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By D Hope, D K. Mukhopadhyay, J D. Harvey

South32 (S32), a globally diversified mining and metals company, is listed on securities exchanges around the world (ASX, JSE, LSE), with its primary listing being on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules (Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), 2019b) requires a mining entity to provide a summary of governance arrangements and internal controls with respect to its estimation processes, estimates and reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves annually. As a global company, it is also important to design and implement all governance processes and internal controls which can be used consistently across the organisation. The three lines model (previously known as the ‘three lines of defense’ model) is employed across South32 to manage risk where the first line (Practitioners) designs, implements and executes processes and controls to manage risk; the second line (Stewardship) identifies material gaps and improvement opportunities in the first line by monitoring conformance with the group requirements, legislative and regulatory obligations. Second line also assists with the development and improvement of core fundamentals based on industry good practise. The third line (Group Assurance) provides independent and objective assurance over the Group’s system of risk management and control. The estimation of resources and reserves for most of the operations within South32 is managed by the Planning function. The estimation process is part of the annual Life of Operation Plan (LoOP). The LoOP identifies and assesses the strategic alternatives for the development of an operation and recommends the preferred pathway based on value and risk. The LoOP starts with opportunity framing and the updated resources as an input and ends with the short-term plan and annual budget (the outputs). Ore Reserves estimates are one of the outputs from the LoOP. All the inputs and outputs follow internal standards and procedures which includes peer review and performance reconciliation. Stewardship (Second line) which is a centralised function has standards in place to ensure compliance to internal controls and external regulatory requirements. This includes assessment of the competence of Competent Persons, technical reviews, independent audits and training in the relevant chapters of the ASX Listing Rules, Guidance Notes and Appendices. Group Assurance (Third line) which reports to the Risk and Audit Committee of the Board of Directors ensures the design and operating effectiveness of the processes, standards and procedures associated with the estimation and reporting of resources and reserves. While the level of scrutiny has a different intent for each line in the three lines model, the overall purpose is to achieve a consistent outcome across the organisation

May 24, 2023

By D Kepert, C Simpson, D Edwards

Channel iron deposits (CID) currently supply over 40 per cent of the seaborne iron ore trade out of the Hamersley Province. The two well documented producing systems (Robe and Marillana palaeochannels) were both discovered during early reconnaissance mapping principally by BHP Billiton (BHPB) and Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) during the mid 1950s to early 1960s. Both crop out extensively over the majority of their length. Hot on the heels of Fortescue Metals Group 2004 - 2005 discovery of approximately 2.6 billion tonnes (Bt) of undercover iron ore mineralisation in the Chichester Range, the Fortescue Exploration Department turned its attention elsewhere throughout the Hamersley Province. Reappraisal and analysis of publicly available data and ground truthing of developing models led to the recognition of the Solomon palaeochannel system. Subsequent exploration defined a world-class Resource of some 1.9 Bt of iron ore mineralisation of which the great majority is buried CID. Apart from the Marillana CID system, the Solomon region is the only major CID with significant tonnes of sub two per cent alumina CID with over 500 Mt delineated to date. Exploration has also outlined significant supergene bedded and detrital iron ore mineralisation. Ongoing drilling is expected to increase the resource base both in terms of tonnes and confidence. This paper outlines the principal contributing factors which led to the discovery of the Solomon CID and compares its geology with the Robe and Marillana palaeochannel systems.

Jan 1, 2009

By V M. Silva, P A. A Martins, V O. Matthew, A L. S Fonseca, E B. Cunha, A J. D Ferrari, E M. S Silva, A C. Silva, D R. T Vilela

