Search Documents

By T R. Anderson, A R. Butler

Haymont (2012) notes that in parts of Australia significant areas of mining disturbance cannot be relinquished. In Queensland it has been estimated that by 2010, just 0.3 per cent 507 ha of mining disturbance had been rehabilitated to the regulator’s satisfaction (Short, 2015).One reason for this poor record is the presence of inappropriate, unachievable or unmeasurable rehabilitation targets (Glenn et al, 2014; Butler, Anderson and Sexton, 2015). In the authors’ experience in Queensland many mature operations have licence conditions that hinder the achievement of sustainable outcomes or prevent successful validation of rehabilitation success. This creates a lack of certainty for industry and a lack of confidence in the community that the sector can deliver good rehabilitation outcomes (Short, 2015).This extended abstract presents a framework approach that has been applied at two contrasting operations. Without the changes presented, the goal of progressive rehabilitation certification, reduction in financial assurance (FA) and a path to surrender at these sites would have been impossible. The framework can be adapted for use across different bioregions and commodities.CITATION:Butler, A R and Anderson, T R, 2016. Reassessing rehabilitation objectives and targets for mature mining operations in Queensland, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2016 Conference, pp 139–141 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jun 28, 2016

By R. G. Jones

At its peak in the 1970s, South Africa was responsible for around 80% of global gold production and, according to the US Geological Survey, it still has the largest share of gold reserves - as well as 90% of the world's platinum. But, in January 2015, gold production reached a new monthly low, generating 87% less than it did in January 1980, and South Africa is now the world's sixth ranked gold producer. What next for African gold?

Jun 1, 2015

As knowledgeable men in the industry know, a mineral occurrence is found through prospecting but an ore deposit is "made" -made through, first, imaginative and effective exploration; thence through efficient engineering, sales and management. There are two main phases of exploration-reconnaissance and target investigation-each of which can be further divided into two additional stages (see accompanying table). The search for a new ore deposit within a known and geologically mapped mining district involves only the last two stages, whereas the search for a new orebody in a virgin geologic environment involves at least three stages and often the full sequence. Of course, some of the exploration stages may be bypassed depending on available results of previous mineral surveys and/or exploration by individuals, business concerns, and governments.

Jan 10, 1967

By Steven McCutcheon

As most of us have learned through prior and often frustrating experience, anyone proposing to construct a new or expanded mining-ore processing facility must first contend with a rather complex array of environmental laws and permitting regulations administered by a number of different Federal, State and local agencies. At our lost count, there were about 55 federal enactments affecting base and precious metals projects. Applicable State and local laws will usually increase that number significantly. The time and costs associated with complying with all these various regulatory programs usually constitutes one of the major areas of uncertainty in the development of a proposed project. There are many in the mining industry who firmly believe that these environmental regulation and permit programs necessarily causes significant delays and increased costs in the development of a project. This belief, unfortunately, is probably a result of a basic misunderstanding of how the environmental permitting and regulatory system actually works.

Jan 1, 1984

By T. Rahimzadeh, C. W. Trueman, S. Farzaneh, S. V. Hoa, I. Abdalla

This paper presents the shielding effectiveness (SE) of woven continuous carbon/epoxy composite materials. The theoretical and physical concepts behind the experimental results are demonstrated in details. The influence of frequency, the overlapping angle between overlapped layers and the number of overlapped layers upon the EMI shielding of composite sheets are discussed. In this work, in particular, the epoxy layers are considered as dielectric apertures of the conducting carbon fiber slab for the interpretation of the experimental results. The experimental results, using ASTM standard D4935-89, indicate that the SE can reach values greater than 90 dB above 500 MHz.

Jan 1, 2006

By Brian Patrick, Norman Bell, Mark Schoenfield, Thomas Weber, Dietrich Gross

"The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and the resultant greenhouse gas affect is hampered by the fact that all fossil fuels contain copious quantities of carbon. Process tweaking can keep the amount of carbon dioxide to a minimum but cannot significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated. The very nature of utilizing fuels requires that they be burned to release the heat required for the various processes. Reduction of metal oxides to manufacture or modify pure metals, generation of power, transportation and many other forms of fuel usage result in much of the generation of man made carbon dioxide. Oxyfuel is a unique contributor to carbon dioxide emissions. While creating higher concentrations of carbon dioxide the total volume of carbon dioxide generated is reduced. This paper will examine the unique characteristics and potential of oxyfuel that make the generation of lower volumes of carbon dioxide possible.Nearly ten years ago a commercial application of oxy-fuel was installed at Jupiter Aluminum Company in Hammond, Indiana. This process was funded and developed by Dietrich Gross CEO. This aluminum remelt facility now runs completely on oxy-fuel and has continuously for over ten years. This has reduced the melt rates to as low as 750 BTU per pound in continuous melting periods."

