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By Shiels O. J

The major Permian coal deposits of N.S.W. are in the Sydney-Bowen Basin and associated small deposits occur in structurally isolated areas; a further deposit is present in the Oaklands Basin. - The Sydney-Bowen Basin in New South Wales comprises the sub basins, the Sydney Basin and the Gunnedah Basin. Coal measures in these basins are near the top of the Permian succession and within and below an underlying marine sequence. The coal deposits can be conveniently described in units in which the coal geology is homogeneous. The Clyde Coal Measures and Yarrunga Coal Measures contain no seams of economic significance and occur beneath the marine beds in the south of the Sydney Basin. The Greta Coal Measures are economically significant and represent a brief interlude in the marine sequence in the north of the Sydney Basin and equivalents are present in the east of the Gunnedah Basin. The Tomago Coal Measures crop out above the marine sequence east from the Lochinvar Anticline and dip southeast to uneconomic depths. The Newcastle Coal Measures are historically and economically very important and overlie the Tomago Coal Measures and these measures will continue to be important although future mining will be faced with greater depths. To the west of the Lochinvar Anticline the Singleton Coal Measures, equivalent to the Tomago and Newcastle Coal Measures, crop out. This unit represents the thickest development of coal measures in the State and has a very large potential for both open cut and underground mining. Equivalents of the Singleton Coal Measures, the Black Jack Coal Measures and the Booroomin Group crop out on the east side of the Gunnedah Basin and probably are widespread across the Basin. They have less economic potential than the Singleton Coal Measures. In the southwest of the Gunnedah Basin, Illawarra/Singleton Coal Measures crop out over extensive areas and possibly have a large potential for underground mining under low cover. The Illawarra Coal Measures are exposed along the western margin of the Sydney Basin and thicken as they dip into the Basin across a shelf. The outcrop area is currently mined and the shelf has considerable potential for future mining. The highest rank coals in the State are in the Illawarra Coal Measures in the south of the Sydney Basin. The deepest coal mining is in this area and its continuing success is of great importance to the future exploitation of the resources of the Basin. The Tomago, Newcastle, Singleton and Illawarra Coal Measures extend into and meet in the central area of the Sydney Basin but they are under thick cover and are not considered to be economic at present. Permian coal measures occur in isolated areas in the New England Fold Belt and have limited economic potential. The Oaklands Basin in the south of the State contains a large reserve of low rank coal.

Jan 1, 1975

By Duncan GR

Having passed through a number of previous phases the best longwall results in Australia have shown a significant increase in the last two years. The results expected from a longwall face can be estimated from the ideal production rate, determined by the capacity of the equipment and the conditions in which it is installed, the utilisation, and the available operating hours. Back analysis of the results achieved suggests that, on average, recent improvements arise from the higher capacity equipment recently installed; the utilisation has in fact reduced slightly. Review of the constraints which limit the longwall results, i.e. shearer speed, AFC capacity, support, advance rate, and man travel speed, shows that little improvement can be expected in the ideal production rate in thinner seams. In thicker seams the AFC often proves the overriding constraint and further increase in equipment size could lead to increased future ideal production rates and is expected. In all cases a concerted effort to increase the utilisation achieved is likely. For deep mines with thin to medium seams this offers the most viable path to improvement; by contrast thick seams with highwall/shallow access may benefit from further increase in equipment size.

Jan 1, 1988

By Marshall B, Gee R. D

Geological data processing by machine enables'an increased rate of coverage, better supervision and control of field programmes, increased effectiveness of field operators, and vastly improved access to old and new field data. Even a system of restricted felxibility enables a mapping programme to be organ- ized and conducted independent of personnel changes, whilst elimination of much compilation time increases the rate of cover- age such that it relates to mode of transport and geological complexity rather than to personality factors. A machine is useful only if applied to tasks suited to its capabilities, and must be aimed at those types of mapping in which a limited number of attributes adequately define the problem, and the data is of a form suited to coding and is normally collected in sufficient abundance to make compilation wearisome. Machine systems are therefore unsuited to most types of lithological mapping and to most types of exploration in new areas, but have proved useful in many branched of cartographic geophysics (e.g. gravity and magnetics), and in cartographic Geochemistry.

