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By W. G. Millar

Until a fire occurs, insurance and prevention work are often looked on as unavoidable necessities, but as insurance is back of all business credit, it is essential to know that in case of damage money will be available to cover the loss; while the interruption of production, often caused by a fire, brings home the realization that if prevention work avoids such an interruption, it is well worth while. Fire insurance is a legal contract guaranteeing the payment of large amounts to an owner, but it is possible there is no other important contract that receives so little consideration. Although previously carried on elsewhere, it is only of recent years that insurance engineering has been actively followed up in Canada, with inspections of an owner's property carried out for his benefit. Now inspections of this kind are made, advice on fire prevention and protection work ?is available, reports with recommendations with regard to the above are furnished periodically, and with this method applied the owner receives the broadest possible cover and security at the lowest cost. Rates are set by the underwriters by rating schedules which charge for defects in a building and allow credits for protection and other favourable features . These schedules are based on the past record of loss of mining properties as a class, so that a fire in another mining property indirectly affects you, but the amount paid is reduced in proportion as your property is improved. The writer feels, from personal experience, that there is no industry where fire prevention receives more attention than the mining industry, and it is a pleasure to advise that, due to this co-operation, some reduction in the basis rates for mining risks is now being made by the underwriters.

Jan 1, 1928

By F. W. Gray

Foreword: It is not my purpose, in this address, to write the history of the Geological Survey of Canada, which has from time to time been reviewed by the officers of the Survey itself, and by men more competent than myself to handle so large a subject, but rather to set out some of the reasons for the regard in which the Survey is held by our Institute, the body best qualified to speak for the mining men of Canada. And, a further purpose is to publish the desire of our Institute that the work of the Survey shall be maintained at the highest pitch of efficiency the resources of our country. will permit, because to scrimp expenses on the Survey is 'to save at the spigot and lose at the bunghole." A historical examination of the grounds on which it may be asserted the Geological Survey has been, and still is, of fundamental economic value to our country, discloses a prescience on the part of the forefathers of Canada, calling for our admiring gratitude, and reveals a unanimity among the real leaders of Canadian thought, on the value of geological knowledge, that is impressive in its continuance dawn to this date. There seems always to have been before our people the realisation that large stretches of Canada are unfitted for agricultural settlement, and that our glaciated areas, the barrens and tundra of the North, and our extensive mountain ranges, had promise of compensating mineral content which the geologist and the prospector, labouring together through the years, would disclose. The Geological Survey is one of Canada's oldest public services, distinguished by an unimpaired tradition of honourable and useful labour. Founded in 1843, under William Edmond Logan, not yet 'Sir William', one year after the Act of Union, it was directed by him until 1869, or into the early years of Confederation, so that the early years .of the Survey were also, politically, the formative years of Canada, as we know her today.

Jan 1, 1932

By L. Garrigues, M. Jarvis, M. Halhead, O. A. Bascur

"Large variability of ore types, escalating variables operating costs and increased throughput require large investment in sensors and systems in mineral processing operations. Mining and mineral processing plants collect and manage more data than a small city with much in real-time. The data is changing rapidly as internal and external conditions evolve. As corporations buy and sell assets, and reengineer their staff, the structure and tools that were used to understand this data is lost. This results in significant deterioration in the ability to maintain a smart operation. When data is recognized as a critical asset and managed as part of an infrastructure, it become a key enabler to help transform the entire operations. In many situations, all partners in business collaboration—such as join ventures, contract manufacturer, expert service providers, and operations and maintenance companies—need access to production and asset data. The emergence and maturation of Cloud technologies make it possible to easily connect the plants to external equipment suppliers and operational support service.This paper will share examples of how mineral processors have adopted new data strategies such as self-service business intelligence, cloud computing and internal/external collaboration.INTRODUCTIONOne of the main challenges in mineral and metallurgical processing plants is effective energy and water management. The lowering of ore grades requires higher throughputs while the ores are getting more complex with variable mineralogical compositions. Electrical energy supply is becoming a restriction in many countries. Rising water management costs has a direct impact on the profitability of the operations. Grade recovery versus energy consumption in copper production for both open pit and underground mines has been described by Fuerstenau (2001). Comminution uses over 55% of the energy to produce nonferrous metals while other operations require much less energy (Nelson, Richins, & Lelinski, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2016

