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By Donald L. Brothers

"OUT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, we have a legendary creature called ""The Sasquatch,"" a large ape-like creature which, according to those who claim to have seen it, somewhat resembles the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. Through the years, the legend bas been perpetuated by hunters and prospectors who return from remote wilderness areas with fantastic tales about hairy creatures, twice the height of an average human being, who leave 2-ft-long footprints in the soft forest floor. However, the existence of this creature bas never been proven and the attitude in British Columbia circles is that the whole thing constitutes either a great discovery or a giant hoax, and is about equally unbelievable either way.The Sasquatch, however, is not the only giant in British Columbia. If you find the Sasquatch story un-believable, you'll fi nd it just as hard to believe what is happening in the mining industry out west. We have opened four new mines so far this year (1967), another mine is expected to be brought into production before the end of the year and any mining man will tell you it's just the start of a mining boom which will continue for many years if metal prices are maintained and the federal government sees fit to discard the taxation changes pro-posed in the Carter Royal Commission Report regarding mining."

Jan 1, 1968

By John S. Stevenson

Zeballos mining camp is on the west coast of Vancouver island; 195 nautical miles northwest from Victoria.; The spectacularly rich gold-bearing veins that made Zeballos an important; gold camp were found early in 1934. Small pockets of very coarse; gold had been found earlier under large boulders at the mouth of Spud; creek; and in the autumn of 1933 rich gold-quartz float was found near the; mouth of the creek. The rocky beds of the steep creeks entering Spud creek; were searched for its source and as a result the veins on the White Star property; were found. The Goldfield vein on the Spud Valley property was discovered; in 1935; and the No. 1 vein on the Privateer in 1936. In the general; prospecting activity that quickly followed; other veins were found; not; only in Spud creek but in other creeks draining into Zeballos river.

Jan 1, 1954

By L. Heber Cole

In making this plea for a better and more sympathetic understanding of the non-metallic industry, I do not for one minute wish to give the impression that I in any way belittle the wonderful strides that have been made in the exploitation of our metallics. We in Canada can be justly proud of our Sudburys, Norandas, Flin Fions, and of the remarkable growth of the Consolidated in British Columbia, and at the same time, without in the !east detracting from these worthy undertakings, be equally as proud of our asbestos, gypsum, salt, and coal deposits, as well as of our building-stone and limestone industries. If, in my remarks, I have occasion to compare the metallic with the non-metallic industry, I do so, not with any idea of dimming the glory which the metallics of Canada have gained- not only in our own country, but in the world at large-but for the purpose? of bringing to your attention the fact, perhaps not very well recognized, that Canada contains deposits of non-metallics well worth y of your serious consideration. In the past 33 years, namely, since 1895, the value of non-metallics produced in Canada has exceeded the value of metallics in 19 of the years, and for the last three years has been increasing rapidly. The war years (1915-1918 inclusive) naturally saw an intensive metallic production, but since that time, with the exception of 1925, when there was a general depression throughout the whole country, the non-metallics have been in the ascendency.

Jan 1, 1929

By G. A. McGuffin

"IntroductionWITH the increase in quantity of sour gas reserves in the Province of Alberta, and the wider market for sulphur brought about by mounting world demand and restrictions placed on the principal supply, it was inevitable that this important source of sulphur would be .developed. In the light of these facts, it seems timely that a general paper on sulphur recovery from petroleum gases be presented. This, then, is the purpose of the following text. A short discussion of each of the following subjects is presented:(1) Properties and uses of sulphur(2) Existing sources(3) Market research(4) The recovery process in Turner Valley(5) Hazards of sulphur productionNo pretext of originality of material is made since innumerable reports have been prepared on this and related topics and information contained in these has been used quite liberally.Properties and uses of SulphurSulphur is a non-metallic element having an atomic weight of 32.06. The stable crystalline form at atmospheric temperature is referred to as 'rhombic' sulphur. It is bright yellow and has a specific gravity of 2.05, equivalent to 129.2 lb./cu. Ft. Above 204°F. sulphur has another stable crystalline form, referred to as 'monoclinic'. This is reddish-brown and is slightly less dense than the rhombic variety (122.4 lb./cu. Ft.). Sulphur in bulk form weighs 84 to 90 lb. per cu. Ft. Sulphur melts at approximately 240°F. to a straw coloured liquid which is quite viscous."

