Search Documents

By H Bao, M Nehring, M Kizil, P Knights

The mining sector, a notably energy-intensive industry worldwide, is a major consumer of fossil fuels, leading to significant carbon emissions globally. The move towards electrification, coupled with advancements in battery technology, has redirected focus from traditional diesel-powered solutions to battery-powered alternatives. This paper introduces a novel mining haulage system, termed the Battery Trolley system, and examines its theoretical foundations, configurations, and operational processes. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the system’s characteristics and limitations. Through a hypothetical road simulation, the study analyses various battery mining trucks, calculating energy consumption based on force parameters and tailoring battery sizes to contemporary materials and technology. When assessing various battery truck alternatives—considering aspects such as battery size, effective payload, duty cycle, energy efficiency, productivity, and single-shift production—a range of performance outcomes and characters become apparent within the mining context. The findings indicate that Battery Trolley configurations, requiring smaller battery capacities, entail lesser compromises on effective payload. Consequently, these configurations achieve a higher duty cycle, reduced energy consumption per tonne, heightened productivity, and enhanced singleshift production capabilities compared to Battery-only alternatives. The comparative analysis of Battery Trolley with stationary charging (BT-S) and Battery Trolley – dynamic charging (BT-D) underlines that battery Trolley systems are capable of overcoming the challenges associated with battery size, thus successfully fulfilling the production demands of large truck applications in mining. This positions Battery Trolley systems as a more advantageous option for the decarbonisation of mining fleets, underscoring their potential in contributing to the sector’s sustainable evolution.

Sep 1, 2024

By G E. Ho, M Anda, S Dallas

Water auditing and water conservation measures are fast becoming the quantitative tools for water balance reporting in the mining and minerals processing sector. Therefore, this paper was written to describe the process of water auditing in a goldmining environment and to contribute towards building an appropriate water management framework for The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for sustainable resource processing (CSRP). The research will assist with the assessment of water balances in mining and hydrometallurgical processes and ongoing probabilistic modelling for Newmont Mining Corporation, its wholly owned gold mines, and its joint venture operation of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM). Kalgold or KCGM are the managers of a joint venture project between Barrick Australia (50 per cent) and Newmont Mining Corporation (50 per cent) at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia (WA). Boddington Gold Mine (BGM), Western Australia, will commence operations this year and manage the new goldmine expansion project. BGM is 100 per cent Newmont owned and will operate to continue mining gold and copper from the existing (BGM) site that was decommissioned in 2001.

Jan 1, 2009

By James C. Cawley

A summary is presented of existing leaky feeder communications systems currently in operation in North America. Background information pertaining to previous use of leaky feeder technology is discussed along with the survey methodology. A review of some pertinent facts concerning propagation in tunnels and specific reference to mine tunnel propagation is presented. A summary of the characteristics of each mine visited is presented in tabular form, and methods of procurement and maintenance are discussed. The role of user training in efficient system use is presented. Seven sites representing eight mines are included in the survey. Economic and technical topics are considered.

By N E. Whitehead

An application to mine an ilmenite-rich sand deposit in Westland led to public concern about potential radioactive hazards should the ore be further processed to recover zircon or monazite. A review recommended that any material involved in the heavy mineral sand industry containing more than 0.05% thorium, uranium or their mixture should be considered a radioactive substance and, for mining purposes, a notifiable product. Safeguards for those occupationally exposed would operate via the Radiation Protection Regulations. The major safety requirement would be the minimisation of dust in certain operations.

