Search Documents

By J. D. Clucas, N. Verbaan, T. Grammatikopoulos, D. B. Dreisinger, C. Forstner, M. Aghamirian

"Search Minerals is currently exploring the Port Hope Simpson (PHS) Rare Earth Element District in southeastern Labrador, Canada. The Foxtrot Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in the PHS District has a 43-101 resource estimate consisting of 3,410,000 tonnes of Indicated Mineral Resources and 5,850,000 tonnes of Inferred Mineral Resources. The indicated and inferred resources contain 1.07% and 0.98% total rare earth element oxide (including yttrium), respectively. The dysprosium and neodymium grades are particularly attractive at 218 ppm Dy2O3 and 1687 ppm Nd2O3 for the indicated resources and 208 ppm Dy2O3 and 1494 ppm Nd2O3 for the inferred resources. The mineralization remains open along strike and at depth and is only one of a number of attractive exploration targets in the Port Hope Simpson area. The REE minerals fergusonite and allanite are present. The ore can be beneficiated by gravity, magnetic separation and flotation to a recovery of +80% for the individual REE. Acid bake and water leaching may be used to extract REE into solution for subsequent purification and recovery. The extraction range for single stage leach tests were 91-96% for Nd, 84-87% for Tm and 92-94 % for Dy with modest acid consumptions. INTRODUCTIONSearch Minerals Inc. (Search) is exploring the 100% owned Port Hope - Simpson District in Labrador, Canada for rare earth elements (REE). This District is approximately 135 km by 12 km in size, and is highly prospective for heavy and light rare earth elements. A total of 11 REE prospects have been discovered in the District to date, including the Foxtrot. In addition, Search is exploring in the 100% owned Henley Harbour region and has joint ventures with Quest Rare Minerals in the Strange Lake region, and with Great Western Minerals Group in the Red Wine complex, all in Labrador. These exploration locations are illustrated in the Figure 1. The focus of this paper is the investigation of the mineralogy and processing of Foxtrot REE materials. The Foxtrot resource falls within the claims held by Search in the Port Hope Simpson REE District. The infrastructure available at Foxtrot is excellent with a deep water port, air strip and road and power infrastructure at Port Hope Simpson. Over $7 Million has been spent to date on exploration and development of the District. The Foxtrot has been explored using prospecting geochemical methods, geophysics (airborne and ground), channel sampling of surface outcrops, mapping and three phases of drilling (18,934 m total)."

Jan 1, 2012

By Mike Johnson, Niels Verbaan, David Dreisinger

The Search Minerals Foxtrot project in Labrador represents a significant Canadian resource of rare earth elements rich in the sought after heavy rare earth elements (19.8% HREE/TREE). A preliminary economic assessment of the project indicated that the project is technically feasible and economically attractive. A variety of metallurgical test programs have been undertaken which have led to significant streamlining and simplification of the process flowsheet. The improved flowsheet should allow Search to reach production earlier and will use conventional processing equipment. The results of these test programs are presented and discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 2014

By G. M. Carr-Harris

"THE SUBJECT of permanent molding has received a great deal of attention in the technical press as illustrated by the many excellent articles in the bibliography which follows. In general, this covers the period 1940-1958 and is merely representative of what is available. Numbers in •brackets refer to items in the bibliography.It may be desirable at the outset to give a few definitions covering those terms directly related to this subject. The following is a definition of permanent-mold casting as given by J. W. Meier in a paper, ""The Non-Ferrous Metals and Alloys"", read before the Ottawa Valley Chapt.er of the American Society for Metals:""Permanent Mold Casting is used where a large number of castings of the same part are required and higher mechanical properties, greater density and closer tolerances are essential. Since metallic mold s are very expensive, the number of castings must be sufficient to, defray, at least partially, the added expense. Molds are usually made from a good quality cast iron, 1but other mold materials, such as the aluminum and copper alloys, graphite, ceramics, etc., are being used in certain cases. Important factors in permanent mold casting are the mold temperature; the proper mold dressing; and, as in all other casting methods, the mold geometry, that is to say, the design of spruces, gates, risers and vents""."

