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By N. S. Tanious

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulation 10 CFR 60 requires that the ventilation system for the geologic repository be designed to: (1) control the transport of radioactive particulates and gases, (2) assure continued function during normal operations and under accident conditions, and (3) separate the ventilation of excavation and emplacement areas. The ventilation system design should take into account thermal loading; maintenance of the retrieval option and-the separation of the development and emplacement ventilation circuits. An analysis was performed by NRC's contractor, Engineers International on the ventilation system design described in the Department of Energy's conceptual design for Nevada. The ventilation analysis is of a preliminary nature. The conclusions presented in this paper reflect the views of the authors and may not represent the views of the NRC. In this analysis, available Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigation (NNWSI) ventilation design information was reviewed and a ventilation network analysis was performed.

Jan 1, 1988

By Thierry Bernard

It was in the 1980s that USBM published one of the first regulations to protect constructions from the effects of vibrations caused by mine blasts. Several countries have made their own regulations or recommendations since then with vibration limits that are often lower. However, on many sites, operators choose vibration limits that are lower than those of the existing standards, in order to limit the number of complaints received. The real question is how can we know what level of vibration is susceptible to create or worsen an existing crack in a construction. MCM, to the north of Quebec, is working a deposit on the periphery of the town of Malartic. Within the scope of its environmental monitoring programme, together with the joint monitoring committee, MCM has equipped four sample houses for over 18 months, in order to learn if there is a relationship between the evolution of damage to existing constructions and the seismic levels of vibrations created by mine blasts. The publication presents the results of this unique study that has analyzed millions of measurements (seismic, extensometric, and temperature) to define what relationship exists between the levels of vibration and the movement of cracks. Some surprising results versus some published previously (see ref) might change our perception of the subject.

Jan 1, 2018

By W. J. González

With the increasing demand for minerals and the decline in the quality of ore reserves, technologies to maximize recovery are critical to a mine?s economic success. Many mining waters exhibit the potential to form hardness-based inorganic scales, which inhibit effective mineral recovery. Often, a continuously-fed chemical deposit control program is implemented by the mine site to inhibit these scales. The use of retractable scale coupons is the current industry standard for monitoring these programs; however, a key drawback to their use is the limited, and sometimes untimely amount of information they provide. A proprietary fouling analyzer has been developed that can be used to continuously monitor the formation of inorganic scales in mining process streams. Consequently, it can be used to continually, and more effectively, communicate the efficacy of an antiscalant program, thereby providing the ability to compare different scale control programs and to optimize their feedrates. Case studies presented validate the applicability of this technology to help optimize mineral recovery.

Feb 23, 2014

By S W. Houlding

The Certificate in Mining Studies program at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada is a collaborative initiative between mining schools and industry to provide accessible, cost-effective, accredited continuing education and training, designed to address the future needs of the global mining community. Content is provided by industry specialists and delivered through an integration of online learning, short courses and interactive webcasts. Accreditation is provided by a network of mining schools. In 2011, the program will deliver close to 100 short courses and interactive webcasts and provide 24/7 access to more than 130 online courses in six mining streams, to participants from as far afield as Tanzania, Argentina and Mongolia. The program is proving adaptable to corporate and mine site engineer-in-training and graduate-development programs, as well as providing accessible professional development opportunities for individuals. It also provides opportunities for cross-training from other disciplines and integration with mining school curricula.

Nov 22, 2011

By L. C. Brichta

During a study of the Badger-Peacock area from October 1950 to June 1953, the Federal Geological Survey and the Federal Bureau of Mines completed nearly 98 miles of resistivity profiling and drilled 96 test holes aggregating 17,628 feet of bore, In addition, seismic profile measurements were made along 8 traverse lines for an aggregate length of about 16,600 feet. The geophysical surveys were conducted by the Geophysics Branch of the Geological Survey; the drilling was done by the Bureau of Mines. Electrical-resistivity measurements disclosed 21 low-resistivity anomalies and 1 high-resistivity anomaly. Correlation of the resistivity data with the geological information revealed by the drilling disclosed that the low-resistivity anomalies indicated either slumped shale deposits in limestone sinks or undisturbed deposits of shale lying in erosional depressions in the limestone. The high-resistivity anomaly indicated hard, undisturbed limestone at or near the surface.

