Search Documents

By Marlin E. Sandlin

NORTH-CENTRAL United States is now, and will continue to be, a natural market for Canadian crude oil. This area is a natural market for many basic reasons. There are no physical barriers along the border of our countries. This market is in dose proximity to Canadian production. This market is already joined by crude oil pipe-1,ines to numerous producing areas of Canada. The tariff barriers are reasonable. We are not handicapped by mandatory quota restrictions. There are many of us who desire lo sell Canadian crude oil in this market. Further, and what is really important, there are many of us who desire to buy Canadian crude oil for this market. It is fundamental that for crude oil to be sold in the world market, it must ?be sold at competitive prices. At the same time, it is important that such competitive price must result in a fair price for the crude oil at the we1lhead. The factors of nearness to market, cheap pipe line transportation, and reasonable United States tariffs, all tend to make ?possible a competitive market and a fair wellhead price.

Jan 1, 1958

By John E. Udd

I N Part I of this paper, Professor Morrison suggested that our technique of causing cracks to develop around openings in a sheet of photoe1ashc plastic is, in effect, a laboratory-scale rockburst. Our investigations have indicated that the location and direction of these cracks are predictable, and that their growth can be controlled. On several occasions, we have been able to cause these cracks to propagate sufficiently slowly to be followed, with the naked eye. In practice, the rate of growth, gradual or sudden, would depend upon rock properties. This part of the paper presents an analysis of the stresses surrounding the openings before and after failure and also this author's views on the causes and after-effects of cracking. An attempt is made to correlate the stress patterns with those deter-mined from pure mathematics. Considering that the openings, except for the central enlargement, are long apertures with somewhat rounded corners, they might be compared with elongated ellipses having axes ratios of about 20:1 or with

Jan 1, 1963

By R. E. Gilmore

PREAMBLE THIS PAPER comprises material presented in two separate 'Papers at the British Commonwealth Scientific Specialist Conference on Fuel Research held in London, England, in July, 1950. These papers are now available for publication in Canada, since only essential parts of the conference discussions, in addition to the resolutions resulting therefrom, will be published in the official Proceedings of the Conference. Inasmuch as the information presented concerns Canadian organizations and training facilities for fuel research, it should be of general interest to Canadian scientists, and especially to the Coal Division of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Part I, the alternate title of which is Facilities in Canada for Fuel Research and for Exchange of Information and Staff, does not include research on peat, oil shale, petroleum oils in general, and natural gas, and omits studies of the geology, constitution, and production of coal. Special reference is, however, made to research on the heavy crude oils and bitumen of the Western Prairie Provinces, and particularly to their production and treatment to produce crudes for oil refinery processing.

Jan 1, 1951

By Wayne N. McKee, Scott A. Lewis

"Introduction to the Syncrude OperationSyncrude Canada Ltd., located 42 km north of the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, (Fig. I) is an integrated operation that has produced synthetic crude oil from the Athabasca oil sand deposit since 1978.The operation, consisting of a surface mine, an extraction plant, a bitumen upgrader, and a utilities plant, is currently capable of producing over 60 million barrels of crude oil per year. Production is expected to increase to 70 million barrels of crude oil per year over the next five-year period with no major changes to equipment or process planned.The Syncrude surface mine, producing a total of 675 000 tonnes of ore and waste per day, rates as one of the largest mines in the world. A strip mining method is utilized, with two or three operating benches necessary to excavate a total depth varying between 60 m and 70 m. The 20 m to 30 m of overburden is removed by electric and hydraulic shovels and 200-ton haul trucks, and dumped in the mined-out pit for final storage. The overburden operation creates a flat bench near the top of the ore zone on which the four 60 m3 draglines operate. The draglines excavate interbanded ore and waste in the highwall, with ore placed on the operating bench in windrows, and waste returned to the mined-out pit. The windrowed ore is reclaimed by four bucketwheel reclaimers, and discharged onto a conveyor system for transfer to the extraction plant."

