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By D. Mudd, G. Robertson

"Ask an average non-industry person on the street “What is coal? What is coal mining? What is a coal miner?” The most common answers are coal is something Santa puts in your stocking for being naughty, coal mining is destroying the earth causing global warming, and a coal miner is a person that uses a pick and shovel to dig coal out of the earth. As farfetched as these answers seem, unfortunately this is the opinion of many Americans. Realizing the lack of educational opportunity regarding coal and coal mining, a first-of-its-kind grassroots coal education program known as CEDAR (Coal Education Development and Resource) was created. What started from a general conversation at the December 1992 North Carolina Coal Institute (NCCI) Winter Meeting at the Mid Pines Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina led to the creation, and later expansion of, CEDAR. NCCI President, Gene McBurney, challenged John Justice, NCCI Board Member from east Kentucky, to come up with an idea of how to improve the image of the coal industry, pledging $5,000 from the NCCI as seed money to assist in the development of any such program. John then met with the leaders of Coal Operators and Associates, Inc., (COA) in Pikeville, KY where they agreed to match the NCCI commitment, as well as to assist in the program’s development. After further meetings with representatives from industry, business, and the local school system, CEDAR, Inc. (of east KY) was born. The first year of implementation, the program offered coal education programs to public and private schools in one county in east Kentucky. Although it started in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, it certainly did not end there. After an amazingly successful first year of the program, it didn’t take long for industry leaders in the western Kentucky coal-fields to learn about, and take note of this new, unique, and exciting program that provided opportunities for teachers and students to learn, “the rest of the story” about the coal industry. Through the joint efforts of Costain Coal, and the Western Kentucky Coal Association, CEDAR of West Kentucky, Inc. was formed in 1994, and has operated since that time, except for the two year period from 2004-2006. The program restarted in 2006 under the name of CEDAR West, Inc. and continues to be offered in six western Kentucky counties."

Jan 1, 2015

By JURGEN KRETSCHMANN

The European climate and energy framework for 2030 is highlighting the reduction of man-made CO2 by increasing the use of renewable energy. In this spirit, Germany has decided to erase coal use as an energy source by 2038 completely. This strategy premises a feasible, responsible and sustainable post-mining management. The Research Institute for Post-Mining (FZN) at the TH Georg Agricola University in Bochum, Germany, has developed a holistic approach to meet post-mining challenges. In all efforts, the FZN aims to achieve the fundamental goals of the United Nations to deal with the resources of our planet responsibly and sustainably.

By W. de Bruijn

Differential reduction and expansion or shrinkage of hematite under the influence of intimately associated foreign oxides may be a source of stress formation and sinter degradation during blast furnace reduction. To study specific effects, synthetically pre-pared hematite powder evenly doped with 1% by weight of several elements present as oxides, was pressed into tablets and sintered at high temperature prior to reduction. Continuous thermo-gravimetric and dilatometric analyses were per-formed on the sintered tablets as these were being subjected to reduction under simulated blast furnace time/temperature/gas composition conditions up to 1183 K. These findings were coupled with observations on the microstructure of tablets removed from various stages of the reduction process.

Jan 1, 1988

By Gary MacDonald

What is the primary function of an impact assessment? Many people at the International Association of Impact Assessment?s (IAIA) annual conference said that it is time to return to the fundamentals and consider the underlying drivers of impact assessments ? human health, safety and security. This fall, managers struggling with those fundamentals will receive extra support when a new course focusing on health and socially responsible security is launched online and in British Columbia, Canada, home to many of the world?s junior miners. Now in its 33rd year, the IAIA conference recently held in Calgary, Canada, typically brings together a range of professionals who work in the impact assessment field, including academics, as well as people conducting applied disciplines, such as social and environmental performance management. It is a chance for people grappling with how to assess impacts from projects (for example, dams, mining and other extractive projects), to compare notes and to talk about developments in how to measure, track and report on them. The comments about returning to fundamentals rose as participants talked about the ongoing and increasingly recognized divergence between three main impact assessment streams: environmental, social and health (EIA, SIA and HIA, respectively). Discussions in sessions and in the corridors included calls for streamlining, for integration, for improvement and sharing of practice ? particularly in the HIA stream, where those deeply engaged in the health discipline questioned how HIAs and their intended outcome of protecting human health can be better integrated into the EIAs or SIAs that dominate the impact assessment realm. EIAs and SIAs have become the main tool, particularly from a permitting perspective for large-scale mines, but seem to leave projects with little real information about what they need to do. Human health is not the only concern re-emerging. Although not reflected at the conference, there appears to be an emerging understanding of the need to link the determinants of health with socially responsible security practices. Companies conducting independent social performance assessments for international financial institutions based on the International Finance Corporation?s Environmental and Social Performance Standards increasingly wrestle with both community health and security issues as extractive companies encounter challenging social environments around the world. Once again, the intended outcome is to better protect human health, including avoiding health impacts from conflict, abuses and violence.