The Anglo American phosphate mine is located in the Brazilian state of Goiás and possesses one of Brazil’s most important phosphate rock deposits, with the site being the country’s second largest producer of phosphate rock concentrate. Despite the site having been in operation since 1979, the mining team only started using explosives in 2004 when rocks with greater hardness started to appear in the mine’s geological profile. Rock excavation was previously performed mechanically. Until 2013, only rocks with high hardness were blasted, this following the standard drilling grid that was defined in 2004 without any changes in the blast parameters. The aim of this paper is to show how fragmentation optimisation has yielded positive results at all stages of the production chain, from the mine to the mill passing through an impact hammer crusher, a rod mill and ball mill, operating in close circuit with hydrocyclones.While incorporating the mine to mill holistic approach during the operational integration, the focus was on defining the blasting domains and respective optimal fragmentation and measuring the benefits of blasting in terms of reduction in energy and grinding media consumed in the comminution processes. In the first stage, the blasting team made changes to the blasting parameters and assessed the effects of these changes on fragmentation using computer software and on-site measurements. This generated a database that made it possible to divide the mine into blasting domains. For the second stage, teams from the plant, geology, mine planning and operation departments jointly made comparisons between the performance when processing stockpiles, which only included high hardness blasted ore (20–30 per cent of blasted ore). Changing the drilling grid’s size from 3.0 m × 3.8 m to 2.0 m × 2.6 m for high hardness rock with the presence of silicates resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in the P80 for the blasted material (from 459 to 278 mm), while changing the grid from 3.0 m × 3.8 m to 2.6 m × 3.2 m for high hardness rock without the presence of silicates generated a reduction of 25 per cent (from 270 to 204 mm). There were gains observed from the measurements at the mineral processing plant in terms of specific energy spent on comminution and on the consumption of grinding bodies in the rod mill. There was a measured reduction of circulating load during secondary grinding and a reduction in slime generation.CITATION:Silva, A C, Martins, P A A, Silva, E M S, Fonseca, A L S, Ferrari, A J D, Cunha, E B, Silva, V M, Matthew, V O and Vilela, D R T, 2015. Fragmentation optimisation – adopting mine to mill for reducing costs and increasing productivity, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 363–368 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

The energy supply in the 21st century is still secured by coal. According to estimates of the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal will have the same importance as oil for the world-wide supply of energy until 2030. Coal is also an important element of EU policy, its future use is closely linked to effectively addressing the environmental challenges it poses. Hard and brown coal represent approximately 80 per cent of European Union (EU) reserves of fossil fuels and coal utilisation can co-exist with the development of power generation based on renewables. Europe is the world's third largest consumer of coal behind China and the United States.The Czech Republic is poor in energy resources except for coal. Brown coal is relatively abundant (mineable reserves estimated at 1800 Mt, output 48 Mt/a) and significant quantities of hard coal (mineable reserves 900 Mt, 13 Mt/a), much of it suitable for coke production, are also present.Severoceske Doly (SD Company), the biggest Czech coal mining company (22 Mt/a, 48.6 per cent Czech market share) and one of the biggest in Europe, reinforces despite the last deep crisis in the Czech and European economies its long-standing stable and strong market and financial position. From 2009, the SD Company co-owns, with partners, a brown-coal mining company MIBRAG (21 Mt/a). SD Company invests in large mining equipment (eg new giant spreaders and bucket-wheel excavators, extension of overland belt conveyors), rebuilds and upgrades mining and processing installations, auxiliary and other machinery. We should see the investment we make today in tomorrow's mining and reclamation as an opportunity and not as a burden. They enable to make our position more resistant in the longer term. Projects focused on the environment and operational safety went hand in hand with these efforts.R&D activities relate to technical innovations, improvements of mining equipment, research and evaluation of conditions for extracting coal seam and/or overburden and mitigation of environmental impacts, utilisation of coal in new products. The company spends considerable amounts on reclaiming affected land and creating a new post-mining landscape.Our dialogue with influential stakeholders in the region where we operate contributes to the long-term improvement in the quality of life of local residents. Such dialogue with communities in the last ten years has been instrumental for confidence building. SD Company helps to develop many projects of towns and villages in its vicinity. The stable and transparent relations with our neighbours are in accordance with our basic principles of corporate social responsibility.