Jan 1, 1960

By L. T. Munn

"IT IS NOT necessary here to dwell on the fact that sulphur is currently in short supply. It may be well, however, to •point out that this •storage is not merely a temporary condition, but that, judging by trends in world consumption of sulphur, it may •be anticipated that requirements will double in the next ten years.Even with improved techniques for mining elemental sulphur in the United States and the new finds in Louisiana, there is much concern as to how these future sulphur requirements can be met. It appears necessary to .turn more and more to other sources than elemental sulphur for •additional production. The three major alternative sources were:(1) By-product sulphuric acid •from smelter gases.(2) Sulphur and sulphuric acid from iron sulphides.(3) Sulphur from hydrogen sulphide contained in natural gas. The Jumping Pound sulphur plant of the Shell Oil Company of Canada, Limited, is designed to produce sulphur by the •third of these methods.Jumping Pound is a natural gas field about 20 miles west of Calgary where Shell has a number of producing wells."

Jan 1, 1952

By B. A. Monkman

"IntroductionONE OF :THE most effective methods by which the construction industry is combatting mounting building costs is by making increased use of lightweight materials, thus reducing the dead load to be carried •by structures. This applies to non-metallic materials as well as to metallic ones, and particular attention has been given to developing lightweight aggregates for use in concrete.The use of lightweight aggregates is not new and, in fact, dates back to the Roman Empire, when pumice was used in the walls and domes of the Roman buildings. More recently, and up to a decade or so ago, the demand for these aggregates was met from deposits of volcanic cinders, pumice, scoria, etc., and from the by-products of blast furnaces and coal burning boilers. However, these sources of supply are no longer sufficient to meet the demand, for transportation costs pretty well restrict the use of the natural lightweight aggregates to the western cordillera regions where the deposits of these materials occur, and the use of expanded slag aggregates to the areas neighbouring the plants where slags are produced. As for cinders, the supply has been greatly reduced by the conversion of industry to fuel oil, natural gas, and powdered coal, and the large stockpiles which existed previously have been pretty well exhausted.Industry's approach to the problem of a decreasing supply, in the face of an increasing demand, has been characteristically direct. The solution has been to construct plants whose sole .purpose is to produce economically an acceptable light-weight aggregate from materials close at hand."

Jan 1, 1955

By F J. Kelly

A chemical process, based on laboratory investigations, is proposed for the production of high-purity niobium oxide from a pyrochlore-perovsk1te flotation concentrate produced from ore obtained at the Oka, Quebec property of Columbium Mining Products Limited. The method developed included the decomposition and dissolution of the flotation concentrate with hot, concentrated sulphuric acid. The dissolved niobium was purified and concentrated by a solvent extraction step, using methyl isobutyl ketone as the extractant. The niobium was recovered from the extractant with ammonium fluoride solution from which niobium oxide was precipitated with ammonia. Finally, the filtered and washed precipitate was calcined. Ninety-six per cent of the niobium was recovered in a product analysing 99.9 per cent Nzo.. The reagent cost was in the range of $1.00 to $1.25 per pound of niobium recovered. Introduction OVER the past few years, Columbium Mining Products Limited has been engaged in the development of a niobium-bearing mineral deposit in the vicinity of Oka, Quebec. One phase of this program resulted in a flotation process capable of producing concentrates containing up to 50 per cent Nb205? Flotation pilot-plant

Jan 1, 1965

By P. H. Jennings

Commercial tellurium commonly contains heavy basemetal impurities such as lead, copper, iron, etc., as well as selenium and oxygen. The base metals may be removed by vacuum distillation or by zone melting. Vacuum distillation is a convenient method for treating moderate quantities (~ 100 kg.) for the production of a material having a total content of heavy metals in the 10-30 ppm range. By zone melting, it is possible to lower all the heavy metal impurities tm below the limits of spectrographie detection. Neither vacuum distillation nor zone melting is effective for the removal of selenium, but treatment of molten tellurium with hydrogen converts selenium to hydrogen selenide. This procedure is too s low to be considered except as an adjunct to zone melting. In the course of air-melting, many of the more easily oxidized impurities form a dross and may thus be readily removed. Substantial refinement with respect to iron, tin, chromium, aluminum, sodium, silicon, magnesium, calcium and manganese can be achieved in this way. Although tellurium can be electrodeposited from either acid or alkaline solutions of the dioxide, various factors militate against successful electro-refining, amongst which may be mentioned the brittleness of cast tellurium anodes and the tendency for the metal to be deposited in dendritic form, even at low current densities.

