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By Osvaldo A. Bascur

Industrial complexes rely on measurements of flow rates, qualities, and concentrations for monitoring and optimizing their operation. Corporations use the data from the various sensors and measurements to make business decisions, which affect the profitability of the operation. However, gross errors, due to a variety of reasons like faulty sensors, bad instrument calibration, or incorrect process models may corrupt the actionable information supplied to operations, quality managers, and maintenance personnel. The solution is to use the sophisticated new tools to model the process, sift through the available data to locate the gross errors, and use statistical data reconciliation to validate the sensors and instruments. In this way the data are unified to give the most accurate plant information for use by the monitoring and decision making processes. Most mining and metallurgical plants use predictive maintenance policies based on statistical analysis and special techniques, like vibration analysis, and oil and lube analysis for critical equipment. Process control strategies are installed in several metallurgical sites. All of these depend on reliable and accurate data. The data unification methods validate the individual measurements by using the concept of balances and statistical techniques where each instrument is no longer independent of the other measurements in the facility. This paper refers to the data unification and analysis methods required for profitable plant operations. Continuous improvement and monitoring of the measurement system at the plant and analysis of the reconciled data provide the best information for the decision-making process. On-line gross error detection and elimination methods are required to ensure efficient evaluation of process performance and process optimization. An open discussion of the new methods for gross error detection and data unification will be presented.

May 1, 2001

By H. Tsuruta, A. Fujibayashi, I. Sumi, A. Murao, R. Murai

Injection of biomass into blast furnace as alternative reducing agent is so effective for the purpose of mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions from steel industries, because biomass is considered to be carbon neutral raw materials. Certain amount of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) is abandoned after Palm oil extraction process. To use as a reducing agent of blast furnace, PKS was carbonized and classified by 100 mesh sieve. To examine the gasification behavior of PKS carbide under the blast furnace conditions, several combustion experiments were conducted using hot model experimental furnace. The experimental results showed that the gasification efficiency of PKS carbide increased as the quantity of volatile matter increased. This tendency is the almost the same for the pulverized coal, so carbide of PKS can be used at blast furnace at appropriate amount of volatile matter that can be controlled by carbonization condition. In addition, the pressure drop of the furnace tends to decrease because the amount of ash in PKS carbide may be smaller than that of pulverized coal. PKS carbide is a suitable reducing agent in that respect.

Jan 1, 2015

By Farzad Khodabakhshi, Adrian P. Gerlich

"In this article, cold spraying process was utilized to coat the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy with a layer of AA7075 aluminum alloy. Thereafter, friction-stir processing (FSP) was employed to enhance the microstructure and consolidate the deposited layer. The grain structure and phase morphology were studied along with indentation hardness before and after cold spraying and friction stir processing. The magnesium substrate had an initial hardness of 74 HV which increased to 102 HV after FSP due to refinement of grains to <2 µm. The aluminum coating layer, provided improved surface hardness up to 160 HV, which further increased to 173 HV after FSP was applied.INTRODUCTION Cold spray is a material deposition process which can be used for surface modification, since it deposits material on a metallic substrate with little heating by way of high velocity ballistic impacts. Using cold spray technology, it is possible to deposit a wide range of coatings with various thicknesses by controlling the characteristics of the feeding powder and metal substrate, gas temperature, gas pressure, powder feeding rate, nozzle geometry, and gun traverse velocity. This process has been recently employed for surface modification in various aircraft and automobile structural applications. This has led to a broad range of research using this process for production and modification of different metallic and non-metallic systems. In the present study, cold spray process was used to deposit a uniform layer of aluminum-zinc alloy (AA7075) on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy. This coating was subsequently treated by way of friction-stir processing (FSP) as a new post-spraying modification technique to enhance the structural homogeneity and densification of the coated aluminum layer. This method utilizes a non-consumable rotating tool with a specially designed shoulder and pin that is plunged into the surface of metal to be modified and then moved along the direction of interest. The localized frictional heating between the rotating tool and workpiece leads to softening of the materials around the pin, and material extrusion through a complex flow of material from the advancing toward the retreating side the tool. To the author’s best knowledge, only a few reports discuss the modification of a cold sprayed deposit by FSP process. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the cold sprayed layer and substrate before and after FSP modification were examined using optical observations (OM) and indentation hardness testing. Furthermore, the AZ31 alloy substrate alone was treated with FSP as well, for the aim of comparison to the processed coating."

