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By W. J. S. Craigen, G. E. Wittur

"In the context of today's continuously changing world, there are many factors which must be considered when attempting to assess the ability of Canada's primary copper producers to remain competitive in the face of increasing competition in world markets. In this paper, we have attempted to document those factors that will have the greatest impact on the future viability of Canada's copper industry, and to suggest possible strategies to fully utilize whatever inherent advantages Canada may have to enhance its competitive position. Technological factors related to the efficiency of precious and by-product metals recovery, energy type and utilization efficiency, production and sale of sulphur by-products, and control of 502 emissions are given high priority in this evaluation of Canada's future needs to remain competitive. Particular emphasis is placed on assessing the relative viability of hydrometallurgical versus pyrometallurgical processes for copper; to address uniquely Canadian conditions and problems. Due consideration is also given to the economic incentives required to allow Canada's copper producers to compete under anticipated world market conditions and to facilitate the continued development of Canada's copper resources. IntroductionWhen we try to assess the viability or competitiveness of any industry the bottom line is still usually, ""Can we produce a pound of product cheaper than the competition?"" Canada's copper industry is certainly no exception. However, as with most resource-based industries dependent upon exports, there are many factors which have a significant effect on the cost components which make up the total cost of producing and selling a pound of copper. It is desirable therefore to have as clear a picture as possible of the cost components, the major factors affecting them, and how they compare with the competition, particularly the third-world copper producers.In this paper we have attempted to provide a brief outlook for world copper markets and a brief overview of Canada's competitive position. We have also attempted to document those factors which will have the greatest impact on future production costs, and have suggested possible initiatives to utilize inherent Canadian advantages to enhance our competitive position. Special emphasis has been placed on technological initiatives designed to make full use of these ""advantages"", to develop superior beneficiation and extraction! refining technologies. Major factors considered in the present study are:"

Jan 1, 1986

By J. Espí

The mineral price assigned in mining project design is critical to determining the economic feasibility of a project. Nevertheless, although it is not difficult to find literature about market metal prices, it is much more complicated to achieve a specific methodology for calculating the value or which justifications are appropriate to include. This study presents an analysis of various methods for selecting metal prices and investigates the mechanisms and motives underlying price selections. The results describe various attitudes adopted by the designers of mining investment projects, and how the price can be determined not just by means of forecasting but also by consideration of other relevant parameters.

Aug 1, 2013

By Gerald A. Crawford

"1880s - Unmasking the Sudbury Basin Falconbridge Ltd. turned 60 in 1988 but its roots go back more than a century to the discovery and development of the mineral resources of the Sudbury Basin. Nickel was first identified in the area in 1856 but sustained exploration awaited the early 1880s and the advance of the CPR westward from Sudbury. Rock was laid bare in the right-of-way and by forest fires and logging. Reddish oxidized outcropping or ""gossan"" were exposed, heralding the presence of nickel as the shape of this astounding geological formation gradually began to emerge. Many great mines of the area were opened up in this period on the south rim of the Basin west of Sudbury. To the east the ore dips below overburden, however, and Falconbridge remained a mere dot on the map until the turn of the century when Thomas Edison detected a magnetic occurrence by dip needle."

Jan 1, 1999

Data recently released indicate substantial improvement in mineral industry performance for 1984. Business plans to increase plant and equipment spending in 1984 by 14.8 percent, according to a recent survey conducted by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (table 1). In contrast, capital spending by all industries declined 4.8 percent in 1983 and 2.3 percent in 1982. The latest estimate of planned expenditures for 1984 is $2.2 billion higher than the comparable estimate based on the survey conducted in late January and February 1984.1/ [ ] Of particular significance to the U.S. mineral industries are the 15.5-percent increase in capital spending planned by manufacturing in 1984 and the planned 18.6-percent increase in spending by durable goods manufacturing, where the largest increases are planned in the transportation equipment (26.4 percent) and electrical machinery sectors (23.5 percent). Capital expenditures in manufacturing declined in both 1982 and 1983.

