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By James R. Garvey

The impact of conversion on the coal industry can be summarized very briefly: We are going to have to mine an awful lot of coal. Fortunately, the United States has the coal reserves available, and given the right conditions, we can mine it. The coal reserves of the United States are enormous. If we consider them on the basis of proved reserves, using the standards of the petroleum industry--that is, resources mapped and explored and recoverable with present techniques at close to present costs--and compare that with the reserves of other fuels, coal constitutes 88 per cent of the proved recoverable energy resources of the nation. That includes oil, natural gas, oil shale and uranium, so long as the uranium is used in burner reactors. If we consider resources on the basis of "ultimate recoverable" reserves, that is, those resources which can be extracted with improved technology and at somewhat higher costs--and if we include those resources of all fuels not yet found but believed to be waiting discovery--coal still accounts for 74 per cent of the national total. We have built a hydrocarbon economy in which about 76 per cent of our total energy needs are supplied by petroleum and natural gas, and about 20 per cent by coal. Domestic resources of oil and gas are running dangerously low and, assuming a continued hydrocarbon economy, the 20 per cent supplied by coal may increase dramatically. We already import nearly a quarter of the petroleum we consume, and the chief source of additional imports seems to lie in the politically unstable Middle East. Natural gas is in even shorter supply, and the problems of importing it seem at least as difficult as those of oil. The fact is, the United States is already relying to an increasing extent on foreign fuel sources. There is an obvious national risk in making an important part of energy supply hostage to foreign governments of uncertain tenure and friendliness. There is also an economic risk--one of the chief reasons for last year's economic freeze was to try to correct the deficit in our balance of payments; it is obvious

Jan 1, 1972

By Libby R. Ricafort, Nonato S. Retardo, Jose B. Anievas

This paper shows the metallurgical test results that led to the design of the heap leach facilities of Philex Mining Corporation. The design incorporates a water management model as process solution circulation is excessive with high rainfall intensity in the area. This poses problems in the operations requiring stringent controls than would be necessary in a less severe environment. The corporate perspective embraces on environmentally-sound mineral development. A budget is always provided to environmental management making certain that no industrial development is moved forward at the expense of the environment.