Feb 1, 1966

By P. H. Jennings, J. C. T. Farge

Commercial tellurium commonly contains heavy base-metal impurities such as lead, copper, iron, etc., as well as selenium and oxygen. The base metals may be removed by vacuum distillation or by zone melting. Vacuum distillation is a convenient method for treating moderate quantities ( 100 kg.) for the production of a material having a total content of heavy metals in the 10-30 ppm range. By zone melting, it is possible to lower all the heavy metal impurities tm below the limits of spectrographie detection. Neither vacuum distillation nor zone melting is effective for the removal of selenium, but treatment of molten tellurium with hydrogen converts selenium to hydrogen selenide. This procedure is too slow to be considered except as an adjunct to zone melting. In the course of air-melting, many of the more easily oxidized impurities form a dross and may thus be readily removed. Substantial refinement with respect to iron, tin, chromium, aluminum, sodium, silicon, magnesium, calcium and manganese can be achieved in this way. Although tellurium can be electrodeposited from either acid or alkaline solutions of the dioxide, various factors militate against successful electro-refining, amongst which may be mentioned the brittleness of cast tellurium anodes and the tendency for the metal to be deposited in dendritic form, even at low current densities.

Jan 1, 1966

By Robert H. Clark

Introduction During the last twenty years, science and industry have been strenuously endeavouring to discover new sources and new kinds of liquid fuels and to work out suitable chemical methods for their production. One of the new possibilities for the production of liquid fuel on a large scale is law-temperature carbonization of various grades of coal. The use of alcohol as motor spirit, in spite of its relatively low calorific value, is being widely investigated. Its production by fermentation of sugars, its recovery from the sulphite liquors of the paper industry, its production directly from wood and also from calcium carbide, have all been considered. At present the most promising line of investigation would appear to be the further development of those technical processes which yield liquid fuels from coal; since science has shown the possibility of preparing all kinds of liquid fuels and even the complete conversion of coal into oils. The present paper will consider briefly: 1. The production of primary tar by low temperature carbonization of coal. 2. The hydrogenation of coal. 3. The synthetic processes of Dr. Franz Fischer.

Jan 1, 1928

By F. K. McKean

Introduction The present paper may be considered as a sequel to a paper, A Process for Cleaning Molybdenite .Concentrate, which was presented by the author at the annual meeting of the Institute last year. In that paper, a description was given of the laboratory work leading up to the adoption of a new process for treating complex molybdenite ores of the Molybdenite Corporation of Canada. A bare outline of mill performance with the new flow-sheet was included. With this writing, the purpose is to describe the highly interesting work of translating laboratory experience into mill practice, to show what changes were required in design to put the scheme on an operational basis, and to point out the gratifying improvements in mill products which resulted from the new procedure. The process has been placed in operation at the La Corne mine of the Molybdenite Corporation of Canada. This mine was operated during the war by Wartime Metals Corporation, and, earlier, by the Molybdenite Reduction Company, which installed a small plant. The property is situated on the highway from Amos to Val d'Or, Quebec. The claims held by the Company are at the boundary between La Corne and Vassan townships.

Jan 1, 1947

By C Carbonneau

In order to successfully produce columbium pyrochlore concentrates, St. Lawrence Columbium and Metals Corporation had to face two principal problems met in several new operations but possibly made more acute than usual owing to the newness of the project. 1.-The ore is particularly complex, as it is made up of an elaborate intermingling of carbonates and discontinuous ultra-alkaline rock bodies of various ages and types in which no less than seventy mineral have been re-ported. Obvious petrographic or structural controls are lacking. Ore boundaries have to be defined on the basis of assay results and the determination of several minerals which occur in trace amounts. 2.-The pyrochlore concentrates produced had to com-ply with a set of stringent specifications. This fact, combined with the low Cb205 content of the ore, necessitated the use of a beneficiation process that would have to operate at a concentration ratio greater than 100:1. A brief description of the mill circuit is given. Mill stability was obtained through extensive mineralogical study of the mill feed coupled with close geological and engineering control of the mining operations.

