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By W. Curlook, L. M. Pidgeon

THE PURPOSE of this investigation was to study part of the ternary system Co-Fe-S. Jensen ( 1) established the solubility limits of sulphur in pyrrhotite. The compound with 61.7 per cent Fe, corresponding to a formula Fe12S13, was found to melt congruently at l,192°C. Hulsmann and Weibke(2) determined the Co-S phase diagram from O to 35.2 per cent S. The solubility limits of sulphur in the com-pound Co(l-x)S were not determined. The initial object of the present in-vestigation was to determine the composition at which the compound Coci-xiS melted congruently. Once this was ascertained, it was decided to investigate the ternary system Co-Fe-S from the region of 100 per cent Co(1-x) S to the region of 100 per cent Fe12S13.

Jan 1, 1953

By L. Li

The backfilling of underground stopes is a common practice throughout the mining industry. The stresses imposed by the backfill on the surrounding rock mass need to be assessed because of their influence on ground stability and on the hydro-geochemical response of the fill material. There is, however, a complex interaction between the relatively soft backfill and the much stiffer adjacent rock mass. In recent years, the authors have presented results from investigations conducted on stress distributions (obtained numerically and analytically) in and around backfilled stopes with (sub)vertical walls. In this paper, the influence of stope inclination and of backfill properties is evaluated. Results indicate that, in general, the vertical and horizontal stresses in inclined stopes are close to, but somewhat smaller than the stresses in vertical stopes. Nonetheless, significant differences can be observed in some cases, especially for the vertical stress along the inclined central line and along the hanging wall. It is further shown that neglecting deformability in limit equilibrium analyses is an acceptable assumption. However, Poisson?s ratio and the dilatancy angle, usually neglected in limit equilibrium analyses, may have significant effect on the stress distribution. Results also confirm that the backfill strength parameters (cohesion and friction angle) are critical factors required to properly evaluate the stress distribution, at least within a certain range of parameter values.

May 1, 2007

By Flavio Rojos-Tapia, Oscar Pereira-Cerda, Samuel Sánchez-Pino, Samuel Sánchez-Baquedano

"Pneumatic flotation was introduced to the Chilean Copper Mining Industry in 1993 by Ingeniería de Minerales S.A. (IDM). The technology is based on the designs of Dr. Rainer Imhof from Germany, who is the designer of several different types of pneumatic flotation cells, already sold through his Company Maelgwyn Mineral Service Limited (MMH). The company is represented by Ingenieria de Minerales S.A. (IDM) in South America.Pneumatic flotation, has been used in tough industrial applications .It has been successfully used for metallic ores such as copper sulphide and oxide minerals, copper slag, silica and silicates from iron magnetic preconcentrate (reverse flotation) and gold. It has also provided promising results when applied to molybdenum flotation. The latest applications, with ultrafine molybdenum particles in operating plants, is showing the V and G Cell (end model designed) as a real technological alternative to conventional flotation., The G Cell is an extremely high speed flotation machine with high selectivity which introduces the possibility of producing a final molybdenum concentrate with only one stage of cleaning. This is a completely new development in molybdenum flotation in the industrial circuit which has the potential to dramatically reduce the circulating load in the cleaning circuit. As a consequence the capital costs of future Molybdenum plants may also be reduced. The suitability of the G Cell will have to be determined on a case by case basis but it provides the metallurgist with an alternate flowsheet for consideration.The good performance of the G Cell can be explained by the high gas hold-up and very effective micro-turbulence which helps improve the attachment of solid particles to the bubbles. This technology may change our traditional concept of residence time in flotation. Additionally, the rotation phenomena introduced in the vessel of the G Cell ,creates radial separation forces which are critical to achieving a more rapid separation of the target minerals from the tailing. This results in a much reduced residence time requirement in the flotation machine. Some benefits associated with the use of the new G Cell are: less energy consumption, less maintenance costs, simple and reliable circuit to operate and a small area required for installing the circuits.As a result of the industrial experience in the Chile, the pneumatic flotation type G Cell can be regarded as a technology which must be considered as a replacement technology for the rougher and cleaner stages for fine particle flotation."

