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The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum (NMHF&M) will induct its the 2014 National Mining Hall of Fame Class on Sept. 13, 2014 during its 27th Annual Induction Banquet and Ceremony at the Westin Hotel in Denver, CO. Representing the domestic and worldwide metal production, education, and health and safety sectors of the industry, this year?s four inductees cover a diverse cross-section of the mining industry. Harry M. Conger III, Günther Franz (Frank) Joklik, Ellen Swallow Richards and Dr. Alfred Weiss will join 223 other mining industry pioneers when they are formally inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame. They were selected for being visionaries, leaders and ambassadors, both within their own sectors and across the industry at large. Conger was a great role model and strong advocate within Homestake Mining Co. and among his industry peers on behalf of environmentally responsible, safe, profitable and high-performance operations. As chairman and chief executive officer, Conger was instrumental in revitalizing and rebuilding Homestake into an industry leader in technological advances and environmental protection. Through his contributions in exploration, project development and operations management as Kennecott president and chief executive, Joklik did much to strengthen Kennecott as a company and assisted in restoring the competitiveness of the U.S. mining industry. Richards is generally recognized as the founder of ecology. She was the very definition of a pioneer in such diverse fields as chemistry, geology and mineralogy, mining and metallurgy, environmental science, public health, home economics and education. Weiss was a true visionary in using quantitative methods and digital computers to aid mineral exploration, plan and design mines, operate mineral production facilities and integrate the disparate information resources throughout a mining company into a modern management information system. NMHF&M Board of Directors Chairman, Paul C. Jones, said, ?Again this year we are honored to be able to induct an outstanding group of deserving individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the mining industry in the United States. Included are two living inductees who have made significant contributions to management in the industry. One inductee was the first female graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its first female faculty member and the first female member of AIME who had an outstanding career as a mineral investigator in the United States. Another inductee was a lifetime innovator in bringing digital technology into common use in our industry. Each of our 2014 inductees made significant and lasting contributions to our industry and are well deserving of becoming a member of the National Mining Hall of Fame.? The Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Ceremony is a marquee event for the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum each year. The 27th Annual Induction Ceremony and Banquet will be held at the Westin Hotel in Denver, CO on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014. For banquet reservations, contact the NMHF&M office at 719-486-1229. More information is available on the NMHF&M website at www.mininghalloffame.org.

By Richard J. Mainiero

The U.S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation with Jim Walter Resources, Inc. (JWR), Brookwood, AL, evaluated the use of sheathed explosive charges in breaking up large stones that can jam the feeder¬breaker or pan conveyor on longwalls and halt operations. Use of the sheathed charge reduced the downtime of the longwall panel to 15 to 30 min as compared with the 1 to 2 h required to drill and shoot the stone. Firing the sheathed charge at the face caused no significant damage to Iongwall equipment. Use of the sheathed charge also represented an improvement in safety by eliminating the exposure of miners to the inherent hazards of the face for extended periods of time. Another benefit, which is difficult to quantify, is the elimination of the temptation to shoot mudcaps or adobes, which is illegal in U.S. underground coal mines.

Jan 1, 1990

By W. F. Ranson, R. C. Progelhof

"I. THE PROBLEM: MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITYThe 1985 President's Commission [I] on Industrial Competitiveness found compelling evidence of the declining economic position of the United States in world markets. The annual rate of increase in the United States productivity is approximately one-seventh that of our major trading partners over the last decade: profit levels in manufacturing investments are below those of the mid-1960's; an increasingly negative trade balance since 1971; and a sharp decline in the United States share of world trade in manufactured goods for more than two decades. A particularly dramatic example of the shifting economic balance is the fact that Japanese productivity growth has been five times greater than that of this country since 1960. In face, Japan's productivity now exceeds that of the United States in such critical industries as steel, transportation equipment, electronics and electrical machinery.American employees have experienced the competitive consequences of this nation's lagging industrial performance. Between 1980 and 1984 alone, the population of non-farm employees engaged in manufacturing dropped from 22.4% to 20.6%. This reduction in manufacturing must be arrested.Commissions RecommendationsThe comprehensive set of recommendations offered by the President's Commission recognized the nation's ""key competitive advantages"", technology and human resources, and calls for their strengthening. Particular emphasis is placed on manufacturing technology and the fact that this country does not translate research into new technologies rapidly and fully.""Perhaps the most glaring deficiency in America's technological capabilities has been our failure to devote enough attention to manufacturing or 'process' technology. It does us little good to design state-of-the-art products if within a short time our foreign competitors can manufacture them more cheaply. The United States has failed to apply its own technologies to manufacturing. Robotics automation and statistical quality control were all first developed in the United States but in recent years they have been more effectively applied elsewhere""."

