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By G. Pan

Although geostatistical techniques have been widely accepted as the standard methods for reserve calculations in the mining industry, the production data of many mines frequently differ from geostatistical estimations based on exploration and development drilling. The discrepancies in recovered metal amounts, commonly in the range between 10% and 30%, are related to different factors. Major causes vary from mine to mine. A common cause, however, is the ignorance of important geological constraints in reserve modeling. Three major factors appear to be related to such an unfortunate fact: 1) modelers are over-confident on geostatistical techniques, 2) it is difficult to establish geological models, and 3) mine schedules are too tight to allow detailed geological modeling work. Defining mineralization envelopes has been a major effort in geological modeling. Past experiences have showed that geological modeling is much mo~ demanding than the choice of sophisticated kriging estimators. Since building envelopes for complex ore bodies can be extremely tedious and time-consuming, computerized approaches are badly needed for mine modelers. A comprehensive procedure reported here is referred to as probability-assigned constrained kriging (PACK), which includes a built-in method for defining 3-d mineralization envelopes. The modeling technique is fast and accurate for complex precious metal deposits. The technique is demonstrated on a gold deposit. The estimation results are compared with blast-hole based production panels, showing that the estimated tonnage is 2.2% larger than the actual production and the average grade is 2.6% lower.

Jan 1, 1994

By D. A. Norrgran

The term "secondary recovery" has recently brought on a new meaning in view of the depletion of natural resources, energy conservation, plant optimization, and the environmental consciousness that has led to hazardous waste management, recycling, and secondary processing. Many secondary recovery processes are being developed applying mineral processing technology. Gravity separation, magnetic separation, and flotation have all emerged as implicit methods for recovering residual values from various process streams and hazardous constituents from waste streams. Recently, a technique for concentrating metallics has been successfully reintroduced. Although the concept of the eddy-current separator was developed over a century ago, (Patent 400317 issued to Thomas Edison on March 26, 1889) it was not until this last decade that it gained prominent acceptance. The evolution of permanent magnets has provided a cost effective alternative for the generation of high intensity magnetic fields. High energy permanent magnets have substantially reduced the capital and operating costs over the electromagnetic circuits employed in antecedent eddy-current separators. Specifically, in recent years, the strength of permanent magnets has increased several fold with neodymiun-boron-iron rare earth magnets now providing an energy product of 35 million gauss-oersted. Figure 1 shows the evolution in the strength of permanent magnets. The development of these rare earth magnets has led to the design of circuits possessing a magnetic force an order of magnitude greater than that of conventional permanent magnetic circuits.

Jan 1, 1991

By Jan Wolf

The iron ore industry presently utilizes two types of de-posits. The first are the high grade deposits generally located in remote areas and, secondly, the low grade de-posits which are normally found nearer to the steel-making centers. The high grade deposits produce a direct shipping ore which has an iron content which may be close to the maxi-mum 70% of Fe. These deposits have reserves which are ex-pressed in billions of tons. The ore needs little or no up-grading and where this is performed is restricted to ore washing. With the large demand for iron ore pellets, plus a national drive to perform as much of the upgrading as possible in the native country, there is a trend to erecting pellet plants at the mine location~ Large iron ore suppliers such as Australia, Brazil, Venezuela and Liberia already have pellet plants in operation, and there are new plants projected or expansion projects under study. The low grade ores are mined at locations closer to steel mills such as in Minnesota, Michigan and Canada. These low grade ores require methods of beneficiation to obtain a commercially accept-able product with the modern beneficiation techniques it is no~, possible to produce iron ore pellets of 68% Fe and 4.5% silica from ores containing as low as 26% Fe. Figure 1 gives a general picture of the types of iron ores and their beneficiation. The final product of the high grade ore is a coarse concentrate, sinter product or pellets. The final product of the low grade ores is pellets and, in some cases, coarse concentrates.