Jan 1, 1993

By J J. Moreno, J Willis, P Garvey

Many of the tailings storage facilities (TSFs) in Australia are upstream raised facilities for which the consolidation of the hydraulically deposited tailings is essential to the stability of the TSF. While much operational consideration is given to limiting the rate of rise of TSFs through careful management of deposition rates to achieve desired consolidation, the rate of embankment raise construction (RoC) is often not given the same level of consideration. Loading the tailings at too high a rate during construction could lead to upstream and potentially downstream failure of the embankment. The Tailings Retention System (TRS) at the BHP Olympic Dam Mine comprises upstream raised TSFs that are continually raised with a zoned embankment. Improving on 20 years of successful embankment raising, there was a desire to understand the acceptable RoC under varying operating conditions and assess upper construction limits to improve operational risk management. To understand the RoC, trial embankment raise construction pads were constructed at different rates and the pore pressure response of the underlying tailings material was monitored. The pore pressure data were used to calibrate the permeability and consolidation characteristics of the tailings in a finite element model (FEM) that replicated a typical embankment raise. The rate of material placement, location of the phreatic surface and construction load were varied in the FEM until failure was initiated. The results were presented as a period (in days) over which the various zones for the embankment raise could be safely constructed. The results indicate direct sensitivity to the depth to the phreatic surface prior to commencement of an embankment raise, as well as the point of application of the construction traffic load. This paper presents the study approach, challenges experienced in modelling the construction methodology, the study results and their relevance in the improvement of understanding of RoC at the BHP Olympic Dam TRS.

Jul 1, 2021

By F. Mwaura

"The aim of the audit was to determine whether the mining project environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in Kenya are undertaken according to international best practice. A sample of 50 EIA reports for the 2007–2016 period was evaluated using 18 criteria in the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) guidelines. The findings showed that only two criteria were considered ‘excellent’ according to the ELAW guidelines, namely baseline environmental assessment and prediction of physical impacts. Six criteria were found to be ‘satisfactory’, including prediction of social impacts, analysis of alternative options, and impact mitigation. The reports were quite weak in terms of: consideration of all phases in the mining cycle, environmental regulatory framework, prediction of biological impacts, stakeholder consultation and engagement, integration of human right issues, and integration of climate change and cost-benefit analysis. It is therefore recommended that the Kenyan National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) should consider tightening the EIA terms and conditions in the approval of statutory terms of reference (ToR) for full-scale mining EIAs to ensure improved performance of EIA as a tool for environmental protection. IntroductionThe nexus between society and the environment has continued to generate interest because the environment is the source of goods and services that sustain the various needs of human beings as outlined in the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Armstrong and Peart, 2000; Sutton 2004; Chakrabarti 2007; Strange and Bayley 2008). All the five generic categories of societal needs, namely physiological needs (food, water, clothing, medicines, etc.), residential and occupational needs (shelter, transport, energy, etc.), economic needs (tradeable goods and services), leisure and recreational needs (tourism), and cultural and spiritual needs (e.g. sacred resources and ecosystems) (Mwaura et al. 2016) are addressed by the environment. Consequently, a wide range of development sectors have been established around the world in order to address the above needs (Lederer, Galtung, and Antal, 1980; Rammelsberg et al., 2006; Noonan, 2014). All these development sectors rely entirely on the environment for their proper functioning, as shown in Table I."

May 1, 2019

By W. W. Hartley

Following a Major underground coal mine incident there followed a review of the role of mines rescue ? the Queensland Mines Rescue Brigade. It wasn?t until 2002 that the real change started to happen. The issue of geographical distance was addressed by mines rescue sub stations being located on the mines sites with parent rescue stations in a central location. The funding was by means of a levy on the mining industry with legislative standards and performance included. The previous Rescue Brigades were not well organised (central districts) and the application of recognised quality management practices within local management was lacking. The structure was based on other nations models and miners managing miners was an issue for the organisation. The reform was some what painful and the QMRS organisation will still evolve with continuous improvement. Queensland has the National Champion mines rescue team for the eighth year. QMRS is participating at the level in the industry of influencing emergency systems and training senior mine management in ?Emergency Mine Management? coaching the industry in emergency response systems. We have come a long way. We have had some success and there is always the challenge of setting the standards, those we should aspire to and the courage to influence the industry to higher goals of a safer future.

