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By Meghan Murphy, Yiming Sun, Kush Chohan

DTX is a 1.3-mile-long rail extension being constructed by Transbay Joint Powers Authority to extend Caltrain rail service and future California High Speed Rail service to downtown San Francisco. It includes a 3,352-foot-long mined tunnel with a cross section varying from 50 to 60 feet wide and 43 feet high to accommodate two- and three-rail tracks. DTX will be excavated in mixed-face and Franciscan Formation with ground cover ranging from 40 to 85 feet. This paper discusses how mined tunnel design has evolved since the initial preliminary design phase over 10 years ago. The current design concept for tunnel construction is also discussed.

Jun 13, 2023

By Don Morris

The Building Products Company is Phoenix based and owned by Mission Clay products of California. Building Products is the only manufacturer of vitrified clay pipe in Arizona. The marketing area includes Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and California. Building Products, promoted by Arizona Public Service, was formed in 1970. Raw-materials prospecting was undertaken for 2 years, after which a $5-million plant was built. Initially, a satisfactory vitrified product could not be made with the raw materials then in hand. Subsequent prospecting and testing led to an acceptable raw-materials mix. Testing to upgrade the final product is a continuing process. The basic raw-materials supply must be adequate, secure, and capable of sustaining close tolerances in the final product. These needs are met by mining four geologic materials at three different localities: (1) refractory aluminous shales (two horizons-one pit) Colorado Plateau Province (Mogollon Rim); (2) less refractory aluminous materials from late Cenozoic lacustrine materials near Dewey in the Transition Zone (TZ); and (3) Precam¬brian "slate" from near New River along the southern edge of the TZ. Other additives include grog (ground-up, broken pipe) and barium carbonate that ties up what gypsum there is. Calcium magnesium carbonates are deleterious components that are minimized by careful selection of the mined products. The raw materials are blended and mixed, ground to 12 mesh, mixed in a pug mill, depleted of air, extruded into pipe ranging from 6 inches to 42 inches in diameter, transported to a hot-air drying room, fork-lifted to an appropriate kiln, and fired at a 1900-2000° F range. The "Rim" kaolinitic shales, being the most refractory ingredient, stabilize the pipe during the firing process. They are very plastic, and therefore facilitate extrusion. The Dewey clay fuses at a low temperature and forms an impervious glasslike binder. It also is plastic. The "slate" forms platy particles that tend to orient themselves during laminar flow. This provides strength for both the green and dried product. It doesn't absorb water, which helps the drying process. Grog remains stable during firing, and therefore helps to control shrinkage. The development of appropriate raw materials and proper mixtures has been done empirically.

Jan 1, 1987

By Robert G. Lundguist

REAM is a unique and promising method of rock breaking using high energy, inert projectiles to impart mechanical energy to the rock. This paper describes a demonstration of the application of this new technology to two specific problems in open pit mining: secondary breakage and the scaling of loose material from pit walls. Under previous government contracts, Physics International Company developed the projectile impact method for a large variety of commercial and military rock excavation tasks. A 4 meter (13 foot) diameter by 16.8 meters (55 foot) long tunnel was driven at the Hope Valley Mine in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in 1972 and 1973. An average of 1100 kg (1 ¼ tons) of a 172 MN/m2 (25,000-psi) granodiorite formation was broken by each of 590 shots used to drive the tunnel.l Based on these results it is estimated that REAM can drive over 60 meters (200 feet) of tunnel per day at about 88 percent of the cost of drilling and blasting. In addition, repeated axial impact by high energy projectiles was used to drill a 0.4 meter (16 inch) diameter horizontal hole in the same granodiorite formation. Each shot advanced the hole an average of 0.2 meter (8 inches).

