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By H. C. W. Bosman

"Over the past five years, contributions from geologists and mining engineers were instrumental in the successful development of MEPS. It is a system of FORTRAN programs specifically designed to be used by mining personnel to solve geological and mining problems. MEPS is a flexible keyword-driven system. Extensive error editing procedures significantly reduce the time required to proceed from problem recognition to solution. Possibly the most attractive feature of MEPS is that computer solutions may be guided or selectively modified to obtain desired solutions. Some highlights of MEPS are:1. Vocabulary that is familiar to mining people.2. Geological data storage and retrieval.3. Statistical analysis and variograms.4. Contour maps of assays and geological horizons.5. Trend surface analysis with residual evaluation.6. Ore reserve calculations.7. Open-pit mine design.8. Marginal profitability calculations on pit walls.9. Production scheduling.10. Vertical cross-section plots indicating pit outlines, ore grade contours and selected geological horizons."

Jan 1, 1973

By George R. Pratt

Although the title of this paper focuses attention to the Winnipeg coal market the following remarks should be considered applicable not only to conditions in Winnipeg but to the whole western coal industry. Technical descriptions of coal and coal-burning have been omitted. These details are already covered in other numerous publications. In discussing a market the first consideration must be the product which is required to be sold. The class, quality and price at the point of origin must be taken into account and therefore this feature will be discussed before proceeding to outline conditions in the Winnipeg local market. The writer thinks of coal as a manufactured article, not, as it is generally considered, a fuel to be dug from the ground and dumped into the consumer's bin. The work of manufacturing must be considered in detail:- 1. Consider first the coal as it is in the ground: (a) What is its fuel value? (b) Where is its market? © With what will it be in competition? 2. Consider secondly: (a) What it will cost to mine the coal. (b) What has to be done to prepare the coal for market after it is mined. This must be considered in conjunction with the answer to question 1 ©. 3. Thirdly, consider the method of business to be adopted by the producer:- (a) Is it proposed to build a market on price? Or (b) On quality?

Jan 1, 1925

By D. M. Rippley

THE St. Lawrence Seaway Project ranks with the greatest engineering undertakings of all time. A summary of major materials going into the construction of this project, shown in Table I, will assist in an appreciation -of this fact. These data relate to Seaway construction only, and it should be remembered that two large-scale power projects are in the construction stage on the St. Lawrence river concurrently with construction of the Seaway. A project of such magnitude as the Seaway would attract widespread interest even if it were being constructed in a remote area. The fact that it is located in a heavily populated and developed section of both Canada and the United States has done much to enhance this interest, and in many ways complicates the problems confronting the engineer in the design and construction phases. Many consider the St. Lawrence Seaway to be a new idea that has developed within the past decade - such is far from the fact, because the St. Lawrence River canal systems have existed for more than a century, and the Seaway Project is but a new, larger, and more efficient version of a continually expanding facility.

Jan 1, 1957

By Takashi Nakamura, Atsushi Iizuka, Yong Fan, Etsuro Shibata

The level of iron in typical copper slag reaches nearly 40% by mass, in the form of iron silicate. We designed a method to oxidize the nonmagnetic iron silicate to magnetite, permitting the selective recovery of the slag’s iron content by magnetic separation. This would effectively decrease the volume of dumped slag; the reclaimed iron could be used for iron and steel making. The crystallization behaviors of magnetite and hematite were studied as reaction products of the molten oxidation of copper slag. A gas atmosphere of 1% by volume of oxygen was found to effectively precipitate the slag’s iron content as magnetite.

