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The Kinross DeLamar Mine has been operated for more than 17 years producing precious metals dore' from ores, principally silver bearing with associated gold co-products. In late 1995 a new orebody was commissioned, the Stone Cabin orebody, and the site began a phased shift from silver dominance to gold dominance in terms of precious metals revenue. The Knelson Concentrator was selected to remove gold from a portion of the cyclone underflow stream in the grinding circuit. This paper describes the development of the flow sheet, specific mineralogical impacts on Knelson product and downstream materials, and impacts on mine/mill grade reconciliation.

Jan 1, 1997

By A. A. Campoli

A stress control design strategy was developed to minimize the explosive failure of highly stressed pillars, during room-and-pillar retreat mining conducted between stiff immediate roof-and-floor strata. A confined core coal pillar strength model was based on in-mine geotechnical evaluations of successful room-and-pillar and longwall bump control designs. Tributary area and linear shear angle approaches were used to estimate development and gob side abutment pillar loads for supercritical section widths. Subcritical width sections separated by barrier pillars to control stress within total extraction panels were optimized with the boundary element program MULSIM/NL.

Jan 1, 1994

By Cuthbert Musingwini, Adeodatus S. Nhleko, Mahlomola I. Mabala

Optimization of a three-dimensional (3D) underground stope layout is complex given the number of variables and constraints to consider, such as the stope size. Determination of the appropriate stope size in stope layout optimization problems is a complex process that must consider several factors including placement of infrastructure and development, production scheduling, and equipment selection. An inappropriate stope layout can result in unrealistic expectations for a production schedule, consequently negatively affecting the derived economic value. Therefore, this paper used a dual interchange algorithm (DIA) to evaluate the effect of stope size on the stope layout economic value (SLEV) for a synthetic Platreef mineral deposit planned for extraction using sublevel open-stoping. The results showed that generally as the stope size increases, the SLEV decreases. This aligns with practical mining because larger stope sizes have a higher chance of incurring more dilution which reduces economic value, while smaller stope sizes enable more flexible extraction where unprofitable blocks can be left unmined as waste, thus increasing the derived SLEV.

Jun 25, 2023

By R. R. Klimpel

This paper demonstrates, using the results of an unusually complete industrial test sequence, what the various interactions are between grind size, collector dosage, and frother type. While particle size is universally acknowledged to be important in optimizing industrial copper sulfide rougher flotation circuits, many of the various interactions that do occur at the industrial level with particle size are still being identified and/or quantified. This study also presents, in a consistent manner, the changes in flotation kinetics that occur as a function of particle size, in a typical industrial circuit along with some insights as to how flotation operators can optimize rougher circuit performance.

Jan 1, 1993

By Clément F. Bernier

One of the chief sources of the world's supply of asbestos lies in a belt of ultrabasic rocks which runs northeastward through an area called the Eastern Townships, south of the St. Lawrence River in the Province of Québec. The productive portion of this belt extends from the town of Asbestos in the south, for a distance of some 9,5 km to beyond the village of East-Broughton. The first discovery of asbestos in this region was made in 1874. Only crude fibre was produced until 1888 when the first mill was erected near the town of Black Lake. Since the inception of the industry, almost 100 years ago, no less than 100 different compa¬nies have been formed and 46 different mines have been operated. There are presently 5 active companies in the area providing direct employment for 4100 workers, down from 6000 during the seventies.

Jan 1, 1984

By D. Malhotra

The effect of some of the reagents, namely hydrocarbon oil, Syntex (sulfated coconut oil surfactant), pine oil, sodium silicate, and lime, used at the Climax mill on the recovery and grade of molybdenite and gangue minerals has been investigated experimentally using factorially designed test approach in the laboratory. The results of the investigation are presented in two dimensional plots. The lower additions of lime (equivalent to a pH of 8 to 8.5) were desirable for maximizing recovery subject to constraints on grade. Higher additions of pine oil improved recovery, but only at the expense of grade. A mathematical model of the objectives of an operating plant was formulated and optimum reagent conditions obtained.