Jan 1, 1976

By M. Javier

"Mining makes civilization possible. It also creates socio-environmental liabilities forcing us to ask how much more of this mining can our planet support. It is clear that the future of mining differs from mining in the future. The laws of nature are being compromised by mining. This paper studies the problems at the core of the mining business which need to be addressed. What kind of mining will serve our existence with nature on this planet? What kind of mining perspectives are we able to formulate without having negative effects for future generations? Is mining technologically sustainable? The values of predictions, imagination, and creativity must be integrated to define what mining should be. Those values should be in the technologies necessary to restoring equilibrium of nature (Geomimic) as well as in complete extraction of metals, better utilization of the mineral reserves, and design the usage of metals to recycle. The purpose of this research is to examine many views and perspectives for future generations and to accelerate the pace of innovation of having mining without socio-environmental liabilities by design and by understanding nature. KEYWORDS: Geomimic, Sustainability, Waste mine Design, Management by Loss. INTRODUCTION The future of mining is being stifled by many antiquated and stagnant attitudes and policies by the industry and society as a whole. The time is now or never for real action and education against these attitudes and to upgrade them to meet the current needs of this planet if we are to survive. Doing this will prove that we understand and respect nature for us and our posterity. It will also show a positive assessment that the mining process can be reversed before the point of no return. And that is to say, only if reversibility is still an option. It may not be anymore but it’s worth a try. We need to use our imagination and engineering know-how to come up with new proposals to change the core of mining. It would entail re-engineering. There is a profound difference between the future of mining and mining in the future. The future of mining is the continuation and persistence of past practices in the industry and expecting new results. Mining in the future requires a paradigm shift for extraction through modern thinking about mining as it pertains nature. The new paradigm for mining in the future would restore equilibrium with nature. Always keep in mind the connection of mining to nature. What is the future of nature? To predict mining in the future we need to use past experiences in mining and our knowledge of modern science and engineering to formulate a prototype that will enhance mining while maintaining equilibrium with nature. Mining and protecting nature are not mutually exclusive. This new prototype has nothing to do with the level of bonding or insurance that the mining industry can legally provide. The goal of this paper is to contribute some new ideas to help transform the mining industry based on the laws of nature and its limitations. Using this new prototype we will develop the following 1. Extraction of minerals Reserves-Dimensions-Technologies 2. Usage of mineral resources-Manufacture’s products designed to be reused and recycled 3. Nature- Equilibrium (physical, chemical and biological)"

Jan 1, 2016

By Goran Mathisson

PLASMARED is a process in which one well established and one new advanced technology have been merged into a practical tool for production of high quality direct reduced iron at lowest energy consumption and costs. Before describing the process, we have to reiterate the simple fundamentals of making metallized iron from iron ores: The main components necessary are: - Iron oxide - Carbon and/or hydrogen - Heat

Jan 1, 1982

By Stephen Utter

This report summarizes the results of preliminary investigations concerning the influence of block caving mining upon adjacent mine openings and discusses possible methods for reducing critical rock pressures and damage to these openings. These investigations are one part of a general study of the rock mechanics of block caving by the Denver Mining Research Center of the Federal Bureau of Mines. The purpose of this part of the study Is to obtain an estimate of the stress concentrations around mine openings adjacent to block caving stopes for use in developing better designed openings and improving mining methods. When mine openings such as slusher drifts, grizzly drifts, and haulage drifts are damaged by rock pressures induced by block caving mining, the mining cost increases, mine production decreases, and ore recovery may be consider- ably lessened. Methods of mining that result in lower rock pressures and methods of design that enable mine openings to withstand these pressures are desirable. The development of these methods, in turn, requires a fuller understanding of the following: The stres concentrations around the mine openings and the changes in stress induced by adjacent mining; the physical properties, such as the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of the rock surrounding the openings; and the support supplied by the concrete lining, timber sets, or other types of supports used in the openings.

Jan 1, 1962

By George E. Aiken

Agglomeration developments in the iron ore industry of North America are closely related to shifting patterns in commercially acceptable ore grades and even the definition of iron ores. These relationships have occurred mainly during the last 20 years. Many of these changes are an outgrowth of events which involved the history of the Mesabi Range. Although magnetic taconites had been discovered in the Lake Superior area about 1870, they remained unvrorked in part for lack of concentration methods and a generally unfavorable economic climate. Some 20 years later the rich Mesabi hematites were found beginning the era of direct shipping ores which continued through World War II. These Lake Superior iron ores included reserves of an estimated three billion tons. Following World War II, decreasing ore grades and rising costs began to force the closing of many underground iron mines. The early 50's saw the beginning of the decline in direct shipping ores and a spurt in produc- tion of natural iron concentrates. However, the market for unprocessed concentrates began to decline in the early 60's as agglomerated products and foreign ore s began to dominate the U. S. market.

Jan 1, 1973

By M. W. Springett

During the 1970's geostatisticians were often accused of not paying sufficient attention to geologic features in the computerised generation of ore reserves. Unfortunately this charge was all -too-often justified and the results of such studies tended to be oversimplified and failed to reveal the full potential of computerised reserve estimation and geostatistical methods. There were some notable exceptions to this trend. Techniques were described that paid a great deal of respect to the geologic characteristics peculiar to certain deposits (Rendu J-M, 1984, Barnes T. E., 1982). At Gold Fields several techniques have been developed for handling the geologic characteristics of ore bodies for reserve estimation purposes. These have developed over time and the evolution of their adoption has been a reflection of our own learning experience from the practical application of computerised reserve estimation on many precious metal s deposits. Problems Typical problems that have been experienced by ourselves and which we have learned to guard against and watch for are: ? "smearing" at geologic contacts ? confusion caused by disparate "selective mining unit sizes" and block sizes ? conflicting estimates generated by field staff using various versions of the polygonal method ? problems in generating meaningful variograms

