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By F. Mauviel, J. Bernard, G. Herrouin, J. P. Lenoble, C. Charles, B. Taine

Manganese nodule projects were quite fashionable during the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1980s, low metal prices led to an almost complete reduction of such activities; however, the Law of the Sea incited the countries that signed it to build a strategy for this ocean resource. Gemonod was created in France in 1984 with a four-year mission. This paper presents the results of its program devoted to the technical and economic studies of nodule exploitation. A commercial mining system is presented. The nodules would be collected by a self-propelled miner and lifted hydraulically through a rigid pipestring. A complete optimized scenario has been built taking into account offshore mining, ore transfer at sea, transportation and processing to analyze the profitability of the project. Considering an average conservative basis for metal prices, after a deep analysis of the market, the return rate of investment of the project appears fairly interesting. These results are new and are explained in comparison with previous foreign studies. These results must not hide the innovative nature of the project nor the associated risks. This is why a mining pilot is required and has been specified by Gemonod.

Jan 1, 1991

By William Cass, Ellen Caftel Turcotte

The Elliot Lake Centre was established in 1965 as an independent Centre for Continuing Education offering a variety of adult education services. In 1976 all retraining and community college type activities were transferred to the Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology which had opened a branch campus in Elliot Lake. Upon the completion of this transfer, the Elliot Lake Centre was then contracted in 1977 by the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology to study the feasibility of establishing a research and information institute dealing with various health and safety concerns of the uranium worker. By late 1980, a federal charter was granted for the establishment of the Canadian Institute for Radiation Safety, made possible through the cooperative efforts of the Governments of Canada and Ontario, the Ontario uranium mining and refining companies, and the Elliot Lake Centre. On 1 April 1981 the Institute officially began operations. PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND COORDINATION In May 1978 the Elliot Lake Centre initiated a voluntary sputum cytology program for uranium workers. This program was financed by the Ontario uranium mining companies: Agnew Lake Mines Limited near Sudbury; Madawaska Mines Limited in Bancroft, and Denison Mines Limited and Rio Algom Limited in Elliot Lake. In 1981 additional funding was granted by Eldorado Nuclear Limited for a small group of employees at the company's uranium refinery in Port Hope, Ontario. Initially in 1978, program participants were accepted according to length of employment, radiation exposure levels (calculated in working level months) and/or smoking history. These restrictions were abolished within a few months and all uranium workers were encouraged to participate. From 1978 to 1979 the sputum cytology program was medically directed by personnel from the Montreal Cancer Institute. Until 1979 all data maintenance for the program was performed manually, however the effort required to sustain the system increased significantly as the number of participants grew. In September 1979 the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Toronto General Hospital, under the direction of Dr. F.G. Pearson, submitted a proposal to the Elliot Lake Centre to develop a data processing system to help coordinate the surveillance program. In October 1979, Dr. Pearson became the new Project Director. Director of the Cytology Program is Dr. D.W. Thompson of the University of Toronto who is responsible for all cytologic analyses. Developmental work to establish the new surveillance system was initiated in January 1980 and became fully operational at the beginning of March 1981. The following sections describe the Elliot Lake operations of the sputum cytology program now conducted by the Canadian Institute for Radiation Safety. PROGRAM PARTICIPATION As of 1 September 1981 the sputum cytology program has 518 participants enrolled. Eligibility is restricted only to a willingness to participate and the ability of an individual to produce adequate sputum samples. Each participant registers for the program at the Institute and is given personal instruction on methods of sputum collection. The majority of the participants in this program are employed by the uranium mining industry; some work for firms which are contracted by the larger companies. Many participants are either retired from the work force or receive disability pensions or workmen's compensation benefits. Other participants have been employed in the uranium mining industry and have since gone on to other employment; some work for various federal and provincial governmental agencies concerned with the mining industry. Some participants are referred to the program by their family physicians because of smoking histories and/or various respiratory conditions. A small number of these individuals have never been involved in the mining industry at all. A chart describing program participation by employment is found in Appendix 1. PROGRAM REGISTRATION In the Elliot Lake area, persons interested in registering in the program are required to go directly to the Sputum Cytology office located at the Canadian Institute for Radiation Safety. Each individual is interviewed personally by the Program Officer. For the employees of Agnew Lake Mines, Madawaska Mines and the Port Hope refinery of Eldorado Nuclear Limited, registration is possible during the Program Officer's semi-annual on-sitevisits. Participants are assigned, in chronological order, "program numbers" for easier identification. File labels are color-coded according to place of residence or, in some instances, place of employment. Each file is stamped with the date each sample bottle is distributed. A file contains: all original test results, a completed registration

