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By John R. Goode

"The year 2011 witnessed a major surge in rare earth prices as China, supplier of +95% of the world’s rare earths, reduced export quotas and increased export taxes and duties. In response, companies around the world are scrambling for alternative sources. In Canada too, there is a race to be the “first” rare earth producer. Something that is not generally realized is that Canada has a long history of rare earth production and was a major supplier from the early 1960’s to 1990. At one stage, Canada was said to be supplying more than one third of the world’s yttrium and probably supplied even more than that. Five decades ago, thorium was a key element in many non-nuclear applications and Canada became a major supplier of thorium from the late 1950’s to 1968, first as a by-product of uranium and then as a co-product of rare earths. This paper reviews the development of Canada’s original rare earth and thorium production facilities, which were located in the Elliot Lake uranium camp in Northern Ontario. The uses of these elements, geology, mineralogy, markets of the time, and processing are all discussed. Some of the lessons learned from these pioneering operations might be useful in today’s race to develop the next generation of rare earth production plants.INTRODUCTION The rare earths and thorium were first identified in the early 19th century but were little more than curiosities for the next century. However, in the mid-1960’s the invention of rare earth-based phosphors for the cathode ray tube in colour television sets launched a major demand for certain rare earths. The use of thorium as an alloying agent in aircraft and missiles grew rapidly in the late 1950’s. In the same period, demand for uranium for both weapons and power production soared. Also in the late 1950’s, the Elliot Lake uranium-thorium-rare earth deposits (also known as the Blind River deposits) were discovered. This conjugation of events led to uranium production in the Elliot Lake camp, quickly followed by the co-production of thorium and, later, the rare earths. Uranium production in the Elliot Lake camp continued from 1955 to 1996. Thorium was produced continuously from 1959 to 1969. Rare earths were produced, intermittently, from 1965 to 1990. Complete production records are not readily available for thorium and the rare earths but unquestionably Elliot Lake production made a significant contribution to world production. This paper is intended to present as much of the information that is available."

Jan 1, 2012

By D. Rahal, I. Shah, B. Hines, S. Reddick

"The development of stirred milling technology has proven to be an enabling technology in fine grained metallic deposits. The increased grinding efficiency allows for the economic size reduction required to produce saleable concentrates. This improvement has opened the door to retreatment projects such as reprocessing of historic gold mine tailings. Recently a VXP2500 stirred mill was installed at Casmyn Mining Zimbabwe Turk mine to allow the reprocessing of historic mine tailings. After commissioning, an extensive joint research project between Casmyn and FLSmidth Minerals was conducted to optimize the performance of the mill. This paper outlines the challenges encountered in the optimization program and the outcomes from the joint research project.INTRODUCTION The development of stirred mills has opened up many new opportunities to recover valuable minerals from refractory ores. Stirred mills have already been reported as an enabling technology for the processing of fine grained ores in lead/zinc applications (Pease, Young and Curry, 2005). Historically, conventional ball mills were unable to economically grind material fine enough to produce the required recovery or concentrate grade. This often resulted in the loss of valuable materials to the final plant tailings. The advent of stirred milling has now provided an opportunity which has both economic and environmental benefits, the reprocessing of historic mine tailings. Many tailings stockpiles now contain economic concentrations of gold because of the ability of stirred mills to efficiently and economically grind the tailings to liberation sizes. The primary advantage of reprocessing historic tailings is very low cost processing. Recovering the tailings is usually as simple as pumping the material into the reprocessing circuit. The disadvantage of reprocessing tailings is the low feed grade and greater difficulty in recovery valuable minerals at the same size distribution. The material has already been previously processed so fresh surface area or an increase in metal exposure is required. These are both provided by regrinding the tailings material."