Jan 1, 1985

By Gilbert Sauriol

The mining complex, which the Mines Gaspé division of Noranda Mines Limited has operated in Murdochville since 1954, includes open pit and underground mines, two mills, one leaching plant and a smelter. The under- ground mining uses predominantly a large scale room and pillar method, rooms 15 m wide, 30 m high and 300 m long being common. Ore production is effected by 4.5 m3 front-end loaders and 32-tonne trucks powered respectively by 225 and 325 kW diesels. Daily dust and gas readings show that air quality can be maintained at an acceptable level with much less ventilation than that normally specified. This paper emphasizes the point that air requirements should be based on Air Quality Standards, thus allowing an operation to benefit from favourable conditions or from improvements such as exhaust treatment, fuel alteration, etc.

Jan 1, 1983

By C Rutter, N Shea, K Kolobe

The Henderson mine, a panel cave mine in Colorado, has undergone multiple ventilation system changes to meet dynamic airflow needs. This paper explains the ventilation designs for different production panels, the challenges faced, and the modifications made to optimize the ventilation systems. The study highlights the importance of a robust ventilation system for safe and productive mining.

Mar 2, 2022

By John L. Ellenberger

Virtually no two mines operate with the same geographic, geologic, and mining conditions. It follows chat problems vary with the conditions from mine to mine or often from one section to another in the same mine. Actual situations are described, and a technique of "stacking" maps to predict hazards is presented. Two case histories of the use of multiple overlays are de- scribed. The first deals with a property that was examined before the start of mining. The second is a property in which severe ground control problems were encountered and the relationship between the problem areas and known conditions were found to be related.

Jan 1, 1981

By Chi-shing Wang

In many cases the roof strata of a bedded deposit may be considered as a composite of rock beams of rectangular cross section, whose component layers differ in thickness and may or may not be separable from each other when they are subjected to loading by their own weight. An analytical study of the behavior of such multiple-layer beams is extremely difficult owing to the heterogeneity and anisotropy of rock materials. The complexity is revealed by the fringe photographs obtained from several series of barodynamic photostress experiments conducted on various types of multiple-layer model beams of a medium-grained Bedford limestone. Further discussion on the applicability of barodynamic photostress techniques to the model study of the behavior of mine roofs in stratified geologic media is presented by comparing the phenomenological observations recorded in this investigation.

Jan 1, 1968

By Norman M. Junk

Following the wide-spread acceptance of ANFO as a useful, low cost blasting agent, studies have been made to adequately describe the physical and explosive properties of this material (1). As the quality of the AN blasting prill improved, reliability and sensitivity to initiation were greatly increased and many methods of priming were chosen from the standpoint of economics with little appreciation for the need to initiate so as to obtain the most efficient detonation. Under certain conditions, ANFO could be initiated with primers no more powerful than a No. 8 blasting cap (2). Research on primers for ANFO followed and it was demonstrated that this blasting agent was subject to extreme transient velocities upon initiation with wide variations in energy output depending upon the nature of the primer. For these reasons it was shown that powerful priming was economically justified (3). These studies helped to define the properties of an effective primer and the guides for its efficient use. In the vast surface coal mining industry, technological advances in earth moving equipment were paralleled by the development of larger and larger borehole drills (4). Even though ANM) was the major blasting agent used in this industry, investigations of priming techniques in these larger boreholes was almost non-existant. In 1962, Mr. Cleon Woolsey of Enos Coal Company disclosed to the industry that dramatic improvements in blasting production could be achieved with new priming and boostering methods (5). The research program at the Atlas laboratories was designed to explain these results and extend the study of initiation of ANFO with both high explosives and slurry explosives and to define the principles involved.

Jan 1, 1968

By R. D. Hammett

This paper describes an investigation that MS carried out using the three-dimensional, stress analysis computer program "NFOLD" to assess pillar stability in relation to existing mining conditions and the proposed layout of future stopes. The stress analyses were designed to assess the present stability of the mine (particularly the pillars adjacent to the shaft), the change in pillar stresses as mining proceeds, and the optimum stope geometry to minimize ground control problems. The existing conditions were modelled first, and rock mass strengths were adjusted until a good agreement between the predicted and observed conditions was obtained. Analyses of alternative mining layouts, based on the calibrated rock mass strengths, were then compared. The paper describes the results and the conclusions of the study.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. A. Pigott

Undercut-and-fill mining is a method developed by the International Nickel Company to deal with abnormal pillar mining conditions at one of its mines. Results have been such that its use has been extended to normal, pillar recovery operations in other mines of the Company as a replacement for conventional square-set pillar mining. It is anticipated that the method will also largely replace square-set stoping at INCo mines, especially for mining at deep horizons.