Aug 1, 2013

By Hakan Uyguçgil, Beril Bayraktar, Adnan Konuk

In mining, which is one of the industries with the highest risk of occupational accidents, a primary goal is to enhance safety through the thorough investigation of accidents using reliable methodologies. In this research, the data from 13,653 accidents reported in the Karadon Hard Coal Enterprise between 2000 and 2011 were analyzed and compared using the life-table and Kaplan-Meier methods. Accident records were classified and analyzed into four categories: environment-related, equipment-related, person-related and other accidents. Findings in terms of survival time indicate that environmentrelated and person-related accidents had the highest risk in Karadon, with equipment-related accidents having the lowest. This study established the reliability of using survival analysis methods to investigate occupational accidents in the mining sector. Given that environment-related and person-related accidents occur in a relatively short period, such as one year after starting work, it is recommended that research be done to improve workplace and occupational safety measures and broaden the training given to miners. Additionally, it is determined that increasing the use of automation and mechanization in underground coal mines, combined with developing a thorough equipment safety training program to raise awareness of the danger, can help prevent person-related occupational accidents caused by the interaction between equipment.

Feb 1, 2024

By Carl E. Bagge

It is easy for a coal spokesman to relate to the theme of this meeting--that the decade of the 1970's is pivotal for the mineral industries. For the coal operator, this period is crucial. The coal industry, according to most energy forecasters, must gear its production machinery to meet a sharp rise in the demand for coal--in this decade to sustain inevitable boosts in electricity output, and in the next to start supporting a big new domestic synthetic fuels industry that is already in the formative stage. The logic of that projection flows from a combination of hard circumstances--proved reserves of domestic fluid fuels are dwindling, the hope for bountiful and cheap nuclear power must be indefinitely deferred, and the threat of long-term fuel imports to the national interests is becoming starkly visible. Only coal, with its assets of abundance, security and versatility, offers the nation an adequate and immediate lift out of its current energy crisis. A hard-won expansion of coal production made the critical difference between local power load-shedding and major area blackouts in 1970, the year the energy crisis went public. Coal will have to play that same key role, not just through this pivotal decade but through the turn of the century. But the logic of fuel demand apparently does not always extend to supply. The coal industry has had a huge production job laid out for it by the energy statisticians, but up to now the energy policy-makers have not followed through with the aids and inducements that the coal operator urgently needs to do that job well and completely.

Jan 1, 1972

By David J. Hatem

Tunnels and underground projects are inherently more risky than vertical projects, which typically utilize more conventional design and construction approaches and are undertaken in the context of relatively ascertained and defined conditions. On tunnel and under-ground projects, there are a host of special risk factors, including unknowns and uncertainties as to the physical and behavioral characteristics of the ground, the inextricable interdependence and necessary interaction of design decisions and construction means and methods with those ground conditions as well as the manner in which risks are allocated among project participants for un-anticipated subsurface conditions. Public-private partnerships (PPP) projects, in their own respects (and independent of any major subsurface component), pose significant risk for all private sector participants. The main driver of owners to procure projects using PPP is financial, as often all, or substantially all, of the design and construction risk are transferred to the private sector consortium, including the design-build (D-B) team. For a concerning number of those public owners, that risk transfer regime includes rather onerous and aggressive contractual terms that allocate to the private sector participants substantially all risks associated with the encountering of unanticipated subsurface conditions. These aggressive risk allocation provisions, while directly impacting project participants upstream of the consulting engineer, have an indirect and corresponding risk intensifying effect upon consulting engineer professional liability exposure. There are many factors that result in increased professional liability exposure for consulting engineers involved in PPP projects. The more prominent and prevalent of those factors fall into the following categories:

