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By G. Brooks, J. T. Ellington, M. Yensco, G. E. Mcquien, M. T. Ityokumbul

Coarse silica flotation from intermediate pebble (IP) product has been carried out a pilot plant Dual Extraction Column (DEC) at an operational phosphate mine in Central Florida. The solids feed rate ranged from 4.16 – 5.3 TPH while the amine dosages ranged from 0.32 – 0.93 lb/T. The optimum amine dosage when using recycled process water was deter-mined to be 0.6 lb/T. With a feed containing 40-45 BPL and 38-45% insol, the results show that the IP can be upgraded to 56-61 BPL and insol of 16-22% at 85-90% BPL recovery. The results show that the DEC is an effective device for flotation of coarse silica from the IP. The advantages of upgrading the IP prior blending with the pebble are presented and discussed.

Jan 1, 2004

By Waclaw Trutwin, Stanislaw Wasilewski

Application of computer-based systems for ventilation process monitoring makes it possible to widen the system functions with those connected with long-term data analysis. It allows the mine ventilation engineer to carry out necessary preventive actions. In future the wide application of computers and sophisticated expert systems together with automation equipment (like remotely controlled regulators and fans) will allow to gradually introduce minewide systems for air flow control. To achieve this goal research work is carried out using data from a mine ventilation monitoring system and methods of computer analysis of time series. With the use of digital filtering the measuring signal spectrum has been divided into three subranges components of which are important with regard to various needs of mine ventilation staff as well as to monitoring and control system functions.

Jan 1, 1991

By T. Negeri

The simultaneous use of two or more families of collectors can sometimes improve one or more key flotation performance indicators, especially if the ore under consideration contains several minerals bearing the same metal. The maximum amount of collectors that can be used is limited by the need to maintain a high concentrate grade and selectivity. Therefore, when more than one collector is required, an experimental design that allows variations of both the proportions and the amounts with respect to other process factors has to be selected to find the optimum dosage. This type of design is known as "process factors in mixture amount experiment". It is a powerful design suitable for discovering the existence and evaluating the magnitude of the interactive effects between various flotation parameters. This paper elaborates the principles on which such a design is based, and demonstrates its usefulness with a case study.

Jan 1, 2003

By Charles Dr. Li, John Dr. Box

Selective flotation and adsorption behavior of zircon and rutile under hot soap conditions have been examined. Conditioning temperature, pH and washing steps were shown to control the flotation selectivity. The adsorption of the sodium soap of oleic acid at zircon- water and rutile-water interfaces was investigated through micro- electrophoresis and adsorption density measurements. The soap adsorption on the zircon surface increased markedly with increasing temperature due to a strong chemisorption/surface reaction, and was almost independent of pH. In contrast, the soap adsorption on rutile decreased at high pH values. A simple physisorption plus hydrophobic interaction appeared to be the principal mechanism for the soap adsorption on rutile at moderate temperatures (below ~70(C), beyond which it may change to chemisorption through an activation process. Water wash, particularly under acidic conditions (pH 2-3), of the rutile particles treated with soap, will lead to a desorption of the soap from the rutile surface by forming an acid salt precipitate.

Jan 1, 1995

By J. G. Henning, R. Edrissi

This paper describes a practical methodology, based on numerical modeling, for the prediction of progressive failure of underground-mine stopes having cable-bolt support. A case study of the 40-761 scope at the Kidd Creek mine, Timmins, Ontario, Canada is presented. Scope 40-761 was mined by blast hole open sloping in 1986 and was a lead scope within a mining block located between levels 36-1 and 38-2. Initially designed to peak at level 38-2, the scope back caved upwards =40 m towards level 36-1. After caving began, cable bolts were installed above the stope from level 36-1. The stope eventually stopped caving when the falling rock mass encountered a sufficiently high cable density. This paper provides details of the geomechanical data and modeling results of the case study. Numerical modeling of cable bolts around the mine stoke was carried out using a finite-element modeling software. The software, known as e-z tools, was developed by the first author.

Jan 1, 1996

By V. T. McLemore

The Steeple Rock district in New Mexico is a major epithermal gold-silver district that exhibits district zoning. Five types of ore deposits occur within the district: •base-metal veins (with gold and silver) form the center of the district and occur along the Carlisle fault, •gold-silver veins along northwest-trending faults and outward from the base-metal veins, •copper-silver veins along the margins of the district, •fluorite veins along the margins of the district, and •manganese veins along the margins of the district. Areas of older acid-sulfate alteration occur throughout the district and also exhibit the following zoning: massive silica/chert zone (inner), silicified zone and clay zone (outer). This alteration overlies regional alkali-chloride (propylitic to argillic to sericitic) alteration. Synthesis of available data suggests the acid-sulfate alteration is related to a shallow, but older, epithermal hot-springs system. Subsequently, younger epithermal veins formed along faults.