Jan 1, 1984

By Sastry Putcha, Vamshi Vemula, Aneesh Goly, Kumar Allady

Current dynamic testing practice to obtain pile total capacity will not yield optimum capacity due to the strain incompatibility between the side and tip resistances during driving. Superposition of end of initial drive- static tip capacity and the peak static skin capacity during beginning of restrike and adding them is the preferred method. The FDOT method determines independent pile static tip and skin capacities in real time analyzing appropriate blows from the embedded tip and top data of the Embedded Data Collectors (EDC). This data is collected through a wireless radio transmitter, receiver, and laptop software. The approach utilizes EDC tip and top data and nonlinear single degree of freedom system to satisfy force and energy equilibrium with a global genetic inversion analysis. Top impacted energy equals at pile tip as sum of Static, Damping and Inertial energy providing independent tip resistance. With EDC sensors as boundary conditions, pile is divided into desired segments and using global inversion techniques one dimensional equation is solved for independent skin friction for every blow. EDC data compared close static load test results. The EDC - FDOT method has enabled cost effective 100% testing of driven piles cost effective. INTRODUCTION Historical documentation has shown that not only driven piles have a long history of usage but also continues to advance unceasingly till today. Historians placed the first pile driving using timber piles in the 4th century BC. While modern pile driving systematically started around nineteenth century, the credit for conceiving the idea of the applicability of wave equation to driven piles goes to David Victor Isaccs of Australia. His 1931publication “Concrete Pile Driving Formulae” provides the basis for modern pile driving using stress wave theory. He felt that the dynamic formulae then in use lacked the capability of detecting integrity and hence developed stress wave theory. This work was further developed starting in 1938 by W.H. Glanville and colleagues of British Building Research Board as they developed the first solution to the wave equation. But these early efforts have really taken off only with the advent of computers. E.A.L. Smith (1960) published ‘Pile Driving Analysis with the Wave Equation’ and provided first numerical solution to the wave equation. Within few years, the FHWA funded research and in due course this effort ushered the era of externally instrumented pile driving.

Jan 1, 2018

The problem of thin and very thin coal seam extraction in a long perspective of Ukraine?s fuel and energy industry development was determined. Technical and economic benefits of coal seams selective mining technique including beneficial environmental impact were substantiated. The scientific and practical aspects of development of borehole underground coal gasification (BUCG) technology are considered. The technological scheme of underground gas generators is offered on the basis of the authors? criteria of fitness and adaptability to the mine and geological conditions. These charts foresee the preparation of gas generators from earth surface and directly from the present mine working by inclined horizontal boreholes. Basic research is directed at abandoned supplies extraction in coal mines. Concepts of technological decisions and technical implementation of the underground part of the gasification system are worked out with analytical models, with subsequent test verification on special options and a mine experimental gas generator. Forming the technological scheme of gasification is founded on the basis of tying up spatial and sentinel factosr of coal seam gasification taking into account sufficient impermeability of the system a «gas generator ? rock massif» and to dirigibility by thermochemical processes that flow in a rock massif. The offered solutions contain the possibility of creation of the power and chemical enterprises of gasification, taking into account the complex use of BUCG products in the ecologically reserved technological cycle. Gas generator efficiency is evaluated from an economic standpoint.

Aug 1, 2013

EDITORIAL comments on the anthracite report of the Federal Fact-finding Coal Commission, which became public on July 5, together with an analysis of its more important conclusions, will be found on another page of this issue. In this place, only a few extracts from the report, bearing more directly on technical matters, can be quoted, for lack of space. COST OF MINING Mining cost, as it stands on the books of each mining company, represents the average cost of the total output, all sizes, of anthracite. Egg coal has at least five times the market value of barley, but these' sizes are mined together and their costs can not be separated. Mine costs directly reflect the conditions under which these deposits of coal are recovered. Even within the few counties in which anthracite is found there is a conspicuous range of natural conditions. The distinc-tion between the Northern, Middle, and Southern field, or, as they are also termed, the Wyoming, Lehigh, and Schuykill regions, is primarily geologic and topo-graphic, but the effects of the natural conditions largely control costs. The contrast is great between Some of the level-lying beds of moderate but fairly constant thickness under the broad Wyoming Valley, where mining and underground haulage present relatively simple problems to the engineer, and the steeply pitching or overturned and faulted beds of variable thickness in the Schuykill field, where crushed coal' and treacherous roof multiply the difficulties of mining; and increase the unavoidable waste. Even more direct is the connection between geologic processes and the, differences in the character of the coal as mined, the varying proportions of large and small sizes demanding differences in preparation and resulting in different average prices realized for the product of the mines.

