Search Documents

By G. Xu, A. R. Kumar, N. A. Amoah

Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of respirable coal mine dust causes coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and silicosis. Underground coal mine roof bolter operators are more prone to elevated exposure to coal and silica dust. The canopy air curtain (CAC) was developed by NIOSH to protect roof bolter operators from the exposure. The CAC supplies filtered air over the breathing zone of the operator. This dilutes the high coal dust concentrations and provides for an impenetrable air curtain. Many studies have been carried out to improve CAC efficiency. However, field test has shown variable dust control efficiencies indicating rooms to further improve due to the nonuniform airflow distribution across the plenum and ineffective perimeter flow. This study therefore redesigns the CAC with optimized flow distribution that effectively protects roof bolters from coal dust exposures. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to optimize the uniformity of airflow distribution across the plenum to achieve the best possible uniformity. A lab experiment validates the CFD model and confirms the ability of this design to reduce floor dust pickup, prevent external wind infiltration, and offer an improved protection efficiency

Mar 2, 2022

By A. W. Storm

Vertical shaft furnace design and operation have their roots deep in antiquity. There is substantial evidence to indicate that iron was reduced from its oxides to serve mankind's needs long before recorded civilization - - actually prior to 3500 B .C. For at least 5500 years man has been matching wits with Nature to find better methods of extracting this most common, yet essential, metal from her, grasp. And, during nearly all of this period, the vertical shaft furnace has played a principle role in this dramatic struggle.

Jan 1, 1962

By M. Poulton

Backpropagation, learning vector quantization, counterpropagation, functional link, probabilistic, and. self -organizing map are among the most popular neural network classification paradigms. Each paradigm finds a unique set of weights that will map the input pixels into their respective output classes. The usefulness of each network depends on its overall accuracy, ease of use, speed and scaling. The fastest and most accurate networks in this study were the functional link and counterpropagation. These networks, however, do not scale well to large input vectors or large training sets. A better choice is the LVQ network which achieves high accuracy, is fast, requires a minimum number of input parameters and presents fewer scaling problems.

Jan 1, 1992

By Larry Snyder, Levent Ozdemir, Charles Fishman, Fun-Den Wang

Tunnel Boring Machine Instrumentation A 9.17 m. diameter tunnel boring machine presently in operation in Chicago, Illinois, has been instrumented to continuously monitor and record machine thrust, torque and penetration rate during boring. A micro-processor-based data logger capable of monitoring up to 60 channels of data digitizes and converts into appropriate engineering units the signals from various transducers mounted on the machine. The output from the data logger is sent to a teleprinter, providing a permanent record of measured data. The program control enables the data logger to scan all data channels at desired time intervals. Data obtained to date have been analyzed to determine the interrelationships of the parameters measured. Penetration rate was found to increase linearly with machine thrust with a unit increase in thrust causing more than a unit increase in penetration rate. For low thrust levels corresponding to the initial stages of a boring cycle, the penetration rate was observed to behave erratically until the thrust pressure was sufficiently high for the cutters to establish full contact with the tunnel face. Torque showed a curvilinear increase with machine thrust, reaching the design rating at about 70% of maximum available thrust. No-load torque was approximately 20% of the machine's rated torque capacity. Overall, the trends observed in measured machine parameters correlated closely with those predicted from experimental and theoretical boreability studies. In summary, the instrumentation system has mett two basic goals. First, it provided extensive and accurate boring data and secondly, it has proven that an automatic data acquisition system can be installed on a TBM and can function under adverse environment.