Jan 1, 2008

By J. G. Price

"The paper reviews state-of-the art welding processes and consumables for structural and pressure equipment applications in offshore environments, particularly the Arctic. Optimum selection of consumables will be discussed with regard to the facility to meet tentative toughness requirements in weldments. Finally, the development of welding procedure specifications will be considered in relation to the prevention of hot or cold cracking and lamellar tearing.Welding RequirementsGeneralThe exploitation of Canadian frontier oil and gas reserves will require a fleet of various types of offshore structures. These will include fixed jacket types and semi-submersibles for the East Coast with huge man-made islands and icebreakers for the Arctic regions. Both these regions will also require supply and drill ships plus subsea pipelines and cargo tankers for transportation. Clearly the welding of these items will plays large part in the over-all integrity and safety of exploration and production operations.The required development in structural steels and pressure vessel steels, for current and future offshore structures, to improve properties, particularly toughness for lower temperature service, has also prompted welding researchers to develop process and consumable combinations to match the parent plate specifications. This development has had to consider particular aspects of weldability such as a low susceptibility to cold cracking and preventing low HAZ toughness. Current research has centred on attempts to increase HAZ toughness with higher heat input welding of newly developed structural steels.The installation of Arctic region pipelines has provided a sound base for future, more complex fabrications in the most severe service temperatures in the Canadian frontier although few of the installations have been designed to the lowest possible exposed temperature of -62°C."

Jan 1, 1987

By M. Fan, M. Mankosa, G. Luttrell

"Column and other non-conventional flotation approaches continue to provide benefits where conventional flotation processes have exhibited limited success. This is particularly evident with respect to flotation of ultrafine and coarse particles. Advancements in air sparging technology have provided the ability to produce finer bubbles than previously possible. The generation of finer bubbles coupled with the froth washing capabilities of a flotation column has demonstrated improvements in ultrafine particle recovery while simultaneously producing a high-grade float product. On the other side of the spectrum, the use of these sparging technologies while applying flotation fundamentals to a fluidized-bed reactor has increased the maximum floatable particle size up to and in excess of 3 mm. Benefits of higher recoveries and reduced reagent consumption have resulted from the use of these technologies. An additional benefit includes a reduction in plant grinding requirements. As such, this paper describes the application of Cavitation-Tube sparger technology and fluidized-bed flotation (HydroFloat). A review of data from industrial and pilot-scale applications is also provided.INTRODUCTIONConventional (mechanical) froth flotation is considered the workhorse of the minerals processing industry. This low-cost process makes it possible to selectively recover minerals by exploiting the difference in surface characteristics (e.g., wettability) of the valuable component and the waste material. Unfortunately, the upper particle size limit for flotation rarely exceeds 0.600 mm, and is typically maintained at less than 0.300 mm for most industrial applications. For many commercial base metal plants, the particle size range for optimum recovery is typically between 0.01 and 0.1 mm (Lynch et al., 1981). This finding is not novel. In fact, the effect of particle size on flotation recovery was studied as early as 1931 by Gaudin et al. who showed that coarse (+0.250 mm) and extremely fine particles (-0.010 mm) are more difficult to recover than particles of an intermediate size. The loss of recovery is due to inherent limitations associated with the flotation process, including bubble-particle adhesion and collision, detachment, buoyancy, and transport."

Jan 1, 2010

By Alex Matheson, Nick W. D. Massey, Peter T. Bobrowsky

Crowing pressures on aggregate resources include diminishing reserves, high transportation costs, sterilization and land use conflicts. In the absence of detailed resource knowledge for a particular region, aggregate resource potential maps provide the best "first approximation" regarding the surficial distribution of sand and gravel. The 1:50 000 scale Level Ill aggregate potential map integrates several important factors which influence the management of sand and gravel. Data used to generate this type of thematic map is readily available in most areas, fieldwork required is minimal, there is a logical quantitative evaluation of the data layers and integration is easily accomplished on a desktop PC-based platform. Also the aggregate potential map, with its focus on identifying areas of potential future aggregate exploitation as well as present inventory, provides a useful tool for the aggregate explorationist.