Jan 8, 1923

By ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS

AT various times during the past quarter century proposals have been made that the basic Federal mining law of 1872 be repealed or amended, and that in its place a new and simpler law be enacted to provide for the entry upon, working, and the taking up of claims on the unallotted Federal mining lands in our western states and in Alaska. Serious discussion and study have been given such proposals but little has resulted there from, except perhaps a lively interchange of opinion and the conclusion that though the Apex law of 1872 is in many ways highly unsatisfactory and frequently a fomenter of strife and trouble, it still bids fair to remain with us. Under this act a greater part of the non-ferrous mining industry of the United States has developed. With all its short-comings it is the legal bridge that has carried over the innumerable caravans of adventurers and prospectors who explored our mining frontiers. For without any amendments of substance this act has for fifty-eight years been the guide in the location of our western Federal mineral claims and has stood unchanged during the most important period of our mining history. While Federal and state acts and amendments have been ground out by thousands and tens -of thousands the mining act of 1872, with a :strange tenacity, has remained as constant as the Rock of Gibraltar, and under it states, mining districts, and local customs have developed different codes for its application but its fundamentals have been unaltered. "Use doth breed a habit in a man"; until now the application of the law of 1872 has become a second mining nature.

Jan 1, 1930

By James R. Walpole

Less than 100 years ago the first major federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission was established (in 1887), and since that time literally hundreds of other federal agencies have been created. The regulations set by these agencies tremendously affect the individual citizens of this country as well as U.S. institutions. A few examples of the myriad agencies established include the Food and Drug Administration. (1907), the Bureau of Mines (1910), the Federal Reserve System (1913), the Federal Trade Commission (1914), the Tennessee Valley Authority (1933), the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934), the National Labor Relations Board (1935), the Small Business Administration (1953), the Federal Maritime Commission (1961), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1965), the Farm Credit Administration (1971), etc., etc. Eight years ago, on December 2, 1970, still another federal agency was established by the reorganization plan of President Nixon -- the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Administrator of EPA was given authority to regulate certain activities affecting the environ-ment, which were formerly within the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the Federal Radiation Council, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Agriculture, etc. Within weeks after the formation of this Agency, Congress began to enact legislation which would be administered by EPA. Over the last eight years a considerable number of such laws have been passed, a few of which include: the Clean Air Act (1970), the Noise Control Act (1972), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1972), the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (1972), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (1973), the Safe Drinking Water Act (1974), the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976), the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, etc. It may be helpful to review, in a summary fashion, the major provisions in some of these statutes, and accompanying regulations, as they relate to water quality control in the mining industry. The Safe Drinking Water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act contain provisions to be examined, as well as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act. One other law, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (1977), is not administered by EPA although it does contain many provisions related to environmental control, and it will also be dis-cussed because of its importance to the mining community.

Jan 1, 1978

By M. W. Lightner

IN 1947 the steel industry rebounded from its wartime effort and produced a record-breaking peacetime tonnage of steel ingots. During the first six months of the year the industry produced 42,000,000 tons of ingots and expected to produce 85,000,000 tons for the year. With a rated capacity of some 91,000,000 tons, production was at a rate of about 93 per cent of capacity. Credit must be extended to the steel producers who have maintained this steady state of operations while faced with many problems, not the least of which was a continued shortage of satisfactory scrap. Furthermore, the steel industry started a record-breaking peacetime expansion program at a total cost of more than $1,000,000,000. This program will increase the ingot-making capacity of the country by 2,500,000 tons and should be completed in 1948.