By W. H. Patterson

The history and experience of early companies in the Islands is illustrated by the typical transactions of Trans-Western from 1959 to date. Trans-Western had entered into farmout agreements with companies strong enough to carry out at least the required minimum exploratory work and then such development as might be warranted. The farmee companies were required to make deposits to guarantee work performance during the first period of validity, i.e. the first 3 years of the 12-year life of the permits, and at the rate of 5 cents per acre. At that time, a good deal of geology was available, as a result of extensive exploration that had been carried on by the Geological Survey of Canada and other geological enterprises, with field parties travelling over and camping on all of those Islands. Trans-Western's farmees then selected, from Trans-Western's priority on 13.5 million acres, what they believed were the lands most prospective of producing large oil and gas discoveries, and, having the right to trim off acreage which they considered less prospective, thereby reducing the acreage of Trans-Western and its farmees to in excess of 5.5 million acres. The farmees then commenced a 3-year program carrying out geological exploration to the required minimum of 5 cents per acre, and with some permanent and many mobile camps.

Jan 1, 1969

By R. Kaibyshev, I. Zuiko

"The effect of thermomechanical processing (TMP) including cold working by tension or rolling before aging on mechanical properties and a dispersion of secondary phase particles of an AA2519 alloy (Al–5.64Cu–0.33Mn–0.23Mg–0.15Zr–0.11Ti–0.09V–0.08Fe–0.01Si (wt. %)) was examined. It was shown that the use of tension to impart pre-strain =10% in the alloy provides the best combination of properties in peak aging condition of the material. The AA2519T87 alloy processed by tension exhibits the yield stress, ultimate tensile strength and elongation to failure of 425.4±2.4, 475±2.4, 12.1±0.4, respectively. The one pass rolling leads to -5% decreases in yield stress and –20% decreases in ductility. Dislocations serve as heterogeneous nucleation sites for ?'-phase precipitation. The positive effect of tension is attributed to the formation of more homogeneous dislocation structure, uniform distribution of ?'-phase particles with higher aspect ratio. Precipitation of the O–phase plates on {111}a habit plane was detected. In addition it was shown that the low angle boundaries are heterogeneous nucleation sites for ?' and O particles.INTRODUCTION Precipitation-hardened alloys are a commercially important group of the materials because their mechanical properties can be modified by treating and changing the microstructure. Age-hardenable aluminum alloys belonging to the Al–Cu–Mg system are widely used due to their attractive combination of high specific strength, good fracture toughness and enhanced creep resistance attributed to the highly efficient strengthening by the ?'-phase (Palmer, StJohn, Nie, & Qian, 2017). An AA2519 alloy exhibiting superior mechanical properties among high-strength Al–Cu alloys (2XXX-serie) due to minor Mg additives. It is known that, in alloys with high Cu/Mg ratio (=5.6) the classic precipitation sequence (Palmer et al., 2017; Wang & Starink, 2005; Wang et al., 2010) of supersaturated solid solution (SSSS) decomposition occurs: SSSS ? GP zones (Al3Cu) ? ?? (Al3Cu) ? ?' (Al2Cu) ? ? (Al2Cu) (1)"

Jan 1, 2018

By Y. Turen, Y. Karakas, E. Candan, C. Sahinturk

In this study, wettability between sprayable tundish lining (MgO) and molten steel was investigated by using sessile drop method. Content of glass fiber (SiO2) in the MgO varied between 0 to 8 wt% whereas mean particle sizes of the MgO were 25, 75, 150 and 300µm. Experimental results revealed that contact angle (0) of sessile drop on the MgO was not altered by the addition of glass fiber up to 1 wt.% whereas above 2 wt.% addition decreased the 0 considerably. Contact angle, 0, increased considerably with increasing MgO particle size. SEM analysis showed deposition of glass phase was present at the interface as the finer MgO particles were used.

Jan 1, 2004

By J. C. Ingram

IT SEEMS particularly appropriate that, in celebrating its Diamond Anniversary, the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metalturgy chose our Province of British Columbia as its locale in this, our own Centennial year. I am sure your organization is justifiably proud of its achievements and growth over the period of its sixty years, and we, for our part, are justifiably proud of our growth over our first one hundred years. With your kind indulgence I pro-pose to talk to you today about our industrial growth, or, to put it an-other way, to highlight, historically, our progress in industrial development over the past one hundred years, and to take the liberty of speculating on what we may reasonably look forward to over the next few years. I am sure, Mr. Chairman, that some may have questioned the appropriateness of a talk on the industrial development of British Columbia to the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. However, strangely enough, we in British Columbia owe our origin, constitution-ally and industrially, to the mining industry.