Jan 1, 1969

By Lawson F

Narrowly sized samples of synthetic chalcocite (Cu2S) and covellite (CuS) were leached in oxygenated acidic sulphate-chloride solutions. Chalcocite leaches via a two-stage process, the first stage being much more rapid than the second. The apparent activation energies are 42.7 kJ/mol and 68.2 kJ/mol respectively, indicating that both stages are controlled by surface chemical reactions. The leaching of covellite is also chemically rate limited with an apparent activation energy of 77.0 kJ/mol. The shrinking core model is able to be used to describe the leaching processes of both copper sulphides. Over 97% of copper present in chalcocite dissolved in 0.5 M H2SO4i0.5 M NaCl solution under one atmosphere pressure of oxygen at 85¦C in three hours from particles 36 pm in diameter while only 85% of the contained copper in covellite particles 13 pm in diameter dissolved in the same solution under the same pressure at 90¦C in six hours. About 99% of the sulphide sulphur in chalcocite was oxidised to elemental sulphur while only 90% of sulphide sulphur was converted to elemental sulphur during covellite leaching. The mechanism proposed for the two-stage leaching of chalcocite particles is as follows: in the first stage, cuprous ions rapidly diffuse to the external reaction surface where they lose electrons and go into solution as a complex cupric chloride ion CuCl'. The second leaching stage begins when covellite is formed at the external surface. Copper again goes into solution as the CuCl* ion. The mechanism for leaching synthetic covellite is similar to the second leaching stage for chalcocite except that the leaching rate of synthetic covellite is substantially lower than that of the newly formed 'covellite'. Elemental sulphur formed on the particle surface retards the dissolution processes during both chalcocite and covellite leaching. The presence of chloride ions is necessary if essentially all of the copper from chalcocite is to go into solution. When no chloride ions were present, the leaching rate of both newly formed and synthetic covellite was almost zero. The main role of chloride ions in both chalcocite and covellite leaching appears to be to disrupt the passivation film of sulphur on the particle surface.

Jan 1, 1989

By Hulton SJ, MacKenzie DH

The Broken Hill orebody within the leases of ZC Mines is still a major lead-silver-zinc resource after over 80 years of mining. It illustrates particular problems encountered in resource and reserve estimation in old mines. The six mined ore lenses are characterised by three features: ò complex external geometry, ò high internal grade variability, ò bimodal grade distribution. The high grade 3, 2 and 1 lenses and B lode have sharp external contacts but contain some low grade internal zones. By contrast A lode is of lower average grade and comprises an extensive but geometrically variable mineralised zone within which are numerous irregular bodies of high and medium grade ore. Geological factors are the main source of variability in reserve estimation, which historically has been conservative. For many years the geological resource tonnage has been maintained at a level sufficient to make up for extraction but at a gradually declining grade. Using a geological block cut off grade of 10% Pb + Zn the present in situ resource is 53.8 Mt grading 8% lead and 13% zinc. Using empirical cut factors a "recoverable reserve" is derived from this large geological tonnage. There is some doubt that the "recoverable reserve" is conservative enough to reflect mining reality. The most sensitive indicator of forthcoming change in total resource or insufficient drilling and development is given by changes in the tonnage and grade of possible ore from which the proved and probable categories are derived. Examples are given to show that where reserves are drill indicated, the delineation required for proved ore reserves must be enhanced to achieve final stope design. The move in recent years to greater emphasis on non entry mining and lower recovery of in situ material poses a dilemma for a mine which has practised 100% recovery for much of its past. The need for a realistic reserve assessment in current terms needs to be balanced against the fullest possible geological knowledge of the resource to cater for future technological developments.

Jan 1, 1987

By Robinson B, Ham B

Outbursts have occurred irregularly in the Collinsville Coal field since 1954 when an incident claimed seven lives. Further significant outbursts occurred in 1960, 1961, 1972 and more recently in the No. 2 mine in 1978. From the information collected over 25 years a comprehensive program to minimize the hazard of outbursts has evolved. Further developments of techniques to combat outbursts are being developed.