Jan 1, 2014

By Manqiu Xu, Pete Winn, Steve Wilson

"In the flotation of ultramafic ores at Thompson mill, Inco Limited, CMC is used as both a floatable rock depressant and electrostatic serpentine slime dispersant. CMC, being a high molecular weight polymer, creates a serious handling problem in its introduction into the flotation processes. Typically, it is added as a 1-3% solution. This requires an enormous handling facility and makes its metallurgical gains uneconomical.Laboratory studies have shown that dry CMC addition as opposed to wet addition is feasible, as long as sufficient conditioning time is provided. Dry CMC addition into the grinding mill is also possible but its effectiveness is slightly reduced as compared to dry addition after grinding mills. Dry CMC addition using a vibratory feeder into the mill discharge is successfully applied in the treatment of ultramafic ores at Thompson mill.INTRODUCTIONManitoba Division MineralogyAt Inco’s Manitoba Division, two distinctly different sulphide ores are processed at the Thompson mill - primarily by froth flotation. The Thompson and Birchtree mines are both located within the Thompson Nickel belt. Sulphide mineralogy is relatively simple and includes both hexagonal and monoclinic pyrrhotite, pentlandite and minor chalcopyrite hosted in metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The significant difference between the two mines is the amount of ultramafic rock associations in the host material. Increasingly, more of the ultramafic associated ores from the Birchtree mine are being processed through the mill with a characteristic poor metallurgy."

Jan 1, 2000

By G. J. Knighton

Introduction The Sullivan concentrator treats the complex lead-zinc-iron ore from the Sullivan mine of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited, to make a lead and a zinc concentrate for its metallurgical plants at Trail. Three miles separate the mine and mill, which are situated near the town of Kimberley, in the East Kootenay district of British Columbia. The orebody consists typically of banded sulphides, mainly galena, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, and pyrite. Important factors in the concentration of the ore are its exceedingly complex and its high specific gravity. It should be remembered throughout the paper that results and figures are based on Consolidated's experience with the Sullivan ore. The present mill feed rate is 8,500 dry tons of ore per 24 hours, for an operating week of five and a half days. Grinding and classification of the ore are carried out in three stages and, in addition, there is a re-grind section which re-treats the zinc middling. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the classification in the various stages and to give the results o comparative tests which have been carried out for the purpose of improving operations in the mill. The Primary stage consists of six units, each made up of a ball-mill and classifier (see accompanying flow-sheet). Four units operate in open circuit and two in closed circuit. The secondary stage consists of eight ball-mills operating in closed circuit with twenty-one classifiers. In the Tertiary stage are two ball-mills in closed circuit with eight classifiers. The re-treatment section for re-grinding the zinc middling comprises one ball-mill in closed circuit with two classifiers.

Jan 1, 1947

By D. Brand

"The risk management objective of the AMIRA Code of Practice for Metal Accounting has seldom been systematically investigated in the literature up to the authors’ knowledge. Risk is defined in the Australian Standard on Risk Management (AS/NZS 4360:2004), as “the chance of something happening that will have an impact on objectives”. The simplified economic analysis performed in this paper has lead to define “something happening” as measurement non-representativity and “impact on objectives” as NSR loss from the optimal NSR. This has pinpointed a missing link being the establishment of a relation between NSR in flotation plants and measurement representativity. The proposed framework, referred to as the total cost of representativity, answers the previously unanswered question of how much accuracy/reproducibility is fit for purpose in a given flotation plant. Authors readily acknowledge that it is way easier to assess the cost of accuracy/reproducibility than the cost of inaccuracy/irreproducibility. However, this exercise not only answers previously unanswered questions but also establishes an essential link with operational excellence. This paper exposes why such operational excellence could neither be attained nor proved without a state of the art metal accounting system. This should impact not only how metal accounting systems are audited/designed/refactored, but also how flotation plants are designed.IntroductionBecause representative metal accounting is a vital source of information for the financial accounts of a mining/metallurgical company, the need for a code on metal accounting was recognized in 2001 and a team was formed in 2003, under the sponsorship of several major mining houses, to produce such a code. Table 1 exposes the two main objectives of this AMIRA Code of Practice for Metal Accounting."