Jan 1, 1996

By William Harrison, Robert H. Trent

GENERAL DESCRIPTION History The most striking feature of mining in the United States has been the infrequent use of longwall systems. This system, which accounts for the majority of coal production in Europe, Japan, and other countries, is only recently growing out of its infancy in the mining of normal coal seams and is still untried in the mining of thick coal seams in the US. Its use in the mining of metal and nonmetal ore bodies has been virtually ig¬nored, except for isolated instances in trona, copper, and uranium. Longwall mining is believed to have originated in Shropshire, England, towards the end of the 17th cen¬tury (Laird, 1973). Although the method used would be considered primitive by today's standards, many of the basic concepts have remained unchanged. Longwall mining of coal in the US was first introduced before the turn of the century, but it never gained acceptance as it did in Europe. Historically, longwalling was a cyclic method where a single cut of coal was removed from the face on the producing shift each day, and the work of building stone packs in the gob and manually moving roof support was completed on the off shifts. Due to the amount of dead work, productivity was extremely low. In Europe, however, longwall methods were required despite the high costs involved, because only by this method could coal under heavy depth be mined with any reasonable degree of recovery. Reserves of coal lying under shallow cover, and therefore minable by room¬and-pillar methods, were long ago inadequate to supply most of Europe's coal requirements. In the US coal min¬ing has historically proceeded laterally with the new mines in virgin areas to replace old mines; in Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and many other countries, mining must proceed downward to greater depths. The depth of cover for most coal operations in the US is shallow, i.e., 61 to 305 m (200 to 1000 ft). This, combined with large reserves, has made room-and-pillar methods almost universally applicable. However, longwall systems were tried around the turn of the century. Whenever used, it was frequently noted that the opera¬tion was under the direction of men with foreign ex¬perience and was tried under ideal conditions. Some of the mines that were using longwall or had tried longwall prior to 1910 were the Radiant mine, CO; Vinton Coal Co., PA; Cambria Steel Co., Johnstown, PA; Grundy County and Spring Valley, IL; and unnamed mines in Washington, West Virginia, Kentucky, Iowa, and Kansas. As late as 1961, there was one circular longwall in operation at Centerville, IA. The first modern-day op¬eration to take advantage of European technology and longwall methods was Kaiser Steel Corp. at its Sunnyside mine near Price, UT. Due to deep cover and extremely poor roof conditions, combined with a need for in¬creased production, Kaiser management decided a new method was required and turned to longwall in 1961. The first longwall consisted of an Anderson Mavor shearer loader, British Jeffrey-Diamond conveying equip¬ment, and Dowty roof supports with a capacity made up of two and three 27-t (30-st) capacity props. After nor¬mal start-up problems, this unit averaged over 454 t (500 st) per shift (White and Palacios, 1976). During and after World War II, technology in hy¬draulics and controls had advanced to the point that self-advancing supports and hydraulic props were being developed. In 1960 only I % of West German produc¬tion was from mechanized longwall faces. This in¬creased to 37% in 1970 and 63% in 1973 (Kohlgruber, 1974). In 1976 there were 246 coal mines operating in the United Kingdom. Although this is only 50% of those operating ten years ago, the production has increased 42%, mainly through improvements in longwall equipment and methods (Hunter, 1976). In France and other European countries, the devel¬opment of longwall mechanization has been similar in seams up to 2.44 m (8 ft) thick. In seams that exceed 9.14 m (30 ft), a variety of longwall caving has been developed for coal seams with dips of 0 to 1.6 rad (0 to 90°). Those with the greatest success will be discussed later. As noted, the development of longwall mining to its present state of the art has mainly taken place since World War II with substantial gains in the last ten years. Mechanized longwall has been the result of several re¬lated major innovations (Jackson, 1975) 1) Development of the flexible armored face con¬veyor which can be installed along the face and moved forward without disassembly. 2) Development of face machines such as single and double drum shearer and coal plows which operate in conjunction with the armored conveyors. 3) Development of self-advancing hydraulic roof supports which now include chocks, chock shields, and shields. 4) Reliance of caving of the immediate roof based on proper planning and development. 5) Use of pneumatic slowing to enable extraction below overbuilt areas. The most recent developments in the mining of coal by longwall in the US include the introduction of shield supports at Kaiser's York Canyon mine in New Mexico, single-entry longwall development at Kaiser's Sunnyside mine, and Mid-Continent's advancing longwall system in Colorado. Metal and nonmetal longwall systems in the US have included the mining of copper at White Pine, MI; uranium in Utah and New Mexico, and trona in Wyoming.

Jan 1, 1982

By George L. Wilhelm

Many factors, some of which are not easily defined or described, must be considered in the design of a hydraulic backfill system. After participating in the design of several plants, I have a conviction that future refinements in sandfill systems must come in large part, from the merging of good design ideas and information from existing operating plants. It is important then, that we document and publish information on existing plant designs and their operating characteristics. This information will then be available for use by our successors and later innovators in hydraulic fill placement. The Mayflower hydraulic sandfill system is similar to other plants. The intent of this paper is to describe only this system's unique design and operating characteristics. I will not describe in any detail, the familiar elements of the system. I will document some of the observed hydraulic characteristics of the system, elaborate on some of the design situations that had to be solved, and will discuss operating factors that are not generally described in our technical literature.

Jan 1, 1968

By J. M. Van Langen

In 1965 Hoogovens was looking for additional capacity for burden preparation in the order of 2,5 to 3 million metric tons per annum of some kind of optimal blast furnace ore feed. In principle four solutions offered them-selves for further investigation: 1. purchase of screened ore and/or run of mine ores with the provision of a corresponding ore screening capacity on the blast furnace site; 2. manufacture of sinter; 3. purchase of pellets; 4. manufacture of pellets. After studying the technological, technical, economical and commercial factors Hoogovens decided for the last mentioned possibility. Before taking this decision not only a great number of different mixtures of iron ore were tested, but during a long period in one of the big blast furnaces a number of tests were also executed with purchased pellets from South and North America. It was found, that using 50% acid pellets with 40% basic sinter a coke rate saving of 25 kg per ton hot metal (50 lbs/net THM) and a production gain of 15% could be obtained as compared with a full sinter practice. With some pellets it became clear, that due to properties, commonly referred to as swelling, we got very poor furnace performances; so in studying the production of pellets, pellet quality should be regarded as the most important aspect of the problem.