Dec 6, 2010

By Bradford NL

The Isa Mine of Mount Isa Mines Limited produces 2.6 million tonnes of silver-lead-zinc ore annually from sub level open stopes of which approximately 40% comes from the narrow Racecourse orebodies below 15 level.Geologically the stoping environment is complicated by highly fissile shale hangingwalls and below 17 level by a high stress regime.The realization that major hangingwall failures and generally poor ground conditions could lead to serious dilution problems, and ultimately production shortfalls, prompted investigations into the use of low strength explosives.

Jan 1, 1985

By H Haghighi

Haul roads are often permanent unsealed access roads used by heavy haul trucks to transfer minerals. These roads can deteriorate rapidly which results in potholes, deformations and dust. Downer EDI Works has successfully provided efficient solutions to the mining industry to maintain their haul roads. HaulPac as a solution package is a process in which a bituminous emulsion is used to create a stable and durable pavement. The emulsion penetrates the road and binds the particles together, creating a stable base. It also seals the surface and prevents water from penetrating the underneath layers. Bituminous emulsion can increase the strength of the pavement material and decrease the road surface degradation which results in dust suppression. However, the everincreasing price of commodities, the necessity of reducing carbon emissions and the increasing use of autonomous haul trucks have made it vital to invest in novel maintenance solutions that can meet the needs of the mining industry in a cost-effective manner. This paper outlines the benefits of bituminous emulsion in terms of productivity, safety and environment followed by Downer’s approach to evaluate the suitability and to optimise the amount of product. The potential for changing the colour of the treated surface is explored and an initiative that incorporates end-of-life tyres of haul trucks into the pavement is introduced. And finally, an innovative method using artificial intelligence to estimate dust emission is presented.

Sep 18, 2023

The problem of stability of the development working at the great depths of coal winning is of great seriousness. Numerous researches of the problem were carried out in the USSR, the results of which determined that raising of resistance of existing support will not lead to a considerable rise of working output. It is necessary to try to find ways at the expense of heightening the support ability of rock massif. For these purposes it is necessary to direct it correctly and in proper time. While carrying the development working the most intensive deformations of rock occur at a depth of 30m from the entry face. The zone of destruction of rock around the work is realised here for 60 to 70 percent. These facts show that in influence zone of entry face a kind of embryo of the working steadiness is forming, which greatly determines its following conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to begin direction of mining pressure around the work directly in a face.Complex research of the mechanism was carried out starting with the effect of moving face upon the surrounding rock massif. It was ascertained, that the zone influenced by the face is a section of 5 equivalent diameters of the work by the length within which the rock of the sides, roof and floor, experience the cyclical influence of stresses at the time of cyclical shift of the face. The elastoplastec deformation is occurring with it at the moments of rock removal and the deformation of creeping takes place at such intervals.

Jan 1, 1991

The Fosterville Goldfield has a modest past production (0.3 Moz), but is now emerging as a significant goldfield (2.6 Moz resources, including 1.1 Moz reserves) with implications for exploration within the orogenic gold provinces of the Lachlan Fold Belt in Australia and the Buller Terrane on the West Coast of New Zealand. Fosterville is located 20 km east of the 22 Moz Bendigo Goldfield and is geologically similar to other Victorian goldfields, however the nature of the gold mineralisation differs significantly. Unlike other Victorian goldfields there is no primary free gold at Fosterville. The gold occurs in as sub-SEM resolution particles, in fine grained arsenopyrite and pyrite crystals disseminated through the wall rocks in fault controlled quartz-carbonate vein stockworks. The Fosterville Goldfield comprises several subparallel fault systems striking 340¦ over an exposed strike length of 28 km. The Fosterville Fault system comprises the west dipping (~75¦), reverse Fosterville Fault and several less steeply west dipping splay faults formed in the footwall. The splay faults extend through east dipping beds from the Fosterville Fault across a syncline hinge into stratigraphically controlled positions on the west dipping limb of the syncline. The predominant control on gold mineralisation is the intersection of the bedding on the east dipping limb of the syncline and faulting which, is in turn controlled by the orientation of bedding in the west dipping limb of the syncline. The mineralised shoots are thus subparallel to the plunge of the syncline and show a plunge reversal about a culmination in the footwall syncline. This provides a very powerful exploration tool with bedding û cleavage intersection lineations measured in outcrop and oriented core indicating the plunge of mineralisation. Mineralisation is also, albeit less commonly, controlled by local variations in strike and dip of the host fault and at metre scale by host lithology. As the faults and mineralisation are stratigraphically controlled, detailed stratigraphic interpretations are essential to provide control on structural interpretations for resource modelling. Compared to other Victorian goldfields, the Fosterville Goldfield formed later (385 Ma to 360 Ma cf 440 Ma), at lower temperatures and at shallower depths (fluid inclusion studies of Au associated veins suggest vein formation at ~270¦C (range 140¦C to 385¦C) and at depths of 2.6 - 5.7 km).