Jan 1, 2017

By J. G. Strasser

"There has been considerable output over the last three decades from the social sciences concerning man and his working environment. In the mining industry at large, however, authoritarian, hierarchical control systems remain the norm, and it can be argued that something less than optimum effectiveness in terms of both productivity and worker satisfaction has resulted.Recently (/975), Campbell Chibougamau Mines Ltd. devised a most interesting organization and incentive system that links the underground production of a standard ton of mined output at controlled grade to an incentive payment scheme. A parallel scheme in the mill complex is based on maximizing recovery of copper and gold from available feed. A key part of both minsystems is the formation of groups who have considerable autonomy, particularly when compared to the still prevalent traditional mining industry relationships between the worker and supervisory levels.This paper traces the development of Campbell Chibougamau's system . Attention is drawn to qualitative and quantitative measures of the success of the method through the commentary of those miners involved in the scheme, and by reference to the favourable records on productivity, absenteeism, safety, turnover and grievance activity.IntroductionPyramidal or hierarchical management control systems, coupled to piece-work incentive schemes, predominate throughout Canada's underground mining industry. Although specific details of such systems vary from site to site, they , are generally understood and accepted as fact by the majority of the work force.Normally, a front-line supervisor (shift boss) directs a number of workmen and assigns them to tasks and working locations commensurate with their abilities, knowledge, training and skills. This front -line supervisor may direct or supervise from as few as 12 to as many as 75 or more workmen. He issues orders according to his assigned production objectives and ensures that these directions are fulfilled in accordance with standard mine practice . Several shift bosses are usually directed by a mine foreman or mine captain. The mine captains report to a general foreman or directly to the mine superintendent or his assistant, depending on the size and scope of the operation."

Jan 1, 1981

By R. B. Rao, B. Das, J. K. Mohanty, D. S. Rao

Physical, mineralogical and geochemical characterization, along with some beneficiation approach to pre-concentrate the Ni content of the chromite overburden material of the Sukinda Valley, India, have been carried out in detail. Mineralogically, the overburden consists of geothite, quartz, hematite, magnetite and secondary silicates in varying proportions. A specific Ni mineral phase is absent in this material with the Ni and Fe being mostly enriched in finer fractions. Distribution of Ni and Fe in various size fractions and increase of Ni with increase in Fe (goethite content) indicate that goethite is the major Ni-bearing mineral phase. Quantitative estimation of goethite from chemical analysis and weight loss data indicates that the goethite quantity varies from 40% to 90%. Electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) indicates that Nirich and Ni-poor goethite are present in the overburden material. A sequential dissolution study indicates that more than 50% of the Ni are present within the goethite lattice as a lattice substitution. The results of pre-concentration studies (size classification, gravity, flotation and magnetic separation) indicate that Ni is richer in finer fractions. Further, the enrichment of Ni content is limited to 1.1% with 50% recovery by classification followed by hydrocyclone separation of the below 53 m m fraction.

Jan 1, 2000

By Simon D. Handelsman

?Artisanalmining ?Application of human energy (e.g. pick & shovel) directly to produce minerals ?majority no technical skills and lack adequate working tools ?Small-scale mining ?Application of modern technology for limited scale mineral production Significance of ArtisanalMining ?15 million people in artisanaland small scale gold mining ?55 developing countries ?Use of mercury damages health of 100 million people

May 1, 2006

By Paul J. O'brien, George N. Neary

"The base metal mine at Buchans, Newfoundland, has been producing since 1928. For many years, mill tailings were disposed of by dumping into a nearby natural watercourse via which they were transported to Red Indian Lake and deposited. In 1965, environmental concerns prompted the establishment of settling ponds near the mine site. Effluents fed to these ponds included slimes washed from mine backfill sand and waste water pumped from underground as well as mill tailings. Dusting around the perimeter of the ponds was first observed around 1970and within a couple ofyears reached serious proportions. A program to alleviate the condition by developing a vegetative cover over the tailings was commenced in 1974. The work was successfully carried out and demonstrated that the large area of waste could sustain a permanent cover of grasses.This paper outlines the experimental work done at Buchans as well as the procedures followed and the problems encountered in carrying out full-scale revegetation."