Jan 1, 1952

By J. H. Walsh

IN THE DEVELOPMENT of procedures for the separation of minerals, the choice of reagents for flotation is frequently determined by the extent to which a given mineral is wettable by water. Measurements of the contact angle of an air bubble on wet mineral surfaces are often used in the laboratory to estimate the wettability of the surface. For the results of these measurements to be reproducible, the surface of the mineral must be polished to a mirror-like smoothness and must be free from oily contamination. Elaborate procedures for preparing mineral surfaces have been developed by Wark ( 1) and Taggart (2), and these procedures have been generally accepted as adequate for their purpose. The polishing techniques, how-ever, have certain inherent disadvantages which make it impossible to assess the effects of polishing, entrained abrasive, and adsorbed gases on the wettability of the mineral surface.

Jan 1, 1957

By C. W. Eggert

This paper gives an account of the E.V.O.P. tests made at the Copper Rand mill of the Patino Mining Corporation in Chibougamau, Quebec. The runs were made to acquire an understanding of the method. A description of events, along with conclusions, observations and opinions, is out-lined.

Jan 1, 1967

By Atsuki Sado, Akira Ueno, Kazuaki Takebayashi, Kunio Watanabe

The Saganoseki Refinery of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd., Japan, introduced the ISA 2000® process in 2006 to improve product quality and productivity. After resolving various technical difficulties associated with the process, a current density of 325 A/m2 and electrolytic copper production of 234 000 tons per year were realized in 2018. In recent years, Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery has promoted treatment of recycled materials in addition to copper concentrates. Accordingly, the amount and type of impurities charged to the smelting process have tended to increase. In the electrorefining process, impurities such as nickel and antimony cause anodic passivation and formation of suspended solids, respectively. Although these undesirable phenomena can be avoided by controlling impurity concentrations in the anode and electrolyte to appropriate ranges, this also limits the choice of recycled materials that can be processed by the smelter. To achieve both stable operation of the electrorefining process and flexibility in treatment of recycled materials in the smelting process, Saganoseki Refinery improved the capacity of the impurity recovery processes during 2016 to 2018. This paper describes the expansion of the purification plant to remove and recover nickel and antimony. INTRODUCTION The Saganoseki Refinery of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd., Japan, introduced the ISA 2000® (wax- less permanent cathode method) in 2006 to improve product quality and productivity. Since then, the refinery has gradually increased current density, and has been committed to establishing stable operation and high productivity via various improvements related to the electrolyte filtration and additive management systems. Figure 1 shows the trends of current density and current efficiency at the refinery. Although the current efficiency temporarily dropped when the current density was raised to 322 A/m2, it consistently exceeded 97% thereafter. At present, stable operation at 325 A/m2 has been achieved and continues.

Jan 1, 2019

By P. Wanjara, M. Xiao

During fusion welding of aluminium alloys, the avoidance of defects (such as porosity, oxides, hot cracking, undercutting) as well as the ability to optimize the microstructure-property characteristics in the assembly are critical for the stringent manufacturing specifications in the aerospace industry. In this work, aluminium alloy (AA) 2024 was electron beam welded autogenously as part of a study to determine the influence of parametric conditions on the characteristics of the heat affected and fusion zones to obtain optimal welding conditions. In particular the evolution in the weld geometry, microstructure and mechanical properties were examined as function of the processing conditions, including beam current, beam focus, beam oscillation, linear heat input and welding speed. For optimized parametric conditions, microstructural examination of the joints revealed narrow fusion and heat-affected zones comprising of dendritic structures without the occurrence of defects that enabled a maximized joint efficiency.

