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By H Mischo, M Ferber, M Donner, B Jung, S Grehl, A Dietze

Mobile robots have been making impressive inroads in a variety of domains. Within the Mining-RoX project, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg is exploring a further frontier for mobile and autonomous robots: underground mines. The potential benefits of mobile robots in underground mining are plentiful as underground mines are strenuous and potentially dangerous working environments for humans. A higher degree of automation, with robots either acting as helpers for human miners or even replacing all human personnel deployed underground, could help to significantly reduce mining costs. In disaster cases, rescue robots could help to find missing personnel. Unmanned mines operated by robots alone would not endanger human lives at all. Further use cases, and a particular focus of the Mining-RoX project, are mobile robots that gather sensory information of the underground mine (eg for the purpose of creating detailed 2D and 3D maps) as well as monitoring environmental conditions such as air and water quality. This paper presents the design of a prototypical mobile robot for mapping and monitoring underground mines. A generic robotic platform was extended with various 2D and 3D imaging devices as well as other sensors. First results from test runs in an underground mine are reported. Maps of two sections of the mine enhanced with localised sensor measurements were successfully created.CITATION:Grehl, S, Donner, M, Ferber, M, Dietze, A, Mischo, H and Jung, B, 2015. Mining-RoX – mobile robots in underground mining, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 57–64 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

By D Craw, J Youngson

Recent exploration for mesothermal gold deposits in the Otago Schist has focussed largely on extensions of, or analogies to, the reverse fault-hosted Hyde-Macraes Shear Zone deposit. Abundant normal fault-hosted mesothermal and epithermal vein deposits in the Otago Schist have attracted less attention, largely because they have limited lateral extent and steeper dips. Northwest-striking normal fault-hosted vein sets near Barewood and Hindon in east Otago crosscut schist foliation on the Barewood-Hindon plateau at a high angle along a combined strike length in excess of 20 kilometres. The trend of the vein sets is not linear, but rather contains several right lateral steps. Almost all veins dip steeply to the northeast. Angular discordance between schist foliation and the plateau surface along the trend increases from near zero at the northwest end of the veins to about 30¦ at the southeast end. Crude formation depth estimates decrease from about 7.5 km at the Barewood end of the zone to

Jan 1, 2002

The sphere of operations of dry crushing has been so much enlarged of late years that the following notes with reference to its advantages and limitations, and also some practical results in connection with the crushing of gold ores will probably be of service to the members of the Institute. Until recently, with one notable exception that of the Mt. Morgan Gold Mine, dry crushing has only been practiced to a very limited extent in Australasia, and elsewhere it might be said to belong to industries other than mining Its sphere of usefulness depends on the fact that the' product is delivered in a dry state without the separation of the finer particles from the coarser to any appreciable extent, thus enabling the following advantages to be achieved with different ores.

By Rogerson R, Queen L

The petrology and age of mid Cretaceous to Palaeogene marine volcanics may provide important clues to the palaeogeography of the period, particularly for tectonic elements and events outboard of the Papuan Basin. This initial survey of known marine volcanics of this age reveals a paucity of reliable data on isotopic ages, geochemistry and syngenetic mineralisation on virtually all units. Existing data allows a tentative subdivision of known marine volcanics into either MORB-like early Palaeogene rifts/ marginal basins, early Palaeogene ensimatic arc rocks overlying ?Late Cretaceous and Palaeogene fore-arc/marginal basin crust, late Palaeogene ensimatic arc rocks, and mid to Late Cretaceous ensialic rift rocks. Due to lack of data, some units are difficult to classify into these categories.

Jan 1, 1991

Rational decision making is generally perceived by managers of operations to be a delicate process of committing large sums of money and putting other people's life at risk. Consequently most managers may argue that the decision process requires good judgement, intuition and extreme caution; and not one easily made through the use of fancy mathematical algorithms and computer programs. The advent of artificial intelligence and expert systems in the computer industry combined with recent technological innovations in mathematical and economic problem solving is sure to change this perception. PARETO OPTIMALITY is an economic and a mathematical optimisation concept applied to solving real life operational problems; and one that the current volatile economic forces would require managers to employ because it is virtually real. REALISMM is a computer software package developed using the principles of Pareto optimality, dynamic programming, optimal clustering of information and decision maker interaction to generate decision maker preferred solutions. REALISMM has scope for artificial intelligence and expert systems application for cases where the decision maker is unsure about his objective preferences.