Jan 1, 2001

By Carl Bertrand, Patrice Nadeau, Claude Bazin

"Rio Tinto Fer et Titane processes the ore extracted from the Lac Tio orebody to concentrate the hemo-ilmenite (FeO.TiO2-Fe2O3) mineral that is subsequently smelted to produce pig iron and titanium oxide slag. The ore is crushed, heat treated (roasted) and concentrated using dry magnetic separators. This paper describes a model to predict the magnetic susceptibility of the roasted ore and its behaviour in the magnetic separation plant. The model uses a classification of the ore as a function of the size and magnetic susceptibility of the particles. A subsequent division into mineral species allows the simulation of the magnetic separation process. The model is used to assess various operating options when process disturbances occur.INTRODUCTIONOre processing operations consist of ore size reduction followed by the recovery of valuable species in a concentrate that is subsequently sold for its minerals or metal content. The concentration processes are based on the physical and/or chemical properties of the minerals contained in the ore. Flotation is typically used to recover minerals of base metals such as copper, zinc, lead or nickel. Iron ore and other dense minerals are typically concentrated by gravity separation processes. Magnetic separation uses the magnetic properties of the minerals to concentrate magnetite and other minerals, to clean coal concentrate and to recycle ferrosilicon for dense separation processes (Brophy, 1985).Magnetic separators can be divided into low and high intensity separators and high gradient magnetic separators (Gillet, 2008). Most of the low gradient magnetic separators are built as rotary drums that are operated in wet or dry conditions. Dry magnetic drum separators are used by Rio Tinto Fer et Titane in Sorel-Tracy, Canada to concentrate hemo-ilmenite from the ore extracted at the Lac Tio Lake mine near Havre St-Pierre, Canada. The analysis of production data suggests that process improvement could be achieved by identifying key variables for the control of the magnetic separation circuit and/or by modification to the circuit flowsheet. The use of a process model was considered to be an effective approach to conduct a preliminary analysis of the circuit with a view toward process optimization. However, the literature contains few detailed studies dealing with the modelling of magnetic separation processes."

Jan 1, 2011

By Tapio Leskinen

"In the 1960’s, when large flotation machines appeared on the market, this was a part of a world-wide trend towards the use of ever larger machine units.One factor that has played a decisive part in this development is the increased of the amounts of ore that have to be handled as the exploitation of successively poorer ores becomes necessary. The advancing application of instrumentation and automation has worked in the same direction.In 1970, a working group was set up within Outokumpu Oy, for the purpose of flotation machine development. The principal task of this group was to be the design and development of- a new type of rotor of increased efficiency, especially for the dispersion of large amounts of air- a mechanical-pneumatic flotation machine of substantially larger size that existing plant.This development project required an extensive program of theoretical investigation and experimental studies at several concentration plants of the company.The commonest flotation machine presently used in the concentration plants of Outokumpu Oy is the VK-3. It is of the mechanical-pneumatic type, and the volume of its cell tanks is 2.5 m3 per shaft. This machine was developed within the company, and its first development phase i s represented by the OKKO 3, built for the Kotalahti concentrator in 1959. It was, in its time, comparable in volume to the largest machines that were then in use anywhere in the world."