Jan 1, 1948

By J. S. Marsh, T. B. Winkler

THE past year, the first full one of peacetime production, proved that the process of beating swords into plowshares has increased in complexity in step with civilization. Further, judging by various remarks of our distaff departments, the crystal balls of certain radio and magazine oracles must have been cloudy, because we have been in formed from time to time that coveted items such as automobiles and refrigerators did not appear in great abundance. This seemingly extraneous matter is really not out of place here, however; the steel producer and the fabricator exist in a sort of symbiosis: the making of consumer goods produces scrap which is returned to the steelmaker who makes more steel, and so on and so forth. Thus, no abundance of automobiles, no abundance of scrap from this normal source; and other sources had been picked pretty clean during the war. To be short, so was scrap. Since the economy of the steel industry lean; as heavily upon iron from scrap as upon iron from ore, the statement on transformation of swords to plowshares follows. But this is not the whole story: after all, ingot production was a record for a peace year!

Jan 1, 1947

By J. P. Kennedy

Process data managers or historians are recognized as essential for reengineering projects in industrial plants. With increasing automatic data collection, the knowledge of how to use these data profitably grows as well. This paper is a summary of the data historian and its components plus examples of benefits including environmental reporting, performance monitoring, and exception reporting to management.

Jan 1, 1994

By R Van Laeren, G Langerak, S Fityus, K Koosmen

Co-disposal of partly-dewatered mixed-plant rejects (MPR) from coal processing into spoil dumps is gaining favour amongst Australian coalmine operators in preference to conventional tailings disposal methods which require a tailings dam. Owing to their often low permeabilities and high degrees of saturation, MPR materials may be prone to the development of excess pore pressures when covered by spoil during routine dump advancement. The likelihood of dump failure will increase if these pore pressure regimes and the associated delay of shear strength development are not accounted for during waste dump design. To date however, little is known about these pore pressure regimes due to the complexities associated with their in situ measurement.This paper describes the in situ measurement of pore pressures in a cell of MPR placed within a coalmine spoil dump. Four vibrating wire piezometers (VWPs) were placed within a cell that was then filled with MPR and allowed to consolidate under self-weight before advancing an adjacent tiphead across the cell. The VWPs recorded the transient pore pressures during MPR placement and dump construction, and their interpretations are described within the context of laboratory measured parameters. Following analysis of the measured pore pressures, their implications on shear strength and dump design are also discussed.CITATION:Koosmen, K, Langerak, G, Simmons, J, Fityus, S and Van Laeren, R, 2015. Field measurement of transient pore pressures within co-disposed processing rejects placed in a spoil dump, in Proceedings Tailings and Mine Waste Management for the 21st Century, pp 63–72 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 27, 2015

By Han Jie

The results of full scale plate load tests on stone columns on soft clay in coastal areas are presented in this paper. Four load tests were made, two of which were performed on the ground treated with stone columns, one on an isolated stone column and the last one on the untreated ground. For a given stress range, the settlement of the rigid plate, the stress concentration factor, and the excess pore water pressure were measured. It is found that the distribution of vertical stress beneath the rigid plate supported by the composite ground of stone columns is very different in shape from the one by the untreated ground, that the stress concentration factor has a relation with the stress level and time, that the stone columns increase the bearing capacity up to by 2 times, and that the ground stabilized by stone columns is of great advantage to keep the foundation stable.

Jan 1, 1991

By Jr. Winters

The United States continues to be the largest producer and consumer of copper in the world. Table 1 on the following page shows several production statistics for 1974, the most recent year which the non-communist world copper industry might consider a good year, and for 1976 and 1977. In 1974 an estimated 24 percent of the non-communist world's newly mined copper was mined in the United States, and. 87 to 89 percent of that was from the western porphyry coppers. In 1976 U. S. new mine production was down to 22 percent of the non-communist world's newly mined copper, and the percentage of U. S. new mine production supplied by the porphyry coppers had risen to 89 to 91 percent. In 1977 the statistics remained the same as in 1976. U. S. porphyry copper production represented about 65 percent of U. S. refined copper consumption in 1974, rose to 75 percent in 1976, and dropped back to 61 percent in 1977 as imports of foreign copper into the United States began to swell.

