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By Ven Mercade

The flotation and, more importantly, the depression of calcite has been extensively studied, especially in terms of collector, pH, and metal ions. A basic laboratory study was undertaken to determine the effect of metal cation, pH, and hydrosol concentration on the flotation of calcite. Results indicate that at constant pH and soluble-silicate and metal-ion concentration, flotation of calcite decreases in the order: [ ] In the case of metal-silicate hydrosols, a higher pH of formation results in higher calcite flotation recovery. Data are insufficient to permit any conclusions regarding the behavior of mono- and trivalent ions. Possible theories to explain the foregoing observations are developed in the paper.

Jan 1, 1981

By Lawrence C. Schneider

In the past decade regulations governing the manufacture, distribution, storage, and use of explosives have proliferated. These laws have been developed by a host of federal agencies with no coordination. The result has been contradictory and impractical standards, which once adopted, are resistant to change or repeal. The current OSHA standards are one example which is examined in detail. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has made progress in modifying these standards, and still providing protection to the blaster and the public.

Jan 1, 1981

By Niels Jonassen

INTRODUCTION The occurrence of the radioactive element radium, [2gg~a], often in trace amounts, in the crust of the earth gives rise to a flux of the daughter product radon, ['ii~n], across the earth-air interface. This so-called exhalation process has been studied by many investigators [KO 45, Kra 64, Pe 66, Wi 741] over several decades. In the earlier investigations the exhalation process was studied in a purely geophysical context, but over the last 20 years it has been realized, that under certain conditions the exhalation may be intense enough to also have radiological implications. This is for example the case where relatively radium-rich wastes or by-products, like uranium mill tailings and phospho-gypsum, are stored in larger quantities. In order to be able to predict the radiological impact on the environnent it is necessary to know the rate of exhalation of radon from the surface of the exhaling material. Usually the determination of these exhalation rates has been done by measurements in situ directly upon the accumulated material [~le 74, Ha 791. Although such field measurements have the obvious merit of dealing directly with the full scale problem, the results are often lacking in generality, making predictions for other situations difficult or even impossible. The present paper describes some results of an investigation where it is attempted from laboratory measurements on samples of limited size to obtain material parameters, which are suited for extrapolating and predicting the radiational behaviour of larger accumulations of the material. THEORY Let us consider a sample of a radon exhaling material enclosed in a container with a dead space volume, Vd, and initially containing radon free air. If the total exhalation rate (number of atoms per unit time) is c, the radon concentration (number of atoms per unit volume) N will initially grow with the time t according to the equation [ ] where [R] is the decay constant of radon. As the concentration (or activity) in the container grows, the net exhalation rate will slow down because of back diffusion, and, furthermore, radon atoms may be removed from the container, not only by radioactive decay, but also by diffusion leakage [JO 81 ]. If, however,only the initial. part of the activity growth curve is considered, the total exhalation rate, c, is given by [c = r•Vd(2) where r is the initial activity growth rate in the container. Let the container be cylindrical with an inner cross-section S and filled to a height L with a radon exhaling material with the specific mass p, the porosity E, the radon pore production rate f and the diffusion length i. When the container is left open,i.e. the radon exhalation takes place into a virtually radon free room, the radon area exhalation rate, E, can be written [Jo 80] E = Ef?t tanh L.R (3) assuming the exhalation only takes place in one direction, towards the surface of the material. It appears that for values of L > 2•ithe area exhalation rate becomes E a = Efi (4) independently of the sample dimensions and the total exhalation rate c is then c = E •S (5) For L ;~ 0.5•i, tanh P _ k and equation (3) may be written E ~ EfL (6) then c = EfL•S = p•m= Em •m (7) where m is the mass of the sample and Em = P (8) is the mass exhalation rate. It thus appears that the radon exhalation rate from a given amount of material may often be conveniently expressed by c = E •Sfor L z 2•I (5) a orc = Em •mfor L0.5•i (7) where S is the total exhaling area and m the total exhaling mass, E and E the area and mass exhalation rates respectively defined by equations (4) and (8).]