Jan 1, 1993

By M. Piboule et J. M . Charbonneau, C. Picard

In the western part of the Chapais syncline (Abitibi-east, Quebec), the lava flows belonging to the Haliy Formation separate in two distinct sequences. The basal sequence contains prophyri tic metabasalts of calc-alkaline af f inity overlain by porphyritic metatrachyandesites and metatrachytes of alkaline to shoshonitic affinity. The upper sequence contains porphyritic metabasalts similar to those of the basal sequence along with highly potassic metaandesites trending to a subalkaline affinity. A geochemical study of trace and REE elements established that the composition of these lava flows results from a mixing or contamination process. The primitive tholeiitic liquids which are enriched in LREE were modified by the addition of a crustal contaminant enriched in Y, Zr, Th and K20. The magmatic liquids resulted from successive steps in the admixing process, evolved by fractionated crystallization. The mechanism of gradual admixing seems to be the major cause of the observed ea le-alkaline characteris ties and may also be the cause of the alkaline to shoshoni tic affinity in those lavas. The tendency to differentiation by fractional crystallization reveals the tholeiitic character of the primitive liquids.

Jan 1, 1984

By Barbara H. Scott Smith

"During the last two decades lamproites have joined kimberlites as the only two known primary sources of economic quantities of diamonds. This paper contrasts the petrography, primary and xenocrystic mineralogy and pipe geology of these petrogenetically separate rock types. The petrographic discrimination of kimberlites and lamproites from each other, as well as other rock types found during diamond prospecting, is discussed. Kimberlites and lamproites can be classified texturally and mineralogically. Such classifications highlight the differences between, and among, lamproites and kimberlites. The implications of these differences for diamond exploration programs are discussed, with particular emphasis on the application of petrography. IntroductionKimberlite was the term coined in the late 19th century to describe the host rock of diamond at the type locality, Kimberley, South Africa (Lewis, 1887, 1888). Innumerable kimberlites are now known worldwide; some of them contain economic quantities of diamond (e.g. South Africa, Botswana and Russia) while many are barren. Jennings (1989) suggests that less than 3% of the known kimberlites can be considered to be commercial. Kimberlite was thought to be the only important primary source of diamond for approximately a century. Until the late 1970s, lamproites were thought to be only academic curiosities. Some workers (e.g. Wade and Prider, 1940), however, did comment on certain similarities between lamproites and kimberlites and, hence, inferred a potential for lamproites to carry diamonds.The term lamproite was introduced by Niggli (1923) for leucite-bearing rocks from southeast Spain and Wyoming which had some unusual geochemical characteristics. Wade and Prider (1940) used the term lamproite (as defined by Troger, 1935) to embrace rock types found in the West Kimberley area of Western Australia. All the lamproites described by Wade and Prider (1940) form distinct topographic features. Subsequently in the late 1970s, additional pipes, which have little or no relief, were discovered in the same area, but only as the result of a major diamond exploration program (Atkinson et al., 1984; Jaques et al., 1984, 1986). Some of these bodies are diamondiferous. In 1979, the Argyle pipe was discovered in the East Kimberley area which, in terms of grade, is the richest known primary diamond deposit in the world with some parts of the body having grades greater than 500 carats/100 tonnes (Madigan, 1983; Boxer et al., 1989). All the initial new discoveries in Western Australia resulted from classic stream sampling for ""kimberlite indicator minerals"" (Atkinson, 1989)."

Jan 1, 1992

By Aidan Giblett, Michael McGlynn, Peter Radziszewski

"On the basis that 99% of the energy input into a mill is converted into heat, it is possible to estimate the amount of energy captured in the slurry, the amount that is lost to the environment as well as the possible means to reduce such losses. As a result it becomes possible to estimate the potential amount of energy that can be captured by technologies such as thermoelectric generators or even Sterling engines. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the energy recovery potential dry grinding circuit could be as high as twice that of wet grinding circuits.In this paper, the energy recovery potential of dry grinding will be explored by examining the case of the Newmont Carlin mine dry grinding circuit. The paper will open with a review of the energy recovery potential of a few wet grinding applications followed by a description of the dry grinding circuit and a definition of the control volume around that circuit. A thermodynamic model will be used to estimate the circuit discharge temperature and an estimate of any losses as well as provide an estimate of the potential impact of different means to reduce energy losses. The paper will close with a discussion of the assumptions used in model development."