Jan 1, 1980

Geological hazards such as faulting, basement ridges, and zones of "thin" (

Jan 1, 1998

By Gunn S. G, Wilson E. G

Studies by Telecom showed that the existing cable tunnel system in the Melbourne C.B.D. required expansion in order to meet the future telecommunications needs of the City. Due to physical locations of the various telephone exchanges in the CBD, together with a necessity to connect into existing ATC tunnels, a network of low cover small sized tunnels was proposed to maintain and extend the existing telephone cable network. This paper reviews the feasibility studies, design criteria and constructional aspects involved in building 5 tunnels (total length of 1850 m) and 13 chambers (4 open cut and 9 underground)-together with ancillary works, which form part of the new cable tunnel network.

Jan 1, 1981

Safety and health at work is about people. It is about people who plan for work, organise work and perform work. It is about those who come in contact with the workplace and those who are responsible for the workplace. There are wider ranging safety and health obligations that are imposed on the industry stakeholders that span all phases of the production process. In all cases, those responsible for discharging the obligations must ask the questions: Is what we propose safe?, can it be done safer? and are we sure? What we learn from recent legal cases before the courts is that it is essential that all stakeholders work together in a collaborative way when discharging these obligations. Safety and health at work cannot become an issue that is viewed only through the eyes of a single stakeholder group. The reason for this is quite simple. The interrelatedness of the responsibilities that are imposed on each of the stakeholder groups, means that the performance based legislation simply wont work, where an active model of communication and consultation is not in place.

Jan 1, 2005

By Slater R

The initial planning and detail design phase leading to the development of a 7.5 m internal shaft to service the deep 3000 and 3500 copper orebodies at Mount Isa, Queensland is well advanced. The choice of internal shaft access was made over alternative methods such as a decline from existing levels and borehole hoisting. The resulting access development requirements and shaft configuration for production have been determined. Several techniques are being studied for shaft development. These include the application of blind shaft drilling and large hole reaming methods as well as conventional sinking techniques. As the 3000/3500 Orebodies extend from 1000 metres to more than 1800 metres below the surface, high stress conditions and ground temperatures ranging from 45CC to 62CC are anticipated. The effect of these on the methods being investigated to create a favourable working environment will influence the final choice. Exploration diamond drilling is in progress to confirm the geology of the orebodies so that planning for their extraction including refrigerated ventilation concepts can proceed.

Jan 1, 1982

By A E. Annels, M D. Raine, I M. Platten

Lode-gold systems are often characterised by a high to extreme nugget effect (>50 per cent), and the presence of coarse gold particles (>100 ¦m in size). They rank amongst the most difficult of ore deposits types, in terms of producing an accurate and precise resource estimate. Their effective sampling is generally difficult because of the relatively low concentrations involved and erratic nature of the gold particles. Grade continuity is usually less consistent than gross geological continuity, and is typified by the localisation of grades within discrete oreshoots. In most cases drilling, particularly diamond drilling is an effective measure of global geological continuity, whereas grade can only be reliably resolved from underground development. Depending upon drill density and geology, it is unlikely that anything above an Inferred Mineral Resource can be estimated from surface drilling alone. Underground development, in-fill drilling and, potentially, bulk sampling or trial mining will be required to delineate Indicated and Measured Mineral Resources and subsequent Ore Reserves. Grade estimation will have to account for highly skewed and often multi-modal populations, extreme values, a high nugget effect and low geostatistical ranges. A clear geological model that honours both geological and grade continuity must drive the resource estimation process.

Jan 1, 2003

The Charters Towers goldfield in northeastern Queensland produced over 206 tonnes of gold from gold-quartz veins hosted by Mid-Palaeozoic granodiorite, tonalite, diorite and to a lesser extent amphibolite-grade meta-sedimentary schist and meta-igneous rock. Mineralisation occurs in grouped, moderately dipping shear zones with altered wallrock rafts and a complex network of quartz veins.Over 75 per cent of the production came from three main vein systems in the central goldfield: the Brilliant, Day Dawn and Towers Hill vein systems.The Brilliant vein system is hosted by undeformed tonalite and contains north-plunging oreshoots on a north-dipping main fissure and on shorter east-dripping hangingwall fissures. The Day Dawn vein system is localised along a north-dipping dyke at the contact of two deformed granitoids in a brittly reactivated mylonite, where horizontal oreshoot plunges may be related to the original megascopic undulations in that structure. The Towers Hill vein system is hosted in two granodiorite types and has multiple ore controls.Structural analysis indicates that the distribution of the oreshoots within the vein systems is variously controlled by the primary fabric and igneous contacts of the granitoid host rocks. Splaying, changes in dip, and fissure intersections are the main controls. The largest vein systems are both in reactivated shallow-dipping mylonite, or in fissures in younger undeformed granitoids. Each vein system lies in a separate structural domain, usually where older east-striking structures are preserved.