Jan 1, 1976

By P. Klossek

It is estimated that China accounts for 94% of the world supply of rare earths (Roskill, 2011). This fact, together with the impact of China?s export policy, poses a substantial risk to the security of the rare earth supply as well as a rare earth price risk. This situation has motivated an increase in the number of rare earth projects under development, i.e., there are currently more than 440 worldwide (Technology Metals Research, 2012). However, economically and environmentally acceptable processing technology to produce tradable products from rare earths (e.g., separated rare earth oxides) is not freely available on the market at the moment. In this respect, a lot of research and development has been initiated on this topic, in academia as well as in industry. Using a proprietary model and scenario-based analysis, we studied the impact that the development of rare earth processing technologies would have on the rare earth market and the economic feasibility of rare earth projects mentioned before. The analysis showed that this impact varies depending on the technology type (e.g., technology can affect project production volume, cost structure or both) and the legal context of the invention (e.g., free or limited by patenting availability of a new technology). The effect of a technology which influences project production volume is not the same as of a technology which changes project cost structure. The impact of a patented processing technology differs from the impact of a processing technology which is freely available on the market. In the case of a new technology which is limited by patenting, its impact depends on the market position (?producing?, ?next-coming?, or ?not producing? project) of the patent holder. The paper contributes to existing research by studying the dependence of the expected micro- and macroeconomic impact of rare earth processing technology developments on the properties of a new technology (e.g., costs, legal framework etc.). By this means, the paper adds to existing knowledge and attempts to make the rare earths market more transparent and predictable from a perspective outside China.

Aug 1, 2013

By Costa

The fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) mining model has significant implications for the industry as it plays an important role in fulfilling the economic, social and workforce needs of the contemporary mining industry. It has increasingly been adopted in countries such as Canada and Australia, but is the current nature of the FIFO model challenging the place women have achieved in the mining workforce? Research in the mining and oil and gas industries reveals that major sources of stress for fly-in-fly-out mining workers are the times of parting and of reunion, the challenges in defining roles within the family, parenting, and conflict between spouses over the use of the leave time and money. So how are women in the industry coping with the FIFO schedules and consequent intermittent relationship with families and partners? How is the mining industry adapting to recruit and maintain female employees in FIFO operations? This paper describes an exploratory study conducted in Canada, which intended to provide some initial insights that might help us answer the questions above. There are several inferences made from this exploratory study. It is clear that FIFO poses significant challenges for both female and male workers. It is largely seen as rigid, extremely challenging for employees with young families and workers who are single mothers, and it is generally incompatible with starting a family and caring for small children. FIFO creates severe stress on relationships and on workers psychological well-being. It seems to be indeed harder for women, since they are often in lower paying positions and therefore have less financial reward for the FIFO lifestyle. On the other hand, FIFO creates the opportunity for young women, including Aboriginal women, to jump-start their careers, as well as opportunities for mature women to work while pursuing other personal interests during their time off. This paper concludes with recommendations to improve the FIFO system in order to increase the ability of mining companies to hire and retain women

May 1, 2006

By Donald J. Hallbom

"While pipeline hydrotransport is often the most economical way to transport large volumes of mineral concentrate, tailings, or fine ore slurry over long distances, it is in mountainous terrain that pipelining becomes particularly attractive. These areas are often remote, with limited existing infrastructure and few potential users willing to share in the cost of new infrastructure. The rugged terrain makes the construction of railways or roads suitable for haul trucks difficult and expensive. The elevation difference between the mine and the terminal means that the empty trains or haul trucks need to return up-hill, resulting in high fuel costs. With pipelines, this elevation difference may reduce or even eliminate the need for pumping. As a result, numerous pipelines have been built, or are being considered, in mountainous regions around the world including: Tasmania, New Guinea, China, Madagascar, the Rockies of North America, and the Andes of South America. However, there are technical difficulties that need to be overcome in the design and operation of mountain pipelines that do not affect pipelines on more level terrain. This presentation reviews some of these difficulties and methods used to overcome them.INTRODUCTIONPipeline transport of solid-liquid slurry (“hydrotransport”) is an important and cost-effective means of transporting large volumes of solids over long distances, especially from a single supplier to a single user (e.g., a concentrator to a port, a concentrator to a tailings dam, or a coal mine to a power plant). Pipelines are generally found to be more economically attractive than alternate transportation methods (e.g. trucking, rail, conveyors, shipping, or some combination) over the life of a project (Aude et al. 1974).Hydrotransport systems have been built in a variety of terrains, but it is in mountainous regions that pipelining becomes particularly attractive. These regions are often remote and generally do not have existing transportation infrastructure (roads, railways, navigable rivers). There are few potential users (e.g., farmers, other mines, forestry companies, etc.) who may be willing to share in the cost of new infrastructure. The rugged terrain makes the construction and maintenance of railways or all weather roads suitable for large haul trucks difficult and expensive. Mines tend to be higher than the receiving terminal (e.g. a port). This means that the empty trains or haul trucks need to return up-hill, resulting in high fuel costs. With pipelines, this elevation difference may reduce or even eliminate the need for pumping. Pipelines are easier to construct than roads and railroads in these areas for several reasons, including:"