Jan 1, 2006

By E. Esmaeilzadeh

There arc 8 primary ball mills in the concentrator plant and their task is material crushing. At the time of balls charge to mills, a lot of noise is produced. This noise would affect all grinding areas. The aim of this research was a reduction about 16 dB at source sound power level (SWL was 129.1 dB). With considering two noise control principles, noise producer sources and propagation paths were specified. For removing and reducing of noise producer sources, rubbers with a thickness of 5-20 mm were used on the all inside surfaces of charge box, ball transferring box and exit canal. For increasing transmission loss and damping coefficient of charge box body, rubber with thickness of 1 cm at outside surface of box was used. For reduction of noise propagation a secondary metal cover was designed and made. This cover includes two parts and was set around the charge box. Glass wool (75 kg/m3) with 10 cm thickness was used as acoustical absorbent between free space of two body's layers and from secondary cover side. The of the rest space was left empty. After installing of secondary cover on the ball charge box no.4, SWL showed a reduction about 16 dB. For studying of control system effect on noise reduction at points far from of charge place, measuring results at these points showed the maximum reduction 12.1 dB and the minimum 11.8 dB.

Jan 1, 2007

By George W. Bain

The area in Quebec immediately north of the Ottawa river is underlain by a large area of granite gneiss intruded in lit-par-lit fashion into Grenville sediments and low silica intrusives of the Buckingham Series. This complex of metamorphic rocks is intruded by a much later magma found, chiefly, as a very large stock about 20 miles in diameter and extending from Brownsburg to Grenville, and as dykes and small outliers at various places adjacent to its outer margin. 1A similar stock at Rigaud, Quebec, is situated south of the Ottawa river and has been described by O. E. Le Roy. The earliest representatives of the later magma are a series of granodiorite dykes characterized by abundant hornblende, along with primary magnetite and subordinate sulphides scattered as roundish grains through anorthoclase and aligoclase feldspars and subordinate quartz. The rock is found as narrow dykes and shows no prominent secondary structures, either in the field or in thin sections under the microscope.

Jan 1, 1926

By Tyler Roberts

New Afton mine is an 11,000 tonne per day block caving operation, located 8 km west of the city of Kamloops, British Columbia. Due to the nature of block caving and the weak rock mass at New Afton, the mine has faced and overcome many blasting challenges during its ramp-up to commercial production. As New Afton Mine continues to grow the demand for drill and blast precision has continued to grow as well; any misstep incurs delays in achieving full production capacity. The block cave mining method used at New Afton employs single-shot draw-bells, fired with very little void and blind undercutting, allowing little margin for error. New Afton has made continuous improvements to its blasting strategy by reacting quickly to real-time problems and employing sustainable, repeatable solutions to overcome its unique blasting requirements. Examples of these solutions include: increasing blast hole diameter, casing production drill holes, developing pre-loading procedures and developing strategies for remotely blasting under-broken remnants in both draw-bells and undercutting. Increasing the blast hole diameter has alleviated initial problems with hole plugging in the highly jointed rock mass at New Afton. This has reduced drill-cleaning time significantly and enabled New Afton to meet blasting targets. PVC hole casing was trialed when blasting in extremely fractured ground, where drill holes continually plugged. The casing allowed the drill holes to remain open long enough to load and blast. Calculations were carried out in order to achieve the same explosive energy in the cased holes as a typical blast. Results were generally positive, but more testing is required. Production flexibility and scheduling reliability have been maintained at New Afton by developing a pre-loading procedure for the production undercutting. In doing so, New Afton has been able to keep productivity high by having a flexible production schedule that is not reliant on a specific piece of equipment or production drive to remain productive; this flexibility is because the mucking of undercut material can occur at any stage of the drill/blast/muck cycle. New Afton has developed a strategy for blasting remnant under-break in its draw-bells and undercutting by remotely drilling holes near to the under-broken section and then loading the toes of these holes with emulsion, the remainder of the hole is then filled with grout. The holes are grouted in order to prevent damage to permanent pillars between draw-bells (where the majority of the recovery holes need to be located). Several critical areas were recovered using this technique with little to no damage to the remaining permanent pillars. Innovative blasting solutions have allowed New Afton to overcome obstacles in order to become a producing operation. Moving forward, New Afton looks to continue its trend of innovative drilling and blasting techniques when faced with out of the ordinary situations.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. G. Scobie