Jan 1, 2010

By C K. McKenzie, P Popov, B E. Papillon, I Kharitonenko

Flyrock produced by blasts in surface mining and quarrying is a major hazard that can result in serious injuries or property damage. This paper presents a fully integrated and automated approach for reviewing blast outcomes from a wide variety of rock blasting environments from the perspective of flyrock safety associated with blasthole collar ejections. The process is applied at a corporate level for an explosives service provider handling up to 100 blasts per day from mines, quarries and construction sites throughout the US.Flyrock risk minimisation has inspired research and the associated development of a reliable flyrock model to estimate flyrock ejection velocities and the resulting maximum projection distances of fragments. In spite of significant achievements in this area, flyrock incidents continue to occur, mostly due to implementation mistakes. An efficient preventive measure is continuous blasting process improvement that relies on on-site video recording, storage, automatic analysis and classification of the recorded blasts followed by the automatic generation of reports.In this paper, a novel blasting video analysis system that is capable of processing a large quantity of video records is presented. Blast analysis and parameter measurement are fully automated and are carried out using videos recorded with a conventional consumer camera. The blast video recording process does not require the use of surface markers, range poles or objects of a predefined size for scaling purposes.Although automatic video analysis is commonly used in many application areas, such as video surveillance, traffic monitoring and robotics, the algorithms that have been developed to recognise and track solid objects with well-defined shapes, textures and colours are not efficient at dealing with blasts, which, by their nature, have dynamically changing parameters. Moreover, very strong camera vibration caused by blasts that cannot be totally compensated by camera image stabilisers may cause conventional computer vision algorithms to fail.This paper presents novel computer vision methods developed for automatic tracking of the trajectory from a blast ejection point to the highest point reached by blast particles and the ejection velocity. The system also uses colour and motion analysis to detect the emission of toxic fumes during a blast. The solution is vibration tolerant and can differentiate foreground and background data, even in the presence of camera vibration. Moreover, the blasting video analysis method can automatically categorise correctness of the measurements and therefore indicate cases when additional visual inspections may be required to verify reports generated automatically.CITATION:Kharitonenko, I, McKenzie, C K, Papillon, B E and Popov, P, 2015. An automated system for flyrock and fume monitoring of blasts, in Proceedings 11th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, pp 417–424 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 24, 2015

By A. Rödfalk, P. Bloemer, J. P. Nilsson, N. Brogden

"Reliable and accurate metal transfer information during silicon tapping from an EAF is invaluable for decision-making and process optimization, while obtaining such information safely is a necessity.Elkem Thamshavn Norway, a producer of metallurgical-grade silicon, identified inherent safety problems with gauging fill levels in ladles using dip bars while molten metal was continuously pouring from a rotating EAF. Operator safety was a paramount concern, and an alternative automatic method of controlling the tapped fill level needed to be found.It was also considered that further benefits could be achieved such as monitoring the tapping flow from the EAF in order to identify any clogging, as well as the potential to use the live feed from such a system to assist decision-making regarding work around the taphole area.Agellis Group AB, Sweden, a company with over 30 years of experience in gauging molten metal levels in the metals industry, was able to design a solution for Elkem Thamshavn that would provide the required real-time process data while enhancing operator safety.This paper shows how the Agellis AB EMLI-L system was successfully installed at Elkem Thamshavn’s EAF continuous tapping area, how ladle fill levels were constantly monitored, and how full ladles were replaced by empty ones without the need for operators to be in the tapping area to take level readings. The results were used to compare the accuracy and reliability of Elkem Thamshavn’s current measuring methods with that of the EMLI-L system. The paper also covers how problems such as how to connect, run, and protect cables in and around the EAF tapping area, as well as connector and cabling survivability during the three day refractory pre-bake period, were solved. Finally, the paper discusses the potential production improvements, maintenance requirements, and data integration attainable through the installation of the system, as well as the major safety improvements that have been achieved."

