289 kN (65,000 lbf) was proposed for the composite developed. However, recent tests have indicated maximum breaking strengths of more than 400 kN (90,000 lbf) (Fig. 2). Figure 2 shows the load vs. displacement pull out curves for steel and DAPPAM cable bolts. The methods of testing were standardized so as to be able to compare the results directly. The shear strength of the fiberglass cable is largely a function of the surface area sheared. Shear strengths of 89 kN (20,045 lbf) were obtained for the configuration shown in Fig. 1 when sheared normal to the axis of the cable. The testing procedure was similar to the shear tests performed on steel by Goris (1993). It is important to reinforce the implication that critical bond strength has on the success of an overall support system.

Jan 1, 1995

By G. Troly, M. Esterle, B. Pelletier, W. Reibell

In New Caledonia, ultramafic formations occur on 7,000 square kilometers. Weathering of peridotites leads to profiles of alteration and nickel concentrations. Complete profiles are composed of two main groups of horizons: 1. Limonitic, mainly composed of iron hydroxides 2. Saprolitic, partly composed of magnesium and iron silicates Shape and mineralogical composition of saprolitic horizons are chiefly affected by the nature of the bedrock: types of peridotite and their degrees of serpentinization. On the other hand, morphology (plateau, terraces, slopes, piedmont) is an important factor. Ore-bodies are inside saprolites; their outlines are determined by the grade of nickel and tonnage economically mineable. Information about geology, morphology, geochemistry, and mineralogy are given in this paper.

Jan 1, 1979

By N. Ward

The Gualcamayo Mine is located in the Andes Mountains north of San Juan, Argentina (Fig. 1). A property of Yamana Gold Inc., it declared commercial production in July 2009 and has a total mineral reserve and resource base of approximately 88 t (3.1 million oz) of gold. Crushing operations for the openpit mine are located in a 13,500-m3 (477,000-cu ft) underground cavern with a ceiling height of 22 m (72 ft). More than 3,600 m (11,800 ft) of tunnels are used to access the cavern and convey the ore. The project as described in this paper relates to the design and construction of the main cavern, conveyor system exit tunnel, the mechanical system access tunnels and two 4.2-m- (13.7-ft-) diameter shafts (Ore Pass #1 and Ore Pass #2) (Fig. 2). Preliminary engineering for the project was performed by Hatch Chile. Rizzo Associates Argentina, S.A., a division of Paul C. Rizzo Associates, Inc. (Rizzo), was contracted to provide geomechanical and geotechnical support for the construction of the access tunnel system and geomechanical design and construction supervision for the cavern and shafts.

Jan 1, 2011

By D. W. Scott, D. G. Minnes

Introduction Ontario's diverse industrial mineral resource base includes structural minerals such as sand and gravel, crushed stone, building stone, clay, shale, limestone, and dolostone. These resources are used to produce aggregates, brick, metallurgical stone, fillers, cement, lime, and other construction materials. The majority of the operations are in deposits of Palezoic and Quaternary age in southern Ontario, close to the major markets. Province-wide, there were more than 140 Mt (154 million st) of aggregates produced in 1985. About 115 Mt (128 million st) of that was produced in southern Ontario with the rest being largely from Crown land in northern Ontario. Structural industrial minerals account for more than 80% of the value of total industrial mineral production. The remaining 20% is accounted for by the nonstructural minerals, such as salt, which is produced in the southwestern part of the province. A host of other nonstructural industrial minerals are known. Production, though, is currently restricted to calcite, gypsum, quartz, talc, nepheline syenite, and byproduct metallurgical sulfur products (Fig. 1). Major production is close to the large markets of urbanized southern Ontario and the northeastern and northcentral US. With an abundant variety of industrial mineral resources and the large population within 650 km (400 miles) of most deposits, the market offers great potential. Ontario's nine million people accounted for about 35% of Canada's entire $476.3 billion gross domestic product in 1985. This equates to about one-third of the nation's buying power being within a 200-km (125-mile) radius of Toronto. This major concentration of industrial and economic activity has resulted in a well-developed industrial minerals industry that fulfills most of the structural industrial minerals demand in Ontario. Nonstructural industrial minerals are similarly well placed to compete in this high demand area. Although Ontario manufacturers still import some of these materials, Ontario products are achieving significant market share. And, they serve the needs of neighboring provinces and states. Present production and trends Ontario has traditionally produced significant amounts of industrial minerals. This produc¬tion had a value of $956 million in 1984 (Table 1). Structural materials production in 1985 and 1986 approached or exceeded levels not seen since the early 1970s. Many new products have been developed using these raw materials. The industry is becoming concentrated in the hands of several large companies, mainly four large cement com-