Jan 1, 1981

By Doris M. Hyde

Limited geographically by size and geo-logically by origin, smaller countries and territories of the Caribbean are nonetheless engaging in efforts to encourage the initiation of mineral and mineral-related industries. Petroleum dominates the minerals sector, which otherwise consists principally of minor quantities of construction-oriented materials, usually for local consumption. The increased cost of petroleum has adversely affected most of the world, but these islands with their economies precariously balanced on the uncertainties of agriculture and tourism are especially vulnerable to petroleum's direct and indirect costs. In 1975, the Government of Antigua acquired the financially troubled West Indies Oil Company refinery at St. Johns. The refinery ceased operations in 1976. In 1979, negotiations were underway to sell Ashland Oil Co. an interest in the small, 20,000-barrel-per-day refinery for $6.6 million. In 1977, Antigua granted petroleum exploration rights to the Antigua Mineral Exploration Company, which planned to drill in an undefined offshore area, possibly between Antigua and Barbuda. The company expected to spend about $200,000 per year through 1982. There have been no reports on its activity.

Jan 1, 1981

By B. T. Wells

This work concerns the stress fields encountered around mining tunnels. A critical review is undertaken of the various analytical assessments of the support requirements for mining tunnels. Comments are made regarding degree and type of support together with method and timing of installation. The results have been used to indicate the type of support required in different mining and geological conditions.

Jan 1, 1981

By S. C. Geol, C. H. Page

INTRODUCTION Mining at Mindola Mine, Rokana Division of Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines Limited is the deepest on the Zambian Copperbelt. Mining extends to 1150 metre depth so far and the present plans extend to 1500 metres, although reserves exist below this level. Mindola Mine is the major producer of copper/cobalt ore at Rokana Division and produces approximately 200,000 tonnes of copper/cobalt ore per month. A standard open stoping method is the only method used for mining with minor variations in positioning drilling drives and other development, figure 1. The standard main haulage interval is 75m but in flat dipping areas the full stope height is split into two or three panels. In 1970 severe mining problems were experienced when mining deeper than 850111 below surface. The main problems included: - Heavy support requirements in drilling drives near stope face. - Premature closure of blast holes necessitating pre-charging of the holes with explosives immediately after drilling and well before the day of blasting. - Severe bumping and spitting due to rock movements on drive surfaces and remotely within the rock mass under high stress. - Low mining efficiency due to dilution from the waste hangingwall. - These stress related factors also caused some premature detonations of precharged but unprimed blast holes which became a serious safety hazard. A number of alternatives have been considered to overcome these problems. A search for leas sensitive explosives to avoid the premature detonation problem has been partially successful, however, the need for a method of reducing stress levels at the mining face is still considered essential as the mine goes deeper. This paper describes experiments with Regional Support Pillars as a method of reducing stresses at the mining face.

Jan 1, 1981

By David T. Swanson

The term "pressure tunnel" in the broad sense includes all hollow spaces, aligned along an axis and surrounded by rock, which are suitable for pressurization. In particular, this category includes: • horizontal or slightly inclined water pressure tunnels; • vertical or inclined pressure shafts; • pressure chambers or shafts of surge chambers; and, • compressed air storage tunnels. The main problems in the design and construction of pressure tunnels result less from their length or size than from the requirement for watertightness and, dependent upon this, reliability in operation and economy in construction. Where the lack of sufficient overburden does not permit the rock to accept the internal pressure in the tunnel, or where this pressure is so high that the watertightness is in doubt although the stability of the tunnel shell is not in question, a pressure tunnel must nevertheless be reinforced. Surge chambers, pressure tunnels and tailraces which are subjected to relatively low internal pressure, usually not much in excess of 1.5 MN/m2, are eminently suitable for construction in post-tensioned concrete. Pressure shafts, which as a consequence of the high water head are subject to a considerable maximum service pressure, are usually lined with a steel tube, a considerable proportion of the internal pressure being transmitted to the rock by backing concrete. TYPES OF LINING FOR PRESSURE TUNNELS In general, the type of lining will depend upon the nature of the rock. As a result, pressure tunnels usually are not uniform in con-