Jan 1, 1993

By Lamont G

The significance of blasthole stemming in determining blasting efficiency has been extensively studied for small diameter holes using gelignite explosives. Recent developments in blasting technology with the use of large diameter holes and low cost blasting agents have not included studies of the effectiveness of different types of stemming materials. A review of previous measurement techniques and the relevance of these earlier results to present stemming practice is presented in this paper. A survey of operating mines in Australia provided information for this analysis. The value of stemming in reducing blast noise and improving blasting efficiency is generally accepted but the use of bulk-loaded explosives in underground operations has resulted in the practice of eliminating the use of stemming material.In surface operations drill cuttings are used for stemming on the basis of availability rather than efficiency in providing resistance to movement. The development of laboratory testing techniques, based on noise level and borehole pressure measurements, to evaluate the relative efficiency of different types of stemming materials is described. The results of an extensive series of tests with ANFO explosive showed similar trends tothose obtained from earlier published results with gelignite type explosives. Conclusive quantitative results on the relative effectiveness of different stemming materials will require minor modifications to the existingequipment. Observations and the results of pressure measurements indicated the presence of shock wave effects which caused the ejection of the top section of the stemming column when using coarsely fragmented material.

Jan 1, 1979

By Reeves M

A review of the literature available in English on kriging and geostatistics is given with the references cross-classified by their subject matter for convenience and ease of use.

Jan 1, 1979

The mineralogy of nickel slags from the flash smelter of Western Mining Corporation Ltd. at Kalgoorlie was studied. Residual magnesium silicates in the sulphide concentrates raise the melting point of the slag and result in the formation of magnesium-rich olivines. Addition of lime lowered the melting point, and, in slowly cooled slags, resulted in the formation of a pyroxene.Magnetite and sulphides were also present in all slags.The converter slags contained an olivine near fayalite in composition, together with wiistite, magnetite, and a little sulphide.Accretions from the hearth of the flash furnace were largely composed of magnetite with subsidiary olivine similar in composition to those of the flash furnace slags.Wall deposits, however, were largely composed of nickel ferrite and nickel-iron olivines.

Jan 1, 1976

By Creelman C. A

With the technique and data obtained in using the blast hole diamond drill for "Removal of Horizontal Level Pillar by means of Blast Hole diamond drilling at New Occidental Gold Mines N.L.," as described in Proceedings No. 133 of 1944, and a series of experiments using the blast hole diamond drill for stoping at New Occidental and New Cobar Mines over the past two years, a benching method of stoping has been developed using 2 inch coring diamond drill bits, resulting in efficient and economical ore extraction in these large ore bodies.During the experimental stages the standard H-inch blast hole was used, but the deflection of the holes, when using this solid bit, either decreased or increased the burden of the hole when it became necessary to drill holes deeper than 45 feet.It was found that after blasting vertical holes deeper than 45 feet, the ore did not break satisfactorily over the full length of the hole; on one occasion as much as 30 feet of bench was left at the bottom of the face, which had to be subsequently re-bored andblasted.As this defect was also noticeable to some extent even when the holes did not deflect, it was then obvious that the explosive had become less sensitive in the lower section of the hole. This was probably brought about by pressure being built up ahead of the detonation wave in H-inch hole, resulting in desensitization of the explosive.Another series of experiments were carried out, using 2-inch solid bits, which enabled a much greater burden on the holes, and the use of primacord for the full length of the hole.This gave satisfactory results regarding breaking and fragmentation, but was uneconomic owing to the excessive consumption of diamonds, and the slow rate of drilling.Further experiments were then carried out using 2-inch coring bits, (Fig. 1) which allowed holes of 90-feet to be bored with little deflection, and proved to be entirely satisfactory as to cost and speed of drilling.

Jan 1, 1945

By McLennan R. G

The principle of personal safety is as old as the human race. The application of this principle to industry is of much more recent origin, and may be said to be almost exclusively the product of the twentieth century. The enormous strides in technique and production mode prior to the turn of the century had been achieved without any real regard for the crippled human by-products of that expansive era. It was accepted that. accidents were inevitable and formed part of the price that must be paid for production. It was not until 1885 that the first Workmen's Compensation Act was passed in Germany making the employer financially liable for injuries suffered on his plant.With awakening social conscience came the first organised efforts to reduce accidents in industry. Early 19th century literature dealing with the development of powerdriven machinery and the growth of industry in Europe contains many references to the unsafe and unhealthy working conditions that accompanied the change-over from the home workshop to the industrial plant. By the year 1900, there were in Germany - and a little later in England governmental regulations dealing with the guarding of hazardous machinery. American industry, now the acknowledged leader in industrial safety, admits freely that when an organised safety movement commenced in that country, there was already a considerable amount of information available to them from European experience. The steel industry was well to the fore in this work, and in...

Jan 1, 1957

By Parker A. J, Muir D. M

Solutions of acetonitrile in water dissolve water soluble copper(I) chloride. Removal of volatile acetonitrile from the resulting solutions, by distillation with low grade steam, precipitates pure copper(I) chloride. This is used to purify a crude copper chloride sublimate from the chlorination of nickel matte but is applicable to other sources of copper(I) chloride. The pure product can be converted to pure copper(I) oxide, copper(II) oxychloride or pure copper metal directly.