Jan 1, 2009

By John Fred Rivera

Since its inception during the hectic days of World War II, Kaiser Steel Corporation has developed and maintained a solid reputation as a progressive company with an incessant penchant for attempting innovative ideas to improve its stature in the American and world corporate framework. The very latest in technology is aptly demonstrated in the new Basic Oxygen Process recently placed into operation at Kaiser's huge Fontana Steel Mill. Daring ventures such as this and other developments on pollution control devices have propelled Kaiser Steel Corporation into the forefront as the largest steel producer in the western United States. Kaiser Steel's boldness and willingness to attempt new ideas and the very latest in technology is by no means limited to its steelmaking operation. It extends into every phase of Kaiser's corporate structure.

Jan 1, 1979

Energold Drilling Corp. is a leading specialty drilling company servicing the mineral and energy sectors in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Energold specializes in mineral exploration in remote locations with limited infrastructure. Such locations require the smallest footprint possible going in, leaving as little or no evidence on their way out. Energold?s rigs can be transported by helicopter or manually on footpaths as narrow as 1 m (3.3 ft). They set up quickly and then are struck and packed out, with any sign of their presence quickly disappearing behind them. Energold has teamed up with Atlas Copco and its team of engineers in North Bay, Ontario to design small rigs capable of drilling to a variety of depths, as required for each project.

Jan 1, 2013

By Gilles Carrière

"The Suffield mine is situated five miles southwest of the city of Sherbrooke, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. lt is the property of Suffield Metals Corporation Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascot Metals Corporation Limited.The old Suffield or Griffith mine had been worked intermittently from 1863 to 1906, without ever producing much ore. In 1951, diamond drilling done by Ascot Metals proved over one million tons of ore in three new bodies. The average grade of this ore was 0·018 ounces of gold per ton, 2-40 ounces of silver, l ·28 per cent copper, 0·59 per cent lead, and 6-45 per cent zinc. Since then the mine has been active, producing between 300 and 700 tons daily. More recent exploration has found continuations of the ore zones.General GeologyThe ore of the Suffield mine is found in porphyritic rhyolites of the Sherbrooke group (Silurian), at or close to its contact with sediments of the Beauceville group (Ordovician). The contact shows pronounced folds as well as irregularities due to erosion of the sediments prior to the outpour-ing of the lavas. On surface the general strike is north, and the dip is steeply east.The footwall sediments consist of interbedded black graphitic slates and. dark-coloured chloritic quartzite, overlain in many places by a thin bed of magnetite-hearing quartzite.The rhyolite host rock is a light grey rock, containing very abundant quartz and feldspar phenocrysts in a microcrystalline matrix of the same minerals. Some sericite is always present, especially in the vicinity of the ore zones, where the rock shows a pronounced schistosity.Several narrow basic dykes, with an easterly strike and vertical dip, cut all other formations. Most are lamprophyres, of either the monchiquite or camptonite type, but one has been identified as a diabase."

Jan 1, 1949

By Theo. Koulomzine

"The property of Consolidated Central Cadillac Mines, Limited, consists of 1,103 acres formerly held by Central Cadillac Mines, Limited, and Wood Cadillac Mines, Limited. Both mines have been partly developed to depths of 565 and 1,000 feet respectively, and from 1939 to 1943 they produced gold, with small amounts of silver and tungsten, having a total value of $2,208,528 from 377,489 tons of ore. The average grade of the ore was $5.85 a ton . Less than 10 per cent of the ore hoisted was discarded by sorting. New development work, carried out since the former Wood property has been purchased by Central Cadillac, has shown that the tonnage indicated by mine workings and diamond drilling exceeds 2,000 tons per vertical foot.The property lies between the claims of Kewagama Gold Mines, Limited, and Pandora Cadillac Gold Mines, Limited, and straddles the Cadillac 'break' for a length of nearly 1 ½ miles. The main workings are 1 3/4 miles east of the well-known O'Brien gold mine.GEOLOGYOutcrops are very scarce, with none at all of the most important horizons, so that the general geology shown in Fig. 1 is deduced mostly from underground workings and diamond drilling. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section and Fig. 3 a longitudinal section through the ore zone.The ore lies within a belt of Blake River volcanics which is approximately 600 feet wide and is flanked on the north and south, respectively, by Cadillac and Kewagama sediments. All the formations have a nearly vertical attitude. The Blake River belt consists essentially of well sheared volcanic tulfs, but associated with these in the northern part are a number of bands of iron formation and the central part, to a width of 100 feet, is occupied by talc schists, making the Cadillac fault proper. Intruding the volcanics south of the Cadillac shear zone are dykes of two types- finegrained aplite or quartz albitite, and porphyry; both consist essentially of albite and quartz and are distinguishable only by the grain size. They have the general east-west trend of the formations they intrude."