Jan 1, 1977

To generate a most profitable ultimate pit limit is generally the first step in mine design. This paper presents a new graph theory oriented, optimum ultimate pit limit design algorithm which will maximize the total undiscounted net profit. This algorithm performs much better than the well known Lerchs-Grossmann algorithm, in terms of the reduction in computation time and computer memory requirements. This algorithm operates on many directed trees in a graph, where each vertex in a tree represents a block in the mine model. The formation of each directed tree is based more on the ore-waste support concept than the geometry constraints alone. The general procedures of the algorithm, programming considerations and two case study results are discussed in the paper.

Jan 1, 1990

By Barbara B. Newlin, Emily Rosenberg, Marianne Snedeker

Whose longwalls perform best in Eastern underground mines? What is the latest legislation affecting slurry pipelines? What are the trace element constraints on magma genesis? How can process set points be controlled more economically without affecting product quality? Where can I get a paper presented at the Australian Coal Preparation Conference? If answers to questions like these can help with your management decisions, exploration plans, or market positioning, your firm should know about Information on Demand. Information on Demand, Inc. (IOD) is a research service available to SME members to help them get the facts needed to develop business plans. IOD can function as a research staff and data bank specialist for geologists, planning specialists, production managers, and engineers in all levels of the mining industry. Just dial 415-549-3259 and ask IOD for a copy of an obscure article, a comprehensive literature search, or a background report on a company, a process, or a product. Within a short time, IOD will have the information you need delivered to your office or worksite. Information on Demand has a bank of dial-up terminals that provide access to more than 200 business and technical data bases, including Lockheed's Dialog, CompuServe, InfoLine, The New York Times Information Bank, and other systems. These data banks contain more than 95% of the world's technical literature published in the last 10 years. There is no input required from individuals or companies. The data bases are maintained by publishers and are constantly updated with abstracts of articles, reports and reviews, and other text appearing in more than 5,000 engineering publications, as well as thousands of other trade and technical publications. The data bases are organized by subject and offer a speedy comprehensive survey of world literature. One data base, called Compendex, provides worldwide coverage of engineering publications, meetings, and reports. The Metadex data base abstracts literature on the science and practice of metallurgy, and can be accessed by commercial, compositional, and numerical alloy designations. PatSearch and Claims data bases enable IOD to determine what patents have been filed by a given entity, what international patents are equivalent to a US patent, and other vital patent information. In the non-technical arena, the Commerce Business Daily has daily updates of federal procurement information. The Federal Register is abstracted on-line in a data base, and ABI/Inform is a data base full of marketing and management information for all industries. IOD offers a free pamphlet listing these and other data bases. A typical literature search from IOD will produce 60-200 references with abstracts, and can be printed out off-line and mailed or transmitted directly to an electronic mailbox. Abstracts will often give all the information needed by the reader. At times, when the complete article or technical report is needed for further study, IOD will send a photocopy of the full text for a small additional fee. Patents, books, securities exchange filings, standards, and specifications can also be supplied by means of IOD's network in major libraries, such as Harvard, MIT, and The Library of Congress. A technical translation service is available for foreign

Jan 12, 1983

By N. Edmonson

Apart from its role as an essential input to a wide array of agricultural chemicals and industrial processes, sulfur is interesting in that its supply involves competition between primary product and by-product. This general production structure is found repeatedly among markets for metals and other industrial minerals, and research results from the sulfur market potentially carry over to other markets with similar structures. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the recent and prospective market for sulfur. The analysis will rely heavily on simulation using a comprehensive model of the North American sulfur market developed by the author. A brief description of the model is offered by way of introduction

Jan 1, 1993

By Hussin A. M. Ahmed

Oxidized coals are difficult to float. Therefore, in this paper, a special flotation procedure was investigated for upgrading this type of coal. The procedure is called direct contact flotation. It relies on mixing dry coal either with pure (anhydrous) flotation reagent(s) or microemulsion. By applying the new direct contact flotation procedure, a coal yield reaching > 95% using anhydrous flotation reagents was achieved, but with relatively high consumption of reagents (up to 30 g/kg). This high reagent consumption may be attributed to the fines included in the flotation feed (100% less than 0.5 mm, with 40% less than 75 µm). On the other hand, the clean coal yield was found to be approximately 88% when mixing dry oxidized coal with microemulsion droplets from dodecane and dodecyl tetra (ethylene glycol) ether (C12E4) in water at a total reagent dosage of 10 g/kg. The direct contact of coal either with unhydrous reagents or microemulsion also provided a high flotation selectivity.