Jan 1, 1958

By Joseph M. Kuchta

This Bureau of Mines manual is oriented to the technical needs of an investigation of fire or explosion accidents and includes various practical and theoretical information that is needed in analyzing accidents or evaluating conditions that might lead to an accident. It is applicable to accidents in the chemical, mining, transportation, and other fuel-related industries. Specific procedures for conducting an accident investigation are outlined, and various guidelines are given for developing the fire or explosion evidence. Ignitability, flammability, and physicochemical data are presented for over 500 combustible gases, liquids, and solids; empirical and theoretical expressions are also given for extrapolating the behavior of combustible-oxidant-diluent systems to various environmental conditions. In addition, various data pertinent to damage analysis are summarized to facilitate the task of the investigator in developing plausible accident scenarios.

Jan 1, 1985

By James R. Kuipers

Center for Science in Public Participation CSP2 ? Organized in 1997 to provide technical assistance to public interest groups on mining and water quality issues ? 80%of effort devoted to direct support of grassroots groups and tribal governments ? 20% of effort devoted to public-oriented education for public, tribal, state and federal regulators, and for industry ? Board represented by public interest groups, at large citizens, and academia ? Professional staff with experience from mining industry, academia and government ? website: www.csp2.org CSP2 Mission Statement The CENTER for SCIENCE in PUBLIC PARTICIPATION provides training and technical advice to grassroots groups on water pollution and natural resource development issues, especially those related to mining. CSP2 seeks to focus the debate on factual issues, as brought to light by its technical analyses, and whenever possible to seek consensus and win-win solutions. CSP2 also performs policy related work with federal and state regulatory agencies on the implementation of water quality, waste disposal, and mining reclamation regulations.

May 1, 2002

By Ryan Dr.

In December 1988 Phelps dodge corporation brought an underground gold mine into production in the republic of Botswana. The mineralization is associated with steeply dipping shear zones in Archean greenstones of the Tati Schist Belt. The gold is intimately associated with sulfides and is refractory in nature. The deposit is being exploited by underhand open stoping methods. Vertical and inclined shafts are used to hoist the ore to surface where it is treated by conventional crushing, milling and flotation, followed by fluid bed roasting with CIP elution and carbon regeneration. Adjacent deposits are being explored with a view to increasing production. Legal and taxation aspects of operating in Botswana are discussed.

Jan 1, 1989

By Bruce Bryant

Silver ore was discovered at Aspen in 1879, but the district did not reach full production until 1888 after lawsuits were settled and railroads furnished less expensive transportation to the outside world. The boom years were 1888-92; production declined thereafter. From the middle 1920's until 1950, the Midnight mine in the Richmond Hill district furnished most of the output in the Aspen quadrangle. Since 1950, little mining has been done at Aspen. The metals produced were silver, lead and zinc. Native silver dissolved from the sulfide ores was redeposited by waters circulating as deep as 300 m below the land surface, resulting in great secondary enrichment of many of the deposits. Over 100 million ounces of silver were produced in the Aspen quadrangle. Low-grade lead-zinc deposits remain between the old workings locally, and data available suggest that primary ore below levels mined is also of low grade. The ore occurs in the Mississippian Leadville Limestone and the lower part of the Pennsylvanian Belden Formation in sites that were made favorable for deposition by a number of stratigraphic and structural factors.