Jan 1, 2005

By A Agasty, O Langefeld, MáKellner, E Clausen

The lowering of the pollutant concentration limits at the workplace subjects the mining industry to higher requirements for dilution; this situation is worsened with the current discussions within the European Union (EU) to set new stricter exposure limits for nitrogen oxides in the workplace. This is directly reflected in the performance of the mine ventilation system, which may need to be revised to meet the new standards. The after blast re-entry time, being inversely proportional to the threshold limits, will be higher for a lower limit. This in turn increases the down time for production from the blasted area.Numerical tools have been very useful in predicting the effectiveness of ventilation. This study aims at analysing the dilution time for NOx gases from an ANFO blast in a room and pillar panel. The effect of changing the ventilation on the dilution time is studied next, which helps with the selection of a suitable ventilation system.CITATION:Agasty, A, Clausen, E, Kellner, M and Langefeld, O, 2013. After blast re-entry time for a room and pillar operation, in Proceedings The Australian Mine Ventilation Conference , pp 179-186 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 1, 2013

By B Lumsden

During periods of high metal prices and strong metal demand tailings retreatment can be economic. Most tailings retreatment operations are technically challenging, low margin operations, because the easily recovered mineral has already been removed, therefore, process improvements can potentially yield large economic benefits. The Hellyer tailings dam was owned by Intec Ltd and contained 10.9 million tonnes grading 2.8 per cent zinc, 3.0 per cent lead, 88 g/t of silver, 0.16 per cent copper and 2.6 g/t gold. In November 2006 the Polymetals Group, as operator, restarted the Hellyer plant to retreat these tailings. Within a few months the operation had stabilised and Polymetals was meeting budgeted targets of throughput, metal recovery and concentrate quality. Polymetals and Intec then investigated methods that would improve the metallurgical result for this difficult to treat tailings. Since the tailings are fine-grained with 80 per cent <45 ¦m, magnetic aggregation of the paramagnetic sphalerite was evaluated. Magnetic aggregation of an oxidised tailings feed has not been tested before, nor had the technology been available when Hellyer ore was originally processed. Extensive statistical test work showed magnetic aggregation of the sphalerite fines in the zinc cleaner circuit increased total zinc recovery. The increase in the mean zinc recovery with magnetic conditioning was 3.63 per cent, at a statistical level of confidence of 97.8 per cent, and at the same mean zinc concentrate grade.

Jan 1, 2009

The role of government and the community has changed significantly over the last two decades in relation to environment protection, particularly in the mining sector. Increased community expectations have moved well ahead of regulatory requirements, and there is now a much greater appreciation generally of the concepts of ecologically sustainable development and intergenerational equity, and the gap between current practice and practices which would be in harmony with these concepts. Besides providing a `safety net' through regulations to ensure that basic environmental performance standards are met, government is now working proactively with the mining industry to encourage higher levels of environmental performance. This paper describes some initiatives between the Commonwealth government and the industry designed to achieve these higher levels of environmental performance, through programs aimed at the paradigms of best practice environmental management and continual improvement.