Jan 1, 1958

By M. Oliazadeh, A. Vazirizadeh

"The inclusion of small amounts of silicon, phosphorus and sulphur in iron ores or concentrates can have a profound effect on the steel making process and thus on the final iron and steel products. In nature however, it is inevitable that iron deposits contain unwanted elements. Each element has its own distinct effect on the final steel product. The effect of high silicon is the formation of gray iron. Phosphorus mainly increases hardness and strength, lowers solidus temperature and increases fluidity and cold shortness. Finally sulphur contamination causes cracks in the iron texture when smelting and forms white iron when casting. Overall, the acceptable level of phosphorus, sulphur and silica in the iron concentrate should be less than 0.04%, 0.15 % and 1.5 % respectively.Scarcity of high grade iron ores necessitates using lower grade ores with higher amounts of impurities. The purpose of iron concentrators is to increase iron grades to an appropriate level suitable for steel making as well as removing impurities. Although many impurities can be traced in the ore, the most predominant impurities are limited to one or two elements. In this paper the beneficiation methods for removing SiO2, P and S are presented, including flotation, and the parameters that need to be considered in the design of beneficiation plants are discussed. Finally industrial cases are discussed along with their metallurgical performance.INTRODUCTIONIn metal sector, value of iron ores and concentrates is determined by iron percentage as well ascontent of:• Useful elements (Mn, Ni, Cr, V, Ti): natural alloying elements in steel• Deleterious impurities (S, P, As, Zn, Pb, K, Na): impair metal properties or complicate operational process in blast furnace• Fluxing components (Si, Ca, Mg,, Al)Sulphur and copper result in red-short, phosphorus is the cause of cold brittleness and arsenic and copper decrease welding characteristics. Sulphur should not exceed 0.15 in commercial ore. Acceptable sulphur content in ores and concentrates for producing sinter and pellets is 0.6%max, as sintering and heat hardening of pellets remove sulphur 60-90%. Phosphorous content in ores, sinter and pellets is limited to 0.07%-0.15%. 0.00.1% As max, 0.1-0.2% Zn max and up to 0.2% Cu are allowed in iron-ore part of the blast furnace burden for the production of standard conversion pig iron. Slag-forming components are divided into basic oxides (Ca, Mg) and acidic (Si, Al). Higher ratios of basic to acidic oxides are preferred since this reduces raw fluxing material."

Jan 1, 2016

By 13409, B. Arjang

"Ground stresses are one of the significant factors in the context of rockbursts and underground instability at some hard rock mines in Canada. Overcoring strain relief measurements using triaxial strain cells were performed at several mine sites to provide stress data for stability evaluations and mine design. Pre-mining stress determinations carried out at depths between 60 m to 1890 m resulted in the following average stress gradients:Maximum horizontal stress, s Hmax = 8.18 + 0.0422 MPa/m depthMinimum horizontal stress, s Hmin = 3.64 + 0.0276 MPa/m depthAverage horizontal stress, s Ha = 5.91 + 0.0349 MPa/m depthVertical stress, a; = 0.0266 ± 0.008 MPa/m depthThe maximum and minimum horizontal compressive stresses, with an average ratio of J.75 ± 0.45, prevail in east-west and northerly directions, respectively. Horizontal compressive stresses in excess of vertical overburden load were determined, indicating large variations in ratios to a depth of about 1000 m with decreasing trend toward depth.From present data, a particular regional zoning for the magnitude and direction of horizontal stress fields cannot be outlined.A common feature at mines with near vertical orebodies is that the maximum horizontal stress acts perpendicular to strike while the minimum horizontal stress is aligned on-strike. The vertical stress components approach the gravitational overburden load."