Jan 1, 1988

By Junmo Ahn

This study investigated leaching kinetics by alternative lixiviants for copper leaching from chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), the most abundant copper resource in the world. As a refractory sulfide mineral, chalcopyrite shows low copper extraction due to passivation on chalcopyrite surface. Also, decrease of copper grade with high portion chalcopyrite requires the alternative leaching procedure to increase copper recovery. Therefore, alternative lixiviants such as sulfurous acid and methanesulfonic acid (MSA) were tested for both concentrate and low grade ore to enhance copper extraction. Also, an oxidant, hydrogen peroxide, was compared to ferric to find out the improvement of leaching kinetic. In concentrate leaching tests, 30 g/L MSA showed the highest copper extraction (47%), compared to other lixiviants at 75 °C. Periodical H2O2 addition enhanced copper extraction, and above 90% of copper extraction was observed within 96 h by periodical addition of 0.6% H2O2 at 75 °C. The activation energy of chalcopyrite leaching by MSA and H2O2 achieved 40 kJ/mol, which is chemical reaction control. The results of low grade ore leaching tests indicates that no significant difference among lixiviants (H2SO4, H2SO3 and MSA) with ferric was observed, all of which achieved around 37% within 24 h at room temperature. However, significant increase of copper extraction (>80%) was observed at both 20 g/L MSA and 10 g/L H2SO4 conditions by the addition of 10% H2O2.

By T. T. Wang, T. H. Huang, Y. C. Chiu

Quantitatively analyzing deformation of a tunnel with lining anomalies for structural safety evaluation is essential for sustainable tunnel engineering. However, a complete theory and associated methodology accounted for displacement of a built tunnel is absent. This manuscript introduces a novel characteristic matrix method proposed by the authors which is an integrated procedure that analyzes displacement of rock tunnels in operation. First, establish a numerical model expressing a specific state of the tunnel in interest. Derive the characteristic displacement modes by a unit disturbances and check their independency. Once the characteristic displacement modes are proved to be orthogonal (independent), they are ready for use. Given a tunnel displacement, modal decomposition returns the magnitude of each characteristic displacement modes that together consist the given displacement. By realizing the definite value of horizontal and vertical translation, rotation, uniform compression/expansion, elliptic deformation, triangular deformation…etc. for a tunnel displacement, one can distinguish tunnel displacement and deformation types from their modal composition. A circular tunnel with elastic structure and surrounded by elastic rock mass is chosen to demonstrate the outcome of characteristic modes and how they work. The influences of tunnel shape, elastic modulus ratio between rock mass and tunnel structure, and numbers of monitoring points on a tunnel profile were also discussed. Identifying possible tunnel deformation causes is attainable if further connections between mode combination and force increments were built.

Jan 1, 2015

By M. Y. Williams

Introduction During the economic investigation of Pacific Great Eastern Railway subsidy lands, the P.G.E. Survey of Resources made a geological and mineral survey of a large part of the valley of the Peace river as included in the Province of British Columbia. The immediate valley of the Peace river was surveyed from the mountains to the Alberta boundary; the valley of the Pine river was surveyed throughout; and the Dominion block, 70 miles square and lying astride the Peace river, westward from the Alberta boundary, was very carefully surveyed. The writer was in general charge of the field work, and spent half the field season of 1929 and the field season of 1930 in the region . J. B. Bocock, however, did the major part of the work, spending two seasons, 1929 and 1930, in the area. General Conclusions The rock formations within the area discussed are all sedimentary and range in age from pre-Cambrian to recent. As might be expected, the minerals are in the main non-metallic, coal being by far the most important. Favourable conditions exist for natural gas occurrence, and suitable structures for petroleum concentration occur, although the high carbon ratio of the coals sheds considerable doubt upon the actual occurrence of oil in the area. Materials of minor interest are ochre, calcareous tufa, marl, limonite, gravel, and building stone.