Jan 1, 1981

By Jim Gebhardt

Douglas W. Fuerstenau (DWF) grew up on a farm and in several small communities in rural South Dakota during the depression years, where he learned the value of hard work. Working hard can produce results but being clever and hardworking will give you a bright future. In his later school years, Fuerstenau’s family moved to Rapid City where his intellectual curiosity and capacity helped him graduate with a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1949. His technical interests led to graduate studies and completion of a master’s degree from the Montana School of Mines in 1950 and Sc.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1953.

By W. Baguley, L. P. H. Greenhalgh, R. P. Riley

The traditional impeller system for aeration and suspension of slurries, e.g. in bacterial oxidation plants, is the vertical flat blade turbine (VFBT) . This type of impeller is energy-intensive, which results in a heavy-duty design of shaft, gearbox and drive. The Mixtec BX04 agitator development programme is designed to evaluate the use of the new generation of hydrofoil impellers which consume less power and thus have potential for capital and operating cost savings as well as being possibly less damaging to the bacteria. The early tests on pyrite oxidation in a 300 litre laboratory pilot tank using the Thiobacillus ferro oxidans bacteria, showed that hydrofoil impellers had superior characteristics to the VFBT impeller and to air-agitated pachucas, with lower energy input. The geometry of the air sparge ring was found to be very important in optimizing the system. These early successes resulted in a prototype impeller and sparge ring beinq tested in a 9m3 tank where oxygen uptake in water, impeller cavitation at different impeller speeds and air flows were evaluated. Resulting from this work was the supply of an agitator unit to an operating bacterial oxidation plant where it has been successfully evaluated. This paper describes the development work so far carried out

Jan 1, 1992

By S. Mertikas

The purpose of this paper is to set the stage for (1) the determination of the specifications and actions required for a successful development of a system for the management of waste deposits and contaminants resulting from activities in the mineral industries and landfills and (2) the appropriate infrastructure to be developed at the industrial level. The design of this system would be such that its application could be extended to other industries as well. Waste deposits and contaminants from activities in the mineral industries and landfills commonly cause damage to the environment. In addition to precautionary measures aiming to protect against environmental impact, early warning and immediate response to mining hazards and contaminants is a requirement for sustainable development. Hazard detection and control requires continuous and real-time detection techniques, as well as methods for tracing and predicting the motion of contaminants and waste products. The efficient accomplishment of these goals in the minerals industry requires developing an integrated system for environmental monitoring using remote sensing technologies, in combination with advanced image analysis and geostatistical techniques.

Jan 1, 2003

By Kathleen Y. Knoebel

This paper describes a graphical mini computer system called MPASS 2 (Mine Performance Analysis/Simulation) which has been designed to conduct analysis of underground room-and-pillar mining operations using both conventional and continuous mining methods. Dynamic, graphic displays of mine face machine activities are presented on the CRT screen to provide extensive visibility into underground mining activities. MPASS 2 consists of: an interactive inputting system that graphically creates a room-and-pillar mine and describes the mine when production is initiated; a time-step simulator that produces statistical summaries of shift activities and uses CRT screen graphics for accelerated-time display of machine activities and delays; a statistical analysis subsystem for analyzing mine performance data; an industrial engineering system that permits users to enter actual machine activity statistics and replay mine operations on the CRT screen; and a data management system to store historical performance information on mine characteristics and operations. MPASS 2 operates on a Hewlett-Packard 9845B mini computer with 450 K bytes of extended memory, and is written in H-P BASIC. It has been installed at Freeman-United Coal Mining Company in West Frankfort, Illinois and at the U. S. Department of Energy Pittsburgh Mining Technology Center. Applications include production system simulation, industrial engineering analysis, production scheduling, new equipment evaluations, and training.