Jan 1, 1982

By E. Alldén Öberg

In 2004, LKAB decided to start a basic engineering study in expanding its existing production lines at the Malmberget mine site. It was expected that some of the production lines would become bottlenecks with reference to capacity. In this study, the sorting plant is examined and the results show that several unit operations will be limiting under current operating conditions. An additional purpose with the study was to investigate how replacement of some machines would influence performance and if production plans for the coming years might be achieved. Steady-state simulations using the software Modsim? were extensively used to study process performance for different operating conditions, such as iron content and size distribution in run-of-mine ore. Model parameters were derived from pilot plant data and when possible from ex-isting circuits. A complication for the simulations was the lack of relevant data and therefore some of the initial results were only indicative. The result shows that installation of new screens would give a much better operation, but also new crushers would be an improvement. This, since they can be run with full crusher chamber and tighter CSS. During 2007, most of the proposed remedies were implemented and the result is that the bottle-necks are gone, and the grades and material balances are even better than what was envisioned from the simulations.

Jan 1, 2014

By F. L. Wu

Based on the analysis of a sealed coal mine resulting from a fire-triggered explosion, limitations were discovered in the re-entry procedures used to reduce the size of the sealed area that were being applied during the process of re-opening the mine. The analysis of two re-opening plans in a mine using mechanical ventilation showed that the estimation of the degree of damage of two air doors close to the working face with the fire was key to the identification of the optimum mine recovery plan. The operation points of airflow and air pressure of the main fan under either the doors? damaged or intact conditions can be estimated through the use of a ventilation network simulation program. Starting the main fan for a short time period and measuring its operation points of airflow and air pressure allowed their comparison with the simulated values. This procedure provided a reasonable estimation of the degree of damage of the ventilation structures and more confidence in choosing a recovery plan. Through this process, it was possible to conclude that the two doors were still intact. Consequently, the final plan of installing a new main fan in the main decline, sealing the initial upcast shaft and unsealing the auxiliary downcast shaft, was proven to be reasonable at the mine site.

Aug 1, 2013

By John Taylor

"The Highvale Mine in Alberta is owned by TransAlta Utilities Corpora/ion and operated by Mana/fa Coal Lid. It is the largest coal mine in Canada and in 1982 supplied 8.6 million 1onnes of sub-bituminous ""B"" coal to TransAlta's Sundance Ceneraling Plan/. Annual produclion is scheduled to increase in 1983 when the firs/ unit of the new Keephil/s Generating Plant comes on stream and is expec/ed to exceed 11 million tonnes by 1985 when the second unit is commissioned. Coal is mined from several pits in a multi-seam operation. Comprehensive maintenance, drainage and environmental programs form a major part of the operation.IntroductionThe Highvale Mine is located eighty kilometres west of Edmonton, Alberta on the south shore of Lake Wabamun (Fig. I). The mine is owned by TransAlta Utilities Corporation (T.A.U.) and is operated by Manalta Coal Ltd. In 1982, 8.6 million tonnes of coal were supplied to T.A.U.'s 2100 MW Sundance Generating Plant, making it the largest producing coal mine in Canada. By 1985, with two 375 MW units on line at T.A. U .'s new Keephills Generating Plant, annual production is estimated to exceed eleven million tonnes. The generating plants accept crushed unwashed coal from the mine via the coal handling plant system conveyor belts. The coal is classified as sub-bituminous ""B"" and has an average heating capacity of 18.6 MJ I kg.HistoryPrior to 1943 only small scale mining took place in the Highvale area. Between 1943 and 1961 two strip mining companies, Mount Royal Collieries and Continental Collieries operated on the present mine site. Both operations excavated coal along the south shore of Lake Wabamun."