Jan 1, 1971

By J. N. Hartley

Uranium mill tailings, waste products of uranium extraction, contain hazardous constituents that if released into the atmosphere and groundwater could threaten our health and environment. To provide for safe disposal and control of these tailings, Congress enacted the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-604). Subsequently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established standards for tailings disposal that limit radon emission into the air to 20 pCi m-2s-1 on an annual average basis (EPA 1983). The design life of the impoundment is to be 1000 years where practicable, but 200 years at least. To facilitate the design of containment systems that will meet the EPA standards, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE) are sponsoring research at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL)* to develop the necessary technology. Earthen and asphalt materials have been evaluated for use as radon barriers (Hartley 1983) and as liners to minimize leaching (Buelt 1983). Herbicide and rock barriers against biological intrusion have been evaluated (Cline 1982). Surface stabilization techniques have been investigated to maintain the long-term effectiveness of a containment system that must be protected from wind and water erosion, chemical and physical degradation, and biological disturbance.

Jan 1, 1984

By N. Wahl, D. M. Blackketter, R. Thornton

This paper evaluated using a water-filled abandoned mine (Orphan Boy) as a heat source for a 240- kW closed-loop heat pump with the goal of heating a 2,000-m2 building. The mine has a 245-m vertical shaft connected to a large stope by three horizontal cross-cut shafts. There is 1,250 x 106 L of water at a consistent temperature of 24-26° C that is available mostly in the stope. The only heat exchanger placement option is in the vertical shaft. Therefore, the focus was to model heat exchanger placement in the vertical shaft to determine the extent to which the systems will induce thermal currents between the stope and vertical shaft. Modeling of thermal currents, temperature profiles and heat contribution from the ground was done using finite difference and computational fluid dynamics. An optimal configuration was determined showing sufficient water movement and heat transfer will occur with a low water temperature in the shaft above 20° C. This project supports a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant that will implement the full-scale system.

Jan 1, 2013

By Edward C. Mabbs

U.S. industry must increase its productivity or lose its competitive position in the rapidly expanding and inter-dependent world markets. Recent improvements in material handling techniques and equipment, coordinated with production processes, provide one of the greatest opportunities to increase productivity. Successful managers must learn how to take advantage of these material handling opportunities to gain competitive position.

Jan 1, 1973

By Roy A. Grancher

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Not only is 1971 the Centennial Year of the AIME, but it also marks the One Hundredth Anniversary of the United States Portland Cement Industry. On September 26th in 1871 David O. Saylor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, received his patent Numbered 119,413 for the manufacture of portland cement. "Cement" had been used in the United States before that. This was, however, natural cement - a direct product of rocks as found in nature, usually burned at low temperatures in open kilns. During the early 1800s this natural cement played an important role in such projects as the building of the Erie Canal. It was only after the Civil War that small amounts of high priced portland cement was imported from Europe. The successful use of this material in construction led to Saylor's experiments and subsequent patent for the manufacture of a scientifically controlled product in this country. These one hundred years have witnessed four major "ages" of cement . . . three of them occurring in the last quarter century since World War Two. The first age was the "Age of Development", a seventy-year period which saw the growth of cement and its concrete end uses as major construction materials. Next followed a period called the "Age of Demand" when, after the war, cement became in short supply relative to large building requirements. In effect a cement shortage existed. The decade of the Sixties proved to be the "Age of Reaction", with its courses of action coming in response to the problems that arose when the industry's expansion programs provided too much capacity. Today cement, and the concrete industries, find themselves entering the "Age of Reason". Overcapacity, low price, rising costs, and poor returns are several of the reasons behind that name, As these industries face the construction challenge of the Seventies, and beyond, the application of basic management principles (otherwise known

Jan 1, 1971

By L. B. Hales

December 3, 1972, James Wm. White presented the results of an instrumentation and process control survey which was sponsored by the Anaconda Company at the annual Tucson Subsection AIME meeting.(1) Twenty-six responses were obtained from questionnaires sent to 48 operating plants throughout the world. The survey results were discouraging in that there were more failures and problems than examples of success. The following quotes are taken from the text of the paper. "We run our mill by the seat of our pants." 'If these blue sky Ph.D.'s (in the instruments and controls area within research) had some operating experience they wouldn't make a lot of the suggestions they do."