Jan 12, 1987

By Omar A. Muhtadi

Brohm Mining Corporation, in conjunction with Geobiotics, Inc. has nearly completed a pilot heap biooxidation test on sulfidic ore from the Gilt Edge Mine near Rapid City, South Dakota. Some results from the pilot testing have shown the correlation between the extent of biooxidation and the increase in cyanide gold recovery seen in the laboratory. Bench scale testing showed approximately a 1: 1 correspondence between percent biooxidation and percentage increase in gold recovery. The economics of large scale biooxidation were also evaluated in terms of increased gold recovery versus the time and cost of biooxidation. In the pilot test, the rate of biooxidation became limited by the acid water neutralization system. Later in the test, measures were taken to overcome this problem. Results from bench scale column bioleach testing showed that the Gilt Edge sulfide ore is quite amenable to biooxidation with a substantial increase in gold recovery with just partial biooxidation. Direct cyanide gold recovery of 51 % on ore crushed to -3/8" was enhanced to 82-85% after oxidation of37% of the sulfide as measured by iron. Laboratory experiments also showed that the slow rate of biooxidation of this ore could be accelerated by removal of metal sulfate build up from the leach liquor. The combination of these normally non-toxic metals became inhibitory to biooxidation if not removed by the neutralization circuit.

Jan 1, 1995

By David A. Greenhut

The Kubota surface melting system has been under development since 1975. It has found commercial application on the melting of municipal sludge, and ash from solid waste. The melted product has physical properties allowing its use as a substitute for aggregate in cement and asphaltic construction. This paper describes the surface melting system, its current use and anticipated future use.

Jan 1, 1991

By Rollin A. Slater

The bulk materials handling industry has served silently for years as the skeleton structure and often the central system of nerves and nourishment for the body of basic production industries. During the past two decades, this body has undergone substantial growth and mutation to meet the surging demands of our national economy for more and better products. The steel industry has been prominent in this phenomena and plants of the sixties are as unlike the second war vintage as our current crop of basketball players differ from their fathers. Steel has kept pace with spiralling demand by innovation which has resulted in new processes and improved designs which generally yield greater production from fewer units. The supporting industry of materials handling has likewise improved its techniques and currently has a new stronger generation of equipment to perform its necessary supporting function. It has been my fortunate experience to have been instrumental in the creative stages of several new steel mills which are currently in conceptual design or actual construction. Drawing upon exerpts from this experience, this paper will describe a basic approach to the selection and application of modern bulk materials handling systems to an entirely new steel plant. Specific details of past work are not available for publication, therefore, the plant described herein is a composite of ideas and will be the new plant of the Hypothetical Steel Corporation which will be located on the lower shores of the Great Lakes.

Jan 1, 1967

By Christopher J. Bise

The potential of the coal reserves in the western United States for meeting future energy needs has been recognized for quite some time. However, two of the major constraints which have tended to limit the development of these reserves which can only be deep-mined are the great thicknesses of the coal seams encountered and their high pitch. Although new mining methods may need to be developed to recover these reserves, at least in the short- term the industry has to incorporate presently available equipment which were not originally designed for thick-seam mining. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the various equipment that are in use today and their possible application to thick-seam mining. The paper also addresses the various ground control and safety considerations that are unique to thick-seam extraction.

Jan 1, 1981

By H. E. M. N. Moursy, M. N. Ahmad, C. R. Holland, G. M. Walker, R. D. Chandler

This work describes the effect of process parameters on the acidulation of Moroccan phosphate rock using nitric acid, i.e., the nitro-phosphate process. A series of bench scale experiments were conducted, using a stirred tank reactor (STR) system, to investigate the chemical reactions involved and optimum conditions for the formation of nitro-phosphate fertilizer. The effect of reaction time, temperature, mixing speed, acidulation ratio, and acid concentration were investigated, and were found to have an effect on the dissolution of P2O5 from the phosphate rock, using nitric acid. An increase in nitric acid concentration resulted in an increase in P2O5 dissolution, however, the dissolution was also found to be a function of acidulation ratio. A nitric acid phosphate rock ratio of 4:l ensured 90% dissolution for nitric acid concentration > 30%.

