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By Brendan Demich, Brendan Macdonald, Timothy J. Orr, Jonathan K. Hrica, CASSANDRA L. HOEBBEL, Jason Navoyski, Jennica L. Bellanca

Haul truck fatal accidents and injuries continue to be a significant concern for the mining industry. However, the availability of high-quality training materials continues to be limited. Near-miss incident accounts, if packaged well, could help fill this gap, because for every fatality, there are hundreds of reportable accidents and thousands of undocumented near misses. Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) collected detailed accounts of 21 near-miss incidents in virtual interviews with mineworkers at surface mining operations across the country. From these interviews, researchers created four simulation videos using the Unity game engine. The simulation videos bring these events to life through first-person retelling and various visual perspectives of actual events. Each video exemplifies a critical safety message and a common haul truck hazard. This paper describes the process of taking narratives and turning them into impactful visual stories using graphic simulation. NIOSH plans to co-release these simulation videos with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to the mining industry to raise awareness and ultimately help reduce haul truck-related accidents and fatalities in mining.

Jun 1, 2023

By Kritika Baxla, M. Mustafa Kahraman, Frank A. Drews, Yaxue Wang, Joel M. Haight, Kody Powell, Mohit Sobalkar, W. Pratt Rogers

In the opinion of these authors, technology alone can never give an organization an edge over competitors or provide an industry step change. However, history has shown that technology applied with correct logistics and strategy makes a significant difference. Never has the minerals industry faced such daunting challenges and been in such need of a step change. Application of autonomous systems has been steadily increasing in the minerals industry. Automation technology has changed the mining value chain from exploration to mineral processing and refining. The future state will only see additional in-roads of automation into more processes and the whole system design. To better understand the near-future potential of automation, it is useful to explore and review the current state of automation in minerals development. A review of the state of automation research is given. The review will consider three critical areas: automation technology, system’s engineering and management processes around automation, and the role of human factors engineering in automated and semi-automated systems. The review ends with a discussion on the social and political risks of automation in terms of shared value and sustainable development.

By John S. Hutchins

Two potential modified in situ methods are described for recovering the 68% "unrecoverable" hydrocarbons in oil reservoirs. For the 300 billion barrels of conventional light crude a Drip Drainage system is suggested by mining underneath a reservoir and producing from below by controlled gravity flow. For the 200 billion barrels of heavy or viscous oil and tar sands deposits a Flip Flop process is described using surface flooding with hot water saturated with surfactant and weighting additives. Mining engineering description of shafts and tunnels required are included as is discussion of the tunnel proximity to a reservoir. Petroleum engineering flow equations to describe production rates and candidate reserve areas of the U.S. are described. DCF economics are provided to indicate that current oil prices may be sufficient to commercially develop these recovery methods.

Jan 1, 1978

Jan 1, 1994

By C. Vipulanandan, M. Dawood, Dongmei Pan

"With the aging infrastructure, there is a need to maintain and extend the service life of steel structures in general and steel piles in particular. Steel piles support not only vertical loads but also dynamic horizontal loads in onshore and offshore applications. In order to select the appropriate methods to repair corroded steel piles used in onshore and offshore application, corrosion mechanisms were investigated with the rate of corrosion in various environments. The corrosion rate of steel in soil, water and soil-water interface varied from 2 to 500 µm/year. Based on literature review and analyses, the repair methods can be broadly characterized as protective coating, electro-chemical methods, wrapping and encasement and partial replacement of steel. Also, methods to evaluate the repair materials and the repair configuration have been documented.IntroductionOne of the biggest challenges facing the aging infrastructure is the materials loss and deterioration due to corrosion. Many studies indicate that in the US alone, costs due to corrosion loss is more than $276 billion annually (Michiel et al., 2010). Corrosion is the major cause of deterioration of steel structures and components (MNC, 2005). Load bearing steel piles are used as foundations for various types of structures and hence corrosion is very much influenced by the environment such as soil, water and soil-water interface. Corrosion of steel pile foundations may result in reduced capacity in the axial and lateral directions. Hence, understanding the rate of pile corrosion is essential to select the appropriate repair methods to avoid excessive deflection and failure (Decker et al. 2008).To prevent the deterioration mechanisms that attack a pile, it is fundamental both to identify and understand the deterioration mechanism that has been the cause of damage. Understanding the deterioration mechanism allows the engineer to design a repair that will combat this type of damage. It is widely recognized that the corrosion of carbon steel in soil, water and soil-water interface proceeds according to the following simplified anodic reaction and cathodic reactions in the presence of oxygen (Decker et al. 2008)."