Jan 1, 1965

By L. M. Pidgeon

"Part I. - PrinciplesIntroductionIf the oxides of the metals are listed in decreasing order of the magnitude of their heats of formation, the list appearing in Table 1 will be formed. It will be apparent at once that this is essentially the well-known electrochemical series (Table li). The metals at the bottom of the list exhibit great stability and are attacked only by the most violent of chemical reagents. Higher on the list, the metals become more reactive until, at the head of the list, the metals lithium and calcium are unstable in moist air.The reactive metals to be considered lie above manganese. In this group will be found familiar and abundant metals such as aluminium and magnesium, the unfamiliar yet abundant metal titanium, the rare and mysterious metal beryllium, and others of greater or less interest.While these metals exhibit properties as unlike as those of uranium and magnesium, they have in common a specialized and difficult extractive metallurgy. They form compounds of great stability, and their reduction is to varying degrees difficult. The position of a metal in Table 1 (and more particu1arly its position in the free energy column) gives a numerical value to this property.Oxides with low free energies of formation may be reduced with great ease; thus silver and mercury may be produced from their oxides by simple heating in air.Lead, iron, and zinc may be separated from their oxides by heating with carbon to moderate temperatures. Magnesium oxide, on the other hand, .requires a high temperature and very special conditions before it will yield magnesium metal."

Jan 1, 1950

By W. G. Brissenden

"ALTHOUGH I SHOULD FIRST REVIEW the state of the mining art as it is today, because of the shortness of time I will confine myself to a re-view of the more important advances in that art which have been made in the past two to three decades. Then, a look at the opportunities and the challenges which now present themselves will be more meaningfulFirst, some of the more impor-tant developments in underground mining:(1) The recognition that good ventilation, visibility and working conditions are essential preliminaries to efficient production has resulted in their incorporation as a matter of practice in modern mine planning. (2) The introduction of the car-bide bit and the re-introduction of the airleg drill, and the resulting sharp rise in productivity, were early postwar developments. (3) The recovery of the coarser fraction of mill tailings for use as mine backfill also is an important cost-reducing development of recent years -and this has led to cemented backfill, which, al-though more expensive, meets certain specific needs and has tremendous potential. (4) Great strides have been made in improving explosives' materials and explosives' accessories. Millisecond-delay electric blasting caps, which improve fragmentation and reduce the seismic effect of blasting, and the development and •application for underground use of explosives are but two among many such improvements. (5) Trackless mining methods, using quarry-type equipment in some instances and specially de-signed low-headroom trucks, loaders and carrier-mounted drills in others have been successfully applied. (6) Dual-purpose load-haul units are now in use loading and hauling from open stope drawpoints, and smaller versions of this type of unit are in use in cut-and-fill and other types of stopes."

Jan 1, 1968

By Xu Wang, Yizhe Zhang, Yangge Zhu, Xiao’ou Xia, Fangming Liu

"The progress of lean magnetite preconcentration in China was introduced in this paper, such as using coarse crushing to reject tailings, and multistage grinding, multistage magnetic separation. The applications of “more crushing and less grinding” process and equipment in lean magnetite preconcentration could reduce production costs effectively. The related analysis and study on concrete cases were carried out in this paper.INTRODUCTIONIn the case of the slowdown and weak recovery in the global economy, bulk commodity prices fell sharply in 2015. Take iron ore's prices for example, about 60% grade iron ore's import prices in China from about $65 per ton at the beginning of 2015 fell to about $42 per ton in the end of the year, down by about 35%. But iron ore resources are non-renewable resources, with the continuous development and utilization of mineral resources, high grade iron ore resources will be exhausted gradually. Accompanying with the economic recovery iron ore prices after this fall is bound to return to its value to maintain a high level.The development and utilization of resources is gradually turning to the low grade iron ore. Restricted by technical development level and disadvantages of lean iron ore resources, the cost of utilization lean iron ore resources is relatively high. Making full use of their rich lean ore resources has become many countries' important strategy to get rid of dependence on foreign countries' ore. Over the years with the development and progress of lean magnetite mineral processing technology in China, the production number of concentrator has been greatly improved.As the world's largest steel producer and consumer countries, ensuring a stable and continuous supply of iron ore is particularly important for the healthy development of China's iron and steel industry. Chinese iron ore production and import data in recent years are showed in Table 1.With the expansion of iron and steel production, iron ore demand has also been a phenomenal growth. Taking 2013 for example, China's crude steel production is about 780 million tons in 2013, accounting for about half of the world's total output of crude steel. At the same time, China is also the first major iron ore import countries whose iron ore imports in 2013 was about 820 million tons, an increase of about 10%. The degree of external dependence is very high. In some years, the cost of China's iron ore imports was even more than $100 billion, and second only to oil’s import cost in all bulk commodities."