Jan 1, 2016

By David S. Robertson, Richard F. Douglas

"Uranium is a lithophile element of relatively low natural abundance. Concentrations of uranium form through processes of erosion and sedimentation, and over 90 per cent of the western world's uranium ore reserves are in sedimentary rocks.Proterozoic quartz-pebble conglomerates contain about 60 per cent of the known uranium reserves. These are all similar in appearance, in mode of distribution and in manner of origin. They carry uranium minerals and/or gold and abundant pyrite. Their unique distribution in Huronian time required a pre-existing crust well enough evolved to have plentiful quartz and abundant gold, uranium and pyrite. The materials of value were deposited as detrital heavy minerals prior to the appearance of an oxidizing atmosphere in late Proterozoic time.Epigenetic uranium deposits occur in arkosic sedimentary rocks through the entire geological column. About 30 per cent of the western world's known ore reserves are in _these rocks. This type of deposit is particularly prominent in semi-arid parts of the United States, having yielded most of the uranium ore produced and containing nearly all of the known reserves.The Western States type"" of deposits occur in lenticular, permeable stream-laid sedimentary rocks. The de-posits are believed to have been precipitated from moving ground water at locations where plant debris or other organic matter had accumulated. The uranium may be derived from volcanic sediments, which are commonly associated with the units containing the ore, or it may be leached from exposed granite surfaces or from granitic debris which forms the sediments.A significant part of the world's uranium resources are in black shales and lignitic rocks. The lignites that contain uranium are virtually valueless as potential sources of heat. Uranium concentrations at levels such as to be potential sources of by-product uranium occur in many phosphorites.Reworked sediments may provide uranium in pegmatites and vein-like deposits."

Jan 1, 1970

By Douglas H. Brown

Cadmium and other 'minor' metals in Canada tend to remain inconspicuous given the prominence of the country's massive production of other minerals. This same reality is reflected in the accuracy and deficiency of quantitative data concerning the sources of supply and demand for these metals. It is the intent of this paper to identify the nature of some of these difficulties and to reconstruct a more accurate description of Canada's production and consumption of cadmium, based on the results of recent surveys undertaken by the Mineral Policy Sector of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada and Noranda Sales Corporation Ltd.

Jan 1, 1978

By D. W. MacFarlane

In the formation of Oil and Gas Producing Units lawyer& and engineers are interdependent members of the same team. Management is, there-fore, entitled to expect no less than a total cooperative effort from the members of these professions. The petroleum and natural gas lawyer must diligently inform himself on the implications of engineering evidence. Otherwise he can be of little assistance to his engineering witness in a thorough, systematic and convincing presentation of his technical evidence. Conversely, the engineer must appreciate the concern of counsel that quasijudical hearings, whether technical or otherwise, be con-ducted in such a manner as to pre-serve some semblance of organized judicial procedures in the adjudication of property rights. The principal problems in unitization are the participation formula and the adjustment of investment in unit facilities. The equating of oil to gas, the effect of unit infill drilling, the relative values of producing zones and well productivity have •been controversial factors in several Saskatchewan units to date. Perhaps the most perplexing of these has been well productivity. While preserving current income, it may also preserve an ability to drain adjacent tracts plus an inequitable sharing of .reserves properly attributable to secondary recovery operations. However, inequity may also result in depriving an operator of the benefits accruing to him under competitive operations by virtue of his favourable reservoir position or his use of advanced production techniques. The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Conservation Act has been construed by the Department of Mineral Resources as •completely negating any benefits inherent in the rule of capture when determining equities under unit operations. Under adjustment of investment provisions, large cash flows between owners of exploited acreage should be avoided upon the creation of a unit. These provisions should not deprive any company of the benefits it may have obtained under competitive operations in producing its fair share of the reservoir at a lower net cost per barrel than its competitors. Unitization should be concerned with physical conservation rather than in equalizing production costs as between operators.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. S. Kirkaldy, W. J. Slater, G. R. Mason

Activation analysis for copper and manganese in 10 mg samples machined from aluminum-base diffusion couples has been used in the study of ternary diffusion in the Al-Cu-Mn system. The accuracy, economy and convenience of the method are considered to be very competitive with other methods for analysis of such small samples. Neutron-activated aluminum-zinc alloys in the range from 10 per cent to 100 per cent zinc have been equilibrated with a known volume and the vapors subsequently condensed and collected. The vapor pressures relative to pure zinc (the thermodynamic activities) have been determined at 550°C' by recording the relative count of /'-rays from zn65 in the collected samples. The method is a sensitive one, although subject to serious obstacles to experimental accuracy.