Jan 1, 2006

By L. H. Chen, Y. C. Chen, Leo Benyamin, W. C. Chen

"To investigate the evolution of fluid-driven fracture of rock-like material subjected to borehole fluid pressure and its consequential damage with regard to post-peak stabilization, micro-seismic activities have been monitored using nondestructive technique of acoustic emission (AE) corresponding to the macro-scale complete history of loading curve by setting the hollow cylindrical external circumferential strain to be a closed-loop feedback signal during servo-fluid-driven tests. Development of a novel fluidinduced loading system injected from internal borehole as well as monitoring system were equipped such that the initiation and propagation of micro-cracks enable to analyze experimentally. By programming/controlling either injection rate or fluid pressure, synthetic sandstones with low-permeability made by cement mortar were conducted in this study. It found that both the growth of macro-crack initialized intensively as reaching the breakdown pressure and the micro-seismic activities represented by AE locations show nice agreement. The experimental results in this paper provide better understandings of fluid-driven fracture mechanism.INTRODUCTIONFluid-driven fracture is a process of generating cracks by injecting viscous fluid into solid material. Conventionally, fluid-driven fracture tests have been performed by mining industry to measure the in situ stress (Haimson & Fairhurst, 1969) and fluid-driven fracture has been employed by the petroleum industry to recover oil and gas. Additionally, the mechanism of crack growth or the extension of existing cracks is important to the evolution of volcanic dikes over distances of a few kilometers (Lister & Kerr, 1991; Rubin, 1995), crack propagation in dams (Bolzon & Cocchetti, 2003) and the disposal of radioactive waste (Sun, 1969)."

Jan 1, 2015

By Scott A. Stebbins

Cost evaluation models constructed specifically to evaluate the economic potential of an individually motorized railcar system of ore and waste transport demonstrate that the approach may be considerably more cost effective than traditional rubber-tired haulage methods. The system design places a motorized drive unit on each railcar, as opposed to the more common configuration in which a series of un-motorized cars trail behind a single locomotive. These motorized railcars are directed to various load and dump points by a computerized dispatch system, and as such have the advantage of operating unmanned. In addition, the tractive effort of the rail-type drive system is noticeably more efficient than that of the rubber-tired mode of transport. The savings are realized primarily through comparative reductions in the requirements for labor and, to a lesser degree, energy.

Nov 1, 2011

"11.1. IntroductionThe recovery of platinum-group elements (POE) from ores is a subject which has received almost no mention in the literature. Edwards (1975) refers to the process used for refining of the POE, throughout the Western World, as a so-called ""conventional"" process .... ""not because of the simplicity or convenience of the operations, but more probably because of the inertia of established processes and the aura of secrecy with which the major platinum refiners have surrounded this process."" There is no doubt in this writer's mind that the latter is also applicable to the dearth of knowledge of the mineralogy, geochemistry and ore deposits of PGE and that the poor recoveries, mainly attributed to the mineral beneficiation stages of concentration, are also affected by this traditional secrecy. Fortunately, this attitude is changing, due no doubt to the advantages that accrue from more open research which may be critically assessed in the literature in the traditional manner. Examples of this more open approach to recoveries and recovery problems are represented by Newman (1973), who gave some typical recovery percentages for Merensky Reef ores, and the recent encouragement and cooperation on mill samples from the Sudbury area by lnco Metals Company (cf. Cabri, 1981a).In general, platinum-group elements are recovered from an ore by the use of a physical concentration method, such as gravity separation or flotation, followed by further upgrading using further physical, wet chemical or pyrometallurgical techniques. The final process of refining in which the individual platinum-group elements are produced in pure form is outside the scope of this chapter.Platinum-group element deposits naturally fall into different categories according to the recovery process best suited for them, viz. those amenable to gravity separation, those amenable to flotation, and those where platinum-group elements are by-products of base metal sulphide, chromite and miscellaneous other deposits."

