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By Dunne RC

The physical properties of an orebody require determination for virtually all mining projects, new and existing. The extent and regularity of such determinations being subject to the size and homogeneity of the orebody. Such properties have an impact at the design stage of new plants, with respect to equipment specification, and thus effects capital costs; and also impacts on the operating costs of new and existing plants, with respect to power consumption, production levels and part replacements. All of these can severely alter the bottom line and can be the determining factor in the economic viability of many projects.This paper examines some of the most common properties that are measured, the procedures utilised in determining these properties, and their variability under conditions of reproducibility, and to a lesser extent repeatability.

Jan 1, 1997

This paper explores options worthy of consideration in the management of S02 produced from the gold roasting operations at Kalgoorlie. Some of the options have relevance to other sources of SO2 in the region, eminating from nickel smelting operations. The paper considers the following options: 1. Capture of SO2 within the roaster where sulphur-containing reaction products are mixed with the calcine. 2. Processes in which the sulphur-containing products are bled separately from the stack for further treatment or for dumping as a waste. These include: Seawater-based scrubbing of SO2; Sulphuric acid manufacture as a feedstock for fertiliser production or for leaching of bauxite; its use as Caro's acid: and the production of value-added sulphur-containing reagents eg liquid S02 and sulphonic acid.

Jan 1, 1992

By S C. Dominy

The Minerals Education Australia program is offering a tertiary learning environment for the global mining industry. The Minerals Council of Australia has instigated this initiative, which is run by the Minerals Tertiary Education Council. The program is a pioneering partnership between the Australian minerals industry, Australian governments and key Australian universities. It is designed to deliver key undergraduate and postgraduate courses for tomorrowÆs minerals industry professionals in the fields of geoscience, mining and minerals engineering and metallurgy. The flagship course for geoscience professionals is the G3 Masters program. This is a coursework-based degree supported by the Minerals Tertiary Education Council, and a partnership between James Cook University, the University of Tasmania and the University of Western Australia. These partners represent the leading-edge providers of minerals geoscience education and R&D in Australia. The G3 program provides the full spectrum of post-graduate training skills in exploration, mining and economic geology topics.

Jan 1, 2003

There is little doubt that the vision (Spectre) of Voisey's Bay has completely spooked the Northern Hemisphere view on nickel to the exclusion of considering any other future nickel project. Voisey's Bay orebody is of world-class and will influence world nickel and cobalt supply for a very long time - but - has the world yet started to consider the enormous cost of acquisition and development of this find or the nickel price it will need to attract to cover these costs and its operating costs and keep its bankers and shareholders happy. That price will be the critical factor in determining Voisey's effect on world nickel and will be critical in ranking other new projects aimed at making up the nickel short fall created by the on-going demand for austenitic stainless steel. In my view, there is little doubt that some if not most of these `other' new projects will be developed in the South West Pacific from lateritic Resources.

Jan 1, 1996

The Professional Standards Act responds to the growing problem of professional liability by introducing a mechanism whereby professional associations can have schemes approved. Those schemes include a cap on liability; a requirement for compulsory insurance; the development of risk management strategies; and the establishment of a complaints and disciplinary system. The Act is also designed to support and develop the concept of self-regulation by the members of occupational associations who provide services to the community by providing them with those tools. It implicitly accepts that self-regulation is preferable to statutory regulation and that self-regulation serves the interest of the community and of the providers of services. The Act arose from a review of professional liability commenced in 1988. The Attorney General's Department produced an Issues Paper, released in September 1989, which outlined in detail the extent of the problem. This was widely circulated and an extensive number of comment were received.

Jan 1, 1995

By Aust M. I E

IT is the custom, I must admit, for a presidential address to be a review of the progress during the year of the institution presided over, and of the sciences and arts within its ambit. On this occasion precedent is departed from in favour of a subject by request.As man has at last, in employing gravimetric and electrometric methods of subsurface research, started on the rational use of divining rods with some knOWledge of their governing laws and principles, and with some ability to interpret the results obtainedfrom them, I was asked to add to the voluminous literature of the quack or empiric divining rod. James Mansergh, the author of Melbourne's sewerage system, in his presidential address before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, admitted he was afraid touse the hazel rod lest in sinking on its indications to some solution.