Jan 1, 1990

By Sowerby BD

The CSIRU Division of Mineral Engineering is developing various techniques for the on-line determination of moisture in coal and coke, and some instruments are now commercially available. These techniques permit accurate and rapid determination of moisture in materials directly on conveyor belts or in bins. The most promising techniques for direct on-belt measurement of moisture in coal are capacitance and microwave transmission. A non-contacting under-belt capacitance and gamma-ray backscatter technique has determined moisture in coal to better than 0.5 wt'/. in field tests at BHP Stockton Borehole Colliery, NSW. Mineral Control Instrumentation Pty Ltd have been licensed to manufacture the capacitance gauges and have installed five commercial units in the coal industry and other industries. Microwave transmission techniques have an advantage over the under-belt capacitance technique in that they are not sensitive to vertical segregation of moisture in coal on the conveyor belt. A laboratory prototype of a microwave transmission gauge has been constructed and tested. Microwave techniques, based on a measurement of attenuation and phase shift, are under development and are expected to be field tested in 1987. These new techniques will enable a wide range of thickness changes to be accommodated. Capacitance and microwave transmission methods are unsuitable for materials of high electrical conductivity, such as coke. CSIRO is therefore developing a fast neutron and gamma-ray transmission technique, which is proving very accurate in laboratory tests. This technique overcomes many of the limitations of thermal neutron moisture gauges and it is expected to be field tested in 1987.

Jan 1, 1987

By Eupene GS

The Early Proterozioc Pine Creek Geosyncline hosts a large number of gold showings. Mineralisation types include stratiform, synsedimentary deposits within iron formation and carbonaceous mudstone; disseminations in granophyric intrusives; and quartz vein related concentrations in the form of shear fillings, saddle reefs and stockworks. Stratiform gold deposits preferentially formed near penecontemporareous faults during periods of basin instability. Intrusive basic magmas later assimilated some stratiform mineralisation and subsequently redeposited it within differentiated phases. Gold was again remobilized during regional deformation and metamorphism. Stratiform mineralisation was upgraded insitu in high strain zones and gold was mobilized into metamorphic fluids. Fluid induced fracturing during prograde metamorphism and later uplift caused the deposition of extensive gold rich vein systems. The genetic relationship between gold deposit types is reflected in the clustering of showings along regional anticlines, and provides a powerful exploration tool. The large volume of 'exhalative'òmaterial in the Geosyncline with elevated gold content suggests significant economic stratiform mineralisation may be present, and probably provides a source for later disseminated and vein deposits.

Jan 1, 1984

Blasting is a common practice in mining whereby solid rock is fractured, using explosives, to a more manageable size. The effectiveness of blasting influences a number of downstream activities such as shovel digability, crusher throughput and mill throughput. As the cost of explosives is relatively low compared to milling costs (mainly due to power consumption), blasting practices can be optimised so that the downstream processes are made more efficient, and an overall cost saving made. This is the basis of the Mine to Mill approach. The effectiveness of the blasting is influenced by two main factors, the blasting practices used (eg explosive amount and type) and the geology of the area. As the geology cannot be altered, the blasting practices must be refined to create optimum blasting. Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) Fimiston operation, located in the heart of the Kalgoorlie Goldfields is the largest gold mine in Australia. Mine to Mill at KCGM has had varied success, with initial positive indications being lessened by a number of factors, including the increase in the amount of voids.