Jan 1, 1934

By A. Abdollahi

Modification of the silicon in Al-Si alloys can be performed by adding a very small amount of some elements like Na, Sr and Ca to alter the form of silicon from an acicular shape to a fine fibrous one. This modification results in a considerable improvement in mechanical properties especially elongation, Metallographic observations in A356 alloy indicated the degree of the modification with Na, Sr and Ca, They showed that the effect of Ca as a modifier is not as strong as is Na or Sr while Na is the most effective modifier, Although modifiers improve mechanical properties, they also increase porosity in castings, The reduced pressure test (RPT) and Tatur test showed that the increasing porosity with Na is the most and with Sr is the least.

Jan 1, 2004

"Mining as an industry of Utah had its inception in the activities of United States soldiers who came to the Salt Lake valley under the command of Gen. P. E. Connor, founder of Fort Douglas, in October, 1862. Many of these soldiers were from California and naturally employed their spare time in the search for minerals. Although their military status did not permit them to make locations in their own names, they assiduously prospected the region in accordance with their own knowledge and with information conveyed to them by Indians and others. Their efforts were encouraged by their commander, who thereby fairly earned the title of father of the industry here, and by their other officers, and many discoveries that subsequently proved of great value were made by the soldiers.No systematic prospecting or mining had been done in the Territory previously, although early Mormon settlers in the southern portion had mined a little ore from time to time in order to provide supplies of lead for bullets. The Mormon leaders at that time did not encourage mining. They held that agriculture was more important and profitable for their followers.Coal was discovered and produced in 1850. Iron was discovered in 1850 and the first iron plant was in operation in 1852 in Iron County. The first non-ferrous metal production was in 1854, in Beaver County, when Isaac Grundy treated ore from the Rollins mine in what is said to have been the first lead furnace west of the Rocky Mountains. The first mineral location was the West Jordan claim in Bingham canyon, located September 17, 1863, now owned by the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co., and still productive. The first district organized in the state was the West Mountain (Bingham), December I 7, 1863. Other important districts of early organization are: Little Cottonwood, December 20, 1869; Big Cottonwood, July 11, 1870; American Fork, July 21, 1870; Uintah (Park City), July 8, 1871; Tintic, December 13, 1896; Ophir, August 6, 1870. The first silver-lead smelting was by J. W. Gibson at Stockton in 1866. Lieut. James Finnerty had previously erected two small trial furnaces there, but made no quantity production."

Jan 1, 1925

By D. Sanguinetti, A. Consigny, M. Nodwell

"Alkali precipitation of dissolved metals is an inexpensive but non-selective means of treating mine wastewater. Alternatively, sulphide precipitation can treat to below parts-per-million concentrations while selectively recovering valuable metals. While technically feasible, sulphide treatment of dilute waste streams increases the size and cost of the plant relative to the metals loading. Ion exchange has been applied at two separate sites to pre-concentrate nickel containing wastewater prior to recovery in smaller and more cost effective sulphide precipitation circuits. The result is a dual-circuit system that can maintain high selectivity and reduce overall facility cost while meeting strict effluent regulations.INTRODUCTIONAlkali precipitation using lime is the most common method of treating mining effluents for dissolved metals removal. This method is generally sufficient for waste streams containing mixed metals of little value, and for meeting modest metal concentration limits in the final effluent. Due to the non-selective nature of the lime process, the produced metal hydroxide sludge is of little value. All metals are removed together in a sludge product which cannot be re-processed for further value recovery.By contrast, sulphide precipitation can be used to selectively remove and recover valuable base metals (such as copper, zinc, nickel and cobalt), since the sulphide will preferentially target these metals without reacting with less valuable metals (such as iron and aluminum). The low solubility of the metal sulphide solids also supports the removal of base metals to lower concentrations than can be achieved with alkali precipitation in addition to other benefits discussed more fully in a prior paper (Bratty, Lawrence, Kratochvil & Marchant, 2006). The corollary to this solubility feature is that sulphide precipitation can function on influent streams containing low (< 10 mg/L) metals concentrations to meet very low parts-perbillion final effluent concentrations. Reagent overdosing is also minimized when compared to alkali precipitation."