Jan 1, 1991

By R. Lasmanis, W. C. Utterback

"The Mount Tolman porphyry Mo-Cu deposit is 64 km south of Republic, Ferry County, Washington. It occurs in the composite Keller Butte pluton, which consists of the Keller Butte porphyritic biotite granite and granodiorite, the Mount Tolman quartz porphyry granite, and the Meadow Creek biotite granite phases. The three phases range in age from 61.3 Ma ± 2.3 Ma to 55.7 Ma ±2.0 Ma. The stockwork deposit occurs in the Keller Butte phase above the contact with the Mount Tolman quartz porphyry granite.Mount Tolman is a hybrid calc-alkaline deposit that has features of both a Climax-type and a plutonic type. Prior to post-ore faulting, the deposit had a flattened hood like shape. In plan it is elongated- 1.6 km wide, 3.2 km long, and up to 609 m thick. The orebody has a 292 o strike. It contains a geologic reserve exceeding 2.18 billion tonnes of ore averaging 0.093% MoS2 and 0.09o/o Cu using a 0.048% MoS2 cutoff. Of this total, 816 million tonnes of measured and indicated ore averaging 0.097% MoS2 and 0.09o/o Cu could be mined by open pit with an overall waste-to-ore ratio of 0.91 to 1.The deposit is a stockwork of quartz and quartz-sericite-pyrite veins and fracture fillings that contain molybdenite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and magnetite. Five separate episodes of fracturing and mineralization produced the orebody and were followed by four additional episodes of fracturing with sulrgrade mineralization. The Mount Tolman deposit contains propylitic, argillic, phyllic, topaz greisen, and potassic alteration zones. Extensive silicification overlaps the K-feldspathized, quartz-topaz, and phyllic alteration zones."

Jan 1, 1995

By A. C. Halferdahl

The Granby ores may be divided into three groups or classes. The No. I ore is a heavy pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, sulphide carrying some free silica, and calcite. No. 2 ore carries the same general group of sulphides as does No. 1, but in a lesser amount. The gangue is an altered greenstone. No. 3 ore has a smaller amount of sulphides than either of the others. Analyses of these ores is as follows: Cu. Si02 Fe. CaO S. Al 203 MgO No. I. Per Cent. 1.8 17.5 33.0 5.7 34.5 2.3 1.3 No. 2 Per cent. 2. 0 35. 6 23. 9 4. 3 I .5. 0 9. 2 6 .. 0 No. 3, Per cent. 1 . 5 40. 9 21 . 7 3. 0 I 1 . 3 11 . 0 5 . 4 The sulphide minerals in No. 2 and No. 3 ores occur largely in bands in the gangue, and for these portions comparatively coarse grinding serves to release the gangue. Drill cores show a certain dissemination of sulphides in portions of the rock, so that grinding to 5 per cent. + 65 mesh with 65 per cent.-200 mesh liberates the sulphide minerals very completely. The association of the sulphides is fundamental. The pyrite was probably deposited first and was followed by a portion of the chalcopyrite, or these two portions of the sulphide minerals were deposited together.

Jan 1, 1924

By R. Cottam

The deformation and recrystallisation of magnesium yttrium alloys containing 0.23, 0.84 and 2.71wt% yttrium and commercially pure magnesium extrusion has been investigated at temperatures between 200 and 350°C. The alloys were produced as billets 7.5 cm diameter, solution treated at 525 °C for 8 h and extruded into 3 cm diameter bar at 390°C. Channel die compression was employed to deform the samples at a strain rate of 1x10-3s-1. For the 0.23 wt% yttrium alloy and the pure magnesium, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) occurred at all temperatures and the amount of DRX increased as the temperature was raised. In the alloys containing 0.84 and 2.71 wt% yttrium DRX was almost completely suppressed at all temperatures. The absence of DRX in the 0.84 and 2.71 wt% yttrium alloys was accompanied by a decrease in the ductility, except at 350°C the highest deformation temperature. It was observed that this increase in ductility was accompanied by a reduction in deformation twinning and the initiation of pyramidal slip. This work highlights the important role that DRX plays in enhancing the ductility of magnesium alloys.

Jan 1, 2006

By J. Sugai

Formability of extruded round AZ31 magnesium alloy tubes with different manganese concentrations was evaluated by performing bending tests and measuring strain along the length of the tubes during the bending process. It was found that an increase in the manganese content from 0.3 % to 0.7% did not exert any significant effect on the values of yield stress, elongation, or compression to fracture. However the hardness tended to increase and the UTS decreased. The compressive ductility was significantly lower than tensile ductility for all manganese concentrations. Consequently, the formability of tubes decreased, causing cracks in areas where compression strain occurred during bending. It was also found that a larger strain occurred in the latter half of the region along the length of tube between the clamp-end and the tube-positioning block. Within this region, alloy tubes with higher manganese concentrations, 0.5 and 0.7 %, there was a clear strain peak within the strain profile, while for the 0.3 % Mn alloy, a more uniform strain profile was exhibited, indicating a more uniform deformation. This was confirmed by microstructural analysis of the specimens.