Jan 1, 1981

By R. Simkus, J. K. Gowans

Polaris Operations, a Cominco Ltd. lead-zinc mine, is located on Little Cornwallis Island, Northwest Territories, at Latitude 75°23' N and Longitude 96°75' w. When the Polaris Mine went into operation in late 1981, it became the world's most northerly base metal mine.The Polaris Concentrator, housed in a unique process barge, is a basic lead-zinc concentrator where flotation is used to produce the lead and zinc concentrates.The paper describes the ""coarse lead"" flotation feature incorporated in the concentrator flowsheet and describes the start-up problems and continuing operation of this circuit.

Jan 1, 1984

By Paul Gauthier

Aujourd?hui, avec un faible prix de l?or sur le marché, les opérateurs miniers doivent revoir leur façon de faire. La méthode de minage «Eureka» permet de réduire les coûts de production et d?accélérer la mise en production des chantiers. Les principales étapes du cycle de minage et les problématiques associées à l?utilisation de cette méthode à la Mine Bousquet y sont décrites.

Oct 1, 2001

By A. Sinha, N. K. Babar, H. R. Kalihari, A. K. Chakraborty, M. R. Saharan, C. P. N. Pathak

A case study is presented on the optimization of cable bolting patterns in cut-and-fill stopes at the Chikla Mine, MOIL, India. Rock mass characterization, using Bieniawski’s RMR and Barton’s Q, indicated that the stopes lie in the “no supports required” to “spot bolting required” support categories. In contrast, the current practice of cable bolting in a 2.0 m by 2.0 m grid pattern for stope widths less than 12 m displays different results. Numerical modelling results are in line with the rock mass characterization study. It can be affirmed, as well, that no cable is carrying rock loads greater than 5 t. This fact is derived from observational behaviour of the crown pillar of an experimental stope with open stoping operations and hanging cables in the cut-and-fill stopes of the mine. An increase in the cable bolting grid spacing is, hence, recommended for implementation by mine management, based on the study described in subsequent sections. It is also suggested that the mine adopt the open stoping method, provided results of a rock mechanics instrumentation program in an experimental stope with a cable bolting grid of 2.5 m square are favourable.

Jan 1, 2007

By P. W. Jensen

Gold deposits in Interior Alaska are commonly coincident in time and space with reduced, mid-Cretaceous granitoids. The True North deposit of the Fairbanks district is several km from such granitoids, but yields mineralization ages indistinguishable from the Fort Knox granite-hosted deposit. True North, however, resembles sediment-hosted epithermal Au, demonstrating the variability of intrusion-related Au deposits in metamorphic rocks. The True North deposit (14M tons at 1.5 gpt) is hosted within a carbonaceous thrust complex separating eclogite facies from amphibolite facies rocks, located > 5 km from mineralized granite outcrops. The ores contain anomalous Sb, As, and Hg (stibnite is the most common sulfide) with ankerite-sericite alteration in steep NE-striking ?feeder? shears and low angle thrust shears. Nearest hornfelsed rocks are located > 1 km away, and across several high-angle faults. Fluid inclusion data indicates trapping temperatures of ~250C from low-density, low-salinity fluids at P < 0.5 kb. Au was originally present as solid solution in sulfides; minable ores are restricted to the oxidized upper 100 m of the deposit. The considerable differences between this deposit and the temporally equivalent Fort Knox intrusion-hosted deposit indicate no one description adequately characterizes this deposit type.

May 1, 2003

By G. R. Brough

"Today it is more important than ever to get the maximum possible return on capital invested in the processing industry. To this end the plant is often operated continuously and the choice of equipment is, consequently, extremely important.Screening spans a wide range of particle sizes and there are many different types of screening elements. The following types are common:1. Cloths and elements of rubber.2. Wire mesh screens with round wires.3. Wire mesh screens with profiled wires.4. Perforated steel plates.5. Elements of plastic.6. Gratings of steel beams.7. Gratings of iron rods.We would like to deal with two of these types namely rubber and briefly on plastics.We first introduced rubber screens to the Canadian Mining Industry in November, 1963. This stemmed from a conversation with the superintendant of one of Canada's largest screening plants containing 48 vibrating screens, with an average wire cloth life of 10 to 12 days. We contacted the manufacturer of rubber screen cloths who had supplied rubber screens to a mine in Northern Sweden for a 50,000 ton per day plant in 1951."