Jan 1, 2002

By Michael A. Trevits

A mine fire represents one of the most dangerous and challenging safety issues facing underground mine operators. Given the right circumstances, a mine fire can occur at any location in the active or abandoned mine workings, can quickly grow beyond control, and threaten the welfare and livelihood of the entire underground workforce. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in partnership with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), has been conducting an in-depth program of research addressing mine fire prevention, early and reliable fire detection, and mine fire suppression technologies. One portion of this program is focused on understanding the characteristics of mine fire combustion products and flame spread through large scale deep-seated (firmly established) fire tests and use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. In this study, two deep-seated fire tests were conducted; one fire consisted of coal material and the other utilized the two most abundant fuel sources found in a coal mine: coal and wooden cribbing blocks. The fires were burned to completion while the combustion products were collected and analyzed. In addition, an array of thermocouples was placed within the body of the material to measure flame spread rate. The coal fire test information was then used to develop a CFD model of the fire. This paper describes the fire tests, provides insight into characteristics of flame spread, and presents the CFD modeling work results.

Jan 1, 2009

By D. Collins, J. Winfield, V. Gangrade, B. Slaker, S. Braganza

"Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are investigating the unique pillar stability issues associated with room-and-pillar mining in dipping underground stone mines. The objective of this paper is to study the post-blast impact in and around a pillar, using microseismic monitoring. To accomplish this, a microseismic monitoring system has been installed at a dipping underground stone mine in central Pennsylvania. The microseismic system is comprised of 18 uniaxial accelerometers; 12 sensors are installed in a single pillar and 6 sensors are installed in the surrounding area. More than 4,400 microseismic events have been located near the study pillar following the blasts. The number of triggers increased significantly following the blast, and the trigger rate in the first five minutes was 60 triggers per minute and three triggers per minute over the next three hours. The processing of high-quality triggers indicated a large number of low magnitude microseismic events near the blasting face. The event locations were identified more accurately by using a 3D-velocity model, with an average 9 m expected location accuracy for this array calculated using the system data. Seismicity was absent from the core of the pillar, but significant numbers of events were found following cutter roof along a crosscut as it was developed as well as in the location of a rib failure event. Additionally, the events were located in the roof, showing high number of microseismic events within 0–10 m of the roof line compared to 10–30 m above the roof line.INTRODUCTIONGround control stability is essential to any mining operation for ensuring mineworker safety and health and preventing catastrophic failures of underground structures. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has conducted research in stone pillar design and has established fundamental pillar design guidelines for the underground stone industry, which resulted in the development of the S-Pillar program (Esterhuizen et al., 2011; Esterhuizen and Murphy, 2018). However, the data that makes up the S-Pillar database consists of shallow depth, flat-lying, single-level mining operations. Therefore, to expand this dataset and to develop guidelines for challenging conditions such as dipping and multi-level mines, NIOSH is currently conducting detailed pillar response investigations at mines with these characteristics. The study is being conducted using multiple research approaches, including seismic modeling and tomography, numerical modeling (Sears et al., 2019), stress monitoring, and LiDAR-based laser scanning (Slaker, Murphy, and Winfield, 2019). This paper discusses the findings from the microseismic monitoring system installed at the Pleasant Gap Mine, a steeply dipping underground limestone mine in central Pennsylvania."

Jan 1, 2019

By Rodrigo Peroni, Euler Victoria

Knowing the depth of contacts between weathering zones in phosphate mines is determinant to define the stripping ratios and the mineralized zones. Contacts are gradational and difficult to define even in the drillhole samples, so the combination with geostatistical simulation techniques helps to define the contact zone and the grade distribution, providing a way to assess the probability of the occurrence and the positioning of contacts between the barren waste and the ore zones. These inputs are used in the scheduling, anticipating risks associated with mine planning scenarios. The results from an application to a case study showed a good improvement when compared to traditional techniques.

Jun 25, 2023

By A. Khan

The effect of sulfur dioxide on collectorless and collector induced flotation of chalcopyrite was studied by cyclic voltammetry on a rotating disc electrode. Contact angle measurements were made to determine the effect of sulfur dioxide concentration and electrochemical treatment. The benefits of sulfur dioxide in enhancing the selectivity of separating chalcopyrite from complex sulfide ores are discussed.