By James Humphrey

There is a natural resistance to change in any form. When it comes to implementing a game-changing technology like autonomous haulage on an operating mine site, the resistance can at times appear insurmountable. Whether based on real information or misguided preconceptions, it?s essential that we don?t underestimate the effort it will take to overcome this resistance, while clearly recognizing when it?s worth the effort. These realizations did not happen overnight for sites where autonomous haulage has been implemented. Nor did they happen overnight for manufacturers of autonomous mining equipment. Caterpillar, for example, began building toward autonomy more than 30 years ago and had a truck operating in the mid-1990s. Lessons learned during those early years led to the realization that there was much more to be learned ? not just about the machines themselves, but about the systems and knowledge that must be in place for a successful implementation. Working closely with customers, initiating real-life demonstrations on mine sites, having discussions with regulatory agencies and other stakeholders ? these and many other activities were necessary before autonomy could be fully and successfully launched. After decades of effort, Caterpillar?s first official commercial autonomous mine site went to work in 2011 in Farmington, NM.

By William Gleason

"Komatsu has been on the cutting edge of autonomous mining for the past 30 years and the company remains at the forefront of the technology that is changing from concept to a full-fledged reality.In 1996, Komatsu America Corp. (KAC) purchased a controlling interest in Modular Mining Systems; a move that enabled both companies to expand their product lines. It was through this effort that Modular helped to deploy the first autonomous haulage system (AHS) — the Komatsu FrontRunner system. In January 2008, the first commercial implementation of the FrontRunner system occurred at Codelco’s copper mine in Chile. Since then, Komatsu has put more than 130 haul trucks into seven sites on three continents to haul copper, iron ore and oil sands and its equipment has moved 1.8 Gt (2 billion st) of material with zero lost time incidents attributed to Komatsu’s autonomous trucks. The 1.8 Gt (2 billion st) is the most of any commercial mining autonomous haulage system and there is more to come. In November, Komatsu announced that an additional 150 autonomous haul trucks will be deployed to the Canadian oil sands over the next seven years.Komatsu has continued to pioneer autonomous haulage development, creating a range of autonomous options that includes semiautonomous and teleremote options all the way up to a haulage vehicle that stole the show at the world’s largest mining equipment trade show.In 2016, Komatsu advanced the concept of driverless haul truck to a new level when it displayed its Innovative Autonomous Haulage Vehicle (IAHV) at MINExpo in Las Vegas, NV. The concept vehicle is the first mega class haul truck designed to be fully autonomous, without an operators’ cab included on the vehicle.Unlike other haul trucks, the vehicle was developed exclusively as an unmanned vehicle designed to maximize the advantages of unmanned operation. Among other advancements, it was designed to distribute equal load to the four wheels, both when the vehicle is loaded and unloaded, and adopt four-wheel drive, retarder and steering. Komatsu said it is aiming for high-performance shuttling of this vehicle in both forward and reverse travel directions, thereby eliminating the need for K-turns at loading and unloading sites."