Jan 1, 2014

By P Hartlieb, M Noeger, M Varelija

Rock bolts are important in underground mining as they provide support to the rock mass around the excavation. They are the most common reinforcement method in mining and civil engineering excavations. The length of the bolts, types and spacing between them can be varied, depending on the reinforcement requirements and the use case (Kolapo, Onifade and Praise, 2022). The rock bolt provides safety and stability for the rock mass in the excavation area and they can be mechanically anchored, grouted, or friction anchored. They normally don’t have a measurement option and there is a possibility that it failed without showing visible signs on the surface, especially in grouted rebar bolts where they can still have some residual strength. Therefore, support functionality can be lost without recognising it. To overcome that, sensors can be installed on all three previously mentioned bolt systems. Intelligent bolts with implemented measuring systems have a function of showing changes and indicating if there is some damage on the bolt. So, it can be said that intelligent rock bolts are regular bolts equipped with additional instruments which are helping us detect potential instabilities inside of the rock mass or malfunction of the bolt itself. Changes in rock mass can be tracked, by measuring rock bolt reaction concerning the excavation response. Rock mass damage and instabilities are therefore measured in terms of rock mass deformation. Moreover, other additional information depending on the type of the sensor device could be collected. Based on such measurements, information about rock mass state can be derived. Different rock bolt types work at different reaction principles. Therefore, limitations on sensor application and information that can be extracted must be considered.

Sep 1, 2024

By R Wheeler, E Stalenberg, J Lemon, M S. Crowther, D Lunney, K Ross

Gunnedah, in north-western New South Wales (NSW), including the town, the surrounding Liverpool Plains and the Pilliga forests to the west, are currently the subject of intense mining interest for coal and coal seam gas. Achieving positive outcomes for koala conservation on mined landscapes will require a sound grasp of koala ecology; and local knowledge of koala movements, tree choice and associated threats to the continued survival of koalas, particularly roadkill from increased mining infrastructure. This requires a research-oriented approach to testing ideas applicable to the long-term survival of koala populations. Our recent koala research in NSW has shown that, in 2006, Gunnedah had the largest koala population west of the Great Dividing Range, and the only population in NSW that was expanding. That prompted us to instigate a detailed study in 2008 - 2011 to determine, inter alia, whether the koalas were using trees that were planted in the 1990s to cope with rising soil salinity. Our GPS-tracking has shown that regrowth trees as young as ten years old can attract koalas. In 2009, the demise of about a quarter of the local koala population from an intense heatwave gave us a foretaste of how habitat and climate change interrelate at the landscape scale. We are now examining the optimal combinations of tree choice, and patch size and shape, for habitat restoration. This will be relevant to local coal seam gas and coal mine proposals, and ongoing mitigation actions. The Senate enquiry of September 2011 on the koala and demonstrated the intense public interest in the survival of this iconic species. Its subsequent listing for Queensland and NSW under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 further raises its profile and obligations for management of koalas and their habitat. It will take considerable effort to manage the Liverpool Plains koala population for the next 50 years in the face of extensive land-use changes from mining, and the attendant threats from road kill, compounded by the new threat of climate change manifesting itself as an increased frequency of heatwaves and more severe droughts. This paper describes the research that underpins these conclusions, identifies some of the research approaches needed, argues for working strategically now, rather than try to patch up matters after the event, and presents a set of guides for environmental plantings. CITATION:Lunney, D, Lemon, J, Crowther, M S, Stalenberg, E, Ross, K and Wheeler, R, 2012. An ecological approach to koala conservation in a mined landscape, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2012 , pp 343-352 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 10, 2012