THE research laboratory of this Company was recently faced with the problem of determining trace amounts of tungsten in a series of classifier sands. A spectrographie survey revealed the feasibility of using this instrument in the final evaluation, but a check of the common methods in use for the isolation of tungsten (3, 4) showed these methods to give incomplete separation for trace amounts. An investigation into the possibility of modifying these procedures, or developing others, was thus indicated. ASSAY PROCEDURE Weigh 10 grams of 200-mesh ore or concentrate into a 400-ml. beaker, wet the sample well with about 20 ml. of water, and add 100 ml. of hydrochloric acid. Cover, digest at 60° to 70° C. for about 1 hour, and then boil down to approximately 25 ml. Cool, add 25 ml. of hydrochloric acid and 10 ml. of nitric acid, and again boil to former volume. Add 20-ml. portions of nitric acid with successive boiling clown until chemical action is complete. Then add 20-ml. portions of hydrochloric acid until all nitric acid is removed. Take nearly to dryness on a law-temperature hot plate, but do not bake. Take up in 10 ml. of hydrochloric acid and 20 ml. of water and heat on a law-temperature hot plate until all iron goes into solution. Dilute to 200 ml. and heat to just below boiling. Stir in pulp of about half of a No. 41 Whatman filter paper (12.5-cm.) and continue digestion on plate with occasional stirring for 15 to 20 minutes.

Jan 1, 1943

By A. Sutherland Brown, Stuart S. Holfand

"The Northeastern part of the Cariboo district lies in the big bend of the Fraser River between Quesnel and McBride. The area shown on Figure 1 extends from just west of Wells to Isaac Lake, about 30 miles across the regional strike of beds.Topographically the area extends from the moderately well dissected Interior Plateau in the west through a transition zone to the fully dissected Cariboo Mountains in the east.The area is an important source of lode and placer gold. The Cariboo Gold Quartz and Island Mountain lode-gold mines have produced more than 32 million dollars in bullion since 1932. Placer-mining has probably produced an equivalent or greater amount, although only 15 million dollars is officially recorded because accurate statistics. were not kept until fourteen years after the origiiaal gold rush of 1860.The regional structure of the Barkerville district was summarized by Lang in the Jubilee Volume (1948, pp. 141-149). Since then a large amount of detailed and areal mapping by the writers has expanded the information available and made necessary a complete revision of the regional geology. Much of the information summarized in this paper, together with a full discussion of the revisions, may be found in British Columbia Department of Mines Bulletins, Nos. 34 and 38, but other information is as yet un-published.Rocks of the Kaza group are exposed in the core of the Lanezi anti-clinorium between Spectacle and Isaac Lakes. The main part of the group is composed of greenish micaceous greywacke and greenish schist with knots of garnet, biotite, or both, and minor amounts of pebble conglomerate. The upper 1,000 feet is composed of white to brown quartzites and brown phyllites. Altogether, about 6,000 feet of the group is exposed. 1t is of latest Precambrian, i. e. Windermere, age."