Jan 1, 1981

By P. F. Kerr

This is not a conventional professional paper. It deals mostly with personal experiences. These concern a background in applied mineralogy. Your committee asked me to do this. I accepted with a California enthusiasm which has since diminished with the approach of a Chicago winter. Nevertheless, I wish to thank your committee and also to apologize in advance for omissions and inadequate statements, as such a paper must possess. My introduction to applied mineralogy took place in 1922 at Stanford University. Physicists had recently demonstrated that crystalline powders would reflect x-rays in a systematic manner. Professor A.F. Rogers sug¬gested that significant x-ray reflections might be obtained from powdered opaque minerals. With the aid of Professor D.L. Webster in the Physics Department, I constructed an x-ray diffraction outfit. It was a crude affair, but it worked. Starting with 1924, we secured recognizable patterns of a goodly number of ore minerals (1,2,3). Today x-ray diffraction outfits are common, and a card system of mineral identification is constantly used.

Jan 1, 1981

Provide a method of detecting and locating miners trapped underground following a mine disaster. Approach Develop a surface deployed system which senses the vibrations caused by a trapped miner pounding on the roof of the mine and effectively determines the miner's location. How It Works If trapped underground, a miner would strike the roof of the mine with any implement at his disposal. This pounding causes vibrations in the ground which are transmitted to the surface where they are sensed by receiving transducers called geophones. Multiple geophones are positioned together for noise cancellation purposes in a form called a subarray. Seven

Jan 1, 1981

The Telfer Project, one of the world's newest gold mines, is located about 300 km (190 miles) northeast of the Mt. Newman iron ore project in the northern part of Western Australia. The first mineral claims were staked in 1972; and by mid-1975 ore reserves of 3. 8 million mt (4. 19 million st) of 9.6 g per mt (0. 28 oz per st) ore had been indicated. It is interesting to note that Newmont spent more than 10 years and A$10 million in Australia for extensive mineral exploration before finding the Telfer deposit, and then spent approximately A$3 million in exploration and feasibility engineering on Telfer. Including this A$3 million, a total of A$27 million was spent to complete construction of the mine, village, gold treatment plant and associated roads, airport, water and services. Over 50% of the capital cost is in the metallurgical facility, or approximately A$10, 000 per ton per day. All economically significant gold mineralization at Telfer occurs in a series of layered quartz-limonite reefs in which the former pyrite has been oxidized to limonite to a depth of 100 m (330 ft). The most important gold reef occurs at the base of the siltstone-shale horizon within the enclosing sandstone dome -like structure. At the Main Dome structure the dipping ore horizons will be mined to a vertical depth of about 60 m (200 ft) by open-cut methods. The waste-to-ore ratio is approximately 12:1. Eventually 44 million mt (48. 5 million st) of ore and waste will be mined. Mining of the waste is by contract; however, the ore and a thin layer of waste is company-mined. Dilution from mining the geological ore reserve is about 10%. The ore is completely oxidized and the gold occurs free within the reef, material as discrete particles of varying but mainly fine grain size. Most of the gold is "free milling"; that is, over 50% of the gold is coarse enough to be recoverable by gravity concentration. Two duplex mineral jigs receive the two cyclone underflows from the grinding circuit. The rougher jig concentrate is up-graded on a continuous strake from which the concentrate is tabled to produce a final free gold product. Jig tailings are returned to the ball mill and the concentrates are amalgamated. Gold amalgam is pressed, retorted, and melted into gold bars. The gravity gold recovery circuit is the same as was used in many of the gold mills in California in the 1930s.