Jan 1, 1983

By K. Webb, M. Hohn

"This paper reviews the evolving Ontario mining regime for mining industry-Aboriginal engagement and its apparent alignment with court decisions, domestic law, emerging international norms, mining industry rules, and mining firm-Aboriginal agreements, drawing on publicly available commentary from government officials, the private sector, and Indigenous communities. This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the potential implications of the new regime, especially for the mining industry and Aboriginal communities and, on that basis, discusses possible future developments.RÉSUMÉ Le présent article analyse le régime minier de l’Ontario pour l’engagement entre l’industrie minière et les Autochtones et son harmonisation avec les décisions des tribunaux, le droit interne, les nouvelles normes internationales, les règles de l’industrie minière et les ententes compagnies minières- Autochtones en se basant sur des commentaires, disponibles publiquement, d’officiels gouvernementaux, du secteur privé et des communautés autochtones. Cet article fournit une analyse préliminaire des implications potentielles du nouveau régime, surtout pour l’industrie minière et les communautés autochtones et, en s’appuyant sur ces données, il traite des futurs développements possibles."

Jan 1, 2016

By G. I. Mathieu, R. W. Bruce

Flotation schemes for the separation of molybdenite from other minerals are based on utilizing the Inherent hydrophobicity of molygdenite (Fuerstenau1). This natural floatability was attributed to the crystalline structure of molybdenite by Gaudin et al.2 who suggested that any surface formed by the rupture of van der Wall's bonds should be hydrophobic and, therefore, naturally floatable. Other authors argued that "natural floatability" is dependent of adsorption of hydrocarbon ions and/or molecu1es on the surface of the minerals. This theory, albeit-c questioned 1,2 has long been recognized in actual practice of molybdenite flotation as the latter in carried out with hydrocarbons, such as fuel oil, kerosene and stove oil. Although conferring ready floatability to molybdenite, these presents generally have little effect on other sulphides and silicates. However, talc is a noteworthy exception because of its innate floatability4. Not withstanding the reason for this behavior which has also been attributed to crystal structure2 its end results as in the case of molybdenite is an immediate flotation response to frothing oils arid kerosene, as was observed by Baranovski5, Sutherland and Wark6.

Jan 1, 1974

By Tatiana Ravani von Ow, Leandro Bomvisinho

"The size of mills driven by ring-gear or by a gearless solution has significantly increased in the last years. This has created additional challenges for the driven equipment. The requirements for the mechanical devices and the power grid have become more demanding. Controlled soft starting and operation, especially in dual pinion mills, as well as the protection of the equipment has gained importance. The selection of the drive solution for the mill therefore becomes more critical. Besides the classical criteria such as performance, efficiency and capital costs other factors come in the evaluation of the system such as flexibility and optimization of operation, reliability and the ageing of the grinding equipment.Variable speed solutions offer significant advantages over conventional fixed speed drives due to their application specific features and process optimization capabilities, even for ball mills where these are not seen yet as a must.The initial capital costs are higher than some of the direct on-line solutions however the benefits for the operation during the lifetime of the mill generated by the use of converter solutions justify the additional higher investment.INTRODUCTIONThe method of powering mills such as AG, SAG and Ball has a long and technically interesting history. It can be said; almost every decade in the last half century had its own trend. The trend was dominated by the market demand, by the process development and requirement of the mechanical and the electrical technology but mostly by the price of the applied technology.All has started about 50 years ago with mill diameters less than 20 feet driven by fix speed synchronous or wound rotor motors with the power of about 2 MW. Around 10 years later, the mill sizes increased, but the necessary torque could not be transmitted by one pinion therefore dual pinion solutions were developed to power the mills. However, realization of the dual pinion solution was only possible when load could be evenly shared between the two pinions."