Jan 1, 1962

By Russell L. Cook

Stringent environmental regulations, which have limited the use of sludge ponds, coupled with the economic incentive to clean more 'coal or to add fine coal cleaning additions to existing preparation plants have increased the use of static thickeners in preparation plants. The Lamella Gravity Settler, sometimes de signated Lamella Thickener, is a shallow depth sedimentation device which has been applied in a variety of industrial process and wastewater control projects in place of the conventional raked thickeners. This paper presents the theory and design of the La-mella Thickener, as well as describing the operating results from several full scale installations in a variety of Appalachian preparation plants.

Jan 1, 1977

By Hugh D. Olmstead

Typical operations necessary to develop oil and gas reservoirs are reviewed, including exploration, drilling, cementing, completion, work over, sand control, stimulation, enhanced recovery and production. The role of industrial minerals in these operations is described. Some of the opportunities and problems affecting increased use of industrial minerals in drilling and stimulation are discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By Thomas E. Ban

D-LM at Mobile The qualified success of iron ore pelletizing processes has influenced considerations for production of highly beneficiated fur¬nace charges. Such beneficiation would necessarily involve some forms of chemical and perhaps thermal conversion for production of prereduced pellets, preheated pellets, precalcined pellets, and perhaps pellets which contain all of the above features as preheated, prereduced, precalcined products. This type of furnace burden will be adapted within a new ironmaking process to be activated commer¬cially during the latter part of 196$ in Mobile, Alabama. This process will integrate a new pelletizing system with an electric smelting furnace and the pellets will be comprised of a composite charge blended from metallurgical proportions of iron ore, coal, and limestone. The plant as designed and constructed by McDowell¬-Wellman Engineering Company will feature the D-LM process and will be owned by McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company. It is significant to

Jan 1, 1968

By W. C. Brice

Minnesota contains a major copper-nickel resource. In anticipation of requests by industry to develop this resource, the Minnesota Department Of Natural Resources has developed a computerized resource inventory and analysis system, MINESITE This extensive database is available to regulatory agencies as they evaluate mining proposals as required by law. The Resource Analysis phase of the project allows state mining policy decisions to be evaluated in terms of long-range effects on Minnesota's mining industry and environmental and land use impacts. The analysis also allows for comparison of proposed mine facility sites to a representative range of sites in terms of engineering, site characteristics, and land use and environmental impacts.

Jan 1, 1980

By J. Partyka

Respirable dust produced during blasting operations in underground mines exhibits both diffusion and convection properties of the airflow. However, the application of the mathematical model presently used to calculate the change in time in the concentration of blasting pollutants is mostly limited to a single drift and cannot be easily utilized for blasts taking place in stopes. This paper discusses an analytical solution based on considerations that enable us to reliably identify the initial condition. Such an approach may be used for any blasting area regardless of its position, its size, or the ventilation system in use during blasting. In addition, a test procedure using field data is established to determined those parameters not measured directly. As well, equations are derived to find the diffusion coefficient, and the position and size of a dust source from the field data. Mathematical considerations The convection-diffusion problem, for a one-dimensional case, is described by the following partial differential equation (PDE): ct. = Dcxx - Vcx + source - sink(1) where C = the concentration of a pollutant T = time V = the mean air velocity in x-direction D = the diffusion coefficient X = distance away from the pollutant source source = any additional pollutant source specified by an initial value problem sink = decay of a pollutant inside the region specified by the boundary conditions. Respirable dust produced during blasting is best considered as an initial value problem (IVP). To derive a mathematical model, the following assumptions are made: •At time zero (t = 0), the dust source is at point x = 0 of an infinite drift. •The problem is considered a one-dimensional case. •The mean velocity of air and the diffusion coefficient are constant. •There is no source or sink of dust other than specified at point x = 0 and time t = 0. We have to solve the following problem [PDE ct=Dcxx-Vcx-m<x...m;0<t<m(2)] ICc(x,0)=f(x)t=0, the initial condition Where c = dust concentration in mg/m3 V= the average mean velocity in a drift in m/s t= time in s D= the diffusion coefficient in m2 /S x = distance coordinate in m. We observe that in problem (2), we have moved the boundaries to[ -m and +m] in order to have an initial-value problem. We introduce new coordinates, s = t and z =x - Vt. To rewrite the PDE in terms of (z, s), we use the chain rule ct = czzt + csst = -Vcz + cs cx = czzx = cz cxx = (cz)x = czz. We now substitute our computed ct, cx. and cxx into the PDE to get new IVP in terms of z and s :

Jan 1, 1991