Jan 1, 1981

By T. Gupta, T. Ghosh

"Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and their compounds are essential for numerous modern high tech applications such as renewable energy technologies, catalysts and defense applications. The destabilization of REE pricing owing to the global demand and supply deficit has forced many countries to re-evaluate the possibility of indigenous production of REEs. Cost effective and eco-friendly opportunities are being widely explored for extraction of REEs from non-conventional mineral sources such as coal and coal byproducts to stabilize the supply chain. Coal from Central Alaska (Healy Coal Mine) and Southern Alaska-Cook Inlet (Wishbone Hill) province have been found to possess elevated REE concentrations as compared to average world coal estimates. The objective of the study is to enrich the REEs in the fine size fraction (-75 Microns) from Healy and Wishbone Hill by froth flotation technique. A Box-Behnken design was applied for modeling and optimization of some operating variables on the flotation to maximize REE enrichment. The variables studies were frother dosage, pulp density (% Solids) and collector dosage. Experiments were carried out using a statistical design and the main and interaction effects on response variable was evaluated by analyzing 3D response surfaces. Based on the experimental results the optimum flotation conditions for maximum REE enrichment in the froth fraction was obtained at 4.2% Solids and 32.7 ppm of frother dosage for Healy coal sample and 10% Solids and 37.9 ppm of frother dosage for Wishbone Hill coal sample. The quadratic equation for modelling and optimizing the response variable is found to be independent of collector dosage for both the coal samples. INTRODUCTION Alaskan coal deposits are distributed in three major coal provinces and are in Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks. The climate, vegetation type and sedimentation process has attributed to low sulfur content (averaging 0.3 percent) in Alaskan coals compared to other coal deposits found across the globe. In Central Alaska-Nenana and Southern Alaska-Cook Inlet coal province coal resources are contained in Tertiary rocks while bulk of the Coal resource in North Slope coal province is contained in Cretaceous and Tertiary coal bearing rocks [1]. Coals from Central Alaska- Nenana (Healy) and Southern Alaska-Cook Inlet province (Wishbone Hill) have been found to possess elevated concentrations of critical REEs as compared to the amounts present in world coals (Figure 1). The Wishbone Hill deposit is considered a relatively small deposit, with about 14 million tons of identified reserves, compared to Healy which has over 500 million tons identified [2]. The REE concentrations up to 286 ppm and 524 ppm on ash basis have been reported by Gupta et al. in 2016 with elevated concentrations Ce, La, Y and Nd which are expressed to be of critical importance by US Department of Energy. Accordingly, the two coal samples possess the potential to be used as a REE resource in the near future under favorable socio-economic and geo-political scenarios. [3, 4]"

Jan 1, 2017

By Neil and Associates

Seismic tomography is one of several additions to the suite of geotechnical engineering tools for use in various underground rock and mineral geologic structures. Seismic tomography is a method for reconstructing a cross section of an object based on attributes of seismic energy that have been transmitted through the object. The in-seam seismic tomogram provides a dataset that can be graphically portrayed in a color-coded format that is then used to infer relative stress concentration (Fig. 1). During the past several years, the US Bureau of Mines (USBM) at its Denver, CO and Twin Cities Research Centers in Minnesota funded several innovative hardware and software developments. These were directed toward use of in-seam seismic tomography for underground geologic strata evaluations. These preliminary investigations have matured into well-defined and field-proven technical advances for improving ground-control decision making in the mining industry.

Jan 1, 1996

By George O. Lower

The use of cyanides in the extraction of gold and silver is well known.1 Such extractions employ con¬centrations of cyanide in the range of 0.02-0.25 % sodium cyanide equivalent in leaching cycles of 24-48 hours and frequently longer. Copper minerals, even though minor components of precious metal ores, dissolve in these cyanide leaching solutions, consume cyanide, cause fouling of mill solutions, and thus interfere with the precipitation and recovery of gold and silver. 2,3,4 This paper presents a summary of laboratory investigations on the use of cyanide solutions as extractants for copper from various copper-bearing ore fractions. In view of the metal contents involved, it will be apparent that larger quantities of cyanide are required to extract copper than for the extraction of precious metals. In cyanide solutions of concentrations generally favorable to copper extraction, sulfide and oxide copper minerals were found to dissolve rapidly at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. For example, on products in the flotation size range, the major portions (e.g. 65-85%) of the extractable copper frequently dissolved in 2-10 minutes. At coarser grinds, e.g. 100% minus 28 mesh and 100% minus 10 mesh, 75-85% of the total copper was extracted in 30 minutes.