Jan 1, 1997

By C J. Pitzer

The prevention of fatal risks is a key objective for the global resources industry, especially considering poor performance with regard to fatality rate reduction and the continued occurrence of mine disasters globally. However, the industry has a credible history, over several decades, of the development and deployment management systems to control potential Serious Injury, Fatal and Catastrophic (P-SIFC) risks. While these systems have had a significant impact on the thinking and approaches to the prevention of fatal risks, fatal accident rates have not shown the desired reduction. Recent fatal and serious injury events in Australia have led to the establishment of several enquiries to further identify improvements that could be considered. Globally, fatal accident rates remain stubbornly high or plateaued in many jurisdictions, and several catastrophic events have occurred, such as tailing dams disasters in Brazil and South Africa, and the recent coalmine disaster in Turkey. Apart from the apparent lack of progress, it is evident that the deployment of critical risk systems has introduced more bureaucracy, slower response systems and additional burdens on already overloaded middle and supervisory levels of management. Organisations are rarely able to effectively tap into the risk source of risk knowledge of the frontline worker and supervisor, for various reasons discussed in this paper. To establish a valid and valuable channel of critical risk information flow from the frontline employee, Debmarine Namibia instigated the development and deployment of a system called SafeSENTRY, where the focus is on the ‘dynamic identification of dynamic risks’. This paper outlines the system, the principles of the design, the range of risk metrics that can be derived from the observations of the frontline operators, and demonstrates how a range of posited shortcomings in critical risk management is addressed how features of the High Reliability Organization (HRO) have been developed.

Mar 29, 2023

By J Benn, V Kuznetsov, G Timms, A Spain

Earthen covers are now widely used in the mining industry to control the generation rate and/or release rate of low quality drainage from piles of sulfidic minewastes. Covers are usually designed to reduce the water infiltration rate and in some cases may also reduce the oxygen flux to the underlying sulfides. Engineered covers have only been used since the 1980s, however, and there is very little field data on their performance in the longer term. This lack of information has implications for the degree of confidence that can be placed on the predictions of the environmental impacts of sulfidic minewastes, for the acceptance of close-out criteria by regulatory authorities and for the financial liability of the mining industry. Covers were placed on sulfidic waste rock dumps at the abandoned Rum Jungle uranium mine during 1984 - 1985. These covers were designed to reduce the water infiltration to less than five per cent of incident rainfall by both water shedding and storage-release mechanisms. Regular monitoring by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) demonstrated that the covers performed better than the design criterion for around ten years, but infiltration rates have subsequently increased. There is a 66 per cent probability that the infiltration rate now exceeds five per cent of incident rainfall. The cover on the largest pile, WhiteÆs heap, was sampled in pits dug at eight locations. Sampling was carried out at the end of the monsoonal wet season and again at the end of the ædryÆ season. This, together with laboratory testing, enabled cover performance to be assessed against five criteria: design, construction, cover material characteristics, physico-chemical characteristics and biological characteristics. We are of the opinion that the design of the cover was suitable to achieve the objectives of stability, water shedding, storage-release, and provision of a substrate for vegetation growth. Over most of the surface of the heap, the construction of the covers, drains and erosion prevention structures was in accordance with design specifications. However, several small and localised bare patches on the upper surface of WhiteÆs heap coincide with a reduced cover thickness, which is likely to have been due to poor construction in those patches. The construction of covers on minewastes is dependent on an adequate source of material meeting design specifications. From our limited examination, it appears that there was shortage of material for each of the three zones û a lower impervious clay layer, the moisture storage-release layer and the upper erosion-resistant layer for vegetative growth. An indication of this was that the upper layers in some areas were observed to be thinner than specified. We are of the opinion that this shortage of suitable material has been responsible for some of the changes observed ten years after emplacement. Physical and geotechnical testing indicated that the cover materials no longer meet the original specifications. In particular, the permeability at the 8 locations was found to be greater than specified, by up to several orders of magnitude. The higher permeability may explain the higher observed rainfall infiltration and moisture content of the waste rock. This increased permeability appears to be due to a combination of biological and physical processes û galleries formed by termites and ants and an extensive system of shrinkage/desiccation cracks formed by the development of a polygonal blocky structure involving the entire lower clay layer. The desiccation cracks may fill with coarser illuviated materials and form a conduit through which roots access the underlying waste rock. Measurements were made of oxygen flux into the heap as cover layers were excavated in the pits. They indicated that the full cover currently reduces the oxygen flux to 20 - 23 per cent of that into bare waste and that this reduction seems to be proportional to the cover thickness. It was also found that the oxygen flux into the cover is about four times higher at the end of the dry season than at the end of the wet season and that the difference is due primarily to the difference in moisture content of the cover. Recommendations are made for the design and construction of covers.