Jan 1, 1979

In underground coal mining, one of the biggest challenges is spontaneous combustion, which will not only present safety hazards but result in reserve losses as a result of burnt coal. The released heat coupled with other combustible gases commonly encountered underground will significantly increase the risk of explosion. In this paper, three-phase foam as an environment-friendly fire fighting agent composed of nitrogen, water and fly ash is introduced. The nitrogen facilitates inertization of the fire zone; the water helps cool down the fire and the fly ash can closely cover the coal to isolate the oxygen. What's more, the fly ash and the foaming agent are good free radical absorption. The comprehensive merits mentioned above make three-phase foam quite effective in quenching spontaneous combustion. Experiments indicate that three-phase foam can significantly slow down the temperature rise of coal during oxidation. The comparison between slurry and three-phase foam shows that the latter one is capable of flowing upward in the porous media so as to extinguish the high-point fire and concealed fire.

Jan 1, 2011

The properties of interfacial water at hydrophilic surfaces are of great importance in many technological areas including flotation, solid-liquid separation, dispersion and emulsions, flocculation, adsorption, corrosion, and soil contamination. This paper examines the use of FTIR/internal reflection spectroscopy (FTIR/IRS) to study the spectral characteristics of interfacial water at silica surfaces. FTIR spectra were characterized by consideration of the OH stretching region (3000-3800 cm-1) associated with the vibrational spectra of interfacial water. The broad peak in this region was deconvoluted in order to isolate overlapping spectral features that describe the nature of hydrogen bonding in interfacial water. Three distinct bands were found; -3600 cm-1 (free OH), -3400 cm-1 (incomplete tetrahedral coordination), and -3240 cm-1 (complete tetrahedral coordination) and the variation of their intensities with pH was found to be significant. This spectral information helps to explain orientation and bond ordering of interfacial water molecules at hydrophilic surfaces.

Jan 1, 1998

By Robert J. Ramsey, N. Finkelstein, Robert D. Jeppson

Introduction The Utah Copper Division of Kennecott Copper Corporation will present its contribution to the A. M. Gaudin Flotation Symposium in four parts. The first two segments will discuss briefly the historical development of the Utah Copper Division and describe the ore body. The third segment will review the facilities and operating procedures for the Utah Copper Division's newest plant, the Bonneville Concentrator. The fourth segment describes flotation process circuitry, including molybdenite recovery procedures, at the Arthur and Magna concentrators. (The Bonneville concentrator is a crushing and grinding unit and does not have its own flotation plant). 1. Historical Development Progress through change has been the key to the successful operation of the Utah Copper Division for more than 70 years. As the original low-grade copper operation, the pressures to remain competitive and profitable have dictated the timing and extent of each change. Much of the change has occurred through technological and economic advancements in the area of ore concentration. The Utah Copper Division of Kennecott Copper Corporation had its origin June 4, 1903, when the Utah Copper Company was organized. The initial mill of 300 tpd (tons per day) capacity was built at Copperton a few miles below the present Bingham Canyon mine site. From 1904 to 1910, the Copperton mill was expanded to a capacity of 1,000 tpd, and all of the known apparatus for gravity concentration were evaluated.

Jan 1, 1976

By Isabel F. Barton, Matthew J. Gabriel, CARSON ROBERTS, JOHN LYONS-BARAL, LEON DUPLESSIS, Mark D. Barton

Geometallurgical assessment of orebodies in the mining industry typically relies on bench-scale or lab-based characterization techniques. In this study, we investigate drone- and tripod-based field hyperspectral imaging as a potential addition to the geometallurgy toolkit in multiple applications. This pilot study tests hyperspectral imaging for largescale mineral mapping in and around the active Lisbon Valley copper mine, including natural exposures, previously producing U-V mines, highwalls, dumps, and leaching sites. Tests include different (supervised and unsupervised) mineral data classification methods, varying mineral spectral reference libraries, comparison with ground-truth geological and spectroscopic mapping and sampling, and integration with LiDAR data. The results show that hyperspectral scans can produce spatially registered maps of the distribution of different spectrally active mineral types over dumps, highwalls, leach pads, and natural outcrops. Clays, other phyllosilicates, carbonates, and sulfates showed up particularly well. The sensor was also able to distinguish dry from lixiviant-saturated areas and map different clay types on the leach pads, and shows promise for differentiating types and health of vegetation. These results suggest that hyperspectral imaging, if coupled with robust ground-truthing, can be a useful complement to existing geometallurgical techniques in the mining industry, such as geological mapping, blast hole sampling and automated mineralogy identifications, and handheld spectrometry. In particular, hyperspectral imaging has promise for mapping the distribution of acid-consuming minerals; mapping the distribution of swelling, sliming, and heap-blinding clays; and pinpointing problem areas on heap leach pad surfaces.