By James A. Brown, Marius Botha, Christopher A. Fleming

"The technical and economic feasibility or re-processing hundreds of millions of tons of tailings in a number of historic gold tailings dams in the Witwatersrand area of South Africa is being investigated. The objective is to recover uranium and residual gold from the tailings, as well as to oxidize the sulphides to eliminate long term environmental liabilities associated with acid mine drainage. The tailings from the re-processing plant will be re-deposited in a new area far from urbanization, allowing for the rehabilitation of the real estate currently occupied by these historic tailings.The first step in the process involves a mild-regrind and mild acid leach of the tailings (pH 2.5 to 3.0) to dissolve up to 40% of the uranium. This uranium is recovered directly from the pulp by resin in pulp (RIP) with a strong base resin. The RIP tails are then treated by flotation to recover a rougher pyrite concentrate, and flotation tailings that are discarded. The rougher concentrate is cleaned to produce a final pyrite concentrate and cleaner scavenger tailings, and the pyrite concentrate is oxidized in an autoclave to leach uranium and generate acid. The autoclave discharge is combined with the cleaner scavenger tails, and the acid and ferric ions generated in the autoclave are used to leach more uranium and oxidize more sulphide in the cleaner tails. The product from the concentrate leach circuit is processed by resin in pulp for uranium recovery, followed by neutralization, cyanidation and carbon in pulp for gold recovery.The rougher float tails may be further treated to recover gold that was not recovered in flotation, but which had been liberated from the old dumps by natural oxidation of some of the pyrite over many decades. The float tails would be neutralized and treated by cyanidation and CIL to recover this liberated gold.All parts of the flowsheet have been extensively tested in the laboratory, and the critical elements of flotation, pressure oxidation and resin in pulp have been demonstrated in pilot plants. The results of the hydrometallurgical investigations are presented here."

Jan 1, 2010

By C M. Standen

The SAG mill at Rasp Mine has undergone a number of liner design modifications since commissioning in 2012, making liner wear and failure difficult to predict from historical data. During 2017, several instances of liner failure or near failure were experienced resulting in unplanned downtime for emergency relines or to patch liners in the lead up to a planned shutdown. The strategy for relining mills is often to minimise the frequency of relines (and subsequent shutdown costs) by extending liner life, achieved through design modifications. However, it was observed that as the Rasp SAG mill liners wear, mill performance declined with power draw increasing and throughput declining. Opportunity and inefficiency costs start to erode the revenue per additional tonne milled for a given set of liners, and in turn the benefit of delaying relines. As such, optimising the frequency of relines becomes a trade-off between reline costs and opportunity/inefficiency costs in delaying relines. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a frame work for analysing costs using a marginal economic analysis with the assumption that the Law of Diminishing Returns can be applied to the life of mill liners. The SAG mill operating variables can be modelled to determine their impact on costs and an optimal reline point can be defined where the total costs are minimised. This prevents unexpected failures due to accelerated wear by providing justification to reline earlier and thereby allowing efforts to be focused on sustaining milling performance.CITATION:Standen, C M, 2018. An economic approach to optimising mill reline frequency – a case study of SAG mill relines at Rasp mine, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 197–206 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By Don K. Smith

The northern zone of the Indus Basin comprises a vast area of essentially level land in West Pakistan which is irrigated by means of a complex system of canals that distribute more water to more land than any other irrigation system in the world. In spite of the development of this extensive irrigation system, production of food and fiber has not met the requirements of the country. The major reasons that crop production has not reached anticipated levels are the lack of adequate irrigation supplies and effective subsurface drainage. As a result, yields per acre are among the lowest in the world for areas where irrigation is practiced, and many thousands of acres of valuable crop land have been removed from production or are seriously affected by salinity and waterlogging. To rectify the problems of irrigation supply and drainage the Government of Pakistan has undertaken a program of Salinity Control and Reclamation which is being administered by the Water and Power Development Authority. The Authority retained Tipton and Kalmbach, Inc. , of Denver,, Colorado as Engineers for the program in the northern zone of the Indus Basin. -This program consists of the construction of about 30, 000 irrigation wells to provide drainage for waterlogged lands and full irrigation supplies, including leaching requirements, for; all cultivated lands. The program will ultimately ensure the productivity of 20 million acres and will involve an annual pumpage from ground water storage of nearly 40 million acre-feet of water. The value of the crops produced when the program is in full operation will be 4 to 6 times the value of the crops that could be produced without the benefits of this program.

