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By Roy H. Werner

The environmental demands on the mining industry coupled with rising production costs have created a need for a low cost sludge removal system. The HYDRA* system meets these demands by offering a unique means of removing settled solids from the bottom of a clarifier or a thickener. This underflow system combines experience and proven concepts to form a low cost sludge removal system. The HYDRA system incorporates a flexible design that can be adapted to any settling area. The components are readily available and cost less than a conventional clarifier or thickener. Existing technology developed by preparation engineers provides for retrieval and recovery of mine preparation plant refuse. However, past retrieval methods have been extremely costly. The HYDRA system, because of its low cost, makes the complete process of retrieval and recovery economically feasible. This allows wasted resources to be converted to a saleable product.

Jan 1, 1975

By Olav Moklebust

The R-N Process is an outgrowth of the development by the National Lead Company's Norwegian subsidiary Titania A/S, of a process for producing metallic iron and a high titanium content co-product from ilmenite. Development of the process for the treatment of iron ores was continued as a joint project of the Republic Steel Corporation and the National Lead Company in 1953. More recently in July, 1957, the R-N Corporation was created by these two companies to undertake the commercial promotion of the results of this joint project. This paper has been prepared with the permission and encouragement of these three companies. The R-N process has as its objective the making of metallic iron from iron ores or iron ore concentrates. The general principles of the process have already been disclosed in technical papers and patents. In general the process comprises the following steps: 1. Iron oxide in crushed natural iron ores or iron ore concentrates is reduced to about 95% metallic iron, without fusion in a rotary kiln in the presence of solid carbonaceous fuel,*such as, coke or char, limestone and combustible gases. 2. The kiln discharge, consisting of metallized ore, coke, lime and coke ashes, is cooled. The excess coke is regenerated and recycled to the kiln feed.

Jan 1, 1959

By B. V. Close

Surface mining regulations together with mine and reclamation planning require collection of large amounts of geologic and hydrologic data for both new and existing mines. Recently developed microcomputer software facilitates the integration of this information from computer databases into ground-water flow models. The databases are used to identify areas which require dewatering and/or depressurizing and for generating contour maps of aquifer parameters. Gridded versions of these contour maps are incorporated into finite difference ground-water flow models which are used to design dewatering and depressurizing well fields and to estimate the effects of ground-water pumping and pit progression on local ground-water levels.

Jan 1, 1988

By J. M. W. Mackenzie

Three major developments have dominated the recovery of gold from ores, viz; 1846 Elsner's studies of gold solubility in aerated alkaline cyanide solutions 1887 MacArthur and Forrest's process based on zinc precipitation 1980+ Large scale development of the CIP process The brevity of this list for a metal whose extractive metallurgy has been as widely studied as any metal reflects the fact that the chemistry of the gold recovery process, as opposed to the engineering has seen few significant breakthroughs in over a century of application. to The purpose of this paper is introduce a new chemistry for gold recovery which may, in the future, add significantly to the technology of gold recovery. This new chemistry is based guanidine functionality - (R2R2N) 2 C = N R2 on the In developing the use of the guanidine functionality for the recovery of gold as the aurocyanide anion from leach solutions and pulps, Henkel has, as its objective, the development of an effective gold selective ion exchange resin. As will be seen, the initial investigation of the properties of the guanidine functionality in the solvent form for gold recovery lead to some significant metallurgical developments of their own but, the foremost objective was, and remains, the development of a resin for gold recovery. As a part of this development project, Henkel has entered into association with Mintek, South Africa, and this ongoing association has the potential to develop RIP/RIS technology for the gold industry. More details on Henkel's gold recovery technology and Mintek's role in this programme are given in (1). an The application of ion exchange resins to gold recovery is not new and many reviews have been published on the advantages of this process, and on the current state of the art of gold recovery by ion exchange resins. (2)(3)(4) Widespread application of ion exchange resin based processes for gold recovery has, however, not occurred to date. Fleming and Cromberge (5), described some significant pilot plant RIP trials in South Africa and the partial success of these pilot plant trials held out the tantalising possibility of a breakthrough in gold recovery based on RIP technology. Despite this pioneering work, only two really significant applications of RIP technology for gold recovery exist today. These are the Golden Jubilee Plant in the Eastern Transvaal South Africa and the widespread, although in some respects technically backward, use of ion exchange for gold recovery in the former USSR. There are two main reasons for the current scarcity of RIP and RIS plants used for gold recovery. These are: 1. 2. The perceived problems of engineering RIP plants The lack of a resin having suitable chemistry for both gold loading and gold elution The problems of engineering RIP plants have been largely overcome in the last 25 years. Much of the development in RIP plant design took place in the uranium industry during the rapid expansion of that industry in the mid 1970's. In addition, the development of CIP engineering systems has lead to the development of in-pulp solid extractant based metallurgical plant designs which can, with limited modification, be adopted to RIP. The lack of a resin having suitable chemical properties has almost certainly been the main reason for RIP/RIS not being introduced into the gold industry over the past decade. Attempts to use RIP/RIS have focussed on either conventional we ak base or conventional strong base resins. The weak. base resins have the disadvantage that they