Jan 1, 2006

By D. Y. Li, C. D. Ma, T. Zhou, T. J. Cheng

In this paper, a number of experimental tests are carried out to study the strength difference on rectangular prismatic marble specimens with different height-to-width (H/W) rations. The specimens have a nominal size of 45×15 mm in the compressive cross-section (W×T) and different heights (H = 22.5 mm, 45 mm, 60 mm and 90 mm). It is to say that the height-to-width ratios are equal to 0.5, 1.0, 1.33 and 2.0, respectively. The quasi-static uniaxial compressive tests are finished by a servo-controlled INSTRON machine (the strain rate at about 10-5/s), and the dynamic compressive tests are finished by a diameter of 50 mm cylindrical SHPB apparatus (the strain rate reaching about 101/s). The rock failure process of marble specimens is captured by a high speed camera in order to distinguish the fracture propagation behaviour. It is found that the compressive strengths increase when the H/W ratio of marble specimen changes from 2.0 to 1.0 due to the end clamping effect both for quasi-static and dynamic loads. However, when the H/W ratio changes from 1.0 to 0.5, the apparent compressive strengths decrease both for the two loading conditions. The strength decrease of short marble specimens may be attributed to the change of failure mode from shear to slabbing, which can be identified by the fracture patterns of the specimens. Based on the uniaxial compressive tests, the slabbing strength of the marble was found to be about 40% of its UCS for the specimens with a nominal height-to-width ratio of 2.0. In addition, it is found that the dynamic increase factors (DIF) are affected by the specimen’s aspect ratios. It implies that the same aspect ratios should be used to compare the dynamic and static compressive strength of rocks. Meanwhile, both the static and dynamic tensile strengths of the marble are obtained by the Brazilian disc tests. The ratio of the dynamic tensile strength to the static tensile strength of the marble is about 2.68.

Jan 1, 2015

By A. Ashrafi

The electrochemical deposition of polypyrrole coating on different pretreated aluminum-alloy 7075 substrates was carried out using cyclic voltammetry, The pretreatment of specimens consisted of mechanical polishing and/or electrochemical etching, In the latter case, an aqueous solution of phosphoric acid and ethanol was used, The electrodeposition solution was 0,25 M pyrrole and 0,1 M oxalic acid in double-distilled water, The cyclic voltammetry scan rate used was 700mv/s, Morphology of the coatings was examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Using the Tafel experiment, corrosion resistance of the coated substrates was investigated in 0.1 M NaC1 solutions, Results obtained revealed that electropolymerization of polypyrrole on 7075 aluminum alloy would increase the resistance against corrosion in 0,1M NaC1 solution, Also it was observed that, compared with mechanical polishing, electroetching pretreatment would be more effective.

Jan 1, 2005

By Pingchao Ke, Zhihong Liu

Fe(III)-As(V) precipitates were synthesized from the Fe(II)-As(V)-SO42--H2O system at 90°C in initial Fe(II)/As(V) molar ratios of 4.0 and 5.0, respectively. The synthesis were carried out by introducing oxygen gas into the system to oxidize Fe(II) ions into Fe (III) ions, and at the same time, adding aqueous sodium carbonate solution into the system to neutralize the acid released by the hydrolysis reactions, with the purpose of keeping the pH constant at 1.5±0.05. The precipitates obtained were characterized by XRD, chemical composition analysis, SEM, XPS, and Raman spectrum. The results indicated that the particles in the precipitates were in the morphology of irregular aggregation with their sizes in the range of about 1–4 µm. The precipitates consisted of scorodite, ferric arsenate and amorphous hydrated ferric oxide, of which amorphous hydrated ferric oxide formulated as Fe(OH)x(SO42-)y. The characteristic XPS peaks of Fe-AsO43- and Fe-O in the precipitates located at 711.8 and 713.3 eV, separately, and the existence of amorphous hydrated ferric oxide led to two series of shake off lines developed over the end of high binding energy of Fe2p XPS. The precipitates were stable in TCLP tests at pH 4.93 for 60 hours with the arsenic concentrations in the leaching solutions being 0.27 mg/L and 0.59 mg/L for the precipitates prepared in the initial Fe(II)/As(V) molar ratios of 4.0 and 5.0, respectively. The tests for the long-term stability of the precipitates were carried out by leaching them for 40 days at 25°C under various media in the pH range from 9.50 to 10.57, and the results showed that the precipitates synthesized in this study were much more stable than those by previous researchers.