Jan 1, 2017

By K Ringwood, J Cummings, C J. Moran

The development of a water accounting framework that enables consistent and contextual reporting of minerals operationsÆ water use, represents a key sustainable development objective that many Australian minerals companies have committed to. A future water accounting framework will require: key terms and definitions for water metrics for use in the Australian minerals industry that are consistent with the wider water sector, a suite of metrics representing key components of an operationÆs water balance, a calculation method for some of the metrics, and a reporting protocol. This paper presents the methodology that was used to derive these four components. Existing accounting frameworks were reviewed and key terms and definitions that were consistent with current regulatory requirements and voluntary approaches were proposed. A calculation methodology was developed to obtain some of the key indicators and variables that cannot be easily measured directly (eg water loss through evaporation). The adopted terms and definitions typically require a combination of empirical and estimated data. To test the proposed definitions and calculation methodology, values for water metrics were derived for eight sites, selected to test a variety of commodity and biophysical situations. The proposed framework and definitions could deal with the specific situations selected as case studies. The associated calculation methodology produced complete accounts at various levels. Some elements of the accounts could be directly checked against available data and simulations. The framework captured well variations in the reuse efficiencies; reuse efficiency could even vary for similar processes. It is concluded that this preliminary accounting framework provides a consistent language and metrics for quantifying and communicating water management, both at the intersection of the site with the surrounding landscape (through detailed reporting of site inputs and outputs) and within operational activities. Using this consistent framework for quantifying and documenting water use within an operation will provide a platform for compiling and comparing minerals industry water use with other sectors. This may support benchmarking activities within regions or companies and help demonstrate leadership amongst water users in water resource stewardship. The approach presented here is applicable to a wide variety of mining and processing activities, and biophysical environments, and following a period of stakeholder engagement and third party review, is being refined as a first step towards developing nationally consistent water use reporting for the Australian minerals industry.

Jan 1, 2009

By H. Pempel, J. Markowski, P. Ay

"Metal-coated thermoplastic parts find more and more functional and aesthetic applications in the interior and exterior of cars. The vapor-deposited or electroplated coatings are usually composed of a plurality of nickel- and chromium-containing layers, which are applied to copper-containing carrier layers on the polymers. Previously, recycling processes are mainly focussed at the recovery or thermal utilization of the plastics. Targeted and selective recycling of the metallic coatings is usually not carried out. Together with several SME, BTU developed a process, in which a complete and separate recovery of all components in high purity is possible with biotechnological methods. The bioleaching is carried out with iron and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, especially Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. The copper-containing layers are dissolved in the solution; chromium- and nickel-containing particles are precipitated as solids. After the bioleaching, a mechanical separation of the individual metal-containing components and their separate workup are carried out. End-products are metallic copper, a nickel- and chromium-containing solid and the cleaned plastics. The bioleaching ensures a high purity of the end products. Through the use of bacteria, which are also found in nature, the process is environmentally friendly. Compared to chemical leaching using inorganic acids, considerably shorter leaching times can be achieved. In addition to the optimization of the leaching process, the R/D-project also includes the development and testing of the apparatus technology.INTRODUCTION The material complexity of many end-user products has increased in recent years, especially in the fields of electrical appliances, vehicle technology and medical technology. However, the demands on functionality, safety, comfort and energy efficiency still play a greater role in product design as factors such as sustainability and usability. For example, if a car still holds more than 70% of steel in the 1980s, a vehicle nowadays includes a larger proportion of a variety of difficultly separable plastics and composite materials, as well as complex metal composites. This relates in particular to composites made from such different materials as metals and plastics. The processing and recovery of the components of those complex material mixtures is difficult for recycling companies."

Jan 1, 2017

By Dodd SF

Valuation of mining companies and their underlying assets prepared by brokers' analysts are, by necessity, approximations. The reliability of the valuations is entirely proportional to the quality of available data, the reliability of forecasts and the nature of underlying commodity price assumptions. The latter is perhaps the greatest single cause of gross variations in company and asset earnings estimates and- valuations. Assumptions are often necessary regarding commodity price achievement based on commodity hedge positions. Public disclosure from listed companies provides a sound base from which to project earnings, cashflows and balance sheets. The uncommon disclosure of projected production and cost schedules often reduces the reliability of future estimates. The application of reserve and resource estimates is contentious with practitioners applying differing weightings to importance of resources in estimating mine lives (and therefore cashflow streams). Valuation methods applied in equity markets usually focus on relative value and the identification of pricing anomalies. The commonest ""rules of thumb"" applied in the valuation of mining companies (and therefore their underlying assets) is with the use of year specific price/earnings (P/E) and price/cashflow (P/CF) ratios, with low multiples suggesting undervalued assets, high multiples overvalued situations (but these rules can often be clouded by market expectations of underlying commodity price movements). Another simply applied valuation tool is to examine the examine the value placed on reserves and resources by the market. Inexpensive gold in the ground (expressed as $ of market capitalisation per ounce of reserves or resources) might indicate a buying opportunity, but the market does discount the value of gold in the ground prior to mine development and where development risk is perceived.