Jan 1, 1928

By M Eichorn

Running a successful reagent plant trial is not an easy task, especially when trying to achieve an incremental improvement in a highly variable process, such as flotation. Cytec aims to achieve one per cent recovery improvement with 90 per cent statistical confidence. Most concentrators experience large fluctuations in recovery and so the æmagicalÆ one per cent is difficult to detect. With the aid of statistical software, including REFDISTR (proprietary) and ECHIPR, Cytec have developed a unique approach to differentiate between daily operational variation and actual process improvement. This paper describes how Cytec runs a plant trial based on extensive laboratory investigation and detailed analysis of historical plant data using statistical techniques.

Jan 1, 2000

By Keast-Jones R

The relative merits of treating coal by flotation and spiral concentrators have been examined by tests on run-of-plant fines samples from three seams in the Wittingham coal measures of the Upper Hunter Valley. Flotation of the complete fines was found to be the most metallurgically efficient process with yields substantially superior to those obtained from treatment of only the deslimed fines. A strict comparison between spirals and flotation for the treatment of the deslimed fines was impossible due to differences in product quality. However, the results indicated that the performance of a flotation circuit would be equivalent, and sometimes superior, to that of a spiral circuit.

Jan 1, 1984

The Savage River Mines concentrator and pipeline has operated for seven years. During this time some problems of general interest have been overcome, particularly in the area of autogenous grinding in large mills and in pump- ing solids over long distances. The plant flow sheet and equipment at Savage River and the control techniques are. described. Ore type has varied widely over the per- iod of plant operation. Techniques developed to minimise the effect of variations on through- put are discussed'. The main technique is the controlled rejection or addition of grinding Media.

Jan 1, 1975

By Terry G. A B

Before detailed design of Museum Station could commence, a number of factors had to be considered to determine its exact location within the city street pattern, the depth and the dimensions of the underground station. To arrive at a sound con- clusion regarding location, the relationship of the station to probable future city development had also to be considered.

Jan 1, 1981

INDEX OF CONTENTSIntroduction.Systems of classification of coals.RankClassification of Australian coals.Defects of systems in use in other countries.Indexing by Fuel Ratio.Classification by Ultimate Carbon/Ultimate Hydrogen.Relationship between Fuel Ratio and ultimate composition.Suggested convention for classification.Origin and Evolution.Notes on directions of change of composition on Carbon Hydrogen chart.Summary and conclusion.Acknowledgments.Bibliography.Appendix.

Jan 1, 1948

At the outset, I guess we should define what we mean by "com- modities". In the 20 minutes or so which I have for this paper, it is impossible to tackle all commodities -one would need to con- sider not only the base metals but also the ferrous iron and steel products as well as energy commodities such as coal, oil and even uranium. For the purpose of this address however, I would prefer to refer to the principal non-ferrous commodities: copper, lead, zinc, aluminium and nickel and, I would like to consider some of the changes which have taken place in the industry over the past 20 years-and the likely reasons for these changes. I would also like to dwell a little on the future and some of the key issues which-may influence the future path and direction of the metals industry.

Jan 1, 1988

By Trudinger J. P

Concern for the environment by the public and by mining companies, has led to many recent attempts to revegetate areas disturbed by mining activities. The problem of successfully revegetating disturbed areas and mine wastes is often difficult, even under favourable conditions. Under the severe conditions that prevail in and and semi-arid parts of Australia, such difficulties may be extreme. An approach is described in which field trials are used to investigate factors which adversely affect revegetation and to evaluate optimum methods and treatments..A wide range of methods suitable for use in and situations is described. These include grading and cultivating operations, topdressing with natural soil materials, selection of suitable plant species, mulching and the use of fertilisers and supplementary irrigation. It is concluded that such a programme provides the best approach to this complex and expensive problem.