Jan 1, 1967

By Wendy L. Naysmith

This paper deals with the various options considered and factors that influenced the final selection of the headframe, shaft layout and hoisting systems required at the Impala No 16 Shaft in order to hoist both the required 3 Mt of ore per annum, and transport men, material and equipment between the surface and the underground workings to a depth of 1640 m. The layout and construction method used for what is at present the world?s tallest concrete headframe is discussed together with the integrated hoist room foundations designed to suit multiple mechanical and electrical hoist supplier?s solutions. The mechanical components of the two tower mounted 6,5m 4 rope Koepe hoists and deflection sheaves and their layout is dealt with in detail. Various features of the bearing type, brake units and brake control system are also discussed. Installation of the mechanical and electrical hoist equipment in the headframe took place during the sinking phase of the project and placed severe restrictions on the use of the heavy lifting facilities. This required a well-managed and systematic approach to delivery of the hoist components and associated equipment, as well as close co-operation between all contractors on site.

Oct 1, 2010

By Dominic Howarth, Diana Drinkwater, Don McKee

"The pressures on mining and minerals education at the tertiary level are well known. Within Australia, for example, the number of undergraduate mining engineering courses with 30 or more students in each year has reduced to three (University of Queensland, University of New South Wales and Curtin University). Similar declines in both student numbers and participating institutions are evident in many other parts of the world, and notably in USA and most countries in Europe.An in depth study of the Australian sector was conducted in 1997/1998, resulting in the Back from the Brink report (Carter 1998). The Australian situation was summarised as follows.Australia’s minerals education system, in its current form, is fragile and is in no position to seize the opportunity (i.e. world leadership in minerals education) and is more likely to succumb to the threat.Current trends include:- an acute shortage of talented academic staff, as a result of University remuneration packages having become hopelessly uncompetitive with those in the minerals industry;- small student populations and high relative costs, making mineral specific courses vulnerable to closures, when Universities are under extreme cost pressures; this situation will be exacerbated if enrolments drop in response to, say, a cyclical down turn in the industry; and- under-resourcing of minerals departments because of their comparatively small size, making these departments incapable of delivering top class teaching in all aspects of their courses, despite being excellent in some areas.Most of the Australian issues identified above have direct parallels in other countries.The most common response of institutions to the threats is to seek strength, and in some cases survival, through various forms of linkages and networks. A number of these associations, which are frequently defensive in nature, are outlined in the paper."

Jan 1, 2003

By L Dzinza, K C. Corin, M Tadie

The recycling of process water comes with increased electrolyte concentrations that affect water quality, which may in turn affect the flotation performance of valuable minerals (Hirajima et al, 2016). Electrolytes such as Ca2+, SO4 2- , Mg2+ and S2O3 2- have been surmised to have an impact on the action of flotation reagents such as collectors (Ikumapayi et al, 2012). Xanthate collectors are known to play a significant role in imparting hydrophobicity on mineral surfaces to enhance their flotation. The interaction between minerals and xanthates is well known to be electrochemical in nature. Such redox processes may be elucidated by electrochemical techniques. Since the mechanisms involving the interactions between electrolytes in process water with sulfide minerals and the subsequent adsorption kinetics of collectors are not well understood, this study therefore aims to provide fundamental knowledge to unpack the mechanisms involved when electrolytes interact with Platinum Group Minerals (PGMs) and how these interactions may affect xanthate adsorption. The interaction of sodium iso-butyl xanthate (SIBX) in the presence of electrolytes at increasing ionic strength was investigated by rest potential measurements, to explain the impact of electrolytes on the adsorption of SIBX on PGMs in the flotation process. Rest potential measurements for PdTe2 and PdS were conducted in an air saturated 0.05 M di-sodium tetraborate decahydrate solution, in the absence and presence of SIBX and electrolytes. It was found that the existence of sulfide and telluride on palladium affects the mechanisms in which electrolytes interact with Pd mineral surfaces. An increase in the ionic strength of Na2S2O3, CaCl2 and MgCl2, increased the interaction between the salts and PdS, thus decreasing the extent to which SIBX interacted with PdS. An increase in ionic strength for Na2S2O3 increased the interaction between Na2S2O3 and PdTe2 and therefore decreased the extent to which SIBX interacted with PdTe2. Other salts investigated in this study increased the rate of oxidation of PdTe2 with an increase in ionic strength thereby enhancing the interaction of SIBX and PdTe2. This study has shown that mineral type, electrolyte type and concentration all have an impact on the mechanisms that result in the adsorption of SIBX on PGMs.