Jan 1, 2012

By B Howard, M Jones, D Pershke

"Current closure objectives and criteria are often difficult to achieve and are not delivering value for money outcomes at closure. Current mine closure processes tend to focus on rehabilitation and revegetation of landform structures to as close to premining condition as possible, rather than focusing on the functions of those structures and values they provided. Because mining has highly disturbed the environment, premining conditions and vegetation are often not achievable and objectives and criteria aimed at achieving close to these conditions have been shown to be very costly.The authors have developed a broader approach to developing mine closure plans that is based on environmental risk and gaining post-closure social, environmental and economic value. We think the focus should shift from trying to return the original landscape to returning functions and values provided on- and off-site. If it is not possible to return values on-site in a cost-effective manner, investment should be provided to deliver equivalent values elsewhere.This process can provide better stakeholder acceptance, deliver better environmental outcomes on the tenement and within the catchment and significantly reduce costs, whist fulfilling closure obligations.This framework should enable closure teams to: focus on the functions and services that are important to achieve as outcomes post-closure, rather than a focus on revegetation and replacing the premining biophysical structure engage meaningfully with stakeholders regarding closure outcomes and link outcomes to stakeholder values conduct transparent option evaluations that enable stakeholders to clearly understand the costs and benefits associated with each option and to participate in dialogue on option selection.We present examples of how the framework could be applied to identify alternate closure options that achieve equivalent value outcomes while reducing the costs of closing the mines.CITATION:Howard, B, Pershke, D and Jones, M, 2014. Achieving better mine closure outcomes for less money, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2014, pp 615–620 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Jul 16, 2014

By V. F. Hollister

Four conditions are commonly accepted as being needed for the development of native sulphur deposits in sedimentary rocks : (1) ample sulphate-bearing evaporite, normally anhydritic; (2) proximity to petroleum deposits; (3) a hydrodynamic system of communication between these two; (4) a stratigraphic or structural trap to prevent escape of the sulphur and sulphur -bearing reaction products. When any of these requisites are absent, apparently no significant residual bio-epigenetic sulphur deposit will form. These requirements are, however, satisfied in some areas, which include both the Triassic and Devonian evaporites of northeastern British Columbia.

Jan 1, 1977

By Frans van Grunsven, Cees van Rhee, Geert Keetels

One of the obstacles during the initial phases of project development is the assessment of the environmental impact. Mining residue, consisting of fine seafloor sediments, are to be discharged subsea to mitigate the impact of these suspended particles. In order to test the effectiveness of discharging in proximity of the seabed, a numerical model is developed within the open source software package OpenFoam. Dedicated laboratory experiments for numerical model validation are discussed within this paper. INTRODUCTION Siltation is considered one of the major pressures on the environment for a seabed mining operation. Siltation is defined as the pollution of water by a high concentration of suspended sediments like clay or silt. This can be caused by two main activities during the mining process: the spill loss during the excavation and the return flow of undesired seafloor sediment after ore filtration on the ship. In a concentrated cloud, these fine particles form a so-called turbidity plume. Prediction of the size of these plumes and the created layer thickness of deposited sediment is a crucial part of the environmental impact assessment. The challenge in predicting the behaviour of these plumes is found in the wide range of scales involved in the process. At the point of origin, the turbidity plumes spread mainly under the influence of turbulent whirls created by an initial momentum and a buoyancy difference due to the presence of the suspended sediment particles. If carried by ambientcurrents, these plumes can spread for several kilometres before blending in the background.

Jan 1, 2018

By H. E. Rudi

The advent of open nit mining permitted the development and processing of minerals never before thought possible. New equipment was needed; new techniques were devised; new methods were called for. This development and acquisition of new techniques, methods and equipment did not, however, stir the souls of our industry and educational leaders sufficiently to a recognition of the problem of people, especially the future development of the people needed in open-pit mining. The people problem has been and will be with us as long as there are two of them. The development of people will be required for the same reason. The problem of developing future personnel for open-pit mining is not what must be developed; that is known to all of us and can be briefly stated ashore and better of everything." As I see it, the real problem lies in determining (1) what personnel are really critical, (2) why are they critical and (3) how can we develop them.