Jan 1, 1982

By H. Maleki, G. Tetreault

This study was initiated by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to develop guidelines for determining the maximum economic recovery of resources in coal mines. The work was in response to a requirement in the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and Federal regulations. The intent was to address the economic rainability of small, irregular reserves in existing longwall mines. In particular, there was a need to determine if room- and-pillar mining using a continuous miner (CM) was economically sound or whether unconventional (short or odd-shaped) longwalls could be used to recover small coal reserves economically. Small reserves, called "widgets " are left in longwall mines on one side of the mains near outcrops and adverse geological conditions or near any other location where reserve geometry does not lend itself to mining with a rectangular longwall panel. The work included the analysis of the geologic, geotechnical and economic factors that influence the recovery of small coal reserves; the analysis of historic changes in supply, demand and coal prices; the development of typical cost models for room-and-pillar and longwall mines; and the development of a practical methodology for determining maximum economic recovery. The methodology included an evaluation of the ratio of coal mined during longwall mining to that mined for development (LDR), as well as costs of maintaining coal quality depending on market conditions. The LDR is a good indicator of mine efficiency and overall coal recovery in modern longwall mines and, thus, is used to evaluate the increased costs associated with adding new development sections for extraction of small reserves. The study examines the economic feasibility of using unconventional longwalls for the recovery of medium-sized reserves, depending on site-specific geologic and geometric conditions.

Jan 1, 2002

By Stanley W. Ivosevic

Introduction Increasing investor and industrial demand for gold is not being matched by new mine output from traditional sources. This forces the exploitation of alternative natural and industrial resources to supplement traditional sources. A traditional natural resource is either high- to medium-grade ore, of gold or silver with coproduct gold. Or, they are medium- to low-grade base metal ores having byproduct gold. Traditional ores are also frequently extracted at relatively great expense by selective underground mining. Alternative natural resources include low-grade, near surface ores and the products of mining-dumps - and of onsite processing - tailings. Traditional industrial resources are newly mined gold or that obtained from plant sweepings. Their alternative analogues include gold in old scrap and chemical sludges and precipitates, notably those incidental to the electronic industry. These alternative gold resources have several attractions. They are untapped and abundantly available. Having been overlooked by prior metals suppliers, title to many alternative resources is easily acquired. Or, the value of such a resource may go unnoticed until its gold is rendered exploitable by an advance in extractive technology or an other approach. This article addresses the effect of large tonnage, low-grade lode ores on gold supply. Exploiting these ores is rendered commercial by their amenability to bulk mining by modern large-scale mining and metallurgical operations requiring little selectivity. Placer gravels, perhaps the earliest type of gold ore mined, also are bulk minable. But these fall outside the definition of being lode deposits. Most lode bulk mining is from surface open-pit mines. Some, however, is from underground by such large-scale mining techniques as room and pillar, vertical crater retreat, and end slicing. The low-grade gold ore being discussed averages 2.8 g/t (0.082 oz per st). Output How greatly do bulk minable, low-grade resources effect supply? 1982 was a somewhat healthy year for gold mining and exploration in North America in spite of the general depression in the mining industry (Table 1). The wildly fluctuating price of gold bullion had stabilized at an annual aver¬age of $12.08/g ($376 per oz) - (Handy and Harmon base price). Half of the 1.3 kt (43 million oz) of 1982 world gold mined were from South Africa's high-cost, medium-grade, selective underground mines. Of the remaining half, 20%, or about 130 t (4.2 million oz), was mined in North America. This includes Canada and the US - the third and fifth largest gold producers in the world. Of that North American production, more than 62.2 t (2 million oz) of gold, or about 50%, came from bulk mining of gold ores with or without co-product silver. Most of this was in the US, where bulk minable gold-silver lode ore produced nearly 31 t (1 million oz). This amounted to 60% of the nearly 46.6 t (1.5 million oz) produced in the US during 1982. An additional nearly 7.7 t (250,000 oz) of gold were produced as the byproduct of bulk mining of cop¬per ore, for a total of 34 t (1.1 million oz) of gold, or 75% of US gold production by bulk mining. To further illustrate this, US placer, mine dump, and related operations produced an insignificant 4% of US gold output at the time. Exploitation of bulk minable gold deposits is becoming increasingly important worldwide. Most new Australian gold mining announcements are of bulk minable developments. This trend will increase in North American mining as more large tonnage, low-grade operations come onstream in Canada, where much current production is from underground. It will increase with the general climb in Mexican gold mining. And it will grow with expansion of the 12 t/a (400,000 oz per year), gold production of the Dominican Republic. Production Metal price and operating costs make these large tonnage, low-