Jan 1, 1966

By Wei Zhang, Jinhong Zhang

An atomic force microscopy (AFM) image analysis has been applied to study in situ the adsorption of hydroxamic acid collector, i.e., octanohydroxamic acid (OHA), on malachite in aqueous solutions. AFM images show that hydroxamic acid collector adsorbs strongly on malachite mainly in the form of insoluble copper hydroxamate complex. Increasing the collectors’ concentration and the adsorption time both increase the adsorption of hydroxamic collectors on malachite. Results from the attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (ATR-FTIR) also show that the collector adsorbs strongly onto malachite, with strong absorbance spectra being detected, and the ATR-FTIR results confirm those as obtained by AFM. This specific adsorption mechanism explains that a high selectivity with a moderate collectivity will be achieved with a hydroxamic acid collector for the flotation of malachite. The findings of present study also show that AFM image analysis is a powerful tool for the study of the hydroxamic acid collectors’ adsorption on malachite surface and it can help with the development of novel collectors for malachite flotation.

Feb 1, 2025

By G. H. K. Pearse

Long range transport of pollutants, particularly of sulphur dioxide and the associated acidic precipitation, has received much attention in the press and in international discussion during the last few years. Studies revealing increasing acidity of lakes and the dying out of fish populations over broad regions of the eastern half of North America have created alarm. In this paper, I will not attempt a description of the acid rain phenomenon. For this r recommend the balanced treatment of the subject by Gene Likens et al (1979) in Scientific Americana For my purposes I accept that the problem is serious and direct my attention to exploring a solution. Ultimately, the key lies in the answer to the question; "What do we do with the enormous tonnages of pollution abatement byproducts, chiefly sulphur compounds, that would arise from pollution control?"' Little thought has been given to this most limiting factor to environmental clean-up. This is symptomatic of a basic flaw in the [philosphy] that under-ins environmental policy. Although this paper is to propose a solution to the abatement byproduct problem, the basic flaw - the firmly entrenched, universally adopted, 'polluter pays [philosphy] as it is currently [understood] - needs some comment.

Jan 1, 1981

By M. D. Monroe

Getting the best match between truck and haul road requires examination of many factors and their effect on the bottom line. Most mines use a bottom line measure based in some way on cost per ton of material moved. This measure focuses on the two components of truck haulage cost per ton: productivity (or performance) and operating cost. Productivity can be measured or predicted for specific tasks using either field measurement or modelling. Individual tasks can be combined to provide a larger scale, longer term net figure for total mine output. True cost is more difficult to capture as they are time and task oriented and can be influenced by a summation of factors over a truck lifetime. For example, "allocated" costs, such as owning (depreciation) and some repair costs, are spread over long periods of time. Other cost, such as fuel and tires can be tied more directly to certain tasks such as fuel and tire cost. This paper focuses on the more direct, task-oriented factors that affect truck productivity and cost.

Jan 1, 1992

By W. Robert Power

Dimension stone includes a wide variety of natural materials that are put to an equally wide variety of uses. It is possible to classify dimension stone according to the end use to which the stone is put or according to the lithology of the stone. Both schemes are used by the United States Bureau of Mines in the annual Minerals Yearbook. The 1969 Yearbook lists 15 specific uses and has additional miscellaneous catagories. The same Yearbook lists five specific rock types or lithologies, and also includes a miscellaneous category. In a short presentation it would hardly be possible to list and define all these categories, much less discuss the evaluation of deposits with regard to all possible combinations. Besides, I am only slightly familiar with some of the uses and their requirements. I have therefore chosen to limit my remarks to some special problems in evaluating dimension stone that is to be cut and finished to specific sizes, tolerances, and finishes for use in buildings and some monuments. This use class is called cut stone in the Minerals Yearbook. In terms of dollar value it is the largest single use category. In 1969 the dollar value of cut stone was $29,122,000 which is more than twice the value of the next largest category. For those of you who are interested in other use applications of dimension stone I suggest that you start with recent articles by Bowles (1960), Currier (1960), and Barton (1968).