Jan 1, 2010

By J. Allaire, P. N. Muteb

The Meadowbank mine is operated by Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. and is located in the Kivalliq District of Nunavut in northern Canada. The process plant operates presently at a throughput of 11,500 tpd with gold grade varying between 2.9 and 3.6 g/t. The ore supplied to the process plant come from two different open pits and it expected to come from a new open pit early 2014. The ore is mid-hard materials so the feed size ore have a bigger impact on the throughput. The average gold recovery is 94.0% with about 15-30% of gold recover from the gravity circuit. The Meadowbank mine commissioning started in February 2010 utilizing a flowsheet consisting of one stage of crushing followed by primary and secondary grinding. The commercial production began in March 2010. During the commissioning several difficulties were observed to reach the designed throughput of 8,500 tpd. It was evaluated to insert a second stage of crushing. The insertion of the secondary crushing have two objectives, first to reach easily the process plant design throughput as well as to evaluated the mill capacity increasing. The process plant team evaluated various expansion alternatives eventually deciding to install a secondary crusher, increased the SAG and Ball mills motors capacities and maintain the rest of the process unchanged. Early 2011, with the improvement in the gold markets, decision was made to install the secondary crusher between the primary crusher and the primary grinding. The process plant continued to operate on the initial design until early June 2011. This paper presents the SAG mill throughput increasing from the designed tonnage of 8,500 tpd to 2012 targeted tonnage of 11,500 tpd, secondary crusher commissioning and the difficulties to operate in Canada Artic (Nunavut).

Jan 1, 2013

By E. I. Robinsky

"This paper describes a new, proven approach for tailing disposal. Not only is the disclosed system less damaging to the environment, it is also less costly to operate, to close down and maintain in perpetuity. The basic concept is to discharge thickened tailing from one permanent location.This creates a conical or hill-like deposit which:(1) requires lower perimeter dykes for equivalent storage capacity;(2) eliminates decant towers and decant lines;(3) requires no steep dams built of tailing;(4) is stable:(5) requires only a small pond outside the deposit;(6) decreases pollution of the surrounding environment by water seepage and deflation; and(7) simplifies abandonment and ""closing-down"" operations.The approach is made possible by the fact that, at a sufficiently high ratio of solids to water, tailing material can be made to accumulate at slopes of 5 or 6 per cent -- considerably steeper than possible by traditional methods using low solids-to-water ratios. To achieve the necessary solids-water ratio (35 to 60 per cent), it may be necessary to install a thickener. It is expected, however, that at many concentrators it may be possible to discharqe relatively clear plant water through a line separate from the tailing line, thus reducing the load on the thickener."

Jan 1, 1976

By Silvana Costa

In the last two decades, there have been nearly no new mining towns built in Canada. Governments and mining companies have viewed long distance commuting (LDC), commonly known as fly-in-flyout or fly-in mines, as a way to avoid problems associated with building a new community and providing for its sustainability after mine closure. LDC is also considered more cost-effective than building a mine town. The intensification of the use of LDC in the Canadian mining sector has been quite rapid, particularly in northern regions. However, LDC has implications to employees, their families and communities, which deserve further examination, particularly considering the significant expansion in Northern mining and Aboriginal participation in this sector. This paper presents a review of the major issues in long distance commuting, both from an industry and community perspectives. It is a result of preliminary investigation for a PhD research project that will be pursued by a Bridge Fellow and UBC Mining Sustainability Working Group member, and guided by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The Bridge Fellowship Program is research-training program linking the UBC?s Faculties of Medicine, Engineering and Graduate Studies. Its mission is to develop creative evidence-based prevention measures for public, environmental and occupational health problems. The SWG is an interdisciplinary student group based in the UBC Department of Mining Engineering, committed to respond to the complex sustainability-related challenges currently faced by the mining industry. In other to pursue this project, it is paramount that industry and local communities alike participate in the development and clarification of research questions as well as in the research design. It is hoped that this paper will function as an invitation for industrial and community partners for such study. The main themes identified for this research are occupational health and safety of LDC employees, family life impacts and community health impacts of this model of resource development.

May 1, 2004