Jan 1, 1993

By Edgar Urbaez

Production scheduling is one of the most important factors affecting mine planning. A program -Mine Scheduler -that aids mining engineers with the setup of an optimum open pit production scheduling algorithm has been developed. A mathematical model for open pit scheduling that optimizes the Net Present Value of the cash flows was formulated. A simulated data is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem. What's Best by Lindo Systems is used as the MILP solver in Microsoft Excel. The implementation of the algorithm focuses on problem setup, allowing users to easily evaluate, simplify, and develop the model that best fits their production scheduling.

Jan 1, 1999

By S. Frimpong, D. Ali

For achieving bulk economic excavation, large dump trucks are being used in majority of the earth moving operations resulting in high impact shovel loading operations (HISLO) which exposes the operators to high levels of whole body vibrations (WBV). As the truck ages, hydro-pneumatic suspension struts loses their capability to effectively attenuate the vibration. A system is required to monitor and predict the performance of the suspension struts in real time. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has been applied for modeling and predicting the suspension system performance for lighter/smaller vehicles. However, no work has been done to implement machine learning or AI for modelling and predicting the performance of hydro-pneumatic struts in large dump trucks. Therefore, current work is going to be a pioneering effort towards developing machine learning and AI models for solving this problem. Support vector machine (SVM) and regularized dual non-linear regression has been implemented in order to achieve the goal. 3D virtual simulator for CAT793D was used to conduct experiments in MSC.ADMAS environment. The two main recorded outputs were the RMS accelerations in the vertical and horizontal directions at the operator seat for characterizing the performance of the suspension system. During the development and the training of the models, eighty percent (80%) of the total experimental data was used and the remaining 20% was used during the testing and validation of the developed models. SVM model showed the desired accuracy in terms of hydro-pneumatic suspension system performance prediction for large dump trucks. These models can be implemented in the dump truck controller which can then be used to monitor the performance of the suspension system in real-time, and with that proper maintenance and/or replacement can be scheduled by the maintenance personnel. Workplace safety, operator’s health and the overall system efficiency can be greatly improved with an implementation of such an intelligent system. INTRODUCTION Large capacity dump trucks are being employed in any earth moving operation throughout the world for achieving bulk economic excavation [1, 2]. A large dynamic impact force is produced with large capacity shovels dumping material weighing 100 tons or more in to the dump truck under gravity. This dynamic impact force generates high frequency shockwaves which travels throug0068 the truck body, chassis and reaches the operator’s cabin and thus exposes the operator to severe levels of whole body vibrations (WBV). Recommended safe limits have been listed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in sections 1, 2, 4 and 5 of ISO 2631 (1997, 2003, 2001 and 2004). An operator can got through a long term back, shoulders, arms and neck disability and disorders if exposed to the WBV levels beyond those limits. The dynamic impact force generated as a result of the high impact shovel loading operations (HISLO) was modelled by Ali and Frimpong [2]. Furthermore, the complete methodology for optimizing the dumping process and reducing the impact force has been provided by Ali and Frimpong [1]. The vibration attenuation system present in the dump truck requires improvement in addition to the dumping process optimization. The vibration attenuation system in the dump truck commonly consists of hydro-pneumatic suspension struts. As the dump truck ages, its suspension system deteriorates and therefore loses its capability to effectively attenuate the shockwaves and the resulting vibrations produced by the dumping process. The deterioration tales place due to the contamination of the hydraulic oil or oil and nitrogen mixing or due to the gas accumulator diaphragm rupturing. The monitoring of the output vibration levels can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of any suspension system. With the dump truck suspension system, the vibration levels at the operator’s seat can be used for the evaluation of the effectiven