Jan 11, 1984

By ERIK CHARRIER, ADITYA JUGANDA, Jürgen Brune, Gregory Bogin, Patrick Maier

Confined explosions are a major risk in underground coal mine operations. Depending on confinement, ignition location and obstacles in the flame path, methane explosions can transition to detonations. This research focuses on explosion experiments in a reactor with diameter of 71 cm and length of 30.5 m, along with developing the corresponding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that captures the observed flame behavior. The results show that the 2D and 3D CFD models are able predict the experimental flame front propagation velocity, but the 3D model shows more explicit conformity than the 2D model.

May 1, 2024

By Jozef Descour, Kazunori Nishioka, David M. Neil

Designers, engineers, and contractors are using three-dimensional seismic tomography for geotechnical site investigations and during tunnel excavation for hard rock and soft ground applications. Utilizing multiple types of seismic signals produced by a TBM, drill, or impact breaker, the reflection of different velocity features are processed into a holographic image of the actual structure to be encountered. The Mill Creek Phase 3 alignment in Cleveland, Ohio, was imaged to define existing conditions along a 1,200-ft section of a proposed 6.1-m (20-ft) diameter CSO tunnel and, specifically, a zone of expected anomalous conditions where drilling was inconclusive. In Japan, Kajima Corporation used TRT™ to image a number of tunnels including the Fujikawa and Kanaya tunnels in a combination of methods to map structural features along the alignment.

Jan 1, 2001

By Vladimir Nikolić, Alex Doll

The Bond ball mill grindability test is one of the most common metrics used in the mining industry for ore hardness measurements. The test is an important part of the Bond work index methodology for designing and measuring the efficiency of mineral grinding circuits. In spite of being called “Bond’s Law,” the work index equations are not a law of nature; but rather an empirically measured regression of a large data set collected by the Allis- Chalmers corporation in the period between 1930 and 1952. As a regression, it is valid within a specific “calibration space,” and great care is required when deviating the test procedures or observing results that are outside of that calibration space. This paper is a collected summary of other works by the Authors that describe feed sizes, product sizes, quality control checks, and other information about interpreting the test and using its results. Examples of adjustments that are sometimes required when using the test are: changing the test product (P80), and coping with a feed that is too fine to apply the “proper” feed preparation steps (such as is sometimes observed from HPGR or SAGDesign product testing). Related metrics, like the Morrell Mib value and Levin B value will be discussed, along with recommendations for their use on design projects. The intended audience is any user of laboratory work index test data.

Feb 1, 2024

By Robert Marks, Enrico Dal Negro, Richard Schulkins

"In July 2012 construction started on the Grosvenor project, a five million tonne per annum underground longwall mine planned for Moranbah in Central Queensland. Grosvenor is located immediately to the south of the existing Moranbah North mine which has been in operation since 1998. EPBM technology is being used for the first time in Australia for excavation of a coal drift. The TBM was used to build two drifts on the project, one for the coal conveyor which will transport to surface, and another for people and equipment to access the underground once the mine’s operational (as shown in figure 1). The TBM will pass beneath a steel archway roof that has been installed at the drift’s entrance and begin drilling into the ground to build the seven metre diameter tunnel, descending at an angle of one in eight until it reaches the depth of the coal seam approximately 160 metres below.INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The first TBM used in a coal mine was in 1962, a Wohlmyer, in Westerholt, Germany. A further 75 km of tunnels were excavated in coalmines within Germany between 1971 to 1983. This paper will review the Grosvenor Mine project (Grosvenor) owned by Anglo American Metallurgical Coal (Met Coal) includes the construction of a new underground coal mine and surface facilities on the northern boundary of the town of Moranbah in the Central Queensland Bowen Basin coal precinct. The contract to undertake the underground development works was awarded to Redpath in 2012. The scope of the Grosvenor Project was to construct temporary office and workshop facilities, install 2 portal arches, backfill boxcuts and infrastructure, excavate by EPBM method 967 m of 1:6 gradient Conveyor Drift and 1,258 m of 1:8 gradient Transport Drift, development of 2,520 m of pit bottom area roadways and development of 10,550 m of the first longwall tailgate. In the following figures 2 and 3, is possible to see the aerial view of the job-site."