Jan 1, 1949

By M. Tanaka, H. Narita, K. Morisaku

"The selective separation of palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and rhodium (Rh) from a hydrochloric acid solution by solvent extraction was investigated using amide-type extractants, i.e., N,N,N’,N’-tetra-n-octyl-thiodiglycolamide (TDGA) and N-n-hexyl-bis(N-methyl-N-n-octyl-ethylamide) amine (BisAA). The separation experiments employed two separation schemes: (1) extraction of Pd with TDGA and that of Rh and Pt with BisAA; and (2) extraction of Rh, Pd, and Pt with BisAA. Separation scheme 1 achieved the highly selective separation of each metal. For separation scheme 2, Rh can be recovered prior to Pd and Pt, despite having a lower selectivity for Pd/Pt than separation scheme 1. INTRODUCTIONThe recent increase in the use of platinum group metals (PGMs) in industry (especially auto catalysts containing palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and rhodium (Rh)) has lead to their increasing waste; therefore, improvements in the recovery techniques for PGM have received significant attention. In metal refineries, PGMs are mainly separated and purified by solvent extraction (Cox, 2004). The extraction process used in INCO’s Acton precious metal refinery is one of the most famous commercial processes and is utilized worldwide. In this process, silver is first removed as a residue (AgCl), and then gold, Pd and Pt are extracted from hydrochloric acid (HCl) solutions using dibutylcarbitol (DBC), dialkylsulfide (DAS), and tri-n-butylphosphate (TBP), respectively. Finally, Rh remains in the raffinate (Barns & Edwards, 1982).The development of a successful solvent extraction process depends on the choice of the appropriate extractants. We have studied the extraction of PGM using N,N-disubstituted amide compounds (Narita, Tanaka, Morisaku, & Abe, 2004; Narita, Tanaka, Morisaku, & Tamura, 2006; Narita, Tanaka, & Morisaku, 2008a, 2008b). They are relatively stable against acids, and their metal extractability can be improved by changing the side chain length and/or introducing additional donor atoms like sulfur and nitrogen. We have recently found that thiodiglycolamide and an amide-containing tertiary amine have good extractabilities for Pd and Rh, respectively."

Jan 1, 2012

By R. W. Thompkins

In order to evaluate the impact of air quality control on mine design, a few examples are given of cases in wh.ich ventilation has affected the economics of the total design problem. Principles for the drainage of gas contaminants are shown, and the contamination control problems created by differential pressures in complicated booster fan installations are discussed. The paper also deals with the use of advanced mathematics for solving some of the ventilation problems likely to be encountered.

Jan 1, 1967

By S. Boisvert

Risk-based Inspection (RBI) addresses the challenges associated with ageing plants by focusing the inspection effort on the process equipments with the highest risk, thereby improving plant safety and reducing inspection costs. The RBI methodology is commonly used in the oil industry through the API 581 standard. Since no such standard exists in the mining and metals industry, BPR-Bechtel has developed one using inspection data from process equipments in CEZinc. Models were developed for various damage mechanisms, such as uniform corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. The equations were organized into a user friendly software that facilitates the implementation process.

Jan 1, 2010

By E. I. Robinsky

"In light of the recurring spills and failures of conventional tailings disposal pond dams, a brief review of the Thickened Tailings Disposal (TTD) system is presented. It is shown that by the process of thickening the tailings to a heavy slurry prior to disposal, it is possible to create a self-supporting deposit of tailings and to eliminate the typical superimposed settling pond. These features, together with the ability to reclaim the disposal area even as mining continues, preclude an ecological disaster. IntroductionMine tailings spills are really not such rare occurrences. They have been happening on many continents, in many countries. Neither Canada nor the United States have been spared. In Ontario, the most recent spill occurred at a closed-down tailings disposal area in Matachewan, in 1991.Such continuing disasters could be avoided if a different approach were taken to the disposal of tailings wastes. The recent failures at the Los Frailes mine in Spain, the Omai mine in Guyana, and the Marcopper mine in the Philippines, will hopefully shake up the industry to consider other methods of disposal. The reason why the failure of a conventional tailings disposal dam is so environmentally disastrous is not the dam itself, but the fact that the dam retains a mass of very loose unconsolidated tailings and a great deal of water, or process fluid1. If the dam fails, the contents liquefy completely as they flow through the breach. In this liquid state, they can flow many miles downstream. If the dam itself were built of tailings material, as is often the case, it too would liquefy and join the flow.The reason the material is so loose in the first place is that it has been discharged into a pond filled with water. The tailings particles drift down through the water, their weight reduced by 50% due to buoyancy, to form a loose structure, like a “house of cards,” or lakebottom mud. It doesn’t take much of a shock to collapse the material into a liquefied state."