Jan 1, 1996

By Margaret Fuller Boos

Precambrian granitic pegmatites on the west, south west, south and southeast slopes of Storm Mountain, Larimer County, northern Colorado, were explored and mapped geologically 1956-1959. The area between Crystal Mountain Mining District on the north and Hyatt pegmatite mine area on the south was nearly inaccessible until a company built an access road, which was completed in 1959, into Roosevelt National Forest and its jeep-type roads. The area is extremely rugged, rising from some 6,000 feet on the highway at Drake, on Big Thompson River, to an altitude of over 10,000 feet at the summit ridge of Storm Mountain. Almost innumerable pegmatites of every possible type of granitic pegmatite intrusion infest the Precambrian gneisses and schists of the southwest-tilted fault block of Storm Mountain. The major bodies stand at least 100 to 200, feet high above the surrounding forest floor. Core drilling has shown that some extend to at least 200 feet below the surface. They blunt out at the southwest, some keel out below and others are faulted out at their southwest ends. Strike length ranges from 200 to 600 feet. The massive bulky bodies have nearly vertical walls. Contents are zoned or ribboned and layered. They consist of local commercial bodies of beryl, potash feldspar, mica, uranium minerals and quartz. As yet no lithium minerals have been encountered.

Jan 1, 1960

By R. Cook

Knowledge based applications are becoming important to Associated Manganese for efficiently dispatching ore of appropriate grades to customers on time. The G2 expert system shell has been used to develop blending and scheduling applications using a combination of object-oriented rule based, procedural, and heuristic approaches. The blending application, for example uses a heuristic approach for creating blends from thousands of small stacks of manganese ore of various grades and sizes, to meet customer specifications while fully exploiting the available inventory. Data capture and data warehousing have become important issues, and the Internet shows strong potential for distribution of pre-processed information.

Jan 1, 1997

By David Atkin

This paper presents methods and results of environmental planning conducted for a proposed coal and iron ore transshipment terminal which would be located on reclaimed land west of Lisbon, Portugal. Oceanographic, navigational, marine, structural, material handling, and financial studies of the terminal were conducted along with the environmental analyses. However, because of the proximity of the terminal to heavily used recreational resources, residential areas, and biologically valuable habitat, anticipating and reducing the environmental effects of the terminal to minimum levels was a very important part of the overall project. The results of the study indicate that even the impacts associated with worst-case conditions would be acceptable because of appropriate pollution control measures and planning.

Jan 1, 1983

By A. W. Mitchell

Mining of a bedded barite deposit exposed highly pyritic siliceous sediments which have weathered and degraded subsurface and surface waters. The ph, sulfate, and total dissolved solids are the most seriously affected parameters. Several solutions were tried and eventually horizontal holes were drilled into the mine wall to draw down the water table and decrease the movement of groundwater through oxidizing zones opened up by the mining operation. Areas of surface disturbance were capped with layers of soil, bentonite, and gravel to decrease the infiltration of water into the disturbed areas. These actions have begun to decrease sulfate and total dissolved solids concentrations and increase ph values.

Jan 1, 1987

By George M. Leonard

Mineral commodities on National Forest System lands contribute to the nation's well being. Access to these commodities is dependent on public perceptions of the effects of mineral operations on other resources. An outlook is described which the Forest Service believes is essential to the minerals industry if it plans to continue seeking minerals on National Forest and Grasslands.

Jan 1, 1991

By Angelus S. C. Owili-Eger

The protection of groundwater resources is a growing issue on both the legislative front and within the private sector. At present, the legislative push is to establish within the Environmental Protection Agency a comprehensive research, development, and demonstration program relating to groundwater contamination and resources. It is evident that certain aspects of such legislation will be directed at the mining industry. Consequently, the mining industry must position itself to address the issues and concerns from a backdrop of facts and knowledge by developing an integrated hydrogeochemical model of the mining environment.