Jan 1, 2017

By B. R. Richards, B. G. W. Robinson

"This paper shows how metal values can be profitably won from a comparatively small and remotely located but high-grade orebody. To do so is not uractical for a large mining company, with its necessarily high overhead of services and organization essential to a large producer.To evaluate, develop and profitably exploit a limited but defined ore deposit becomes only a problem of determining the dollars required to win the dollars available. This paper will record how this was carried out during 1965 and at the same time describe the history, development and production plant of this property."

Jan 1, 1966

By W. G. Scott

IT IS APPROPRIATE that your Institute should have chosen, for its 1956 Annual General Meeting, the Capital City of a province which is making such rapid advances in mining. The railway industry is proud to be playing an active role in this development, expenditures on equipment and railway construction in the Province of Quebec alone in recent years being in ?excess of a quarter of a billion dollars. In looking up some background material for this address I ran across a definition of a mine by Mark Twain, the great American humorist, which I thought might amuse you. He said that a mine was "a hole in the ground owned by a liar". I am sure that if he were alive to witness the enormous value attached to Canada&apos;s mineral resources today he would quickly change his definition. Canada&apos;s postwar record of mining development has been staggering in its variety and enormity. Historically, only the ?construction of our transcontinental rail ways outranks the largest of three of these development projects - the aluminum undertaking at Kitimat; the Quebec-Labrador iron ore deposits ; and the petroleum and natural gas developments in Wes tern Canada.

Jan 1, 1956

By B. I. Boyko

As part of the Ministry of the Environment&apos;s Resource Recovery Program, the Province of Ontario has constructed a $13 million "Experimental Plant for Resource Recovery" in Metropolitan Toronto. The technology and unit operations involved in the processing of municipal solid wastes at a rate of 40 tons per hour at this facility are reviewed. Shredding, air separation and classification, screening, magnetic separation and composting are some of the operations featured at this plant. Recoverable commodities expected include paper, ferrous metals, an air-classified light fraction (shredded paper and film plastic), glass and compost. Existing and potential markets for these materials are discussed.

Jan 1, 1978

By S P. Giambra

The 50,000-ton-per-day Concentrator and Crushing Plant, complete with its related water supply, tailings disposal and concentrate handling systems, was started up in a five-month period, with the entire plant obtaining its design capacity six months after the first mill became operational. Individual mill lines, with their spiral circuits, achieved design capacities within a week after the first treatment of ore through each mill. Construction and start-up proceeded together in many areas of the plant, and considerable organization and cooperation between the Owner, the Engineer and the Contractors permitted a smooth transition from construction to operation. PLANT DESCRIPTION THE Carol Lake Plant of the Iron Ore Company of Canada l1as been well described in various technical magazines. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief outline of the start-up of the con-centration complex. This start-up was accomplished in a period of five months, with the plant producing one million tons of concentrate and achieving its design-rated tonnage less than six months after the first ore was treated.

Jan 1, 1963

By R. L. Bishops

This paper discusses some of the materials, processes and systems used in motor insulation. Among the materials mentioned are epoxies, polyesters, mica paper composites and wire enamels. Two processes developed to take advantage of the special characteristics of two of these materials are described, and how these materials are used in several new insulation systems now on the market is discussed. Finally, future trends in motor insulation are outlined.