Jan 1, 1972

By R. R. Klimpel

The process of flotation is an extremely important solids separation technique employed in a wide variety of industrial process applications. Froth flotation is practiced in the coal industry to recover fines produced during the mining and cleaning of coal. A recent review article by Aplan (1) covers the processing variables encountered in the flotation of coal and the variety of chemicals and operating conditions which affect recovery. Numerous engineering and scientific studies have been performed with the goal of providing semifundamental laws of flotation behavior for improved screening of flotation chemicals, better equipment scale-up factors, etc. Often the results of such work are expressed in the form of mathematical models (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which are potentially useful for evaluating (simulating) on paper such alternatives as possibles process operating or configuration changes, the effects of ore and reagent changes, etc. It appears to be commonly accepted that a complete scientific/engineering characterization of flotation is immensely complicated and not sufficiently developed at the present to accurately predict (or understand) many important industrial facets of flotation. Thus, one is often reduced to detailed experimental characterization in both the laboratory and plant in order to fully evaluate flotation changes or alternatives. It is the purpose of this paper to describe a method of batch laboratory data characterization that is useful in evaluating flotation chemical reagents including froth flotation of coal. The approach consists of running a series of time-recovery curves in a batch float cell followed by the computer curve fitting of this data to a series of mathematical models based on semi-physical reasoning. The unknowns or parameters of these models are then optimally chosen so as to best fit the experimental data. It has been found in both coal and mineral systems that changes in reagent type, concentration, system pH, grind, etc. cause very consistent and logical changes to

Jan 1, 1979

By T. S. Golosinski

Use of contractors to excavate, load and haul mined material is widespread in Australia. It is also becoming a common practice in many other countries. The paper reviews current practices in Australian contract mining. Various types of contracts are reviewed, including partnering arrangements and alliancing between the contractor and the mine owner. Applicability of various types of contracts to specific mining situations is discussed, as is their impact on overall mine performance

Jan 1, 1998

By Richard M. Crowell

"As thorough sampling is usually expensive, the cost of a complete job is often unwarranted, and a cheaper approximation must be substituted. The engineer should, however, weigh the situation thoroughly before subscribing to an alternative other than an accurate assay basis on which to build his conclusion." Examination and Valuation of Mineral Property. R. Parks, 1949

Jan 1, 1994

By R. Singhal

Canada's coal production is approximately 65.4 million tonnes of which 95 % is produced by surface mining methods mostly from the three Western provinces (British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan). The mines are highly mechanized; productivity gains during the past few years have ranged from 60 -80%. Truck/Shovel methods are common although Saskatchewan lignite is almost exclusively mined by draglines. This paper provides an overview of Canadian Coal mining industry vis a vis surface mining. Emphasis is on application and utilization of mining equipment and associated mining methods.

Jan 1, 1994

By H. G. Stephenson

Canada and the United states are both developed countries with economies which are extremely dependant on oil. Canada exports 37% of its production (to the United states) and imports 35% of its consumption (mainly into Eastern Canada), making the country self-sufficient in oil. Canada is attempting to increase its oil production so as to simultaneously reduce its dependence on foreign oil while producing more oil for export. The United states -imports no less than 50% of its total consumption of 17 million barrels/day. Canada's exports to the United states form only 7% of the United States total imports. The United States would clearly prefer to achieve self-sufficiency in oil. Consequently both countries are dependent on foreign oil. The united States is however in the sensitive situation of depending, for its imports, on countries which are susceptible to destabilizing political events. It is the author's hypothesis that recent developments in underground oil recovery from the Athabasca oil Sands of Alberta may well, for both countries, form part of the solution to these problems.

Jan 1, 1991

By D. W. Park

Underground openings resulting from coal mining activities have been a serious cause of subsidence problems in the Warrior coalfield of Alabama, which is the 11th largest coal-producing state in the United States (National Coal Association, 1986). The problem will be even more serious in the future because 17 Gt (19 billion st) of Alabama's 22 Gt (24 billion st) of coal reserves are classified as an under- ground resource (Tolson et al., 1982). Subsidence data in this area has been scarce com- pared with other coalfields (Conroy, 1980; Dunrud and Osterwald, 1980; Gentry and Able, 1978; Hunt, 1979; King and Gentry, 1979). This paper discusses the results of a study of subsidence overlying two longwall mines that contrast each other. One of them (Mine #1) is a shallow longwall mine where the coal strength is very high, and the other mine (Mine #2) is extremely deep with a low strength of coal.