Jan 1, 2019

By Ch. Arvanitidis

This work concentrates on investigating the development of a geotechnical classification method for the Greek soils, which can readily provide a rough but usable estimate of the main strength parameters of the soil. It is expected that such a system will be useful to the structural engineer for either checking the laboratory results or for providing a direct estimate in cases where no tests have been conducted. The method provides strength parameter values by relating classification or physical parameters of various types of soils and/or in situ observations of geological and physiographical nature to the strength parameters, such as, cohesion, angle of internal friction, compressibility, modulus of elasticity, etc, by means of a statistical approach and the extraction of empirical formulae.

Jan 1, 2006

By S. D. Thompson

Conveyor belt haulage has become the preferred mainline transport method in under-ground coal mining, especially for multi-unit mines. Optimum designs for belts (width and speed) and surge bins (placement, capacity, and discharge rate) are necessary for minimizing haulage cost. Two computer simulation models, CMaCS and BELTSIM, available for optimizing these designs are compared. These comparison include: modeling, input data requirements, statistical flexibility, accuracy of simulated loading, and execution time.

Jan 1, 1989

This paper provides a summary on the use of the POL YCOM high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) for increasing extraction in copper leaching. The energy-efficiency and significant hydrometa1lurgical benefits of the HPGR result in better acid-curing, higher solution application rates, improved copper extraction from various copper minerals and better recovery from high acid consuming ores. The HPGR's metallurgical features such as micro-fracturing, better liberation of disseminated and veinlet copper, increased oxygen and lixiviant penetration lead to higher copper extractions than achieved by conventional crushing. Flowsheet options, operational characteristics and applications for various copper ores are outlined.

Jan 1, 1996

By F. Cappel

Except in a few special cases, it is necessary for solid fuel direct reduction in rotary kilns that iron-bearing materials be charged with a minimum grainsize of approx. 5 mm. For fines not usable in such form, the combination of sintering - as agglomeration step - and direct reduction were investigated. During reduction of sinter in rotary kilns prevail dependencies on sinter quality and varying reaction parameters, owing to the use of different coals, which led to a definite statement as to what quality sinter must have and which coals can be used.

Jan 1, 1983

By John C. Bowling

Many recent mine developments in North America are located in remote northern regions with extreme winter temperatures in the range of -20oF to -60°F. In addition, many locations are subject to very heavy snowfall. This paper discusses some of the key considerations in the planning and design of mine plant buildings, particularly concentrators, located in these regions. SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS The subject is considered under three main headings: I. Building Out line and Structural Frame 2. Wall and Roof Materials 3. Foundations The plan outline of a mine plant building will naturally be governed by the scope and layout of the process equipment it contains. The selection of roof profile, on the other hand, will generally depend upon a number of factors extraneous to the process e.g. snow conditions. When these factors are considered for concentrators in cold locations, a flat or stepped roof will usually be more economical and suitable than a sloping roof. The materials normally used for the structural framework of concentrators are the same as used for other industrial buildings, namely steel, concrete and wood. Structural steel, however, is the most commonly used material for concentrators in

Jan 1, 1971

By P. Hadzeriga

Ion exchange techniques have been growing fast and spectacularly in all phases of Science for the last two decades, but still its acceptance as a unit operation in Metallurgy is resisted. Mainly this is because ion exchange procedures are thought of as glamorous techniques by which only relatively expensive metals are to be recovered. Perhaps this concept comes from the early and basic marriage of uranium and other high price metals and ion exchange procedures. The general trend is that ion exchange technique requires equipment and materials which are too expensive to economically perform a chemical step whenever "cheap" commodities are produced. However, we are here presenting a means of utilization of waste hydrochloric acid by an ion exchange technique. We have studied this from the engineering and economic standpoint in a number of variations of the main procedure discussed here and we-conclude that under proper economic circumstances, the cost of the ion exchange material as well as the equipment and labor involved in the ion exchange section, is by no means unreasonable.