Dec 1, 2018

By Robert Smith

Deposits are global, said Barrick Gold's Smith. This means that the mineral industry, by necessity, is global. "Manufacturers have considerable freedom to decide exactly where they wish to produce whatever it is that they sell," he said. "What we sell, on the other hand, must be produced where nature chose to lay it down. The question is not so much, whether to go global, as when to do it and how to go about it." The timing of international expansion depends on external factors, often political, Smith said, and on internal ones that relate to the company's size and stage of development. "In deciding how to expand, a company is largely deciding how to adapt its existing business strategy to activity on the world stage," he said Barrick entered 1997 with 1.58 kt (51 million oz) of reserves, Smith said, annual production of 93.3 t (3 mil- lion oz) and cash flow of $463 million. Reserves in- creased 40% in 1996 and production will begin to rise again significantly in 1999. "We believe our fundamental strategy is responsible for our early development and subsequent success," he said. Barrick entered the gold-mining industry in 1983. Its corporate mandate was to create shareholder value, Smith said. From the beginning, the company took a different approach - businesslike, entrepreneurial, strategic and focused. "Many mining companies start out with a technical team and develop business and financial expertise thereafter," Smith said. "In 1983, Barrick had the business people, and then moved into mining." First, it acquired part interest in two small operations, one in Alaska and one in Ontario. Then, in 1984, it merged with Camflo Mines, which operated a low-cost underground operation in Quebec.

Jan 1, 1997

The Global Mining Standards and Guidelines Group (GMSG) is building an international, multi-stakeholder community to advance the availability and use of standards and industry guidelines for the global mining community. Standards and guidelines are key strategic tools for operational excellence, enabling companies to move forward with efficient, innovative operations with reduced risk. Launched in May 2012, the GMSG is the first international center to bring together information, resources and collaborative projects for mining standards and guidelines, in an open, knowledge-sharing forum. The GMSG is supported by five partner organizations providing outreach and helping to guide GMSG activities: the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME), the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and the Surface Mining Association for Research and Technology (SMART). GMSG was formed under the CIM Surface Mining Society, though its mandate extends to include underground mining as well. ?SME is supporting the GMSG as a key international activity to advance the implementation of standards and guidelines in our industry, and to provide a forum for our members to access, and contribute to, projects and information to assist their operations,? said SME Executive Director David Kanagy. ?We see the GMSG as a good example of ways the major mining associations can work together for the benefit of all our members.? The GMSG charter encompasses all standards and guidelines that apply to mining; however, a number of subject areas are now being spearheaded by six working groups, namely: ? Access and usage of data from mobile mining equipment onboard systems. ? Operational safety. ? Situational awareness (namely, a unified equipment operator interface). ? Underground operations. ? Asset management and operations data definitions and KPIs. ? Energy in communition.

Oct 1, 2013

By Paul Taurasi, Mahmood Khwaja, Anjuli Corcovelos, William Brick

California’s San Diego County Water Authority provides a safe and reliable water supply to more than 3.3 million residents through twenty-four member agencies. The 2nd Aqueduct pipelines, a critical infrastructure consisting of three large-diameter pipelines, are susceptible to natural threats including streambed erosion, channel migration, and seismic hazards within the 3,840-foot-long Moosa Canyon segment of the alignment. A state-of-good repair, hazard mitigation, and resiliency project is progressing to ensure uninterrupted water supply. For each pipeline, a segment will be replaced by tunneling. A high-level project development approach is presented, focusing on alternative selection, environmental and geotechnical considerations, and operations and maintenance constraints.

Jun 13, 2023

By N. L. Bingham

The mining industry's image is molded by what the general public knows, or thinks they know about mining. As we prepared for the production of Caterpillar's educational film, Common Ground, we first had to find out exactly what the public perceptions about mining were. Before we could educate people about mining, we had to find out what they already thought. As we broke down those perceptions, we were able to narrow our focus to relevant, realistic approaches for the film. We found out what people didn't know about mining. And most importantly, we singled out the facts they should know... facts that could create more favorable attitudes. This research was instrumental in our final direction for the Common Ground project.

Jan 1, 1994

By Steve Kral

The mining industry has waited a long time for the resurgence in commodity prices and demand for its products that it is now experiencing. Base and precious metals prices have reached levels not seen before. Coal prices have also shot up. And there are encouraging signs in the uranium market. China’s nearly out-of-control economic growth is said to be the leading driver for much of this resurgence. But demand for energy, metals and building materials in the United States and elsewhere are also major factors. The result is that expansions and new mines for nearly every commodity are in the works.