Jan 1, 1987

By Gerald A. Zicg

The Sheep Creek project area lies between 15 and 20 miles north of White Sulphur Springs in west central Montana, on the southern flanks of the Little Belt Mountains. The Sheep Creek project is a joint venture in which Cominco American Resources, Inc., has a 50% operating interest and BHP-Utah International, Inc., has a 50% participatory interest. The property consists of over 40,000 acres of leased fee land and lode claims. Modern exploration of the Sheep Creek area began in 1973 and 1974, when Homestake Mining Co. examined the extensive Sheep Creek gossans with soil sampling, trenching, and drilling. Cominco American Inc. began exploration in the area in 1976. Between 1978 and 1985, Anaconda Copper Co., Exxon Minerals Co., and Freeport also conducted exploration programs in the area. In 1985, Cominco completed consolidation of the district, gained BHP-Utah International, Inc., as a joint venture partner, and the joint venture drilled the first significant copper mineralization on the property. Of six bodies of copper mineralization so far located, the best defined are an upper copper zone, which includes a probable resource of 4.5 million metric tonnes grading 2.5% Cu and 0.1 % Co, and a lower copper zone which includes a possible resource of 4.5 million metric tonnes grading 4% Cu. Exploration drilling of the property is in progress.

Jan 1, 1991

"The paper treats the spatial aspect of mine sequence optimization. This aspect is revealed in the context of determination of the optimum number of cutbacks of an open pit mine. Cutback mining is a dominating method currently in base\precious metal mining and it is based on a pseudo-economic discretization of the pit space by using advanced pit design algorithms. The result of the implementation of such approach of pit design is the generation of pit shells, which need to be grouped into an optimum number of cutbacks for maximization of the project value. A mathematical solution of this problem is developed with the utilization of a combinatorial analysis. The solution provides a multi-variant investigation of the optimum mine sequence with the implementation of an author’s method for production scheduling optimization, which uses the Net Present Value as a criterion for assessing the economic efficiency of mine sequencing. A case study is provided for the conditions of a hypothetical open pit gold mine to illustrate the applicability of the approach. The results obtained reveal the complex nature of the variation of the Net Present Value as a function of the cutback geometry. INTRODUCTION The mine sequence optimization in open pit mining is a procedure that predetermines the efficiency of the production scheduling optimization. From a technological standpoint, the mine sequence optimization deals with two aspects – spatial and time. Each of them plays a tremendously important role in searching for the optimum solution of the open pit design problem. Original results on the time aspect of mine sequence optimization are published by Halatchev [2002]. They reveal a wide range of the Net Present Value (NPV) variation for a multi-variant arrangement of mine sequence over time and using a fixed geometry of the cutbacks, which determines the economic potential of a single open pit mine from a deterministic standpoint. The results show a range of NPV variation up to 30% depending on the stripping ratio of the mine. The effect of this variation is mainly due to the implementation of the mine planning principle of waste deferment in the scheduling optimization and using all theoretically possible variants of mine sequence arrangement by the inclusion of the bench sequences over the Life-Of-Mine (LOM) in the production process."

Jan 1, 2015

By S. R. Titley

Results of regional analyses of precious metal habits in Arizona ores lead to interpretations of a fundamental ore control related to geographic location that corresponds with crustal contrasts. Measurements of isotopic and trace element characteristics of Laramide ore-related intrusions lead to interpretations of crustal derivation of apparent ore-related magmas. Interpreted regionally, the numerous kinds of Laramide ores, which include porphyry copper deposits of this southern cordilleran region appear to be phenomena of a specific crustal lithology characterized by a basement of Proterozoic turbidites and (an interpreted) lower crust of amphibolite. This association with a specific basement terrane may be extended in principle from the United states into Mexico where faulted offsets of this basement are similarly favorable to formation of Laramide porphyry ores -to the exclusion of adjacent terranes. Whereas plate tectonic mechanisms may have triggered evolution of these ores, it is hypothesized here that crustal setting and crustal composition are more profound influences of metallogenesis.

Jan 1, 1992

By C. R. DeGennaro, M. R. Girman, J. Bickson, J. P. Homer, C. C. Jobes

Between 2005 and 2021, a NIOSH internal review showed that haul trucks were involved in 54 incidents at surface mines in the United States. Haul truck collision warning and avoidance systems (CXS) can assist in preventing accidents at surface mines. CXS use technologies to detect people or objects and alarm to alert haul truck operators. Robust testing can help ensure that they detect objects without excessive false positive alarms. Testing and validation would increase confidence in and encourage implementation of a CXS. Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reviewed documents related to the evaluation and validation of CXS with two objectives: (1) to identify methods and parameters used to evaluate detection performance and (2) to identify gaps in CXS test methods and in detection performance. Stakeholders can use the findings from this research to guide implementation of CXS to improve safety at surface mines.