Jan 1, 1994

By J Joy, A Bye, G V. Kizil

This paper presents an application of the newly developed risk-cost-benefit (RCB) framework to support risk management decisions for the selection of wall monitoring technologies at an open cut mine site. The RCB framework quantitatively assessed the risk of unstable slope-induced wall failure and its impact on both loss of life and coal recovery. The RCB framework was utilised in the selection of an optimum group of risk-controls to effectively manage the risk of wall failure to ensure safety and optimal production occurred. The RCB framework incorporates mathematical modules that integrated RCB calculations and risk-control effectiveness assessments to determine the risk reduction and financial impact of the examined safety initiatives.This paper provides an overview of the five-staged RCB framework, incorporating the RCB decision support tools, RCBGEN (Risk-Cost-Benefit Generator) and RCEMETHOD (Risk-Control Effectiveness Method), and demonstrates its application to slope stability risk management at the case study site. The RCB charts are designed to display a balance between risk, cost and benefit for easy interpretation by decision makers to support the objective selection of an optimum suite of risk-controls. The RCB analysis revealed that a combination of ævisual inspections, automatic extensometers and radarÆ for fast- and slow-wall failures with structure were sufficient to reduce the probability of loss of life (PLoL) to the æModerateÆ zone as defined by the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS, 2007) for the case study site. The new framework presented in this paper provides a method to effectively determine the suitability of risk-controls and supports industry efforts to reduce risk to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).CITATION:Kizil, G V, Bye, A and Joy, J, 2012. Risk-cost-benefit analysis of early warning technologies impact for wall failure risk management in surface mines, in Proceedings Eighth Open Pit OperatorsÆ Conference , pp 55-64 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 18, 2012

By Brenda M. Dixon

A matrix analysis of the differences between the camps and communities associated with the Britannia Mine is used to develop an analytical tool. The tool is intended to assist the mining industry as it embraces the many facets of sustainable development. A case study is used to support the identification of key factors that may predict the sustainability of a new mine town. Sustainable communities, like Britannia Beach, are discussed in the context of three pillars of sustainability: value of mining products to society; creating wealth; and, environmental integrity. A sustainable mine town may be viewed as a socio-economic asset as well as an asset to the mining industry.

May 1, 2006

By William Gleason

"Caterpillar is the largest manufacturer of mining equipment in the world. In hundreds of surface mines around the globe, Caterpillar’s flagship 793 haul trucks can be found moving material for copper, coal, gold, iron ore and other mines. Likewise, its iconic yellow bulldozers are at mine sites the world over — the company recently announced the sale of its 40,000th large dozer. And since its acquisition of Bucyrus in 2011, Caterpillar has positioned itself to become a worldwide leader in the underground mining sector as well.But don’t think that the company is resting on its reputation. As evidence of its commitment to the global mining sector, as well as its confidence in the future of mining, Caterpillar invited mining trade press, including Mining Engineering, to its Tinaja Hills Training Center near Tucson, AZ in November to introduce the latest editions to its mining portfolio. The two-day event focused mostly on the newest electric drive haul trucks, the Cat 796 AC, which will operate in the 326-t (360-st) class, and the 798 AC in the 360 t (400 st) weight class.Caterpillar representatives also spoke about new offerings in the underground space as well as the newest version of the D11 large dozer.“It has been 10 years since we launched the F Series,” Jean Savage, Caterpillar’s vice president, surface mining and technology said. “Since then, we have been on a journey to serve our mining customers and we wanted to have trucks in every application. Today, we are launching two new trucks that will allow us to fill out our portfolio.”While Caterpillar previously offered the broadest range of off-highway haul trucks to the mining industry, it was noticeably absent from the 326-t (360- st) and 360-t (400-st) weight classes."