Jan 1, 1989

By J. E. Lees

Advanced remote sensing can be a powerful new information tool to help private and public entities make better environmental and resource management decisions. However, some regulated entities are reluctant to develop or use this tool because of their concerns that it will lead to increased risks and costs of environmental legal liability. They fear that new ways of monitoring the environment will increase liability, undermine existing enforcement agreements, reopen compliance agreements, and generally provide a competitive disadvantage to early adopters by accelerating environmental cleanup costs. Others counter that the increased risks are marginal, and that several advantages outweigh these risks, including the opportunity to more effectively manage environmental operations, target and set priorities, measure and track management and compliance effectiveness, provide more defensible environmental assessments and baseline conditions, make and defend optimal siting decisions, and avoid or resolve environmental disputes. This paper offers strategic advice on ways regulated entities can enjoy the benefits of these powerful new information tools while mitigating down-side legal and compliance risks as much as possible.

Jan 1, 1999

By B. Govindarajan, T. C. Rao

A simulation of batch-flotation experiments was carried out using a simple empirical model to identify the process parameters that would give maximum yield at any given ash level. The relationship between the maximum yield values and the percentage ash-reduction ratio (ARR) has shown two regions where the collector and the frother dosages have individual influences on the flotation performance. Based on this observation, a simple "selection-criterion diagram" is proposed. This diagram can he used to select the process parameters to achieve maximum yield, for a given ash content of the concentrate and at any given flotation period.

Jan 1, 1997

By Peter Erlynne

Rising costs have affected the cost of operating and install­ing crushing circuits, just as they have affected every other area and there is little possibility that the cost cycle is about to be reversed - power costs, wear materials costs and labour costs continue to increase but a basically stable gold price makes little allowance for these cost increases. Additionally, lower grades of ores being worked, and harder feed materials have a significant effect on the potential for higher processing costs. There are, of course, options for size reduction - some of them newer than others - some are suitable for certain types of ores and less suitable for others and it can sometimes be difficult to ascertain the accuracy of anticipated results before plant design and con­struction are completed - by which time the capital outlayed will preclude a change to another method ofreduction. Nordberg's patented WaterFlush Technology has the potential to change the way that Ball Mill Feed production is viewed: Some of the elements that must be considered are: • Capital Cost • Operating Cost • Efficiency • Flexibility • Availability • Control • Support Efficiency • Expertise • Spares availability • Environmental considerations

Jan 1, 1995

By Douglas M. Smith

The town of Tayoltita, Durango is located at the bottom of the 2000 m. deep Rio Piaxtla canyon on the axis of the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. Throughout most of the year access to the town is restricted to travel by mule or STOL aircraft. Silver and gold have been produced from epithermal veins in the north side of the canyon since 1757. During the last seventy-three years more than 4,588,000 kg. of silver and 76,322 kg. of gold have been produced from approximately 6,000,000 metric tons of ore. The Tayoltita mine is developed within a fault block bounded by normal faults which strike north-northwest and have opposing dips. A thickness of at least 1300 meters of late Cretaceous or early Tertiary volcanic rocks is exposed in the mine. These range in composition from andesite to rhyolite. Andesite predominates in the upper 750 meters of the section. The volcanic rocks were passively intruded by quartz-monzonite and andesite stocks during middle (?) Tertiary time. Mineralization spatially and temporally (?) related to the stocks occurs along the east boundary fault and in intersecting footwall fissures which strike east-west and northeast. Ore was deposited over a vertical range of up to 600 m. prior to tilting of the volcanic rocks 35 to 45° to the east. With few exceptions, the ore bodies are found within the lower 400 to 500 m. of the andesite. Argentite (acanthite), stromeyerite, jalpaite, electrum and native silver are the principal ore minerals. They occur in gangue composed of one or more of the following: quartz, calcite, bustamite, adularia, chlorite, and albite. Base-metal sulfides make up less than 1.5 percent by weight of the ore.

Jan 1, 1974

By Stefano Colombelli, Nicola Bona, Gabriele Eccher, Luca Schiavinato, Paolo Cucino, Domenico Nave

"BIM technologies provide tools and processes to effectively support the entire life of an infrastructure, from strategic planning to maintenance. As a consequence, infrastructure design processes currently make frequent use of BIM tools. This paper describes the BIM oriented design of the underground railway extension in the metropolitan area of Catania. The paper highlights the design process and the chosen BIM tools considering the boundary conditions characterizing the project, i.e. basic information missing in the final design project, need of coordination between different design disciplines and designer companies, and, finally, need for a flexible design approach able to adapt to changes occurring during design development. INTRODUCTION The underground railway extension in the metropolitan area of Catania is composed of two lots of approximately two km each, namely “Stesicoro-Aeroporto” and “Nesima –Misterbianco”. Works to be realized are: •,Main tunnel: mechanized tunneling using a TBM-EPB machine, for the entire length of the lot; •,Underground stations: San Domenico, Vittorio Emanuele and Palestro, conventionally excavated as enlargement of the TBM tunnel after the partial demolition of precast segments; •,Ventilation and emergency shafts: connecting seven tunnel levels to road level on Stesicoro-Areaposto lot, six on Nesima-Misterbianco lot; •,Additional structures such as technical rooms and parking lot; •,Electric Substation at Monte Po' stop; •,Temporary works: TBM launching and arrival pit to be dismantled at the end of the works."