Jan 1, 2003

By I Gray

This paper examines the practical limitations that affect the measurement of stress in rock. As most rock stress measurement is conducted through the invasive process of drilling a hole in a rock mass, the nature of the rock and its response to being drilled form the basis of the stress measurement process. The prime techniques to measure stress down a borehole are to conduct hydraulic fracturing and its variant hydrojacking, overcoring, and the examination of the borehole wall for breakout or tensile fracture. It is also possible in some circumstances to use the sonic velocity within the rock mass as an indicator of the stress situation. Other structural indicators of stress such as joints, faulting and intrusions are useful but may not reflect the current stress situation within the rock mass. The variability of stress within the rock mass also needs to be considered as it is quite unusual to have a monotonic stress situation throughout any rock mass. The outdated concept of measuring the far field stress in a few measurement for use in a numerical model is quite dangerous. It is essential to make multiple measurements and to generate an understanding of its distribution in some form of model before stress can sensibly be incorporated into underground design. CITATION:Gray, I, 2018. The practicalities of effective stress measurement in rock, in Proceedings The Fourth Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference (AusRock), pp 360–374 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 30, 2018

The mining industry continues to faces significant challenges due to increasing resource constraints (quality of ore bodies, water, energy, human resources) and increasing license to operate requirements (safety, health, environment, location) from society, employees and shareholders. Technology advancements and hence research are necessary to ensure that the industry remains viable in this changing environment. Collaborative research is an important part of a company's research portfolio and offers the opportunity for the industry to work on generic issues that it is facing. Obvious benefits include the reduced cost to individual companies by sharing the costs, the opportunity to leverage government funding and the opportunity to conduct longer term projects resulting in skills development (PhD and MSc). Limitations of collaborative research include the reduced focus on company specific issues and the loss of competitive advantage from owning the outcomes of the research. The challenge for researchers and research managers is for them to demonstrate the value derived from longer term, pre-competitive collaborative research. The competitive advantage is not necessarily derived only from the outcomes of the research but rather from the company's ability to direct the research, translate the generic research outcomes to address company specific issues and to implement improvements at its operations. Implementation remains the greatest challenge. In this paper, case studies of selected collaborative research projects are presented to demonstrate key success factors required for implementation of research outcomes. This is an ABSTRACT ONLY. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation.

Sep 13, 2010

By P Voulgaris

The Osborne Mine commenced production from an open pit in December 1994 with the first ore being hauled from underground one year later. Currently all ore is hauled up a decline by trucks until the shaft system is commissioned in early-1998. The mine is hosted within a multiply deformed and complex sequence of metamorphic, igneous and metasomatic rocks of mid Proterozoic age that are concealed beneath 20-40 metres of Mesozoic sedimentary cover. Epigenetic and largely hypogene copper - gold mineralisation occurs in a close spatial relationship with quartz - magnetite ironstones and is an important example of a significant mineralisation style in the Mt Isa inlier. Life of mine concentrator production, to year end 1997, totals 3.2 Mt of ore at 3.40 per cent Cu and 1.13 g/t Au. Total metal produced was 97 000 tonnes of copper and 2900 Kg of gold (95 600 oz) from some 348 000 tonnes of dry concentrates averaging 28.01 per cent Cu and 6.99 g/t Au. At the start of 1998 OsborneÆs total measured and indicated resource was stated at 11.38 Mt at 3.24 per cent Cu and 1.21 g/t Au with an ore reserve of 11.42 Mt at 2.90 per cent Cu and 1.09 g/t Au. Exploration efforts in and around the mine have been increased since 1996 and have resulted in an early success, with a 28 per cent increase in ore reserves since mine start-up, and the establishment of a 1.5 Mt inferred resource open to depth. During 1997 the performance of the concentrator has exceeded expectations with throughput having been increased to 1.45 Mt per annum. The Mining Cycle at Osborne has proceeded from discovery through feasibility and is currently seen to be in the latter part of the development stage and/or the early part of an expansion stage. This paper will describe the role of geology and exploration within these stages and will highlight how a number of key interpretations and decisions based on geology have both favourably and unfavourably affected the project.