Jan 1, 1979

By M. P. Hay

"For a model to be successful it must address the concerns and needs of a target audience. Further, the model must demonstrate the same patterns of behaviour as the real system, and need only be complex enough to meet this objective. If the model is too complex it can become unusable to those who need it most.With this in mind, SUPASIM has been developed for the practical metallurgist requiring only laboratory flotation rate data as input. Some 35+ successful plant simulations have been completed since 1985. The approach of SUPASIM is to characterise an ore, organise information in an understandable way and add structure to the complex flotation situation and hence support the metallurgist to interpret the relationship between variables and optimise the flotation process.The paper describes the basis on which the model was developed and sets out to provide an insight into interpreting laboratory flotation kinetics and their physical meaning in a production plant and the influence floatable gangue has on float performance and plant design. A case study illustrates how the ratio of slow floating mineral to gangue can influence circuit design and improve recovery on a plant scale.INTRODUCTIONThere is an enormous amount of useful data in the results of a laboratory scale rate test. Each variable of fraction and rate, for mineral, metal and gangue has a physical meaning in the plant. The link between float kinetics and the plant in respect of recovery, grade, pulp density, pulp flowrate, residence time, number of stages of cleaning and circuit configuration has been established by the author in the process of developing SUPASIM."

Jan 1, 2005

By Jim Dodd, Jim Paynter

"We would like to acknowledge the efforts of the following key people who helped to make this project a success.Ron Jung, instrumentation supervisor for the Golden Giant Mine, spent many hours reviewing process and instrument drawings, selecting instruments and providing hands on support during commissioning.Andy Keough, underground production supervisor for the Golden Giant Mine, was responsible for readying the underground distribution network for paste backfill.H.A. Simons Ltd. personnel who did an excellent job providing sound conceptual and detailed engineering.Fred Brackebusch, of Mine System Design who designed the paste backfill delivery systemPierre Lacombe, mill superintendent of the Louvicourt Mine, generously shared information and operating experience of their paste backfill plant.AbstractThroughout the 11 year history of the Golden Giant Mine, the primary backfilling method made use of consolidated rock fill. New backfill technologies have developed over recent years which now make it possible to use large quantities of fine mill tailings as backfill.In January of 1996, construction began on a new paste backfill plant at the Golden Giant Mine. Six months following, the plant was commissioned. This paper describes the design, commissioning and operational experience to date of the paste backfill plant."

Jan 1, 1997

By A. M. Childs, R. F. Mather, K. R. Rawling

"The challenges encountered in the design and construction of mines and their process facilities today are becoming more intense and the engineering more competitive. The need to incorporate new techno1ogy to compensate for ever rising costs is always present, but its application in the harsh environment of Northern Canada increasingly requires the inclusion of new proven methods and innovative approaches to arrive at economically attractive projects.This paper deals with the development of the process design for the Cullaton Lake Gold Mine in the Northwest Territories. Particular emphasis is given to the interaction of the imposed construction and testwork schedules, and their effect on certain process decisions.The challenge that faced the project team may be defined by the following factors:1. A schedule which required that metallurgical testing, engineering, and procurement and delivery of all equipment and construction supplies should be complete within a period of ten months.2. Transportation of all personnel, equipment and supplies to the site by airlift, as no road was available or affordable.3. A six week period when transportation to the site was impossible.4. The extremes of temperature beyond the tree line in the Northwest Territories.5. A complete lack of infrastructure in the area."