Jan 1, 2016

By D. G. Sinclair

IN surveying the changes that have taken place in the mining industry of Ontario in the past ten years, the striking growth of the gold mining industry first attracts attention. In 1925 there were only twelve regularly producing gold mines in the Province, six of which were located in the Porcupine area, four at Kirkland Lake, and one each at Larder Lake and Boston Creek. In contrast with this, the year that has just closed (1935) has seen production on a steady basis from forty mines, with what may be termed spasmodic production from twelve other properties. This so-called spasmodic production is, however, responsible for the recovery of gold to an estimated value of between $75,000 and $100,000 during the year. Further illustrating the expansion in the gold mining group is the activity in the exploration and development of properties. In 1925, mining operations were conducted at 29 properties which had not reached production, while in 1935 work of this nature was carried on at 87 such properties. It is of interest to note that of the six properties listed as producers in Porcupine ten years ago, five are still producing at rates considerably in excess of the tonnages handled at that time. In fact, the estimated tonnage treated at these mines in 1935 exceeds the 1925 tonnage by approximately half a million tons. In Kirkland Lake, the figures are still more striking. The four mines in production in that camp in 1925 milled 346,584 tons, producing bullion to the value of $5,132,128, while in 1935 these same mines treated approximately 1,643,000 tons, with a recovery of roughly $29,300,000. While Porcupine and Kirkland Lake remain the great gold-producing camps of the Province, the growing importance of the newer areas is readily appreciated when we consider that in 1935 the mills of these areas treated over 1,000,000 tons of ore for a production in excess of $7,500,000. Pro-duction from these newer districts first became of importance in 1930 with the commencement of recovery at the Howey mine, in Red Lake, and the Minto, in Michipicoten. Since 1930, eighteen new gold mills have gone into production in the Red Lake, Little Long Lac-Beardmore, Pickle Crow, Sturgeon Lake, Michipicoten, Sudbury, and Matachewan areas. In respect to silver mining, the period under review has seen a considerable slackening of activity, due to a generally unstable and depreciated price for the product and to the exhaustion of ore reserves in the mines.

Jan 1, 1936

By James A. Robertson

"The Pronto Mine located at the east end of Lake Lauzon, Long Township, some 12 miles east of Blind River is of historic note being the discovery locality and the first producing mine of the Elliot Lake uranium camp. Radioactive bedrock was discovered in 1949, a commercial deposit was verified in 1953 and production commenced in 1955. Production continued to April 1960: total tons milled 2,264,404 from which 4,643,835 pounds U,O, were recovered at a recovered grade of 2.05 pounds U3O8 per short ton.The orebody is in a bed of pyritic quartz pebble conglomerate at the base of the Matinenda Formation of the Elliot Lake Group of the Huronian Supergroup. The rocks strike east and dip 15 degrees to 20 degrees south and unconformably overlie Early Precambrian granite, the upper surface of which is marked by a regolith. Several diabase dykes cut the orebody which is also affected by albite, chlorite, and carbonate-rich alterations. To the south the orebody is cut by a fault. The orebody is 6to 10 feet but locally 10 to 15 feet thick, has a strike length of 3,500 feet and extends down dip for 3,600 feet to a depth of 1,000feet. Some 300,000 tons of ore grade mineralization remain in the deeper portion of the mine.IntroductionThe Pronto Mine, (Photo I) at the east end of Lake Lauzon in Long Township some 12 miles east of Blind River, is of particular interest as being the discovery site and the first producing mine of the Elliot Lake camp.Production at the Pronto Mine commenced in 1955 and continued until 1960 when the mill was converted to treat copper ore from the nearby Pater Mine at Spragge. A description of both mines, based on material provided by the mine staff, was given in the report on ""Geology of the Spragge Area"" (Robertson, 1970).As little study has been done on Pronto geology or petrology since mine closure, the earlier description of exploration and geology is essentially repeated, but shortened, here- the main change being that the stratigraphic terminology has been amended as recommended by the Federal-Provincial Committee on Huronian Stratigraphy (Robertson et al., 1969)."