Mar 2, 2022

By B. R. Waples

The first reaction in organizing a project of magnitude is that it's the same as smaller projects -- just bigger. This is not totally correct. The industry's record of completing big-money jobs on time and within budget is not outstanding. From a personal point of view, my question is: What is the project size at which controls are lost? Is it controls? Is it the number of pieces of equipment? Is it the number of decisions to be made? The slowness of communications? Or is it a combination of all of these? In working on multimillion-dollar jobs, the percentage of overrun seems to be lower or show an underrun when the following basics are followed: 1) Preplanning is intensified 2) Data gathering is complete 3) Approach is optimized 4) Planning is realistically scheduled 5) Changes are minimized 6) Decisions are expedited

Jan 1, 1982

By Fred L. Myers

The use of finite element programs for evaluating large grinding mill shells is becoming increasingly popular. However, large scale, detailed analysis can become a burdensome task when one is required to manually prepare the necessary data to be entered into the program, while evaluating the voluminous results is even more devastating. Although available computerized finite element analyses can reduce computation time from years to months or even weeks, additional pre and post processors can reduce the time for data preparation and result evaluation to hours, while simultaneously reducing the probability of human error. Examples of the uses of these processors are presented as well as typical modeling techniques.

Jan 1, 1979

By Ross K. Digby

The Victorian Tunnelling Centre (VTC) has evolved its purpose from purely training workers, to a tunnelling industry education city. The VTC has now focused its activities on the areas of technology; education and training; applied research; and career education. were identied as the hus around which activities would e conducted to create a tunnelling industry education city. The VTC provides ustralias tunnelling industry with an education facility that not only provides laour training, ut enales the industry to come together to meet, participate in product launches, undertake research, work with new technologies and promote tunnelling careers.

Jun 23, 2024

By T. Hollenberg, N. Nolten

The mining industry is one of the major energy consumers in Namibia. Energy costs increase the operating costs of Namibian mines, in particular, the processing plants, and result in an overall increase of production costs. A substantial part of the energy used is directly imported from South Africa. The cost of energy has been increasing rapidly in the past few years and will most likely continue to do so in the future. In 2015, the average wholesale price for energy from national power utility NamPower was US$87/MWh after rising more than 12 percent annually in the two previous years. At peak times, which are early in the morning and late in the evening, imported-energy prices are extremely high and have to be factored into the electricity tariffs. This problem is expected to intensify due to a projected 4 percent annual increase in energy demand. A major target of the Namibian mines, therefore, is to consider possible ways to address energy-saving challenges and to investigate possibilities for the mines to generate electricity internally during peak times. This is in alignment with the mines’ strategic plans and objectives to reduce total energy consumption and costs from both national and foreign electricity suppliers. In this paper, we explore addressing some of the key energy consumption and optimization challenges through process energy reuse and solar energy production to decrease demand for imported energy through a case study carried out in cooperation with Skorpion Zinc Mine and Refinery.

Jan 1, 2018

By G. A. Hayes

The range of gold ores tested at AMMTEC LTD over several years has resulted in the requirement to analyse for the mode of occurrence of gold in order to assist selection of ore processing options. The aim of this paper is to describe the laboratory testwork and analytical procedures which have been of benefit in detail­ing the mode of occurrence and mineral associations of gold and hence being of value in developing an optimised ore processing route. The range of ore and mineral assemblages described include relatively simple pyrite and free milling ores, more complex pyrite plus arsenopyrite gold ores and the quite com­plex associations of gold in copper bearing ores or with car­bonaceous mixed sulphide ore assemblages. The aim of this paper is to describe the laboratory testwork and analytical procedures which have been of benefit in detail­ing the mode of occurrence and mineral associations of gold and hence being of value in developing an optimised ore processing route. The range of ore and mineral assemblages described include relatively simple pyrite and free milling ores, more complex pyrite plus arsenopyrite gold ores and the quite com­plex associations of gold in copper bearing ores or with car­bonaceous mixed sulphide ore assemblages.

Jan 1, 1996