Jan 1, 2005

By Isabel F. Barton, Christian A. Rathkopf, Mark D. Barton

Rhenium (Re) is one of the rarest elements on earth and is a designated critical element in the United States and European Union for its uses in superalloys. Unusually among critical elements, Re is produced entirely as a byproduct of molybdenite (MoS2) mining, as pure Re minerals are extremely rare. However, Re concentration in natural molybdenites varies from a few parts per trillion to tens of percent. There are few known consistent patterns and no firmly established reason for this variation, making it difficult to use molybdenite Re content as a proxy for metal grades, a vector to high grades, a clue to the geological and geochemical nature of the ore deposit, a guide to overall Re resources or for any other of the applications that have been suggested for it over time. 

By William Gleason

"The mining industry tends to focus on very large numbers, whether it’s talking in terms of size of deposits, tons of material mined, the equipment used or the dollars spent. The numbers associated with mining projects are often in the hundreds of millions, but sometimes it’s the little things that can have the biggest impact.Take, for example, the Rosemont Copper Project in Arizona. Owned by HudBay Minerals, the Rosemont Copper project, when in production, is expected to be one of the largest copper mines in the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of total copper production with annual production expected to be 110 Mt/a (243 million lbs/year). However, the project is currently mired in a years-long permitting process. At the 2017 SME Arizona Conference in Tucson, AZ, Kathy Arnold, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for Hudbay Minerals, spoke about the project and the efforts to get it into production.She opened her presentation with the unfortunate news that her 2017 presentation would not be that much different than the 2016, 2015 or 2014 presentations she gave to the same conference. That’s because, as of Dec. 4, 2017, the project had been in the permitting process for 3,797 days, more than 10 years. The process began when Rosemont submitted its initial mine plan in 2006 and a revised one in 2017. The official start to Rosemont Copper’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) started in 2008.In June 2017, the project received its Final Record of Decision from the U.S. Forest Service, moving it a step closer to production. Yet it still faces stiff opposition from opponents while it works to secure the Clean Water Act Permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and to complete its final mine plan of operations.In her presentation, Arnold said the long process taught her many lessons, including approaching things with a different mindset. More than 130 pages worth of public comments have been collected over the years. The concerns expressed range from lighting issues to pavement to preserving land for a jaguar that was spotted on the property and named El Jefe.“A lot of things that people worry about seem to be small things, but we had to have a different mindset and be open-minded to the concerns,” Arnold said. “That is the commitment we made.”"

Jan 1, 2018

By Raphael Mourad, Colin R. Phillips

Investigation of the traps in LiF:Mg, a multi-peak phosphor, was carried out using simple phosphorescence decay analysis. Half lives at room temperature of the trapping centres (peaks -lb, -la, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3a and 3) in the phosphor after irradiation with [a] radiation were found to be 3 s, 5 s, 28 s, 4 min, 15 min, 1 h, 6 h and 2 d respectively. Justification for the method of analysis is pro- vided and the results of measurements compared with published data. The effects of pre-annealing at 400°C for 1 h and 80°C for 24 h on the trapping configuration and on the trapping efficiencies were also studied.