May 1, 2012

By James K. Hallenburg

Geophysical borehole logging is a valuable and inexpensive tool for coal deposit evaluation, development, and production. In addition to the usual determinations of depth and seam thickness, geophysical borehole logs can effectively and accurately determine the coal ash, moisture, and heat contents in situ. Location and evaluation of the partings can be done quickly and accurately. Overburden character determination, such as roof competence, dewatering parameters, ripability, trace element content of the coal and overburden, and sulfur content can be done with existing tools and techniques. The quality of such determinations depends upon the quality of planning and calibration.

Jan 1, 1984

By H. E. Rojas

The primary objective of most comminution operations is liberation; however, mill performance is generally quantified in terms of particle size. Only recently has the use of image analysis equipment made it possible to quantify mill performance on the basis of liberation. In this investigation, a series of tests were carried out to study the effect of mill operating parameters on the liberation of sphalerite from a sphalerite/dolomite ore. The parameters studied included mill rotational speed, mill loading and ball size. The results of this work appear to indicate that sphalerite liberation is improved under conditions that promote impact breakage, while dolomite breakage is enhanced under attrition conditions.

Jan 1, 1990

By Raj K. Rajamani, Samira Rashidi

Wear is an extremely important topic when considering high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) for any new application. Given the inevitable variations in ore properties throughout a mine’s life, it is difficult to predict the effect of material and operating conditions on the wear parts: specifically, the HPGR rolls. However, the possibility of continuous scanning of rolls provides ample information to review the wear pattern and ways to optimize it. In this regard, as part of a broader investigation, the feasibility of in-line scanning of HPGR rolls in a laboratory-scale HPGR is studied and presented. The choice of scanners and methods adopted to achieve high-level accuracy for determining wear is discussed in this paper, and the inherent variability affecting the measurements is evaluated. 

By J. C. Heter

Industrial Mineral Fillers, LLC. is in the initial stages of mining and processing Anorthosite (CASPAR TM) at its CASPAR mine located in Soledad Canyon, Los Angeles County, California The CASPAR is being mined from the Precambrian San Gabriel Anorthosite Complex of the western San Gabriel Mountains. Preliminary results suggest that CASPAR is a desirable alternative to silica sand used in construction applications, such as, stucco, grout, abrasives, and other uses including filtration and golf course recreation sands. With the use of standard ore dressing techniques, CASPAR is suitable for use as a filler in paint, plastics and rubber. Environmentally, CASPAR has advantages over silica sand, in that, there is no detectable Free Silca.

Jan 1, 1997

By I. H. Gundiler

Although cyanidation has been universally applied in the processing of gold and silver ores, the search for less toxic alternatives continues. Difficulties encountered in processing ores containing oxidized copper minerals and the inherently slow kinetics of cyanidation have generated a renewed interest in thiosulfate leaching. This process, as well as the catalytic effects of copper ion, were well recognized and widely applied towards the end of the past century. In this study, the effects of copper, ammonia, and thiosulfate concentrations on gold dissolution were investigated using the rotating disk technique. Extraction of gold and silver from an oxidized copper-bearing ore was also studied utilizing a statistical experimental design, and these results were displayed in the form of contour plots.