Aug 24, 2022

By X. Cheng

The mechanism of cathodic decomposition of pyrrhotite was studied in deoxygenated solutions at natural, near neutral pH using potential and cyclic voltammetric measurements. Reaction products on pyrrhotite surfaces were examined by AES and XPS, and by analyzing the voltammograms for the electron balance of the reactions. Surface properties of the pyrrhotite/solution interface were characterized using ac impedance technique. The parameters of an equivalent circuit were determined by the nonlinear least squares fit (NLLSF) technique. The effect of cathodic polarization on floatability was investigated by micro-flotation tests. Possible implications to the flotation separation of chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite ores are discussed.

Jan 1, 1993

By W. W. Wen

The objective of this investigation was to study the electrokinetic behavior of oxidized coals to indicate the feasibility of separating oxidized coals from ash materials and pyrite by an mine flotation process. The effects of soluble inorganic electrolyte products from coal oxidation were also examined. The electrokinetic behavior of coals of different rank and degree of oxidation were studied by an electrophoreses technique. Generally, increasing the oxidation increases the negative value of the zeta-potential and decreases the isoelectric point (IEP). Flotation results indicate that the flotation recovery increases with decreasing pH values, and that with ferrous sulfate at pH 6.5 the flotation recovery is optimum while the pyrite was depressed. Comparing the flotation results with the electrokinetic results verified that in the presence of ferrous sulfate, the maximum hydrophobicity of oxidized coal with dodecylamine and frother is near its IEP which is around pH 6.5 to 7.0.

Jan 1, 1976

By Robert L. Chufo

The U.S. Department of Energy Pittsburgh Research Center,1 has developed and field tested a spatial, spectral sensor for measuring the thickness of mineral deposits. Knowledge of the dielectric constant of the material is not necessary because the electrical properties of the media are determined automatically along with the thickness or distance measurement. The technology was developed to measure the thickness of coal remaining in the roof and floor of a mine or the thickness of a coal pillar remaining between two mining entries for the purpose of guiding a mining machine. However, field tests have shown the new technique is equally valuable for measuring the thickness of each layer in a multilayer manmade structure such as highway paving or building foundations and the thickness of geological deposits other than coal, such as, salt, granite and sandstone. The noncontacting electromagnetic technique uses spatial modulation created by moving a simple dipole sensor antenna in a direction along each axes to be measured while the complex reflection coefficient is measured at multiple frequencies over a two-to-one bandwidth. The antenna motion imparts spatial modulation to the data and enables frequency domain signal processing to solve the problem of media, target and antenna dispersion. The technique overcomes the problem of multipath reflections from nearby metal structures and avoids the use of radio frequency absorbing material. In its present form the system measures material thickness of zero to over 3 m to within ±2.5 cm accuracy. The system parameters are variable to suit the application but for most applications default values of 40 cm antenna motion with measurements made at 401 frequencies from 0.6 to 1.4 GHz at each of 32 antenna positions with a power level of 0 dBm or less are more than adequate to provide a satisfactory signal-to noise ratio. In the range of 0 to 10 m the system operates in the continuous wave mode and by simply turning off the transmitter for ranges beyond 10 m the problems of time domain processing are entirely avoided. The technique can be implemented with a vector network analyzer, a servo controlled L-band antenna positioner, an IEEE488 bus controller and a process computer. An electronics package designed and constructed to operate in the harsh mining environment and providing 1, 2 or 3 dimensional image presentation is being evaluated as a replacement for the network analyzer. Key words: Ground penetration radar, Spatial, Spectral