Dec 1, 2018

By Mark Dowling, Robert Holdway, Bill Baillie

Extending the utility of materials through reuse, repurpose and recycling to minimize waste, pollution, water, and the consumption of finite resources, reduce environmental impacts and cut GHG emissions (CO2) are key tenants of the Circular Economy. John Lawrie Tubulars USA conducted a Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the environmental impacts of the repurposing of John Lawrie Tubulars steel pipe products sourced from pipe mill secondary and oil field surplus stockpiles to compare repurposed steel tubulars to those made from prime (new mill) steel throughout their lifecycle. The analysis includes multiple environmental characterization indicators associated with the material processing, on-site operations, supply chain, distribution, and installation of the pipe for foundations. The benefits of repurposed tubulars are consistently beneficial across all environmental indicators when compared to prime steel tubulars. The life cycle analysis results show that for every tonne of steel tubular repurposed there is a 71% - 80% saving of carbon emissions over the use of a prime steel equivalent from cradle to installation. The methodology used in this study will be described, demonstrating the rigor and 3rd party verification process involved in calculating the CO2 emission savings, one of the first of its kind for secondary steel suppliers in North America. With growing pressure on the construction industry to be more resource efficient, and to lower embodied carbon, material reuse strategies are critical to meet targets. This data can be used to demonstrate, and quantify, the environmental impacts and benefits of repurposed tubulars and supports the efficacy of environmental claims and contribution to a circular economy.

Oct 7, 2024

Mining is big business in Ontario. The province is Canada?s leading mining region. It consistently ranks among the top 10 jurisdictions worldwide for exploration spending, reaching about C$1 billion in 2011. More than 26 percent of all exploration and appraisal dollars spent in Canada are invested in Ontario. Minerals produced include nickel, copper, platinum group elements (PGE), cobalt, zinc, diamonds, gold and silver. It was reported that there are more than 600 mining exploration projects in the province. And, recent discoveries of chromite in northern Ontario?s Ring of Fire will add to the province?s mineral production in the coming years.

Jan 1, 2013

By Michael A. Anuta

This report describes the potential for utilization of satellite observations for remote sensing of mine waste disposal areas. Four study sites consisting of metal and nonmetal mining areas in different climatic and physiographic regions of contigous United States were used in this investigation. The mine waste disposal sites consisted of mining of phosphates in Florida, copper in Arizona, silver in Idaho, and coal in West Virginia. Landsat satellite multispectral scanner observations were used together with aerial photographs, ground surveys, U.S. Geological Survey maps, and other ancillary information. Landsat digital data were categorized using automated supervised classification algorithms and an image analysis system. Detailed description of automated classification techniques employed and the accuracy attained is provided together with the results of manual interpretations. The inventory of areas distrubed for phosphate mining and a change detection investigation for-Polk County Florida were also undertaken during this study.

Jan 1, 1982

By D. M. Aloi

In today's evolving and globalized world, mining companies are being pressured to move beyond compliance towards long-term sustainability and sustainable development. Companies are expected to "engage" with communities and measure the success of these engagements without a clear understanding of "how" to do this. This move, away from "Corporate" Social Responsibility (CSR) and compliance, develops more of a focus on "Community" Social Responsibility and sustainability. This shift in focus leads to the development of world-class projects that provide sustainable development for people, reduces the incidence of costly delays, and promotes good global citizenship for corporations. The process of "engaging" communities in mining project design and development leads to a stronger license to operate and sustainable development. To create this mutually beneficial relationship between communities and companies, communities must be "engaged" in the mining process as early as possible, preferably during the exploration or the concept phases. How to create this "engagement" remains elusive. How to measure the progress of this engagement is also problematic. The quantitative and qualitative metrics needed to measure both positive and negative impacts of the mining and community relationship will be discussed.

Jan 1, 2007

By Arif Emre Dursun

The aim of this study is to present hazard classifications of location, type, and causes of accidents in Turkish coal-extracting industries using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this study, fatal mine accidents were analyzed by pairwise comparison and weighting, and the most important hazards were identified by determining the effective main and sub-criteria among location, type, and causes of accidents. For this purpose, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level hazards consisting of location, type, and causes of accident were determined by using the data of fatal mine accidents in underground and open-pit coal mining in Turkey between the years of 2010 and 2020. And then the data were categorized, and each category was prioritized using the AHP technique. According to the weights calculated by AHP, the most dangerous main criteria at 1st level hazards in underground coal mining is ventilation operations (0.363), while the most dangerous sub-criterion at 2nd level hazards is firedamp explosions and other gas accidents (0.409). On the other hand, in open-pit coal mining, the most dangerous main criteria at 1st level hazards are slopes and benches (0.575), while the most dangerous sub-criterion at 2nd level hazards are landslides (0.429).