Jan 1, 2015

By P. Favreau

"This paper describes the progress accomplished at the Noranda Technology Centre in the field of three-dimensional computer-aided underground blast design. Traditional methods of laying out underground blasts are reviewed, and the new computer-aided approach is described. Time savings achieved through the use of BLASTCAD can be advantageously used to better engineer blasts, using models and blast vibration analysis. Future work involving the attachment of blast models directly to the system is also addressed.IntroductionThe Noranda Technology Centre's (NTC) Environment and Mining Laboratory, in cooperation with the mining operations of the Noranda Group, is committed to the development and implementation of new technologies in the field of mineral extraction . Within the frame of its research program, the Blasting Technology Program is developing computer "" tools"" designed to assist the blasting engineer or technician. These computer "" tools"" are regrouped under a global software system called BLASTCAD.The BLASTCAD project started in 1990 at NTC. At that time computer programs designed to calculate and model various blasting parameters had been accumulated. These programs cam e from different sources and were mutually incompatible. Furthermore, they were developed as research programs with tittle effort spent on user interface. These programs are very useful, but are highly specialized, need large input files and can be quite tedious to use as ""standalone"" packages .Therefore, the situation being faced was one where all these programs were available at the Noranda Technology Centre, but not a t the operations. The two following options were then considered: 1. continue to run all the models and programs at the Noranda Technology Centre, and present results through reports to the mines, or2. regroup all the different programs under a single one that would make them share the same data base and be transported to the user. This second option is the one that was adopted; the result is BLASTCAD."

Jan 1, 1993

By F. E. Patton

"IntroductionAT NORANDA, the strength of the ore and wall-rocks per-mitted mining in large open stopes. While some of the orebodies were small and could be mined out in one stope, in most cases their size was such that it was essential that ore pillars be left during the first stage of mining. In these cases, backfilling has been necessary for ground control and to facilitate the later recovery of the ore in these pillars.This paper discusses the development of the •backfill and •its use in pillar recovery.GeologyThe ore bodies at Noranda occur as replacement deposits in a block of rhyolite flows and breccias, bounded on the north by the Horne Creek fault and on the south by the Noranda Andesite fault. Mineralization consists of pyrite, pyrrhotite, magnetite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, gold, and various tellurides.The main orebody is a massive sulphide deposit designated the 'H' orebody. It is elliptical in plan, measuring roughly 400 feet by 800 feet, and is divided into two zones -Upper H, extending from surface to the 1,500-foot level, and Lower H, from the 1 ,500-foot level to just below the 3,000-foot level.Mining MethodsOpen stope mining in both Upper H and Lower H zones has been fully described in previous publications (1). A brief review only of the mining methods will be given here."

Jan 1, 1952

By A Falter

Gyroscopic surveying instruments, which apply the physical law of a gyroscope, are being used for deter-mining the azimuth of lines with a high degree of ac-curacy. In the past ten years, gyro-theodolites have been introduced widely for underground orientation in the mining industry of Russia, Germany and South Africa. Gyroscorpic methods eliminate awkward procedures of conventional shaft plumbing, and provide more safety, excellent control and the highest precision at any point under-ground without interference with hoisting operations. The advantages of gyroscopic orientation in geodetic surveys become obvious in primary and secondary triangulation, in the determination of co-ordinates of single triangulation points, using the method of trigonometric re-section and intersection, and when traversing over long distances or in areas with obstructed view. Other fields of application are found in geophysical surveys and in the orientation of technical objects; e.g. radar stations, relay stations and ballistic missiles.

Jan 1, 1964

By Edward Rybinski

Compañía Minera Antamina is a polymetallic mining complex that produces copper and zinc concentrates as primary products and molybdenum and lead/bismuth/silver concentrates as by-products. In 2007, Metso Process Technology and Innovation (PTI) was contracted to increase SAG mill throughput by integrating and optimising blast fragmentation, crushing and grinding for the harder M4/M4A (CuZn) ores. Following the implementation of recommendations provided by Metso PTI, the SAG mill throughput increased from 2750tph to reach an average of 3600tph for the remainder of 2007. Due to continued application of mine to mill integration and optimisation philosophy, by 2010, the concentrator consistently exceeded the target of 4400tph while processing harder CuZn ores.

Jan 1, 2012

By J. M. Ortiz, J. P. Bertini

"In mineral resource and ore reserve estimation, several sources of information are generally available, such as diamond drillholes, reversed-circulation drillholes, and blastholes, and originate from one or more sampling campaigns and are analyzed by one or more laboratories. In such a situation, the grade measurements may not have the same precision and one should distinguish between hard and imprecise data.This work aims at studying the impact of data imprecision in resource/reserve evaluation through two case studies on simulated deposits: a porphyry copper deposit conditioned to real exploration and production data, and a gold deposit simulated without any conditioning data. Several geostatistical techniques are used to estimate the grades of selective mining units from exploration samples, including kriging, cokriging, lognormal and indicator kriging. Two types of imprecision are examined— measurements with multiplicative errors and measurements defined as intervals. The results are compared to the simulated grades of the selective mining units from a statistical and economic viewpoint.The study concludes that imprecise measurements should never be discarded because they help to improve the estimates, and that simple methods such as kriging are as efficient as more sophisticated ones for resource/reserve assessment. Finally, a few indications on how to diagnose and model the data imprecision are given."