Jan 1, 1981

By Kenneth R. Maser

In the past 30 years, great advances have taken place in the development of tunnel boring machines, raise drills, large diameter drills and blind shaft borers that have revolutionized the shaft sinking and tunneling industries. Techniques for placing concrete linings, however, have not changed significantly during this period, and still constitute a stumbling block to the achievement of the rapid construction. In the past 5 years, Foster-Miller Associates, Inc. (FMA) has been involved with the development of a remotely operated shotcrete system for lining raise drilled shafts, an Extruded Tunnel Lining System (ETLS) for lining TBM bored tunnels, and a Continuous Shaft Lining System (CSL) for lining any type of machine bored shaft. This paper presents an overview of these three developments, including capabilities and limitations, a description of the concrete production, concrete placement, and advance rate, and control subsystems, a description of the concrete mix development required for each system, a discussion of test results to date, and an assessment of the state of development of each concept. Plans for future development will also be presented.

Jan 1, 1981

By Eugene F. Casey, William H. Hansmire, J. Ghaboussi, Randall L. Lentell, Harvey W. Parker

INTRODUCTION Construction of a major intercepting sewer in Brooklyn, New York involved tunneling in soil over several subway lines. In two instances the clearance between the subway and sewer was sufficiently close that concern was raised about the influence of the new construction. Prior to each critical crossing, analytical studies were performed which characterized the tunneling influence. It was demonstrated that with adjustments in construction procedures the crossings could be made without affecting the integrity of the subway linings. A comprehensive program of instrumentation and full-time monitoring was undertaken to ensure that any unforeseen adverse developments during crossing would be recognized. The successful crossings were subsequently made with minimal influence. Reported herein are the special construction conditions for the two crossings, the analytical simulation of behavior, and the results of monitoring on the subway linings. SEWER TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION AND EXISTING SUBWAYS The Red Hook Intercepting Sewer is a 2600 m (8600 ft) long tunnel which is part of a major water pollution control project in New York City. For clarity of nomenclature, the sewer is termed a 'tunnel' while the rapid transit structures are termed 'subways'. For routine construction, the tunnel was mined by hand with a 3.2 m (10 ft-5 in.)

Jan 1, 1981

To separate complex mineral mixtures according to their dielectric properties. Approach Develop a laboratory-scale continuous dielectric separator to separate mineral mixtures by exploiting their difference in dielectric properties. How it Works Dielectric separation is de-fined as the separation of particles based on their dielectric properties. The uniqueness of the Bureau's continuous separator, called the ?Rotating Drum Dielectric Separator,? is that it contains a high-voltage electrode con-figuration. The drum electrode consists of a series of coaxial parallel wires mounted on the outside surface of an Insulated cylinder. The screen electrode Is a wire mesh, quarter cylinder positioned outside and coaxially with the drum electrode. The drum electrode is placed in a liquid of dielectric constant K with the liquid level just above the drum's axis. The screen electrode is completely Immersed

Jan 1, 1981

By R. C. More O’Ferrall

The author mentions some of the problems he has encountered, together with their solutions. These include the stoping of isolated pillars, the reduction of the size of shaft pillars, the stoping of a new horizon above or below a horizon that has already been stoped out, and the mining of thick bands of reef left behind in the footwall or hanging wall.

Jan 1, 1981

By Joseph Kuti

ROOF SUPPORT DEVELOPMENTS IN LONGWALL (1) European longwall mining technology developed towards its modern form in relatively deep mines. With increasing depth the stability of openings driven for ventilation, travel or transport becomes paramount in mine design considerations. As a result the number of roadways and entries, as well as their width must be a minimum. (1) Another important aspect of European mining is the high density of mineable seams, as opposed to the wide lateral extension of a single seam in the U. S. A. Multi-seam mining requires strict planning and near 100% extraction, since with increasing depth, the effect of remnant pillars can be devastating. As a result the face layout of a modern European longwall panel is based on single panel entries of moderate width and great height. The mode of extraction is generally a mixture of the advance and retreat system which is called a 2-system. It is obvious, therefore, that the supports developed for the entries and for the intersection areas are more complex than those in the U. S. A.