Jan 1, 1954

By James D. Navratil

Advances in hydrometallurgy require the introduction of new separation and purification processes, but they can be complex, costly and energy intensive. Chromatographic processes have low energy requirements and possess very high separation efficiencies. However, they have not yet made the great industrial impact that might be expected from their benefits. The large-scale and difficult separation of rare earths would greatly benefit from an improved continuous chromatographic operational device. Truly continuous, multicomponent chromatographic separations may be achieved by means of the continuous annular chromatograph. Work has been Initiated at The University of New South Wales involving the improvement and development of such equipment for the separation and purification of rare earths.

Jan 1, 1990

By G Corder

The aim of the circular economy is to accelerate the transition from a conventional linear take-make-dispose economic model to a circular model. It is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. This extended abstract presents a brief overview of the circular economy, provides application of the circular economy in other industrial sectors including the downstream metals value chain and proposes how circular economy thinking could progress the development of complex orebodies.CITATION: Corder, G, 2018. Can the concept of the circular economy help unlock complex orebodies?, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 8–10 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

By S. Ford

The introduction of recent advances in molecular biology into the field of microbial ecology has made available a powerful set of analytical tools for dissecting the structure of microbial communities in natural environments. The use of these approaches, many of them based on DNA-DNA hybridization enables the researcher to assess the occurrence of specific DNA sequences among the natural bacterial flora (Ford and Olson 1987). These techniques promise to have wide application as tools for monitoring the spread of introduced microorganisms (Trevors, 198'): Ford and Olson. 1987) and have been used to examine the response of bacterial communities to environmental contaminants and stressors (Barkay and Olson. 1986. Olson and Ford. 1986. Olson. Ford and Lester 1987) The occurrence of heavy metal resistance among microorganisms has been discussed as a possible tool for the detection of pathfinder elements employed in mineral exploration (Olson and Barkay 1986). In addition, the occurrence of heavy metal resistant bacteria may be utilized in protocols for assessing the occurrence and biological impact of contamination occurring as a consequence of mining operations. In this context the use of DNA hybridization technology enables the investigator to directly quantify the number of heavy metal resistant bacteria by the use of genetic probes specific for those resistance genes. The implementation of a strategy for detection of heavy metal resistance genes by hybridization technology is dependent on the availability of data on the genetic systems which encode resistance The availability of extensive DNA sequence data on mercury resistance genes (Brown et a11986. Barrineau et al 1984) has lead us to use gene probes specific for mercury resistance within natural bacterial populations as a model system for investigating the response of these bacterial populations to the occurrence of mercury In the environment.

Jan 1, 1988

By F. McIntosh Galbraith

EMPLOYING geophysics to find ore was for a long time considered by the Canadian mining fraternity to be a performance of dubious value: in a category somewhere between the practice of sorcery, and using a divining rod to locate underground water. With increasing knowledge, however, and with constantly improving instruments, a solid speaking acquaintance with this adolescent science is becoming an integral part of the mining geologist's stock in trade. And quite properly so: for, in the established mining districts, the ore deposits which could be easily found, by ordinary prospecting methods, have already been located. There remain; however, in almost all of the principal mining camps, areas which are covered to varying depths by glacial debris; and it is here that the obvious opportunities exist for the successful application of geophysical methods. Geophysical results must always be considered in the closest possible relation to the local geology; and, in reality, the 'doodle-bugs' are simply additional tools for the geologist (in the same category with a plane table or a microscope). The Sudbury Basin is a shining example of precisely this state of affairs. Detailed geological mapping has not significantly altered the position of the outer norite contact as placed on Dr. Coleman's original map of the district. What detailed examination has done, of course, has been to reveal the accuracy with which the contact can be placed in different parts of the district, and to show up, in consequence, areas in which further work might reasonably be expected to disclose hitherto unknown or unsuspected ore. Viewed in this light, the proportion of the norite contact which is covered by substantial quantities of overburden is astonishingly large.