Jan 1, 1985

By Raden Haris Handayana, Jerri Mapanta, Eri Barlian, Milia Putri, Nasfryzal Carlo, Jihan Lubis

Waste oil is a growing problem throughout industries where environmentally responsible disposal ways are usually costly. There are many industries have developed process to reuse of waste oil as a source of energy on their own premises. Hanwha Mining Services Indonesia is one of blasting service that manufacturing explosive using waste oil. The usage of 60 % waste oil content in fuel solution already developed applied since 2020 at Petrosea-Kideco Site and will be increase until 100 % in 2022. The purpose of this research is to analyze the increasing of waste oil usage from 60 % to 100 % content at Petrosea Pit without reducing the emulsion quality and performance, and surely eliminate the fuel cost and reducing waste oil processing cost. Some trial conducted to determine the effect and quality of using 100 % waste oil content on emulsion at production blast. The method use to know the quality of 100% waste oil of emulsion is by direct application on bench blast. Using Microtrap VoD recorder, explosive energy will be recorded into m/s dimension, microtrap recorder the speed of explosive detonation in line with the speed of burning wire in the blast holes. The summarized of this research present that the using of 100 % waste oil content on emulsion can be applied on bench operation with the result of Velocity of Detonation (VoD) data is 4,559 mm/s, the mean of fragmentation size is in range 65.31 to 225.62 mm, the average of digging time on 1st layer is in range 10.2 to 11.6 s and on 2nd layer is in range 8.9 to 9.5 s, and the productivity still achieve on target. The result of all parameter quality still in the standard range of Hanwha and Petrosea.

Feb 6, 2023

By T J. Grandfield

Paste fill has been used successfully at Henty Gold Mine for the past five years. It has allowed 100 per cent extraction of the orebody, stabilised poor ground and enabled wide sections and offsets to be mined safely. However, there are a number of inefficiencies in the current paste fill system. These include the low output from the drum filter, the addition of aggregate to the paste to compensate and the trucking of paste from the plant to the portal. These inefficiencies have increased the operating cost of the paste fill system and caused a number of operational challenges such as blockages and increased pipe wear. These challenges have been partly overcome by taking ownership of the paste fill process, improved quality control and better communication. Henty is currently developing two new orebodies, the Mt Julia and the Darwin and has an opportunity to build an efficient paste fill operation. This is likely to be a high density paste system without aggregate, either located above the new orebodies or located at the plant and pumped to the new site.

Jan 1, 2002

By L. K. Daneshmend

Key issues in managing information systems in the minerals industry will likely continue to be those relating to the integration and interoperability of disparate systems. This paper argues that, in order to harness the promised benefits of information technologies, the mining industry should adopt a set of open systems standards to define data formats and protocols for seamless data exchange. This is in direct contrast to the present situation where mining equipment, software and instrument suppliers rigidly adhere to proprietary standards for fear of losing competitive advantage. Benefits to the mining sector resulting from the adoption of such standards would be: the provision of near-time data for executive decision support, and the freedom to choose best technologies. The principal benefits to the leading mining software suppliers will be increased market share as a result of “captive sites” converting to open systems standards. Examples are given of open systems standards developed for related industries such as the Petroleum Open Systems Corporation (POSC) and the Machinery Information Management Open Systems Alliance (MIMOSA).

Jan 1, 2000

By V. A. Scovazzo

The analytical pillar design procedure employing the Wilson equation is based on the site-specific material strength of the floor, pillar, and roof rock. Stable pillars so designed will sometimes be larger than those designed using empirical methods thus providing more stability or at other times smaller than empirically designed pillars thus conserving natural resources. Presented here is a detailed procedure for the analytical design of soft rock pillars using the Wilson Equation. An example of this procedure is presented that uses data from a mine in the Owl Seam in Southern Appalachia. These Owl Seam pillars are now in use and are performing as expected. Also addressed is an assessment of the Dr. Scovazzo?s analytically designed pillars based on pillar performance data gathered by Dr. Mark in the Southern Appalachian Coal Field.