Jan 1, 1961

By G. Bourque

One of the design criteria for the Mount Wright facilities was to incorporate the latest proven automation techniques and devices for the new crushing, grinding and concentrating plant. The heart of the centralized control system is a Fox 1 process computer, located in the central control room in the administration building. The entire operation, i.e. crushing, conveying, storing, grinding and concentrating, is monitored and controlled, through the process computer , by one operator via a CRT console. In case of computer failure, the control is automatically, and without process interruption, transferred to manual back-up panels. One of the newest management tools, the process computer is programmed to collect and automatically print out shift. daily and monthly reports on tonnage, metallurgy and equipment operating time, for better planning of operations and preventative maintenance.

Jan 1, 1977

By Alfred W. G. Wilson

THE ultimate purpose of the Chemical Manufacturer is to produce consumer products which can be sold to customers. Such production and sales can be continued only if the operations yield a profit to the manufacturer and if the products meet the requirements o the consumer--bath parties to the transaction must be satisfied. There are vast numbers of consumer products, made by chemical pro-cesses. The production of some of these ultimate products may involve the use of several intermediate chemicals, applications of few or many different processes, and the utilization, somewhere in the series of operations, of a variety of raw materials. On the other hand, some ultimate products have a very simple chemical history between raw materials and end products. There are no chemical products in use which are completely independent of the mineral industry. For many, the association is direct and obvious; for others, it may be indirect and even obscure. Analyses of the process and raw-material ancestry of a very large number of consumer products would suggest that many products are derived from Industrial Mineral products directly, that there are many in which the connection is indirect, and that there are only a few products with which industrial minerals are not in some way or other associated. The vast majority of the more important chemical products, and especially the basic chemicals from which other products are made, are directly dependent for their production upon Industrial Minerals or their derivatives. In the preceding part of this paper, for each raw material mentioned some references have been made to the leading chemical products based on this material. This, however, is only part of the story, because in most cases the consumer product can be made from any special raw material mentioned only by the use of other materials or chemicals made from them. The production of consumer chemicals is really possible only through an intricate interlocking of processes, materials, and apparatus.

Jan 1, 1940

By A. Kapoor, L. Morin, S. Mortazavi, P. Béedard, Gould. W. D., A. Kuiper

The degradation of thiocyanate in a simulated gold mill effluent was studied using a laboratory scale rotating biological contactor (RBC). Complete SCN- removal was obtained at temperatures of 8 and 12°C, and a hydraulic retention time of approximately 3.3 h. The NH4+ produced by thiocyanate hydrolysis was oxidized by nitrifying bacteria to NO2 and NO3-. The HS- produced by thiocyanate hydrolysis was chemically and biologically oxidized to elemental S, which was subsequently biologically oxidized to sulfate. Incomplete sulfur oxidation occurred in the RBC, particularly at 8°C and elemental sulfur deposition was observed on the RBC disks. The RBC feed exhibited toxicity to rainbow trout but the RBC was effective in removing the acute toxicity of thiocyanate.

Jan 1, 2005

By D. Laguitton

The basic chemistry of a1•senic related to its dissolution and subsequent precipitation in gold-mine waste waters is discussed. The lime addition methods provides the most economic treatment of arsenical slurries, but requires a careful control of the oxidation of Asm into Asv, of the pH (>12) and the filtration of the precipitate. If arsenic levels below 0.5 mg/ l are required, a modification of the method by phosphate addition must be considered.