Jan 1, 1981

By I. Iwasaki, R. H. Heerema

The presence of calcium and magnesium ions in iron ore pulps that are upgraded by selective desliming can result in indiscriminate flocculation of both iron oxide and siliceous gangue slimes. The removal of these alkaline earth cations in pulp solutions by chemical precipitation was ineffective as a means of deflocculation of quartz. It was shown by using various techniques (electron micrographs, abstraction, and streaming potential measurements, and cationic flotation tests) that heterocoagulation between the precipitates [Mg(OH)2, hydroxyapatite, and CaCO3] and quartz particles was the reason behind that observation. In addition, the precipitates adversely affected the recovery of quartz by cationic flotation, due to slime coating, a case of heterocoagulation. Magnesium hydroxide produced a uniform layer of coating across the quartz surface, while hydroxyapatite and calcite produced discrete, localized deposits dotting the surface.

Jan 1, 1981

By Richard G. Burdick

The use of explosive charges for generating seismic energy has been around for a long time. For oil-field work or crustal studies, when the target of interest is many thousands of feet deep, the surface waves and similar phenomena are of little consequence. In mining applications, however, when the target is a few tens or hundreds of feet deep, the return signals are often masked by these waves and an accurate interpretation is difficult or impossible.

Jan 1, 1981

By E. R. Cole

This Bureau of Mines investigation was prompted by the need forr a stable anode for electrowinning metals, particularly zinc and copper, from acid solutions. The polarization behavior of Pb-Ag (1 pct Ag) anodes in H2SO4 and fluoride solutions was determined as the first step in the development of such an anode. A Luggin capillary, dc power supply, high-impedance voltmeter, and other equipment standard to an electrochemical laboratory were used in this study. It was determined that during polarization, a relatively hard, stable coating of Pb02 was formed on the surface of the lead-silver anode and the rate of formation of this coating was considerably enhanced by the presence of fluoride ions in solution. Subsequent investigations at the Bureau of Mines Rolla Research Center resulted in the development of a Pb02-coated titanium (Pb02-Ti) anode. Results of this effort were presented in Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 8111. Additional data resulting from extensive testing of the Pb02-Ti anodes, as well as process improvements and innovations, are included in this report. The anodes were considered generally unsatisfactory for zinc electrowinning because of lower conductivity, higher oxygen overvoltages, and shorter in-cell life as compared with the Pb-Ag anodes now being used in industry. However, the PbO2-Ti anodes were used successfully to oxidize waste chromium solutions and to electrowin copper.

Jan 1, 1981

By Lloyd A. Morley

This final report concludes the documentation under Grant G0155003 and details research not covered under foregoing report volumes. The first chapter lists all other reports. The following chapters are divided into three major research tasks: Continuous Safety Monitoring Systems, Battery and Battery-charging Safety, and Mine Power System Transients. The monitoring chapter discusses the prediction of power-system failures. The battery chapter details work on battery-box stresses, battery chargers, and the elimination of electrocutions. The final chapter covers transient instrumentation, distribution transients sources and suppression, and utilization transients on mine power systems.

Jan 1, 1981

By Aline Tatom

This paper presents numerical and experimen¬tal results dealing with the application of ferric ion oxidation of uranium in acidic media. Conclusions are derived from matching numerical results to experimental data taken on one-dimensional laboratory leaches using ore from a South Texas Coastal plain deposit. Since the numerical results can be made quite general, we are able to extract and quantify the effects of oxidant concentration, flow velocity, mass transfer, chemical kinetics, and competitive oxidant consumers (pyrite and molybdenite) on the experimental results. Our results suggest that the leaching of uranium is a mass transfer controlled while that of pyrite is kinetically controlled.

Jan 1, 1981