Jan 1, 1978

By David M. Koogler

If you are contemplating starting a small coal mining operation there is a good possi¬bility that you can not afford it. If you, have already started, you may be on the road to bankruptcy. If you are a small but well established operator you may be trading dollars, or even dissipating your capital, equipment and other assets. A bleak outlook? Yes! Meant to be discouraging? No! Just a reminder that, with todays costs of doing business, high interest rates, rapidly increasing costs and decreasing sales prices, a small businessman/miner had best watch closely or he will be mired in something worse than a soft bottom - namely a cash and credit shortage, and in too many instances In recent times, bankruptcy. We will not dwell on what happens once you are that far gone, though I could cite a good example. But, let us look at what should be done to avoid such a catastrophe.

Jan 1, 1981

By D. A. Karvonen

Although the economy in the Province of Saskatchewan has historically been agriculturally oriented, a major new source of wealth has been realized through natural resources such as petroleum and natural gas, coal and uranium and since the 1960's - potash. Potash or potassium chloride, in the form in which it is presently produced in Saskatchewan is used primarily as fertilizer, a source of potassium, one of three essential elements required for healthy plant growth with about 5 percent of production sold to the chemical industry for use in such products as soap and liquid detergent, glass and ceramics, textiles and some pharmaceuticals. Saskatchewan is estimated to have approximately 40 percent of known world potash reserves and its ten active mines account for some 25% of annual world production. The development of this resource was recognized to be important to the development of Saskathcewan. In an effort to guarantee a fair and lasting economic benefit to the Province of Saskatchewan the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) was created on February 4, 1975 through an Order-in-Council under the Crown Corporation's Act and later on April 1, 1976, the Potash Corporation Act provided for its continuation. PCS was given the mandate to acquire ownership of a significant portion of the potash mining capacity in Saskatchewan and to establish an organization capable of operating the facilities, marketing the product and conducting all of the other activities necessary for a successful corporation competing in the world potash industry.

Jan 1, 1983

By James H. Boettcher

In the second quarter of 1979, ASL Inc. inquired whether Crocker National Bank ("CNB") would provide $4 million in term loan financing to help ASL acquire the outstanding shares of the S&S Coal Company in West Virginia. ASL had, prior to approaching CNB, sought financing with the assistance of a financial advisor from a number of commercial banks without success. A summary of the initial terms requested by ASL is shown in Table I compared with the actual terms the transaction closed with. It is not difficult to note that the two sets of terms differ significantly. This is often the case when financing requests based on the expectations and vision of a mine developer are juxtaposed with more pragmatic requirements of a commercial bank. The "art" and fun of structuring financing plans for mining ventures (highly leveraged acquisitions or grass roots) comes in working with mine developers to arrive at a final financial structure that meets their objectives and constraints as well as those of the bank or other financial institution providing much of the financing. This article briefly describes the process we went through with ASL beginning with the terms they requested initially and ending with the ones on which the transaction was finally closed.

Jan 1, 1981

By Robert Halupka

The industrial minerals sector represents a broad range of products involving a variety of technologies serving a diversity of markets and end uses. Unit values of products vary widely, reflecting the peculiarities of each product/market sector. Generalizations are therefore understandably difficult to make and borrowers may need to take extra time to "educate" lenders on the key aspects of their business and industry sub-sector. This paper will examine the factors and the thinking that lenders apply when considering financing proposals to companies in the industrial minerals sector. If you understand the lender's perspective and their concerns, then you can make better use of your own time and resources when arranging financing for your company or project.

Jan 1, 2001

Regional problems, such as political risk and debt reschedulings, in Pacific Rim nations coupled with the price volatility of gold mean that multi-faceted financing packages are needed to offset the many risks inherent in a new gold mine development. The cross-border risks of getting money back out of a producing mine may require the involvement of export credit agencies, multilateral government banks, or political risk insurance. Variations on forward gold sales, gold loans, or offset structures can also enhance the flexibility and safety for the providers of both the debt and equity. The region will become as large a gold producer as South Africa by 1990. The large dollar amounts for both investment and revenues realised are of great significance to the economies of many of the Pacific Rim countries especially as a means to increase foreign exchange earnings.

Jan 1, 1987