Jan 1, 1964

By V. B. Achanti

Reliability of the compressive strength of a coal seam determined in the laboratory is often subjected to debate. Effects of the coal seam's inherent characteristics, specimen preparation, testing procedure, testing condition, and a number of tests often result in drastic variation of the strength data. This paper deals with the development of a testing procedure for determination of coal seam compressive strength in the laboratory. Coal samples from two different coal seams were tested. First, the inherent characteristics of each coal seam such as coal structure, Hardgrove Orindability Index (HOI), Slake Durability Index, proximate analysis, and mechanical properties namely Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio were determined to categorize them in terms of their characteristic severity liable to produce variable strength data in typical laboratory tests. Second, two commonly used laboratory specimen shapes namely; cylindrical and cubical, were tested to determine which shape produced the least variation of data and reproducible strength values. Third, four loading rates within the static testing range (Le. 0.007 MPa/s (1.0 psi/sec), 0.07 MPa/s (10 psi/sec), 0.34 MPa/s (50 psi/sec), and 0.7 MPa/s (100 psi/sec)) were used to determine an ideal loading rate. Finally, the number of test samples required to produce strength data within the acceptable standard deviation, considering coal seam characteristics were established.

Jan 1, 1996

By V. Srivastava, T. Ghosh

"Modeling and Simulation of SAG Mill has been widely used in design and optimization of mill performance in terms of its power draw, processing capacity and product size distribution. However, these models are solved under steady approximation and do not provide any information on mill charge distribution in real time. This paper attempts to characterize mill contents by solving Whiten’s first order contents based model in Matlab/Simulink environment. The parameters in the model such as breakage rate (S), discharge rate (D) and appearance function (A) were estimated utilizing process and design data collected from a gold mine operating in Alaska coupled with nonlinear parameter estimation scheme. This model is then utilized to predict dynamic response of other key operational variables such as mill power, bearing pressure, charge level and product size distribution. The transient response of mill behavior with respect to changes in feed size distribution, tonnage and mill feed water is also presented. This dynamic simulation approach can be used for practicing different control strategy and training purposes. The observed response of mentioned variables was validated utilizing dynamic response data from the plant to encompass operational characteristics of SAG Mill behavior. Keywords: SAG Mill, Dynamic Modeling, Simulation, Nonlinear Parameter Estimation. INTRODUCTION Grinding in mineral industry is one the most important steps in the process of size reduction and plays a crucial role in determining the overall economics of the milling plant. Much of the efforts focused on improving the process efficiency using modeling and simulation have been practiced by researcher and engineers. However, up till now these models were simulated under steady state approximation because of their complex nature and difficulty in programming them in a dynamic framework. Steady state simulations have been successfully utilized in circuit designing, capacity planning and pre-flowsheet optimization. The maturity in steady state models is because of its applicability and regular use in steady state simulation packages such as JKSimMet, Limn, ModSim, etc. With the advent of equipment such as SAG and AG mill has been a recent shift in the simulating these models using dynamic approach. Because of the economic benefits of these devices and ability to act both as a primary grinding device and as secondary or tertiary crushing device they have gained a large popularity and are now universal to any milling plant. However, these device poses a real challenge to engineers and researchers in terms of operation and control. The major reason attributed to problems faced is because the ore constitutes the major portion of the charge in these devices when compared to ball and rod mill. This rock charge is subjected to disturbance such as changes in feed size distribution and ore hardness which results in unstable operation and frequent mill stoppages. One way to prevent this is to measure and control these external variables, however, lack of available instrumentation and unavailability of sensors to measure these variables has foiled the understanding of complete process occurring inside the mill thereby, inhibiting development of proper control system."