Feb 10, 2021

By J. D. Morgan

Introduction In 1987, the US economy continued to grow steadily, reaching an annual rate of $4.6 trillion in the last quarter. The value of domestically processed mineralbased materials rose slightly to $250 billion. The value of US metals rose sharply to more than $7 billion. Industrial minerals rose slightly to $18 billion recycled scrap was valued at $4 billion. Metal prices rose sharply toward year-end. A number of mining and metal companies experienced increased profitability, fostering more optimism about the future. Consumer demand strongly affects mining because the US economy is relatively saturated with long-lived products. Consumer, mortgage, and federal debt continue to rise. 244 million citizens already possess 170 million licensed motor vehicles and 100 million dwelling units. New car production fell 9% to 7.1 million units, but truck and bus production rose 9% to 3.8 million units. New housing starts fell 10% to 1.6 million units. Excess productive capacity exists not only in the US, but also in many other countries. Consequently, the US mineral industry is encountering stiff competition from others, as well as increasing competition from newer engi¬neered materials. Domestic production of plastics rose 9% to 25 Mt (27 million st) - on a volume basis, double all metals. Some 7% of petroleum goes to make petrochemicals including plastics. Imports of nonfuel mineral-based materials in 1987 were valued at $37 billion and exports at $24 billion. Imports supplied a significant proportion of total US consumption of several important mineral materials, including many classified as strategic and critical. In December, the Congress mandated that any major changes in stockpile goals be made only by law, and that the Department of Defense submit annually detailed stockpile supply/demand analyses. Concern about apartheid in South Africa continued, resulting in increasing interest about chromium, manganese, platinum-group metals, cobalt, vanadium, and gold. The National Critical Materials Council continued to monitor the US materials position. The Defense Production Act, authorizing priorities and allocations, supply expansions, voluntary agreements, and the National Defense Executive Reserve continues in effect through Sept. 30, 1989. Under the DPA, the US Bureau of Mines maintains the Emergency Minerals Administration. Further consultations were held with Canada to strengthen the North American defense industrial base. Coal production, 60% from open pits, rose 2% to 825 Mt (910 million st) valued at $21 billion. Nearly four-fifths was burned to generate 56% of US electricity. Exports included 42 Mt (51 million st) of metallurgical coal and 24 Mt (27 million st) of steam coal, with a total value of $3.3 billion. Domestic petroleum production fell 5% to 480 Mm' (3 billion bbl). Uranium mining, including recovery from phosphates, fell 4% to 5.9 kt (6500 st). Nonfuel minerals Major metals: Raw steel production - a major consumer of many minerals - rose 7% to 79 Mt (87 million st). Domestic iron ore production rose 11% to 44 Mt (48 million st), about 96% pelletized. Net imports, though, fell 8% to 11 Mt (10 million st). Raw steelmaking capacity fell 6% to 102 Mt (112 mil-

Jan 5, 1988

By Douglas J. Uhren, Gary W. Gilbert

This paper describes the risk elements associated with difficult glacial geology, including boulders, heavy groundwater inflow, and potential running soils all coupled with a potentially corrosive service environment. The matrix workshop for the 168-inchfinished diameter sanitary sewer interceptor tunnel in Columbus, Ohio is assembled with the Design Team and the Owner’s design, operations, and fiscal staff. Corrosion protection alternatives are compared against cost and non-cost parameters with relative risk and weighting factors assigned. The Owner working in cooperation with the Design Team uses the matrix workshop to se