Jan 1, 1993

SOLUTION MINING Solution mining techniques present a means of extracting soluble ores, particularly such materials as salt and potash, from horizons which are not accessible by conventional mining. In the process of dissolving materials, it is evident that solution may be complete or partial. In general, the solution mining operations described in the following section relate to complete solution of the desired compound. Even though the solution of material is complete, there may be instances in which insoluble material is present to a large extent either as granular separated particles or as insoluble layers. The process required for obtaining the desired product involves access wells to reach the deposits, sufficient water supply to yield the production goals, and the development of an underground cavity. The process of solution mining, therefore, depends to a great extent on three factors: availability of a relatively pure strata or formation of salt or potash to be mined, access well or wells, and adequate control of the solutioning process so that enlargement of underground cavities can be fairly well delineated. Since halites represent the most general ores mined by this procedure, the considerations which follow are based primarily on the production of sodium or potassium chloride. The producing formations may be in the form of bedded evc~porites wherein the salt member may be some 30 to 500 ft thick or from salt domes in which great depths of salt occur. Solution mining has been carried out to depths of nearly 10,000 ft. The recovery of saturated brine from wells drilled to effect the solution-mining process leads to further processing. In many instances, the procedures are relatively simple and involve simple recrystallieation or fractional crystallieation, while in others more complex flow systems are required before a final product is obtained. The intent of this section is to provide information relative to the basic procedures for obtaining materials which are soluble in water and to acquaint the engineer with the various aspects of the overall problem which in many instances, may become quite complex and present numerous difficulties. The storage of fluids, particularly hydrocarbons, underground has proven to be a very important part of industry operations. Cavities formed in salt provide excellent storage facilities. The formation of well-defined controlled configurations of such cavities has been possible because of better understanding of the solution process, wide experience gained over nearly 30 yr, and improved technology in drilling and completing wells, surveying caverns, and the operation of numerous types of systems. Solution mining techniques will improve in the future. Many facets of the simple operation of pumping solvents and extracting valuable minerals require further study. Developments undoubtedly will occur to further the processes of mining by solution. In addition to those whose names appear in connection with the individual subjections which follow, a major role in assembling and processing the material in this section was played by Dr. D. A. Shock, Central Research, Continental Oil Co., Ponca City, Okla.

Jan 1, 1973

By Tomás Vergara, Marcelo Vergara, Alonso Pereira, Fernando Concha, María V. Gutiérrez, Fernando Betancourt

Filtration of copper concentrates in the mining industry is carried out in cycles, mainly cake formation, expression, and blowing. Each of these cycles depends on the solid (mineralogy, porosity, particle size distribution), water, and air (density, viscosity, permeability, and relative permeability) properties that define the performance in each cycle. The fundamental phenomenon in cake formation and expression is a one-phase flow (water) through a porous bed of solid particles (the cake), while in blowing it is a two-phase flow (water and air) through the cake. Sometimes, due to a change in the properties of the mineral, a filtration plant is unable to maintain the capacity at the specified humidity. One alternative to solve this problem is to heat the air during the blowing cycle, which in turn heats the water in the cake, this process significantly decreases the water viscosity and only marginally increases the air viscosity. In this work, this strategy was studied at a laboratory scale. The results show a significant decrease in the blowing time as the temperature of the air was increased.

May 24, 2022

By S. S. Peng

To prevent mine floor heave, the mechanisms of floor heave must be fully understood. Based on the field study, the mechanisms of two types of floor heaves are analyzed in this paper. The mechanical models for the two types of floor heaves are developed. The floor heave can be predicted by the developed mechanical models and the control measures are recommended.

Jan 1, 1995

By W. H. Strickland

The research reported here characterizes ultrasonic ranging sensors for autonomous navigation on underground mine mobile equipment. Because ultrasonic rangers are inexpensive, have no moving parts, have no lenses to clean, are small and unobtrusive, and can measure distances in dusty environments, they are especially sui ted to underground mi ne environments. The investigation began with laboratory tests of field of view, angle of incidence, intersensor variation, and ranging accuracy of individual rangers and a ring array of 24 sensors. The results showed the sensors have good accuracy and low variability. Additional experiments at AHAX' s Henderson mine Showed the sensors could accurately and reliably measure rib features, convex and concave corners, and drift intersections. The results showed that when used and analyzed properly, the sensor data may be used reliably for underground mobile equipment navigation.

Jan 1, 1990

By C. H. Stephenson, M. Du Preez

Overland belt conveyors often use vertically guided counterweight take-ups or horizontally tensioned carriages to maintain belt tension. In the event of belt or wire rope failure, these systems can release significant stored energy, creating high-impact forces that risk structural damage and personnel injury. This paper reviews current safety arresting technologies and presents a calculation methodology for estimating impact velocity, energy absorption requirements, and stroke limitations. Worked examples illustrate the selection process for appropriate arrestor types under different design constraints. The study emphasizes early integration of safety devices to minimize structural loads, avoid costly retrofits, and enhance operational reliability. Implementing robust arrestor systems improves safety and reduces downtime in bulk material handling environments.

Feb 22, 2026