Jan 1, 2017

By S. C. Tadolini, P. Mills

"INTRODUCTION This research produced a shotcrete formulation that extends beyond stabilization and can be used to restore the structural integrity of damaged infrastructure. The primary challenge was to develop a shotcrete or gunite with structural strength within a few minutes to prevent parasitic loading and allow ingress into damaged structures within a few minutes of the mix formulation being applied. This also applies to mining conditions where rapid support of progressive failures can minimize failure. An additional benefit was the discovery that the product had extremely high adhesion properties in addition to high flexural strengths. The approach to product design was the development of “single bag” dry mixes that are entirely self-contained, can be rapidly transported anywhere in the field or underground, and be deployed using simple equipment. Dry mix eliminates issues relevant to high shear water mixing, as water is added in the form of a mist at the point of delivery; thus low W/C can be achieved. However, as there is no onsite powder mixing, the product must have a high degree of inherent homogeneity. A commercial version of this material is currently offered as Minova’s Tekcrete Fast® product which has been successfully deployed in the mining industry and is currently being used in civil, construction and tunneling operations. The material can rapidly stabilize unstable ground in metal/nonmetal and coal mines. This paper described the technology development, product testing results and applications in mining and civil applications. BACKGROUND The original development of this product was to complete rapid stabilization of shock damaged structures, which falls outside the purview of normal construction and mining practices, due to the critical time issue and the nature of the damaged structure. The stabilization of damaged structures requires materials and equipment that can be rapidly deployed to place materials that have very rapid strength development. These materials need to be placeable at a distance to provide some degree of safety to the responders. In addition, the materials must be able to adhere to structural surfaces that have not been specially prepared and conditioned, and may also be highly fractured, dusty, wet, and quite possibly hot or extremely cold. The technology for the rapid delivery of large volumes of cementitious materials to vertical or even overhead surfaces currently exists. Pneumatic delivery (shotcreting) has been used in construction for over 100 years (American Shotcrete Association, 2014). Shotcreting has played a major role in structures like the Washington D.C. Metro subway system and been used in underground mining applications routinely to serve as part of the primary and secondary support system when used in conjunction with traditional roof bolts. Numerous rapid setting cements are commercially available. They are used for rapid repair of surfaces such as bridge decks, pavements, and commercial floors, as well as structural repairs of vertical and overhead surfaces. Few of these products are specifically marketed for use in shotcrete applications. The majority of rapid setting cements are based on, or at least contain, Portland cement as a principle component. Other components are added that help provide early strength, such as high alumina cement (HAC), organic polymers, chemical accelerators (which can also be added during concrete batching), and calcium sulfate hemihydrate (e.g. gypsum plaster) (Lea, 1971). Cementitious mortars prepared with some of these cements can achieve compressive strengths of 6.8 – 13.8 MPa (1,000-2,000 psi) within 1 hour. However, Portland cement mortar and concrete typically require many weeks of proper curing to reach significant levels of their ultimate strengths, even when used with set accelerators. Also, high early strengths require the use of large proportions of Portland cement in the concrete mix, which can lead to high heat evolutio"

Jan 1, 2017

By L. L. Oriard

The author describes three case histories of fracture-control blasting demonstrations. This is a technique in which the walls of blast holes are scribed or notched in order to enhance the development of blast_induced fractures, and to control their direction. One demonstration was that of a tunneling application in a rock that was generally competent but strongly foliated, hence strongly anisotropic. P second test was conducted for perimeter blasting of a structural excavation in a massively jointed limestone. A third field test was conducted for tunneling through an old concrete structure. Increased applications are envisioned with new tool modifications being developed at the University of Maryland.

Jan 1, 1981

By Chi-shing Wang

The U.S. Bureau of Mines has been developing the mechanical roof pulling technique as a method for evaluating the effectiveness and the comparative advantages and disadvantages of various roof bolting systems, based on the characteristic responses of bolted nine roofs to a prescribed external loading system. Preliminary experiments were conducted in the Bureau's Safety Research Coal Mine using a 12-foot and a 16-foot-span test rig. The experiments have proved the capability of the test rigs and suggested the viability of the test method. This paper summarizes the test concept and the experimental results.