Jan 1, 1969

By J. E. Rehder

IN A DISCUSSION of use of any material of ?construction in the mining industry, two points of view must &apos;be kept in mind - that of the producer or manufacturer of mining and metallurgical equipment, and that of the maintenance and operating staff of the mining plant. In the first case, the choice of material of construction is up to the manufacturer and the user of the equipment has little direct say in the matter. However, if materials are badly chosen and the equipment does not function properly, wears out rapidly, or costs too much, repeat orders ?will likely go to a different manufacturer, so that, in the end, the consumer or mine operator does have the final voice. In the case of materials for maintenance work and plant operations, however, .the mill personnel have direct control over purchases and it is then that a well-balanced knowledge of materials, their properties, and their costs, can be directly useful. With all materials of construction, the final criterion is unit cost versus service performance, so that the lowest possible total operational cost will be obtained. Sometimes this means using the cheapest material available, sometimes the most expensive, but in any case careful analysis of service performance, replacement cost, and material cost is essential to determining the material that produces lowest total cost.

Jan 1, 1956

By Frank E. Lathe

During the war the National Research Council at Ottawa sent out questionnaires to the managers of nearly all the industrial plants in Canada. Inquiry was made as to the research equipment possessed, the number of research workers employed and the nature of the research problems which still remained unsolved. Practically all the companies reported that they had no special facilities for research, had no re-search workers and did not require the assistance of the National Research Council-because they had no research problems. Perhaps we have here one of the chief reasons why certain of our manufacturers find themselves unable to meet foreign competition. For hundreds of years the Indian tribes of northern Chile worked, in a small way, the copper deposits at Chuquicamata. They had no research problems and made no striking success of their mining operations. Then came an American company with a research problem, which they proceeded to solve. To-day the stock of that company has a market value of about $140,000,000.

Jan 1, 1926

By R. A. Nemchek

ABSTRACT Concentrator plant design has evolved from large numbers of small grinding mills to small numbers of large mills. Consequently, plant performance often hinges on the productivity of a single large semi-autogenous grinding mill. Industry attempts to address the grinding mills’ critical nature frequently result in specifications that can be made simpler, more economical, and better focused on the project’s goals. This paper surveys current specification writing practices and proposes an improved approach recognizing that product design, procurement, manufacturing, and quality are interrelated in a successful project. The lessons learned here can apply to all types of machinery specifications.

Jan 1, 2014

By Paul Clark

Generation - Profile l 9,726 megawatts (MW) of capacity l 46,877 gigawatt hours (GWh) produced at an average plant availability of 88.4% l 47 facilities in four geographies: Canada; the U.S.; Mexico; and Australia l Fuel mix of coal (62%), gas (26%), hydro and renewables (12%) l 23.2 million tonnes of coal mined l 47.0 million gigajoules (GJ) of gas consumed

May 1, 2004

By B. Courtaud, L. Donati, V. Weigel

As a growing mining company, ERAMET is looking for new positions in the strategic metals market. In this context, the Gabonese Maboumine pyrochlore deposit is currently being studied for the recovery of niobium, tantalum, rare earths and uranium. This ore shows mineralogical and chemical characteristics that make it challenging to process by existing practices, from both technical and economic points of view. ERAMET has developed since 2008 an innovative hydrometallurgical process, which has been successfully operated at a pilot plant scale (more than 35 weeks in continuous). The upstream part of the process aims to dissolve valuable elements in sulphuric acid. The first step is dedicated to dissolve the ore matrix, leaving the pyrochlore unleached. The second step consists in chemically breaking down pyrochlores in order to form soluble species of the valuable elements. After dissolution, the valuable elements are separated into different flows: niobium and tantalum are recovered and transformed as commercial ferroniobium on one side, and rare earths and uranium remain in the solution to be recovered in the downstream part of the process. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the upstream part of the process, which has given successful results.