Jan 1, 2001

By G. Blackwell

In the 1980's the Canadian surface mining industry was confronted by declining competitiveness in the face of low cost foreign producers and alternative materials. Low metal prices undermined profits for many mining companies. Restructuring, rationalization, capacity reduction, technology transfer, as well as favourable currency rates and higher commodity prices, helped revitalize the industry by the close of the decade. Now in the 1990's, however, the need to improve competitiveness for profitability has re-emerged in greater intensity. In the current climate it is considered that there are three strategies available to industry to ensure profitability: continued rationalization and restructuring; optimization of operating practice; and technology development and transfer.

Jan 1, 1993

By Gy. Deák

The Romanian mining and especially the salt mining industry is going through a restructuring phase; among others it has to respect the European Environment Act. One of the most important deficits of the salt mining industry is the implementation of monitoring systems for geomechanics phenomena, in order to develop an important information database and form a real base for salt mines stability, prediction and prevention measures. Monitoring system solutions, involving discontinuous and continuous measurements of displacement / deformation fields, around underground excavations, are presented and discussed. In addition, a case study for the stability prediction of an experimental salt off-set, located in the Praid salt mine, using DKRControl method, is presented. The two monitoring systems use different tools, namely measuring tapes (to determine distance between markers in T-D station) and ultrasonic transducers (SM-TDA equipment).

Jan 1, 2006

By P. Johnson, G. E. Jones, G. K. Hoffman, C. B. Krueger, J. S. Raugust, M. Wilks, V. T. McLemore

The NMBGMR is slowly converting historical data into a relational database using Microsoft Access 97. The purpose of this database is to provide data on districts, mines, and mills in New Mexico to government agencies, public organizations, industry, and citizens to make informed decisions about resource development, resource management, water supplies, environmental impacts, hazard assessment, and waste disposal. Once the data are entered into the database with locations, the data can easily be converted to GIS format for displaying as different map layers.

Jan 1, 2003

By Mike Amick

As virgin coal reserves dwindle, more and more mines are being opened in areas with previous mining. As addressed in this conference before, there are solutions available for designing mines extracting coal from reserves with known underground workings above or below the target seam. Often times, however, mining begins with limited knowledge of the underground workings. Even with careful planning, the proposed design has limited success because the ?facts? as presented during planning turn out not to be as accurate as one would like. At National Coal?s Mine #14, mining the Walnut Mountain seam, after driving the main entries in some 34 crosscuts, it was found during routine mine examinations that the pillars had separated from the roof in a few areas of the mains. Immediate roof conditions proved to be sound but questions arose concerning the stability of the main roof and floor. Core tests were done to better determine the rock strengths and characteristics. The paper presents the ideology used to tackle the effects of mining over old works in an operating coal mine. This paper discusses the analysis of the symptoms observed and the steps taken to ensure that this pillar separation was caused by the underlying old workings and that the separation was expected and controllable.

Jan 1, 2009

By K. J. Stanaway

Concentrations of minerals between 3.5 and 5 specific gravity such as ilmenite, rutile and zircon in large accumulations of sand constitute "heavy mineral" placers. Two fundamentally different modes of formation characterize "trap" and "bed" placer variants. Smaller and generally higher grade trap placers form during sediment erosion or reworking. Because of their smaller size, they rarely yield economic heavy mineral deposits. They become economic, either if they contain more valuable "heavies" such as gold, or, if they occur within or near much larger but lower grade bed placers. Bed placers form during sediment accumulation episodes in any environment and lithofacies where mineral supply and fluid dynamics are favorable. Three heavy mineral deposits are discussed to illustrate bed placer geology and how trap placers occur with and relate to them.