Jan 1, 1996

By T. F. Dumm

With increasing interest in the physical cleaning of fine coal, there is a need for extension of the sink-float analysis procedure to finer sizes. Problems arise, however, in ensuring complete dispersion of the particles in the heavy liquids. A procedure has been developed in which surfactants are used as dispersing agents and solids concentration is minimized (using a simple formula to estimate the minimum weight needed for statistical reliability). Using centrifuges to increase separation rates and sub-sieve particle size analysis of the specific gravity fractions, a complete size-specific gravity distribution can be obtained. Analyses have been performed on coal samples as fine as -10 µm.

Jan 1, 1987

By M. W. Buche, E. Tarshizi, R. Chappidi, B. Inti

"Coal mining is an age-old method of power production in the world. It is also widely known for the associated risks during mining. Although the number of mishaps has dropped dramatically over the years, the number of fatal accidents is still a concern, and any aid in reducing these figures would be important to industry workers. Therefore, data from accident reports during the past seven years were collected and analyzed. Qualitative data from reports and articles provide a deeper understanding of the incidents, thus affording the possibility of identifying patterns and relationships between the accidents. For this study, a total of 119 fatality accidents occurring in U.S. coal mining operations were analyzed using advanced text mining techniques. The fatality data were obtained from U.S. Mine Safety and Health Admininstration fatalgram reports. This analysis is primarily exploratory in nature and uses term frequencyinverse document frequency (TF-IDF) methodologies along with correlation network plots. An interesting word relation pattern was obtained that identified “positioning” as the common cause of 12.6 percent of accidents, and found that 29.4 percent of accidents can be categorized as vehicle-related. IntroductionIn the mining industry, accidents are situations that employees and employers wish to avoid. They are devastating experiences to the victims and their coworkers alike. Even worse, accidents that result in fatalities create trauma and undesirable repercussions. Several measures have been taken throughout the industry to prevent such mishaps, and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) provides continuous monitoring for miners’ safety by guiding organizations through best practices in every job role. As a result, according to MSHA, there has been a steady decline in the average number of deaths due to accidents over time. Nonetheless, any opportunity to avert one more such casualty is of paramount importance, and that is the goal of our analysis. Our objective is to identify opportunities resulting from previously unexplored directions in order to provide additional insights into potential safety recommendations. Until now, most of the studies in this area had been conducted using structured and tabulated data with a constant number of categorical and numerical variables. Unstructured text data mining is an emerging area that is still insufficiently researched and has a feasible scope for important results, as a vast majority of human communication and cognizance is comprised of words. The aim of undertaking this project by capitalizing on unstructured data is to analyze the text reports to discover potential relationships that explain the causes of accidents in new light in order to mitigate the occurrence of fatalities. The analysis in this project is based on textual data obtained from the MSHA website (2017). Individual accident reports are organized according to the date and year of the fatality. Each report includes details with images of the incident. For convenience, a simplified summary of the report is also available. Data collection consisted of gathering formal documentation of fatal accidents in the coal mining industry during the past seven years. These reports were extracted from the website in text format."

Jan 4, 2018

By C. A. Holley

The generation of coal fines is a growing problem which has serious environmental and resource recovery Impact. Several methods of agglomeration are studied including the production of briquettes for the consumer market. Simplified process flow diagrams, "order of magnitude" plant capital cost and operating costs are presented.

Jan 1, 1986

By J. F. T. Agapito

Two flat-lying trona seams 3-to 3.5-m thick, approximately 10 m apart, and at depths of 250 m are mined by room-and-pillar at OCI's Big Island Mine in Wyoming. Continuous miners and a yielding pillar system have contributed to improvements in resource recovery and productivity. Long-term stability with minimal subsidence is needed for a large portion of the mine beneath the Green River channel. This was investigated by computer modeling in 1990. Although results of the study indicated good long-term stability, recommendations were made for stress determinations to verify the model. Stress determinations made in 1997 showed pillar stresses 10% to 20% higher than the model stresses, and barrier pillar stresses 10% to 15% lower. This implies that higher panel stresses will be transmitted from the upper to the lower seam. A stability evaluation of the lower seam is planned before two-seam mining to assess entry widths and support requirements.

Jan 1, 1999