Jan 1, 2010

By Sukumar Bandopadhyay

The Marine Mining Technology Center (MMTC) was authorized by an act of the United States Congress in 1996. The act established several marine minerals research centers in the U.S., including one at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Alaska MMTC is funded through the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior and concentrates its research in the Artic seas region. Recent research projects at the MMTC include, among others, a geographic information system (GIS) application to the gold placer deposits offshore Nome, Alaska, a marine gold placer reserve definition model using a neural network, and development of an expert system model for submarine tailings disposal (STD) planning and decision-making. Although geostatistics remains the most prevalent method used today for ore grade estimation, researchers have made numerous improvements over the years for accurately predicting grades of ore using various other estimation techniques. As a result, the neural network has recently emerged as an alternative to geostatistics for grade estimation purposes. A neural network is a non-linear, model-free estimator that is well-suited for noisy and/or sparse data environments. Neural networks perform best with non-linear spatial data, contrary to the stationary assumption of ordinary Kriging techniques. In the marine placer ore reserve definition model, the neural network technique was used to estimate placer gold reserves offshore Nome. This study demonstrated the utility of neural network modeling over other traditional ore reserve estimation methods, especially for high cut-off grades. Some of the relevant issues of neural network modeling were also addressed in the study. In testing, the neural network produced results that were close to those from geostatistical techniques including Kriging, polygon, and inverse distance methods.

Jan 1, 2004

By Duk-Won Park

Since geologic anomalies are one of the governing factors of instability of underground openings, it is extremely important to know in advance the locations and extent of these anomalies such as faults and weak zones. At an underground coal mine in the Black Warrior Basin, core drilling was conducted to find a fault in an area where they were planning to locate longwall panels and possibly a shaft. Core logging did not provide sufficient information to delineate the exact location, strike, and dip of the fault. However, a high resolution reflection seismic study successfully solved this problem. This experience proved the seismic exploration technique could be used for premining coal exploration by reducing drilling costs and providing more accurate and detailed information about geologic anomalies.

Jan 1, 1988

By M Noakes

EcoTechnology refers to a series of potential metallurgical processes for complex ores, concentrates, tailings and slags that are all based on an initial chlorination step at low to moderate temperatures probably in a fluid bed chlorinator (FBC). Examples of the research and development (R&D) results are provided in this paper for a high grade Au/Sb Leach Tailings (EcoGold<sub>®</sub> Process), a very refractory sulphide Au concentrate, a refractory gold calcine tailings, a Cu/Au tailings (EcoCopper<sub>®</sub> Process), bulk polymetallic sulphide concentrates and polymetallic sulphide/oxide complex ores (EcoZinc<sub>®</sub> Process and EcoLead<sub>®</sub> Process). R&D on over thirty different ore types has been conducted at a bench scale as discussed. Latterly a dedicated pilot plant was designed and constructed by EcoTech Mining Pty Ltd (EML) and several of the different feed stock results have been confirmed by pilot plant testing. It is planned to scale up to a commercial demonstration plant. To demonstrate the versatility of EcoTechnology, bench and pilot plant test results on five of the projects are used as case studies as follows: Fosterville ‘leach tailing’, VIC; Wiluna flotation concentrate – BIOX Feed, WA; Wiluna calcine facility tailings, WA; Mt Morgan Cu/Au tailings, QLD; Polymetallic sulphide concentrates from Pegmont Deposit, QLD and Polymetallic sulphide/oxide ores from Commonwealth Mine Project, NSW. CITATION: Noakes, M, 2018. Improved recoveries and environmental outcomes from complex ores utilising EcoTechnology, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 122–123 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

By R. N. Chakravorty

Spontaneous combustion presents a very serious hazard to both safety and economics of mining operations. Notwithstanding considerable research that has been done over the years to present and control spontaneous combustion the risk still exists. Consequently, this problem poses a major challenge to mine safety researchers; new and improved techniques are constantly being developed to deal with this major hazard. This paper reviews the current practices to prevent and control spontaneous combustion in coal mine operations highlighting new developments in this area. Research and development work presently being carried out in Canada to' deal with this problem is also discussed which includes monitoring, inertization and application of biotechnology.

Jan 1, 1988