Jan 1, 1991

By T. Rudolph, M. Pawlik, J. Benndorf, X. Yin, J. F. Brune, P. Goerke-Mallet

The long and often undefined period in the post-mining phase challenges geo-monitoring with its various responsibilities, like the detection of environmental changes, ground movements and water management. Modern methods of geo- and environmental monitoring observe numerous aspects using active and passive sensors with multispectral, hyperspectral and microwave sensors, with diverse spatial dimensions and spatiotemporal resolutions from satellites, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), in-situ sensors. Data integration, together with on-site knowledge and experience, provides the basis for comprehensive modeling, which improves the understanding of the environmental changes and their related causes, which is an essential step for public acceptance. In this paper, we aim to give a brief overview of various geo- and environmental monitoring methods.

Mar 2, 2022

By Albert H. Fay

The gypsum industry makes significant contribution to the wealth of our nation. This non-metallic mineral ranks in the highest order with America's most precious resources. Evidence of this is borne out by the fact that gypsum is a vitally necessary element in the building, industrial and agricultural industries. In 1967, the United States consumed 14 million tons of this valuable ore. Of .this amount 69% was required by the building industry for the manufacture of building materials. An additional 21% was directed to the industrial market, for the manufacture of Portland Cement and for other industrial uses. The remaining 10% was used for agricultural purposes.

Jan 1, 1969

By M. D. Ballain, V. C. Storhok, B. Pesic, J. C. Sever

Northwest Alloys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcoa, produces magnesium from dolomite by reduction with ferrosilicon and aluminum. This process produces alkaline by-products in quantities that allow their consideration for use as commercial by-products. Two such products are dicalcium silicate slag, Di-Cal, and magnesium oxide condensate, MgO. The alkaline properties of these materials offer acid neutralizing capability comparable to the traditionally used lime, therefore, warranting a study for their use in applications where the neutralization of acidic waters or process solutions is required, such as treatment of mine waters. In this ongoing study, three mine waters (Bunker HillMine, Berkeley Pit, and Blackbird Mine) were selected for treatment with Di-Cal and MgO. Lime was used as the background control. The solid precipitates were subsequently contacted with pure water at four different pH conditions for stability testing of prepared metal precipitates (expanded TCLP). It was found that neutralization with Di-Cal results in precipitates which are of equivalent to superior stability than those from lime treatment.

Jan 1, 1999

By S. C. Howell

The mining of taconite, to provide feed for a processing plant, requires that the flow of material continue uninterrupted. This means first, that the crude must be of a size acceptable to the primary crusher in order to reduce the delays caused by plugging the crusher with chunks. Secondly, elimination of oversize in the pit will reduce costs of all wear parts used in the mining and processing of taconite. Savings in wear parts is readily recognized in dipper teeth, bases, buckets, truck boxes, and crusher parts, both primary and secondary. During the early days of taconite mining, it was soon recognized at reserve mining company's Babbitt operations that experience in mining other ores was not always (or ?necessarily??) Applicable to excavating taconite. This was especially true in drilling and blasting. Blasting of small tonnages in single or double rows simply filled the pit with scattered chunks and provided very shallow banks for shovel loading. It also created problems for the jet piercers, since all drilling had to be performed in fractured areas. Drilling efficiency suffered and costs were extremely high. Shovel and truck efficiencies were also low and again costs were high. A high percentage of secondary breakage was required. This necessitated the use of numerous man hours to jackhammer holes in chunks, preparatory to loading and blasting. After the chunks were reduced, bull- dozer and grader hours were needed to pile the taconite for acceptable shovel loading.