Jan 1, 2017

By J. Mizera, J. Zdunek, K. J. Kurzydlowski, A. Dobkowska

This work concerns comparison of corrosion resistance of the aircraft aluminum alloy composed of Al - 2.3%Li - 0.1% Zr. The alloy was hot rolled (HR) from 13 mm to a thickness of 4 mm (e = 2.4) and 1 mm (e = 5.2). Corrosion resistance was investigated by Potentiodynamic Polarization Test. The investigation relied on exposure samples in two different corroding medium: 0.5 M NaCl solution and 0.01 M Na2SO4 solution with added 0.01% of Cl- at room temperature. Furthermore, the microstructure was analyzed using the optical microscope with polarized beam. The hardness was measured on lengthwise profile. It was stated that alloy after the largest deformation (equivalent total strain e = 5.2) is characterized by the best mechanical properties and the best corrosion resistance. The alloys in initial state and after deformation to 4 mm (e = 2.4) are characterized by worse corrosion resistance. It is associated with microstructure and density of dislocation in analyzing material.

Jan 1, 2015

By N. Dahata

B206 aluminum?copper alloy has a potential for wider use in the automotive industry due to its light weight and relatively superior mechanical properties as compared to aluminum-silicon alloys. The possibility of casting this alloy via Lost Foam Casting (LFC) has not been investigated in detail. Therefore, the effects of foam types (T170B standard untreated EPS and T175-brominated EPS), coating types (Styro Shield 5553 and Styro Shield 5554), copper level (4.5 wt % and 5.0 wt %) and titanium levels (0.5 wt % and 0.25 wt %) were related to fillability, microstructure and microporosity. The metal velocity in T175 EPS pattern was higher than that in T170B EPS pattern. For T175 EPS pattern, the total solidification time was 3% higher and the loss of temperature for decomposition of EPS was lower than those in the case of T170B EPS pattern. The grain size, porosity level and maximum pore size were quantified using Light Optical Microscopy (LOM) and image analysis. The casting with T175 EPS pattern showed larger grain size relative to that with T170B EPS pattern. The porosity level and the maximum pore size decreased significantly when the titanium level was increased from 0.05 wt % to 0.25 wt %.

Jan 1, 2007

By M. E. Moraes Castanho de Almeida, A. Ribeiro Cotri

Recovery of cobalt to produce high grade cobalt sulfate from cobalt concentrate by leaching and solvent extraction was investigated. The PLS typically contains Co 10g/l, Mg 2g/l, Fe < 10ppm, Mn < 200ppm, insolubles <100ppm and is extracted with 20wt% Cyanex??272. The typical strip solution contains Co 60g/l, Mg 0.03g/l, and was sent to the current process for the production of cobalt sulfate heptahydrate. The cobalt yield of the plant with two extraction steps was 92%, with three steps was 97% and with four steps 99%. The extraction stage used the concept of "scrubbing" in a countercurrent system. In the first stage of extraction pH was 4.8, and in the last stage of extraction pH 5.5 to promote the exchange of magnesium in the organic with cobalt contained in the PLS. Following the extraction, when using two scrubbing stages, Co/Mg selectivity between of 2,000-3,000 was obtained, and with three scrubbing stages, selectivity was greater than 6,000. The desired selectivity was reached when using a scrubbing configuration with O/A ratio of 10:1. The typical cobalt sulfate heptahydrate had the following composition: Co 20wt%, Mg < 0.01wt%, Fe < 5ppm, Mn < 0.01wt%, Cu < 0.01wt%, Zn < 0.01wt%.

Jan 1, 2014

By Gareth Barnes

Traditional approach to improvement is driven by good ideas from good people, but whilst the business case may sound good, when the project is complete, we often have not delivered on expectations.  Why not? The best way to successfully predict the outcomes of an improvement effort in a complex process is through using statistical modelling, which considers the impact of uncertainty within interacting processes.  Applying Theory of Constraints in a model helps leaders to quickly determine: Where the constraining process(es) is/are Where improvements will add the most value How much improvement should be targeted - before the next constraint takes over The confidence level of achieving a given target, which gives us a clear pathway to improvement. This paper presents an analysis of statistical modelling applications at Vale’s Manitoba Operations to achieve the 2025 targets. Using statistical modelling of the Business Structure, the team identified a series of process improvements through a Theory of Constraints Analysis. Value Stream Maps (VSMs) were used to define the required data, apply statistical modelling, and conduct training sessions enabling the Manitoba team to identify the constraining influences. Scenario testing in the Statistical models helped identify the Hierarchy of Constraints and specify the pathway to improvement. How to Improve a Business Video link https://vimeo.com/344418155

May 4, 2025