Jan 1, 2005

By Marlin E. Sandlin

NORTH-CENTRAL United States is now, and will continue to be, a natural market for Canadian crude oil. This area is a natural market for many basic reasons. There are no physical barriers along the border of our countries. This market is in dose proximity to Canadian production. This market is already joined by crude oil pipe-1,ines to numerous producing areas of Canada. The tariff barriers are reasonable. We are not handicapped by mandatory quota restrictions. There are many of us who desire lo sell Canadian crude oil in this market. Further, and what is really important, there are many of us who desire to buy Canadian crude oil for this market. It is fundamental that for crude oil to be sold in the world market, it must ?be sold at competitive prices. At the same time, it is important that such competitive price must result in a fair price for the crude oil at the we1lhead. The factors of nearness to market, cheap pipe line transportation, and reasonable United States tariffs, all tend to make ?possible a competitive market and a fair wellhead price.

Jan 1, 1958

By K. Bachmann, M. Rudolph, U. A. Peuker, H. H. Duong, T. Heinig, T. Leißner, H. Schubert, Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg

"Minerals can be liberated by random fracture of particles into smaller fragments or by detachment along phase boundaries. These two mechanisms represent borderline cases. When ores get comminuted the liberation of minerals is achieved to some extent by both mechanisms. This article describes a method to determine the extent of transgranular and intergranular fracture on surface exposure of minerals based on 2-dimensional liberation analysis.The approach uses the non-biased surface information like phase specific surface area (PSSA), phase specific free surface (PSFS) and phase specific locked surface (PSLS) of minerals and their change with comminution. The amount of transgranular and intergranular fracture on surface exposure can be calculated using the phase specific surface parameters.A sedimentary rock (apatite ore), an igneous rock (nepheline-syenite) and an artificial material (copper slags) were ground to different fineness. Based on the mineral liberation analysis (MLA) of feed and products, the extent of phase boundary fracture on the surface exposure of the minerals is studied.INTRODUCTIONMinerals can be liberated ether by comminution or by detachment (Gaudin, 1939). Liberation by comminution is a random fracture mechanism, which is not being influenced by ore texture, grain boundaries and mineral features (transgranular fracture). Liberation by detachment represents a fracture along grain boundaries (intergranular fracture). Random fracture often is named as the dominating mechanism for the liberation of ore minerals. This has been the basis to simplify models for liberation modelling (Barbery, 1991; King, 1979; Meloy, 1984) assuming that the probability of cracks moving along grain boundaries is zero. Thus, no interfacial area is lost during comminution."

Jan 1, 2016

By O. W. Ellis

Introduction During the month of September, 1928 enough money had. been promised by private individuals and corporations to comply with the Research ?Foundation Act 1928 (Chapter 57, 18 George V) of the Province of Ontario. The Ontario Research Foundation (referred to below as O.R.F.) may be said to 1iave come into being at that time. Under the terms of this Act, the Treasurer of the Province was empowered to match dollar for dollar of the sums subscribed by private .corporations and individuals up to a limit of $1,000,000. However, the response to the appeal for this by the Premier of the Province, the Honourable Mr. G. Howard Ferg uson, was so exceptional that the Act was amended in 1929 so as to empower the Treasurer to increase the maximum contribution on the part of the Province to $2,500,000. In March, 1933, the Chairman of the Foundation, Sir Joseph Flaville, Bart., was able to report that, in the interval between the Premier's appeal and December 1st, 1932, private enterprise had paid ?into the treasury of the Foundation $1,670,050, and that the Provincial Treasurer had assumed responsibility for a like sum. The endownment Fund of the Foundation was, therefore. $3,340,100. This sum was ?invested a lm~ s t entirely in Government securities, in securities guar. anteed by the Government, and in 1mmicipal securities. Sir Joseph Flavelle remarked at that time that "The payment of $1,670,050 to the Endowment of the Foundation by private persons and corporations is a somewhat remarkable performance when it is remembered that for three of the five years the business of the country has been suffering from a severe depression". Since that time it has been the consistent policy of O.R.F. to live within the income derived (1) from the investment of its Endowment Fund and (2) from fees collected for services rendered.