Jan 1, 1965

By P J. Sack, L V Danyushevsky

"An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation. Regional-scale exploration for sediment-hosted gold deposits is hampered by the challenge of evaluating the fertility of ancient sedimentary sequences that host these deposits. Recent developments in laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry allow for the evaluation of the gold fertility of sedimentary sequences using chemistry of early-formed sedimentary pyrite. We present a case study from the Selwyn basin area of Yukon, Canada, where significant sediment-hosted gold exploration has been ongoing for the last five years. Data from sedimentary pyrite in some Neoproterozoic shales are anomalous in Au and As compared to a global data set of unmineralised sedimentary pyrite. If at least some of the gold and associated trace elements in sediment-hosted gold deposits are derived from recrystallisation of early sedimentary pyrite, it follows that strata containing anomalous sedimentary pyrite should be more prospective. Based on this premise, our data clearly show that Yusezyu Formation Neoproterozoic shales in the Selwyn basin area of Yukon are a fertile source rock for sediment-hosted gold deposits, while pyrite from Nadaleen formation shales are strongly anomalous in Hg and Tl, but not Au. We suggest that the area warrants continued exploration for sediment-hosted gold.CITATION:Sack, P J, Gregory, D D, Large, R R and Danyushevsky, L V, 2015. Using sedimentary pyrite chemistry to inform regional exploration for sediment-hosted gold deposits – a gold fertility case study from the Selwyn basin area, Yukon , in Proceedings PACRIM 2015 Congress, pp 69–76 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 18, 2015

By David J. Hatem

Public-private partnerships (PPP) are gaining in popularity at the federal, state and local levels as the public sector seeks private capital to finance infrastructure and other projects that traditionally have been funded with public funds. In general, a PPP involves a development agreement between a public owner and a private sector concessionaire. Under the development agreement, the concessionaire is responsible for financing, designing, constructing and typically operating and maintaining the completed project for a concession period (often multi-decades in duration). The concessionaire typically enters into an agreement ? the design-build agreement ? with a design-builder to design and construct the project. The concessionaire may secure financing from banks, investors or from a combination of these and other sources (collectively the financier). While the PPP experience in the United States has been modest to date, an increasing number of projects involving tunneling or other significant subsurface work are already being delivered in the PPP mode. Public owners have significant options to address risk allocation for subsurface conditions on PPP projects. The same sound and fundamental principles of fairness in risk allocation that apply in other major subsurface projects should be applied and adopted in the PPP context

Mar 1, 2014

By K. L. Hanning

Grinding and classification circuits at Climax Molybdenum Co. are described. Since the installation of a direct digital control computer in 1974, a number of control strategies were developed and evaluated. This paper deals in particular with the practical experience and results obtained in direct digital control of a wet grinding circuit consisting of a ball mill, constant speed sump pump, and hydrocyclones. For this circuit throughput is maximized, while maintaining a desired product size. Product size is inferred from measurement of operating variables.

Jan 1, 1977

By Ihsan B. Tulu, Keith A. Heasley, Aanand Nandula

"The objective of this paper is to present the development of a software tool that will assist in an area calculation of the Analysis of Roof Bolting Systems (ARBS) support intensity while incorporating more detailed geology, stress, and intersection span input. In this area ARBS tool, a detailed CMRR distribution can be determined from the available geologic database at the mine. In addition, the overburden and multiple-seam stresses, as obtained from the boundary-element program LaModel, can be converted to a “pseudo-depth” which is then used as the depth input to the area ARBS calculation. Finally, the section-specific intersection spans can be determined from the mine design for input to the calculation. All this detailed area input information for ARBS is handled by the latest version of the Stability Mapping (StabMap) program, which now outputs an area ARBS suggested support density given the required input parameters. This final ARBS grid can be plotted, analyzed and overlaid on the mine map for optimum use in support design and for presentation to production personnel.INTRODUCTIONSince the inception of roof bolts in the 1940s, there has been a lack of a universally accepted roof bolting design method (Mark, 2002; Mark and Pappas, 2012). To address this situation, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Hazard (NIOSH) developed roof support design guidelines, which were incorporated into a computer program called the Analysis of Roof Bolting Systems (ARBS). These guidelines were based on the effects of roof quality, stress, and mine geometry (Mark, Molinda and Dolinar, 2001). The roof rock quality in ARBS is represented by the Coal Mine Roof Rating (CMRR), the depth is used as a surrogate for the stress, and the intersection span serves to represent the mine geometry (Mark, Molinda and Dolinar, 2001). These three input parameters are used in the fundamental, empirically derived equation of ARBS to calculate a required support density factor, called ARBS, (Mark, Molinda and Dolinar, 2001):"

Jan 1, 2018

By T. F. Deems

The nature, usage and comparatively rare occurrence of ball clay is described. The importance of these white firing plastic clays in ceramics, particularly in the production of industrial sanitary ware and tiles, is emphasized. The US deposits are briefly discussed. What is known about relevant deposits in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela (the four largest ceramic producers in South America) is also described. The ceramic plants have been sited near the centers of population rather than the plastic clay deposits. At present, extraction is probably concentrated on surface residual deposits and lenses which require minimum investment. Native plastic clays are used exclusively in the tile plants, but in sanitary ware, they are often used as extenders of imported ball clays.