Jan 1, 2014

By L Thompson, R C. West, T S. Kho

In 1978, the Outotec direct to blister flash (DBF) smelting process was commercialized with the commissioning of the Glogow 2 smelting facility in Poland. Since then four further DBF facilities have been constructed, two at Olympic Dam, one in Zambia and most recently one at Glogow 1 in Poland. The DBF smelting process differs considerably from conventional smelting process in both chemistry and unit operations, presenting opportunities for flowsheet capital and operating cost savings particularly when the concentrate copper grade is high. WorleyParsons has amassed considerable expertise in the Direct to Blister process and in this paper the process is compared to the modern two stage Double Flash process. The processes are modeled, and the key operating parameters, consumables and production metrics are directly compared. Subsequent flowsheets, key equipment lists and capital costs are also presented for comparison and discussion. The results show the range of concentrates which are most economically treated by the DBF process relative to those best treated in conventional processes along with those concentrates which could be treated by either process. INTRODUCTION The Outotec Direct to Blister (DBF) process was developed and installed at Glogow in 1978 (Czernecki et al., 2006). Currently there are a total of five DBFs built on three sites: Glogow No.2, Olympic Dam No.1, Olympic Dam No.2, KCM Zambia and Glogow No.1, being the most recently constructed. The DBF process was the first flash furnace process to produce blister copper and paved the way for the subsequent development of the flash converter and other continuous converting processes. Today four flash converters are in operation taking the total number of flash furnaces producing blister copper to eight. In all DBF operations it is the unique ore and concentrate composition which made selection of the DBF process the most attractive. In all cases, the concentrate is relatively high in copper but low in iron because chalcopyrite is not the major constituent. When considering smelting options for high copper, low iron concentrates a key question is then often asked, “At what point does it become economic to switch from two stage smelting and converting process to the DBF process?”

Jan 1, 2019

By M. C. Bétournay, J. E. Udd

"The legacy of abandoned mines in Canada creates issues that impact on both the health and safety of Canadians and the environment. Solutions to the problems of abandoned minesites require a detailed understanding of site conditions, the engineering solutions which may be relevant, and planning for effective use of the land. In this paper, the authors outline the basic thrusts that have been developed at CANMET to address this problem. These include: multiprovincial agreements to develop a national database; methods of site rendering; a ten-year research program to develop engineering approaches; the review of a large number of case studies; and outlining the associated risks. Examples of the applications of this research are provided in the areas of: municipal, provincial, and federal co-operative projects; site-specific applications; and international linkages."

Jan 1, 1997

By T. Negeri, M. Boisclair, A. Bouajila

CanmetMINING has been working on process development for separation and concentration of rare earth bearing minerals from various ores. Among others, the flowsheet development for the Montviel Rare Earths/Nb deposit, located at the north end of the Abitibi region in Quebec and owned by GeoMegA Resources Inc. (GeoMegA) is now at an advanced stage. The concentrate produced by a flotation-only process at the early stage of the project accounted for higher than 90% TREO and Nb recovery in 40% mass. This concentrate was submitted to SGS Lakefield for hydrometallurgical processing. Lixiviation of the concentrate using hydrochloric acid yielded approximately 99 % REE. An overall (from ore in ground to final precipitate) REE recovery of 80% was obtained through a series of selective precipitation steps. Recently significant additional developments have been made. CanmetMINING is steadily improving the quality of concentrate produced through a simplified, more efficient flowsheet which consists of flotation, magnetic separation, and a thermal treatment procedure. The paper discusses aspects of the process that allowed obtaining 82% recovery of TREO and Nb in 16% of mass, the best result to-date.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. T. Ho, D. E. Wiley

The iron and steel industry accounts for almost 5 % of the total world CO2 emissions. Optimisation of the steelmaking process has led to significant reductions in the energy intensity to the point where it is now close to the thermodynamic limit. Further reductions are not likely to be achieved with efficiency improvement alone and will require the development of novel or breakthrough technologies. This paper will show the costs of implementing CO2 capture at direct atmospheric emission points for a number of iron and steel production processes. These include a conventional process, top gas recycling processes, the Corex and Hismelt smelt reduction processes and the Midrex direct reduction process. Depending on the point source emission, costs of capture with existing chemical absorption technology at iron and steel plants can be similar to capturing CO2 at pulverised coal fired power plants.