Jan 1, 1974

By Dennis Arthur Fenton

The hydrodynamic bearing was first described by, Reynolds in 1886, and has since been widely applied in motors, engines, compressors, hydroelectric turbines, and other machinery. For various reasons, the hydrostatic bearing currently predominates in the large, horizontal rotating machinery field (e.g. grinding mills). However, the current industry trend towards increasing size and energy efficiency has resulted in renewed interest in the advantages of hydrodynamic bearings. These advantages include structural improvements, reduced bearing friction, improved bearing life, improved transient characteristics, and reduced lubricant pump size and power requirements. In particular, the higher energy efficiency results in substantial savings on large machines. This paper describes some aspects of the design of large hydrodynamic bearings based on thirty years, of experience in the design of such bearings on grinding mills ranging in journal size from 2.1 m to 6.4 m, see Table 1.

Jan 1, 1985

By Alfred Jr. Petrick, William A. Vogely

INTRODUCTION The scope of mineral finance extends beyond the economic aspects of property evaluation to all of those activities involving acquisition and utilization of funds with an objective to optimize the value of the firm. It must, therefore, en- compass consideration of the overall financial goals of the firm, decisions involving external versus internal growth and domestic versus foreign investments, management of working cap- ital, efforts to minimize the cost of capital, and decisions with regards to the instruments of long- term debt and equity financing. The scope of this section is limited to considerations of special interest to the mineral or petroleum engineer, which include the following aspects of mineral finance: (1) The technical aspects of mineral or coal property or oil and gas reservoir evaluation which provide the basis for estimation and forecasting of revenues and costs. (2) Estimation and forecasting of costs and prices in a inflationary economic environment. (3) Calculation of cash flows which model .. , the investment in minerals, coal or oil, and gas. Such models require assumptions as to the timing of cash flows, escalation of capital and operating costs, base prices, and escalation, the tax regime, royalties, division of profits and the economic aspects of loans. (4) The role of discount rate in the economic analysis of an investment which requires consideration of the opportunity costs of the firm, cost of capital, risk premiums. (5) Risk analysis including application of the concepts of conditional net present value, expected value, and risk preference as well as the application of the techniques of sensitivity and simulation. (6) Selection of application criteria for in- vestment decision making. (7) Capital structure with particular reference to the effect of debt financing. (8) Consideration of sources of funds utilized by the minerals industries. (9) Long-range planning including portfolio analysis. This section is limited to principles, methodologies, and trends in mineral investment, finance, and long-range planning in the United States with a perspective from the year 1984. Consideration of the key concepts is supplemented by case examples of investment risk analysis and financial structure. Important factors affecting mineral investment evaluation during the 1980s include volatile metals prices, cost inflation, and the introduction of techniques requiring the computer and its capacity for improved technical and economic analysis into the hands of those who know most about the industry. The personal computer is replacing the calculator on the desk of the individual analyst and is rapidly becoming a required tool for the study of engineering and economics. Examples of change brought about by the micro-computer include greatly improved techniques of cost estimation, wider application of the computer for project analysis, computer graphics, reserve estimation, geostatistical analysis, mine design and other techniques that capitalize on the ability of the computer to handle

Jan 1, 1985

By R. K. Young

Producing a sound plant design for a major project requires hundreds of engineers and many drawings. Economical accomplishment of this task is based upon careful and orderly organization of the design team so that at all times there is a complete and workable staff but at no time a surplus of costly talent. This paper will describe the various stages in the development of plant design which normally follow the laboratory and pilot plant investigations discussed in other papers today. An outline of the procedures used in the assembling of a project design group, within an established engineering organization will be presented. Actual procedures may vary according to the size and character of the plant, the special requirements of the owner, and the make-up of the engineering organization performing the design, but most of the points covered will be found to be basic to any plant design project.

Jan 1, 1960