Jan 1, 1968

By D. J. Lachel, Douglas E. Hansen, Bruce Kennedy

The very high cost of exploration and development for new mines requires that a carefully planned, complete, and technically competent geotechnical evaluation be applied to the ore body and the surrounding rock. The ground conditions must be predetermined sufficiently so that, during the development and exploitation stages, unexpected conditions will be of minor consequence. Ground conditions are a major factor affecting the cost of excavated items such as shafts and inclines. For example, shafts cost less to sink in tight dry ground than in highly pervious ground below the water table, with all other factors being equal. The proper mining methods also is dependent upon the ground conditions. Bad ground for room-and-pillar mining may be ideal for caving methods; whereas, ideal ground for room-and-pillar mining would be extremely difficult for a caving operation. To do a proper engineering design, the parameters of strength, deformability, and permeability must be determined, in addition to the loads that will be applied as a result of the mining activity. The required degree of accuracy for each parameter depends upon the individual case. For example, the strength of massive rock in which openings of small cross-sectional area are to be driven at shallow depths needs to be resolved only within several thousand kilopascals (pounds per square inch). Under such conditions, the rock strength is not likely to be of great economic importance unless the rock is very weak. Large openings at great depths require a much more accurate appraisal of rock strength and deformation characteristics. Ground water conditions are important at any depth. Today, a number of techniques exist for evaluating conditions before opening up the ground for development. These techniques and their applications are described in more detail later in this text. The evaluation of ore body ground conditions should start at an early stage, as soon as the deposit has been proven viable for a mine. Economic geology investigations mainly serve to define the value and limits of the ore deposit. To do this properly, the geology of the site is determined in at least as much detail as is necessary to define the "controls" for the ore body. The ground-condition evaluation must determine the engineering properties of the ore body and the surrounding material. This includes the structural geology as it relates to rock strength; i.e., the frequency, extent, and orientation of discontinuities such as faults, joints, bedding, etc. Ground water conditions also must be determined. It is important that the detailed geology of the site be determined at an early date. Reasonable geotechnical parameters must be established during this time period, so they can be used in mining model studies that include both physical and mathematical models. The ultimate goal bf-the geotechnical evaluation is to predict the ground behavior as the excavations are made and how the ground behavior will affect the safety and economic well-being of the mine. The formulation of a ground-condition evaluation program should be planned carefully to determine the particular geotechnical parameters only in as great a detail as will have a bearing on the mine design. For instance, it is not necessary to make numerous triaxial tests in strong rock when the mining will be conducted within a few meters (feet) of the surface in a regime of gravity loading and an absence of tectonic stresses. Similarly, it is not necessary to invest large amounts of time and effort in the determination of joint strengths if the orientations of the joints are such that the failure could not occur along them. Generally, the determination of ore body ground conditions can be divided into four main steps: 1) The general and structural geology of the site must be determined; this is determined primarily during the economic evaluation. 2) The material behavior characteristics of the deposit and the vicinity must be determined. 3) The ground water hydrology of the deposit and the vicinity must be determined. 4) Miscellaneous ground support considerations must be established. Gross features are defined first, followed by a series of increasingly detailed investigations. Specifically, the geology study should start by utilizing techniques such as remote sensing, topographic map interpretation, geologic mapping, etc. After the gross features, such as major faults, have been delineated, the studies are directed toward defining the more detailed elements of jointing, rock strength, ground water hydrology, and other characteristics. This information is used to formulate an assessment of the strength of the ore body and the surrounding rock. Finally, all of the gathered information is integrated to make an assessment of the rock behavior in relation to the types of openings, the excavation methods, the support requirements, etc., that should be used for the rock conditions that are present. The mine design and the geotechnical assessment should be an iterative process. General conclusions about the rock conditions will dictate a type of mine plan. The specific mine plan then should be modified by specific geotechnical considerations. For example, an initial assessment may conclude that the ore body is strong and that a strong rock unit is present over the ore body. Thus, one definite possibility is to mine the deposit by room-and-pillar methods. However, subsequent investigations may reveal faults through the deposit, requiring relocation of the mine openings so that pillars and other structures are in sound rock. In other words, the final mine plan should be compatible with the geotechnical aspects of the ore body.

Jan 1, 1982