Jan 1, 1999

By Randy Settgast, Daniel Moos, Hyunil Jo, Ghazal Izadi, Christine Baba

"Analyses of production logs of multiply fractured horizontal wells in unconventional plays show that only a small percent (~30%) of perforation clusters contribute to production. We present in this paper one possible approach to mitigating this problem, based on use of a fully 3-D numerical model of fracture propagation through a heterogeneous medium, by studying the influence both of spacing and of perforation friction on the initiation and propagation of simultaneous hydraulic fractures from a horizontal wellbore. The results indicate that while limited-entry perforating can help to equalize the lengths of fractures simultaneously growing from multiple clusters, it cannot equalize their widths. Both fracture width and fracture length can be equilibrated by combining non-even cluster spacing with limited-entry perforating. This has obvious benefits as it allows equalized placement of proppant across the entire series of perforation clusters, resulting in similar fracture widths and conductivities which enhances the likelihood that all clusters will contribute equally to production.INTRODUCTIONThere is substantial evidence from production logs and other information that during the hydraulic stimulation of horizontal wells, not all perforation clusters within a given stage will produce. One possible cause is the interaction between the hydraulic fractures emanating from each perforation cluster. Typically fractures created at the outer perforation clusters create “stress shadows”, i.e. increases in compressive stress in the minimum principal stress direction, which limit the growth of fractures growing from interior clusters; this is confirmed by modelling [1, 2, 3]. An example of this can be seen in Figure 1 which shows the final configuration of simultaneously propagating fractures from multiple, evenly spaced clusters when there is no perforation friction. The inner fractures are substantially shorter, reproducing the results by Bunger and Peirce [3]. The inner fractures also have substantially smaller widths.One approach to equalize the growth of simultaneously propagating fractures from a horizontal wellbore is by using limited-entry perforating as a method to equilibrate the flow rates into each of the different perforation clusters. Perforation friction is caused by the finite diameter of the entry points into the formation, and leads to a pressure drop across each perforation which is proportional to the flow rate squared. Fractures that take more fluid have a higher fluid velocity through the perforations than fractures receiving less fluid. This causes a larger pressure drop between the wellbore and more rapidly growing fractures, compared to the same pressure drop between the wellbore and the fractures that grow more slowly. Because pressure within the wellbore is approximately the same at each entry point, the larger pressure drop leads to less pressure being delivered to rapidly growing fractures, thereby decreasing their ability to propagate and reducing the amount of fluid they are able to receive. Because the mass rate of injection into the wellbore is constant, this forces more fluid into the fractures that were propagating more slowly, increasing their growth rate. It also increases the pressure required to drive fluid injection. The balance of these effects makes the system largely self-regulating and delivers more balanced fracture growth. While this effect is well known, it is often neglected in current numerical models."

Jan 1, 2015

By L. Lafrenière

A trend in mining exploration is to increase the number of geophysical parameters collected and interpreted for geological features in a given area. Airborne technology now allows us to simultaneously combine electromagnetic, gravity, aeromagnetic and radiometric surveys. We report the results of a multiparameter survey conducted in the area of Kamiskotia, Ontario. This area is located near and on the West side of the multi-metalliferous Kidd Creek deposit. Various metallic occurrences are reported in the studied area. Integrating multiple parameters in the interpretation produces a more detailed pseudogeological map than what has already been published. 3D interpretation has been undertaken using some of these parameters and suggests that future work is required in 3D earth model solutions in order to fully use all parameters.

Aug 1, 2013

By J. A. C. Fortescue

During the past decade, geochemical prospecting methods have become important in Canadian mineral exploration. The object of this paper is to discuss the role of geochemical methods in a typical mineral exploration program involving parallel geological and geophysical methods applied at different degrees of intensity. Particular attention is given to the description of the degree of development of geochemical prospecting under different kinds of local conditions.

Jan 1, 1967