Jan 1, 1976

By H. T. Kennedy, D. L. Flock

"The project described in this pa-per was undertaken to provide a more thorough understanding of the effect of contamination by drilling fluids on the electrical properties of porous systems. The basic work per-formed was filtration tests on both consolidated and unconsolidated sands and the determination of their resistivity profiles with the aid of screen-type electrodes spaced at convenient intervals along the core.Four drilling fluids were selected, ranging in resistivity from 447.0 ohm-cm. to •5.76 ohm-cm. The permeability of three unconsolidated and four consolidated cores, on which resistivity measurements were made, varied from 1,257 md. to 4,560 md. Five additional cores with permeabilities as low as 49 md. were tested to investigate the effect of permeability on the depth of invasion of drilling fluids.The effect of drilling fluid invasion on resistivity profiles was determined on cores containing brine only, and on those containing 80 to 90 per cent oil and 20 to 10 per cent brine. The study included measurements of (a) clay content of different sections of the core, (b) saturation of the invaded fluids and oil in different parts of the core, and ( c) changes in resistivity as a result of gravitational re-distribution of fluids and diffusion of electrolytes.The data showed that the resistivity of an invaded core is, as was expected, controlled by the resistivity of the filtrate, the resistivity of residual core water, the resistivity of the clay particles, and the amount and distribution of the filtrate, clays, residual oil, and brine. In most cases there was a significant increase in resistivity owing to the presence of clay solids which had invaded the core. The change in resistivity, as a result of the diffusion of salts, was substantial after a period of five hours. There is evidence in some cases that the residual oil and core water saturations of the unconsolidated cores, after substantial invasion, are very low, indicating almost complete displacement by invading fluid."

Jan 1, 1959

By S. W. Marcuson

In the late 1960's concerns about the natural environment reached high levels within North America and provided activists with suitable platforms for exerting influence over the general public and politicians. In response a host of regulatory mechanisms were developed, statutes, voluntary measures, land grants, codes of practices etc. Emerging environmental awareness from the era provided impetus for rapid technological change that encompassed all industries, especially the base metal business. The resulting clean up impacted all aspects of copper production, dealing with issues such as waste disposal, water and air quality with specific impact on emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulate. This paper provides a perspective of these changes reviewing the macro-economic impact of environmental movement in mining with its specific implications to the copper smelting industry. The fundamental challenges that were faced by the old, but capital-intensive North American plants and the approaches taken to deal with the changing times are reviewed with special emphasis on the conceptual approach to smelter S02 abatement and different paths taken in the USA and Canada. The role of economics, sustainable R&D and presence of technical infrastructure that facilitated the change process is elucidated, and speculations are made about the future state of pyrometallurgy and the natural environment. Cu2007 -

Jan 1, 2007

By E. Howard Lambert

"Operating costs of mining plants are increasing due to the increased cost of labour, materials and fuels. Labour and materials costs are factors not readily controlled. However, the use of energy from fuels may be controlled by plant operations. This paper describes the fossil fuels, their expected rate of depletion and their costs. The paper considers methods which may be used to provide an efficient use of energy from fuels. It includes an outline of obtaining energy, as heat, from mine milling operations (air compression) and obtaining the maximum use of energy from fuels used to generate electricity."

Jan 1, 1973

By L. Kilburn

A survey of 281 mineral exploration agreements examines the ratios among three ways that may be used to purchase an interest in a mineral property, viz: pay cash, pay shams and make future expenditures on the property. The dollar value of the future expenditures exceeds that of cash or shams by about nine times in most of the 110 agreements that contain cash-expenditure or share-expenditure components. Results suggest that cash and shams are treated about the same in terms of value. Buyers and sellers haw opposing priorities for the way that they prefer to purchase a mineral property. These opposing priorities should give rise to a perceived 50:50 balance between cash/share payment and future expenditures to satisfy the idealized situation described by most definitions of fair market value (FMV). This balance between cash/share payments and future expenditures appears to be rationalized in negotiations to a FMV when expenditures are nine times greater than cash and/or payments. On this basis, it is proposed that the FMV of a property may be determined by aggregating the dollar amount of the cash/share payments plus one-ninth the dollar value of future expenditures, as set forth in the respective purchase agreement, and proportionately applying such aggregate to full property value.

Nov 1, 2005

By P. T. Craddock, H. V. Paliwal, L. K. Gurjar

The Indian cultural heritage of mining, smelting and the use of minerals and metals dates back to ancient times. Although the exact date of the commencement of such activities in India is not certain, Indians are known to have been familiar with gold, silver, copper, tin and lead and to a lesser extent with iron at least since the Vedic period (Table 1).

Jan 1, 1999