Jan 1, 2016

By Gregory P. White

A number of private companies and universities have developed computer programs which can be used to simulate surface coal mining by dragline. In this paper, we briefly discuss the concept of computer simulation, compare these computer programs with each other, describe the major changes required to convert these programs to an IBM computer system, and analyze their sensitivity to inaccurate input data. We also present a summary of the required data input for each program, core storage requirements, and output results. Sources for obtaining these programs and their documentation are listed at the end of the paper.

Jan 1, 1983

At the 25th Peruvian Mining Convention, the start-up of Antamina was called ?the mining event of the year.? Antamina, one of the largestcopper-zinc mines in the world, began operations in May 2001.Augusto Baertl is Executive Chairman of Compañía Minera Antamina, the operating company. He said in a convention address that Antamina would be in full production in 2002. ?I would like to stress that Antamina is, in every respect, a highly stringent operation, as it intends to be the Peruvianmine of the future,? Baertl said. ?Antamina has set the target of being, and remaining throughout time, a model mine as to technology, environmental practices and social responsibility.? [ ] In the areas of technology and operations, Baertl noted that ?we have incorporated the best engineering design available and state-of-the art technology for mining, grinding and transportation processes, among others.? In the environmental area, he said that ?we have carried out careful environ-mental impact studies and have incorporated modern technologies and methods to control and minimize any environmental impact.? In the social field, Baertl noted that ?our relationship with neighboring communities is being developed under the premises of the social responsibility philosophy.? These include popular consultation processes, environmental committees and conciliation discussion committees. The purpose, he said, is to encourage communities located within the area of influence of the project to find and lead by themselves their path toward sustainable development, beyond the life of the operation itself.?

Jan 1, 2001

By E. W. Hawk

he power generation industry may be required to reduce carbon dioxide (C02) emissions if regulations related to global climate change are enacted. Coal-fired generation emits more than 80% of the power sector CO2 and would be a likely target for CO2 reductions. Compliance with the Kyoto Protocol will require a 33% reduction from the projected year 2012 emission level, even with moderate load growth. This article describes an analysis of power industry CO2 reduction options and their costs. It assesses how a generator would make compliance decisions under a mandatory CO2 emissions reduction program. Carbon sequestration, fuel switching and new plant construction are considered. The Global Climate Change Treaty signed at the Rio de Janiero Earth Summit in June 1992 set the long-term goal of stabilizing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The December 1997 Kyoto Protocol established short-term mandatory targets for the United States and 37 other developed countries. The United States' target is a 7% decrease by 2012 from the 1990 "greenhouse gas" level. Developing countries are exempted from reductions, according to the Kyoto Protocol, despite projections that indicate a significant increase in their emission levels. The Kyoto Protocol must be ratified by the US Senate. US power industry carbon emissions were 490 Mt (540 million st) in 1990 and are projected to be 680 Mt (749 million st) in 2012, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Coal-fired generation emits more than 80% of the power sector CO2. Assuming that the power industry is only required to reduce emissions by a proportional share, a 33% emission reduction, or 225 Mt (248 million st) of carbon, would be required to comply with

Jan 1, 1999

By D. Royston

Curved pulp lifters have been incorporated in SAG and AG mills in Australia. The aims have been to ensure complete discharge, at high throughput, of both slurry and coarse solids, especially at high mill rotational speeds. Curved pulp lifters can overcome incomplete discharge and back-flow of solids down the pulp lifter that can occur in straight-radial pulp lifters (and is a major cause of wear). They can be designed to prevent reverse flow of pulp via grates back into the mill. Experience with curved pulp lifters now extends to three years over three mills, in one mill as an installation from new and two as retro-fitted installations. Curved pulp lifters, relative to conventional designs, offer improved discharge and wear performance and well as high impact-resistance and wear life of the curved pulp lifter grates.