Jan 1, 1939

This paper generalizes open stopes into elliptical cross sections and applies the results of calculations based on the mathematical theory of elasticity to indicate stress distribution on the boundaries of such stopes. These show both compressive and tensile stresses and provide an ex-planation for the development of excessive dilution in shrinkage toping. Introduction T HE stress pattern around shrinkage stopes is identical with that around other stopes under the same physical conditions. However, a shrinkage stope ends as an unsupported open stope, and the method i limited to the stress range within which the rock is generally self-supporting. If it is acceptable to generalize the outline of a shrinkage stope into an elliptical cross section, then the graphs of Geldart & Udd (1) (see also Panek (2) and Denkhaus (3)) provide a good base for approximating the stress distribution as mining progresses. However, with failure conditions in the walls, the axis ratio, as cut

Jan 1, 1964

By R L. Grogan

Regulators of deep-sea mining projects are becoming increasingly hesitant about the concept of adaptive management as a tool to facilitate compliance and continuous improvement. Adaptive management is a relevant and useful instrument to ensure that the mine plan is successfully implemented throughout the life of mine, in parallel with optimum environmental performance and compliance.CITATION:Grogan, R L, 2018. Adaptive management in deep sea mining – looking like you know what you’re doing when it’s never been done before, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2018, pp 20–22 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 25, 2018

By C. Kuehmann, B. Tufts

QuesTek Innovations has applied its Materials by Design® methodology to computationally design a new ultra high-strength corrosion resistant steel. Ferriurn® S53 eliminates the need for toxic cadmium coatings currently used on conventional steels in landing gear systems. S53 has the strength of 300M steel, and corrosion resistance similar to 15-5PH stainless steel. S53's corrosion resistance improves stress corrosion cracking resistance and reduces susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement, improving component reliability and providing an opportunity for extended overhaul and repair intervals. Ultimate tensile stress is 1965 to 2000MPa. S53 was designed to be mechanically equivalent to 300M, with the key addition of intrinsic corrosion resistance. Alloy design, microstructural characterization, and mechanical properties are discussed herein.

Jan 1, 2006

By Heather Wright

Shovel operators are one step closer to having a better tool to operate and monitor their equipment. The development of a unified shovel interface is proceeding into phase three, focused on producing a standard application programming interface (API) for connecting onboard devices. This solution will positively impact safety, performance and productivity, and is the result of collaborative work driven by the Global Mining Standards and Guidelines Group (GMSG). Proof of concept revealed During the spring of 2013, Peck Tech Consulting was engaged to develop the working proof of concept (POC) software implementation, which integrates multiple vendors? systems into a single interface using one-to-two displays. As a result, the GMSG developed a functioning, manipulatable, unified shovel interface proof of concept and unveiled it at the World Mining Conference in August in Montreal. The proof of concept effectively provides a unified operator interface that pulls together the many divergent systems onboard large shovels.

Mar 1, 2014

By Richard W. Brummett

Problems in new strip mine development is a subject that could require several days to cover adequately. Coupled with the fertile imagination of television writers, we could probably expand it into a series rivaling Gunsmoke in longevity with just as many shootouts at sundown. It would-of course-be subject to a high Neilson Rating. To bring the subject into perspective, we will limit the comments to a general discussion covering western strip coal developments. Stimulated by increased demand for low sulfur coal, surface mineable western coal operations began a shift into high gear approximately four years ago. Then came last year's "energy crisis" that increased the pressure on coal development not only in the west, but nationwide. Several eastern power plants having dual oil and coal burning facilities were directed to discontinue using oil. Also, a number of new south and southwestern power plants scheduled to burn natural gas or of I commenced an ordered conversion to other fuels, namely, coal. The involved utilities with reserve positions accelerated their planning while others began the search for long-term commitments from coal producing companies. In addition, announcements were made for proposed mine mouth coal gasification projects in New Mexico, Wyoming, and North Dakota.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. P. Whaley

This paper introduces Wabush Mines, including its ownership, physical assets, capacity, goals and achievements. It is to be followed by four papers which will present the detailed story. Wabush Mines, the largest supplier of iron ore to the Canadian steel industry, was brought into production in 1965. The ore is mined and concentrated in Wabush, Labrador, Newfoundland and pelletized at Pte. Noire, Quebec. Annual capacity is over 6,000,000 tons of high-grade iron ore pellets.

Jan 1, 1969