Jan 1, 1998

By P Standish

Qualitative risk assessment methods are not well suited to considering complex systems and potential interactions of new technology. As part of supporting tier one mining organisations and international industry groups, the author and colleagues have innovated processes to help provide better solutions to sites/companies considering a move to implementing proximity detection and collision avoidance systems. The process identifies required operating states for the system. By applying a combination of research and team-based analyses, a rigorous identification of credible failure modes which could cause these states to be lost, is identified. Finally, required business inputs, expressed in practical terms are distilled from regulator, industry, organisation and site in a way which clearly addresses the failure modes and so retain the required operating states. These business inputs identify improvements for site arrangements (EMESRT levels 1 to 7) before identifying functional requirements for technological collision avoidance solutions (levels 8 for advisory and 9 for autonomous). The paper presents a case study synthesised from multiple sites analyses and will provide guidance on where to find additional resources to assist in making the best possible transition to better equipment and road network solutions.

Jun 22, 2022

By Hellsten KJ, Butt CRM

Major Francis Hamilton Buchanan coined the term `laterite' (Latin; brick-rock) in 1807 for the red earths used for building blocks in southern India. Although these earths were actually weathered basalts, the term is now applied to weathering profiles developed upon a wide range of bedrocks. The Ni-laterites are a special class within the broad laterite family.

Jan 1, 1996

By Nguyen T. T, Williams A. M, Siauw T. H

During the last 20 years the CSIRO Division of Manufacturing Technology, through its research and development program, has made a substantial contribution towards understanding the pressure die casting process. Much of this work focused on the hot chamber die casting of zinc, where the importance of achieving optimum flow of metal into the die cavity, combined with the correct thermal balance of the tool, is critical to the production of high quality castings. Having developed a fuller understanding of the heat and fluid flow occurring in the pressure die casting process, CSIRO sought to make this information available to the industry in a form where it could be readily used by die casting engineers. This led to the development of DMT-CASTFLOW and DMT-CASTHERM, two unique, PC-based, die design software packages. DMT-CASTFLOW provides facilities for designing running and gating systems while DMT-CASTHERM enables the die designer to optimise the cooling and/or heating requirements of the die. These two packages are now being sold internationally. This paper will describe some of the major features and benefits that can be derived by using DMT-CASTFLOW and DMT-CASTHERM panicularly in the design of zinc pressure die casting dies.

Jan 1, 1993

By C Killip

Working in Australia’s harsh climate can have a significant impact on the health, safety and productivity of our teams, but is our working environment expected to be more prone to heat stress in the future? Climate modelling suggests that we are likely to encounter more frequent heatwaves and higher apparent temperature. Does this mean that our teams will be at greater risk of heat stress, and are we prepared to deal with the changes in our future climate and the potential impacts on our working population? This paper will review the recent research on climate and projected changes to all meteorological parameters that are important in understanding the likelihood of heat stress. The paper will also describe the challenges encountered in the management of heat stress in a workforce, and then outline a systematic approach to heat stress management that will allow you to assess your own risk and manage your day-to-day operations into the future.CITATION:Killip, C, 2015. Future climate – is heat stress a real risk for the future and how can we better manage it?, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 181–188 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015