Jan 1, 1976

The mining industry represents a small part of the international economy. Comprising few large companies, the industry exhibits volatile returns and over the past 25 years has failed to produce a long-term return that meets its cost of capital. It is not surprising, therefore, that the minerals extraction and processing industry is under considerable pressure from the investment community to lift its game. Management and boards are responding to this pressure by implementing more exacting cost control measures, capital management programs and through the process of consolidation. However, the cost of capital to the industry appears to have increased in recent years and investor attention seems to be preoccupied with the ænewÆ economy. Both of these influences will conspire to raise the bar for acceptable industry economic performance. This paper provides a useful snapshot of the minerals and extraction industry as it enters the 21st century. It remains cautious about future performance other than to conclude that single digit returns are likely to prevail, albeit at higher levels than over the past 25 years.

Jan 1, 2000

By He F, Zhu D

How to monitor and control the support and surrounding strata system on a longwall face effectively is one of the major research problems in ground control. Based on observations on movements of the support and surrounding strata of face No. 2703 of Dongpang colliery, the relationship between the downtime related to support and surrounding strata and other influential factors is analysed systematically in this paper. Monitoring indices and control measures are then determined by taking corresponding downtime as an objective function. When the monitoring method, developed from the above findings, was used on face No. 2703, the downtime due to support and surrounding strata was remarkably reduced, and the face advanced Normally.

Jan 1, 1992

By P Murthy, Z Guan, P Townson

In this paper, we introduce a methodology to optimise mining equipment operation in terms of the conflicting concerns of productivity and availability. We also introduce the concept of damage points and equipment dutymeters. These provide the mine management with tools to monitor the success of such optimisation. Since we have quoted the results of an on-going Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) project, the apparent focus of this article is on draglines. However, the concept is equally applicable to other equipment. Mining is the type of business that requires a large investment in capital infrastructure and equipment to produce a product that is sold at a relatively low unit cost. In such a business, the key to competitiveness lies in achieving the full realisation of capital investment ie sustained production at high levels. Some of the concepts outlined in this paper are essential components of this picture.

Jan 1, 2000

Construction of Western Mining Corporation's nickel refinery at Kwinana, Western Australia, commenced in July, 1968. Production of 15,000 tons per annum of refined nickel metal will commence early in 1970, The plant will also produce approx- imately 150,000 tons of ammonium sulphate0 The ammonia leach process which was developed by Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd., and has been in operation at their plant at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, for the past 15 years, will be used at Kwinana. The refinery will cost approximately 435 million, and will employ upwards of 250 people.

Jan 1, 1969

During the last 20 years, manufacturers of Australian iron have given increasing attention to development of external markets for processed blast furnace slag. Slag has been in widespread use overseas and data on the performance of Australian slag in concrete lave shown it is suitable for that use. Chemical and physical properties of typical Australian slag products including air cooled, granulated and pelletised slag are discussed and compared with local natural aggregates. Special attention is given to pumping achieve- ments with slag concretes and the observed durability of concrete after many years service. More'recent applications for granulated slag as a sand replacement are discussed. It is concluded that'whilst more wide- spread use of slag is possible, the cost of marketing and transporting slag are likely to restrict opportunities unless for local usage.

Jan 1, 1979

By Lynch AJ

Comminution within rod mills has been investigated by izse of a matrix analysis of breakage processes. A para,~ meter, the number of breakage stages, has been introduced and cornfninut-ion within all rod mills has been expressed in terms of the¦1-number of breakage stages- and a function which des--cribes' the feed rate, mill diameter and mill speed.'The effect of variation in feed rate, feed sizing analysis and mill speed on the number of breakage stages-is-,-discussed.

Jan 1, 1963

By Heinrich CA, Wall VJ, Walshe JL

The Porgera Gold Mine, located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, has produced over 5 million ounces of Au, since its opening in late 1990. The deposit is located within Upper Cretaceous Papuan Platform sediments approximately 25 km south of the Lagaip Fault, and is spatially and temporally associated with the 6 Ma alkaline Porgera Intrusive Complex.

Jan 1, 1995