Dec 30, 2023

By M. -H. Fillion

"Geotechnical stability analysis and design in open pit mines requires access to representative geological, structural, hydrogeological, and rock mass models. The quality and quantity of collected geomechanical data used to build such models can have significant implications in the design of safe and economically viable slopes. Data collection is a continuous process throughout the life of a mine. The process starts from exploration to conceptual/preliminary feasibility, feasibility, design and construction, operations (early production/late production), and mine closure.As geomechanical data is often limited at an early stage of a project, the estimated variability of the geotechnical factors may be larger than the actual data variability. This can potentially result in a conservative selection of the pit slope angle. Collecting additional geomechanical data at later stages of the mine development may contribute to reducing the uncertainty associated with the geotechnical properties and a steeper slope angle may be used for the design. This can result in significant economic benefits.This paper investigates the impact of access to new data over time, following a series of geomechanical data collection campaigns, on design decisions. This is illustrated by comparing the resulting slope design, at three stages of the mine project, at a South African open pit mine. To demonstrate this, a series of slope stability analyses were performed using limit equilibrium tools. For each project stage, the slope angle design was modified until a similar probability of failure of 5% or less was obtained. The corresponding factor of safety distributions for each project stage were then compared to evaluate the impact of collecting additional data on the resulting slope design.The results showed that data variability can differ significantly from one project stage to another. Data variability may be greater at more advanced project stages (i.e. a wider distribution of the factor of safety). Furthermore, the results showed that, even for the cases with greater variability, steeper slope angles were possible at more advanced stages for the proposed design requirement (probability of failure < 5%). In this investigation, as more data became available, the uncertainty associated with data variability could be sufficiently reduced to allow the selection of less conservative slope angles. This can be used as a managerial tool in developing data collection strategies and allocating the necessary funds, and can lead to important economic benefits to the mining operation."

Jan 1, 2016

By Henrik Saxén, Mikko Helle, Hamid Ghanbari

In this study, a process integration approach in a primary steelmaking is investigated to evaluate future operation concepts of a steelmaking site considering sustainability issues. Mathematical programming is used to study the integration of the steel plant with chemical units for utilization of available off-gases in the system, and carbon capturing and sequestration unit. Different industrial carbon utilization options are considered to find the best route of development. A multi-period optimization model is developed based on site-wide mass and energy balances by considering the availability of the fuels and by-product gases and their consumption in the production system and a conceptual polygeneration system. The objective is to reach maximum economic profit while environmental aspects of integrated system are considered for different fuel systems, alternative blast furnace reductants and implementation of new process technologies. The model can provide useful information concerning techno-environmental and economic aspects for decision-making and can estimate optimal operational condition of current and future primary steelmaking under alternative scenarios. The results of the work illustrate the potential to develop steelmaking towards more sustainable operation in the future.

Jan 1, 2015

By R Lastra, Y Choi, C Hamilton, P Kondos

Hydroseparation (http://www.cnt-mc.com) was used to concentrate sized fractions (from &lt;38 ¦m to 150 ¦m) of various ore products ahead of carbon-in-pulp (CIP)-treatment. The resulting size-by-size concentrates were mounted as monolayer polished sections and subjected to automated unattended precious metal searches by image analysis (see Lastra, Wilson and Cabri, 1999). Systematic variations in Au-deportment permit quantification of Au reporting as discrete grains from fresh-feed through to pressure oxidation (POX)- and CIP-feed. Application of hydroseparation, image analysis and assays to characterising tailings (from &lt;10 ¦m to 106 ¦m) from four mine sites is also described. Results are encouraging enough to predict that the combination of hydroseparation (HS) and automated image analysis could become a standard methodology for study of precious metal ores and metallurgical products.

Jan 1, 2008

By Thomas P. Mucho

Cable bolts are emerging as the newest ?twist? for roof support in U.S. underground coal mines. For decades cable bolts installed in underground metal mines in the United States and Canada used cement-based grouts for anchoring. The cement anchoring process, because of the time and expense for installation, made cable bolts impractical for use in coal mines. Today, the introduction of resin-anchored cable bolts provides a system more consistent with tradi­tional U.S. coal mine roof bolting practices and requirements. Expecta­tions are that the utilization of cable bolts for a number of U.S. mining applications will expand, particularly in coal mining.

Jan 1, 1998