Jan 1, 2015

By R. Bridge

Mining companies are progressively finding themselves having to develop operations for more complex, deeper ore bodies, which require the use of more complicated mining and mineral processing methods. This coupled with the generally increasing trend of higher capital and operational costs have led to a need in the industry for improving ore body knowledge, mining and mineral processing. Geometallurgy is a relatively new concept that can link the three aspects, and when used effectively it is a method that can produce the necessary information for designing and building operations for reliable and optimum performance. Geometallurgy not only involves the integration of geological, mining, and metallurgical fields, but it can also be expanded to include environmental and economic information to produce a block model that can be used to obtain the best outcome in terms of plant response and plant sustainability. The geometallurgical program should not end once the block model has been populated. A detailed geometallurgical approach should be applied to all stages of the operation encompassing sample selection, through to equipment sizing and production forecasting. It can also become a useful optimisation tool thereby allowing the operation to be proactive rather than reactive against changes in the ore characteristics. With the development of metallurgical performance predictors it is possible to quantify how the ore will behave in the process plant in terms of throughput, recoveries, reagent consumption, etc. Therefore, in terms of responsible mining and sustainable resource development, a geometallurgical approach to operations is the logical step for plant development. In this paper we describe the state of the technology with respect to the application of geometallurgical modeling and its utilisation in the fields of design, forecasting and optimisation of mining operations.

Aug 1, 2013

By K. H. Concannon, K. I. Hindle

"The use of simulation modeling in the primary metals industry (including mining, smelting, and metals processing) is expanding as significant cost-benefits can be realized by companies employing capital intensive processes. The economic scale and complexity of operations found in this industry is well-suited to applications using this ""what-if&apos; computer modeling technique, ranging from proof-of-concept projects to testing facility design or configuration, and determining resource requirements. More recently this technique is being used to support on-going planning and scheduling for operations using the simulation as the engine to derive the best schedule. With increased computer processing capability, deterministic models are now being developed to capture the workings of a production system or conversion process, allowing real-time monitoring and scheduling of these operations. This paper presents a sample of some recent discrete-event simulation modeling applications that demonstrate the capability and benefits of this technique in the primary metals industry. These include the use of simulation to support the long-range planning of underground mining operations; the modeling of a metals supply chain network that employs a multi-modal distribution system; the scheduling of a metals coil finishing process using a deterministic simulation model; and a more detailed description of the use of simulation to model furnace and converter aisle activities within a smelter operation in Northern Canada."

Jan 1, 2007

By C. V. Corless

1. Introductory Some members may recall that at the Annual Meeting two years ago I read a paper, &apos;The Future of the Mining Industry in Canada." Discussing this large subject it was possible only to outline the facts and inferences leading to ?the conclusion that Canada is a country endowed with enormous mineral wealth, of which the fringes are yet scarcely touched. In the present paper, I wish to examine in somewhat fuller detail the evidence, both direct and inferential, concerning the mineral wealth of the greatest physical and geological feature of Canada-the Precambrian Shield. Many, if not most, of these facts are already familiar to you. But, since they will form the basis of the reasoning employed, they will be recalled for explicit reference. First, let us review very briefly the position and extent of the Shield. The area of the entire Shield is given in textbooks as 2,000,000 square miles, of which perhaps 10 or 12 per cent. is exposed in the south-easterly part of Canada&apos;s Arctic islands. The remainder occupies roughly two-thirds of the North-west Territory; the north-east corner of Alberta; one-third of Saskatchewan ;two-thirds of Manitoba; three-fourths of Ontario; and nearly ninety-five per cent. of Quebec.

Jan 1, 1924