Jan 1, 1950

By R. L. Stanton

"The present contribution is complementary with a preceding one on the field association of the conform-able ""pyritic"" deposits. It considers the more important features of their mineralogical constitution and their microtextures, re-examines the present interpretations of these, and of-fer-some alternative explanations. The term ""pyritic"" for these de-posits is m many cases a misnomer, as two quite distinct ore types are inuolve. One is a banded pyritic sphalerite-galena-chalcopyrite ore (for which the term '•pyritic"" is in-deed quite suitable), while the other is non-banded and is composed essentially of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. In addition to these constitutional differences, each is distinctive in general appearance and texture. The occurrence of two such consistent but clearly distinguishable ore types is attributed -rather than to difference in source material and pressure-temperature conditions of deposition -to the contribution of similar source material to dissimilarly oxygenated environments of sedimentation. Textures in the banded ores generally thought to be indicative of replacement or of high-temperature exsolution are explained by slow, law-temperature segregation in situ during compaction, folding, and regional metamorphism."

Jan 1, 1960

By G. Bourque

One of the design criteria for the Mount Wright facilities was to incorporate the latest proven automation techniques and devices for the new crushing, grinding and concentrating plant. The heart of the centralized control system is a Fox 1 process computer, located in the central control room in the administration building. The entire operation, i.e. crushing, conveying, storing, grinding and concentrating, is monitored and controlled, through the process computer , by one operator via a CRT console. In case of computer failure, the control is automatically, and without process interruption, transferred to manual back-up panels. One of the newest management tools, the process computer is programmed to collect and automatically print out shift. daily and monthly reports on tonnage, metallurgy and equipment operating time, for better planning of operations and preventative maintenance.

Jan 1, 1977

By Robin Sheremeta

Fording Greenhills first acquired GPS (Global Positioning System) technology with the commissioning of a GPS-based dispatch system in December 1994. The second exposure to satellite technology came with the conversion of the conventional optical survey system to a high-resolution GPS system in June 1995. In September 1995,a GPS-based grade control system was tested on the largest shovel (Marion 301 — 58 cubic yard).In January 1996, the system was added to all of the cable shovels (2 P&H 2800s). All three applications of GPS at Greenhills are fully operational and producing positive results. This paper will focus on the practical application of GPS in a mining environment and the effect that GPS technology has had on the Greenhills Mine.

Jan 1, 1996

By Engineering Staff

In 1958, the Iron Ore Company of Canada decided to proceed with the Carol Project. The ore deposits in the area are part of the highly metamorphosed southern zone of the Labrador Trough. They lie along the shore of W a bush lake, in the western part of Newfoundland-Labrador, 190 miles north of Sept-Iles. The project is designed to mine, by open-pit methods, 17,200,000 long tons of crude ore, grading 37 per cent iron, per year. This ore will be beneficiated to produce 7,000,000 long tons of concentrate, grading 66 per cent iron, of which 5,500,000 long tons will be pelletized. Production is scheduled to commence this summer. Initially, ore will be taken from 45-foot benches in the Smallwood mine, using jet-piercing production drills and large-scale blasting with "slurry" explosives. Four 13-yard electric shovels will muck the broken ore into 100-ton trailer trucks. The trailers will be hauled to two 2,000-ton loading pockets, which feed the ore into 100-ton railcars. Four ore trains, each comprised