Jan 1, 2016

By Eugene L. Foster, Gilbert L. Butler

The successful demonstration of a precast segmented concrete liner in the Lexington Market Section of the Baltimore Regional Rapid Transit System (BRRTS) is an important step forward in our continuing efforts to control tunneling costs in the USA. In addition to its contribution to specific savings in future tunnels, this demonstration project has taught other lessons about the U.S. tunneling industry and about the process of "mainlining" new and improved technology into that industry. This paper will present an overview of the Lexington Market Demonstration Project from its beginnings to the present time. In addition, it will discuss other implications which have an important bearing on the extent to which tunnels will be used in future transportation systems in the USA. THE HISTORY Precast segmented concrete tunnel liners are not new. An unbolted version was reportedly used in New York City in the 1930's. The modern bolted configuration has been in use in foreign countries for more than 15 years. Indeed, consideration of the use of precast bolted segments below the water table in the USA dates back to the BART system in San Francisco in the 1960's. At that time, they were evaluated and it was concluded that the state of the art would not allow segments to be precast to the required tolerances. A secondary grinding operation would be required if water-tightness was to be assured, making them economically non-competitive with steel. Based

Jan 1, 1981

By Robert H. Carpenter

Downstream dispersion curves for certain trace metals were obtained from two mineralized areas in the southeastern U. S. In Lincoln Co., Georgia, 7 sample sets were collected downstream from the Magruder mine, a polymetallic sulfide deposit (Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag-Au) in metavolcanic rocks. Five sample sets were collected along Joe Mill Creek in Grainger Go., Tennessee, downstream from a zone of zinc mineralization in carbonate rocks (Mississippi Valley-type). In both areas, analyses were made of Fe-Mn oxide coatings on lithic fragments and quartz pebbles, and the -80 mesh fraction of the stream sediment. A comparison of the dispersion curves reveals the following: 1.) the anomaly/background ratio is markedly higher in the Fe-Mn oxide coatings for zinc and copper; 2.) the anomaly/background ratlo is markedly higher in the -80 mesh fraction for lead which is not concentrated in the coatings; and, 3.) the Zn/Mn and Cu/Mn ratios in the coatings are useful in that they enhance downstream derectability of mineralization as well as provide for a simpler analytical procedure. There are several potential advantages of using coatings vs. the conventional -80 mesh fraction in stream sediment surveys. Because soluble metal is brought into the stream mainly in groundwater, deeper anomaly sources may be detectable from the oxide coatings than from clastic fractions of alluvium where much of the metal is derived from erosion of soils. Variability due to sampling may also be reduced, providing better discrimination of anomalies. In areas of glacial or alluvial cover, coating surveys may be particularly applicable.

Jan 1, 1975

By Shinya Ono, Tsuyoshi Katoh, Yuusaku Tominaga

In order to monitor/control airflow rate distribution in a complicated ventilation network installed many regulators, an integrated system composed of expert system, exerting programs for simulation to get macroscopic characteristics and drawing diagram, monitoring system and so on is introduced in this study. This system is made up of airflow velocity sensors and computers linked to an local area network. The main results of this study are as follows; 1) Combinations of two branches to monitor aerodynamic resistance change in a branch p in a network can be selected by comparing factor's value in a branch relation table. 2) When the combination of sensor branches for a branch p does not exist in the network at present condition, the system changes aero- dynamic resistances of appropriate branch q placed a regulator by referring branch relation table. And then the system asks other computer to get macroscopic characteristics under altered value of aerodynamic resistance of the branch q. 3) Dot pattern diagram shows airflow rate relation between an active branch and a passive branch. Three relations such as a) a straight line, b) a monotonous curve and c) extremums are displayed in different patterns for all the sets between an active branch and a passive branch at a time. 4) The ranges of airflow rate in coal faces by changing aerodynamic resistance of any one branch placed a regulator are shown in the Pareto diagram using values in the branch relation table. 5) Ventilation transfer diagram with two parameter, one shows airflow rate in a coal face and the other shows energy provided by main fans to overcome aerodynamic resistance in a net- work, is utilized to decide countermeasures for decreasing energy consumption in the network on increasing of airflow rate in the specified branch.

Jan 1, 1995