Jan 1, 1983

By Olli Aulio, Outokumpu Oy

"GENERALThe Outokumpu Company is today an important European producer of metals from its own mines: copper nickel cobalt, ferro chrome and zinc being the main products. In 1972 about 4 million tons of ore was hoisted from eleven mines.Outokumpu Oy has gained experiences on the various aspects of on line computer control since 1968. This knowledge has been combined to develop a standard computer control package for concentrator control. Before the development of computer control package was started Outokumpu Oy had three large computer control systems. The first system was at the Pyhasalmi Concentrator, thee second at the LokkolaPlant, and the installation of the third system at the Vuonos Concentrator was just started.The characteristics of general computer software packages - both control and executive ones - were thus well-known as well as the practical usage of control theory. Furthermore Outokumpu had developed the Courier analyzer which included a so-called minicomputer. This project had given experience both 1n totally self made real tire executives and in computer hardware and peripheral d=vices. The instrumentation of the Outokumpu concentrators was designed and installed traditionally by the engineers of Outokumpu themselves."

Jan 1, 1973

By Dave Rose, David G. Meadows, Mike Westendorf

"Copper Mountain’s concentrator was commissioned in May 2011. The circuit consists of a 34’ x 20’ EGL SAG mill, a Raptor 900 pebble crusher and two 24’ x 39’6” ball mills. Each mill is equipped with a 2 x 8500 HP dual pinion drive system. The plant was designed to process 1585 mtph of SAG feed. From startup, the mill struggled to meet the required production rates. Over time, a major initiative that involved blasting and fragmentation, optimization of the SAG mill in terms of discharge grates, ball size and slurry density, and operation of up to three mobile pre-crushing plants resulted in significant increases in throughput. In parallel, a number of modeling tools, including JK SimMet, were run based on plant benchmarking exercises. Samples collected at the mine site during ramp up confirmed the very competent nature of the ore with drop weight - A*b values of less than 24 being recorded on a variety of plant feeds and lithologies. After due consideration including demonstration of proof of concept, a new pre-crushing circuit incorporating an XL2000 cone crusher and associated screening equipment was designed, constructed and commissioned at the site in August 2014. This paper reviews the history of the original circuit design, the various optimization steps taken and impacts, together with the final pre-crushing circuit and net results.IntroductionThe Copper Mountain Mine is located approximately 20 km south of Princeton, British Columbia, Canada (refer to Figure 1). The region has a long history of copper mining dating back to 1923. The Copper Mountain camp occurs in the 'eastern volcanic belt' of the Nicola Group (Monger, 1989). It is an alkali copper-gold deposit in which the volcanic strata are intruded by early Jurassic dykes, sills, irregular plugs and zoned plutons (Woodsworth et al., 1992). The stratified rocks are relatively fresh with slight metamorphism in the local contact regions."

Jan 1, 2016

A series of fault slip seismic events have occurred at Garson mine. The events have occurred during development advancement exposing faults, after the extraction of single stopes due to mining induced stress change, and due to time effects after delays of many days during which no mining had been conducted. This paper discusses the study completed consisting of a global or holistic approach aimed at mitigating some of the risks associated with the structurally controlled rockbursts at Garson. Background Garson mine is located in the south east area of the Sudbury Basin (Ontario, Canada). Mining occurs in two main ore bodies (the #1 Shear and the #4 Shear) which are copper-nickel-sulphide and occur within shear zones that (as well as the ore bodies) strike approximately east-west and dip steeply south. From the north (footwall), lithologies progress (Figure 1a) from norite (NR), to greenstone (GS), and finally to meta-sediment (MTSD). A generally WNW-ESE striking, bifurcated sub-vertical dyke of olivine diabase (OLDI) cuts the series. The current active mining block at Garson is between 4700L and 5100L (levels denote depth in feet below surface).

May 1, 2009