Jan 1, 1962

By L. Drisdelle, S. Gendron

"Survival in today's business climate requires participation of all employees in a Total Quality Management Program encompassing everything - ""safety, quality of products, quality ofet1ch and every job done, and of course production "". We all know what needs to be accomplished, but struggle with how to do it, especially in an industry which has not always experienced management/union cooperation, and mistrust is still present.This paper describes a process to improve team work and employee involvement in Inco's nickel carbonyl refinery at Copper Cliff The process involves facilitatorship training for all employees, and a system for reinforcing and accomplishing the required behavioural change. The system is described in detail and a number of examples are presented. At the refinery, the staff is starting to understand as Max DePree recently wrote ""Without Quality Behaviour, you cannot have Quality Product"". IntroductionThe Copper Cliff Nickel Refinery (CCNR) is Inco's largest and most modern nickel refinery, which celebrated its twentieth year of successful operation in April 1993.The heart of the refinery is the Inco pressure carbonyl (IPq plant which produces high purity nickel pellets and specialty powders by refining an approximate 80% nickel granule feed. The carbonyl plant is a modem chemical plant with very special and demanding requirements for safety and environmental protection due to the toxic nature of the refining gas.Since 1987, there has been an emphasis at CCNR on a comprehensive Total Quality Improvement (TQI) Program which was designed based on recognizing customers' needs for improved systems for quality management. This program is customer oriented and comprises such elements as team organizational concepts, customer audits, process assessment and internal quality auditing.A detailed review of progress was made in early 1991 and it became apparent that the ""ownership"" of the TQI program was not broad based. In fact, the program was very much a staff driven effort and fell far short of total employee involvement and relentless continuous improvement that are now considered essential to remain competitive and stay in business.Inco staff has now come to regard that early phase of our TQI program as ""the technical aspects of total quality improvement"".The safety experience was also puzzling. Even though the safety statistics were good with an average lost time frequency of 1.6 for the last five years, the perfonnance improvement had plateaued and remained pretty much the same. Clearly a new approach was required if significant progress and continuous improvement was to be made."

Jan 1, 1994

By P. Carlone, A. Astarita, F. Rubino

Cold gas dynamic spray is an innovative technology allowing the deposition of thin metallic layers on a bulk or sheet substrate. Titanium on aluminum deposition is very attractive to the aeronautic industry, due to the enhanced corrosion resistance and wear properties of titanium coating as well as its improved compatibility with CFRP, preserving the reduced cost of aluminum substrate. One main drawback, however, is related to the micro-porosity of the deposed layer, negatively affecting the corrosion barrier performance. In this paper, the effect of selective laser post-treatment on pure grade 2 titanium coatings on AA2020-T3 sheets was experimentally and numerically investigated. Morphological features, microstructure and chemical composition of the treated zone were assessed by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Microhardness measurements were also carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties of the treated coating. A numerical model of the laser treatment, based on a finite volume scheme, was implemented and solved to simulate the process and discuss the experimental outcomes. Obtained results highlighted the key role played by heat input and dimensional features on the effectiveness of the treatment.

Jan 1, 2015

Introduction A Hypothetical Scenario: Suppose that your company's research department has developed a new device which represents a significant innovation. You would like to begin selling it as soon as possible. The new device has not been publicly disclosed. You're not sure about what type of intellectual property protection you should be seeking, or when you should be seeking it. As discussed below, assuming that the costs are worth it, a patent application probably should be filed before any public disclosure is made. In general, if you do not file a patent application prior to a public disclosure, you will lose rights. Major Types of Intellectual Property In this paper, intellectual property protection is broadly discussed. Practical steps which can be taken to minimize the possibility of losing intellectual property rights (and maximizing the possibility of benefiting from your company's intellectual property) are outlined at the end of this paper. The issues discussed in this paper are somewhat complex, because a number of outcomes are possible, depending on the facts. It is strongly recommended that you seek legal advice in your jurisdiction in connection with any particular circumstances relating to intellectual property rights. "Intellectual property" refers to a number of different types of rights. The major types of intellectual property are: (i) patents; (ii) trademarks; and (iii) copyright. Trade secrets are also usually considered to be a type of intellectual property, and they are also discussed in this paper because of their importance. In general, each of these types of intellectual property protects different subject matter, although there can be some overlap. Intellectual property rights are generally territorial in nature. The scope of protection of a type of intellectual property in a country (e.g., patent protection) depends on whether the specific national requirements for protection have been met.

Feb 1, 2008

By K. B. Young

Possibly the most complex fatigue problem associated with the development of the axial-flow 'gas turbine is discussed in its broader aspects from the metallurgical viewpoint. Reference is made to nodal patterns, interference diagrams, etc. The use of such data in analysis of a turbine :blade failure is illustrated. Special attention is given to the influence of some metallurgical variables affecting fatigue strength and, in particular, heat treatment is shown to have a pronounced effect on .the relative fatigue and creep strength properties of a nickel-chromium-cobalt base alloy suitable for turbine blade applications.

Jan 1, 1958