Jan 1, 1981

By Fritz Kleiner, Walter Meintrup

On Nov. 4, 1981 A/S Sydvaranger's 1-kt/h (1,100-stph) wet-process, iron ore ball mill completed its first four months of uninterrupted, full-load operation in Kirkenes, Norway. This 6.5-m-diam (21-ft-diam) mill is driven by a gearless ring or wraparound 8.1-MW (10,860-hp) motor at 13.1 rpm-a first of a kind in this segment of industry. This article examines reasons for selecting this type of drive over more conventional schemes, lists specific advantages of such large mills, and describes the installation in Norway. History For almost a decade, good operating experiences have been gained with 28 gearless ring motor drives in the cement industry, driving 2.5 to 4-m-diam (8.2 to 13-ft-diam) tube mills with drive powers ranging from about 3-4 MW (4,000 - 8,000 hp). Why then did the mineral ore processing industry hesitate until 1980 to adopt this successful concept for similar applications on ball, semiautogenous, and autogenous mills? There are a number of good reasons in the eyes of conservative mill builders and operators, the most commonly cited ones are: • No operating experience in this segment of specialized industry. • More severe environmental conditions in the wet ore grinding process. • An indifferent attitude of mill builders and electric motor manufacturers towards new drive technologies. • Limited confidence in solid-state power supply systems, such as frequency converters of the required size. There have been and still are numerous problems associated with low-speed geared mill drives of any kind, especially with individual motor/gear sizes approaching or exceeding about 4 MW (5,360 hp). Every mill builder knows about them, but operators learn to accept them as inevitable. The Decision to Change Three things combined to break this technological stalemate: the courage and progressive spirit of one major iron ore processor in Scandinavia, the cooperation of three experienced manufacturers, and an unusual application problem that could not be solved by any conventional approach. The last factor was surely the decisive one, but the first one does not come as a surprise either. The Swedes near Kiruna and the Norwegians around Kirkenes are experienced ore miners and processors, and much credit goes to them for technological breakthroughs in the industry. At A/S Sydvaranger in Kirkenes, above the Polar circle at about the latitude of Alaska's northern tip, the existing grinding facilities, with a total of 14 100 to 240-t/h (110 to 264-stph) ball mills, can not be expanded. Nevertheless, to increase mill throughput, only installing a larger mill in place of an existing smaller one was a practical alternative. For this replacement, the owners set requirements that seemed impossible to meet: • The old 100-t/h (110-stph) ball mill should be replaced with a new ball mill with 10 times the rated throughput, without significantly impairing the operation of the remaining mills, and without significantly changing the mill building. • The new mill should have a variable-speed drive to ultimately optimize the grinding process by means of a closed-loop process¬computer-controlled grinding cycle, and to minimize the specific energy consumption. • Availability, efficiency, and life expectancy of all new components must be higher than those being replaced. • Inrush-current and harmonic loads on the rather weak electric supply line must be minimized to ensure safe plant operation. All old ball mills at A/S Sydvaranger are the geared type, using single synchronous and wound-rotor, slow-speed motors with ring-and-pinion gears. Operators are familiar with the limitations and problems associated with such drives, and they are aware that the following items become major concerns when drive powers are drastically increased: • Gears are subject to wear and tear, require frequent maintenance, and eventual replacement of major parts. • Gears are sensitive to misalignment, overload, and thermal distortion, limiting their useful life. • On dual or quadruple drives, load-sharing and torque oscillations between motors can be a major reason for concern. • At these speeds, ring-and-pinion gears reach their torque transmission capabilities altogether at around 4 MW (5,360 hp) per motor/pinion. To obtain the desired variable-speed performance of the new drive, the only practical and economical conventional solution would have been a frequency-controlled, low- or medium-speed dual motor drive with about 8 MW (10,720 hp) of power. This, however, was not feasible because of limited floor space. Therefore, bids were solicited for the alternative drive method, the gearless ring motor. General Considerations Why are such large mills considered? After all, one could avoid all the problems by simply staying with smaller mill unit sizes. Under competitive pressures of free markets, however, grinding efficiencies and specific energy consumption become key factors in selecting new equipment. Specific energy consumption of ball mills decreases with increas-

Jan 9, 1982

By R. L. Frederking

Geological remote sensing is, "....the study of the Earth utilizing electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) which is either reflected or emitted from the land surface in wavelengths ranging from ultra-violet (0.3 micrometre) to microwave (3 metre)."1 Selected examples which illustrate a variety of successful geologic applications include lithologic mapping, 2 engineering soils mapping,3 tectonic interpretation,4 and mineral and petroleum exploration.5 This report examines the applicability of remote sensing for bauxite exploration in northeastern Mississippi. Specific objectives were to map lithologies of northeastern Mississippi from LANDSAT imagery, to determine the utility of LANDSAT imagery for delineating and mapping known deposits of bauxite, and to discover and map new bauxite deposits.

Jan 1, 1977

By W. F. Visser

The growing availability of information and data analysis capabilities provides new opportunities for improving the performance of operations. By using real-time measurements and artificial intelligence, it is possible to respond faster to changing conditions, while accurate and timely information permits the rapid evaluation of changes and fast business improvement decisions. This paper presents a blueprint for system alignment, organizational design and management practices to leverage these developments in performance-driven operations management in mining and mineral processing.