Jan 1, 2000

By Liming Yuan, Wei Tang, RICHARD THOMAS, DAVOOD BAHRAMI

The location and orientation of fire suppression nozzles is critical in suppressing mobile mine equipment fires. To effectively suppress such fires, optimization needs to be considered for the suppression nozzle locations and discharge angle. Detailed experiments were conducted to study the effectiveness of fire suppression agents with different nozzle configurations. A variety of fire suppression systems including dry chemical, wet chemical, dual agent (dry and wet chemical), carbon dioxide, and water mist were used. Six types of nozzle locations were studied, and their fire suppression effectiveness were compared. Results from this work highlight potential considerations when determining effective fire suppression designs.

Feb 1, 2025

By M. Argiantopoulou

In today?s mining environment, improving production, performance, productivity and profitability is crucial. Production, ancillary, plant and shipping equipment need to be monitored and controlled by online systems delivering production statistics and real-time information to everyone involved, including equipment operators. Traditional systems currently in use today, operate in an iterative mode constantly switching between scheduling and execution. However, the real world tends to change in ways that invalidate such advance schedules. Agent based computing has been hailed as the most significant breakthrough in software development and the new revolution in software. Agent systems are being used in an increasingly wide variety of applications, including complex mission critical systems such as Air Traffic Control. This paper presents the possible ways that multi-agent systems can be applied to mine production and rehabilitation scheduling problems with focus on real time fleet management, plant and equipment performance monitoring, downtime and delay reporting, stockpile management, personnel and equipment tracking and product distribution and transportation.

Jan 1, 2006

By H. Janas

In a gas/coal outburst the gas plays an active, driving part. The proneness of coal to outbursts can be determined by means of its gas emission properties, since coal that is liable to outbursts differs from coal with normal gas emission properties in that it liberates its gas from the sorptive bond more quickly. There is a risk of outburst when the flow of metha¬ne originally desorbed by the coal is sufficient to move the loosened coal which has been broken suddenly. The violence of a gas/coal outburst can be evaluated from the distance of projection of the mass of coal. It depends on the gas pressure and on the liability to outburst of the coal at the original centre of the outburst. Both factors are complementary in their effects so that the same work is done in a gas/coal outburst when there is a high gas pressure and low proneness to outburst as when there is a low gas pressure and a higher proneness to outburst. The gas pressure in the coal increases with its gas content. Consequently it is possible to deduce the gas pressure of a coal seam from its gas content. In the Federal Republic of Germany the risk of a gas/coal outburst is thought to exist when the desorbable gas content of the coal reaches or exceeds the value of 9 m3/ton and if the specific limit value of the proneness to outburst is exeeded. The Mine Ventilation Testing Station of the Westfalische Berggewerkschaftskasse has developed a new method for determining the risk of gas outbursts immediately after taking the samples at the coal face (1), (2).

Jan 1, 1980

By Yi-Hsuan Chen, Jürgen Brune, Candace S. J. Tsai, Alejandro Munoz, Connor Krause

This study highlights the significant presence of submicrometer- sized airborne particles in underground coal mines, especially around the belt conveyor drift areas. Using realtime instruments and gravimetric samplers, the assessment revealed that particle concentrations were notably higher in the belt entry compared to other locations, with a strong presence of submicrometer- and nanoparticle-sized dust. The study’s findings emphasize the importance of addressing small particle exposure, as these particles, composed of harmful substances like calcium, copper and iron, can pose serious health risks to miners. This research emphasizes the importance of improving air exposure estimation through more effective monitoring and characterization techniques to better understand and reduce workers’ exposure to hazardous airborne particles in the mining environments.

Apr 1, 2025