Jan 1, 1986

By J A. Gilliand

Mineralogical cross sections of orebodies on the 300-,600- and 900-foot levels of the Coronation mine have been interpreted in terms of centers of mineralization. The maximum concentration of chalcopyrite occurs closest to these centers, with pyrite and pyrrhotite concentrated some distance away. The magnetite concentrations are farthest removed from the centers. A hydrous halide fluid model is established. Attempts to explain the observed mineralogy by the action of temperature gradients on the fluid model were unsuccessful. Likewise, the action of diffusion alone on the fluid model cannot explain the observed mineral distribution. The concept of attenuation is introduced-i.e., the rate of diffusion of a particle species is related to the product r2 I/ M, the attenuation coefficient, where r is the particle radius and M its molecular weight. Attenuation, acting on the fluid model alone, will not produce the observed mineral distribution, but, when considered together with the action of temperature gradients, the observed mineralogy can be well explained by the combined effects of these two processes on the assumed fluid model.

Jan 1, 1965

By Gustavo Brunello

Motor Failure Rates and Cost ? Motor failure rate is estimated: 3-5% per year. ? In Mining, Pulp and Paper industry failure rate is up to 12%. ? Sometimes process downtime costs are higher than motor ?? Motor failures are due: Electrical 32% Mechanical 31% Environmental 36%

Feb 1, 2008

By D. S. Hines

The purchase of mechanical equipment for mines is not unlike the purchase of other materials or supplies in general principle, but on account of the major part such equipment plays in the operations, and of the fact that life and valuable property are at stake, the matter demands the most careful attention on the part of the purchaser. The problems and difficulties encountered are dealt with below in their sequence in the purchasing procedure. Requisiting Although it is quite a common practice to submit a tentative specification of requirements to recognized manufacturers of equipment- soliciting alternative propositions or recommendations for study in the selection of certain equipment-as a rule the first step in purchasing procedure is the requisition. Primarily, it is the form that carries to the purchasing department the record of equipment wanted. A full and complete description or specification, and accuracy of record, are the important points to be insisted on in a requisition. Too much attention cannot be given to this detail, as this is one of 'the most important phases of purchasing work. Incomplete information, either in specification or detail, leads to delay in handling the requisition, and, if not detected in the purchasing department, may mean receipt of material which cannot be used for the purpose intended. In addition to description of material or equipment to be ordered, the requisition should also show where or what the equipment is for, whether for operating or new work. If for capital account, the number of the authority for expenditure should be given for record and distribution purposes.

Jan 1, 1930

By S. W. Marcuson, P. J. Mackey

The Canadian non-ferrous mining and metallurgical industry has made great strides in environmental protection during the past half century. The path taken by the copper-nickel smelting industry in reaching today’s level is traced in this paper. Following the practice at early copper smelters in Wales and in the US, Canadian smelters originally used tall stacks to disperse furnace of-gases. This was the normal mode of operation and was accepted by society and by Government. Gradually, Government regulations required fixation of sulphur dioxide emissions and Canadian companies responded with significant technical developments to achieve this result. The initial development in Canada of the first new technologies such as the Cominco Flash Suspension Roaster and the Freeman Flash Smelting Process - both representing early versions of the modern established flash smelting technologies - and then later technologies such as the Inco Flash Smelting Process and the Noranda Process, both of which continue to this day, are discussed in this paper in terms of their contributions to the development of environmentally friendly plants. The evolution of these and other technologies is also discussed. Some comments regarding how the industry will face the future are also included.

Jan 1, 2015