Jan 1, 1972

By Elimame Elaloui, Kais Elghniji, Constantin Virlan, Aurel Pui, Chaima Ouled Amor

Separation and identification of minerals composing the Tunisian silica sands have been conducted by acid etching and hot filtration/sedimentation (HFS) without affecting the quartz component. It was found that the hot acid etching process is an effective method to separate quartz and clay minerals in the silica sand. The SEM micrographs of the silica sand show rough surface and some cracks with irregular shapes. The surface becomes clean and smooth after acid etching process. After chemical dissolution, the clay minerals were recovered by hot filtration following by sedimentation at low temperature. FT-IR, EDS maps, and secondary electron (SE) analyses of separated clay minerals reveal the presence of Fe2O3, montmorillonite, and kaolinite minerals. The LIBS analysis of clay minerals shows the presence of Al, Fe, Ca, Al, and Mg. The sequential etching process can be introduced in the purification methods as an effective way to separate quartz from clay minerals.

Jul 29, 2020

By K. Schonert

Jigging is a separtion process that has already been described by Agricola in 1556. Fine size material is normally treated in a hutch jigging process, in which the heavy particles are penetrating the jigging bed and are recovered in the hutch. In this process, a ragging consisting of the same or higher specific gravity particles is inserted upon the screen. The ragging is used mainly as a valve to maintain a constant upward flow of the water. Since the heavy particles should pass easily into the hutch, the ragging particles are up to ten times larger than the maximum feed size (1). In the fine size range - 1 mm the performance of jigs is mainly insufficient; some of the low density particles percolate the ragging while the hutch water flow prevents the fine heavy particles from entering the bed (2). By giving a thin layer of particles, which posesses a density sensitivity in case of certain adjustment of flow conditions, directly on the screen, the precision of separation can be increased. Stroke length and frequency have to be adjusted to give this filter layer a homogenous porosity between 60 and 70% during the pulsion phase, and the "en masse" lifting of the bed, as it is known in jigging of coarser material, has to be prevented (3). In this case, the jig cycle is only of minor influence.

Jan 1, 1987

By Patricia Curtis Petty

Thirty years ago, the appearance of a female mining engineer, geologist or miner in a company, union or mine environment would have been unthought of, unwelcomed and violently opposed. Twenty years ago, the intellectual perception of the news that women were interested in becoming mining engineers, geologists and miners had been accepted by the industry-but no one wanted to be the first to hire one of these exotic creatures. Ten years ago, those who had been most vehemently opposed to the philosophical idea of women working in these areas were faced with competent, productive engineers, geologists and miners-who only incidentally happened to be women-and began hiring them. Historically, of course, one can always find the isolated individual who worked in these areas-the first female graduate of the Colorado School of Mines with a mining engineering degree graduated in 1903-but the concept of woman as professional engineer was very slow in arriving in the United States. The few who worked as miners generally worked in small family enterprises, such as some of the coal mines in both Eastern and Western United States. Others accompanied husbands or sons into wilderness areas searching for gold and other precious metals.

Jan 1, 1984

By Grant A. Brackebusch

Paste tailings disposal was successfully implemented at the New Jersey mill in Kellogg, ID with two different types of ore feed, a gold ore and a silver ore. The purpose of this paper is to describe the production of paste tailings, including operational problems during commissioning, and also highlight the environmental and economic benefits that were realized versus conventional tailings disposal such as the recycling of process water, increased shear strength and reduced permeability of the tailings mass, and reduced environmental permitting.

By E. Petrakis, K. Komnitsas

The main objective of batch grinding modeling is the estimation of the product particle size distribution over time or specific energy input to the mill. So far, the developed analytical methods require often complicated calculations which are timeconsuming. Thus, more simple approaches that allow the reliable prediction of the complete product size distribution need to be developed. In the present paper, an approach, based on the population balance model (PBM), that reliably predicts the product size distribution is proposed. In order to enable this, the simplified form of the fundamental batch grinding equation was transformed into the well-known Rosin–Rammler (R-R) distribution, thus allowing the determination of the breakage rate for each grinding period. A time-dependent breakage rate framework was developed where the traditional linear theory of the PBM is considered a partial case. This approach allows the deviations from the linear theory to be categorized and the degree of the acceleration-deceleration of the breakage rate to be predicted. Modeling results were validated by laboratory grinding studies using two homogeneous materials, quartz and marble, and one heterogeneous, a limonitic laterite. The experimental data revealed that grinding exhibits non-first-order behavior and the degree of deviation from the linear theory depends on the tested material. The reliability of the proposed model was validated with the use of the distribution modulus n, the a value of the breakage rate parameter, and the optimum n values that minimize the sum of the differences between the experimental and estimated particle size distributions.

Feb 8, 2021