Jan 1, 1997

By Edson Charikinya, Pierre-Henri Koch

"The extraction of mineral values from ore requires liberation followed by separation steps. Liberation is achieved by size reduction operations which are energy inefficient processes typically dominating the energy consumption in a mineral concentrator. As the grade of ore reserves declines, future viability of mineral operations will be determined by energy costs of comminution. The application of high power microwave energy to secondary crusher products has been suggested as a possible commercially viable thermal treatment method for reducing comminution energy and improving value mineral liberation. Recent studies have shown that microwave pre-treatment of coarse sphalerite ore particles (> 5mm) at specific microwave heating energies (1-3 kWh/t), induces microfractures and creates new crack surfaces. This suggests that subsequent crushing of these microwave treated particles could yield enhanced liberation. However, limited studies have been carried out investigating the mode of breakage and the extent of enhanced liberation in that case. The objective of this study is to develop numerical methods for quantifying the extent of enhanced liberation and mode of breakage in crushed microwave treated and untreated particles. Sphalerite ore particles representing small (-5+4.75) mm, medium (-16+9.5) mm, and large (-25+19) mm HPGR and cone crushed particles were microwave treated at specific energies between 1-3 kWh/t. Cracks in the ore particles before and after microwave treatment were analysed with QEMSCAN and numerical models of the measured particles (before and after microwave treatment) were developed in MATLAB. The propagation of random and non-random cracks was investigated by simulating comminution of the modelled treated and untreated particles. Results of this study demonstrate that the breakage mechanism and the liberation of valuable minerals from gangue in microwave treated and untreated particles is significantly different. This study contributes to the development of numerical tools to quantify crack propagation in heterogeneous ore particles."

Jan 1, 2018

By Tracey Brommer, Britt Elin Gihleengen, Elsa Olivetti, Randolph Kirchain

"Increased demand resulting from the economic and environmental advantages of recycling secondary materials has constrained secondary material supply. As a result of constrained supply, the conventional strategy to maximize recycled content in an individual aluminum alloy must be expanded to maximizing total recycled content in a given production period. This work compares the performance over a two week period of an actual remelter for two strategies; a sequential charge-by-charge optimization framework and an integrated approach that explicitly incorporates the production schedule. Optimizing across the entire two week production is found to increase recycled content and minimize primary and alloying material additions. It is expected that as the scrap material market continues to be constrained by high demand, longer term batch planning strategies that can optimize material allocation will deliver improved performance.IntroductionIntensifying economic and environmental pressure to incorporate secondary aluminum into products is pushing remelters to explore additional strategies and tools to increase recycled content. Aluminum remelters are exploring alternative sources of secondary materials because of constrained secondary material supply and relatively high primary and secondary material cost [1]. Computational models, such as blending models are a tool that could help industrial remelters mitigate supply and cost challenges and thereby increase recycled content. In particular, computational tools can help manage the incorporation of new raw materials of variable quality. Blending models find many industrial applications and have been explored for over sixty years originating with the classic nut-mix problem dating back to 1950’s [2]. Blending models optimize the raw material input to make a desired product subject to a series of constraints such as product specifications and material availability. Deterministic and linear blending model formulations are presently implemented in some industrial aluminum remelters [3]. The primary reluctance of aluminum remelters against computational model implementation is the incapability of their blending models to reflect the intricacy of industrial remelting conditions [4]. For example, to reduce calculation time, industrial aluminum blending models usually optimize a batch plan for a single alloy and are not formulated to optimize several products simultaneously. Since such a model does not include knowledge of subsequent charges in the optimized batch plan, the resulting batch plans tend to deplete the “cleanest” secondary materials leaving the more uncertain and compositionally challenging materials for later charges. As a result, a remelter may override the calculated batch plan or leave certain scrap materials out of the material input to conserve these materials for alternative products scheduled for later production. This work explores an alternative aluminum charge planning tool that can optimize across an extended production schedule and compares it to a heuristic sequential optimization strategy reflecting an industrial remelter."

Jan 1, 2012