Jan 1, 1980

Your Excellency, on behalf of the Council of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and, indeed, on behalf of everyone present, I extend to you a welcome, and our thanks for your gracious acceptance of the invitation to be here to-day and, later on, to present Honorary Membership Certificates. I also welcome the several official representatives of our Allies, of Great Britain and our sister Dominions.To Messrs. E. C. Driffield and E. J. Rigby, two of the original Foundation Members, who are with us to-day, I extend greetings.The present occasion is opportune to express, on behalf of a representative body of professional men, deep appreciation of the sacrifice which His Majesty the King has made, and will continue to make, by appointing His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester as Governor General of Australia and, therefore, His Majesty's senior personal representative in this country.I suppose, that as the primary reason for our assembly to-day is to celebrate the Fiftieth Year of the Institute's existence, I should properly on this occasion, give an account of its history and development. However, as this subject was ably covered by Mr. L. V. Waterhouse, in his Presidential Address in 1938, I trust I may be excused for selecting some other subject. I shall, therefore, exercise my privilege as President and give you a short history of the Mining and Metallurgical Industry of this country with special reference to its effect on the development of the Commonwealth and on the national economy. I apologize in advance for any statistics which I inflict upon you; some of these will be three or four years out of date, because of censorship restrictions. I shall as far as possible refer firstly to the industry prior to and including 1893, the Institute's foundation year, and then to subsequent development.Australia, is pre-eminently a pastoral and agricultural country and it leads the world in the production of wool. Nevertheless, it has an international reputation as a producer of gold and various metals and of minetal products.The development of gold mining in the decade 1840-50 was an epoch-making event in Australia's history, because, to quote one writer's apt phrase, "it precipitated Australia into nationhood." It was certainly responsible for a rapid increase in population. Thus, during the period 1841-1861 the population of Australia increased fourfold, from 221,000 to 1,170,000.The effect of the discovery of gold in Western Australia was even more striking. In 1890 the population of that State was 49,000 and in 1900 it was 180,000.Statistics in respect of gold are reasonably complete, even for the years prior to Federation, and it is interesting to note that the gold declared as...

Jan 1, 1944

By A Unlutepe

The Bosphorus Rail Tunnel Project, located in Istanbul, Turkey, aims to provide a Euro-Asian rail link, via an immersed tube tunnel crossing the Bosphorus Strait, along which will run all commuter, freight and intercity passenger trains of Turkish State Railways (TCDD), as well as the future extension to the European rail network. The total length of upgrading and new railway construction will be approximately 76 km. The main structures include the immersed tube tunnel; mechanised shield tunnels; new Austrian tunnelling method (NATM) tunnels; cut-and-cover, at-grade and retained-cut/fill structures; and some service structures. This paper discusses Phase 1 implementation of the project, one of the major transportation infrastructure projects in the world today, whose varied structures present stimulating engineering and construction challenges.

Jan 1, 2008

By W Herrmann, R R. Large

Volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposits in ancient, submarine volcanic belts of Australia include mound, lens and sheet-style Zn-rich polymetallic deposits, massive and disseminated pyritic Cu-Au deposits and disseminated, stratabound Au-only deposits. Variation in morphologies, metal ratios, volcanic environments and alteration features indicates there exists a spectrum of deposits from the classic VHMS model, to hybrids between VHMS-porphyry Cu and VHMS-epithermal end members. Zn-rich, polymetallic deposits form eitheron, or just below, the seafloor, whereas the Cu-Au and Au-only deposits form sub-seafloor by replacement of specific volcanic lithologies. Alteration zoned outwards from quartz -> chlorite -> sericite ¦ carbonate is typical of VHMS deposits across the spectrum. Quartz and carbonate alteration is dominant in the Au-only systems,chlorite alteration is commonly developed close to Cu-rich ores, and sericite and carbonate alteration zones are well developed in the stratiform Zn-rich ores. The most useful geochemical vectors for Zn-rich ores are the alteration index [AI=100(MgO + K2O)/(MgO + K2O + CaO + Na2O)], the chlorite-carbonate-pyrite index [CCPI=100(MgO + FeO)/(MgO + FeO + K2O + Na2O)], Mn content of carbonate, Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratio of chlorite,whole-rock Tl, Sb and Ba/Sr ratio, S34S of pyrite, and whole-rock S18O. The most useful vectors for pyritic Cu-Au ores are AI, CCPI, S/Na2O ratio, Na content of white mica, and Fe content of carbonate.