Jan 1, 2003

For the past five years the University of Queenslandhas, through its various workshops, been preaching to Australia that there was a potentially hazardous situation from earthquakes for urban Australia. A few people outside The University accepted this, but largely the warnings fell on deaf ears.The 1989 Newcastle earthquake changed that per-ception. The most important lessons to emerge from Newcastle were (i)the realization that in continental areas small earthquakes cause widespread damage:(ii)the local geology of an area is of great importance in the damage done by an earthquake.These two factors clearly indicate that, in the future, we must take far greater account of the "Urban Geology" of an area. This paper discusses the need for urban geology and its impact on seismic risk and compares that with the traditional methods of assessing seismic risk.

Jan 1, 1990

By Hendrix J. L, Nelson J. H

A model based on non-steady state has been developed for dissolution and diffusion in porous ore particles. Results from the particular model have been incorporated, as a rate term, into a global, heap-scale model based on a plug flow reactor at unsteady state. The global model can be used to consider leaching by aqueous-phase reagents in equilibrium with a gas- phase component, such as oxygen gas, as well as strictly aqueous-phase reagents, such as cyanide. The flexibility of the model even allows predic- tion of the outcomes of using reagent sideflow injection in large heaps. Data from column leaching tests are compared to the model, and their relationship is discussed.

Jan 1, 1991

The New South Wales coal industry is a highly mechanised well organised industry which has developed from an annual production of slightly less than 13 million tons in 1950 to over 33 million tons in 1969. Although continuous miners were not introduced into the mines until 1950, by June 1969 the percentage of coal won by these units was 87.3. The paper describes mining conditions in the various coalfields of the State, their complexities and problems and how these have been dealt with. The introduction of fully mechanised longwall faces has presented a challenge which has been accepted and descriptions of systems in use are discussed. Major expansion of the industry is anticipated to meet the requirements of the growing Australian steel industry, for local power generation and to meet the increasing demands of overseas markets.

Jan 1, 1980

The nickel operations at Kambalda consist of mining thin massive to disseminated Ni sulphide orebodies from 10 individual mines of variable grade.Daily sampling involves visual estimation of the grade of working faces based on geological parameters. This system of grade estimation is used as a guide for daily grade control only.Nickel metal allocation is based on an external sampling system. As all ore sources are blended at the primary crusher, only one calculated mill head grade is available. Therefore all sources are sampled prior to crushing. This system historically consisted of mechanically grab sampling ore from trucks as they passed over a weighbridge on arrival at the concentrator. Currently the system involves diverting one out of every ten trucks to its mine sample stockpile, which is crushed through the primary, secondary and tertiary crushing system fortnightly. The individual mine grades are re-combined to create a total sample grade. This is reconciled against the calculated mill head grade. The reconciliation factor is applied uniformly to all individual mine sample grades to calculate mill reconciled mine grades.

Jan 1, 1990

By Hannington MD

On the southern flank of Lihir Island, a group of three volcanic cones were discovered at water depths from 1000-1500 m. The volcanoes are located in a narrow zone of recent seismic activity and elevated heat flow (up to 100 mW/m2). The recovered rocks consist of fresh alkali-olivine basalts, clinopyroxene-rich basalts, and porphyritic phlogopite basalts. One of the volcanoes has a recently erupted ejecta blanket (recovery of warm ash!), containing a suite of abundant mafic to ultramafic xenoliths. These xenoliths appear to represent a unique cross-section of subduction- modified mantle material sampled by volatile-rich primary fore-arc magma during its ascent to the seafloor. The most spectacular finding was the discovery of an active hydrothermal system with associated vent fauna and mineralization at Edison Seamount, and the recovery of unusually gold-rich (up to 43 ppm Au) hydrothermal precipitates in 1050 m water depth at the top of Conical Seamount, only 25 km south of the world-class epithermal Ladolam gold deposit on Lihir. The discovery of submarine hydrothermal vents associated with highly alkaline, quartz-undersaturated fore-arc volcanics represents a significant departure from similar hydrothermal systems on the mid-ocean ridges and in back-arc basins. The high gold grades in hydrothermal precipitates at Conical Seamount may indicate the first documented example of a shallow-marine epithermal system analogous to those known on land, and has important implications for the gold potential of submarine arc environments.

Jan 1, 1995