Jan 1, 2002

THE machine from which the following results were obtained makes one of a row of seven at work in the Junction North, Concentration Mill at Broken Hill, New South Wales. It consists essentially of a belt for dressing purposes, which travels round two 12-in drums situated at either end of a wooden frame. This frame is supported on wooden legs, and the whole is affixed to two iron castings, one on either side of the frame. A to-and-fro motion is obtained from an eccentric shaft, which, together with the stationary end of the supporting legs, is carried by the iron castings. A belt drive to the forward drum provides a constant rate of travel to the dressing belt.The top half of the dressing belt is supported on 3-in rollers spaced about 12-in centres along the frame of the vanner. A fairly thick dressing belt is used, and no trouble whatever is experienced from the formation of gutters between the rollers.These belts are 28 ft 4 in long, 4 ft wide, 3-16 in thick, and are made of two-ply 32-oz duck, with a coating of rubber on either side. The surface available for dressing is about 10 ft 6 in x 3 ft 8 in- ie, about 38'5 square feet. The machine is driven atthe rate of 245 i-in strokes per minute, while the dressing belt travels at 15 feet per minute...

Jan 1, 1909

Resonance re-emission from nickel vapour affords a convenient method for isolating the resonance lines at 3415A, 3515A, and 3524A. The vapour is generated by cathodic sputtering and is illuminated by light from a nickel atomic spectral lamp. The resonance lines thus isolated can be usefully employed for absorption measurements on mineral samples where the nickel concentration is too high for measurements with the more sensitive line at 2320A. A spectrophotometer employing a resonance lamp as monochromator possesses several advantages where a great number of determinations are made under routine conditions. The wavelength setting is stable under even the most rigorous conditions and with the provision for automatic setting of full scale deflection the instrument requires virtually no adjustment. The instrument has been used under routine conditions for the determination of nickel (in the range O· 05-2 per cent) in mineral samples.

Jan 1, 1968

A mineral grain finder is described which is easily constructed to fit onto the stage of a standard reflected light ore microscope.The device is most useful in relocating particular grains or mineral associations on 30 mm diameter polished sections. The use of the grain finder in the teaching of ore microscopy is outlined.

Jan 1, 1988

By Lyman G. J

Dense medium drum separator efficiency was analysed at two Western Australian iron ore concentrators. Efficiency data had hitherto been difficult to accumulate due to the high cost of analysing representative, and therefore large, coarse ore samples. To overcome this problem, recoverable density tracers, which are in effect artificial mineral and gangue, were manufactured in three different sizes (15 mm, 30 mm and 60 mm). Their use enabled partition curves to be studied within one hour of conducting a test: separation densities were generally lower than the feed medium density for all three sizes of density tracer. For a given set of operating conditions, the smaller tracers had lower separation densities and larger ecart probab/es than the large tracers. These phenomena are explained with the aid of a conceptual model of a drum separator, which assumes that the feed ore plunges to the bottom of the drum upon introduction. Particle rising velocities are, therefore, process determining.Medium rheology was altered by adjusting the proportion of solids in the pulp. This was accomplished by changing both the pulp density and ferrosilicon/magnetite ratio. Higher solids volume fractions invariably caused a decrease in separation densities and an increase in ecart probables, most markedly for the smaller tracers. A similar response was observed when feed tonnages were raised.An explanation for these phenomena is sought in the discussion which also suggests means of improving drum separator efficiency.

Jan 1, 1987

This paper describes the excavation of No. 1 Power Station Lift Shaft at the Kiewa Hydro-Electric Project. The advantages and limitations of the borehole method are outlined, and general principles of plant design are discussed.INTRODUCTIONFor many years, attempts have been made to reduce mine development costs by various methods. Some of the, techniques of tunnelling have been adopted in horizontal headings, and in main vertical shafts, mechanical plant has displaced hand labour with notable success. However, in the field of small rises and winzes, improvements have largely been effected by attention to details of procedure. The most promising avenues for' substantial reductions in cost relate to:(a) Long-hole drilling(b) The borehole method(c) Calyx drilling.Whilst each of these methods has its peculiar advantages, the borehole rising method is probably most useful, and capable of wide application.In brief, the borehole method of rising requires a, drill hole parallel to the axis of the rise. A hoisting rope is passed through the borehole, and is attached to a platform on which the rising crew are raised with their equipment to the drilling position in the rise.When properly planned, the method is particularly safe, and has generally received the approval of mine inspectors and safety authorities. Rising work is generally hazardous, even when special timbering methods are used. In...

Jan 1, 1959

Whilst the wider community is both a large consumer of mineral products and relies on mineral exports for much of the wealth which sustains it, the community generally has a poor perception of the minerals industry.   The role of professionals and The AusIMM in the "New Economy" minerals industry is reviewed. The new structure of The Institute is vital as we move forward in times of globalisation, rationalism, increasing litigation, criminalisation of risk and increased focus on corporate governance. This address looks forward to ways The AusIMM and professionals of the future are positioning themselves for these and other challenges.

Jan 1, 2001